Fatal Shot

The wooden stairs creaked as someone ascended the steps. Two NPC guards in sweat-drenched uniforms walked into the cafe.

“Captain Harley! You must be exhausted from today,” greeted the owner of the cafe. He was an African man in his forties who greeted the elder of the two guards as soon as they walked in. “Come sit down and have a drink.”

“Solo, did anything happen here last night?” asked Captain Harley in a tired voice. The Caucasian man who was referred to as Captain Harley seemed to be around 50 years old, a corporal near retirement age.

“Thanks to y’all guard soldiers, everything is fine here. As a token of my appreciation, let me get you a drink, on the house. Captain Harley, this is one of the best from my cellar…”

“Harley?”

That name sounded familiar. Feng Luo flicked through his memories and recalled that yesterday, the fat director had mentioned a certain “Harley” who was suspicious of his motives. Not only that, but he had also commented that this Harley wasn’t someone easy to deal with.

So, this is the guy?

He turned his head ever so subtly to the side to observe Captain Harley out of the corner of his eye. Captain Harley seemed to be quite tired. His eyes were bloodshot, and it was obvious that he had been busy and hadn’t slept at all since last night.

“Captain, why did you agree to that greedy fatso? What happened yesterday night was clearly suspicious,” complained the younger guard—who seemed to be in his twenties—in a low voice as soon as they sat down.

“The past three times,” said Captain Harley, “they claimed that it was caused by some beast that came from the mountains. However, I secretly extracted a sample and got it tested by a friend at the hospital, and I found out that Billy and the rest of them were infected by a special strain of virus.”

“Virus? This certainly has something to do with Umbrella Corporation!” exclaimed the indignant young man. Even though his voice was soft, it was imbued by barely suppressed fury and agitation. “There is definitely something wrong with the sanatorium! Let’s just go in and investigate it. There must be some sort of clue there! You have always argued with him regarding this issue, but why is it that you have agreed to cover it up this time?”

“Sam…” Captain Harley remained silent for a moment before speaking up. “Roguetown is our home. You should know the reason behind its advancement. If stories like this came to light in public, the impact on our tourism industry would be monumentally devastating. Enough to shut it down for good. Do you still remember how was our life was like ten years ago, before tourism was developed? What kind of lives did we live back then?”

Captain Harley looked up and downed the glass of alcohol given to him by the bartender in one gulp.

“No one would want to go back to that kind of life! This is why I chose to cooperate with Locke for the time being. But I swore this would be the last time! I will report his wrongdoings to our superiors after this, we must remove this malignant tumor from Roguetown!” Captain Harley snarled this last part with the utmost conviction. “And Umbrella! If they really are responsible for what happened, I will do everything within my power to make sure that they pay the price!”

Feng Luo blinked, an idea flashing through his mind.

He leaned over to murmur something to Mu Zi and Sister Rui before leaving his seat and walking toward the table with the two guards.

“Hello, Captain Harley!” Feng Luo called out as he walked over to Harley.

“Wha…? what’s the matter?” Harley looked up. His face was red from the vigorous drinking.

“Here’s the thing, Captain Harley. I have some important information regarding what happened last night. Can I have a private moment with you?” said Feng Luo as he looked into Harley’s eyes.

“About what happened last night?” Harley frowned a little.

******

“What? You mean what happened yesterday was the work of Umbrella Corporation? Not only that, but the reason behind it was to use everyone in Roguetown to test the biochemical virus that they had invented?”

They were in a separate room in the cafe. Captain Harley could hardly contain his astonishment and could barely keep his voice down after hearing what Feng Luo had disclosed.

“It’s impossible,” he said. “They couldn’t have had the guts to do that! There are thousands of local Roguetown residents, and if you include the tourists here, that would add up to at least 2,000 people. Has the person in charge of Umbrella lost his mind to conduct a biochemical virus experiment on a town with an approximate population of 2,000?”

Captain Harley denied what Feng Luo told him. Perhaps it was due to the fact that deep down, he could not believe that such a horrible thing was happening.

“Captain Harley, Umbrella Corporation is a bigger daredevil than you could imagine,” said Feng Luo. “I am not sure if the person in charge has gone nuts, but I do know that Director Locke was definitely bribed by them!”

“Locke, that parasite…” Harley wasn’t really surprised to hear what Feng Luo had said.

Come to think of it, it was impossible that the notoriously money-hungry Locke hadn’t accepted bribes from the only large corporation in the town. Therefore, Feng Luo could understand why Harley wasn’t surprised. Despite that, he still had enough bargaining chips to gain Harley’s trust.

Feng Luo reckoned that Harley could be a helpful character planted in for this mission by the system. After all, the players in Roguetown were too weak to challenge the resource-rich and well-protected Umbrella Corporation by themselves. Besides raiding the sanatorium and hoping for the best, they were left with the option of teaming up with the NPCs.

However, due to finding out at the start that the guards were in cahoots with Umbrella Corporation—in addition to being monitored by plainclothes guard soldiers these few days—Feng Luo had instinctively developed a negative opinion and thought of them as enemies.

Unfortunately, he had failed to take into consideration that the collusion was only between the director and the corporation. More precisely, between those supporting the director and the corporation. Meanwhile, Captain Harley, who was the director’s rival, could have been a potential ally. If he had had Captain Harley’s help from the beginning, he might have already succeeded in gathering evidence on the human experiment that Umbrella Corporation was carrying out.

Feng Luo was aware of his mistake, but clearly, now wasn’t the time for self-reflection.

“Captain Harley, actually I am—”

Suddenly, a loud commotion could be heard through the windows.

A young guard’s confused voice drifted out from the cafe. “Huh? What’s the matter? There seems to be a disturbance at the hospital!”

Corporal Harley’s face sank. Both of them stood immediately and hurried to look out of the windows. They saw crowds of people rushing from the gates of the hospital a stone’s throw away from them. All of the people looked panicked.

Faintly, dreadful screams and cries for help could be heard coming from that direction.

It was similar to last night’s situation—but worse!