Long-term salvation

Suddenly, Rhode laughed. Golden flames floated on his palms. He patted the Umbrella commissioner's face and said casually amidst the painful screams:

"Listen up, sinner—because I want to save the world, I want to, I want to, I'm going to do it—that's all."

Perhaps only when one day in the future, Rhodes stood on the top of the tower and announced his existence with golden flames, would they realize their stupidity.

"You! You are... Impossible... Irons isn't... How is that possible?!"

The Umbrella commissioner's eyes suddenly widened. The ugly mark of excommunication appeared on his left cheek, then on his right. In that instant, a flash of understanding rose from the depths of his soul, enough for him to understand who the person before him was:

"I see...I see...So they were all wrong. Irons isn't the savior at all—you are! You are the savior of mankind who was nailed to the cross and fed the world with five loaves and two fish!"

"Bingo, but unfortunately there's no reward for answering correctly, only punishment. Besides, I like handing out tanks and rifles to people these days," Rhodes shrugged. He turned to Nikki, who was waiting nearby, and said, "Sen, come over here and tell him everything you know. I'm worried that using force will scare this guy to death."

"So, gods really do exist, and they really can ascend to the Throne of Souls... but... to save the world... no, you can't succeed. You didn't succeed two thousand years ago, so how can you succeed now?"

The Umbrella commissioner twisted his body and struggled to walk towards Rhodes. He gritted his teeth and almost knelt before him. His once gentle face suddenly became extremely ferocious. The commissioner roared and shouted, as if this could vent his frustration and regret:

"You will only be betrayed, captured, and killed by humans once again, because there are so many pagans in this world, because—we don't believe in God at all!"

"I am not God."

"Shit! One day you will admit it, one day you will walk out of the cave where your body is kept and return to your father!"

The Umbrella commissioner wanted to say something more, but was quickly knocked to the ground by Mori. Mori took off the language converter and said:

"Now, listen to the sound of me... Instructor, it looks like he bit off his tongue."

"Biting it off won't kill him instantly," Rhodes snapped his fingers, and flames flashed across the commissioner's mouth. The commissioner's eyes widened. "Just ask as many questions as you can, Sen. If you can't ask all the questions, just save his brain—just like in the video, it'll come in handy."

Hearing this, Commissioner Umbrella struggled frantically, but it was pointless... Mori's mouth twisted open, and he began to speak with a low laugh.

Without paying any more attention to what was happening over there, Rhode whispered a few words to Hina and Shiroko, asking them to clear the memories of those crew members. Then he walked up to Koko and Casper, opened his arms, and said pretentiously:

"Okay, kids, you can worship me now."

"...You just said you're not a god."

"Oh yes, yes. Koko gets a point, Casper, you're slow to react, so you'll lose a point. Also, you need to copy 'Mr. Rhodes is not a God' 40 times before you go to college."

"I feel like there's some subtle malice in this number... At least I know a little bit about Warhammer and stuff," the boy sighed. He tried hard to block out the noise coming from Nikki, so he had to raise his voice and ask loudly, "So what should we do now?"

"That's a real problem," Rhode said, leaning against the porthole as he watched the battleship emerge from the waves. Its three 406mm main guns slowly lowered their sights on the Umbrella ship and two other freighters carrying munitions. "Let's just stay here. After all, no one besides you will remember my presence."

"But you must remember this."

The three freighters were hit one by one at close range by the battleship's main guns, and one was even sunk directly! Four Hornet fighters carrying AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles swooped down from the clouds, pouring fire on the freighter that was exploding and breaking in two.

The flames rising into the sky illuminated the night, and the battleship that had long since withdrawn from the stage of history slowly appeared and sailed towards the large container ship "Dark Blue Moon". The distance between the two was so close but no collision occurred!

Rhode walked out of the freighter's bridge and onto the corridor extending from the battleship. He turned to look at the two Hecmedia children and raised his index finger to his lips.

"Keep quiet."

Otherwise, the nightmare will really come to you.

Chapter 494: Long time no see, Gideon

Before Dawn.

Somalia's skyline was an unpleasant iron-grey. The outlines of dead acacia trees slowly emerged from the darkness. A few wild animals ran across this ravaged landscape, eager to live for another day.

