Chapter 88: Plans Can Never Keep Up With Changes

Bang!

A bullet pierced the computer screen; the computer flickered twice, spat out a few sparks, and then went black.

Alice's lingering anger had not yet subsided; she could not imagine that there could be such people in this world.

"I don't believe there is no true justice in this Shi Jie, I don't believe the Umbrella Corporation can Covering the Sky with one hand—can money really achieve this?"

Alice paced back and forth in anger, unable to believe that this situation could be real.

Zhang Xuan watched and shook his head secretly; the United States was quite formidable in terms of propaganda, circulating everywhere in the Shi Jie with an image of being great, glorious, and correct.

But in reality, they knew very well what was going on inside.

And in a world like the United States, the wealthy really could do whatever they wanted.

That Umbrella Corporation executive was able to be in charge of capturing Zhang Xuan and responsible for physically eliminating a figure like Alice from this world, which indicated that the upper echelons of the Umbrella Corporation were fully aware of what this person was doing and were indeed executing the relevant mission.

This meant the entire upper echelon of the Umbrella Corporation consisted of the same kind of people, completely colluding together; of course, Alice, having watched the entire Resident Evil series, should have already known this.

However, there was still a large gap between ideals and reality; knowing was one thing, but Alice, who had been receiving "happy education" in the United States daily, might not be able to accept reality immediately and would still need to be beaten by reality for a while before she could truly stand on her own.

Zhang Xuan did not explain too much in this regard, only saying calmly: "I don't know what the high-level officials of the Umbrella Corporation are specifically like, but I know that if we don't leave here immediately, I'm afraid we won't be able to see their miserable end soon, because our end will be even more miserable than theirs."

Alice was suddenly startled to realize that a roaring zombie nearby had rushed over, then suddenly collapsed powerlessly, splashing up a cloud of dust.

The surrounding crowd let out loud screams; some enthusiastic people wanted to come over to help take a look, but most people were running away quickly.

"Don't touch him, don't touch him, it's a madness, getting close will spread it."

"Run, run quickly!"

"This area has already been contaminated!"

The Umbrella Corporation could make the relevant major media outlets shut up, but the information passed by word of mouth among the local media and local figures living in Raccoon City would not be cut off; they could still know about the many things happening right before their eyes and provide relevant reactions.

After all, news media would lie, but the zombies right in front of them would not.

If you get bitten, you really will die!

For these past few days, well-informed individuals had already started driving away, and even now, relevant information was spreading.

It was just that Alice had been in hiding, busy sending relevant information to the internet and to the mailboxes of major news media, preparing to unveil the evil veil of the Umbrella Corporation, and thus had not heard of it.

"How could it be like this?"

Alice looked incredulous; clearly, before she sealed the Hive, she had gone down to the underground base of the Hive and seen that everyone infected with the zombie virus had died, the passing zombie dogs had been finished off by Zhang Xuan with a strike of Taiji Sword Qi, and even the white mice in the cages had been split in two.

This Zhang Xuan, who came from a strange, high-level world, had not been soft-hearted at all when dealing with these people infected with the zombie virus; logically speaking, the spread of the virus should have been fundamentally eradicated.

But upon careful reflection, Alice could find relevant traces from the Resident Evil film series, at the very moment the virus was shattered.

At the moment the relevant virus flowed into the air, this spread had already become inevitable.

"How could they do this? Don't they have the antidote? Why don't they use the antidote to liberate this area?"

Alice could not understand, and Zhang Xuan frowned and said: "Antidote? Doesn't the relevant antidote only work to change people back when they haven't completely turned into zombies? Once they have become the relevant zombies, will the antidote still be useful?"

"The overall nature has already been changed, right? How could this antidote have an effect? And even if it really did have an effect, look at these people—if they returned to the lives of normal people, could they even live?"

Alice was about to explain that the Umbrella Corporation had the true T-Virus antidote, which could make all creatures that had mutated due to the T-Virus disappear and return to their original state.

But looking at the zombie in front of her that was crazily gnawing on a person, her body could not help but shiver.

If they really returned to normal, and the memories of devouring the flesh and blood of others were brought back into their minds, then what kind of person would they become? She dared not imagine.

