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Beyond the crack in the door lay a bottomless darkness.
Noah lowered his breathing frequency to its minimum; only his eyes flickered in the dark with a light that was calm to the extreme.
That massive shadow was moving from the corner of the corridor at a suffocatingly slow pace, step by step.
It was too enormous.
Even through that narrow gap, Noah could feel the pure physical pressure brought about by its terrifying volume.
Its height almost brushed the ceiling of the four-meter-high corridor, and its width squeezed the entire passage full.
It didn't seem to be walking, but rather like a small mountain piled with flesh and bone, slowly crawling through these steel ruins.
"Thump..."
Another incredibly heavy footstep.
This time, Noah clearly felt a discernible tremor from the metal floor beneath his feet.
At the edge of the Security Room's ceiling, several wisps of dust accumulated over decades were sifted down by this vibration, looking like flying dead skin in the beam of the flashlight.
It wasn't the explosive impact typical of a T-091 Tyrant, but something heavier, purer—a crushing force originating from absolute mass.
Bruce MacWeen knelt on one knee a few meters behind Noah, his body pressed low, his.45 caliber pistol aimed steadily at the door.
He didn't even dare to breathe loudly, only using tactical hand signals to silently ask Noah about the situation outside.
Noah didn't look back, only slowly raising three fingers and then retracting them one by one.
Three meters.
Bruce couldn't imagine what kind of terrifying form a creature over three meters tall would have.
The footsteps outside grew closer and closer.
"Thump..."
"Thump..."
Every step was like a heavy hammer striking the hearts of the two agents.
Bruce could even feel the muscles in his jaw tightening involuntarily.
Then the footsteps gradually faded away, allowing his spirit to relax slightly.
Phoenix Bell didn't focus all her attention outside the door.
After confirming that Noah and Bruce had established the first line of defense, she immediately began a quick and thorough search of this small Security Room.
Years of being an agent had taught her that in enemy territory, any piece of information could be the key to life or death.
The room was filled with a heavy, strange smell—a mixture of mold and rusted metal.
The tables and chairs were covered in a thick layer of dust; a finger swiped across would leave a clear furrow.
The surveillance screens on the wall had long since gone out, remaining pitch black.
Her gaze finally locked onto an inconspicuous metal box in the corner.
It was a standard Umbrella Corporation internal document storage box, and it even had a faded, yellowed seal remaining on it.
Phoenix Bell didn't hesitate for a moment, pulling her sharp military dagger from the side of her tactical boot and cleanly prying open the rusted lock.
With a crisp "click," the sound was exceptionally piercing in the dead silent room.
The box opened, but there were no classified documents inside—only a folded facility structural diagram and a small booklet with a curled and damaged cover.
The cover of the booklet featured the cold, concise industrial design style habitual to the Umbrella Corporation, with the title printed in both German and English: "Experimental Facility B.O.W. Safety Handling Manual (Internal Employee Version)."
Phoenix Bell's heart skipped a beat.
She immediately took the manual to the dust-covered table and illuminated it with the beam of her Tactical Flashlight.
"What's the situation?" Bruce leaned in.
He lowered his voice and asked Phoenix Bell softly.
Phoenix Bell didn't answer; she was rapidly flipping through the manual in her hands.
The pages of the manual were severely yellowed and the handwriting was somewhat blurred, but the content recorded within made her gaze grow increasingly solemn.
This was an "instruction manual" left behind by Umbrella regarding the bio-weapons on this island.
"Found it." Phoenix Bell's voice was very low, but every word entered their ears with absolute clarity. "It records the main B.O.W. projects conducted on this island."
She flipped to a page that even had a blurred black-and-white photo attached—it showed an extremely obese humanoid silhouette bound to an experimental table.
"'Hunter II', you've already seen them. Based on the Gamma type, they've been fused with genes from some reptilian animals to strengthen scale hardness and bone density. The weaknesses are the joint connections and the inside of the mouth."
This confirmed their previous combat experience.
Phoenix Bell's finger continued to slide down, skipping over several projects that seemed less important, finally stopping on a codename circled in red ink.
"'Giant Zombie Hades', Project Codename: 'Fat Man'."
Phoenix Bell illuminated the content in the manual with her Tactical Flashlight.
"Subject Source: A high-risk convict sentenced to death for serial murder, weighing over a hundred kilograms. Experimental Purpose: To test the proliferation effects of a new virus variant within organisms with high fat content, as well as extreme modification capabilities for sensory Systems."
"Modification Procedure: 1. Completely remove the subject's eyes and optic nerves through surgery. 2. Continuously inject a highly diluted solution of the 't-veronica virus' into the cerebral cortex and auditory nerve center. 3. Induce super-compensatory mutations in auditory cells through high-intensity sonic stimulation."
"Experimental Results: The body of the subject 'Fat Man' expanded further under the influence of the virus, reaching a height of over three meters and a weight close to one ton. The skin's stratum corneum mixed with fat cells to form an extremely tough defensive tissue, possessing strong resistance to physical damage from small and medium calibers. Vision is completely lost, but hearing has evolved to an extraordinary level of sensitivity."