A hot, dry south wind swept across the barren plains, kicking up rust-colored dust clouds that blew into the wheels of Toyota pickup trucks.

Four men squeezed into this tattered car, occasionally leaning back and firing - the bullets pierced through the hot air, crackling on the ground, splashing dust and gravel - behind them followed seven tattered pickup trucks that looked similar. The interior and rear compartments of the cars were full of Somali militiamen from Mogadishu, who were shouting and driving the cars under them frantically.

The distance between the two sides was constantly shortening, and the incoming bullets even shattered the rearview mirror of the car in front.

The poor thing bounced a few times on the sand, broke into pieces, and was then run over by the wheels.

"Why are there so many fucking Somalis? Johnny, drive faster!" Lemmer, an elite Atlas pilot in the co-pilot seat, instinctively shrank his head. He looked at the winding dirt road ahead and gripped his rifle tightly. "Fuck, haven't we left the no-fly zone yet?!"

"The United Nations has drawn a new line to the south, which just cuts off the upward support route. We have to make a big detour... Damn the Americans, they actually pulled the air defense radar over here to watch!"

"Ahem, Johnny, you are a United Statesman."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. I've been working at Atlas for almost seven years," the driver patted his head, a look of frustration on his face. "What should we do next? We only have this broken car with nothing on it!"

"Unfortunately, the roads in this area have long been controlled by Aidid's men, and military vehicles are particularly under control. The Intelligence Department can't get you anything like a Humvee in."

So said the intelligence agent of the Army Without Borders, a black man from the Southern states of the United States, who was now tightly clutching the small silver cylinder in his hand. An hour ago, the agent had left Mogadishu with intelligence, and had just met up with the contact personnel when he was caught up by a group of militiamen. This group of crazy extremists were chasing him relentlessly, as if they were guided by some existence.

"...You can put me down and send the information back, which will be considered a successful mission."

The agent thrust the cylinder in his hand at the man sitting next to him, twisted his neck, grabbed the assault rifle next to him, and pulled the bolt, saying helplessly:

"This undercover work was pretty good. You know, when I was working in the intelligence department of the United States Army, I almost got sent to the Soviet Union as an intelligence officer. Fortunately, my boss at the time was still mentally stable."

The joke was so funny that the other three people in the car almost couldn't hold back.

After taking a deep breath, Gideon (Chapter 5, from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare) tried to suppress the corners of his mouth that turned up, and said unhappily:

"Next time you tell jokes, you can wait until the base bar...Agent, put on your body armor. We have a spare exoskeleton here, put it on first."

"I don't think it's a good idea to fight the enemy on the Great Plains, even if they're just a bunch of drugged-up lunatics."

"That's what I thought," Gideon leaned forward, patted the pilot and co-pilot, and ordered, "Turn left. Let's go behind that small hill. I've called for backup... We have night vision and thermal imaging equipment before daybreak. Otherwise, we might be caught up."

"Then..."

Deng Deng Deng!

The 12.7mm heavy machine gun fired with a steady yet terrifying roar, piercing the Toyota pickup truck's rear bed and main shaft, glancing through the interior and shattering the front and rear windows! Black smoke billowed from the edge of the car's hood, then suddenly popped up after a few seconds, emitting a foul, burning smell.

The four people in the car were lucky enough not to be killed, but the intelligence agent at the end had his scalp scratched - a large piece of scalp was torn off, and one could even see the skull covered with a thin layer of flesh and blood underneath!

"What the hell?! M2 or DShK?!"

"Don't worry about it, get out of the car!"

Gideon kicked open the car door and jumped out before the car lurched to a stop. As his robotic arms pushed forward on the ground, he threw out two smart grenades. The grenades paused in mid-air for half a second before flying towards the two nearest targets in front of him. The flames of the explosion shot up into the sky, illuminating the African land before dawn!

The smell of burning tar mixed with the morning mist. Several deep ruts were embedded in the sand, and yellow bullet casings were scattered on the raised edges.

The bullet casings are still increasing.

The four men hiding behind the tattered pickup truck looked dusty and dirty. They were all elite special forces soldiers, but they still seemed extremely powerless when facing a large number of enemies equipped with heavy machine guns.

