RE - Chapter 340: Wesker Standing Tall in the Wind (Patreon)

Chris took the transaction records and looked them over carefully.

“They didn’t even have time to destroy this. Whatever happened here must’ve been sudden.”

He stood up and looked at Sheva.

“Let’s find Jill. There might be something about Irving on that phone.”

“Got it.”

The two immediately left the building and notified the Africa branch’s logistics team to come clean up the scene.

Some time later, they met up with Jill.

Jill connected the phone to her laptop and used her hacking tools to bypass the lock screen. Once she gained access, she opened the messaging app stored on the device.

Lines of text filled the screen.

There were even numerous audio recordings.

After the three carefully went through everything, they finally pieced together the full story.

For money, the man had been helping a stranger resell large quantities of viruses. Most of his customers were local gangs.

He took a cut from every transaction. To cover his tracks, he also forged transaction records to fool the buyers.

Afterward, depending on how powerful the buyer was, he would use his recordings to extort even more money from them.

The sudden increase in the family’s income, along with her husband constantly staying out all night, eventually made his wife suspicious.

One day, she caught him making a deal with a stranger. When he immediately headed for another meeting place afterward, she secretly followed him.

The buyers spotted her.

Afraid the gang members would turn on him if they discovered the truth, the man denied that she was his wife.

So the gang members immediately forced the virus into the woman’s mouth.

They were nothing more than small-time thugs who had never dealt with anything like this before. How could they possibly understand how dangerous the virus really was?

They assumed it worked exactly as the rumors claimed and could simply be ordered around at will. They didn’t even bother issuing a command right away.

Before long, the woman turned into a Majini.

Despite selling viruses for so long, the man had never understood anything about them beyond the money they brought him.

When his seemingly normal wife approached him, he hesitated, unable to bring himself to hurt her.

Then she suddenly lunged forward and bit him.

“He brought it on himself.”

Jill stopped the recording and looked at Chris.

“This is bad. The virus may already be scattered throughout the town.”

Chris frowned at the information on the screen.

“Try to locate the places where he made his previous deals.”

“Yeah. We can use those locations to narrow down the affected area.”

While Jill worked, Sheva’s expression grew increasingly grim.

“Those damn dealers. Are they trying to infect the entire town?!”

Chris didn’t immediately answer.

He seemed to understand what they were trying to accomplish.

“They want the town to gradually turn into a gathering point for infected. That would force us to shift our attention away from investigating one merchant.”

“...Containing an outbreak would definitely take priority over chasing Irving.”

Jill’s hands finally stopped moving across the keyboard, and she cut into their conversation.

“This is worse than we thought. According to these transaction records, the virus is already all over Kobo Town.”

“How is that possible...?”

Sheva shook her head.

“We’ve been watching the town for days. Everything looked completely normal.”

Jill couldn’t argue with that.

“We didn’t notice anything unusual when we arrived either. There weren’t any infected wandering the streets.”

Chris fell silent, his expression darkening.

“What is it, Chris?”

“Is it possible we’ve already been exposed?”

Jill and Sheva immediately looked at him.

“If the virus has already been spreading through the town in secret but there still aren’t any obvious signs of infection, then it might have an incubation period.”

Both women grew serious.

Sheva eventually shook her head.

“But according to what we just found, that woman mutated almost immediately after they forced the virus into her mouth, didn’t she?”

“...You’re right.”

Jill still felt something was wrong.

She went through the transaction records again and noticed a deleted chat log.

After restoring it, everything finally clicked into place.

“Type I and Type II.”

“What?”

“There are two types. One has an incubation period of around two to three days, much like Plaga, but it can only obey commands from the parent organism. The other has no incubation period at all. It activates immediately and can respond to specific commands.”

It was still only Jill’s theory, but she was already very close to the truth.

“Damn it... Then the entire town could turn at any moment?!”

“That explains why everyone looks normal. Anyone already showing symptoms has probably been kept at home by their family to rest!”

“We need to sweep Kobo Town from top to bottom!”

“Understood!”

“Sheva, come with me. We’ll start checking houses right now.”

“Okay.”

...

“A ship’s coming in, Alan.”

“I see it.”

Leon held the binoculars with both hands and carefully studied the containers aboard the freighter.

“That makes three.”

Alan chewed his gum as he watched the cargo ship slowly approach the dock through his scope.

“Luck has to go our way eventually.”

Through the scope, Alan clearly saw several figures emerge onto the upper deck.

“Persistence pays off. Take a look at that.”

“Wesker... There’s a woman with him too?”

Leon saw Wesker suddenly turn his head in their direction and couldn’t help commenting, “He can notice us from here?”

“No way. He’s not God.”

Alan was right.

Wesker hadn’t actually spotted them.

But he could feel that someone was watching him.

It was exactly the same sensation he had experienced back at the castle.

“Wesker?”

Excella looked at Wesker, who had been staring off in one direction, and called out to him.

The hem of Wesker’s coat whipped in the wind.

“Where’s Irving?”

“He’s already inside one of the containers. We’ll bring him up.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

Wesker turned his gaze toward Excella.

“I asked whether he completed his assignment.”

Being stared at like that made goosebumps rise all over Excella’s body.

Then ask him yourself. How the hell am I supposed to know?

Of course, she couldn’t actually say that.

If she failed to answer, Wesker might very well decide she had failed to control her subordinate and throw her straight into the ocean.

So she forced herself to respond.

“He completed it. The virus has already been spread.”

“Oh. Unexpected.”

Excella hesitated, but eventually couldn’t resist asking.

“Why spread the virus around so openly? If the BSAA discovers it and develops an antidote ahead of time, wouldn’t that ruin any chance of using Plaga to control the world?”

Wesker gave a cold laugh.

“Plaga? At most, it’s merely another ancient organism like the Stairway to the Sun. You expect to rule the world with that?”

Only Spencer could come up with something so foolish.

Then, unusually, Wesker decided to explain further.

“Project Uroboros is the true objective. Everything happening now is merely a diversion.”

“So... you exposed Plaga to hide Project Uroboros?”

“Hmph. You’re not completely hopeless.”

Wesker looked at her coldly.

“In the end, I’m only doing this because I have to clean up your mess. I may not think much of the BSAA, but some of its members are still troublesome for people like you. Plaga should keep them occupied for quite some time.”

As Wesker spoke, the satisfaction in his eyes only grew.

He could already imagine the despair on Chris’s face when he personally witnessed Project Uroboros succeed.

But that would come later.

“Come, Excella. It’s time.”

“All right... But are you really going to do it yourself?”

“Those inferior humans are incapable of accepting the power of Uroboros. I’ll have to do it personally.”

“...Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Don’t worry.”

Wesker remained perfectly calm.

“I came prepared.”