Chapter 512: with translation of chapter title

Driving?

Leon, who had just regained his composure, quickly gripped the steering wheel, and his right foot lightly pressed the brake to avoid skidding on the wet road from sudden braking.

However, when the speed had completely slowed down…

A faint 'boom...' sound rang out, and the Jeep Leon was driving stalled as its speed dropped below five kilometers per hour??

Could it be that his physical condition is affecting the vehicle??

Leon couldn't help asking himself silently.

But after he fully recovered from the inexplicable coma and inexplicable awakening, Leon realized that the Jeep he was driving was a manual transmission; otherwise, it would stall when only braking, because his left foot wasn't pressing the clutch.

But at this moment, Leon's focus is not on the manual transmission, clutch, or stalling, but on whether he is now in a dream? an illusion? or some other dimension?

Originally, he was standing in a simple house, witnessing the sudden appearance of bloody and red light, and arguing with Rum who wanted to persuade him to leave; unexpectedly, in less than a blink of an eye, he 'transmigrated' here.

Immediately afterward, Leon observed himself through the rearview mirror, and this look made him wear an expression of disbelief.

What he saw in the rearview mirror was still Leon with blond side-parted hair, handsome features, and unusually youthful, except that his attire was a special combat uniform mainly in dark blue and navy blue, with the words 'R. P. D. (Raccoon City Police Department)' printed on his chest.

Raccoon City Police Department?

After graduating from university, the first Jeep he bought, plus before reporting to the police station, his university girlfriend chose to break up with him, giving him a fresh memory of a rainy-day hangover, and so on—these details were linked together…

Leon couldn't help speculating that he might be in Raccoon City in 1998.

But after the breakup, he drank a bit too much and ended up sleeping all day, failing to arrive at the Raccoon City Police Department on time as scheduled.

After that, he met Sui Bian, and thus began his career as an intelligence officer spanning over two hundred years.

In his memory, when he was preparing to drive to Raccoon City, the weather had already cleared up, and he had no experience of driving there in the rain.

Of course, this timeline and everything else could be an illusion fabricated by the abnormal phenomenon or creature that spoke those incomprehensible words to him, based on his memories.

Most importantly, after some analysis, Leon could be certain that his physical body remained in the camp in Sri Lanka, while everything he saw before him was merely a dream.

That abnormal creature could very well be attempting to destroy his will through the dream, thereby achieving some kind of assimilation or corruption.

Want to corrupt him?

Leon won't give a outright denial, because such talk will only end up being slapped in the face by madness, but he has enough confidence, more than enough experience, and will gladly fight the abnormal trash that dares to toy with him, while also seeking a way to escape the dream.

Stabilize his mind, clear his thoughts.

Having set his goal, Leon reached out with his right hand to the outside of his thigh and drew from the holster the long-unseen 'old partner,' a VP70 (Matilda) pistol made by HK, 9mm, magazine capacity eighteen rounds, capable of three-round burst.

This VP70 had accompanied him for many years; even after he became an intelligence officer for Umbrella and obtained a more powerful, reliable pulse pistol, Leon habitually kept it as a sidearm, only fully retiring it and putting it away in storage in the 2010s.

He checked the weapon's condition and ammunition, confirming it was usable… at least, based on his current touch, sight, and hearing, he confirmed the VP70 could fire normally, then returned it to the holster on the outside of his thigh.

Then, Leon looked outside through the windshield constantly being washed by rain, observed briefly, and realized he should be on State Highway 70 in Colorado, possibly just past Denver.

Having estimated his position, Leon again pressed the clutch, shifted into neutral, then started the engine, but the first few gear shifts often stalled.

Although it was a dream or illusion, the simulated effect was no different from reality, which genuinely annoyed Leon, who hadn't driven a manual in two hundred years; after several attempts, he finally managed to continue forward reluctantly.

During this time, Leon kept fiddling with the radio to check whether he was alone in this dream, and whether everyone in the camp shared the same dream.

