Screen darkened, and just when Umaru thought gameplay was about to begin, the image lit up again.
The scene returned to the soldiers in black tactical gear, now in the same city—except it was nighttime.
"Ghost 39 calling ground units. Have you located the target? Over."
"Negative."
Muffled voices came through the radio as they exchanged status reports, clearly searching for a critical target.
The street was otherwise empty, save for the Blackwatch soldiers advancing slowly with HK416 rifles in hand.
Suddenly, the squad leader—distinguished by his tactical goggles—raised his fist, signaling everyone to stop. He had heard something.
"Six o'clock!"
With the sound of weapons swiveling, every Blackwatch soldier aimed toward the indicated direction—a pitch-black, dilapidated alley.
Chaotic, hurried footsteps echoed from within, followed by a panicked female voice.
"Help… help me!!"
In a narrow alley, a woman in extreme panic staggered as she screamed for help. Something seemed to be chasing her from behind, and the members of the Blackwatch unit were so irritated by her frantic shouting that they nearly shot her on the spot.
In a hellish place like this, shouting recklessly did not just endanger oneself—it also dragged everyone else down with you.
The audience was curious about what was hidden in the alley. What followed gave them their answer.
A hunched, twisted figure burst out from the corner of the alley. Its body leaned unnaturally to one side, resembling a beggar or a vagrant at first glance. But when it turned to face everyone—
The sight of its body, covered entirely in grotesquely swollen, twisted tumors and deformed limbs, made it immediately clear that it was not human.
To the viewers, the creature looked exactly like something out of a zombie movie. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say these things were no different from zombies at all—equally disgusting, equally chilling.
"Aaaargh—!"
With a piercing shriek, the grotesque infected creature charged straight forward. From the same alley corner behind it, a large group of similarly monstrous infected swarmed out, rushing madly toward the Blackwatch unit.
The Blackwatch soldiers calmly formed up, maintaining their formation while awaiting their captain's orders.
"Walkers. Open fire!"
The moment the command was issued, the Blackwatch unit activated like a set of killing machines. Muzzles flared with fire, a storm of brass casings churned the air, and the infected charging forward were torn apart like scraps of cloth under the overwhelming firepower.
These zombie-like things were no match for such dense fire coverage.
In just a few seconds, every infected creature in front of the Blackwatch soldiers lay sprawled on the ground.
"Ugh… aaah…"
One grotesque infected that had not been hit in a vital spot twitched and staggered back to its feet, letting out a hoarse howl. It managed to lurch forward two steps before—
Bang!
A Blackwatch soldier who had remained on alert mercilessly fired a finishing shot. This time, the infected collapsed for good, joining the others as a lifeless corpse.
Although the situation was tense, the audience watching found it oddly amusing, even a little funny. Umaru's face darkened slightly as she was reminded of something, and two unforgettable lines immediately surfaced in her mind.
"Hesitation is defeat!"
"Wolf… the times have changed."
The viewers in the livestream quickly latched onto the moment and began joking around.
"I swear this game company is hinting at something. Damn it, are they mocking Sekiro players?"
"Look at the streamer's dark expression—I knew we were thinking the same thing."
"My lord, the times have changed. The sword is such an inconvenient weapon now."
"A hundred styles of martial arts—none compare to a firearm."
"Sword Saint: My Ashina sword style is supreme—pulls out a gun!"
The barrage of playful comments filled the chat, and a lively atmosphere spread throughout the livestream. Umaru, her expression still dark, continued watching without responding to the viewers' antics.
From the opening cinematic alone, she had already grasped the basic setting of this Prototype-like world. It clearly had something to do with zombies.
The scene shifted. The Blackwatch soldiers approached the woman who had collapsed to the ground, sobbing. The captain spoke coldly.
"She's infected too."
A soldier beside him immediately drew his pistol and aimed it at the woman, who looked up in confusion from where she sat on the ground.
Bang!
With a single gunshot, the woman fell lifelessly to the ground. Umaru and the viewers had initially thought these soldiers were there to rescue civilians, but their actions proved to be ruthlessly cold-blooded.
