Facing Ada's question, Javier rolled his eyes and replied, "Poorly equipped weapons." This was almost the biggest complaint Javier had about biohazard; every time the protagonist only carried a small pistol and a knife, and then went to face hundreds and thousands of monsters.
It was incredibly foolish to think about, and weapons could only be acquired temporarily, and they were always very old-fashioned.
Even the weapons and equipment provided by the Merchant this time, besides the M16 assault rifle, were basically old veterans retired from World War II.
It was truly surprising that they could kill so many bosses.
Therefore, every time Javier went on a mission, he would try his best to carry enough weapons.
This was what a qualified dungeon conqueror did; otherwise, without the protagonist's halo, he could be overwhelmed by biohazard monsters at any time.
In subsequent story dungeons, besides Chris, it seemed no one else was properly fully armed; everyone tried to be as concise as possible.
Chris was even fully armed only to fit his identity as a soldier; if he didn't have that military identity, Chris would probably also be armed with just a knife and pistol.
In short, the matter of weapons and equipment was basically beyond complaint; it was extremely unreasonable…
However, after confirming that Javier indeed had a thermal imager in his hand, everyone's mood improved a bit; at least they had some confidence.
So they let Luis lead the way and hurried towards the Institute where he was located.
"Thump, thump, thump…"
"Thump, thump, thump…"
As the elevator arrived, everyone slowly transitioned from the pitch-black cave to a corridor with steel facilities.
Compared to the surrounding desolate, primitive cave, the corridor in front of them was undoubtedly more humane, but it also had many patrolling infected soldiers.
They were all wearing steel helmets and carrying various clubs while patrolling; some even held rifles, but the weapons were all very old World War II antiques.
After all, their parasitic brains might not be able to react to overly complex weapons, only simple ones.
But even so, infected soldiers with hot weapons were still very dangerous.
After all, those were firearms…
A gun, no matter what kind of gun, as long as it can kill people, is a very dangerous thing.
And you must not underestimate these soldiers just because they are infected; as long as they can pull the trigger, the bullets fired from the muzzle are fatal.
Therefore, once they encountered infected soldiers carrying rifles, Javier and the others would prioritize eliminating them.
They absolutely could not let such long-range weapons pose a threat to them.
In contrast, the other infected soldiers carrying electric batons and steel rods seemed insignificant; they could easily be knocked down with physical combat!
Tens of minutes later…
"Da da da da da —!!!!"
"Da da da da da —!!!!"
Bursts of gunfire echoed in the corridor.
Javier and the others formed an iron barrel shield, surrounding and protecting the most important two, Ashley and Luis.
The other four, armed with M16 assault rifles, broke through, sparks flying, and bullets continuously killed the surrounding infected soldiers attempting to approach.
Because these guys wore steel helmets and bulletproof vests, it took much longer than usual to deal with them.
Javier and Ada, with their precise marksmanship, aimed their sights at the necks of these infected soldiers.
The moment a bullet hit, it could instantly break the neck and spine of these infected soldiers.
If they were lucky, they would die quickly, requiring only one shot.
If they were unlucky, it would trigger the Exploding Bug state of the infected soldier.
The entire neck would rapidly burst open, and ugly, hideous insect brains would instantly crawl out from the neck.
Then these Exploding Bug soldiers would enter a berserk state, requiring more bullets to be dealt with.
It could be said that the enemies on this Isolated Island Base were indeed several times more difficult to deal with than the villagers in Salazar Castle and Wolf's Valley Village; it was very troublesome…!
"Ada, are you almost done over there?"
"If they enter the Exploding Bug state, just ignore them; just break their legs and we'll run first.
The gunshots have already attracted their attention, and staying here will only attract more monsters, so let's focus on escaping first."
Gunshots continuously echoed in the corridor.
Javier and the others constantly wandered around the large base, fighting guerrilla warfare, but seeing more and more infected soldiers, Javier realized something was wrong.
He quickly told everyone not to linger in combat; for some Exploding Bug soldiers, just break their legs to incapacitate them, there's no need to waste bullets and time continuing to entangle with them.
Because if they continued like this, Javier was very afraid that they would be surrounded by these infected soldiers here.
"Wait…!"
"Almost there, this way… no need to keep fighting them.
Follow me this way, my Institute is almost there."
At this moment, seeing the familiar environment in the dim corridor, Luis's expression suddenly brightened, and his tense mood instantly relaxed.
He quickly spoke to the people behind him.
This was good news, meaning they didn't need to continue fighting guerrilla warfare with the infected soldiers in front of them, nor did they have to endure the tension of being surrounded.
"Thump, thump, thump…"
"Thump, thump, thump…"
Without any hesitation, under Luis's lead, everyone quickly ran towards the corner passage on the left.
At the same time, to block the infected soldiers from chasing them, Javier threw a flashbang behind him.
This temporarily disoriented the attack direction of these infected soldiers, and some Exploding Bug infected soldiers even instantly died under the intense light.
"Buzz…"
"Click—!!!"
And as a mechanical door slowly opened, everyone completely plunged into the Institute area Luis spoke of.
Unlike the chaos outside just now, there seemed to be far fewer infected soldiers patrolling inside here.
No… there wasn't even a single infected soldier.
The entire corridor was as silent as death; besides the flickering light bulb in the corner and occasional electrical sounds, almost no living creatures existed.
Everyone felt as if they had been instantly transported from a noisy market to a silent, cold bamboo forest in the dark of night, a terrifying and suffocating aura rising naturally.
After all, the situation here was too bizarre.
Just now, there were so many infected soldiers chasing them, but here it was incredibly quiet, not even a single person.