If this heavy machine gun had not been improperly maintained and frequently jammed, Gideon and the other three would have probably turned into a pool of minced meat by now.

Similarly, relying on the broken car in front of him as a cover to resist was definitely not a good idea, but if he just ran... even with the best bulletproof vest and mechanical exoskeleton, the enemy he faced was just a group of drugged militiamen, and Gideon didn't think he could outrun rifle and heavy machine gun bullets on the plains.

Not even the Green Berets.

"Air support will be here in ten minutes. Mr. Irons is no bureaucrat," Gideon said loudly to the others. He changed the magazine of his weapon and put the empty one back. "Agent, have you finished treating your wound?"

"I'm fine, at least not yet."

"Then we'd better hold out for ten minutes... We have to take out that heavy machine gun! Fuck!" Johnny leaned forward and fired a few shots before coming back with a cry of pain. He lowered himself again and touched his shoulder. "Looks like I've lost another kilogram of fat. I'm bleeding a bit too much."

"Shut up - Leimer, give him a shot of Zagustin hemostatic agent (Escape from Tarkov, purple needle)."

Gideon spoke quickly, standing up suddenly from behind the car and shooting the militiaman operating the heavy machine gun in the distance with a few precise bursts of fire, breaking the ammunition box and the supporting structure, leaving it hanging crookedly.

However, a masked man got out of the car at the end of the convoy. He was much calmer than everyone around him, even the elite soldiers of Atlas - like a dead body.

The masked man not only picked up his weapon and moved forward, but also shouted orders to the militiamen next to him, asking them to disperse in an arc, firing and slowly approaching the front.

Bullets flew randomly over the car shelter with a heart-wrenching whistling sound, and the Somali militiamen who shouted extremist doctrines gradually surrounded them. They ignored the painful screams of their companions who were shot and felled, as if the only thing in their brains was the urge to tear apart the outsiders in front of them.

"It seems we can't wait ten minutes even if we take down the heavy machine gun," Gideon took a breath. He exchanged glances with the agent, and both saw the same meaning in each other's eyes. "How important is the information you have?"

"It's important, but the most important thing is that we found... did you hear anything?"

Sounds? Gideon did hear some strange sounds.

The wind suddenly rose.

Something was falling from the sky with a scream.

Gideon felt inexplicably familiar with the voice, as if he had heard it somewhere in the past.

Now there was more than just a scream! Suddenly, explosions could be heard as several cars were hit. Flames and gravel were swept away in all directions by the shockwave, raising a continuous sandstorm.

The next second, the helicopter's rotors whipped up a gust of wind, blowing away the dust that obstructed vision and stirring up the charred smoke. The thunder of mechanical twisting and engine roaring hammered away the fading darkness, ushering in light.

The dust storm dissipated and the sun rose.

Sunlight diffused from the distant horizon, casting shadows on dead trees, on the wreckage of cars, and on Gideon.

"Long time no see, Gideon."

A long-lost, familiar voice reached Gideon's ears. He let out a long breath and looked up at the young man sitting in the Toyota pickup truck. The three people beside him opened their eyes wide and shouted subconsciously in surprise:

“Oh, Jesus!”

"Ah, yes, yes, I'm right here." Rhodes took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, then handed the cigarette box to others and asked with a smile:

"Does anyone of you want a 'red apple'?"

Chapter 495: The Chaotic Situation in Somalia

Everyone rejected Rhodes' kindness, which made him a little sad.

"Before I came here, I received a call from Irons. He hoped that I could bring you back along the way—or retrieve some important intelligence—and because of that, I also received a message from the Intelligence Department asking for help."

Rhodes said as he jumped out of the battered Toyota pickup truck. He turned around and looked at the unfortunate thing. "You are really lucky not to have been killed by the stray bullet that penetrated the car body."

"Boss, we were lying on the ground like maggots just now, but luckily the enemy's shooting skills were terrible enough."

Gideon joked and relaxed a little, watching two fully armed girls running over to treat the wounds, while not far away, a woman named "Marian" whom he had seen before led other... girls to do tasks such as replenishing guns and cleaning up the battlefield.