Just as people were about to comment on this indifference, something appeared behind the fallen woman from her skewed perspective—a familiar figure wearing a white hood, standing silently there, expressionless, turning his head toward the Blackwatch members.
It was that man again—Alex Mercer.
"It's him!"
A sharp warning shout rang out. Two Blackwatch soldiers reacted as if facing a deadly enemy, immediately raising their rifles and aiming at the man standing there.
Despite being targeted by firearms, the man showed no panic at all. In an instant, dense black-and-red veins burst forth from both of his hands.
Clang!
With a cold metallic hum, his hands twisted as the veins spun rapidly, transforming into claws more than a foot long.
Four black talons, each nearly a foot and a half in length, gleamed with a faint, chilling light at their tips.
Bang bang bang!
The Blackwatch soldiers opened fire immediately. Muzzle flashes flickered incessantly as countless bullets poured toward the monstrous figure before them.
But Alex merely lowered his body slightly and sprinted forward. His figure turned into a blur as he closed the distance in an instant, appearing beneath one of the firing soldiers. His right claw drove straight through the man's body.
That was not the end of it.
With a powerful sideways sweep of his arm, the razor-sharp claw tore the soldier apart with ease. Blood and shredded flesh sprayed outward as the bloodstained talons continued their momentum, ripping into another Blackwatch soldier beside him.
Rip—
The second soldier's chest was split wide open.
At that moment, another Blackwatch trooper rushed up behind Alex, unloading his weapon at close range.
The man turned coldly, dipped his body slightly, and used the force of his arms to lift the attacker straight off the ground.
The soldier's body rose nearly two meters into the air, his limbs flailing in panic. The demon-clawed man raised his arm and swung downward mercilessly.
Slash!
A brutally bloody scene unfolded. The Blackwatch soldier was cleaved cleanly in half at the waist. His upper body separated from his abdomen and fell limply to the ground, completely motionless.
Umaru and the viewers stared at the graphic scene, finally understanding why this game carried a gore warning.
Thanks to Raize's optimization work, the game conveyed an intense sense of realism, though he clearly exercised restraint to ensure it could pass review.
This nonhuman entity called Alex faced the fully armed Blackwatch troops the way an adult would face helpless infants. Their firearms could barely inflict any meaningful damage on him.
Even as bullets struck his body, his expression did not change. He continued his slaughter without emotion.
With a dull snap, his massive claw closed around a Blackwatch soldier's head as if grabbing a ball.
He casually flung the body aside like trash. The immense force snapped the man's neck, and his limp corpse slammed into a taxi behind him.
Whoosh!
In the distance, a Blackwatch soldier armed with a grenade launcher fired at the monster-like man.
Boom!
To the astonishment of Umaru and the audience, the man's right arm—previously a claw—mutated again, transforming into a massive, grotesque blade. He angled the blade like a shield, blocking the grenade's explosion head-on.
Lowering the blade, the man charged straight into the thick black smoke from the blast. He leapt lightly onto the hood of a car, then vaulted forward, raising the bladed arm high and bringing it down with savage force.
Slash!
Another sickening sound of flesh tearing rang out. Under the silent gazes of Umaru and the viewers, the Blackwatch soldier was split diagonally from his left shoulder, his body cleaved into two uneven halves.
Those with sharp eyes could even see the soldier's internal organs still twitching.
After cutting down the soldier, Alex twisted his body and glanced back. Behind him, a Blackwatch trooper was crouched with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, already locked into an optimal firing stance.
Boom!
The rocket launched and slammed directly into what the soldier saw as a monster.
Bang!
A violent explosion erupted. The shockwave flipped nearby cars, and thick black smoke billowed out, obscuring everything.
The soldier lowered the launcher and stood up, watching the smoke slowly dissipate as he scanned for the target.
"Uh… ah…"
The captain's voice crackled over the radio. The soldier immediately turned his head, seeing a Blackwatch officer dressed just like him, with clearly yellow-tinted night-vision lenses—his superior.
The officer lay groaning weakly in a crater left by the explosion. The soldier rushed over and pulled him up.