It was very abnormal, as if all living creatures had been completely erased.
And compared to this explanation, Javier and Leon and the others recalled another, more reasonable explanation: this area was actually the territory of another type of monster.
Because stronger monsters possess territorial awareness; they do not allow other species to enter their territory, and once they do, they will be directly annihilated and eaten.
This situation had once occurred in the Raccoon City police station; occasionally, an area would appear where not a single zombie was present.
Later, when Leon discovered the naked, blood-red lizard monster hanging from the ceiling, Leon understood… that was the Licker's territory!
Lickers evolving from zombies gradually gain territorial awareness, and as monsters stronger than zombies, they eat almost anything, including their own kind, human brains, zombie heads—they accept them all.
And the zombies, fearing being eaten by the Lickers, dared not enter that territorial area, which then formed the empty, eerie clearings.
And the situation before them… seemed to be the same as a Licker's territorial area.
At this moment, Javier and Leon had perhaps already entered the territory of the Regenerator—!
Chapter 86: Regenerator
"…"
"I suspect the reason it's so quiet here is that it's the Regenerator's exclusive territory, and because Regenerators have a unique territorial awareness, they've driven all the surrounding infected soldiers away.
Of course, it might not just be driving them away; it's also possible they've eaten them all…"
As Leon felt the deathly silence around him, he couldn't help but tighten his grip on his M16 assault rifle and spoke in a deep voice to Javier and Luis behind him.
After all, he had encountered this situation before at the Raccoon City police station, and it was very familiar to him, basically not surprising.
Of course… that being said, it was undoubtedly a very troublesome thing to be highly vigilant and watch out for Regenerators lurking in the dark, ready to ambush at any time.
"Territorial awareness?"
"Have Regenerators already been released…?"
Listening to Leon's intuitive explanation, Luis frowned slightly.
He had initially acted with a hopeful mindset.
Although Regenerators were terrifying, Luis did not believe they had already escaped from their containers.
After all, he had sealed the Regenerator's containers very well before leaving.
Of course… this didn't rule out the possibility of other infected soldiers with itchy hands breaking the glass containers.
Thinking of this, Luis couldn't help but feel a pang of annoyance.
He really didn't want to face the Regenerator, the monster he had personally created, but now it seemed… this was almost inevitable.
"No need to be too nervous," Javier quickly said to ease the tension.
At the same time, he put the thermal imager on his forehead and pulled down the monocular lens, focusing it with his left eye while using his right eye for aiming.
This way, he could operate both simultaneously.
"Buzz…!"
Pressing the activation button, the thermal imager began to function.
The layout of the Institute corridor was clearly displayed in Javier's left eye, and all creatures in the darkness could not escape Javier's capture.
Because once a creature appeared, a heat reaction would occur, and that bright red, yellow, and green thermal energy was very conspicuous, with nowhere to hide in the cold, overall dark blue environment.
Seeing Javier standing at the very front and starting to use the thermal imager to scout, everyone's tense mood indeed relaxed considerably.
After adjusting their emotions slightly, everyone hesitated no longer and plunged deeper into the Institute.
After all, there was no turning back; besides continuing to explore deeper, there was simply no other option.
And Luis kept guiding the way from behind Javier.
"Thump, thump, thump…"
The entire Institute corridor was truly silent, with only the footsteps of Javier and his companions echoing.
This atmosphere was very eerie.
And because the power was cut off, the available light sources in the entire Institute were very limited; almost the entire corridor was pitch black, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.
Fortunately, the M16 assault rifle provided by the Merchant was equipped with a small flashlight for illumination.
Otherwise, let alone Regenerators, even if they tripped over something on the way, all six of them would be scared half to death.
However, even so, the effect of the small flashlight was not obvious; it was still a drop in the bucket in the vast, pitch-black corridor, and it inexplicably added a few elements of horror.
It was a bit like the ghost-hunting segment in a horror movie, where evil spirits would emerge from some corner to scare people.
"It's too dark here."
"Javier, I think we should go to the power control room on the left first and turn on the power to restore the lights in the corridor.
Otherwise, if we continue like this, I'm afraid we'll really be startled by anything we see due to our nerves being too tense.
And this state of concentrated focus is really exhausting; I feel like my legs are already giving out."
Lightly placing his hand on Javier's shoulder, Luis haphazardly shined the flashlight from his M16 assault rifle.
This was supposed to be his most familiar environment, but due to the release of the Regenerators, it had become incredibly unfamiliar and chaotic.
He feared that a Regenerator was hiding in some corner, ready to claim his life.
Therefore, out of helplessness, Luis could only propose going to turn on the power first, rather than continuing to grope in the dark towards his laboratory.
Luis's nerves truly couldn't handle that.
And facing this suggestion, Leon and the others also expressed strong agreement.
After all, there was no other way; as Luis described, concentrating on the dark corners around them for a long time would truly lead to nervous exhaustion.
They would be startled by anything, and most importantly, it was indeed very physically demanding.
After only walking a short distance, Leon's forehead was already covered in sweat.
He not only had to be wary of Regenerator ambushes but also constantly worried about Ashley's safety.
The double pressure of physical and mental exhaustion caused great harm to Leon.
He also couldn't bear it anymore.
They say that tormenting a person's spirit is the most painful, not merely tormenting their body.
Leon finally understood this saying today—!
"Alright, then let's go turn on the power first…"
Upon hearing this, Javier could only ponder for a moment before slowly agreeing.
He didn't mind, but Luis and Leon seemed to be the first to be unable to bear it, so they could only turn halfway and run towards the nearby power control room.
However, it was fine if they didn't run, but as soon as they did, something very bizarre suddenly happened.
"Thump…!"