Zheng, or accurately speaking clone Zheng was sitting on a small mountain outside the valley. The black flames outside his body spread as if they had a life of their own, encompassing practically the whole mountain. He sat in the centre of these black flames, looking at the valley as if he was engrossed in it. He only quietly shut his eyes after a long while.

(Is this the original’s technique? What an intriguing concept. Although it gains great power to harm the enemy by being double-edged, that makes it slightly inferior to my black flames. But the killing power in that instant is slightly more. Come, I’ve been waiting here this whole time for you.)

Clone Zheng looked towards the skies. Lightning was flashing and it looked like it was about to rain. A rainstorm was coming...

***

The earliest to enter the city, team North Sea, didn’t have a smooth journey. The entire outer perimeter of the city was abnormally calm. There wasn’t even a zombie or rotting corpse to be seen. However, there were the ruins left behind by all the explosions.

Team North Sea also wanted to drive to the urban district. Although they managed to find a car, the roads were congested with abandoned vehicles. It wasn’t so easy and they had no choice but to ditch their car and go on foot.

“Damn, this city is too large. All the psyche force scan is showing are identical houses. Where exactly is the Umbrella Corporation’s building?” A muscular white man whispered dissatisfied.

The bewitching woman in the lead suddenly around, smiling gently that smile instead scared the man half to death, and he immediately shut up. He even lowered his head, not daring to say even a word more.

The woman smiled bewitchingly again before saying, “The city was obviously enlarged by God. I’m not sure of by how many times yet. However, I do know... this map in our possession is useless.” The woman waved the map in her hands, before tearing it into shreds without regret.

The eight behind her all hesitated. After a long while, a youth carefully asked, “Leader, then what do we do now?”

“What do we do? Of course it’s continue to press on. Do we have anything else we can think of? Lowly men, advance for me, your queen...” The woman covered her mouth and laughed heartily, flicking the whip in her hand several times before proceeding onwards.

At this time, small raindrops began to fall from the sky...

***

“Rain? It’s raining in such a dry area?” Zheng looked dumbly at the sky.

Pint sized raindrops that were barely noticeable fell from the sky. As Zheng spoke, the raindrops gradually increased in size. Within at most dozens of seconds, it was as if the sky was pouring water as the small rain turned into a rainstorm.

“Is this luck?” Xuan raised his head to the heavens as well. The entire world seemed indistinct in this huge rain, and the squad continuously proceeded forward in such an environment. The houses at the edge of Raccoon City were already faintly visible.

This squad comprised of Zheng, Xuan, Heng, Yingkong, Cheng Xiao and Imhotep. It could be said that these were the powerhouses of team China. The average quality of this squad’s members wouldn’t be lower than even team Devil or team Celestial.

It was only strange that they didn’t bring along the psyche force user Lan. This meant that this squad had the regrettable imperfection of lacking a psyche force user as compared to other teams.

However, this was a result of Xuan’s request. Apart from protecting the other team, there were even more reasons for not bringing her along...

“Since we’re at a situational disadvantage, what we need is chaos. Whether the battlefield is chaotic or the fight itself is chaotic, plucking victory from amidst the chaos is our sole chance.” This was what Xuan said. Still, Zheng was sure Xuan hasn’t said the truth. It may even all be a lie. Xuan was definitely like how he was in the past, scheming and calculating in secret. When the entire battlefield came under his control, he wouldn’t need to tell you what he did as you could find the truth from the clues.

(But he’s always been by my side. When exactly did he do something? The only other possibility is... the other squad? He set up a scheme in the other squad?)

Zheng was inwardly apprehensive. However, he also knew team Devil had some sort of omniscience. If he really said it out, team Devil would know of Xuan’s scheme. Of course, based on past precedent, the other side usually couldn’t do anything even if they knew his plan.

However, thinking a little deeper, team Devil’s strategist was also Xuan. The two’s intelligence should be about the same level. If clone Xuan knew of the other squad’s scheme, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t do something.

(The situation really is so complicated. My head is aching.)

Zheng had already unlocked the third stage. However, he completely couldn’t understand the current situation no matter how much he thought. It was as if everything before him now was hazy, many things hidden deeply within fog. He didn’t know what exactly the strategists were doing. They took people as chess pieces and the battlefield as a chessboard. Was victory the prize of the final battle? How cruel...

It was indeed very cruel. Perhaps Zheng didn’t know how powerful the virus variation was, but Cheng Xiao was very clear about it. How that ordinary slab of meat had mutated within a short time if being injected with the virus... That ferocious form had been much more horrifying than zombies or Lickers. Next to it, zombies and Lickers looked positively adorable.

“Absolutely remember that this vaccine only lasts a few hours, determined by how strong your body is and your unlocked level of the genetic constraint. It’s naturally ineffective on fourth stage combatants, but it’ll be extremely effective for those under the fourth stage. Of course, this virus also has an incubation period. If you’re infected, you should be able to hold out for half to one hour before it takes effect. You’ll be relying on your immunity system and body constitution to resist. Since the vaccine has a limited time of effectiveness, try to delay the injection as much as possible until the virus is about to completely consume you. This should extend the time.” Cheng Xiao recalled what Xuan had said.

Those words had made his spine tingle, especially when he had associated it with that slab of meat. A bad feeling had sprung up in his heart.

Just as expected... he had really been selected into this team. In other words, they would be remaining in this virus infested city for over ten hours...

In this period of time, their bodies would be surrounded by this virus variation...

“Let’s go. We’ll first go to the Umbrella Corporation’s building. We should be able to find the entrance to the Hive there.” Zheng looked at the ruins at the edge of the distant Raccoon City. He exhaled, before stepping onto the Sky Stick and soaring towards the city. The rainstorm became more intense...

RUMBLE!

Thunderclaps reverberated through the skies. That purple lightning continuously streaked across the heavens as if it were a dragon. With a boom, lightning fell onto the metal window of one of highrise buildings. That area of the building blew apart as if an explosive had gone off there. The power of lightning was simply too much, and this was just a single streak of it. Seeing how the lightning intermingled in the skies, it was as terrifying as a monster.