As the system message ended, Aiden Psycho vaguely heard countless eerie whispers and the tolling of a bell in his ears, as if welcoming him to hell.
The Mansion Incident had officially begun.
Aiden Psycho took a deep breath to ease the pressure in his heart. No matter what, reality was different from games. He only had one life—no save points, no restart, no hiding behind a health bar.
After a few deep breaths, he felt much better. He checked his firearm one last time to make sure everything was fine. Then he slowly approached the mansion door, gently pushing it open a crack with his gun barrel and peeking inside.
'Hmm… no one. And no zombies in sight.'
Only then did he confidently push the door open and stride inside.
But the moment he entered, Aiden Psycho realized he hadn't checked carefully enough—because lying on the floor of the mansion's main hall was a zombie corpse.
'If I'm not mistaken, this should be the zombie that Jill encountered—the one that gave the 'glance-back smile.' Looks like the plot has already begun.'
That was good news for Aiden Psycho. He could now follow the traces left by the Alpha Team to track them, without worrying about being overwhelmed by zombie attacks.
The downside was that the early experience would be slightly less thrilling.
Of course, once he encountered any Alpha Team member, the experience might become too thrilling… and he wasn't sure if he could handle it.
But before that, he needed to think of a reason to explain why he was here.
'Kind of tricky… Who would believe a tourist showed up here with an AR-15 and a giant backpack full of ammo—unless he's an idiot?'
Feeling that no matter what kind of reason, it couldn't be explained clearly, Aiden had a bit of a headache. In the end, he decided not to think about it for now, and just follow the Alpha Team members first—improvising on the spot was his strong suit.
Letting out a slight sigh, Aiden began to inspect the footprints around him with traces of mud. Don't forget, the Alpha Team members came from the jungle. These past few days, the weather in Raccoon City hadn't been good, so the muddy tracks left behind were very clear.
After checking around, Aiden helplessly discovered that he simply couldn't use the footprints to distinguish who left them behind.
S.T.A.R.S., as the city's elite team, had always been managed in a quasi-military manner. The members wore standard-issue gear, and naturally, their boots were thick-soled combat boots—the anti-slip patterns on the soles were all the same, and their sizes weren't that different either. After all, combat boots didn't come in small sizes.
Thinking for a bit, Aiden could only randomly choose a footprint and follow it.
Just as mentioned at the beginning, the plot had already started for some time. Along the way, Aiden saw quite a few zombie corpses and even killed a fair number of them himself. He even encountered a few monsters covered in green slime.
Aiden recognized those monsters—Hunters. He just didn't know which model they were, but no matter which kind, he didn't want to alert them.
So Aiden hid in a room for a while. Only after those monsters left did he continue moving forward.
After tracking the footprints for a while, they gradually became faint. When he reached the inner part of the mansion, the footprints couldn't even be seen anymore.
And the inner part of the mansion was complex and interconnected, with a huge area. If not for the occasional zombie corpse in the corridor and scattered pistol shells, Aiden would have suspected that he had gotten lost.
When Aiden passed through yet another corridor, it seemed Lady Luck had finally woken up—he actually heard the sound of human footsteps.
Yes, definitely the footsteps made by human activity. Zombies absolutely couldn't walk this steadily.
The source of the sound wasn't far, probably from one of the few rooms in front. Aiden suppressed the joy in his heart and slowly moved forward.
Then, he discovered that the sound came from the third room in the corridor.
The room door wasn't tightly closed—it was half-ajar, so Aiden could clearly see the scene inside the room. A tall young woman with short dark brown hair was rummaging through something in the room.
He didn't even need to think to know who this woman was.
One of the most popular female protagonists in the entire Resident Evil series, no less famous than Sister Wong—Jill Valentine.
Just as he was about to go in and say hello, this alert female police officer already sensed movement outside the door. She decisively turned around and raised her hand—and fired a shot.
"I'm human, don't— What the fu—"
Seeing Jill raise her hand the moment she turned around, Aiden already knew what she intended to do. The explanation wasn't even finished before it turned into a curse.
Fortunately, the shot only hit the doorframe beside Aiden, but the wood chips flying off the wooden doorframe struck by the bullet still left a shallow scratch on his face.
"Damn it, he's a human."
But the command to shoot had already been issued by the brain to the body—it was an instinctive bodily reaction she couldn't stop.
But Aiden's luck was decent—this shot from Jill was fired on reflex, so it wasn't particularly accurate. Otherwise, Aiden probably would've become the unluckiest transmigrator in history.
"Ma'am, please don't shoot. I'm human." Already having backed away from the door, Aiden shouted. Facing a gun barrel required great courage—especially since the gun's owner had just proven she definitely wasn't the type to hesitate.
"Alright, I apologize for my decisiveness, but you should understand—in a place like this, no one wants a stranger standing behind them. Especially a stranger holding a rifle." Jill apologized without much sincerity, explaining her actions, which were entirely reasonable.
"Of course, I understand what you did. If I were you, I'd do the same," Aiden followed her words, while also muttering in his heart, 'I almost forgot this is the beautiful country—the cops really do shoot.'
Too much peaceful time had worn away at his vigilance—that was fatal. Even though he had killed plenty of zombies on the way here, he still hadn't fully regained his former combat state. That would require a more deeply impactful process.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm his pounding heart, and seeing the female officer didn't speak further, Aiden said, "Can I come in? Staying out here is putting a lot of pressure on me. You know, this place is crawling with monsters—it's really not safe."
"It's the rifle in your hands that's truly unsafe," Jill replied immediately. "But you're right, this place is full of monsters. Compared to them, at least you're still a human. Come in."
Then she even added thoughtfully, "Don't worry, I definitely won't shoot again."
"That's really very kind of you, ma'am." Aiden let out a sigh of relief, quickly stepped into the room, and casually closed the door behind him.
