RE - Chapter 276: A Dream in a Jar (Patreon)

“The results... are good. Increase the dosage... Be careful... don’t make...”

Where... am I?

Alan’s vision was a blur. He could barely make out pale green bubbles constantly rising in front of him.

Seeing the liquid surrounding him, he struggled to raise a hand and tried to push himself out, only for his palm to meet the glass wall of the container.

Alan tried to see what was happening outside, but he couldn’t.

His eyelids barely seemed able to open, and his muscles felt completely drained of strength.

The people outside the container seemed to notice his movement.

“Still the same... What...

“Doesn’t matter... Give her... the inhibitor.”

What?

Alan clearly sensed something being added to the liquid through an inlet at the top of the container.

As the resulting currents swirled around him, Alan tried to struggle, only to suddenly lose control of his body.

With lingering anger, his arm slowly dropped.

His eyes closed, and he sank into unconsciousness.

“...The inhibitor is working.”

“What incredible vitality.”

Victor stared excitedly at the adult female clone inside the culture chamber.

“How many times has this happened now?!”

“Four. It happens every time we inject fresh blood.

“And each time, the memory capacity in her hippocampus becomes saturated again.”

Victor nodded and brought up the monitoring panel.

“But there’s one thing we still can’t figure out. Part of the memory is always missing.

“It never forms a complete sequence. Instead, the memories seem to be imprinted in disconnected sections, almost like parallel circuits.”

“If only we had more than just blood. Cerebrospinal fluid, for example.”

“You’re right... If we had that, we might be able to complete the clone’s memories.”

Victor slowly sat down and organized his thoughts.

A year had passed since Alan’s first consultation.

During that time, Victor had brought him back for three more rounds of treatment.

At this point, he had practically exhausted every excuse he could come up with.

Alan wasn’t an idiot. If Victor kept this up...

If necessary, he would have to dilute the blood and divide the experiments into smaller batches with more frequent trials.

Cerebrospinal fluid was still far too dangerous.

That was what Victor thought.

He never imagined that one day, the very thing he wanted would practically deliver itself to his doorstep.

...

Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe, inside the ruins of a building.

Alan’s eyes snapped open beneath a pile of rubble, his chest heaving rapidly.

Once his senses returned, he planted his right hand against the ground and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

Chunks of debris caught in his gear tumbled off as he moved, scattering across the floor and stirring up a thin cloud of dust.

Alan looked around while rubbing his temple, then headed toward a passage that had been blasted open.

His equipment clattered with every step until he finally stopped.

“...Still ended up getting him killed.”

As his senses gradually cleared, Alan stared silently at the destroyed equipment and shattered remains of the facility, feeling somewhat helpless.

This time, Hunnigan had sent him to Europe on an arrest mission. The target was a researcher working under Wesker.

The mission had originally been assigned to the BSAA, but Alan had taken it over because he hoped capturing the researcher ahead of schedule would expose Project Uroboros sooner.

The sooner they could deal with it, the better.

After all, Alan had no idea whether the current Chris could still punch a boulder around like he did in the game, or whether the transport plane loaded with the Uroboros Virus would still crash-land inside a volcano.

What Alan hadn’t expected was that the researcher, despite looking physically frail, had plenty of nerve.

He had shut down the facility, released toxic gas containing the T-Virus, and activated the self-destruct system.

He intended to take Alan down with him.

Well...

He almost succeeded.

Alan had been lucky enough not to be standing directly at the center of the explosion.

That didn’t mean he’d come out unscathed.

After inhaling the T-Virus-laced gas, he immediately felt changes beginning inside his body.

At least he had survived Raccoon City and already carried a certain amount of antibodies against the virus, so he wasn’t going to mutate that easily.

Then, without warning, a memory that didn’t belong to him appeared in his mind.

The pain nearly split his skull apart.

The next moment, he collapsed and lost consciousness.

And then came that strange yet vivid dream from earlier.

He had dreamed about it many times before, but never this clearly.

Liquid.

A glass container...

Had he become some kind of canned teenager?

Damn it. Just thinking about it made his head hurt again...

Alan braced one hand against the ruins and took a moment to steady himself.

At the same time, the virus inside his body continued interfering with his mind.

“I need to get out of here...”

Alan forced himself away from the wall and hurried toward the building’s exit.

By then, Hunnigan had already been frantic after losing contact with him for two hours. The moment she learned that the building had exploded, she immediately contacted a nearby BSAA squad and sent them to assist.

She had considered contacting Leon as well, but remembered that he was away on another mission.

She had no choice but to give up on the idea.

“...Nest, this is Saber-tooth. Come in.”

“! This is Nest. Thank God you’re all right!”

“Ha... I wouldn’t exactly say I’m all right. I need some T-Virus antibodies.

“And seal off the surrounding area. The toxic gas is still spreading.”

“Understood. A nearby BSAA squad is already on its way. They’re carrying viral antibodies.”

“Good. Saber-tooth out.”

Alan ended the transmission and sat down on a section of rubble well away from the toxic gas, waiting for the BSAA to arrive.

Only when the silhouettes of several vehicles appeared at the far end of the road did he finally relax.

“Cough, cough... Seriously. Turtles move faster than you guys.”

The black armored vehicles kicked up clouds of dust as they sped down the road.

Eventually, they stopped in front of Alan.

“Holy shit, Winter?!”

Parker threw open the door and jumped out, staring in shock at Alan sitting on the ground nearby.

“Hey, Supervisor Parker. Get promoted?”

“Thanks to you. Maybe you should be calling me ‘sir’ now?”

“Sorry. Your rank’s still too low.”

The corner of Parker’s mouth twitched.

Would it kill you not to show off for once?

“I never expected you to be with the government.

“No wonder you suddenly disappeared back then.”

Alan weakly waved a hand.

“Got any serum? For the T-Virus.”

“Yeah. Here.”

Parker pulled a pre-portioned vial of antibody serum from a pouch at his waist, crouched down, and handed it over.

Alan took it and immediately injected it into his neck.

His entire body gave a slight shudder.

Only when the skin on his arm gradually regained its normal color did he finally relax completely.

“Have your people seal off this entire area first, especially anywhere near the forest. Don’t let any animals get in.

“You know how quickly a virus can spread through wildlife.”

“You really are something. You’re in this condition and you’re still giving orders.”

“Captain, relax. We’ve improved a lot since Terragrigia. We’re not rookies who need you worrying about us anymore.”

Alan looked over when he heard that.

That face looked really familiar...

He couldn’t remember him.

“Is that so? Sounds like you guys have gotten pretty capable. Go on, then.

“I’ll be fine after resting for a while.”

“You still haven’t told me your real name.”

If Parker hadn’t seen that Alan was injured, he would have seriously considered putting him in a headlock.

When Alan had disappeared back then, Parker had genuinely worried that, because he had no one backing him, someone had quietly made him disappear.

He had worried about it for quite a while.

Turns out he had been worried for nothing.

The bastard was practically the definition of having connections.

Seeing Parker’s expression, which clearly said another lie would earn him some hands-on education, Alan finally relented.

“All right. My fault.

“Let’s introduce ourselves again. I’m Alan Han.”