Long-term salvation

This man looks like G-man from the Half-Life series, but he doesn't have that man's powerful strength, so he can only die under the axe.

"I should have paid more attention," Nikki said, her full chest rising and falling, her upper body straight as a pupil awaiting a lecture from her teacher. Only her fair thighs rubbed against each other nervously. "His appearance is very unique... I even managed to get another high-value target to flee the battlefield!"

D pursed her lips, awaiting Rhode's rebuke. She had made such a blunder in her first time with the Commander. Although he had previously ordered "eliminating all hostile personnel," she wasn't an inflexible mass-produced type... Feeling frustrated and anxious, Nikki waited for Rhode's retort:

"So, D, how do you want me to punish you?" Rhodes asked, using the same tone he used to tease Hina just now.

He actually didn't care much about the life or death of the Mobius Administrator. The STEM project that the latter was mainly responsible for had failed. If Mobius wanted to take over later, it would have to rely on the intelligence brought back by Kidman and the information obtained in the early stage.

Now that the nail has been driven in, a slight loss of intelligence is acceptable.

But that Umbrella guy who escaped... This kind of decisiveness and ruthlessness is definitely not something that an ordinary person can do, let alone professionals like Umbrella's Wolf Pack. That would be a bit tricky.

Similarly, Rhode didn't want to run into Death Hank—so should he find a way to poach this guy and the Wolf Pack from Umbrella? He really needed some troops to do the dirty work, and D's presence just happened to make him the best commander.

But Nikki is still in a state of self-doubt and needs guidance. Rhode thought so and said:

"Don't worry too much or blame yourself, D. After all, I've never encountered such a situation before. But your story does serve as a reminder to me. Even if you don't make a mistake today, someone else might make one in the future."

Rhodes shrugged, turned the steering wheel, and steered the Humvee onto the road leading to the city. As they got closer, the raindrops that had been clattering against the car windows became less frequent. Instead, the traffic thickened. News about Crimson City came over the radio—a massive chemical gas leak—was heard from certain giants, tacitly drawing an iron curtain to shield the lambs from the truth.

Listening to the news broadcast on the radio, Rhode leaned slightly and said to Nikki without turning his head:

"Of course, I also bear some responsibility for not considering your characteristics. After returning to Hill Manor, you can tell Marian about this yourself. I think she will make the appropriate decision."

"...I understand, Marianne," Nikki hesitated, but finally put aside her uneasy mood and waited to meet the others.

After listening to the conversation between the two, Hina turned her head to look out the car window with a smile on her face. She saw that the dense gray-brown trees on both sides of the road were rapidly receding and slowly disappearing. They first turned into low shrubs and soon turned into various suburban buildings. Pedestrians were walking in groups of three or two under the huge and exaggerated store signs.

In the distance, a passenger plane is landing.

Nearby, the girls standing in front of the coffee shop were waving at the Hummer.

Looking at the cute girls with sweet smiles, Hina sighed and reached out to pinch Rhodes' cheeks quite hard.

"Ehhhh? Why so sudden?! It hurts!"

"This is the compensation Sensei wants to give me."

"Wait a minute, shouldn't it be Hina who compensates me..."

Harder.

Note ①: From "Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City"

Chapter 151: Arkham Town remains the same as always!

The town of Arkham has undergone many changes recently, leaving the original residents feeling somewhat lost.

Needless to say, the townspeople gradually became familiar with those strong soldiers after a few months of getting along with each other. With them around, the security in the town was much better, especially outside the bar after the night game.

Because of this, the sheriffs in the town also became lazy, soaking themselves in coffee and donuts all day long, and even their waistlines began to gradually become thicker. Fortunately, the police station had a new batch of tactical belts "donated" from Atlas, which successfully solved the problem - the belts were relatively wide and thick, and successfully held the officers' fat.

But things have been different lately.

The "Count of Monte Cristo" who lived in Hill House actually wanted to open a mental hospital on the edge of town! Listen to those two words: mental research! Hospital!

The residents of the town immediately named the place "Arkham Asylum" and sternly warned their children not to go near it.

It's not just a mental hospital, there's also a university...or maybe a college or something, called Miskatonic University. There aren't many courses offered now, mainly focusing on paleontological research, archaeology, history and folklore. I heard that a medical school will be added in the future.

