"Jill!" Arlo's boots skidded on the scorched floor as he dashed toward her collapsed body. Link barked once, already closing in beside him, eyes locked on the writhing mass that was Nemesis.The creature was rebuilding again—its torn flesh bubbling as sinew reknit itself.
Steam hissed from its wounds like a locomotive from hell.Then came the voice: [Cooldown in progress. Please reactivate the power sources]
Jill coughed but pushed herself up with one arm. "We need to recharge the railgun!"
Arlo didn't argue. They were on the edge now. One more shot would do it—but only if they survived long enough to power the damn thing."Stay down. I've got the conduit!" he yelled, sprinting toward the far wall.
Jill moved in the opposite direction, limping but determined. They each reached one of the two recharge panels on opposite ends of the chamber.
Despite the pain etched across her face, she slammed her panel forward. Arlo did the same, hearing the click as the red turned green.
Nemesis didn't wait. It surged forward, mouth splitting open into a grotesque array of tendrils and bone. Arlo barely ducked under a flying chunk of acid spit. The floor behind him melted in seconds. His Clown's Bodily Control kicked in—limbs fluid, instincts sharpened to a knife's edge. He twisted, turned, sprinted like it was second nature. Every movement meant survival.
The final power source was online. Jill was already shouting. "Railgun's charged!"
Arlo didn't hesitate. He darted toward it like a sprinter in the last stretch, tendrils lashing past his head, explosions erupting behind him as Nemesis flailed blindly. He grabbed the massive weapon's grips, swung it forward, and fired. The railgun screamed to life with a blinding blue flash. Nemesis was mid-lunge, its jaws wide—and the shot hit square in the chest. It was like watching a skyscraper get hit by lightning. The shot tore through Nemesis's torso, splitting bone, flesh, and parasite mass in a single blazing arc. The impact knocked the monster off its body, slamming it into the far wall.Smoke and gore choked the chamber. Nemesis let out a roar—no longer angry, but pained. Dying.
Arlo stumbled back, his body finally catching up to the toll. His arms ached, chest heaving. But it wasn't over.Jill and Link arrived at his side.
Jill looked at the railgun, then at Arlo. "Need a help?"
Arlo gave a tired smile. "Yeah. One more time."
Together, they gripped the still-charged railgun and began dragging it toward the twitching mass that was Nemesis.
The thing tried to move—slowly, sluggishly, its jaw half-open."Help me jam this into its face," Arlo said, bracing the railgun at an angle.
Jill didn't hesitate. She grabbed the other side. "With pleasure."
They shoved the weapon deep into Nemesis's maw, forcing the jaws open wider until they locked into place. The charge gauge lit green again.
Arlo looked at Jill. "Ready?" She exhaled sharply. "Next time…" she said, narrowing her eyes, "take the fucking hint."
Arlo hit the trigger.The last shot erupted with a sound like the earth cracking open. A pillar of blue light burst through Nemesis's skull, its body contorting violently. The interior of the mouth bloated and ruptured.Then—explosion. The blast threw them back.Jill hit the ground hard, sliding across metal. Arlo crashed beside her, rolling once, vision blurry. Link yelped, tossed by the shockwave but landing safely near Arlo.
Smoke. Blood. Flesh rained from above like wet shrapnel.
Link was the first to recover. He ran over to Arlo, licking his face urgently.
"I'm fine… I'm fine," Arlo muttered, pushing himself up. His face was speckled with blood that wasn't his.
A notification appeared in his HUD.
[EXP Gained: +10,000]
Across the floor, Jill coughed once and gave a weak thumbs-up.
Arlo looked toward the impact site.Where Nemesis had been, there was only cratered floor, chunks of tissue, and burned steel.
"Yeah," Arlo said, voice low. "That's the end of that monster."
Jill joined him, wincing as she leaned on his shoulder. "Good riddance."
They moved together—Arlo supporting her, Link trotting close behind—toward the only exit ladder on the far side of the chamber. Step by step, they climbed out. The battle was over. But the escape wasn't done yet.
