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The speedboat's engine roared, and the lush green scenery on both banks receded rapidly in their vision, turning into blurred streaks of color.
Raccoon City
t-virus
g-virus
Licker
Tyrant
One by one, these unfamiliar yet bloody and maddening terms, through the calm yet death-laden narrations of Leon and Noah, repeatedly washed over Krauser's worldview.
He felt as if his brain had been poured full of molten lead—heavy, burning, and utterly chaotic.
It turned out that while these so-called top-tier special forces were carrying out high-intensity missions in every corner of the world for national honor, on the other side of the world, such inconceivable and common-sense-defying horrific events had actually occurred.
Those monsters that shouldn't exist in reality, those scenes that would only appear in the most frantic nightmares, were actually a Hell that some people had truly experienced.
There was no expression on his face.
From initial disbelief to halfway horror, and finally, to a silence mixed with humiliation and anger.
His prideful combat experience and his powerful physique, honed through a hundred battles, seemed so laughable and powerless in the face of biological weapons like the "Tyrant" that could withstand rockets.
He listened quietly, allowing those unimaginable horrific facts to wash over his inherent perceptions time and time again.
"...But," Leon finished the last part, his voice carrying a lingering fatigue. He glanced at the silent Krauser and changed the subject, "The situation in the village just now is very different from Raccoon City."
Krauser's eyelids twitched, and he finally withdrew his gaze from the murky river surface to look at Leon.
"What's the difference?" His voice was raspy, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.
"Chaos and Order," Noah spoke calmly, taking over the conversation.
He steered the speedboat while keeping his eyes fixed ahead.
"The outbreak in Raccoon City was a disaster that spiraled completely out of control. Virus leaks, spreading infections—everything fell into a state of disordered Chaos. Zombies merely wandered by instinct, and BOWs only operated within fixed areas. There was no coordination or tactics between them."
Noah paused, his tone becoming sharper.
"But it's different here. Haven't you noticed since we entered the village? The appearance of the Zombies follows a rhythm; they seem to be guided, forcing us into a corner step by step. The upstream Sluice Gates were opened to trap us with a flood, forcing us onto the rooftops. That monster in the church was more like a guardian, or rather... a leashed watchdog."
Noah's words were like a bolt of lightning, slicing through the mist of Chaos in Krauser's mind.
He suddenly recalled every detail of the battle.
Exactly!
The way those Zombies tightened their encirclement was far too deliberate!
That sudden flood was even more like a meticulously designed trap!
And that terrifying giant beast—it clearly had the ability to tear them all to shreds in the river, yet it only attacked after they stepped into the church's sphere of influence. Moreover, its goal seemed more about protecting that girl.
"You mean..." A hint of realization appeared in Krauser's voice, "Javier is behind all of this, controlling it?"
Noah nodded and gave his conclusion: "Exactly. Aside from those infected Villager, the biological weapons here show obvious signs of human control. That monster we heavily damaged knew fear and how to retreat. This indicates it has a certain degree of intelligence, or rather, there's an Advanced intelligence behind it directing it."
"To investigate all this clearly, Javier is the key to the entire incident. Either he has mastered some technology to control BOWs, or... he himself has developed some kind of connection with the virus that we don't know about yet."
Noah's analysis made the atmosphere even more somber.
A madman capable of controlling a B.O.W. army is even more dangerous than an out-of-control biohazard.
Just then.
"...Ugh..."
A faint groan of pain came from near Leon's feet.
The young girl in the white dress lying on the cabin floor had her long eyelashes quiver a few times, seemingly waking from her coma.
The three men immediately stopped talking and turned their gazes toward her.
Leon knelt down, preparing to check on her.
The girl slowly opened her eyes, her azure pupils still clouded with the daze and confusion of just waking up.
Her gaze swept aimlessly across the cabin, past Leon kneeling before her, past Krauser at the B.O.W.... finally, her eyes went over Leon's shoulder and landed on the black-haired Asian man at the stern who was focused on driving the speedboat.
Time seemed to hit the pause button at this moment.
The next second.
An extreme fear, as if it would freeze her very Soul, instantly consumed her.
"Ah—!!!"
The girl's eyes, which had been as clear as lake water just a moment ago, suddenly widened to their limit, her pupils shrinking violently into two tiny black dots.
Her body shook violently as if struck by an electric current, and all color drained from her face at a visible speed, leaving her as pale as paper.
She recoiled like a startled hedgehog, using both hands and feet to scramble back and curl into a ball, burying her head tightly between her knees, her body shaking like the last leaf in a gale.
The sudden turn of events stunned the three men on the boat.
Noah instinctively let go of the control lever, and the speedboat slowed down.
He raised his hand inexplicably and scratched his cheek, his face filled with incomprehensible confusion.
Was he... that terrifying?
This face, while not exactly breathtakingly beautiful, was definitely in the handsome and elegant category, right?
Why did he seem more frightening than that monster just now in this girl's eyes?
