Chapter 51

In the quiet town of Raccoon City, unaware of the impending apocalyptic disaster, Li She, the descendant of a master thief, found himself with a wallet he had picked. He went to find a motel in the city to stay for the night.

The simple motel was bustling with people. After paying five hundred dollars at the front desk, Li She received the key to his room without needing to show any identification.

Locking the door and drawing the curtains, Li She opened the briefcase he had taken from Matt. Inside were three vials of serum and one vial of the T-virus.

Li She hesitated as he looked at the T-virus. What if he turned into a monstrous creature, neither human nor ghost?

Suddenly, the spirit of the artifact in Li She's mind spoke, "If you're afraid of death, don't try it."

Li She replied fiercely, "I'm afraid of death? I'm afraid I can't unlock the forty-ninth seal."

Biting his teeth, Li She picked up a syringe, loaded it with the T-virus, and injected it into his arm's artery. The piercing pain spread throughout his body, but for Li She, who had crossed the barriers of four worlds, this pain was nothing. He bit his tongue to stay awake, then shakily loaded a vial of serum into the syringe and injected it into his arm again.

Li She's physical condition had been tempered by crossing the barriers of four worlds, surpassing that of ordinary innate experts. He was far stronger than the experimental subjects who voluntarily became Lickers. Most of these subjects were special forces soldiers, and the probability of evolving into a Licker was less than five percent. With Li She's superior physical condition, he could naturally adapt to the T-virus.

Although he was an innate expert, the T-virus targeted the human DNA for transformation. The thick, sticky true qi in his body resisted the T-virus invading Li She's body.

The two opposing energies clashed and fought within Li She's body. He gritted his teeth to maintain his consciousness. Veins bulged on his hands, and large beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. Gradually, the T-virus invading his body began to be chased by the icy and fiery true qi. The serum also took effect, neutralizing the virus.

Just as the T-virus was about to be eliminated, the last bit of it fused with Li She's DNA. Li She immediately felt a tearing sensation from his body cells. His skin began to split and heal rapidly, over and over again, spilling an unknown amount of blood. Li She growled softly to relieve the pain.

His clothes seemed to be corroded by the blood seeping from his skin, gradually turning into rags. Enduring the intense pain, Li She's consciousness slowly faded. He fell to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably.

The mutation in his body did not stop even as Li She lost consciousness. His skin continued to split and heal repeatedly. A layer of dark, gel-like substance formed around Li She, enveloping him entirely. As the gel thickened, Li She formed a large cocoon and fell into a deep sleep. Time passed, minute by minute. The highly infectious T-virus had already plunged Raccoon City into a zombie frenzy, spreading through water, air, birds, and other means to the rest of the world.

Day by day, Li She in the room had become a large black cocoon. One month, two months, three months. A year passed quietly. Inside the room, a human-shaped cocoon stood eerily. This black cocoon emitted a dense aura of killing intent, a brutal and savage energy that kept the zombies from approaching, much like how foxes dare not enter the territory of lions or tigers.

Two years passed quietly. After 730 days, the human-shaped cocoon in the room began to tremble, and the sound of an eggshell cracking could be heard. 'Thump... thump... thump...' A powerful heartbeat echoed like a drum, and Li She, who had been in a deep sleep, seemed to stretch and break out of the cocoon.

Dazed and hungry, Li She roared in frustration, 'Aaaaah!'

All the hair on his body had been corroded during the transformation, leaving him with smooth, baby-like skin, completely hairless. His pupils turned pitch black, his lips a pale black, and his nails turned black. Li She tested his nails, which could extend and retract at will. His nails, which had been neatly trimmed, now extended to twenty centimeters. He tried them on the concrete wall, and with a 'swoosh,' they easily pierced through it like a knife through tofu. 'Hahahaha!' Li She laughed loudly, feeling an endless surge of strength. As he laughed, a transparent gas spread outward from his body. This was killing intent, tangible killing intent. After the T-virus altered his DNA, the realm of slaughter had finally reached perfection.

The killing intent spread like ripples, one kilometer, two kilometers, three kilometers, until it stopped at ten kilometers. Within this range, all the zombies trembled like frightened rabbits. The fear from their souls made them unable to lift their heads, and they all emitted low moans, indicating submission. On the rooftop of a TV station three kilometers away, twenty-three human survivors were startled by the low moans of the zombies.

"Jones, what's going on? Are the zombies going crazy again?" a woman with a sniper rifle asked in a low voice.

