Umbrella's people had spread a large number of personnel around the hotel, searching like madmen, not even missing a single corner. However, they still couldn't find their target.
Zhou Yi seemed to have completely vanished. Not only was there no trace of him, but there wasn't even the slightest clue about him.
This made Raymond extremely anxious. He worried about Zhou Yi's safety, or rather, he worried about Zhou Yi encountering things in this city that he shouldn't discover. Once such things appeared before Zhou Yi and harmed him, then let alone the investment, just the punishment from Umbrella's higher-ups and the retaliation from Zhou Yi would be enough to make him suffer.
Thinking of this, a chill ran down his spine. Umbrella's cruelty towards failures was enough to make even the most ruthless person fear, and he was no exception.
"Have the security department assign personnel to completely blockade all passages from the outskirts to the urban area. Don't let any of those things sneak into the urban area. Also, conduct a sweep within the urban area; clean out the infected as quickly as possible. And monitor the satellite feed for twenty-four hours; find him before he discovers the problem."
He rapidly issued commands, setting the entire Umbrella branch into motion. Beside him, his Deputy began to suggest,
"Officer, perhaps we can start with his secretary. Find a reason for the Young Miss secretary to contact him, and then we can pinpoint his location."
"And then what? Tell him we're monitoring him, causing him to leave in a fit of anger, while the higher-ups take it out on me?" Raymond said with a cold face. "Don't treat others as idiots. A guy who can start from scratch and achieve what he has now is not someone we can measure."
"Don't cause any extra trouble for me right now. If I fall because of this, then don't expect to return alive. Understand?"
"I understand, Officer," the Deputy replied, sweating. He knew Raymond was serious, and that only made him more afraid. However, for the sake of his own life, he still had to bring up another important matter.
"Officer, headquarters is requesting to activate the Hive. Should we postpone it? If an accident occurs at this time…"
Upon hearing this, Raymond's face twitched involuntarily.
The Hive was Umbrella's biggest secret here, and also the highest Rank research facility in Raccoon City. However, a major accident had occurred at this research facility; the entire underground laboratory had been sealed off by Umbrella's artificial intelligence, Red Queen, and the highest-Rank crisis message had been transmitted to headquarters.
This meant the complete fall of the Hive, and also meant that all researchers inside had been killed. Upon receiving this message, headquarters immediately issued him a top-priority order, demanding that he restart the Hive and Red Queen and retrieve the research results from within.
As a high-ranking Umbrella executive, he naturally knew what was inside the Hive. Umbrella's masterpiece, a biochemical weapon capable of changing the World. But this weapon was extremely dangerous, so dangerous that they could hardly control it. One careless mistake could lead to a huge disaster.
He had originally made thorough preparations to open the Hive according to the orders from the higher-ups. But now, because of Zhou Yi, he had to reallocate the personnel he had already arranged. This made his plan completely unable to proceed normally.
"Postpone the Hive matter for now. First, focus our efforts on what I just said." After much thought, Raymond finally made a decision. With his authority, he could delay the Hive matter for two days, and the worst-case scenario would only be a reprimand. But if something happened to Zhou Yi, he would be completely finished.
Under these circumstances, the choice was already obvious.
And while Raymond was still worried about Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi's figure had quietly appeared in the place Raymond least wanted him to be: the forest on the outskirts of Raccoon City.
This place had now become a Forbidden Land of Raccoon City; even the loggers and hunters who frequently came here no longer dared to appear. Because there were terrifying Beasts here.
There had been no less than twenty Beast attack cases in this forest, and there were even rumors that the recent madman biting incidents in Raccoon City also originated from here. Almost overnight, this forest became the protagonist of terrifying urban legends.
It would be absolutely impossible if there weren't some intentional mischief involved. But since such rumors could spread, there must be some suspicious circumstances. Zhou Yi even suspected that some of Umbrella's experimental subjects were hiding here.
After all, a considerable amount of time had passed since Alfred conveyed the message to him. Presumably, those guys he mentioned last time had already done some unspeakable things.
Thinking of this, he began to scan the forest, hoping to find something useful. And soon, he discovered some strange things.
A group of walking rotten corpses wandered aimlessly in the mountains. From their appearance, it was clear that they had been decaying for a long time and must have been attacked by something strange to become this way. Because most of these corpses could only be described as remains; even the few relatively intact ones were missing arms and legs.