...
The elevator doors hissed open with mechanical precision. Arlo, Jill, and Link stepped inside—battered, blood-slick, but upright. Jill clutched her ribs, breathing through the pain. Arlo leaned slightly against the elevator wall, checking his ammo by muscle memory alone.
"We can't let Nicholai get away with the vaccine," Jill muttered, eyes still burning from the fight.
Arlo nodded. "Carlos should've caught him by now. Let's move."
The elevator hummed as it ascended. Metal creaked under their feet, each passing floor a countdown.
Link stood alert by the door. Arlo didn't say anything, but his Danger Intuition was already raising silent alarms. Something felt...off. Then the elevator stopped. The doors opened. Carlos lay on the ground up ahead—groaning, holding his side.
"Oh no…" Jill bolted forward.
Arlo's steps slowed. His eyes scanned the room. No signs of gunfire. No signs of struggle. Just Carlos and too much quiet.
Then it clicked."Link. Hide for a bit," Arlo whispered. Link vanished into the shadows without a sound.
Arlo followed Jill but kept a tight grip on his weapon, not raising it—yet. He crouched beside Carlos, eyeing his injuries while looking past him.That's when the gun clicked.
Nicholai stepped from behind a support pillar. His pistol aimed at Jill, posture calm, expression smug. "Ah. Ah. Ah," he said, mockingly waving a finger. "Put the gun down or Miss Valentine gets a new hole."
Jill froze. "No!, Arlo"
Arlo didn't flinch. "Sorry, Jill" he said quietly to Jill. Then he dropped his gun and kicked it across the floor. It skidded, far enough from him. No hesitation. No resistance.
Nicholai smiled wider.Then shot Arlo in his stomach, fall to the ground clutching his wound.
[]
Then Jill shouted "Arlo!"
"Promised you this, didn't I?" He pulled the vaccine vial from his coat—and tossed it.Jill reached out—but before she could react, Nicholai raised his gun and fired.
CRACK
The vial shattered on the floor, pieces scattering like glass confetti."No!"
Jill's voice echoed. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
Nicholai shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. My client ordered me to reduce Umbrella to rubble. That was part of the deal."
Then, over the loudspeakers: "Missile impact in ten minutes."
"Ah," Nicholai said casually, stepping back. "That's my cue." He turned his back on them, walking slowly toward a nearby ladder. "Goodbye, Miss Valentine. A shame you didn't listen when you had the chance."
Then he stopped. Arlo laughed while clutching his wound.
Nicholai turned. "What's so funny?"
"You people talk too much," Arlo said, smirking. "Seriously. You could've walked ten feet and been gone." Nicholai raised his gun again.
Too late, Arlo thought
Carlos lunged from the floor, tackling Nicholai from the side. They hit the ground hard, the gun skittering away.
"Link! Now!" Arlo shouted.
From the shadows, Link burst out with terrifying speed—fangs bared, body glowing with faint violet light. He latched onto Nicholai's forearm, twisting, tearing. Nicholai screamed.
Arlo grabbed his sidearm off the floor—but before he could aim, a shot rang out.
Jill stood over them, holding her pistol with steady hands. Nicholai's stomach was leaking blood fast. He groaned and crumpled.
Arlo walked over and nudged the gun away with his boot. "Nice shot."
Jill exhaled, lowering her weapon. "You hesitated."
"Nah I was definitely going to kill him, you just shot him first" He replied
Jill asked worriedly "Are you okay?"
"No, I Just need to sit until I get some help" Arlo calmly replied.
Nicholai groaned, blood pooling beneath him. His eyes were wide but unfocused. He tried to press against his gut, but his strength was already fading.
Carlos wiped blood off his lip and asked flatly, "What about him?"
Jill stood over Nicholai, gun lowered. Her voice was steady. "Why did you do it?"
Nicholai coughed wetly, a grim smile on his lips. "There's a price tag for everything," he muttered. "Even letting the world burn."
