33 Moving to The Next Stage

Before I went to bed, Chris gathered us to discuss the future plan. Just like we expected, Chris wished for me to live together with him in Raccoon City. My heart skipped a beat whenever that city was mentioned. Perhaps, I was just too anxious at the "prospect" of living there. Yay...

Although I didn't mind since I need to watch over Chris and the need to gain EXP to level up, Claire appeared to feel reluctant on approving it. She wanted to stay with her nephew a bit longer, and we have to be separated because she still has to attend her class at university in New York City.

"So? What do you think?" asked Chris for another confirmation. But Claire then conveyed her desire to hang around with us, at least for the rest of the Summer.

"Can I go with you guys?" she asked. "The new term wouldn't start until the end of next month. It will be boring if I spend the holiday alone."

I had a mixed feeling on her coming with us. While I wanted her to stay away, her involvement in the game was too deep to be ignored and it even built her character afterward, becoming one of the most notable women in the Resident Evil Universe. And also she was so strong. Enough to fight an evolved Birkin, and win.

With her advanced arrival in the city, it might help in reducing the difficulty. Claire's curiosity and bravery would assist us in locating any unusual situation, marking the start of the outbreak. All I knew was that it happened in September. 'Damn, I should have paid more attention to the event's exact timeline.' I thought.

Without any excuse to reject her request, Chris just sighed and allowed her to come along. I need to add extra attention to her as well, my family's safety should be prioritized. And that was while concealing my power. 'Damn it, if only I had Kagebunshin no Jutsu or a secret twins brother.'

'ahh... let's just think about it when the time comes!'

And thus, I went over to my bed and closed my eyes to sleep. But before then, I prayed that whoever it was that broke into my room and stole my comics, trip himself and struck his head on the floor, painfully. I can't wish him anything worse, I need to find it back as well. It's a rare collection.

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Somewhere, on a helipad platform on top of a building.

"Arrgh...! Son of a bitch! Who moved the stairs away!"

Nick fell from the platform and hit his forehead on the floor.

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The next morning, we had breakfast before packing my stuff in the car. It wouldn't take long, since it only contains my clothing and some other items.

I was wearing the new hooded coat, a reward from clearing the Quest in Paris. I already switched my Permanent Reinforcement buff from my old blue hoodie jacket a few days ago. Well, I had to look for a quiet place to move my items inside the spatial pocket first. I was afraid that it would suddenly burst out once the buff was removed or switched forcefully.

However, after I was done, I couldn't check the new coat's properties because the system was still under the updating period. Regina couldn't help either since the only active feature at the moment was my mercenary abilities and assigning stats, which I choose to distribute for 2 in Intelligent and 1 each in Constitution, Strength, and Dexterity.

I could still utilize the coat's initial abilities though, like changing the color. I choose navy blue as the base with black linings. It was one of the most common colors used on coat after beige or black.

Okay, now let's move back on the trip. It would take over 6 hours to Raccoon City which was south from here. The city was built in the Arklay County, which was named after the mountains and hill surrounding it. Raccoon City, although isolated, became one of the famous tourist spots in the mid-western USA. The city could hold more than 100.000 civilians, a bit less than it's neighbor, Springfield.

If not for the support that Umbrella provided since the 1980s, in exchange for several areas to make their Laboratories, the city would have been a simple town without any appeal whatsoever. With their money, the City's Mayor built several public facilities, subway trains, river docks, industries, and access to the Arklay Mountain range, which made a good tourist spot for out-of-state hikers and hunting area.

"You're ready?" asked Chris. All of my stuff was put on the cargo room right behind me. Since it was an SUV, there's a lot of empty space. Claire also had a suitcase with her. This girl already planned to spend the rest of her vacation with us, long before our return. If there's nothing wrong happened, except for a virus outbreak, of course, she probably would love to add a few more days off on her calendar, just to stay with us.

"Yep. All's done," replied Claire while assisting me in fastening the safety belt.

Still uncertain about what was about to come, I reviewed the only strategies I had at the moment:

1. Although I had an inkling of which timeline is it. I still need to find out which Resident Evil timeline that existed. Obviously, it's not the movie because the events so far were closer to the events of the game.

2. Scout the city once night arrived and look for any anomalies in the city. Possibly once every two or three days. I need to eliminate any zombies that spawned early and if the D-Day was coming closer, I should do it more often.

