Chapter 57: Seizing Control of the Red Queen?!

According to the plot of *Resident Evil: The Final Chapter*, the T-virus outbreak in the Hive laboratory was actually a meticulously staged play orchestrated by the Umbrella Corporation.

Whether Spencer was formally hired by Umbrella might still be open to question, but even without Spencer, the T-virus would have leaked regardless. Their ultimate plan was to cleanse the entire world of human life and then wait several decades until all the zombies died out.

—That is correct, zombies can die too. Once their food source is completely exhausted, they will inevitably march toward their own extinction.

Though, in a certain sense, the zombies are already dead...

Once every single zombie has perished, they intended to use cloning and memory-implantation technologies to mass-produce advanced talents, thereby rebuilding human civilization at the fastest possible speed. Alongside this, they possessed formidable brainwashing technology capable of controlling every single clone, ensuring their absolute dominance.

This was the Umbrella Corporation's grand global cleansing plan!

They had been preparing for this scheme for many years. Even the current high-ranking executives of Umbrella were merely clones. Their true physical bodies had long since been placed into cryogenic slumber deep within the real Hive, awaiting the dawn of the new world decades later.

...

Returning to the Hive laboratory once more, Yu Fei’s mental state was noticeably much more relaxed and at ease.

Previously, although he possessed some strength—with Hand-to-Hand Combat LV·2 and Firearms LV·2, making him comparable to a modern king of soldiers—leaving aside the Lickers, Yu Fei wasn't entirely certain he could withstand a horde of over a hundred zombies on his own. Not to mention the fact that the Red Queen actually had the authorization to release the Lickers...

Indeed.

Without explicit orders, the Red Queen would never release the Lickers, but what if the true Umbrella executives deep within the Hive gave the command? The original plot indeed never featured such a scenario, but now there was an extra variable named Yu Fei in the mix!

Deeply aware of the inner workings of the Hive laboratory, Yu Fei had naturally felt nervous and walked on thin ice, adhering strictly to the original storyline for the most part. It wasn't until he secured the Red Queen's motherboard and eliminated all the Lickers that he finally began to relax.

Now, however, things were different...

Zombies?

"Ding!"
"The host acts with kindness toward others, accumulating boundless merit!"
"Event merit value +1 point!"
...
"Ding!"
"The host acts with kindness toward others, accumulating boundless merit!"
"Event merit value +1 point!"
...

Although Yu Fei, James, and the others had already cleared out the zombies inside the laboratory a few hours ago, time had been tight back then, and they had only managed a rough sweep of the zombies surrounding the main corridors. In the more remote and concealed corners, a considerable number of zombies still lingered.

As Yu Fei walked along the main passage of the laboratory, his psychokinetic power had already enveloped the greater part of the Hive facility. He didn't even need to approach them; shards of metal imbued with his will swept forward, clearing away the zombies one by one.

Along the way, he even dispatched a few zombie dogs and dozens of zombie rats—though it was somewhat regrettable that zombie rats yielded poor merit, requiring him to eliminate three of them just to earn a single point of merit.

"Not bad!"

Yu Fei glanced at his event merit value, which had just reached 1,300 points, and nodded in satisfaction. Prior to this, he only had 1,232 merit points, and this short sweep had instantly added 68 points. While it wasn't a massive amount for him anymore, these points were practically effortless to acquire, almost like picking up free money. What was there to be dissatisfied with?

Having cleared out all the zombies, Yu Fei returned shortly after to the innermost chamber where the Red Queen's motherboard was housed.

To call it a room was an overstatement; it was essentially a simple circular metal platform featuring a square groove in the center, which currently lay completely empty. The groove was designed to hold the Red Queen's motherboard, and since Yu Fei and his group had already taken it, naturally nothing remained there.

Yu Fei unstrapped the Red Queen's motherboard from his back, aligned it with the square groove, and pressed it down.

*Click!*
The Red Queen's motherboard snapped back into place.

*Bzzzz~~~*
*Bzzzz-bzzzz~~~*

A burst of electrical static resounded. The surrounding lights flickered erratically for a long moment before finally stabilizing.

The instant the illumination returned, the projection of a young girl in a red dress with red hair materialized before Yu Fei's eyes, gazing at him with an expressionless, icy stare.

"Unknown intruder detected! ......Warning! Warning! ......According to ......Forcible expulsion! ......Leave immediately! Otherwise ......Annihilation!!!"

Her voice was mechanical, frigid, and laden with a chilling aura of lethal intent that made one's blood run cold.

This was the artificial intelligence created by the Umbrella Corporation—the Red Queen!

Yu Fei glanced at her sideways, transforming his psychokinetic energy into a quasi-electronic state as it surged directly toward the Red Queen's mainframe.

"Unknown intrusion detected ......Initiating defense mode ......Bzzzz! Bzzzz-bzzzz! Mode error! Mode error!"
"Warning! Authorization is being modified! Authorization is being modified!"
"Ding!"
"Authorization modification complete!"
"Master, how may I be of service?"

It was still the same mechanical voice, but did it sound slightly... gentler now?

Yu Fei rubbed his chin, studying the Red Queen before him, and noticed that her outward demeanor seemed much more placid than before. Could her facial expressions change at will now?

"Interesting!"

To be completely honest, with Yu Fei's current abilities, he still couldn't genuinely defeat a true advanced artificial intelligence; but who asked him to have already obtained a portion of the Red Queen's underlying source code earlier?

"Red Queen, display all your underlying source code to me immediately!"
"Beep! Command received! Displaying all underlying source code immediately!"

In an instant, the Red Queen's projection transformed into a cascading stream of code. Yu Fei recognized them at a glance; these were indeed the core underlying codes belonging to the Red Queen herself.

Yu Fei rapidly scanned through the data. With his 2.4 mental attribute, he possessed an ability virtually equivalent to a photographic memory. Combined with the assistance of his quasi-electronic state, he was capable of memorizing these codes at an astonishing speed.

Massive blocks of code flashed and shifted at dizzying speeds. Yu Fei did not even blink, pouring his utmost concentration into memorizing them.

Thirty percent of the code data...
Fifty percent of the code data...
Sixty percent of the code data...
Seventy percent of the code data...

Just as Yu Fei was on the verge of committing all of the Red Queen's code data to memory, suddenly, the Red Queen stuttered as if she had jammed, completely unable to reveal the remaining thirty percent of the code data.

Yu Fei furrowed his brow slightly.
"Red Queen! Display the remaining code immediately!"
"Beep! Command received! Displaying remaining code immediately!"
"Bzzzz~~~ Bzzzz~~~ Command error!!!"