☆, Hard-fought battle, abilities emerge

"An old friend?" Ye Xi stared coldly at the huge box being pushed towards her. Her somewhat reliable intuition told her that what was inside was extremely dangerous, so dangerous that it sent chills down her spine. However, on the surface, Ye Xi didn't show much expression; she simply tightened her grip on the Miao sword at her waist.

The man gestured, and his four men pulled down the giant screen, revealing the original transparent box. The enormous box, ten meters tall and six meters wide, was brightly lit, and Ye Xi could clearly see a creature about two meters tall lying inside—the creature she knew all too well—the Licker!

“…You’re crazy.” Ye Xi murmured, then looked at the man defiantly: “I wonder how much manpower and resources you’ve wasted to catch this guy.”

"Thank you for your concern, but in the end, it didn't cost me many men, because it was you, my dear Ye Xi, who finished it off with a shot to the head."

The mocking expression on Ye Xi's face vanished instantly. She quickly turned to look at the unconscious Licker, and was astonished to find that it had a helmet-like device on its head. "This...it's impossible, that Licker was clearly dead!"

“For Umbrella, nothing is impossible.” The man smiled, then gestured for it to proceed. “Don’t worry about it escaping. This cage is the latest development; I think it could withstand a tank bombardment for five minutes. As for how this old friend survived… well, that’s not your concern. Just go in and show your true strength. Oh, by the way, just a friendly reminder: this old friend seems to have evolved again.”

On the surface, it was a "please," but in reality, Ye Xi was practically pushed and dragged inside by two people. As Ye Xi entered, the towering door immediately disappeared, and the sounds outside vanished as well. Ye Xi could only watch as the man's lips moved constantly, seemingly ordering his subordinates to do something. Then, Carlos and Nicola, who tried to resist, were knocked to the ground by men with guns and helmets.

They seemed to be calling to her, but Ye Xi couldn't hear them. Apart from a sudden, hissing sound like air leaking out, she couldn't hear anything else. Meanwhile, the Licker opposite her suddenly moved, swaying as it propped itself up and roared, seemingly venting its frustration at being anesthetized.

Ye Xi forced a calm facade, but her heart was in turmoil. How could she not be afraid? She was just an ordinary person who had suddenly gained extraordinary powers. In essence, she was no different from ordinary people; she was selfish, cowardly, and also unusually prone to showing off. Even if her heart was pounding in her throat, even if her hands trembled so much she couldn't hold her weapon properly, she wouldn't let that fear show on her face!

Whether it recognized Ye Xi, its "old friend," or was simply starving, the Licker roared angrily upon seeing Ye Xi standing opposite it with knives in her hands. It vanished instantly, only to reappear almost a second later, its claws lashing out with a chilling force, knocking the still-stunned Ye Xi to the ground. Her pair of Miao knives fell to the ground in the distance.

Damn, that's fast! Ye Xi, already dazed from the blows, couldn't dodge, let alone pick up her weapon. And the energetic Licker's next attack followed immediately. Ye Xi frowned, gritted her teeth, and forced her unresponsive body to move, drawing the dagger from her leg pouch to meet the Licker's claws head-on.

However, even with the T-virus enhancement, Ye Xi could not withstand the powerful attack of the mutated Licker. The dagger in her hand twisted under the force and pierced into the Licker's claws, and Ye Xi's right arm was broken into three pieces!

The Licker, wincing in pain, lashed Ye Xi against the wall with its tail. Ye Xi, unable to bear the agony of her broken right arm, screamed, trembling as she clutched her arm, then gritted her teeth, swallowing the rest of her scream. The pain nearly made her faint, but the excruciating agony pulled her back from the brink. She looked at her arm, bent into an impossible shape, and the torn web between her thumb and forefinger, tears streaming down her face, but she didn't utter a single sob!

Ye Xi swayed as she stood up, raised her head and glared fiercely at the Licker who was temporarily not attacking because of the dagger on its claws. Then, she quickly grabbed the Miao knife that had fallen beside her with her left hand, her eyes sharpened, and she pushed off with both feet, rushing towards the Licker who was pulling the dagger from its claws like a bullet. But at the moment she got close to it, she suddenly bent back with impossible agility, using the momentum to kick the Licker's chin with her toes. The seemingly weak kick knocked the Licker, which was almost twice the size of Ye Xi, to the ground!

Ye Xi landed lightly with a somersault in the air, ignoring her slightly stiff toes, and the next second she fearlessly charged towards the monster. This time she finally raised the Miao sword in her hand, her movements clean and pure yet extremely fast. The simple strike was aimed at the Licker's head! However, the mutated Licker's reaction speed was even faster than Ye Xi's. That incredible speed from the beginning reappeared. Almost the instant Ye Xi's sword fell, the Licker disappeared again.

With her astonishing reflexes, Ye Xi didn't hesitate and quickly dodged to the side, but she was still a step too late. The licker's long tongue grazed Ye Xi's left arm, and the barbed tongue instantly tore off a piece of flesh from Ye Xi's left arm...

"Hiss—" Ye Xi gasped, turned around but didn't see the Licker. She immediately knew something was wrong and, with no other choice, swung the Miao knife in her left hand toward her head. Then, without hesitation, she ran to the other side. But even after being cut by the Miao knife, the Licker did not give up its obsession with blood. Ye Xi felt colder and colder behind her, but there was nothing to hide in the empty cage. Ye Xi gritted her teeth, raised her still-mobile left arm to protect her head, and the next second, Ye Xi was slammed against the wall by the Licker's tongue, which then tightly wrapped around Ye Xi's body.