Beside the manual, there was a row of scribbled notes handwritten in red ink.
"...Damn it, this guy can even hear your heartbeat! Never, ever make any unnecessary noise in front of him! He'll pounce on you as 'enthusiastically' as a child chasing an ice cream truck until that sound completely disappears..."
Seeing this, Phoenix Bell stopped.
She slowly looked up, her gaze passing over Bruce's shoulder to look at that terrifyingly quiet door.
"It seems the one in the corridor is 'Fat Man'."
The air seemed to have been sucked dry.
Bruce felt his throat go dry, his mind already sketching a monster three meters tall and weighing a ton, with no eyes but capable of hearing his heartbeat, slowly pacing back and forth in the corridor outside the door.
It was a terror that made a chill rise from the depths of the Soul.
However, in this atmosphere so tense it was about to explode, an extremely strange smile—a mixture of absurdity and playfulness—suddenly appeared on Bruce MacWeen's face.
He suddenly chuckled, the sound very light.
A trace of a strange look appeared in Phoenix Bell's cool eyes.
"What are you laughing at?"
Laughing at the door of death—what exactly were this guy's nerves made of?
Bruce turned his head to look at Phoenix Bell, his face actually showing a serious expression as if sharing an important piece of knowledge.
"Nothing, I just suddenly thought of a very famous historical dark joke." He lowered his voice, but the sarcasm in his tone couldn't be hidden.
"Did you know? The Japanese really don't like 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy'."
"Because they were both too 'enthusiastic'."
The moment these keywords connected in their minds, both Noah and Phoenix Bell couldn't help themselves.
Noah's figure, originally as steady as a rock, had shoulders that shook violently.
He turned around abruptly, his back to the door, covering his mouth with his hand, but that uncontrollable laughter still leaked out deeply from between his fingers.
He really couldn't hold it back.
This black, Hell-level dark joke was simply too absurd and too precise in the current scene.
And on Phoenix Bell's face, which was always as stern as an iceberg, a flash of bewilderment appeared first, followed by ripples of laughter in her clear eyes.
She pursed her lips at first, trying hard to maintain her professional image, but ultimately failed.
"Pfft..."
A light laugh, like a crack opening in a frozen lake—crisp, pleasant, yet carrying a hint of helplessness.
She quickly lowered her head, using the action of flipping through the booklet to hide the upturned corners of her mouth, but her slightly trembling shoulders still betrayed her emotions.
This bastard.
She cursed inwardly, but the suffocating tension weighing on her heart miraculously dissipated by half amidst this absurd laughter.
A person's spirit is like a rubber band; if it's stretched too tight, it will snap.
Bruce's ill-timed joke was like slightly loosening that rubber band just before it reached its breaking point.
Their laughter was soft and restrained, but the massive monster outside the door clearly caught this subtle sound representing 'life'.
The footsteps outside began to approach once more.
Then they slowly stopped.
The entire world fell into a dead silence.
The massive monster seemed to have stopped right outside the Security Room door, motionless.
Bruce felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The unknown is always the most terrifying.
He would rather face a berserk beast than deal with a monster that knew how to stop and seemingly 'listen'.
The deathly silence was broken.
"Heh... heh heh..."
A low growl, filled with mucus and panting, like a worn-out bellows being forced to move, came from outside the door.
Immediately after.
BOOM!!!
That heavy Security Room door, reinforced with steel plates, was struck violently from the outside by an unimaginable force!
The entire door instantly buckled inward in a massive arc; the concrete wall around the frame cracked like a spiderweb, and countless fragments of stone and dust fell rustling down!
Bruce and Phoenix Bell's smiles froze instantly, replaced by absolute focus and vigilance.
BOOM!!!!
A second impact followed immediately!
This time, the door hinges groaned under the unbearable weight, several welding points snapped on the spot, and the door tilted inward, with only the last few bolts still stubbornly holding on.
Through the severely deformed gap in the door, they finally saw a part of the monster.
It was a foot.
A disproportionately massive, naked foot, as deathly pale as a bloated corpse. Its toes were thick and twisted, and its nails were thick and yellow, like the claws of some wild beast.
This single foot alone was larger than an adult's head.
"ROAR—!!!"
The third impact, accompanied by a roar filled with hunger and tyranny, finally arrived!
SNAP!!!
All the door bolts snapped completely at the same time!
The twisted steel door, like a piece of scrap paper caught in a hurricane, went whistling and flying backward into the room!
"Scatter!"
Noah gave a low shout, his body drifting toward the rear-side like weightless willow catkin.
Bruce and Phoenix Bell also dove and rolled in two different directions almost simultaneously.
CRASH!
The steel door slammed heavily onto the spot where they had just been standing, smashing a massive crater into the hard metal floor and sending sparks flying.
