Meanwhile—
While Javier, Leon, and Krauser were busy forming a team to clear the dungeon, Rebecca and Manuela, the female duo, were not idle. The large operating room was only guarded by two armed drug dealers.
This gave Rebecca and Manuela, being women, a chance to exploit. After all, from the moment the heavy, bomb-proof iron door closed, Rebecca and Manuela had roughly understood the situation from the idle chatter of the two drug dealers.
Manuela's father, the drug lord Idalgo, was preparing to conduct a bio-virus experiment in the dam stronghold, releasing the bio-monsters he had created to hunt Javier and his two companions who were hiding in the dungeon.
Undoubtedly, this was bad news.
Rebecca, worried about Javier's safety, was burning with anxiety. She couldn't bear to stay here idly, so she decided to team up with Manuela to take the initiative, resolve the two drug dealers in the ward, and then run out to rendezvous with Javier and the others.
Although it seemed incredibly foolish for a protagonist to not stay in a safe place, but instead run off alone into a dangerous environment to rescue the main character and become a burden, there was no other way. Rebecca knew that this was one of the best ways to threaten drug lord Idalgo.
After all, once Manuela, his beloved daughter, fell into the Resident Evil experimental site, drug lord Idalgo would be extremely anxious, and perhaps he would be forced by pressure to let them live.
Rebecca knew this method was despicable, but it was the only way to survive at the moment.
And so, under the vigilant gaze of the two drug dealers guarding the door,
Rebecca calmly walked to the shelves filled with various medicines. In a sense, these chemicals could help Rebecca create very powerful weapons. After all, if you study science well, you can go anywhere in the world without fear.
As expected, after scanning the medicines on the shelves, Rebecca found what she needed in a corner.
Ether—
Ether, as a potent general anesthetic, was once widely used in medical surgery and pain management. However, over time, due to its instability and potential toxicity, its clinical use has significantly decreased.
Nevertheless, in the Laboratory, ether still serves as an excellent solvent and can be used to dissolve many organic substances, such as fats, resins, and oils.
Therefore, it has not faded from history. Moreover, this substance is a common prop seen in various films and TV shows; villains often use ether-soaked handkerchiefs to cover the target's mouth and nose for a few seconds to induce unconsciousness, making it an excellent tool for crime.
In reality, ether does possess this function; high-purity ether, if forcibly inhaled for about 6-10 seconds, can indeed cause unconsciousness.
Therefore, Rebecca planned to use it as a weapon to incapacitate the two drug dealer guards at the door. Additionally, ether can be refined; even if there wasn't high-purity ether here, with Rebecca's expertise as a pharmacist, refining purified ether would be a breeze, almost child's play.
After all, ether is simply distilled by heating ethanol with concentrated sulfuric acid to 130-140 ℃. In this ward, which has all sorts of tools, it's almost like a weapon processing plant.
Furthermore, Rebecca did not intend to use the dangerous method of covering the mouth and nose with a handkerchief. After all, she was just a woman and couldn't possibly overpower two vicious drug dealers; she could easily be counter-attacked.
So Rebecca planned to burn ether to produce a large amount of carbon monoxide, first weakening the two drug dealers' state. What's more, this ward had no windows, only ventilation ducts, which would greatly enhance the efficiency of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Then she prepared for a syringe attack.
Under the bewildered gaze of the two drug dealers, Rebecca slowly prepared her weapon, even taking out a beaker and an alcohol lamp. After placing the syringe filled with ether on a tray, she walked towards Manuela's hospital bed.
This scene seemed strange, but to the two drug dealers, it was completely normal.
Because in the past, they had seen the private doctor, Viya, walk around the ward with medicines in the same manner, though not as absurdly as Rebecca, who was carrying an alcohol lamp.
After all, as ordinary people from Colombia, their education level was extremely low; being literate was already quite good. Understanding chemical substances was simply impossible for them. They instinctively assumed Rebecca's actions were merely for treating Manuela, the young lady, and saw no problem with it.
As long as she didn't pull out a scalpel or other weapons, it was fine!
In their eyes, Rebecca with a scalpel was more dangerous than Rebecca with ether medicine. This was their way of thinking.
Leaning over Manuela's bed, looking at the innocent girl still feigning sleep, Rebecca couldn't help but show a wry smile. This girl was even more stubborn than she had imagined.