Bang!

A speeding sedan hit the zombie that was gnawing on a human in front of it with a bang, sending it flying high into the air before it fell to the ground.

Not satisfied, it crazily ran over the zombie twice with the car; when the zombie finally stopped moving, a middle-aged man with a frantic expression climbed out of the small sedan, whose bumper had been knocked off.

"Die, die, all of you go to hell, you kind of monster, you monster!"

He acted as if he were insane, pulling a baseball bat from the trunk of the car and smashing the head of the zombie, which was still twitching on the ground, into a bloody, pulpy mess, splashing red and white all over the ground.

And a moment later, the frantic middle-aged man looked at a corpse lying not far away with a deathly gray expression on his face, devoid of excitement; it was the corpse of a middle-aged woman dressed in home attire, and beside the middle-aged woman was the corpse of a small boy.

Alice was somewhat stunned.

Under normal circumstances, the contradictions and conflicts in the United States were terrifyingly large; different skin colors, different races, different identities, different positions—there were comparisons and political correctness between them all.

And even if the Umbrella Corporation now had the real antidote, even if they spent all their efforts to bring the antidote out and spread it across the world, would the real world return to its original state?

Could the original zombie identity and the normal human identity really merge without problems?

Among normal humans, there were already irreconcilable contradictions; and for those who had turned back into humans from another species, and who previously had blood feuds with humans, could humans really accept them?

Could humans accept cannibals?

Alice could not find an answer.

And Zhang Xuan stood on the long street, his gaze also flickering.

His heart was also vibrating violently.

The tragic scene before him also caused countless thoughts to emerge in his mind.

"Can I really watch all these people die and then use them to practice my cultivation?"

Zhang Xuan felt a little pain inside; he had received a normal education in the normal 21st century and had indeed been beaten by society, knowing the sinister nature of society.

If he were operating a plan from behind a keyboard, he could become the top Darkness boss.

But standing truly and properly in front of countless living people, letting him turn all these living people into zombies and then using them to cultivate—he couldn't quite do it.

If he hadn't seen the living people, it would be one thing, but he had seen with his own eyes that they had family, love, friendship, and all kinds of partings and deaths.

Seeing them full of life the moment before, having their own experiences, plans, and dreams, and the next moment suddenly turning into walking corpses, while he himself had the ability to stop it but did not change such a thing—he found it hard to accept.

"The whole thing wasn't caused by me; even without me, they would still fall into such a predicament. Why should I feel guilty? It is the Umbrella Corporation that is doing evil!"

"If I swallowed them all, I could at least cross the Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, and Dragon Transformation realms, head straight for the Sendai realm, and even stand directly before an Immortal Three Zhan Dao King; relying on the infinite accumulation, achieving the status of a Saint is even possible..."

"Maybe by relying on this population of billions, I could even conjure a Chaos Body out of thin air. Why should I worry about their life and death?"

Zhang Xuan advised himself this way, but he still could not completely open his heart or let go of his feelings.

"They are merely characters from another world, just another group of people, nothing more than NPCs in my memory; why should I care about them?"

There were countless reasons, countless excuses for Zhang Xuan not to intervene, but listening to the wails in his ears and seeing a little girl crying in despair on the street while her mother wailed and threw herself over, trying to use her body to shield her from the zombies' assault, Zhang Xuan still sighed softly.

Countless Sword Qi surged from within his body, killing all the zombies on the long street in an instant; the entire street went quiet for a moment, the mother and daughter who were about to die at the mouths of the zombies hugged and wept, and the crowd running in madness stood blankly on the spot, not understanding what had just happened.

"In the end, I am still human; I cannot cut off all emotions and desires, and I cannot remain indifferent when seeing these people crying and wailing before me."

He sighed softly; clearly, a huge benefit and a huge future had been abandoned by him just like that, but Zhang Xuan did not feel heavy-hearted; instead, it was as if he had cast off a huge burden, and his whole being felt a level more comfortable.

The Great Dao Treasure Bottle Seal rotating above his head became increasingly smooth, and the many Origins flowing within it poured down, causing the corresponding Divine Bridge within his body to be forged directly.