The scene struck Umaru and the viewers as bizarre. Hadn't this man been split in half by Alex just moments ago? How was he here again? And where had the man who had been slaughtering them gone? No one believed a single rocket could have finished him off.
"Where's your commanding officer?" the officer asked, resting a hand on the soldier's shoulder.
"Sir, they're at Times Square. I was about to call for reinforcements—aaah!"
Before the soldier could finish his report, a wet tearing sound rang out, and his words turned into a scream.
"There's no need for that."
The so-called officer's arm morphed into the familiar grotesque claw, which had already plunged deep into the soldier's chest. The sharp talons burst out through the man's shoulder as he was lifted slightly off the ground with one hand.
Thud!
Like throwing away trash, the claw released the now-dead soldier. Black-red veins rippled across the impostor's body, and in a flicker of writhing flesh, he reverted to that familiar figure.
Alex Mercer.
The consecutive opening combat scenes made Umaru and the audience keenly aware of the man's cruelty and ruthlessness, as well as his horrifying ability to reshape his body. They had not expected him to be able to disguise himself as others as well.
"I have a feeling this guy will become a classic game character, like Dante or Vergil."
With that remark, Umaru watched as the screen faded to black once more, then shifted to another scene resembling the outbreak of a catastrophe.
Civilians fled in panic everywhere, while zombie-like creatures from earlier chased the crowds.
Then the familiar hooded man descended from the sky. The moment the Blackwatch soldiers spotted him, they prepared to attack.
Text appeared in the lower-right corner of the screen.
Mission Objective: Eliminate military personnel.
That meant Umaru could finally take control herself. Without hesitation, she began playing.
As expected, the character she controlled was Alex.
Her health bar appeared in the upper-left corner, and enemy attacks were already coming in. Umaru charged forward immediately, clicking the left mouse button to attack.
With just a casual punch, a soldier in front of her was sent flying like a rag doll.
A light jump felt like taking flight. Umaru grinned.
"This feels great to control. It's like being a one-man army."
She tested Alex's strength and movement, jumping up and attempting an aerial attack. After charging briefly, she unleashed a flying kick.
Alex's kick struck a fleeing civilian, and his body was used like a surfboard, sliding several meters forward as blood sprayed out like crashing waves.
"Wow… every single move is so violent."
Umaru did not feel uncomfortable watching this. She had played plenty of similar games before. She was simply struck by how brutally aggressive the character she was controlling was.
Most of the viewers in the livestream room loved this kind of tone. Watching Umaru play was exhilarating in itself.
That said, while it was thrilling, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed that Umaru's health bar had already dropped quite a bit and wanted to remind her.
Before they could, Umaru pressed the E key, lifted an entire car, and hurled it away. While enjoying the sheer impact of it, she moved closer to an infected creature, curious whether she could grab NPCs.
The result of that attempt was simple and brutal.
The Alex she was controlling punched straight through the infected's chest. Blood sprayed violently out of its back.
But that was not even the most important part.
Familiar blood-red tendrils spread out from the character she was controlling, wrapping around the infected whose chest had been pierced. In an instant, the creature was decomposed and absorbed directly into Alex body.
Umaru and the viewers both noticed immediately that her health bar recovered slightly.
That meant one thing—this was a way to restore HP.
Eager to test it again, Umaru immediately found several more NPCs. After Alex performed a series of jaw-dropping execution animations, every single one of them was devoured without exception.
This really could restore health.
"Huh… how do I put this… as a girl, I'm actually finding this recovery method really satisfying?"
"This combat system is amazing. The effects during attacks and the overall flow of combat feel insanely good!"
Umaru's eyes widened with excitement. The sense of freely venting violence and acting without restraint inside the game was deeply captivating.
The character she was controlling was absurdly powerful. She could leap onto buildings over ten stories tall and smash down from above.
The visual effects of the ground shattering, pedestrians being blasted away—it was pure catharsis.
The audience was equally fired up. Playing this looked even more satisfying than the opening cinematic. The visual impact and presentation were completely different from Sekiro's grounded realism or Devil May Cry's stylish fantasy.
This was extreme violence taken to the limit.
After Raize's optimization, Prototype retained all the strengths people remembered while undergoing sweeping changes.