Chapter 11

Ma Le now fully understood that the person in front of him was determined to kill him. Once he realized this, he was no longer afraid. Kneeling and begging for mercy or groveling would not solve the problem; he had to fight to the death.

"Go to hell!" Ma Le raised the rifle in his hand, aimed at the mysterious man's eyes, and pulled the trigger. Bullets poured out, but the mysterious man's face seemed to be made of some unknown material. The bullets could only graze his skin, and the wounds healed almost instantly, causing almost no harm. Even his eyeballs were as hard as steel balls, and they didn't flinch at all.

Since the gun was ineffective, Ma Le threw it away and grabbed the arm that was choking his neck with both hands. He used the momentum to kick the mysterious man's face. Although this kick didn't cause much damage, it gave Ma Le a foothold. He used his feet to try to escape from the mysterious man's grip. However, the mysterious man's hands were like steel bands, tightly clamping Ma Le's neck. If Ma Le exerted force, his larynx and trachea would be torn off.

The mysterious man coldly watched his prey struggle, like a lion looking down at an ant. When Ma Le had exhausted all his tricks and could no longer struggle, the mysterious man sneered and extended countless black and red tentacles from his body, which simultaneously pierced into Ma Le's body.

"Sure enough, it's you. It seems I've been tricked! But, dying without a fight isn't my style!" Enduring the intense pain of the tentacles drilling into his body, Ma Le stretched out his hand and revealed a high-explosive grenade he had just picked up. The safety pin was already gone.

With a loud explosion, Ma Le finally escaped the mysterious man's grip, but the cost was severe. His body was severely damaged, his right arm was almost blown off, and he had lost more than half of his health. Ma Le estimated that he probably had less than 50 points left.

The disabled Ma Le landed at Xia Yingying's feet. He noticed that the girl was staring at the mysterious man, with no intention of running. Ma Le was very anxious. He grabbed Xia Yingying's trouser leg with his remaining left hand and shook it desperately, shouting, "Run! We've been tricked. Jiang Dahuai deceived us. This isn't a biohazard; the hooded guy is extremely dangerous. He is..."

"Alex Mercer!" Xia Yingying, without looking at the struggling Ma Le, calmly said the name of the mysterious man.

Ma Le's eyes widened in surprise, looking at the girl in disbelief. Xia Yingying's demeanor had completely changed. She still had the same face and the same clothes, but for some reason, she no longer gave the impression of a slightly shy, pure girl. Instead, she seemed more like a queen ruling the world!

Xia Yingying's face was cold, and she muttered something. Her hands glowed with a blue-purple light. Alex, sensing the strange energy from a distance, walked toward Xia Yingying. At this moment, a loud noise came from the rubble. Alex screamed in pain and crouched down. Upon closer inspection, a terrifying blood hole appeared on his waist, clearly caused by a powerful gun. Alex, enraged, looked over and saw a tall man over two meters tall standing in the rubble, holding a ridiculously large sniper rifle, with smoke still rising from the barrel.

This kind of flesh wound was nothing to Alex, and the wound healed within seconds. But the adventurer's attack was not over. Suddenly, a figure appeared from the air behind Alex, wielding two oddly shaped daggers, and stabbed them into Alex's heart. This attack clearly triggered a skill, and the two daggers met inside Alex's chest, releasing a powerful energy that exploded, freezing Alex to the core. Ma Le, watching from a distance, recognized the attacker as Zhou Ruinan in a white coat, who was also not a new player!

Alex, feeling the pain in his chest, instinctively turned and swung his arm. Zhou Ruinan's movements were also very agile and flexible. He ducked to avoid the attack, his body flickering, and he used his invisibility skill again, disappearing into the air.

Alex, seeing the enemy disappear, was not panicked. His right hand instantly swelled and deformed into a giant fist made of stone. He used all his strength to punch the ground, creating a shockwave that spread out. The invisible Zhou Ruinan could not avoid this indiscriminate, wide-range attack and was thrown out, spitting blood. The ground could not withstand Alex's punch, and the floor of the third floor, which was the ceiling of the second floor, was shattered. Alex and the nearest Zhou Ruinan fell to the second floor.

Zhou Ruinan was already injured and could not activate his invisibility skill immediately. How could he face such a monster alone? He urgently called out to Xia Yingying, "Queen, are you ready yet?"

Xia Yingying had finished her spell preparation. She raised her hands, and two light mists appeared on the second floor. Two tall, horned monsters emerged from the mists.