Jill's jaw tightened. "Who are you working for?"
Nicholai didn't hesitate. "I'll tell you... if you get me out of here. I'll pay you whatever you want."
Jill stared at him for a long second—then gave the faintest smile and turned her back."You're a fool! A goddamn fool!" he shouted, trying to crawl forward, blood smearing beneath him.
Jill kept walking."If I die, you'll never know the truth!" he screamed. "You think Umbrella was the end? You think I was the worst of it? You don't even know what you're in!"
Jill reached the ladder and paused. She glanced back at the dying man, her voice cool. "I don't mind a little detective work."
Arlo stepped beside her, looking down at Nicholai like a mechanic examining a broken tool.
"He thinks too highly of himself," Arlo muttered. "Like everyone's just waiting for a price. Man's more delusional than anyone he tried to con."
Carlos groaned, rubbing his ribs. "Let's move before this place becomes a crater."
They helped each other up the ladder—Arlo carrying Link in one arm, his side still aching from the earlier gunshot.Above them, the sky had cracked into pale orange. Dawn was breaking over the city's corpse.
Carlos guided them toward the waiting helicopter. Its blades were already spinning, ready to fly.The three of them climbed in, silent, exhausted. Jill leaned back into the seat. Link rested his head on Arlo's lap.
Carlos glanced at Jill from the pilot seat. "You alright?" She didn't answer right away. Just stared out the window.
"There it is," Carlos muttered.
Far beyond the horizon, the missile streaked across the sky—a burning comet of death.
Then it hit. The shockwave rolled across the land like the world exhaling. A column of fire erupted from the center of Raccoon City. The mushroom cloud bloomed violently.The helicopter jolted, thrown upward in the turbulence.
"Brace yourselves!" Arlo shouted, wrapping both arms around Link and locking his boots under the seat rail.
Carlos fought the controls. The chopper dipped, twisted—then steadied.The three of them sat in the heavy silence afterward, the glow of the firestorm still flickering behind them.
Jill exhaled, then said quietly, "So long, RC."
Carlos nodded. "It's finally over."
Arlo said nothing. He reached into his coat pocket, pulled something out. "Jill. I need to give you something." He held up the vial. The real one.
Jill's eyes widened. "What the hell? The vaccine—how do you still have it?"
Arlo handed it over. "The one Nicholai shot? It was fake. Colored fluid. Sleight of hand, that's all."
Carlos blinked. "You tricked him?"
Arlo shrugged. "He was expecting a show. I gave him one."
Jill stared at the vial, turning it in her hands like it might disappear. "Why hide the real one?"
Arlo's expression darkened. "I noticed something, Jill. You were being watched. Not just by Nicholai, but by someone else. Every step. Like the outbreak itself was being monitored." J
ill looked up sharply. "Do you know who?"
Arlo shook his head. "No. And that's the part that worries me."
The air in the helicopter grew heavier. Jill tightened her grip on the vial. "Well," she said finally, "at least this can still help people."
Arlo leaned back in his seat, glancing out at the burning horizon behind them. "Let's just hope there's still a world left that wants to be saved."
***
The helicopter blades were still chopping the air as Jill sat, quiet and staring into nothing. Her face was pale, smeared with blood, some of it hers, most of it not. Arlo shifted beside her, his side throbbing from the bullet wound. Link was curled at his feet, dozing, tail flicking in response to the low hum of the chopper. They sat in silence for a minute, watching the sky gradually shift from orange to grey as smoke and ash veiled the rising sun.
Then Arlo spoke. "So… what are you going to do now?"
Jill didn't answer immediately. Her fists tightened around her knees. When she finally spoke, her voice was clipped. "I'm going to hunt them." She looked over. "Umbrella. Every last root, lab, and executive. They don't get to vanish into the smoke. Not after Raccoon City. Not after what they did."