"I don't know, this has never happened before! But I feel uneasy, like being watched by a predator," the black mercenary replied.

Among these twenty-three survivors, eight were staff members of the TV station, and the others were mostly police officers or former mercenaries, armed with weapons. They had gathered here over time, trapped on the rooftop of the TV station for more than a year. The black mercenary Jones was now their leader. They took turns on watch, with some responsible for going out to find food, waiting for the so-called government rescue.

After being transformed by the T-virus, Li She's sense of smell reached an astonishing level. Lickers, who had no eyes, relied on their keen sense of smell to hunt. Li She closed his eyes and inhaled the polluted air, and streams of information appeared in his mind. The entire ten-kilometer radius was like a map of scents, far more effective than the perception of ordinary innate experts.

Through the scents in the air, Li She sensed ten locations within a ten-kilometer radius where over a thousand zombies had gathered, and other areas were scattered with dozens or hundreds of smaller zombie groups. Li She, still with his eyes closed, identified the scents and said softly, "There are still survivors? Twenty-three of them!"

Since the outbreak of the T-virus, humans had used various thermal weapons. In countries like the Philippines, where the local military could not control the spread of zombies, the government collapsed, and the UN's five permanent members even launched nuclear missiles to destroy entire regions.

With nuclear weapons, the ultimate human weapon, the spread of zombies was barely contained, but the consequences were severe. Sixty percent of the world's regions were contaminated by nuclear radiation, and over a hundred small countries were wiped out. The remaining humans formed a human alliance, and the population was drastically reduced to one hundred million.

The surviving countries were those that possessed nuclear weapons. After the formation of the human alliance, all city-states disappeared, replaced by human settlements. The five permanent members, with their large nuclear arsenals, controlled the five largest human settlements: New York, Beijing, London, Moscow, and Paris. Countries like Iran and North Korea, which had secretly developed nuclear weapons, also survived and became human settlements.

None of this mattered to Li She. He put on some clothes and headed toward the nearest group of zombies. This group was in a large supermarket just two blocks from the TV station, with no fewer than a thousand zombies.

Jones, on watch, looked through his binoculars at the nearby streets. Two blocks away, the supermarket was already occupied by zombies, making it difficult for the survivors to find food. The T-virus affected not only humans but also animals, which, after eating infected human corpses, transformed into ferocious and abnormally large creatures. A domesticated German Shepherd or rat, after eating infected corpses, became as fierce as a lion and as large as a leopard or a cat, respectively. Thus, human survivors not only faced the threat of hundreds or thousands of zombies but also the attacks of these mutated creatures. Food, medicine, and other basic necessities had become scarce, and currency and gold were now less valuable than a bottle of mineral water. In the human settlements, the elite who controlled large amounts of food and fresh water, along with the Umbrella Corporation, formed the ruling class.

In the human settlements, daily conflicts over food occurred, and young girls often traded a night with a fat, wealthy man for a meal. In the face of this disaster, all dignity and chastity were meaningless. In some places, people even resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Li She suppressed his aura and walked toward the supermarket. If he released his killing intent, the zombies would flee out of instinct.

Jones, through his binoculars, saw a bald man in shorts wandering the street. "Damn, what an idiot? Does he want to die?" Jones said disdainfully.

The others were also drawn by Jones's words and looked through their binoculars at Li She.

"This fool! Oh, poor guy," a policewoman in uniform said. Although the twenty-three of them had survived, the food shortage made it impossible to rescue another survivor. This wasn't cold-heartedness but necessity. One more person meant one more mouth to feed, and they could barely eat enough as it was.

Because Li She's gait was not as stiff as a zombie's, the others recognized him as human. At this moment, Jones saw a group of mutated dogs emerge from a street corner, and Li She's fate seemed sealed.

The T-virus had transformed the dogs into creatures as fierce as lions and tigers, as large as leopards, and as swift as lightning. Even Jones, a former mercenary, would not dare face forty or fifty of these mutated monsters at once.

Now, Li She was blocked by these fifty or so mutated creatures. He looked at them with interest, recognizing their canine origins from their physical features.

"The T-virus is indeed powerful, transforming a shepherd dog into a lion-sized creature," Li She muttered, staring at the leading shepherd dog. The dog, after being transformed by the T-virus, was unrecognizable, with all its fur gone, exposing muscular flesh. Its claws were sharp and gleamed black, and its mouth was filled with seven or eight-centimeter-long fangs, drooling constantly.