However, when he turned the knob to a new channel, that thick nasal voice, sounding as if speaking with water in the mouth, rang out again: 'Young man, submit and serve me, and I will grant you absolute power and supreme authority.'

Upon hearing those words, Leon's expression remained normal; he did not lose his sanity due to the sudden eerie whisper, nor fall into fear, let alone collapse, and he even opened his mouth with slight displeasure to complain to the radio:

'Get lost with your power and authority; I think my current position and salary are already high enough—so high I don't want to get any higher—don't give me any nonsense.'

Saying this, Leon clenched his right fist and hammered the radio hard.

That hammer blow made the abnormal, which could barely speak in fragments, fall silent.

Moreover, the abnormal no longer used whispers to tempt or lure Leon into the abyss, because this trick never works on any veteran intelligence officer, and the abnormal seemed to have realized that as well.

Afterward, Leon continued driving forward, and the pointless act of fiddling with the radio had long since stopped.

Not long after.

Leon noticed the rain gradually easing, and ahead beneath the night sky, a city outline faintly appeared.

At that moment, a large sign reading 'Welcome to Raccoon City' flashed by on the right side of the road, below which were printed a red-and-white umbrella logo and the words 'Umbrella Corporation'.

After a while.

Leon drew ever closer to Raccoon City, but he reduced the Jeep's speed, then pressed the clutch, pressed the brake, shifted into neutral, and parked with the engine running near a gas station outside the city.

In the middle of the road lay a woman wearing a white dress, prompting Leon to stop his vehicle not far away, unfasten his seatbelt, open the car door, step out, unfasten the holster snap with his right hand, and approach cautiously to inspect.

Anyone else?

Leon does not rule out the possibility that others have also 'transmigrated' into this dream.

As for the woman's dress, which is unsuitable for desert operations, Leon didn't dwell on it, since he himself is still wearing an R. P. D. uniform, and she might have encountered a similar situation.

He approached cautiously, staying alert, and asked, 'Ma'am, are you alright?'

'Uh,' upon hearing Leon's question, she let out a long groan and struggled to her feet.

?

Noticing the woman's abnormality, Leon immediately halted and drew his pistol from the holster, pointing the barrel at the head of the woman who had risen to stand upright.

When the woman turned her body and revealed her face, Leon saw that her skin was deathly pale, as if blistered from water, the right half of her face torn apart, her lifeless eyes exposed, utterly grotesque and nauseating.

Most importantly, this woman, clearly already dead, held her arms outstretched and staggered toward Leon with a shambling gait.

If it were an ordinary person in the early twenty-first century alone here, they might lose their sanity due to the Uncanny Valley Effect, and some with weaker psychological resilience could even collapse outright.

But with a 'bang~!!' gunshot and a 'thud,' the woman who should have been dead fell again, completely losing all movement.

Looking closely, there was a dark, index-finger-sized bullet hole in the woman's forehead.

It turned out that Leon had pulled the trigger the instant he saw the woman's face, sending a 9mm bullet flying out, piercing her rotted, ruined skin and skull.

After her brain matter was mangled beyond recognition, the woman finally died in the true sense.

Leon was long accustomed to such a sight, and he clearly understood that the woman was a corpse infected by an unknown microorganism, merely acting on instinct.

Just a zombie.

However, it cannot be ruled out that she was a living corpse controlled by the abnormal's released Spiritual Energy, magic, or sorcery; but regardless, years of experience have taught Leon that a headshot is the best option.

"Bang!"

He fired two more shots to confirm the situation.

Seeing that the zombie was completely still, Leon immediately turned his attention and gaze to the surroundings, and noticed more and more tattered-clothed, rotting-skinned zombies surging onto the street, trying to surround and devour him.

Seeing this, Leon remained calm and easily shot the zombies nearest to him and the Jeep in the head, then quickly returned to the driver's seat.

He pressed the clutch, shifted gears, and drove away from the suburban gas station, also distancing himself from the horde of zombies that were gradually closing in, arms outstretched toward him and the Jeep, groaning with hunger.

Inside the car.

