[Inside the mansion's side building.]
Aiden gasped for breath. Beside him, Jill withdrew her gaze from watching Lisa leave through the window and handed him her water bottle.
"Thanks." Aiden didn't hold back. He took the bottle and poured it into his mouth.
After drinking more than half, Aiden let out a long breath, wiped his mouth with his sleeve ungracefully, then handed the bottle back to Jill.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to complain about Lisa being biased, Jill suddenly made a shushing gesture.
Aiden was stunned for a moment, then, under Jill's beckoning, came to a room in the annex.
[Room 002.]
Aiden glanced at the room number, and a scene from the game flashed through his mind...
At this moment, Jill took another step forward, leaned against the door, and made a listening posture.
There seemed to be someone talking inside the room, but since all the rooms in the mansion had been soundproofed, Jill couldn't hear very clearly.
But Aiden knew, that was Barry talking with Wesker.
'Speaking of which, in the original plot, after Jill entered the mansion, she often ran into Wesker and Barry, but now...'
Aiden recalled the plot, feeling that it was his intervention that caused the story to change.
However, Aiden also clearly knew that after he interfered with the plot, he didn't meddle too much. Most of the time, he just followed the plot, because he was afraid that if the plot changed too much, there would be consequences he couldn't predict—that would be the truly scary thing.
While he was thinking, Jill made a move. The conversation inside the room seemed to be over. She directly pulled out her lockpicking tool, unlocked the door, and pushed it open to enter.
Inside the room stood a tall, burly middle-aged white man. When he saw Jill and Aiden come in, a trace of unnatural expression flashed across his face.
Although he hid it quickly, it was still caught by Aiden and Jill.
"Barry, who were you talking to just now?" Jill scrutinized Barry's face, and only when he looked uncomfortable under her gaze did she speak.
"You misheard, Jill. That was just me talking to myself. Probably because I'm getting old—I do that sometimes." Just like in the plot. Barry indeed used his age as an excuse.
"Is that so?" Jill was half-believing, half-doubting. But as she looked around, she didn't find anything.
At that moment, Barry looked at Aiden and asked, "Jill, who is he?"
Jill frowned, thought for a moment, then slowly said, "Barry, I know you might not believe it, but I want to say this—his name is Aiden. He's a tourist from an Eastern country."
"Tourist?" Barry, just like when Jill first heard Aiden introduce himself, expressed his doubt, "A tourist carrying a rifle?"
"Uh… yes. After all, our country is a free country. Everyone has the right to own a rifle." Jill said awkwardly. She suddenly understood Aiden a bit—it really was hard to come up with a reasonable excuse.
"Then he must be very popular with the Rifle Association," Barry glanced at Aiden. "They like this kind of person."
Hearing Barry's seemingly sarcastic words, Aiden just smiled and didn't explain further.
He was very clear—Barry was probably already aware of his presence. When they entered the room just now, Barry didn't look particularly surprised. Wesker probably had told him beforehand.
"All right, Barry. There's no need to continue this topic. We still have important things to do." Jill noticed the atmosphere was a little off and quickly said.
Barry nodded. He also didn't want to waste time here. He told Jill to be careful, then walked straight out of the room.
"Barry, aren't you going with us?" Jill asked.
Barry didn't even look back, "I want to go out and get some fresh air. It really stinks in here. I'll find you later."
With that, he left the annex.
Watching Barry's back, Aiden shrugged helplessly toward Jill, "He doesn't seem to welcome me."
"If I were Barry, I wouldn't welcome you either." Jill gave him a sidelong glance. "God knows what you're really up to."
Aiden shrugged and smiled, "Trust me. I really am just here for sightseeing."
Upon hearing that, Jill looked deeply at Aiden, then nodded, "Maybe!"
———
In all the buildings of the mansion, if there was one thing not lacking, it was rooms.
The two of them repeated the act of entering and exiting rooms, and soon had roughly searched the annex.
Based on the information she knew, Jill also realized that there was a research lab under the mansion. She proposed to Aiden that they explore the underground facilities of the entire mansion.
Aiden hesitated a little, then agreed.
Originally, this part of the plot was supposed to happen after Jill met Wesker. But ever since Aiden appeared, the Wesker who was supposed to show up several times and guide Jill hadn't shown up at all. Even Barry, after parting ways from Room 002, had also vanished.
'So, I did change the plot after all?' Aiden thought bitterly.
While Aiden was still troubled over how the plot had changed, Jill had already found the mechanism to access the underground lab.
She patted Aiden on the shoulder, and pulled the still dazed Aiden toward the underground passage.
Just like the mansion above, the underground research facility was extremely large—possibly even bigger than the mansion itself. Without a map, even walking for a whole day might not be enough to get out.
But shortly after Aiden and Jill entered the underground passage, they ran into a living person at a corner of the hallway.
Seeing that person, Jill felt he looked familiar. She quickened her pace and ran forward a few steps, then found that the person was none other than the S.T.A.R.S. vice-captain, Enrico Marini.
A delighted smile appeared on Jill's face. She couldn't help but shout, "Vice-Captain Enrico, great—you're still alive!"
Ever since entering the mansion, Jill hadn't encountered a single surviving Bravo Team member. She had already lost hope for their survival in her heart. She didn't expect to meet the most respected Vice-Captain Enrico in the underground passage.
"Jill…" Hearing her voice, the seemingly injured old officer ignored the pain and took a few steps toward her, but Jill, who had rushed over, caught him.
"You're hurt." Jill looked at Enrico's leg, which was still bleeding.
Enrico comforted the young policewoman, "It's nothing, just a small wound."
Then he looked at Aiden behind Jill. He had thought it was a member of Alpha Team, but as Aiden came closer, he saw it was actually an Asian man.
He immediately became alert. Having access to more information, he knew there was a traitor in the team. So when a stranger appeared, his instinct was to be suspicious.
"Who is he?" Enrico asked in a low voice beside Jill's ear.
Jill was about to help him treat his wound. Hearing the question, she blurted out, "A friend."
"Friend…" Enrico was stunned for a moment. In his memory, Jill didn't seem to have any foreign friends—especially male ones.
But this wasn't the time to think about that. He lowered his voice even further and said, "Listen, Jill, there's a traitor in our team. Everything we encountered was orchestrated by that traitor."
"Traitor?" This time it was Jill's turn to be stunned. Then, this clever policewoman immediately thought of Barry. His behavior was suspicious enough.
But she didn't say it, because besides disbelief, there was also the fact that Barry arrived at the mansion later. The person Enrico was referring to probably wasn't him.
"Vice-Captain Enrico, who do you think the traitor is?" Jill thought for a moment and asked.
Enrico hesitated for a moment, then still said, "It's—"
But just as he started to speak, Aiden, who was on alert nearby, suddenly shouted loudly, "Who's there?!"
Immediately after, came a burst of gunfire.
The sharp gunfire made both Jill and Enrico instinctively take cover—one to the left, one to the right, sticking close to the wall. Jill shouted, "Aiden, what happened?"
Aiden still maintained a standard kneeling shooting posture. Without turning his head, he said, "I just saw a shadow coming this way—but now it's gone."
"So you opened fire?" Jill was a bit annoyed, "Maybe it was one of our people—could've been Rebecca or Chris."
"No matter who it was, the other person already raised their gun." Aiden was also a bit displeased, "Miss Valentine, I've already made one mistake—I don't want to repeat it again."
"…"
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