Amidst the swirling dust, the monster known as 'Fat Man' finally revealed its complete, nauseating form before the three of them.
It was so tall that it had to hunch over slightly just to squeeze into the Security Room.
Its body was like a mountain of flesh haphazardly piled together from countless layers of fat, tumors, and twisted muscle; its pale skin was covered in purple-black livor mortis and deep, bone-exposing scars, whether left by surgery or its own scratching.
Its belly was as large as a pregnant woman about to give birth, and one could even see thick, earthworm-like blue veins bulging out where the skin had been overstretched.
But its face was the most terrifying part.
There were no eyes, only two dark, hollow, scabbed-over sockets.
Its nose had also rotted away, leaving only two holes.
A mouth filled with rotten meat and pus stretched all the way to its ears, revealing two rows of uneven, yellow-black teeth.
It was like a collection of nightmares crawled out from the deepest slaughterhouse in Hell.
The description in the manual was not an exaggeration in the slightest.
"Heh... heh..."
'Fat Man' stood in place, its hideous head turning extremely slowly like a radar.
It was 'listening'.
Listening to heartbeats, listening to breathing, listening to the sound of blood flowing through veins.
It was searching for the source of the 'passionate' sound from earlier.
The three held their breath, motionless.
Noah, Bruce, and Phoenix Bell were scattered in three corners of the room, forming a standard triangular formation, leaving all paths of retreat to the monster in the center.
This was the riskiest yet most effective tactic.
Faced with a monster with specialized senses, hiding and running were the most foolish choices.
The only way to survive was to confront it head-on, find its weakness in the shortest time possible, and then destroy it.
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
In the room, there was only the monster's bellows-like panting and the sound of everyone's heartbeats, suppressed to the extreme.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Suddenly, 'Fat Man's' massive head jerked toward Bruce's direction!
Locked on!
Bruce's heart skipped a beat.
The noise he made when he rolled to the ground just now was slightly louder than the other two.
That tiny bit of sound became a lighthouse in the darkness.
"ROAR!!!"
'Fat Man' let out an ear-splitting roar, and its massive, one-ton body charged toward Bruce at a terrifying speed that was completely inconsistent with its size!
It was like an out-of-control heavy truck loaded with rotting meat!
"Shit!"
Bruce cursed and, without thinking, dove to the side.
CRASH!!!
'Fat Man's' massive fist brushed past his back and slammed heavily into the wall behind him!
The concrete wall was instantly smashed into a crater over half a meter in diameter; stone chips flew everywhere, and the rebar was exposed!
In the instant when 'Fat Man' missed its strike—its old momentum spent and its new strength not yet gathered.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The mp5 submachine gun in Phoenix Bell's hands spat out angry tongues of fire!
A long string of 9mm bullets did not target the monster's thick body but instead formed a precise chain of fire, all sweeping toward the relatively fragile back of its knee, which was exposed because it was hunched over!
Thud thud thud thud!
The bullets bored into the pale flesh, bringing up sprays of greenish-black viscous fluid!
AWOOO—!
'Fat Man' let out a pained hiss, its forward momentum suddenly halting, and its massive body stumbled, nearly kneeling on the ground.
Bruce seized this split-second opportunity, rolled to his feet, and aimed his.45 Pistol at the monster's open, roaring maw!
BANG!
A large-caliber bullet spun and whistled, pouring violently into that bottomless throat!
However, the expected scene of a head exploding did not occur.
The bullet vanished into that darkness, only a dull 'thud' sounding, as if it had hit a massive piece of fat, and then there was no more sound.
"Dammit! Its internal body is all fat and mutated muscle tissue; it has no vital points at all!" Bruce roared while quickly retreating to open up distance.
Just then, Phoenix Bell pulled a cylindrical object from her tactical pouch and threw it at 'Fat Man's' feet!
High-Frequency Sonic Jammer!
SCREECH—!!!!!
An ultra-high-frequency sound wave, invisible to the naked eye but sharp enough to pierce eardrums, instantly filled the entire room!
To Noah and the other two with normal hearing, this sound was merely a bit jarring.
But for the monster whose hearing was enhanced over a hundredfold, this was no different from having its head pressed directly into the engine of a running jet plane!
AWOOOO—!!!
'Fat Man' let out a wail ten times more shrill than before! It abandoned Bruce, its hands suddenly clutching its hideous head, its massive body twisting wildly in agony, flailing its arms and smashing everything around it to pieces!
Desks, chairs, filing cabinets, metal walls... under its frantic destruction, they were like paper.
"The weakness is hearing!" Phoenix Bell said calmly. "But the jammer can only last for ten seconds!"
Noah stood up and stretched his body, his joints letting out a series of fine, popping sounds.
There was not a hint of tension on his face; instead, he carried a trace of eager, pure Battle Intent belonging to a Martial Artist.
"Enough."
He looked at the massive monster still struggling frantically and said flatly.
"Alright, it's time to meet our 'Passionate Fat Man' gentleman..."
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