There was also a gray-haired girl carrying a weapon. She was also fully armed but followed Rhode's footsteps closely, her nose occasionally moving like a jackal smelling some prey.

Regardless of their appearance, these girls were very professional, very professional—but Gideon and his team tried not to imagine Rhodes' future life as an imperial concubine.

"You arrived just in time. If we'd been surrounded by the enemy a little later, or if we'd let that heavy machine gun be deployed... well, it's all over." Gideon reloaded his weapon's magazine. He remained in combat mode, lowering his rifle. He thrust the small silver cylinder from his pocket toward Rhodes and said seriously, "This is the intelligence, and the agent himself is here too."

"I know, and I can probably guess what the intelligence is about—the Ibris Organization, right?"

Rhodes said this, and without waiting for the intelligence agent to reply, he pointed at the charred corpse that was dragged out of the wreckage of the vehicle by the mass-produced Nikkis.

This time, it really was a corpse.

"A dying person, a living dead. The aura Baizi sensed on the road was indeed correct." Rhodes touched the wolf girl's head, then walked over to the corpse and squatted down. The information in his all-seeing eyepatch was refreshing the other party's information. "Somali people believe in Islam, and the Ibris organization supporting this layer of skin will obviously not miss this opportunity. So the question is... what are they doing here?"

"Based on the intelligence we've gathered so far, they've been lurking here for at least five years, but they haven't taken this place seriously before."

The intelligence agent came over, clutching his head. His facial muscles were still twitching slightly from the pain, but he tried hard to control his expression. He stood like a guard and continued:

"However, after Atlas Corporation launched its large-scale operations and... after you appeared, the situation changed. They began to control, and now control, several warlords in the Somali region, including Aidid, who has completely ruled Mogadishu."

"But compared to the Middle East, Iblis hasn't been able to completely control Somalia and Mogadishu, right? The United States Joint Task Force (UNITAF), which is mainly composed of Americans, is still stationed at Mogadishu International Airport and controls key infrastructure within the city."

Rubbing his temples, Rhode looked at the corpse at his feet with a headache. He could vaguely tell that it was a Middle Eastern man. After a few seconds of silence, he asked:

"What is Umbrella Corporation or [Organization] doing?"

"Trading with Aidid, he would regularly provide testing grounds, human personnel, minerals, and other smuggled funds in exchange for biological weapons, various munitions, and food. These items would obviously fall into the hands of the Ibris Organization. According to reports from some soldiers in the war zone, some biological weapons were deployed on the battlefield. Naturally, they were released by Aidid and his subordinates to reverse the decline in the battle with the Atlas Corporation. Of course, these weapons would be no match for tanks and infantry fighting vehicles on the plains."

This is not surprising.

However, selling biological weapons is one aspect, and on the other hand, judging from the fact that there have been no "Resident Evil"-level infection incidents for such a long time, the infectiousness of the T virus seems to have been artificially reduced.

Rhodes frowned but quickly relaxed his brows - with the existence of the other world, the controllers of Umbrella Corporation probably wouldn't think much of the power brought by the T virus or other viruses. Besides, if everyone in the world turned into zombies, who would serve as research material for them?

"These people probably know who's controlling Aidid, and they're only doing this to cause trouble for Atlas Corporation," Rhode said, standing up and chuckling sarcastically. "Besides taking action themselves, they'll actually recruit any possible partners... What is this? A blasphemous alliance?"

So when did "Napoleon" go to Egypt to beat the Mamluks?

There are also the United States peacekeeping forces, Ethiopia, and Somaliland in the north... Somalia is in such chaos that everyone wants to come in and get a piece of the pie. Only the ignorant Somalis are driven into Mogadishu like cattle and sheep, becoming fresh ingredients in the meat grinder.

Rhode, who was troubled by the chaotic situation, waved his hand, signaling Marian and the others to finish cleaning up the battlefield, and then turned to Gideon and the others and said:

"Forget it, let's get on the helicopter and go back now."

Two helicopters took off one after another and took the group away, leaving behind only the wreckage of the car engulfed by the explosion and flames, and body parts scattered all over the ground.

This is not surprising, as this is the case in Somalia today.