Silence.
As if even time itself held its breath.
For five full minutes, nothing. Not a single sound from Alice. Not a single digital breath, not even a flicker.
Only the stillness, and Rian's halted footsteps in the shadow-drenched corridor.
He tilted his head, waiting.
At last, Alice's voice returned—flat, calm, but clearly forced. "That… is not relevant to any data. Please refrain from saying such things. And… that's none of your business, Father."
Rian chuckled softly, resuming his steps as if nothing had happened. "Yeah, yeah… No promises, though."
A few moments later, Rian reached the corner.
Right before he turned, he suddenly stopped. Growls, wet chewing sounds, the tearing of flesh—echoed clearly from just around the bend.
From within the Void Ring—his storage for anything and everything—Rian pulled out a dagger with an orange-and-black blade shaped like serrated teeth.
The Knight Killer. Sung Jinwoo's most iconic weapon. Although, in the overly "friendly" DxD world, it had rarely tasted blood.
"Time to shine again, my dear dagger," Rian said with a thin smile.
Rian rounded the corner and found five twisted silhouettes crouched over a corpse, feeding with feral, animalistic savagery.
T-Virus infected: Zombies.
In the span of a split second, his Six Eyes activated—analyzing, absorbing, and breaking down every detail in perfect clarity.
Their bodies… wrong. More degraded, malformed, and rough than standard T-Virus infectants.
As the owner of an original T-Virus strain—the very one that caused the Raccoon City incident—Rian recognized the flaw instantly.
These were copies. Mass-produced, cheap imitations, a bootleg strain forced into unstable forms.
But that wasn't today's priority.
With a relaxed tone and a teasing smile, Rian called out, "Enjoying a nice buffet without inviting a handsome guy like me? How rude."
All five zombies froze mid-feast.
In an instant, they snapped their heads toward him—joints cracking, eyes pale and empty, yet burning with ravenous instinct.
But before they could even react, Rian's figure vanished—moving with a speed that bordered on teleportation.
In less than five seconds, all five zombie heads were already severed from their bodies, spinning briefly through the air before hitting the floor with soft, heavy thuds.
Their bodies collapsed a heartbeat later, blood spraying like wild, uncontrolled fountains, splattering across the corridor walls and pooling on the floor.
Ding!
[Gained +1 EXP]
[Gained +1 EXP]
[Gained +1 EXP]
Rian glanced back over his shoulder, noting the Knight Killer's blade still dripping with fresh blood.
He raised an eyebrow and chuckled in satisfaction. "This dagger… no matter how many times I use it, it never stops being impressive."
Then his eyes shifted toward the EXP notifications floating across his vision—dull, insignificant little things, like blurry droplets on a fogged morning window; neither meaningful nor valuable, just mildly irritating.
"And… no matter how you look at it," Rian sighed, "the EXP is pathetic."
He immediately disabled every EXP notification from the system. It wasn't that annoying—but seeing 1 EXP pop up after every kill was insulting to his pride.
"Set that aside for now," Rian muttered casually, eyes gliding over the scattered corpses. "Hmm… maybe this handsome man should build his own personal EXP farm."
Without hesitation, he tapped the frame of the E.O.W—his advanced interface glasses—and opened a line to Alice.
"Alice, store their bodies for me, will you? Oh, and… wipe their families' memories. Can't have anyone getting suspicious." He paused, lips curling into a sly grin. "And one more thing—don't tell Luis about this."
"You want to… experiment on them a little?" Alice replied through the interface, her voice calm yet calculating. "A training ground, while building an EXP farm?"
"Exactly," Rian answered.
"No need for that," Alice said lightly.
"Alice has already prepared something far more efficient. A location… a secret base Alice built yesterday."
Rian tilted his head, confused. "Yesterday? When did you even have the time?"
"Alice built it using the new-generation drones, then applied the Time and Space Stone's power over a localized area."
"Right now, one hour inside is equal to a full month. So… it should be finished already."
Rian raised a brow. "You're getting crazier—in the impressive way."
"Hmph!" Alice huffed, unable to hide her pride. "It was easy. Alice can multitask without limits."
Rian chuckled softly, unable to stop his smile. He continued walking, moving deeper through the corridor, searching for Claire and anyone else who could still be saved.