Adopting a posture as if performing a physical examination, Rebecca leaned closer to Manuela, pressing her lips to Manuela's ear. She softly parted her lips, exhaling a warm breath, and a faint, sweet scent permeated the air. A very careful voice whispered into the feigning Manuela's ear:
"Later, cover your mouth and nose with the quilt. I'll light another anesthetic to blur their consciousness."
"Then I'll hand you a syringe. That's ether; once injected, it can make someone instantly unconscious. Later, I'll pretend your condition has severely relapsed. When those two drug dealers come closer, Manuela, you immediately stab the nearest drug dealer in the neck with the syringe. I'll take care of the other one."
The warm breath tickled Manuela's ear, making her cheeks flush. She felt a strange heat in her body at that moment, but upon hearing Rebecca's plan, the feigning Manuela still nodded in understanding and immediately covered her mouth and nose with the quilt.
Seeing this, Rebecca nodded in satisfaction. The plan had begun!
"Pfft…"
Rebecca quickly lit the alcohol lamp. The ether in the beaker slowly began to vaporize and dissipate. At the same time, Rebecca pushed the cart with the ether beaker back a little, trying to minimize the effect of the ether gas on the two women.
Although Rebecca was wearing a professional mask, it would be difficult to resist the ether's attack for long, as masks only filter dust and bacteria, not gases.
After preparing all of this, Rebecca's eyes sharpened. Without hesitation, she smashed the iron tray onto the floor, producing a crisp "clang" sound. Her acting skills immediately erupted; Oscar-winning actress Rebecca promptly got into character, displaying a shocked and anxious expression:
"How is this possible?!"
"Quick, quick, both of you come and see! Miss Manuela's body is failing, her condition is very weak, even her breathing is almost gone. We must immediately begin an organ transplant surgery. Hurry and report the situation to Mr. Idalgo, Manuela's father."
The sound of the tray falling, the beeping of the ward equipment, even the low growls of zombies outside the door, and Rebecca's anxious shouts, combined with the strange smell permeating the air,
Affected the two drug dealers' minds in an unusual way, as if they were being led by the nose. They immediately obediently rushed towards Rebecca.
Manuela, meanwhile, held her breath as much as possible, trying not to inhale the trace amounts of ether gas in the air.
Her small face and neck were flushed, and her entire body was incredibly tense, looking very uncomfortable. This was precisely the critical condition Rebecca wanted to see.
Manuela was simply her perfect partner. Rebecca, as an Oscar-winning actress, had used this kind of acting to cooperate with Javier in counter-capturing Billy Coen on the Zodiac Train, a trick that always worked.
As the two drug dealers approached in a panic, one of them even saw Manuela's pained expression and couldn't help but reach out to check her breath, wanting to see if the young lady Manuela was truly in danger.
But unfortunately...
At that moment, Manuela, lying on the hospital bed, suddenly opened her eyes wide. Her grey-blue eyes gleamed with a flashing light. Almost following suit, she grasped the injection needle hidden beneath the quilt and thrust it out fiercely!
Manuela's sudden outburst caught the drug dealer off guard. Before he could retreat and dodge, the ether syringe needle had already pierced his neck, precisely into a prominent vein.
"Wh-...?"
The other drug dealer, seeing this, showed an expression of unimaginable shock on his face. They had never expected the young lady Manuela to suddenly attack them. He wanted to stop her, but then he remembered that this was their boss's daughter, and they couldn't be rough with her. The drug dealer hesitated for a moment.
And it was during these few seconds of hesitation that a sharp pain also shot through his neck.
"Bang—!"
Just as he spoke, his body lost balance and he tumbled down...
It was Rebecca.
She clapped her hands. Seizing the opportunity when the drug dealer was distracted, Rebecca precisely injected the ether syringe into his vein, completing the anesthetic injection.
The two drug dealers completely passed out, one collapsing on the floor, the other on the white hospital bed.
After dealing with the two drug dealers, Rebecca quickly extinguished the nearby alcohol lamp. Too much carbon monoxide inhalation was truly bad; even after only a short while, Rebecca, despite wearing a mask, already felt lightheaded.
"Cough cough…!"
"Will they die?"
Looking at the two drug dealers lying in front of her, Manuela hesitated for a long time before finally asking. She wasn't a saint, but seeing so many people die because of her, the kind Manuela couldn't bear it.
