Chapter 514: Exhausted, a Crimson Shadow, Indescribable

"Plop~! Thud~!"

The Tyrant, whose body weighed over a ton, collapsed helplessly and remained motionless.

Leon too had long since stayed away from the Tyrant's corpse, picked up the VP70 he had tossed far away for convenience, and then replaced its magazine with a full one.

As for the Tyrant…

Inside the skull, deformed 9mm bullet heads were already packed.

Unless it's a. 50 cal, the Tyrant's skull cannot be penetrated from the outside; thus the 9mm that entered through the eye sockets cannot exit outward, instead wildly shredding the soft brain tissue and destroying the crystal responsible for maintaining physiological functions.

Put simply, 'the brain was found inside the bullet.'

Fortunately, Leon, who was gradually unable to distinguish reality from dream, still remembered the Tyrant T-103's few weak points; otherwise he would have just been running around, evading the Tyrant T-103's attacks and pursuit.

All set.

Leon passed through the gap made by the Tyrant's collision, successfully entered the police station's front yard, then opened the wooden door and arrived at the police station hall filled with classical atmosphere and taste.

Holding his gun to confirm there was no immediate threat in the hall, Leon went straight to sit behind the front desk computer, simultaneously pulling up the police station's surveillance footage while checking how much usable ammunition he still had…

There were sixteen slug and iron sand shotgun shells left, and forty-two rounds of 9mm ammunition compatible with the VP70 and Glock.

With only this much left, if he were to encounter another zombie mob mixed with mutant individuals, he might face a situation of running out of ammo and supplies; therefore he must reach the police station's armory as quickly as possible.

Afterward, he directed his gaze onto the 'antique‑level' CRT monitor.

In the West District where the armory is located, only the reception room has four zombie officers; aside from that, there is nothing particularly noteworthy.

Moreover, the main point is that the armory's security gate is open, so there's no need to deliberately search for an access card to unlock it.

He rested briefly.

Leon raised both hands, slapped his cheeks hard to try to stay awake, and as he stood up he involuntarily shook his head and muttered:

"Heh… What legendary figure of the Intelligence Bureau can't even withstand this level of decay? I'm really getting old…"

Saying that, Leon readied his Remington, headed right, kicked open the double‑leaf wooden door, and rushed into the reception room.

"Oh… Oh…"

Just as he entered, four zombie officers raised their stiff arms and let out a low groan of "hunger".

"Boom! Click~click! Boom!"

Leon then aimed and fired, working the pump‑action bolt, and four shots blasted the heads of the four zombie officers to pieces.

"Clang~… clang~…"

Four spent red shell casings fell onto the wooden floor and bounced.

After loading four more shotgun shells, Leon flung the Remington behind him, drew the VP70 and tactical flashlight, aimed and turned on the light as he left the reception room, and proceeded to the outermost corridor of the West District.

This corridor was long and dim, the monitor also damaged; Leon heightened his vigilance, staying alert all around, and steadily advanced toward the corridor's end.

His black combat boots creaked on the loose floorboards with a shrill "ga…gee…" sound, adding to the corridor's eerie atmosphere.

Moreover, Leon found that a corridor which should have taken only a dozen seconds to traverse had taken him several minutes and still wasn't finished, as if the corridor had been infinitely extended.

Turning around, he discovered that the entrance to the reception room had vanished, replaced by the same layout as ahead: a dim corridor and an ever‑unreachable corner's end.

"."

Despite being in a space resembling a "ghost wall", Leon still furrowed his brows, without complaint or agitation.

He first stood in place, took a deep breath, silently recited the preface of《Human Truth》; as for the full text…

Under the influence of this dream, he seemed to have almost forgotten it, remembering only the opening preface—of course not because he had never memorized it from start to finish.

Then he estimated the distance from his current position to the visible end, closed his eyes, and silently counted his steps in his mind.

At the sixteenth step, Leon suddenly opened his eyes; the tactical flashlight illuminated the wall at the corridor's end, and also illuminated…

"Why did you kill me!"

A lurker bearing the face of "Claire".

All that could be seen was this mutant clinging to the wall, its blood‑filled mouth constantly oozing viscous liquid, hissing and roaring at Leon, who was right nearby.

!!!