Arlo nodded once, slowly. The fire behind her words wasn't dramatic or theatrical. It was clinical. Resolved. Like a gun with the safety off. He reached down subtly, as if stretching his fingers, and opened his system inventory through BrainLink. The interface pinged quietly in his vision. He tapped the slot containing the encrypted hard drive — matte, palm-sized, filled to the brim with classified data stolen from Umbrella's deepest backup nodes.
Sleight of hand was easier when people were emotionally loaded. And right now, Jill was loaded. With grief. With rage. With purpose.
In one smooth motion, Arlo slipped the hard drive into the outer pocket of Jill's tactical vest. She didn't notice. But a second later, she did feel it.Jill reached down instinctively. "What the hell—?" She pulled out the hard drive and turned to Arlo, raising an eyebrow. "This yours?"
Carlos leaned in too, suddenly more alert.Arlo didn't flinch. "Yeah. That's for you."
"What is it?" she asked, eyes narrowing."Everything Umbrella didn't want found," Arlo said, voice level. "Blueprints. Fail-safes. Emergency vaccines. Anti-B.O.W. deployment protocols. Stuff they made in case their own monsters turned on them."
Carlos's jaw tightened. "You serious?"
Arlo nodded. "They were experimenting with layered immunogens — one-shot cures for multiple strains. They had prototypes for airborne neutralizers, programmable antibodies, even inhibitor cocktails that could suppress B.O.W. aggression for a window of a few hours." He leaned back slightly. "In short: this is their doomsday panic button. Not public. Not tested. But real."
Jill turned the drive in her fingers, as if trying to see through it. "Why didn't you give me this earlier?"
"I didn't know if we'd survive," Arlo said plainly. "Or if I'd trust you with it. No offense."
Jill cracked a dry smirk. "None taken." She slipped the hard drive into a secured pocket near her ribs and looked him in the eye. "Thank you."
Arlo gave a small nod. "You're welcome."
The chopper began its descent. Below them was a mess of tents, soldiers, APCs, and barbed wire — a slapdash military safe zone just outside ground zero. No reporters. No brass. Just protocol and order for survivors.
They stepped out onto solid ground. The smoke from the destroyed city still loomed behind them like a nightmare trying to follow them home.
Arlo adjusted his coat and looked at Jill and Carlos."I've got to go. There are things I need to do. People I need to see. This part of the story's done for me."
Carlos extended a hand. "Whatever you did in there... we wouldn't have made it without you."
Jill just nodded. "You did more than most ever would."
Arlo smirked. "I was bored. Figured I'd take down a corporate death machine for fun."
Carlos chuckled. Jill just shook her head with a sigh."Good luck taking Umbrella down,"
Arlo added. "Until we meet again." He turned before either of them could reply again and walked straight into the milling crowd of refugees and soldiers. His steps were confident, casual. The coat billowed behind him slightly, like something out of an anime protagonist's exit shot.
Jill watched until he was gone. He didn't vanish — he dissolved. One second there, the next, just another face in the flow. Like the city had swallowed him.
"Think we'll see him again?" Jill asked.
Carlos crossed his arms. "After what we've been through? He's not the disappearing type. He's the 'reappear when you least expect it' type."
Jill allowed herself the smallest smile. "Yeah. You're probably right."
They turned and made their way toward the cluster of government officials waving them down, the chaos of debriefings already forming. Meanwhile, Arlo ducked under a barrier, bypassing a distracted guard. He circled around a parked APC and cut through the far end of the base until he found a patch of overgrown road behind a broken supply trailer.
Secluded. Quiet. Perfect. He knelt, tapped the Luxury Ball, and whispered, "Rest, Link you deserve it."
The Rockruff vanished with a soft chirp of red light.
Arlo winced as he peeled off his coat. Blood, soot, and melted synthetic fibers clung to the fabric. He smelled like a pile of rusted shrapnel soaked in rubbing alcohol.