If they were killed by others, that would be one thing—they were drug dealers, and one could argue they deserved it. But if they died because of her, Manuela found it a bit hard to accept.
After all, more than fifty young girls had already lost their lives because of her before this. Manuela didn't want to add to the bloodshed.
"Don't worry, they won't die!"
"I just made their bodies a bit uncomfortable. The inhaled carbon monoxide wasn't much, they won't become idiots. The amount of ether injected was also controlled. They'll just have to recuperate in bed for a few months before they recover."
Shaking her head, Rebecca earnestly explained to the kind girl. After all, not only was Manuela kind, but Rebecca herself wasn't some mad scientist who enjoyed killing, was she?
Roughly 30-60mL of injected ether is a lethal dose, but Rebecca, as a pharmaceutical expert, could precisely control the amount within the range for forced anesthetic unconsciousness, so there was no need to worry about fatalities.
Upon hearing Rebecca's affirmative answer, Manuela slowly exhaled a sigh of relief. She threw off the quilt, shook her thin white dress, and quickly jumped down, still barefoot. Now, she had to continue to stop her father...
She absolutely would not allow such a tragic thing to happen!
However, despite saying that, hearing the low growls of the zombies outside the thick iron door, Rebecca and Manuela, both women, still felt a bit intimidated. It seemed truly terrifying, and the only weapons they had were the ones they had stripped from the two drug dealers.
...
The two sides were almost working in concert, inside and out.
Rebecca and Manuela escaped from the ward, while Javier and his two companions were busy sweeping through the zombies in the dam stronghold. Things were a little better than expected; the bio-BOWs that drug lord Idalgo had purchased from the unscrupulous merchant Wesker were all outdated, defective goods.
These were all trashy items that Wesker had stockpiled and couldn't sell, so he cheaply bundled them all and sold them to drug lord Idalgo.
Therefore, the bio-monsters Javier encountered in the dam stronghold were almost all old friends: mutated poisonous spiders, Plague Crawlers, zombie dogs, mutated bats—all familiar old friends. So, Javier easily directed Leon and Krauser to deal with them.
The only surprising thing was that drug lord Idalgo had created... no, rather than created, it was more accurate to say he had indeed found some good stuff in the trash heap. What surprised Javier the most were the walking plant monsters, like carnivorous plants, which actually had hands and feet and hid around corners, preparing to ambush. Javier and his two companions were almost ambushed the first time they saw them.
What's more, the most amazing thing was that they could actually walk! Yes, you heard right, plants could walk. Even pea shooters couldn't walk, yet these carnivorous plants could. In a sense, Umbrella Corporation was indeed very powerful.
At the same time, looking at the walking carnivorous plant monster, Javier immediately thought of Plant 42 he had encountered at the Mansion Villa. He guessed that this carnivorous plant monster was a new type of BOW created by Umbrella Corporation based on the research data of Plant 42.
However, their weaknesses were also very obvious: they were truly slow.
They moved slowly, were afraid of fire, and thirsty for water. Molotov cocktails were their natural enemy. They needed to constantly absorb bodily fluids to survive, otherwise they would go mad and wither. Bodily fluids could be water or the blood of their prey. Most could only hide in corners to ambush. However, due to the tenacious vitality of plants, they were immune to a large amount of physical attacks.
After dealing with these plants hiding in corners and ambushing people, Javier and his two companions continued deeper. They had a premonition that they were getting closer and closer to drug lord Idalgo's Laboratory!
Chapter 21 Anubis
As for why they would say this—
Because the surroundings were no longer dark corridor passages, but had transformed into pristine white walls. Many pieces of equipment had begun to appear, a sign of approaching a Laboratory. After all, only near a Laboratory would there be such clean white tiles and various electronic devices. The air also began to carry a faint scent of disinfectant alcohol, mixed with a pungent smell of blood, making one frown.
"..."
"How many bullets do you still have?"
Sensing the danger ahead, Krauser, the veteran, was the first to stop. He checked his equipment, then turned to Javier and Leon and asked.
All his small knives and daggers were depleted, leaving only a pistol and a Viper Dagger. The pistol had two magazines left, but the scavenged AKM assault rifle had inexplicably increased to three magazines. These were supplies they had found in some rooms while sweeping the dam stronghold, left behind by the drug dealer soldiers.