The university has just recently completed its interior decoration, and a new type of engineering machine was used in the entire construction process. The soldiers and construction workers called it Labor, which is an experimental product of Atlas Corporation. It is said that it will soon enter the market.

If these are the changes that can be seen on the surface, then when the townspeople see those unfamiliar faces settling here on weekdays, they often wonder in their hearts - when did Arkham become so popular?

“It’s a safe place for my daughter to live.”

Ruth da Silva, who had moved here, hugged her daughter Sharon and responded to the curious townspeople. Sharon was cute and lovely, but she would occasionally show a coldness that was unbecoming of her age. It was at those times that the resentment in her eyes was so terrifying that it made people's hair stand on end.

"Sharon's mental health isn't very good...well, she's suffering from depression. I need her to grow up peacefully. Coincidentally, the owner of the mental hospital being built here is a friend of mine. He wrote to persuade our family to come here."

When Ms. Ruth replied to the townspeople, her husband, Mr. Christopher da Silva, also nodded. This steady and good man found a job at a newspaper in town and often hung out with a failed writer named Randolph Carter. They wrote some weird and interesting stories and published them in the newspaper, which became people's leisure reading.

And then there's Officer Daniel, who moved from the neighboring town of Salem, and his ex-wife... well, they've remarried and are now planning to have another child. Officer Daniel has been shoved into the town police department as a salary thief, while his wife Alison will be working at the soon-to-be-opened Arkham Asylum for the Psychiatric Research.

There are many foreign settlers like them, and there will be even more in the future. No one knows whether this is good or bad.

Some people with ulterior motives believe that it was all caused by the fire in Salem Hospital some time ago. It was said that many people died there, which led to the "Count of Monte Cristo" and his "Helens" who originally planned to settle in Salem to come to the nearby town of Arkham. Doesn't Salem, where the witch case once occurred, just suit the style of the eccentric earl?

It has to be said that this statement is indeed recognized by the residents of Arkham Town. However, Mr. Rhodes and his family living in Hill Manor are not weird people. Even Father Merlin of the town church praises him.

But apart from these strange things, the townspeople found that their lives didn't seem to have changed much. They still went to work every day, had a cup of coffee with colleagues at noon, and went home under the bright street lights at night, passing by the occasional military Humvee convoy.

There were also idle drunks who mentioned that they had seen a fleet of Humvees with scratches and dents on the edge of town late at night. The scratches were not caused by vehicle collisions or more serious car accidents, but more like being hit by some kind of wild beast - like an elephant or a rhino - or perhaps a more ferocious beast. In short, it was as if they had been through a difficult battle.

However, his words were just irrelevant nonsense, and he would even be laughed at and booed by the soldiers when he mentioned it in the bar. Then, this rumor, which was both true and false, quickly disappeared in the crisp sound of wine glasses clinking, and no one cared about it anymore.

After that, no one in the town saw the damaged convoy late at night again, as if it was really just a drunkard's hallucination.

The children of the town were quite interested in the mysterious Hill Manor and the rumors surrounding it. They would often gather together and pass by the old mansion on the edge of town, gazing at the gloomy building that seemed never to have seen the sun, secretly speculating about some murder that had occurred within...

For example, Mr. Rod, who lived there, had actually died a long time ago. He was just a Frankenstein put together by those beautiful ladies. Some children also believed that he had made a deal with the devil, otherwise he would not be so rich and loved by beautiful women.

Every time this happened, a small group led by the Crane children and supplemented by Mike Wheeler and his friends would stand up. They would sneer at this and even argue with those unruly little bastards.

These children have the best relationship with Rhodes and they can't bear to see him being manipulated casually. Otherwise, it would be unfair to the Warhammer chess pieces and other board games in the attic, right?

Adults have their own stories, and children have their own stories. These stories are intertwined, casting a veil of mystery over the owner of Hill Manor and completely concealing the truth underneath.

Time slipped away in the small town of Arkham, slowly changing, silently and unnoticed. Perhaps five, ten, or even more years from now, the residents would realize they had become a part of history, that they had witnessed a great undertaking that had grown from humble beginnings step by step to grandeur.

