RE - Chapter 346: Looking Your Best Before You Die (Patreon)

“...Holy shit.”

The three were halfway down the corridor when a violent tremor running through the entire freighter forced them to stop.

Even the monster chasing them had to halt in place.

The shock from the engine room explosion traveled through the hull, and the surrounding steel framework began to groan with deep, grinding noises.

The freighter swayed from side to side on the ocean, and Alan and the others, all the way down on the lowest deck, felt it more strongly than anyone.

“Looks like something unexpected happened.”

“ROAR!”

Alan glanced back at the monster and started running again. “Now’s not the time to worry about that. We need to deal with this thing first!”

“The incineration room is just ahead!”

And just like that, the ridiculous chase started all over again.

“...I knew it!”

Leon stared at the dead control panel outside the incineration room and groaned.

“I’ll get the power on. You two hold it off!”

Chris immediately took off, leaving Alan and Leon to turn and face the monster.

“If you ask me, it’s not actually that scary, right?”

Leon drew his knife and held it in a forward grip as he glanced at Alan.

Alan did not exactly agree, but as he drew his own knife, he replied, “At least it hasn’t evolved yet.”

The two stood there with knives in hand, facing the monster. For a moment, it almost felt like they were back in Spain.

Unfortunately, they were missing a knight and a red-clad agent.

Oh, and Princess Señorita.

“Come on, ugly!”

Apparently, Leon insulted it a little too harshly. The moment the words left his mouth, a swarm of tentacles shot straight at him.

Alan had no intention of standing around. He sliced apart the tentacles reaching for Leon and pushed straight toward the monster’s core.

Then another tentacle suddenly shot out from inside its body and slammed into him, sending him flying. Alan used the momentum to twist through the air and land back beside Leon.

Even while keeping his eyes on the monster, he had to rub his aching chest with his free left hand.

Leon slashed again and again, severing tentacles and sending them dropping to the floor.

“You must be every seafood buffet owner’s worst nightmare... Damn it, is this unlimited refills?!”

Alan drove a front kick into the creature at the same moment Leon lunged in with one of his own.

Together, they sent the monster skidding nearly 250 meters backward. Even its tentacles froze for a split second.

“You’re twenty thousand years too early to beat us!”

“Twenty thousand years? Is that supposed to mean something?”

Leon looked at Alan, who had raised his index and middle fingers with the back of his hand facing the monster, and frowned in confusion.

“Uh... You’d have to ask Ultraman Zero.”

“Huh?”

While the two were talking, the monster recovered and lunged again.

Just as they braced themselves, a light suddenly came on behind them.

“Looks like Chris got it working.”

“Then let’s give this thing one last round!”

The monster’s tentacles shot toward them like missiles, forcing both men to retreat and dodge.

Before the tentacles had even pulled back, the creature itself charged into Alan.

Its hideous face and foul stench filled his vision as tentacles wrapped around him from every direction.

Alan was slammed against the incinerator hatch behind him, narrowly avoiding smashing the back of his head into the metal.

“I’m a little curious how you eat people, but I sure as hell don’t want a firsthand demonstration! Leon, open the door!!”

Leon immediately abandoned what he was doing and rushed to the control panel.

The moment he pressed the button, the pressure valve on the hatch behind Alan hissed loudly, and the locking mechanism released.

With a heavy metallic grind, the hatch opened and the monster toppled backward into the incineration room, dragging Alan with it.

The instant his feet left the ground, Alan drove his knife into the creature’s side and ripped the blade across its flesh. At the same time, he twisted his body in midair, turning the fall so that he landed in a neutral position instead of underneath it.

He hit the floor with a heavy thud. Half his ass felt like it was splitting open, but he had no time to care. He immediately surged forward again and forced the monster beneath him.

Alan glanced at the tentacles still wrapped around his body and sneered.

“Pretty clingy, aren’t you?”

He reversed his grip, lined the blade up with the glowing core in the monster’s chest, and stabbed down with all his strength.

His knife plunged deep alongside Leon’s, which was still embedded in the core.

“GRAAAH!!!”

The tentacles snapped back toward the creature’s body, giving Alan the opening he needed to pull free and jump to his feet.

The monster thrashed wildly on the floor, but its misshapen hands were useless for pulling the knives out.

“Leon, start it!”

“Got it. Barbecue time!”

Leon hit the incinerator controls. Countless nozzles immediately extended from the chamber walls, and the air pressure inside suddenly dropped.

Alan did not hesitate. The hatch was already closing automatically, so he darted through the narrowing gap.

Click.

The hatch sealed shut.

Heat gathered at the nozzles. The instant it reached the threshold, blazing red flames erupted from every side.

Dozens of jets of fire converged inside the incineration room, bathing Alan and Leon’s faces in a red glow through the glass.

As for the monster inside, it was practically dancing with joy.

“Alan, Leon.”

Chris finally caught up. He looked at the creature flailing inside the flames and raised an eyebrow.

“Looks like I’m late.”

“Yep. Shame it didn’t get to taste your fists.”

“That’s fine. Wesker will.”

The firelight had not even faded from their faces before the three were moving again.

“I found a map on the way back. I’ve already memorized it.”

“So...”

“Yeah. We can go find those bastards hiding from us.”

...

Inside the laboratory, a group of bastards was waiting on high alert.

“What was that just now?”

Excella asked from safely behind everyone else.

One of the researchers forced himself to stay calm. “It had to be that monster making all that noise!”

“You mean the Uroboros test subject?”

Irving frowned from nearby. “Even if the test subject is powerful, it shouldn’t be strong enough to shake the entire freighter... right?”

The room fell silent.

“Maybe... it evolved?”

“Right. That’s possible. Our research on it isn’t complete. Anything could happen.”

The group huddled behind the armed guards, desperately reassuring one another.

“...Oh no. Oh no! Someone’s outside the door!”

“What?!”

A researcher who had been staring at the security monitor swallowed hard and pointed at the three men on-screen, who were currently staring right back at the camera.

It was Alan and the others.

“You know, we’ve broken into a lot of bases, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone put a security camera right outside the lab door.”

“Maybe they’re insecure?”

“Hmm. In that case, you’d think they would’ve set up better defenses.”

Excella, who was listening to every word, felt her face heat up.

There was a simple reason for that.

She was the one who had arranged the freighter’s security.

Wesker had taken control of the ship, but all his attention had gone into the laboratory and the external defenses. He had barely asked about internal security at all.

Even when Excella brought it up herself, Wesker had always acted like it did not matter.

“What do we do now?”

“Relax. They can’t get in.”

“Hmm. They definitely think we can’t get in.”

“This lab is... Wait. What did he just say?”

Alan rubbed his hands together and began pulling the tools he had prepared from his backpack.

“All right, everyone. Fix your clothes and make yourselves presentable. If you don’t do it now, you’re going to look pretty awful when you die.”