From his inventory, he activated the cleaning orb. It hovered to life with a whir, spraying cleansing vapor and low-frequency hums. His wounds were exposed — crusted over, bruised, but already closing. "God… finally," he muttered. "I smell like a haunted scrapyard." He downed a low health potion. The warmth rushed through his torso. The bullet wound sealed more fully. His fatigue ebbed. But mostly, his mind cleared. No more alarms. No more death.
Arlo stared at the ruins of the Raccoon City, the cold wind cutting against his skin like it had a personal grudge. He thought back to every choice he'd made since arriving in this world. All the plans, the risks, the desperate gambles to save people he knows like Kendo, his daughter, the survivors he thought. Some he'd managed to protect. Others, like Tyrell, had slipped through his fingers no matter how hard he'd fought.
Just like in the game he couldn't rewrite the ending. He'd changed small details here and there, nudged things to the direction where he could, but the ending stayed the same. People died. It was like the game had already decided what would happen and he was just a piece moving across the board.
The thought hit harder than he expected. Was his existence even relevant to the story? All his victories, all his sacrifices — they hadn't broken the cycle. He exhaled sharply and let out a half-laugh, half-sigh. If nothing else, at least he'd tried. That was the one thing no one could take from him.
And then, just as he settled into that grim acceptance, all of as sudden Arlo felt that a sharp heat spread through his veins, the clown potion digesting faster then a notification appeared in his HUD.
---
[Notification: Clown Potion Digestion Progress: 76%]
---
[Skill Level Up!]
[Paper Dagger Leveled Up to Level 7]
[Bodily Control Leveled Up to Level 7]
[Hand-to-Hand Combat Level Up to 7]
[Observe Leveled Up to Level 5]
[Analyze Leveled Up to Level 5]
---
He was was tired mentally but he still need to see the notification and opened his BrainLink.
Then his HUD pinged to life. Notifications stacked like an overfilled inbox in his HUD.
---
[Quest Completed: Escape the Zombie Outbreak from Raccoon City]
Remark: You have survived the Zombie Outbreak off Raccoon City and escaped the Nuclear Strike before it Destroyed Raccoon City.
Reward: 7000 EXP, 13000 Credits
Evaluation: S - Rank
---
[Hidden Quest 1 Completed: Kill Nemesis]
Remark: By some miracle you have Killed Nemesis and survive its relentless pursuit without being infected.
Reward: T-Virus (Complete Version)
---
[Hidden Quest 2 Complete: Steal the Information from Umbrella Corporation]
Remark: You have stolen the restricted information of the NEST 2. You Indirectly helped the creation of Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) to effectively combat Umbrella's Biohazard in the future to come.
Reward: Fragment of Creation (0.5%)
---
[Experience Gained: 7000 XP]
[Level Up! Current Level: 13]
[Level Up! Current Level: 14]
[Level Up! Current Level: 15]
[Experience : 6,615 (20,250) XP]
[Credits: 18445]
---
Arlo Leeroy
Job: Sequence 8: Clown (76%)
Race: Human/Beyonder
Level: 15
EXP: 6,615 (20,250)
HP: 145/145
MP: 220/220
[Stats Info]
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 27
Charisma: 12
Luck: 30
Endurance: 15
Wisdom: 32
Remaining Status Point: 25
---
Arlo saw his status screen, he saw that he level up 3 times and felt that his hand to hand combat improve and even though his body is tired he felt a burst of energy coursing through him (explain more).
"Hell yes,"he whispered. But more than anything, he was just… tired.
Arlo looked up at the burnt-orange sky. No gunfire. No mutants. No twisted science experiments breaking through walls. Just wind, ash, and peace.For once, he didn't need to watch his back. He opened the BrainLink system and confirmed the return option.
---
[Biohazard Multiverse: [Universe-4320]
[Warning: Portal Transfer Imminent]
[Accept Transfer? Y/N]
---
The portal shimmered into view as Arlo pressed Yes, its swirling blue and silver light emanating a pull back toward the HUB. His thoughts turned to Jill and her ongoing battle against Umbrella Corporation in the future, silently hoping for her success.