Rhode didn't know what the residents of Arkham were thinking, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care. Now there were more things he needed to think about, such as the one in front of him:

"D, why are you in my bedroom?"

“…This is punishment.”

Is this a punishment for me?!

Rod, who was wearing pajamas, turned his neck stiffly, trying to move his eyes away from Nikki who was sitting there.

Chapter 152: Everyday Uneasy Night

This was Rod's first night back in Arkham, and he just wanted to go to bed.

Hill Manor on this night was no different from any other night. There were no rustling sounds of mosquitoes, snakes, or rats, only the murmurs of darkness slowly crawling in the walls. Occasionally, one or two ghosts would wander in the corridor, making the wooden floor creak.

The deathly cold dispelled the warmth in the uninhabited area, extinguished the remaining fire in the fireplace, and pulled up the thick and hard curtains in the corridor, completely blocking the moonlight and lights from outside, making the sticky and gloomy darkness fill every corner of the villa.

Of course, in the darkness, those strange, subtle noises would not enter the bedroom where people were already living, disturbing their dreams and causing annoyance.

Hill Manor is smart and cunning, but it will not let its feeders get angry.

Yuka and Noah's bedrooms were next to each other, and even their beds were separated by only a brick wall that was not very thick. However, after experiencing the battle and waiting, the two girls had no other thoughts in their minds. They simply washed up and quickly lay down on the bed.

At this moment, two people with different personalities were thinking about the same thing, and then stuffed their hazy visions and affections into the pillow, allowing fatigue to drag them into a warm and drowsy sleep.

The same was true for the other girls who came out of Kivotos. Although they possessed powerful and mysterious powers, they were still fragile girls at heart. Now, they were slowly falling into a deep sleep due to exhaustion.

The Sand Wolf girl closed the notebook filled with the bank robbery plan, but before that, she circled Rod's name again and again with a ballpoint pen. The cute little nun quickly got into bed after finishing her evening prayers, recalling what happened in the chapel a few days ago, and then let out a strange laugh.

Hina had just arrived at Hill Villa and was not yet fully familiar with the environment, so she just took a shower and threw herself on the soft bed, smelling the faint fragrance left by the incense burner that had been placed in the room, and gradually fell asleep while thinking.

Only the nearly tireless Nikkis were in action at this point, and possibly Abigail, who was wrestling with Pickman the Black Cat and suffering an ignominious defeat.

Marian didn't stay in her bedroom. Instead, she curled up on the sofa in Rhodes's study, watching a video on special forces combat on a projector. Next to her were several textbooks and General Hammer's memoirs. The lights were off in the study, only the flickering light from the video made her eyes flicker.

Yang hadn't returned to Hill Manor yet, continuing to work for Rhodes in Japan. Because of this, Little Red Riding Hood had seized the classic records stored in her bedroom. The records were now slowly playing on a record player, the soothing and melodious jazz trapped in the bedroom, constantly changing to the rhythm of Red-Haired Nikki's mood, the pace of change increasing with each passing second.

Everyone was doing what they needed to do, except Rod, who just wanted to sleep but couldn't fall asleep.

He was a little annoyed, but this was not because of the person in front of him - she came here sincerely and looked at her master with guilt.

"D, why are you in my bedroom?"

"...This is punishment," Nikki said calmly, "I've deeply realized my mistake and intend to make amends."

Finally, Nikki added:

"Just like the compensation you asked Ms. Hinata to make."

The corners of Rhodes' eyes twitched slightly. He took a deep breath and said:

"I'm going to go to bed."

"The punishment..."

"Punishment! Punishment! If you want it so badly, I'll give it to you!"

Rod was furious. He reached out and picked up Nikki, placed her across his thighs, and swung his palms hard at her round and perky buttocks tightly wrapped in her shorts.

The sound and contact of each swing made Nikki's body tremble slightly. Shame and pain flowed up along her beautiful body like a hot torrent, from her tight abdomen to her plump chest that was squeezed into an oval shape, and finally washed her brain into a mess.

When the dizzy Nikki came to her senses, she had been carried to the corridor, the door behind her was closed tightly, and there was even a sign hanging on the door handle that read "Sleeping, No Entry."

After sitting there for a few seconds, D got up from the ground and staggered back to his bedroom to continue daydreaming.