This brief encounter made Leon's whole body shudder involuntarily, and he almost let out a scream.

However, he also instinctively twisted his body, driving his right elbow into "Claire"'s cheek.

"Bang!!"

That lurker, struck by a solid elbow blow, fell directly from the wall to the ground in front of Leon's feet.

"Hiss!!"

Meanwhile the lurker shot out a thin, blood‑colored tongue tipped with sharp barbs, apparently trying to wrap around Leon's neck and then continue with him the unfinished "intimate nibbling".

"Bang! Bang!"

But Leon, now recovered, stepped on the tongue with his right foot, aimed the gun at "Claire"'s forehead, pulled the trigger, and in an instant fired six 9mm rounds, blowing the lurker's head to pieces.

After blowing apart the opponent's head, Leon, still shaken, fired three more shots, then kicked it aside.

"..."

Looking at the lurker, Leon really wanted to curse and complain, wondering if he had somehow ended up in the horror movies his son and daughter always watch.

It was precisely because he clearly remembered Tina and Claude's childhood appearances, as well as his beloved wife Ada's various reminders, that Leon's sanity remained intact.

After experiencing a "jump‑scare"‑style interlude, Leon relied on his experience to dispel the earlier "ghost wall" state, and by turning right at the end he left that corridor filled with extreme eeriness.

He pushed open the wooden door.

And the armory with its security gate open was right opposite.

Seeing this, Leon remained cautious as he entered the armory, only after confirming everything was fine did he manually close the gate from inside, to prevent abnormal creatures from taking advantage while he was inventorying weapons and ammunition to launch a sudden attack.

Not long after.

Leon, from his usual duty uniform, became fully armed.

Inside the armory, he found three complete sets of riot gear, so he donned the torso and limb protections; to maintain good visibility, he chose not to wear the riot helmet.

At the same time, he also found several HKMP5s, an L-6 revolver-type (six-barrel) grenade launcher, many 9mm pistols, a large amount of corresponding ammunition and some flashbang and incendiary grenades, and……

A. 44 Magnum caliber Desert Eagle.

Normally, police stations wouldn't be equipped with. 44 pistols, but seeing a rack loaded with Desert Eagles, Leon knew that the Raccoon City Police Department funded by Umbrella would never follow convention.

Leon also couldn't be bothered to look into it, and immediately put the Desert Eagle into his left leg's backup holster, slung on the shotgun and grenade launcher, and loaded as much ammo, magazines, and grenades as he could, causing all his tactical packs, waist packs, and shoulder bags to bulge out.

In the end, Leon, truly "fully armed," had a load of at least around twenty-seven kilograms.

If not for considering his stamina and agility, this legendary intelligence officer would have wanted to take more, always feeling the ammunition was insufficient.

Next, he gripped the MP5, which he used as his primary weapon, with both hands and reopened the safety gate.

Leaving the equipment depot that could give him enough sense of security, Leon, following his already muddled memory, headed for the police station's underground parking lot, preparing to take the rail train to the deeper Hive Research Center.

During this, numerous mutant zombies and bioweapons produced by Umbrella blocked Leon's path, but these abnormal creatures were all dealt with by the likewise abnormal phenomenon "Li San'guang".

You should know that Leon, when the Sui Bian faction had just been founded, was on par with Death Hank and Chris, and even stronger in some fields as the "Abnormal Phenomenon".

One could say that after "raiding" the armory, Leon, inside the police station, had anyone who came die, and no abnormal creature could stop his steps; and as ammunition was consumed, his load burden grew lighter, making movement and combat easier.

Most "oddly," whenever Leon expended a lot of ammunition, he could always find scattered bullets and magazines, as if intending to loot the entire police station clean.

One would suppose that the abnormality hiding in the dark, monitoring and imprisoning Leon's consciousness in dreams and illusions, perhaps also could not understand…

Why is this guy's luck so good?

It didn't take long.

Leon looped back from the west district to the lobby, then headed east toward the underground parking lot, maintaining his momentum as he charged straight into the rail‑train station beneath the police station.

Next, Leon continued downward on the rail train, finally arriving at the company facility he had been "yearning for"—the hive.

But the moment he stepped off the rail train and his feet touched the hive platform, his mind and reason were struck again by a violent impact.