The moment he saw them, Zhou Yi thought of the information he had seen before. Umbrella's evil experimental subjects; only those deformed creatures could cause such wounds, and only that kind of virus could turn corpses into these walking rotten corpses.
Something must have happened here. After making this judgment in his heart, Zhou Yi immediately ran towards the wandering rotten corpses. He wanted to find more information from those bodies.
The wandering corpses operated according to their most primitive instincts. Their only purpose in activity was to feed and provide more energy for their broken bodies. Therefore, any living being was their target.
So when Zhou Yi appeared before these corpses, they immediately pounced, like true Beasts.
However, it almost required no thought to know what the outcome would be. Corpses, after all, were just things that people had turned into. Although they had become this ghastly appearance, their strength would not change much. To deal with this group of corpses, Zhou Yi didn't even need to lift a finger.
Telekinesis easily snapped their necks. Losing the connection of their cervical spine, they almost became true corpses. Apart from their constantly opening and closing mouths, they had nothing else that could attack others.
Of course, just a head with a wiggling jaw was enough to scare many people to death. Zhou Yi experimented on these corpses for a long time before discovering that only by crushing their brains could they completely lose their kinetic energy.
This was very terrifying, because for ordinary Civilians, it was difficult for them to inflict effective attacks on these corpses. Bullets that didn't hit the head were meaningless, and how many marksmen in this World could consistently hit the head? It was almost imaginable what would happen if ordinary people faced such monsters.
Moreover, its most terrifying aspect was not its characteristic of mutating people into monsters, but its terrifying contagiousness. Biting, bodily fluids, and even through Water and food could potentially spread it among the population, and the possibility of airborne transmission could not be ruled out. Once this thing broke out, it would be devastating. Humanity's fragile social system could not withstand its impact.
Fortunately, before all this happened, someone had already begun to prepare to stop it. S.H.I.E.L.D. had recognized its danger, and they would not let this thing break out in the World. Naturally, neither would he.
He rummaged through the guys who had become true corpses. Apart from one or two wearing S.T.A.R.S. SWAT Officer uniforms, most of the others were dressed as Civilians. And they looked like either loggers or hunters. However, the name S.T.A.R.S. was already the clue Zhou Yi wanted.
S.T.A.R.S., Special Tactics and Rescue Service. An elite SWAT department.
Although this elite combat team outwardly belonged to the local police department, it was actually affiliated with the U.S. federal protection department. So, from an administrative perspective, they were independent of the police station. Every S.T.A.R.S. member could be called an elite, because they themselves were elite individuals drawn from various departments.
So, under normal circumstances, they would not be dispatched. They would only take action to resolve extreme criminal activities and terrorist activities. In terms of nature, they were almost no different from the U.S. special forces, S.W.A.T.
Since the bodies of S.T.A.R.S. members appeared here, it could almost be confirmed that they had already launched an investigation into this area. However, it seemed that their operation ended in failure, and there were quite a few casualties. These corpses were the proof.
What happened next could be entirely imagined. The S.T.A.R.S. personnel would certainly not be reconciled to their comrades dying in such a strange place and so tragically. They would definitely want to come back here to find the mastermind and seek revenge. But in Umbrella's city, even they could only be suppressed.
All actions were prohibited, and all reports were intercepted. They might even be diagnosed with mental problems. With Umbrella's capabilities, all of this was entirely possible. The remaining S.T.A.R.S. personnel had no other recourse than to complain. Even if they spoke of their experiences, Umbrella would twist it into spreading rumors.
They had no ability to oppose Umbrella and could only spread such messages through the internet to warn others.
It must be said, Zhou Yi was indeed a true Capitalist. Because everything he thought of perfectly aligned with what Umbrella did. Of course, Umbrella did even more ruthlessly, because in their plan, S.T.A.R.S. was originally something like an experimental subject. So what they experienced was far more complex than Zhou Yi imagined.
However, this had little to do with Zhou Yi. He had already obtained the clues he wanted, and the rest would be much easier.
Find S.T.A.R.S. As long as they didn't have too deep a connection with Umbrella, they would definitely try to avenge their comrades. If that were the case, Zhou Yi wouldn't mind lending them some strength. But before that, he had one more thing to do.