After sending Nikki away, Rhode crawled back into bed and breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't need much sleep on weekdays, but killing time doing nothing like this could help relieve his tense spirit. It was also important to accumulate his SAN points!

Thinking this way... Rhodes actually wanted to think about more important matters, such as the cooperation between Umbrella and Mobius, the Cogito Foundation meeting he personally requested, and more development plans for the Army Without Borders... Sleepiness came over him, and Rhodes closed his eyes and put all this behind him.

The next second, Rhodes opened his eyes and saw Asuka Iki in a white dress standing in front of him.

The girl, with a slightly blushing face, smiled sweetly, and there was a lingering melancholy in her beautiful face. She looked cute and pitiful, making people want to hold her in their arms and tear her into pieces.

...How could I have forgotten you?

Rhodes covered his face with his hands.

"I learned a few tricks about dreams from Abi-chan... um... little tricks about dreams," Asuka Ikiji whispered. She raised her hands, and the surroundings immediately transformed from a plain white space into the reception room of Hill Villa.

A flame suddenly rose in the fireplace, and the dancing flames reflected on the beige sofa, casting shadows behind the sofa and covering the other blurry furniture, as if only the small world in front of the fireplace was real in the living room.

As warmth gradually filled the room, Asuka Iki took Rhode's hand and sat down on the sofa. She didn't actually do anything, but just let Rhode lie down, resting his head on her thighs, and then reached out and massaged him slowly.

The girl's hand reached into the silver hair and brushed it past the slightly opened blue eyes, with the force from her fingers being just right, one deep and one shallow.

"Mr. Rhodes has saved the world again," the girl chuckled. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth coming from her palms. "It must be hard work to save those who are suffering—people like me in the past. You must be very tired."

"If you could just let me sleep a little longer," Rhode complained with his dead eyes wide open, "I really don't know where you get all the energy to torment me."

"What a shameless complaint, Mr. Rhodes! It's clearly all your fault—you know our feelings, yet you're occupying and teasing us like a tyrannical monarch, not allowing us to escape, nor allowing us to get close."

“I don’t have that much free time now…Alas!”

Asuka Iki gently pinched Rhodes' ear, then leaned over and whispered shyly and tremblingly:

"Isn't there time now?"

“Neither reality nor fantasy, we wander between wakefulness and trance, without paying any price.”

The straps of the pure white dress slid down the girl's thin shoulders.

Chapter 153 Daily Life: Time Moves Forward

It rained in the early morning.

The drizzle of early spring in North America flashed with a faint light, enveloping Hill Villa. From a distance, it looked like a layer of hazy mist, blurring the view inside and outside.

Rod leaned against the cracked window and lit a cigarette. He placed the cigarette case and lighter on the window frame, angling it to prevent the heat from condensing on the glass and wetting the cigarette inside.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Rhodes subconsciously looked back at the bed. There was only the opened quilt on it, and only traces of him lying there.

It was as if the sweet breath was just an illusion, a dream.

"My head hurts... My head hurts," Rhode said, pressing his head with his hand. "I hope this won't... No, it will definitely be known today, right?"

Sighing for his own kidneys, Rhode looked out the window and saw the soft, damp soil surrounding the villa had been soaked by the rain, leaving the once smooth lawn uneven and potholed. Gazing further into the distance, he could see the dark forest beneath the rain had regained some of its normal appearance. Specks of green appeared on the branches and needles, finally bringing a touch of life to the once brown trees.

After quietly gazing at the forest for a while, his worries somewhat eased. He finished his cigarette, put the butt out the window, extinguished it with rainwater, and then tossed it into the trash can in the room. He pocketed the cigarette case and lighter, casually made up the bed, and headed to the kitchen for a bite to eat.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw Marianne standing at the door with a tray.

At that moment, Rhodes felt his heart stopped beating.

"Um...Marianne," Rhodes called out Nikki's name guiltily, moving aside to let her in. "Why are you here today? I can eat in the kitchen—we can eat together."

"It's just a whim, Commander."

Nikki placed the dinner tray on the small table in front of the sofa in the room, then turned and walked to Rod's side, reaching out to close the door.

The sound of turning the door lock was sharp and crisp.