3. Monitor any news about random attacks or missing individual and look into it to find how far the virus has spread.

4. Find the whereabouts and layout of the Umbrella's facilities. The reason for this is to prevent Birkin from transforming, if possible.

5. Eliminate any villain that would turn the situation to even worse. For example, the damn Chief of Police, Brian Irons that would kidnap Birkin's daughter, Sherry. From the note scattered through the game, I knew he was also involved with Umbrella.

And then, the last one...

6. Try to not be too involved with anyone except the main characters.

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"Dr. Wesker, we will soon land on the airport." announced the private jet's flight attendant.

Alex Wesker has arrived in Illinois, USA. Her destination is the US Umbrella Headquarters. She was summoned by Earl Spencer, the President of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, regarding her accomplishment in developing Nemesis T-Type parasites.

"Finally." She put away her reading glasses and the book on her lap. She proceeds to give another command to the flight attendant, "tell the others to pay attention to Nemesis's condition. I don't want any issue before we meet our beloved Earl Spencer."

She was being sarcastic on the last part of her word, well... half sarcastic, because she still needs Spencer's support on her next project. Everyone knew how her mind works, so they didn't even dare to make any comment about it. She also brought along the Nemesis with her, Spencer wanted to see her latest creation up close.

She didn't want to move from Europe just yet since she still needs to carry out more test and examination on Nemesis, however, her findings pushed her to accept Spencer's summoning.

She looked at the reports of two guys in front of her. Barry Burton and Chris Redfield. Obviously, they were connected with the blue hooded boy. She read the report on how the two's teams were involved in Spencer's Mansion fiasco.

It was a well-known story among the Umbrella's higher-ups. With only a team of special forces, they wrecked the secret base, forcing it to self-destruct. Obviously, some of it was inflicted by Albert Wesker's betrayal, leading to his death under the T-002 tyrant's hand, but they couldn't just dismiss the involvement of those S.T.A.R.S.s veterans.

Alex was pissed off when she found her last "brother" died in that incident. However, not long ago, Albert notified her of his survival, and his body grew stronger than before, reaching the superhuman realm.

"STARS, what an odd bunch of people. You shouldn't have put your nose on something grander than your pitiful existence." She knew that those old men must have been scheming to eliminate the annoying bugs. That's why she didn't want to concern herself with such a small nuisance. Her focus was directed at the picture of Edward on her hand.

"What's your name, my dear child," asked her, giggling.

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"You said that the kid sends them to me? But why?" asked The Ancient One, the Sorceress Supreme. She was meditating in her room while Dante busied himself with the food on the table.

"I don't know myself, he said that you might have the answer to their problem," answered Dante while savoring the Mutton Curry. The Ancient One broke out of her meditation and slapped Dante's hand.

"Slow down, you'll get indigestion!" she reprimanded. She then began thinking about the bunch of teenagers' current issues. Nobody has died as of yet, since they were under her personal protection. However, the mark of death still lingering around them. One of the teenagers occasionally receiving love calls from Empress Death, keeping her busy. Although she didn't want to involve herself too deep into it as death was not something you can rewrite, her curiosity took a hold of herself.

'Huh? It did change once. My death!'

She looked at Dante and said, "Find your brother! I need his help!"

"What!? No! He might still in Hell, I don't want to go there now, too hot! Let's wait for winter..." retorted Dante.

"NOW!" snapped The Ancient One.

"Okay! Okay! Geez... you don't have to kick me out... Literally." said Dante, rubbing his bottom.

The Ancient One resumed her meditation once again. This time, she might find an explanation of how her fate got altered. The only clue she had currently was Edward's existence.

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Bang!

"With this, the Margo Family is no more."

A bearded man in suit cleaned her face from the blood. The Margo Family was one of the most notorious mafia group currently active in Raccoon City's vicinity. The bearded man was assigned a job from The Continental, to eliminate the head of the family, an ex-asassinn, as he breached the rule of not killing inside the hotel's vicinity.

He fled out of Raccoon City and planned to hide away out of the states with his men. However, the bearded assassin had tracked him, even before the family head could reach the border. The bearded man reached into his pocket, a pager, quite old, but untrackable.

"It's complete. Vincent Margo is dead." He walked out of the old warehouse, the forest scenery greeted his view. Not long after the warehouse exploded, burning everything, but the trees.

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