The berserk zombie George Trevor was utterly dead. He lay on the floor, riddled with so many bullet holes that any doctor performing an autopsy would curse, as they would have to dig out close to a hundred shotgun pellets, amounting to several kilograms of metal mixed with tissue.
"Phew..." Javier let out a deep breath.
Looking at the dense scattering of shell casings on the ground, which looked like a shooting range, and the mutilated corpse, Rebecca and Jill exchanged awkward glances, then shook their heads. They had both gotten a little too carried away.
Javier ignored the two "crazy women" and immediately turned his attention to the items that had fallen from the steel coffin. When the coffin broke open, a photograph and an ordinary piece of paper had fallen out. Although now stained with blood, the image on the photo and the writing on the paper were still barely legible.
The photograph was yellowed with age and showed a warm family of three. The father, a famous architect, looked solemn but kind in his business suit, holding a briefcase. The wife was a beautiful housewife with a neat blonde ponytail, her face also beaming with a happy smile. In the center was their beautiful daughter, the fruit of their love, a little angel who added a layer of hope to their already happy life. However, this hopeful life was quickly washed away by the grayness of disaster. It was a picture of the Trevor family, a very heartwarming sight.
The yellowed paper was covered in dense text and drawings. The lines in the drawing were remarkably straight and clean, indicating George's strong architectural drawing skills and dedication. What was drawn was a floor plan of the mansion, which George had painstakingly reproduced from memory. He had done this in an attempt to escape the mansion, but he never realized that the mansion's interior had been drastically altered from his original design, with many traps being reset. This was why only half of the routes on the design were correct, which was the real reason George Trevor, the architect, couldn't escape the mansion.
Until his last moments, he still wanted to escape with his wife and daughter, but the will of a mortal ultimately couldn't resist the virus's erosion. The dense text was a record George made with determined willpower just before the virus took hold and he lost consciousness.
"..."
"I feel like I don't have much time left. I thought this was a grand architectural project, but it turned out to be a deal with the devil. Umbrella Corporation and Spencer are pure demons. They used this mansion to block out external scrutiny while secretly researching the bioweapon virus."
"Those devils in human skin actually injected me, my wife, and my daughter with the virus... Damn it! I don't feel like I have much time left. I thought that as the mansion's architect, I could escape, but I was wrong. The interior has changed drastically. I can't escape the prison I designed. Perhaps this is my retribution...!"
"There are many secrets hidden beneath the mansion. That might be their main research lab. Their power is overwhelming. I have personally witnessed orphans, vagrants, and prisoners being continuously transported into the mansion. It's likely Umbrella has been cooperating with the government and the police department."
"I have nothing to help you with. I hope this crude mansion design map can be of some use, but it's not entirely correct. I've heard those demons are preparing to dispose of me, probably because I'm no longer useful. I hid this paper and photo on me. I beg whoever finds it, please save my poor daughter and wife..."
This was the heavy content recorded on the simple piece of paper. Javier and the other three looked at the words, their expressions solemn as they fell into silence. No one could have guessed that the berserk zombie lying dead on the ground was once such a loving and responsible father.
"He was a good father and a responsible husband. It's a shame... It looks like the crimes committed by the Umbrella Corporation are much more severe than we imagined," Javier sighed, collecting the photo and the paper. Though he already knew the Trevor family story as a veteran of the Resident Evil lore, seeing the reality still moved him.
Barry tightly clenched his fist. As a father himself, he felt a deep connection to George's plight. Barry was secretly relieved that he hadn't compromised with the brutal, devilish Umbrella Corporation and Wesker. That would have been aiding evil. He realized that even if he had helped Wesker eliminate the S.T.A.R.S. team, he himself would likely have been discarded as useless, and his wife and daughters might have ended up as experimental subjects, just like the Trevor family. That was what Barry could not tolerate the most. He now understood why George had turned from a normal zombie into a berserk one—his soul was consumed by such a vast, accumulated hatred. If it were him, he wouldn't be much different.
"Tell me..." Barry took the photo from Javier, gently wiping the dirt from the happy family portrait. His face held a self-deceptive, bitter smile as his heart was touched with pity. "Is there any chance his wife and daughter are still alive?"
The family in the picture was like a reflection of Barry's own. As a responsible father, Barry silently swore that if George's wife and daughter were still alive, he would risk his life to save them. It was a promise between fathers.