Seeing Aiden close the door, Jill once again had the urge to raise her gun. But upon seeing Aiden let his hands hang naturally after shutting the door, letting the AR15 rifle dangle from his chest, she forced the urge down.
She understood that the other party was showing he had no ill intent. So she also holstered her gun—and even put the safety on.
This detail didn't escape Aiden's notice. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart—his own gun's safety was still off.
"Can you tell me who you are, and why you're here?"
After a moment of wide-eyed staring between the two, Jill was the first to break the silence.
Aiden thought for a while and, finding no suitable words, cleared his throat and said, "My name is Aiden, a tourist from an Eastern country. As for why I'm here—what I want to say is, as a tourist, it's not strange for me to appear anywhere."
"Is that so? A tourist?" Jill nearly laughed. "Do I look like one of Barry's two little girls—only a few years old?" She glanced at the AR15 hanging from Aiden's chest and sneered. "If you're going to lie, at least make it believable—a tourist carrying an automatic rifle?"
Just as Aiden had expected earlier—no one would believe that a tourist would carry an AR15 while traveling, especially to a place currently locked down by the Raccoon City police.
Aiden sighed slightly. He had long predicted Jill would say that, but his mind turned quickly, and he immediately came up with a new line.
"Indeed, it's hard to believe. But ma'am, one point I must correct—due to your country's legal regulations, this is a semi-automatic rifle. Also, this is the M country—a free country. Traveling with a rifle is a completely normal thing here. It's part of my freedom."
Jill was rendered speechless by Aiden's words. It took her a while to mutter, "That's why I don't really like this kind of freedom—it's a bit much."
But she quickly snapped back because she remembered something. "You say you're a tourist from an Eastern country. But I remember—inbound tourists are not allowed to carry firearms. I have reason to suspect that your weapon was obtained through illegal means, because the law in my country prohibits selling firearms to inbound tourists."
"Uh…" Facing Jill's words, Aiden didn't know how to respond for a moment. He could only stay silent.
Seeing this, Jill's lips curved upward slightly. She continued, "I admit, your explanation just now almost misled me. But for an elite Raccoon City police officer like me—not quite enough. So, Mr. Tourist, you must give me a reasonable explanation, or I'll have to arrest you."
"A reasonable explanation, huh…" Aiden scratched his head awkwardly, then asked, "My dear lady, are you in a hurry right now?"
Jill frowned, "Why ask that?"
Aiden spread his hands, "Because I'll need a bit of time to make up a reasonable explanation."
This time it was Jill who was speechless. Looking at Aiden's expression like you're putting me on the spot, she waved her hand hard, "Damn it, what a waste of time—a completely meaningless exchange."
"Exactly. So why don't we just skip this topic?" Aiden laughed. "Besides, my identity isn't important. You only need to know I have no ill intent. Otherwise, you wouldn't have had the chance to shoot at me."
"That's also the reason why I'm even willing to waste words on you, mister." Jill of course understood—if the man in front of her really had malicious intent, she would already be dead.
Of course, it wasn't just because of his lack of ill intent. A woman's sixth sense faintly told her—this man definitely wasn't ordinary. And he seemed to know something.
But Jill wasn't interested in digging deeper into this for now. What mattered most now was figuring out what was really going on in this mansion, and finding the surviving members of Bravo Team who went missing.
"By the way, since you already know my name—can you introduce yourself too? I can't keep calling you 'ma'am' forever. Even if it's a respectful term, it still feels a bit distant." Looking at Jill who seemed to be lost in thought, Aiden couldn't help but ask.
"Keeping distance is a good thing." Although Jill said so, she still introduced herself, "Jill. Jill Valentine. Raccoon City's star officer."
Exchanging names is the first step toward becoming friends—of course, that alone isn't enough.
Having "coincidentally" learned Jill's name, Aiden sensibly shifted the topic to the thing Jill cared about most—the mansion.
"I saw you rummaging through the room earlier. Did you find anything?" Aiden glanced at the documents Jill had scattered all over the table and asked.
Sure enough, Jill's attention shifted. She frowned and said, "So far, nothing."
Aiden wasn't surprised. The plot had only just begun. Jill and the others didn't yet have enough information—except for him.
But he couldn't say a word of it. He had just tried—but as soon as the words were about to leave his mouth, a force stopped him. It could only be attributed to the system's restriction.
After thinking for a moment, Aiden suggested, "Let's go check out other rooms. The mansion is so big—we're bound to find something."
Jill nodded, "That's exactly what I was planning to do."
Then she looked at Aiden again and asked, "Got any spare 9mm rounds?"
"Yes, of course."
Jill said with some difficulty, "Can you give me some? I'm running low."
In the game, protagonists could dig through crates or loot bodies for ammo. But in reality, every shot used was one less shot remaining.
"Of course. But…"
As Aiden spoke, he took off his backpack, placed it on the table, unzipped it, and—under Jill's stunned gaze—took out another AR15 and a shotgun, and handed them to her.
"Compared to handgun ammo, I think you need these more."
Looking at the two long guns in her hands, Jill finally couldn't hold back. She stared hard at Aiden, "You definitely know something."
"Sorry, I know nothing." Aiden shrugged. "I'm just a passerby."
"A passerby? Then why are you so well-prepared?" Jill asked again.
Aiden smiled and handed her some magazines, "Because I lack a sense of security. In an unfamiliar environment, weapons give me a bit of comfort."
Jill clearly didn't believe Aiden's explanation. So far, she believed most of what Aiden said was a lie. The only thing that might be true—was that sentence: he had no ill intent toward her.
And the gun in her hand was the best proof.
But… why was he doing all this? Or does he have some thoughts?
Jill was puzzled and couldn't figure it out.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y