Because the hive, which should have been the epitome of cleanliness, brightness, and white tones, now had walls stained with rust, and from the cracks and corners a viscous liquid kept seeping out.

What made Leon feel nauseous and uneasy was that parts of the walls and floor were covered with a fleshy‑looking fungal growth, and the fungus was dotted with eyes of various sizes that would occasionally blink, like a rash.

This was more than just unfriendly to claustrophobics; with every step Leon took, the pupils of those "eyes" would follow his movement.

The silent, eerie stare made Leon's heart rate spike, his thoughts scatter, and he felt an urge to dead‑pull the trigger of his MP5, hosing those "eyes" with ammo to vent his inexpressible emotions.

Fortunately, his reason told him he must not act rashly and fall into the scheme of whatever lurked in the shadows.

Next.

Leon ignored the "eyes" and pressed deeper into the hive, heading for the central control room that could oversee all of Raccoon City.

Moreover, the abnormal creatures he encountered inside the hive were tougher than those on the surface, their forms beginning to favor dense tentacles and rotting, corroded skin.

Of course, he also came into contact with many bizarre, increasingly deranged and eerie "Claire" entities.

After prolonged mental focus and intense combat, Leon almost forgot who he was and why he was there; various ordeals left him exhausted.

Finally.

After defeating another Tyrant T‑103 bearing a Claire‑like face, Leon arrived at a relatively clean security break room.

"Exhausted" he could no longer hold himself up and collapsed onto the simple bed, wanting to close his eyes and get a good sleep.

"Leon… wake up…"

But as he hovered on the brink of death, he faintly saw a flash of red and heard an extremely familiar call…

Is…

Who is it?

At the same time, the outline of that red figure seemed to emit a faint golden glow.

Burning with curiosity, Leon roused himself, opened his eyes, and prepared to examine that figure closely.

?!!!!

But he never expected that, the moment he opened his eyes, he would see several thick, sticky tentacles covered in eyes smash through the metal door of the break room and lunge at the simple bed where he lay.

There was no time to think.

Leon grabbed the Desert Eagle that had somehow ended up at his side, gripped it firmly, and pulled the trigger hard at those tentacles.

"Boom! Boom!"

"Plop! Plop!"

Seven. 44 Magnum rounds instantly shattered those tentacles; one still had strands of flesh attached and fell to the floor, twitching wildly.

The creature that had launched the tentacles, feeling pain, instantly retreated from the break room, buying Leon a moment to catch his breath.

Immediately, he reloaded the Desert Eagle, returned it to his left‑leg holster, picked up his MP5 as his main weapon, and followed the path the tentacles had fled, determined to kill that abnormal creature.

After dealing with the various bio‑weapons along the way and the by‑products of the T‑virus leak, Leon finally reached the largest area of the hive before its expansion—

the underground trial grounds.

This place could simulate city blocks to test weapons in urban combat.

However, Leon remembered that in September 1998 this site had been used to test the effect of personal electromagnetic cannons, and theoretically it should have been very open, but now…

…it was occupied by something indescribable.

Although "it" had taken over a huge portion of the trial grounds, its true form could still not be fully seen.

Its main body seemed rooted in the soil beneath the hive, while the part exposed to Leon's view was covered in viscous liquid and studded with eyes of various sizes.

Naturally, the indispensable feature of that indescribable creature was its countless twitching, writhing tentacles.

Upon seeing this indescribable thing, Leon, standing on the open‑metal walkway, first showed surprise, but quickly shifted to disdain; he even lifted his left hand to pinch his nose and muttered:

"You are truly the ugliest, most disgusting piece of trash I have ever seen—no exceptions……"

"Roar!!"

Apparently hearing Leon's mockery, the indescribable creature let out a thick‑nasaled angry roar.

"Boom—!!"

The entire hive trembled violently along with the roar.

"Heh, scum."

But with his memory fully restored and his sanity fully online, Leon still wore a look of contempt, flung An's rope‑strapped MP5 behind him, and in the same motion readied the L‑6 grenade launcher.

Leon knew his immediate superior was watching, so the corner of his mouth lifted involuntarily, revealing a rare arrogant grin, and he said:

"Get out of my dream!"

(End of chapter)