"I understand how you feel, Barry," the more rational Jill said after a moment's hesitation, relaying the cruel truth. "But the mansion has been abandoned for years—at least several years. Given how yellowed this paper and photo are, it's been a long time. With this time gap, I think... I'm sorry." There was no way around it. After so much time, and with Umbrella's bioweapon experiments never having been exposed until now, it was unlikely any outsider had reached George's wife and daughter. They were likely treated as waste, as the letter suggested. Unless some benevolent Umbrella researcher secretly let them go, but that seemed even less likely.
Seeing Barry's pained expression, Javier tilted his head and spoke lightly: "The letter said his wife and daughter were also injected with the T-virus. If the virus perfectly integrates into the human body, it doesn't cause side effects or turn them into zombies. Instead, they become super-humans. That was Umbrella's original goal for the virus."
"Look on the bright side. Maybe the mother and daughter perfectly fused with the virus, managed to hide from Umbrella as super-humans, and escaped by faking their deaths? Perhaps they are living a peaceful, ordinary life right now? Don't look at me like that... I don't like sad stories. I prefer my coffee with a dash of fairy-tale sweetness. I'm only interested in drinking it when it's bittersweet."
Speaking as if making up a story on the spot, Javier offered this comfort to Barry. He ignored the speechless looks from Rebecca and Jill, knowing the "fairy tale" had served its purpose as Barry's expression was now less pained.
In truth, only the daughter, Lisa, had perfectly fused with the virus; her mother had died much earlier. Lisa's constitution was one of the most unique in the Resident Evil universe. She showed a promising reaction to the T-virus upon injection. Although she still suffered adverse effects, the simple fact that she retained her sanity, unlike those who died or became mindless zombies, made her incomparable to others. She was then injected with various other self-developed viruses by Umbrella, and Lisa accepted all of them. Aside from her unwavering devotion to her parents, her miraculous body was the main reason.
At this point, Lisa was a viral chimera, a fusion of the T-virus and various other viruses. She was even injected with the Nemesis- parasite, which was a parasite developed by Umbrella (not the Plagas from RE4). This parasite was highly lethal, but not only did it fail to harm Lisa, she absorbed it, even regaining a bit of her sanity using the parasite's power. Thus, Lisa was a natural incubator and vessel for viruses. Countless viruses combined and underwent secondary mutation within her, and through the mass fusion of viruses, the G-Virus began to take shape.
The G-Virus's greatest characteristics are its uncontrollable mutation and tenacious survival ability. These were also Lisa's defining traits. Lisa survived the erosion of so many viruses thanks to her tough survival ability, which was the key characteristic G-Virus copied from her. The G-Virus mutates according to its environment. When faced with a weakness or a dangerous weapon, it rapidly mutates to a form best suited for survival. Therefore, G-Virus mutations are uncontrollable, and the pattern of each mutation is dependent on the environment and the degree of danger, making each one unique, like a snowflake. This was what utterly fascinated William Birkin.
William was the researcher in charge of the miraculous test subject, Lisa. After obtaining and improving the G-Virus from Lisa, William deemed his improved G-Virus superior to the original viral progenitor in Lisa, and he immediately disposed of Lisa as if she were garbage. Javier could only call this a foolish mistake. William, though a genius, was a bookworm, excellent in research but utterly clueless in other areas. With Lisa as such a high-intensity viral fusion vessel, he could have used her to research countless new types of viruses. Through repeated experiments in her body, he might have even developed a new, side-effect-free virus capable of turning humans into a new race of super-humans.
Unfortunately, William was too simple-minded. But perhaps this was a form of release for the poor girl. Javier certainly didn't wish for Lisa to be tormented any further.
After being disposed of by Umbrella, Lisa didn't die. She survived and was currently wandering the back hills of the mansion, searching only for her mother. The next mission, as set by Javier's system, would likely involve finding Lisa. Javier was curious about the system's objective: it asked him to not only help Lisa find her mother's remains but also to "relieve her pain." This was deeply puzzling. Did "relieve her pain" mean putting Lisa to rest, or helping her revert to human form? The former was easy to understand; the latter was far-fetched.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Javier and the others, in a remote shack in the woods behind the mansion, a slender, bizarre monster with heavy shackles was wandering. Its skin was morbidly pale but not rotten. It wore thin clothes, and its head was crudely wrapped in pieces of human skin, making it look huge. Its arms, elongated and thin from years of wearing shackles, combined with its hunched back, made it an utterly terrifying sight.
This monster was Lisa Trevor, the very subject of their discussion. When Umbrella disposed of her, they didn't incinerate her or smash her into pieces; they simply buried her carelessly like ordinary trash in the woods. This allowed Lisa, who had momentarily died, to come back to life thanks to the G-Virus. She has been wandering between the mansion and the back woods ever since. No one knew what she was looking for... only she knew what she was seeking.