Leon focused his attention on the road ahead and to the sides; the further he went, the more complex the urban buildings and streets became, and the number of zombies kept rising.

At that moment, Leon noticed that the originally pitch-black sky was almost instantly shrouded in a layer of red light, as if the sky above Raccoon City had been ignited and lit up.

Although he couldn't immediately determine what the sky anomaly signified, the bright sky did give him good visibility.

Soon, Leon saw a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with its engine running parked outside a fast-food restaurant on the left side of the street.

?

This discovery made Leon drive the Jeep to stop behind the Harley, confirm that the surrounding zombies were far enough to pose no immediate threat, then quickly get out and draw his VP70 from its holster.

He approached the fast-food restaurant.

Through the glass window, Leon saw a woman with her hair tied in a high ponytail, wearing black leather shorts and a leather jacket, plus a red sleeveless vest, panicking and backing away repeatedly; in front of her was a zombie with fresh blood dripping from its mouth.

Looking at this scene, Leon couldn't tell whether the woman was like him, with her physical body lying in a camp at the black mountain peak while her consciousness was 'imprisoned' in this illusion.

However, Leon was certain of one thing: the zombie had to die, so he pushed the door open and steadily rushed into the fast-food restaurant.

!!

This action immediately caught the woman's attention, and she turned to face Leon, allowing him to get a clear look at her appearance...

She looks like a female college student at first glance, having hardly experienced society's cruelty; her clear eyes still hold a hint of panic.

But Leon felt the woman before him was somewhat familiar, though he couldn't place it at the moment.

"Don't shoot!" the woman exclaimed, quickly raising her hands to show she posed no threat.

"Get down!" Leon shouted immediately.

Hearing this, the woman hesitated not at all and dropped into a crouch, giving Leon an excellent shooting angle.

"Bang!" went the gunshot.

"Thud." The headshot zombie collapsed.

Having dealt with that threat, Leon, now in combat mode, felt his instinct tell him to glance behind with his peripheral vision—only to see the previously empty street now swarming with hundreds of zombies.

"Out the back door!"

Leon warned the woman who had already risen to her feet, then sprinted quickly toward the back kitchen.

!

The woman had no time to respond, let alone think further; she followed Leon's path, rushing through the smoke-filled back kitchen and out of the fast-food restaurant.

She stepped out.

First thing she saw was a dark alley; Leon, meanwhile, cleared the few zombies blocking the alley's entrance, swapped in a fresh magazine, and stowed the old one with its remaining rounds in his waist pouch.

Next, the woman continued following Leon out of the alley and ran to a police car still ablaze, dove straight into the passenger seat, shut the door, and fastened her seatbelt.

Leon, who had taken the driver's seat a few seconds before the woman, glanced at the rear seat as he closed the door.

Sure enough, that simple check revealed a zombie officer lying in the back seat, wearing a white shirt and already transformed.

Then, without hesitation, Leon raised his gun and fired a shot into the zombie officer's head, after which he holstered his VP70, gripped the steering wheel, and drove the automatic police car toward downtown Raccoon City.

Once the police car entered the main road and the zombies seemed no longer a threat, the woman, her voice trembling slightly, ventured: "You… are a policeman, right?"

But hearing that, Leon frowned, forced a reply: "That's right—if I count, I've only been a cop for a day."

"Hah…" the woman exhaled, unaware Leon was slowing the car, and remarked, "I really don't know what's happened to this city. I'm Claire, Claire Redfield. What's your name?"

??

Upon learning the woman's full name, Leon finally realized why she seemed familiar—she was Chris's sister!

Immediately afterward, Leon pulled the police car over to the side of the road, then, under Claire's bewildered gaze, released his seatbelt, drew his VP70 from its holster again, kept a safe distance, aimed at her head, and demanded in a low voice:

"Tell me, how do I end this dream."

"What the hell?! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Claire"'s emotions instantly spiraled out of control; she couldn't hold back and burst into curses, clearly not understanding what Leon was saying.

But…

"Bang!"—the gunshot suddenly rang out inside the police car.

(End of chapter)