Originally, when the Divine Bridge Realm leads to the Other Shore Realm, there is a huge obstacle, and there is a process of questioning one's heart.

Yet Zhang Xuan did not feel any such interrogation at all, stepping across it in one go.

"What is lost in the east is gained in the west; who can truly say what one's harvest in life will be?"

Having cast aside the Origins of billions of people in the future, only to harvest the breakthrough of a small realm—in terms of gain, Zhang Xuan had lost, and lost big.

But Zhang Xuan did not feel dejected; instead, he had a feeling of mental clarity.

He looked at Alice, who had a look of total worldview collapse beside him, patted Alice on the shoulder with his hand, and said softly: "Don't dwell on the many things of the future; you called me here to save the world, now I am here saving people, what are you standing there dazed for?"

"But what can I do if I'm not dazed? Can we save this city? It's meaningless to save these people now; no matter how many we save now, five hours later the nuclear bomb will fall, and everything will turn to ash!"

Knowing the future did not bring Alice more courage; on the contrary, it made her feel even more dejected and unable to accept it.

The Umbrella Corporation was so powerful that it exceeded her imagination; all her previous plans had been easily shattered by the Umbrella Corporation.

Any fairness or justice was nothing but ash in front of the Umbrella Corporation.

Not a single media outlet in her eyes that was upright and honest was willing to report on matters related to Umbrella, not a single news outlet wanted to expose the ugly face of the Umbrella Corporation, and even her whistleblower emails and related online comments allowed the other party to pinpoint her IP address, intending to eliminate her on the spot.

This was not the America in her memory.

"A nuclear bomb will descend in five hours?"

Zhang Xuan's pupils also contracted slightly upon hearing this news; he looked out, and in the bustling city, there were lights everywhere, and panicked crowds everywhere; Raccoon City was not a remote little town.

The population here was at least several hundred thousand; if he had followed his original plan, he certainly didn't intend to interfere, letting the nuclear bomb fall, and when the time came, he would swallow the relevant Origins of these hundreds of thousands of people, directly making a huge profit—that would certainly have been a happy event for everyone.

But if one stands on the opposite side of the Umbrella Corporation, all of this makes one feel terrified and uneasy.

Having developed a bit of conscience, he had to protect the safety of these hundreds of thousands of people in Raccoon City as much as possible; not only did he have to kill as many zombies as possible, but he also had to face that incoming nuclear bomb in the near future.

"The gap between this effort and the harvest is just too big."

Zhang Xuan couldn't help but sigh, but he had no intention of giving up directly.

Since a heart of compassion had already arisen within him, and he had a certain ability to change the current situation, then he had to try to do it a couple more times, trying to change things a bit more.

"It wouldn't do to have plan after plan when I'm a villain or a heartless person, but have no plans and make no effort at all when I truly want to be a good person."

Composing his mind, Zhang Xuan's Eight-Nine Profound Art operated, he turned to face Alice, stared into Alice's eyes, and wisps of True Qi flowed from his body into Alice's, helping her soothe her restless spirit.

"Remember, I am only a helper, an assistant invited by you to save this world; if a savior cannot even accept such a scene and directly suffers a mental breakdown, then this world doesn't need to be saved anymore; are you giving up the mission?"

"As long as you say you give up the mission, then I can directly choose to return to my world; there is no need to take risks here with you, you don't need to have such pressure, you don't need to be so conflicted; are you sure you want to give up?"

Alice was stunned for a moment; the man before her had a tall stature, a magnificent aura, and eyes that were clear and distinct, just watching her calmly like that, and the countless distracting thoughts in her heart gradually calmed down.

Looking at the panicked crowd around her, listening to the lion-like roars of zombies still coming from afar, and the sounds of shops being smashed, mixed with the sounds of guns and artillery.

Originally, this place was peaceful and vibrant, everyone was going to work normally, having their own calm and beautiful lives, but now all of this was ruined; if not prevented, the nuclear bomb would descend in five hours.

Was she really willing to avoid all this and let it all descend?

"No, I don't give up!"

(End of this chapter)