"I can't let this happen..." Ye Xi suppressed the dizziness and was just about to muster her strength to break free from the injured Licker when a familiar, nauseating pain swept through her body—evolution! Damn it, what a coincidence! Ye Xi tried to stay awake by enduring the nauseating pain, but her eyelids seemed to grow heavier and heavier as if they didn't obey her, and everything in front of her became increasingly blurry. However, Ye Xi still forced her eyes open, staring intently at the Licker moving towards her.

"I'm not reconciled... I'm not reconciled... I'm not reconciled!!" Ye Xi's eyes were bloodshot, unwilling to become food for a monster. But in this dog-eat-dog world, what did her small resentment amount to?! Everyone is unwilling to die like this, but cruel reality often swallows these resentments. What is determination? What is resentment? It's just the pathetic, powerless struggle of a person clinging to survival. In the end, Ye Xi, you can only rely on yourself. Now, you can only rely on yourself. What miracle are you still hoping for? That's just wishful thinking. Only by becoming stronger can you survive!

Ye Xi's wounds healed slowly, accompanied by an unbearable feeling of nausea, but her expression grew increasingly indifferent...

Suddenly, Ye Xi felt the Licker moving rapidly towards her slow down. The few meters between them seemed to stretch into hundreds or even thousands of meters, and everything she saw instantly changed. Everything before her—the Licker, the cage, even the air—everything transformed into molecular and atomic structures! Ye Xi stared blankly at everything before her. Although her inner self was a typical liberal arts student, after inheriting this body's memories, Ye Xi clearly knew the composition of air. Looking at the shape of the Licker composed of molecules and atoms, Ye Xi immediately understood that it was the Licker, and then the transparent cage… If… these atoms or molecules were moved and recombined to be like air… then… what would happen?

Perhaps the Licker sensed the danger. Its evolved form had greatly improved in speed, strength, and intelligence—including its abilities. Although it continued to move towards Ye Xi, it opened its mouth wide, and a slug-like, blood-red, viscous creature shot out, heading straight for Ye Xi's head…

However, an astonishing scene unfolded! Just as the repulsive creature was about to reach Ye Xi's brow, it suddenly began to disappear, starting from its head! Ye Xi's eerily black eyes stared lifelessly at the tongue on her body. The part of the tongue wrapped around her also gradually disappeared. As Ye Xi's gaze moved, the tongue vanished, followed by the licker's head, body, tail... even the wall of the supposedly indestructible transparent cage behind it disappeared!

Ye Xi looked at the scene before her, suddenly a smile appeared on her lips, then her vision went black, and she fainted...

Japan, Umbrella Asia Division.

White light from the ceiling enveloped the entire room. The room was filled with all sorts of instruments, and surrounded by these instruments was a metal bed. Unlike ordinary beds, this bed resembled the mechanical beds used to restrain patients in mental hospitals, only with many different tools and accessories.

On that bed lay a young girl. She was the petite, delicate type typical of Eastern women, her exquisite and fragile face pale and bloodless. Her eyes were tightly closed, and her long eyelashes cast faint shadows on her smooth skin. She lay on the bed like a sleeping beauty who would never wake, quiet and pure. Her naked body was covered only by a thin sheet, revealing her small, white shoulders and lovely feet. Her head and arms were covered with needles and probes, and two people dressed in white robes and masks surrounded her, conducting various tests.

"Tap tap tap..." The dull, rhythmic footsteps grew clearer, and the door to the room was pushed open, revealing a tall and robust man. Unlike the scientists, the man wore a black leather trench coat, his blond hair was meticulously combed back, and his resolute, chiseled face was framed by a pair of dark, opaque glasses, which he did not remove even indoors.

If the girl in bed were awake, she would be surprised and excited to meet the final boss of Resident Evil so soon, the person she liked and admired the most since she started playing Resident Evil. She might even scream that this final boss was not the toilet uncle, dog uncle, or chrysanthemum uncle from the movie, but the real Albert Wesker from the game! But that was just a hypothetical. She kept her eyes closed, just like before.

"How is she?" the man asked, his voice deep and magnetic, yet carrying an innate sense of oppression.

"Reporting to Commander Wesker, Ye Xi's experimental subjects are functioning normally, and there has been no abnormal reaction to the 50 ml of T virus injected three hours ago. As you expected, the white blood cells engulfed these T viruses and then integrated them into the platelets, which is almost impossible," a scientist reported.

A strange smile flickered across the man's stiff, poker-faced expression, but vanished in an instant. "Have you found the reason for her abilities?"

“This… I’m sorry, sir,” the other woman replied, her tone tinged with fear. “All three hypotheses we came up with… couldn’t find any mutated cells at all. In fact, you could say her physiological composition is exactly the same as a normal person’s. It’s unbelievable! Her white blood cells practically cured the virus!”

Wesker paused for a moment, then turned and walked straight out, coldly saying, "Increase the T-virus input, 500 milliliters."

“500 milliliters? No, sir, the test subject has never been exposed to so many viruses before, I’m afraid…” Upon hearing this, the man immediately objected, disregarding the woman’s attempts to stop him.

"You have doubts?" Wesker stopped and asked slowly.

"It's not a doubt, it's just..."

"Bang!"

Wesker holstered his pistol and walked towards the door, not even glancing at the man who had become a corpse. "Remember, your task is simply to obey orders. Jera, have someone else fill his place." His cold, ruthless voice echoed in the laboratory. The woman, who had been kneeling in fear, immediately scrambled to her feet and replied in a somewhat shrill voice, "Yes, sir!"

Author's Note: The male lead is obviously... (digging nose) I really dislike the Wesker in the movie! Seriously, is that our beloved Uncle Wesker?! He's been utterly ruined! I'm speechless! (pounding the ground) So, Wesker's character design will follow the game's style~~~~ Begging for comments and support! (rolling around)