After navigating hallways sticky with dried blood, death stench, and the occasional zombie he dispatched without slowing down, Rian finally saw a silhouette at the end of a turn.
A figure.
Still breathing.
And distinctly human.
A woman's silhouette stood leaning against the wall, her breathing heavy yet alert.
She wore an outer jacket in a soft cream-white, paired with a short-sleeved shirt and a dark red turtleneck inner.
Her dark khaki pants were scuffed with dust and blood, but still carried a sturdy, capable look.
A brown belt wrapped her waist—something between discipline and chaos.
Her simple brown boots bore no unnecessary flair, made purely for survival rather than style.
In her hand, she held a dented umbrella—an improvised weapon, turned into her only line of defense.
The moment she turned slightly, Rian recognized her at once. The face he'd been searching for all this time: Claire Redfield.
But Claire hadn't noticed Rian yet.
And behind her, the three rotting corpses that had been lying still began to move—slow… twitching… rising from their silent slumber.
The sound of their movements was almost swallowed by the thickening silence, but Rian's Six Eyes caught every detail with perfect clarity.
In the dark, Claire's vision could only reach so far. Even with her combat experience, ambushers lurking in heavy shadows left gaps no human could completely cover.
One of the zombies finally lunged out of the darkness, snarling—a sudden, violent movement that snapped Claire's instincts awake.
But before the threat could even graze her—
Crack!
Rian pressed his foot against the floor, shattering the tiles beneath him like fractured glass, and his body launched forward—a streak of blue tearing through space itself.
A cold trail of light lingered for a heartbeat in the path he carved.
It was the result of Rian channeling pure mana into his body, accelerating far beyond what a normal human eye could perceive—faster than a blink, faster than fear could take shape.
A moment later, the first zombie's head was already airborne, followed by the other two being cleaved almost simultaneously.
Rian's movement was so fast it nearly resembled teleportation; only the droplets of blood suspended in the air served as silent proof that, for a brief instant, time itself had seemed to halt.
Claire stared at the man's back in stunned disbelief—this stranger who appeared out of nowhere, killed three zombies in an instant, without a sound, without hesitation.
The man turned around slowly, revealing his figure from the front beneath the dark, blood-stained corridor.
With a voice calm yet carrying weight, Rian spoke, "Are you alright? And… is there anyone else alive besides you? I mean—other survivors."
Claire, still catching her breath and collecting her thoughts, nodded.
"I'm fine… As for survivors, yes. They're already in a safe spot." She frowned slightly, her eyes sharpening with suspicion. "And… who exactly are you?"
A faint smile curved on the man's lips.
Rian casually shifted the Knight Killer to his left hand, then extended his right toward Claire, the motion calm and almost reassuring amidst the chaos around them.
"Agent 007… and the most charismatic man across three worlds: Rian Andromeda."
Claire froze for a moment. There was a strange pause in her chest—caught somewhere between wanting to laugh, scoff, or pretend she hadn't heard him.
In the end, she exhaled softly and accepted the offered hand.
"Claire Redfield," she said at last, narrowing her eyes. "And you're really that confident, huh? 007? What, are you supposed to be James Bond?"
Rian grinned and winked. "Something like that. But I'm the upgraded version. Slicker, cooler… and way more charismatic."
Claire pulled her hand back, raised an eyebrow, and let out a short sigh before leaning her tired body against the wall.
"Cool, huh? People who say that are usually trying to cover something up," Claire replied casually, her tone as sharp as the smile tugging at her lips.
She looked Rian up and down—half assessing, half teasing.
"But… I guess you deserve a seven out of ten. You are pretty eye-catching," she added, a crooked smile forming.
"Thank you," Rian answered smoothly, then glanced toward the dark corridor. "Before we meet the survivors and get out of here… mind helping me find someone?"
Claire raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Sir Lancelot," Rian said, barely holding back a grin.
Claire squinted. "Sir Lancelot?"
"Sorry, that's just a nickname. His real name—"
....
Note: Sorry Guys, late update. Actually, it's already been updated.
It was scheduled for 8 this morning... maybe there's something wrong with the WN system, but I have no choice but to resend it.
But, well... I see RE World is not so popular.
Ahahaha, okay. Let's delete it slowly