"I smell the scent of the weak!" "Who dares to challenge me!" Both monsters were clad in black heavy armor, wielding flaming giant swords, and charged straight at Alex. These monsters were incredibly strong, with high defense and health, and Alex could not kill them immediately. Taking advantage of their distraction, Xia Yingying raised her hand again, and another light mist appeared on the second floor. When the mist dissipated, a terrifying gate appeared, carved with various demonic and ghostly figures, exuding an eerie and sinister aura. The gate opened, and purple-black electric arcs flashed. Various monsters poured out like a flood, instantly overwhelming Alex. The monsters piled up, continuously adding to the stack, and no matter how strong Alex was, he could not kill them all at once.

Zhou Ruinan jumped to the third floor and walked to Xia Yingying, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. "He's really a tough opponent, but he's not a threat now."

Xia Yingying, however, was not optimistic. She frowned and said, "No, the wave of monsters won't last long. Alex is too strong, and we can't handle him now. I've already contacted Moyin, and the portal should be ready soon!"

As she spoke, an oval portal appeared in the air. Zhou Ruinan glanced back at the pile of monsters on the second floor, looking reluctant but still stepped into the portal. Jiang Dahuai ran over and followed closely behind. Xia Yingying, the last one, looked at Ma Le, who was still struggling on the ground, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled him into the portal.

The moment the portal closed, countless tentacles burst out from the pile of monsters on the second floor, instantly killing all the monsters, leaving only the hooded man, who was completely unharmed...

The other side of the portal was the room where Ma Le and the others had first entered this world. In addition to Xia Yingying, Jiang Dahuai, and Zhou Ruinan, Liu Lei and Wang Na, who had initially left, were also there. Ma Le guessed that they had opened the portal.

As soon as Zhou Ruinan stepped through the portal, he blamed Liu Lei, "Stones, what's wrong with you? One person is enough to open a portal. If you had gone with us, you could have tanked the boss, and we might have taken down Alex!"

Liu Lei glanced at him and said calmly, "Wherever Xia Na is, I am!"

"Can't you think about the team? You're so big and still act like a child, always sticking together with her, don't you find it annoying?" Zhou Ruinan continued to nag. Jiang Dahuai stepped in to mediate, "You should stop. Alex isn't easy to deal with. It's a miracle we escaped without casualties this time!"

"You too, I said you're not fit to be a leader. If I had led the team, I wouldn't have given this guy any chance to get equipment. Then he would have been absorbed, and there wouldn't have been so many problems!" Zhou Ruinan, who had always disliked Jiang Dahuai, immediately turned his gun on him.

"Enough!" A woman's stern voice silenced the room. It was Xia Yingying, who clearly had the authority of a leader, exuding a powerful presence. "Our plan was a bit rushed this time. As the captain, I didn't expect that an incomplete Alex would be so strong. Even if Stones had gone with us, it probably wouldn't have changed the outcome. Moreover, the reason Alex didn't absorb Ma... this new player isn't because of the grenade, but because this new player has a special constitution that seems to be resistant to absorption!"

Xia Yingying's words successfully shifted everyone's attention to Ma Le. Ma Le was in a terrible state. His body was severely damaged by the high-explosive grenade, his right arm was gone, and his left leg was twisted at a terrifying angle, clearly broken... But for Ma Le, the most painful thing wasn't the loss of limbs, but the countless living tissues that were moving and destroying inside his body, causing a pain like being devoured by a thousand worms!

Although Alex failed to absorb Ma Le, the fusion process left countless infected tissues inside Ma Le's body. These virus-infected tissues had extremely high cellular activity and continued to act on their own, even outside the host.

Xia Yingying walked to Ma Le, looked down at him, and said calmly, "From your performance, you should have guessed what world this is."

Ma Le, enduring the pain, gritted his teeth and said, "This is... Prototype!"

Xia Yingying sneered, "Exactly, this is Prototype. The hooded man is the original Blacklight virus, Alex Mercer, with superhuman strength! And we are all veteran adventurers. This world isn't an entry-level world but one of the most difficult in the veteran category!"

Ma Le cursed inwardly, no wonder even the minor monsters had strength over a hundred! He had played Prototype a few years ago. Although it was also a biohazard, the monsters in this world were on a completely different level from those in Resident Evil. Now, he realized that the so-called mutated舔食者 (licker) was probably just a name Jiang Dahuai made up to deceive him. Its real identity was a Hunter from Prototype! Just a few Hunters could pose a threat to armored vehicles and light tanks, and they were the lowest-level mutated monsters in Prototype!

As for the hooded man Alex, he was a fixed presence in the Prototype world. As the protagonist of the first game and the final boss of the second, he could continuously absorb other life forms to strengthen himself. Once fully evolved, he possessed unimaginable power, capable of tearing apart tanks with his bare hands and intercepting planes in mid-air! In the ending of the first game, a nuclear explosion failed to kill him. Facing such a monster, Ma Le was proud that he had managed to survive.