Watching Leon's figure completely vanish at the end of the corridor, Lear slid both pistols steadily back into his waist holsters and turned, preparing to head for the Parking lot.
Lear wasn't worried about Leon's safety. Even though Leon was currently in his green, "rookie" phase, Leon S. Kennedy was still Leon S. Kennedy; his combat prowess was guaranteed. The slow-moving remaining zombies in the Police Station, combined with any potential surviving Lickers, couldn't possibly pose a substantial threat to him.
What concerned Lear most right now was confirming whether Irons was dead. Actually, Irons' life or death was inconsequential in itself, but he had suddenly remembered that Raymond had set a booby trap at the door of the room where Irons was being held.
If the booby trap had already been triggered, then fine—everything would proceed according to the script he had designed. But if the booby trap was still active, things could get a bit troublesome.
Leon and Claire were formidable in combat, but at the end of the day, they were still two green rookies. Lear didn't dare bet on whether they possessed "protagonist shields" like they did in the game plot. If one of them were to get taken out here, the consequences would be hard to imagine.
According to the original route in the game plot, Leon would have to take a long, winding detour through the interior of the Police Station to reach the Parking lot. However, Lear chose to circle around directly from outside the police station.
Just as he was about to step out of the Police Station Lobby, an anxious, crisp female shout suddenly came from outside the closed iron gates.
"Hey! Is anyone there? Leon! Are you there?"
Hearing the voice, Lear immediately opened the main doors. He saw a girl with short brownish-red hair, wearing a red casual jacket, pounding hard on the iron gate. Behind her stood a blonde woman with a gentle temperament.
"Thank God, there's still someone alive! Hello, could you please open the gate?" Seeing him, the girl in red immediately called out for help.
Lear walked to the gate and sized up the two women as he pulled the iron gate open. The one knocking was undoubtedly Claire, but he didn't know who the blonde woman was.
Without waiting for the gate to open fully, the girl in red pulled the blonde woman along as they quickly ducked into the Police Station front yard. "Thank you so much! My name is Claire Redfield, and this is Alyssa."
Lear locked the gate and turned to take a focused look at Alyssa before speaking. "Hello, I'm Lear, an officer with the R.P.D. Leon was just with me, and I've heard him mention you."
At the mention of Leon's name, Claire's eyes lit up.
"Leon? He's already here? That's great! I knew he'd be okay."
Lear wasn't surprised by Claire's appearance; the two of them were supposed to arrive at the Raccoon City Police Department one after the other anyway. But the name Alyssa made him wonder privately: why was she here?
Seeing Lear looking at her, Alyssa generously extended her hand toward him.
"Hello, Alyssa Ashcroft. I'm a reporter."
Lear reached out to give her hand a light squeeze and said in a joking tone, "I recognize you. You're a star reporter. Hello there, celebrity."
Alyssa gave a bitter smile. "In a situation like this, there's no such thing as a star reporter anymore. I'm just someone struggling to survive among a heap of zombies." Claire noticed Alyssa's low spirits and leaned in close to Lear, whispering in a low voice.
"I met her outside the bar. Her companions all..."
She didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was self-evident. Lear understood instantly and made a guess as to what had happened; this was undoubtedly the butterfly effect triggered by his arrival.
Kevin Ryman, who was supposed to have gone to the bar, and the bar staff Cindy Lennox had both followed Raymond and evacuated early. This caused the survival team that was supposed to meet after the virus outbreak to fail to assemble. It seemed that some people from the original story had failed to escape the clutches of the zombies.
After hearing Claire's words, Lear gave Alyssa an apologetic smile.
Alyssa shook her head gently, her gaze becoming firm once more.
"It's alright, Officer Lear. The dead are gone. For now, I still have to work hard to survive. I want to get out alive and expose the demonic actions of Umbrella."
Lear nodded inwardly. As expected of a woman who could survive until Resident Evil 9; this level of self-regulation was far beyond that of an average person.
The three of them then walked into the Police Station Lobby together. Claire's footsteps faltered as she looked at the wreckage in the Main Hall, especially when she saw the massive, hideous corpse in the corner with a severed arm impaled through its chest. She hesitated for a moment before she couldn't help but ask.
"Um... Officer Lear, what exactly happened here? That... what exactly is that thing?"
Lear followed her gaze to the corpse in the corner and shook his head slightly. "Sorry, I'm not entirely sure about the specifics. According to Jill, it's a Bio Organic Weapon secretly developed by Umbrella Corporation, code-named Tyrant."
He paused for a moment and continued, "The thing broke in from outside. I had no choice but to take him down. After a bit of a struggle, the Main Hall ended up looking like this."
"You mean... you killed this monster?" Claire's eyes widened instantly as she pointed at the Tyrant's corpse in disbelief.
Lear nodded, his tone flat. "Yeah. The thing was certainly difficult to deal with. It took quite a lot of effort to finish it off."
Hearing Lear's humblebrag, Claire remained silent for a long time, unable to find words.
Alyssa, on the other hand, walked silently to the side of the Tyrant's corpse. She crouched down to carefully examine its deformed, hideous body. After a moment, she pulled a camera from her pocket and began rapidly taking photos of the corpse.
"As expected of a star reporter, still so dedicated even at a time like this," Lear said in a joking tone as he walked over to Alyssa, seeing that Claire hadn't responded.
"It's not for work—at least not entirely." Alyssa didn't even look up, her finger repeatedly pressing the shutter. Her voice was calm. "The atrocities committed by Umbrella must be known to the world. This evidence must be brought to light."
Looking at her back, Lear couldn't help but sigh softly. "That's too difficult, and you should know that. As long as those at the top want to suppress this, no matter what you say or how much evidence you produce, it won't matter. You'll be silenced, or you might even vanish without a trace."
As he spoke, Alyssa finished her photography. She slowly put away her camera and turned to look directly at Lear, her eyes calm.
"Should I give up just because it's hard? Officer Lear, when the police are hunting a criminal, do they let them go free just because they're hard to catch?" Her voice was firm, emphasizing every word. "The reason I became a reporter was to let everyone see the truth. Even if it costs me my life, I won't back down."
Lear looked quietly at the woman before him. When Alyssa spoke those words, there wasn't a hint of fear in her eyes, only an obsession with the truth and the courage to face death at any moment.
For someone like her, who held fast to their original intentions and remained unswerving and uncompromising, Lear would always hold a sense of respect in his heart.
(Translated by yourtl.app)