55: The Unknown Gift

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Lyon had a premonition.

He barely had time to open his eyes and wave at Tony before, in the next second, he vanished into thin air.

When he disappeared, the space around him showed no signs of disturbance.

There was no wormhole appearing to suck him away.

Nor was there a heavenly gate opening to guide his way.

He vanished just like an image in a drawing program—selected and then cut, disappearing instantly from the screen.

Not a single trace was left behind.

"Holy crap!" Tony exclaimed, "This isn't scientific!"

All the instruments on site showed no reaction at all, as if nothing had happened in this place from beginning to end.

In Tony's eyes, Lyon's disappearance was like a drop of seawater evaporating in the ocean, causing no ripples whatsoever.

Tony frantically ran over to the spot where Lyon had stood, looking up and down.

He felt like his understanding of reality had been challenged once again.

How could crossing dimensions be so silent and unnoticed?

This is not scientific at all!

But what bothered him even more was something else.

"Lyon, you rascal, you'd better come back quickly!" The moment Lyon left, Tony felt an immense sense of fear in his heart.

...

Lyon felt as if he had entered a void.

He was being pushed by some force, moving through this emptiness.

He couldn't open his eyes, couldn't speak, and felt very much like an ant swept away by the currents of a river or sea.

But even this description didn't quite fit.

There wasn't actually a sense of restraint on his body; he simply couldn't move and kept moving forward.

In this way, it was more like being a comatose patient lying in an ambulance, being rushed to the hospital.

However, this feeling didn't last long.

At some point, Lyon felt like he had passed through a thin, water-like membrane.

He could even sense the ripples that this membrane produced because of him.

Then everything started to spin.

He felt solid ground beneath his feet, and Lyon regained control of his body.

"Ugh.. where..?"

He opened his eyes, and at some point, the power of his Super Mark I, which had shut down, rebooted. The eyes on his helmet lit up with a faint glow.

"This place is... a war-torn dimension?"

The first thing that caught his eye was the towering flames climbing up the skyscrapers.

All the surrounding buildings were on fire, the scattered flames converging to turn the entire night sky red.

Broken glass, collapsed signs, and cars with crushed fronts and torn-off doors from collisions filled the streets.

Above the buildings, helicopters with searchlights were hovering.

This was likely a city caught in the midst of war.

Perhaps it had just experienced a bombing.

The empty cars scattered haphazardly in the middle of the road showed the panic of people fleeing.

At this moment, JARVIS came online: "Master Lyon, are you alright? It seems that back in the garage, due to unknown reasons, the suit's circuitry system had completely shut down."

"I'm fine. We've already arrived in another dimension, JARVIS," Lyon said as he looked around.

"Haah~ You shut down because of the time-space traversal. Don't worry about it; first, try to connect to the internet."

JARVIS's task was to go online and gather information.

Meanwhile, Lyon stood still, closed his eyes, and removed all mental suppression over his super hearing.

Instantly, the sounds of the entire dimension came flooding in.

The wind, the fire, the screams—all sorts of sounds swirled around him like a kaleidoscope.

At this moment, the sounds seemed to take on shapes, with each tone representing a different scene.

He quickly sifted through these sounds to find useful information.

"W@#df.. j@axj..."

"Wesker, welcome to HCF. You are now our battlefield commander!"

"Marvin! Hold the west gate!"

"Chris! Jill and Brad are in danger now; I need to go back and find them!"

"Tell Ada Wong that we must get our hands on the G-virus!"

"..."

Countless sounds were filtered down to just a few valuable pieces.

Lyon suddenly opened his eyes.

"So, this is the 'Resident Evil' game version of a dimension, and I'm in Raccoon City."

"It seems my traversal ability can indeed reach places outside the Marvel multiverse."

Recalling the storyline he had seen before, he made a judgment: "The 'Resident Evil' dimension poses no threat to me."

"But it's strange. How did the traversal ability's search process end up here? Does this dimension truly meet the criteria?"

"Limb regeneration could technically be addressed using this dimension's unique viruses, even if it means potentially becoming a zombie... It still technically solves the problem... ehm*"

"But does this dimension offer any means to enhance my powers?"

Lyon was perplexed, feeling it was a bit absurd.

"The so-called T-virus, G-virus, or Mold strains—these things would likely weaken a Kryptonian's physique instead."

"Hmm... wait, strictly speaking, there is one way this dimension could boost my powers."

Lyon looked up at the night sky, now illuminated red by the flames, and suddenly realized.

"There's also a yellow sun here."

"So that's it, the yellow sun can enhance my powers... Damn it, but what's the point? Earth in the Marvel universe already has a yellow sun. Did I come here just to experience a different dimension's sunlight?"

Lyon realized that the keywords he had set were not precise enough, which caused some issues with the final traversal result.

"Next time, I need to refine the keywords to focus on enhancing genetic potential or finding ways to get stronger that don't involve sunbathing."

"Forget it, I'll just treat this as gaining experience. JARVIS, no need to gather online information. Let's head back—"

Lyon was just about to leave the 'Resident Evil' dimension and return home when suddenly an invisible wave swept down, passing over his body from top to bottom.

Lyon was startled. Before he could react, he felt a cool sensation in his brain.

It was as if an invisible, skillful hand had descended and given his cerebral cortex a quick spa treatment.

For a moment, he felt refreshed, as if his brain had been slightly optimized in certain aspects.

This external wave was completely beneficial and harmless to him, so much so that his steel-like body made no attempt to resist it.

What's going on?

A question arose in Lyon's mind.

Although his body could sense that what had just happened was beneficial, this inexplicable good fortune actually made him feel wary.

However, it seemed that the other party wasn't giving a free gift without a catch.

As Lyon was feeling puzzled, he suddenly detected a strange fluctuation through his dimension-traveling ability.

Instinctively, he activated his power.

Immediately, an obscure and indescribable piece of information, resonating with his dimensional travel ability, drilled into his mind.

Lyon touched his forehead.

It felt as if an invisible ghost had connected with his brain waves and directly spoke to his mind.

[Gift, salvation, apocalypse, evolution, lifeform, more, #%@*&…]

The information was very cryptic.

Lyon, using his super brain, thought about it millions of times in a second, but only managed to parse a few words.

It seemed that the one transmitting the information didn't possess self-awareness. Instead, it was just sharing an inclination or desire stemming from the world's energy.

Such a peculiar setup...

"Why does this feel somewhat like a consciousness of a universe?" 

Lyon rubbed his chin. "Is the consciousness of the Resident Evil universe asking for my help?"

That actually made some sense.

He first connected to the Resident Evil universe through his dimensional travel ability and then crossed over here. 

Naturally, the Resident Evil universe could also use this ability as a bridge to communicate information to him.

Although the other party seemed to only have energy without consciousness.

It wasn't even clear if this was truly the universe's consciousness; it could very well be just a collective of humanity's subconscious thoughts.

Still, the other party had already given him some benefits.

The "gift" mentioned in that message likely referred to the brain "SPA" he had just experienced.

Lyon found this approach of giving a gift first and then asking for help quite pleasing.

He pondered for a moment.

Although he hadn't actively reached out to accept it, since they were so eager to directly place the gift in his pocket, maybe helping out this little brother, the Resident Evil universe, wasn't entirely out of the question!

After all, he needed to figure out exactly what benefits he had received.

However, before doing that, he needed to carefully consider what kind of help the "little brother" was asking for. Given that there were only a few vague terms, it was really…

Boom!

While Lyon was deep in thought, a violent explosion suddenly erupted from the rooftop of the building above him.

The rumbling sound of the explosion caught his attention.

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