"Hey!"
Leon reacted the fastest; he immediately stood up and spread his arms, acting like a wall to block the view between Noah and the shivering girl.
He could clearly feel that the girl's fear was entirely directed at Noah alone.
He didn't understand why this was happening either, but his professional quality as a Federal Agent and his innate instinct to protect the weak made him perform this action subconsciously.
"Don't be afraid, it's okay. You're safe now."
Leon lowered his voice, trying to soothe her with his gentlest tone.
"We aren't bad people. How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere?"
His voice seemed to have some effect; the girl's trembling lessened slightly, but she still hugged herself tightly, not daring to look up.
Krauser's voice came coldly from the B.O.W., carrying his usual impatience and pragmatism.
"We just rescued you from that hellhole. Are you the girl they said escaped from Javier's nest?"
His words were very direct, like an interrogation.
Perhaps it was Krauser's forceful aura that actually diluted her fear of Noah.
The girl's curled-up body paused for a moment.
She seemed to be undergoing a fierce internal struggle.
She didn't know why she felt that uncontrollable, instinctual fear originating from the depths of her Soul toward that Asian-faced man.
That feeling was like a sheep seeing a Prehistoric Tyrannosaurus—a primal shudder that transcended species boundaries.
But she also knew that it was these three people who had brought her out of that church filled with monsters and death.
After a long while, she finally calmed down slightly from the aftershocks of that fear.
She slowly and cautiously lifted her head a little, but her gaze remained fixed on Leon's tactical vest, not daring to look toward the stern at all.
A weak, raspy voice with a hint of a sob came from between her knees.
"...The people in that village... what... what happened to them?"
Krauser cracked his somewhat stiff neck and replied coldly, "They're all dead. Some turned into monsters, others were eaten by monsters."
The girl's body shuddered again, and a faint sound of sobbing was heard; her shoulders heaved, looking incredibly sorrowful.
Leon frowned at Krauser's bluntness, but he knew now wasn't the time to press the issue.
He knelt down again to keep his gaze level with the girl's, saying in a serious and sincere tone:
"Listen, we are Agents sent by the U.S. Government. We are investigating an American who has had contact with Javier, and at the same time, we are investigating a very dangerous virus. These matters are all related to Javier, so we must see him."
Leon looked into her eyes, which were once again filling with tears, and said word by word:
"Please, lead us to him."
The air fell into silence once more.
The girl's behavior seemed somewhat unnatural.
She didn't answer immediately; instead, she buried her head deep into her knees once again, as if the name "Javier" was a curse that could drain all her strength.
The speedboat drifted slowly on the river, with only the slight hum of the engine idling and the gurgling sound of water.
Noah didn't speak, just watched quietly.
Krauser also uncharacteristically remained silent, observing this strange-reacting girl with a scrutinizing gaze.
Minutes and seconds passed.
Just when Leon thought she wouldn't answer, the girl finally made a move.
She slowly raised her head, and on that small face stained with tear tracks and dirt, a complex expression mixed with determination and fear appeared.
She looked past Leon, for the first time proactively looking at Krauser at the B.O.W., and then at Leon.
Finally, as if summoning great courage, she quickly swept her gaze over Noah at the stern before pulling it back as if she had touched an electric wire.
She nodded.
A very light but extremely forceful movement.
Having received an affirmative answer, the three of them didn't delay any further.
Noah pushed the control lever again, and the speedboat let out a roar, accelerating once more.
The girl was placed by Leon in the safest position in the middle of the cabin; she still held her knees, remaining silent like a delicate and fragile porcelain doll.
Under her guidance, the speedboat left the main channel and turned into a narrower but swifter branch.
The primitive jungle on both banks became increasingly dense, with the massive canopy almost blotting out the sky, leaving only dappled spots of light to filter through the gaps in the leaves and dance on the water.
The air was thick with the scent of damp decaying leaves and the fishy smell of earth.
The surroundings were eerily quiet; besides the engine noise, there were only the strange cries of unknown insects and birds.
The speedboat passed through this dark jungle waterway, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.
A massive concrete creation appeared arrogantly before their eyes, blocking the entire river.
It was a magnificent Dam.
The gray Dam body stood tall between the canyons like an impassable city wall, its surface covered with moss and water stains left by the years.
The massive gates were tightly closed, with only a few small spillways still spewing white water dragons, letting out a deafening roar.
Before this behemoth representing modern industrial power, their small speedboat was like a fallen leaf at a giant's feet.
Splash—
Noah turned off the engine, and the speedboat drifted slowly toward the base of the Dam under its own momentum.
The girl's body began to tremble uncontrollably again from the moment she saw the Dam.
She reached out a slender, pale finger, its tip slightly white from the force, and pointed tremblingly at that cold and magnificent structure.
"I... I from there..."
Her voice was so soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of the water, carrying a feeling as if she were about to cry.
"...Escaped from... that Dam..."