"Captain, oh my god, there's finally a signal!"
A fuzzy, unclear sound came from the walkie-talkie.
"Static... Karen! How is Lawrence? There is snake antivenom in the medical room on the west side of the first floor, but..."
The signal was intermittent; it was clear that the team members were all in the underground area.
Asa lowered his head and walked towards the giant snake's corpse, half-crouching down.
He appeared to be checking the giant snake's condition, but in reality, he was quietly switching to his prosthetic state.
However, not all parts of the mansion and the underground area were equipped with cameras, and the current location of Delta Squad was not shown on the monitors.
Based on their progress, after heading to the mine to defeat the giant spider, they would soon encounter Lisa, who in the game had fused with a variant of the Progenitor Virus.
Hearing approaching footsteps behind him, Asa seamlessly switched back to his human form.
"What are you looking at?"
"I'm wondering, what does the FBI want with the T-Virus data? Are they trying to research biological weapons like this monster, just like the Umbrella Corporation?"
"Maybe. We generally don't ask where the data ends up after the mission is completed."
Ada Wong stood beside Asa, her tone light and airy.
After all, she wasn't truly with the FBI, and it was impossible for Ada Wong to know the real purpose of the boss who hired her to obtain the T-Virus.
But the danger of the T-Virus was right there before their eyes; the researchers in the mansion had been wiped out, and all creatures that came into contact with the T-Virus had mutated into bloodthirsty monsters.
What would the world become if this virus were to leak out?
"The captain is below the mansion, and he suggests we wait inside the mansion. What do you think?"
Although the signal was intermittent, Karen finally managed to exchange information with Captain Mikhail.
Upon learning that Lawrence had returned to normal, Mikhail pointed out several other dangerous areas within the mansion.
In the guards' and researchers' dormitories, a giant mutated plant was entrenched.
According to the data collected by the squad, the plant was a T-Virus-infected plant deliberately cultivated by the researchers.
In the underground aquarium, there was a chance encounter with Neptune, the mutated shark.
The large shark combined with the smaller sharks were as strong as monsters, and they couldn't defeat them despite their best efforts.
Furthermore, the floors and walls were covered with various mutated wolf spiders, and when the squad walked by, various small vipers would drop from the air.
In the underground mine, a monster draped in human skin with its hands shackled by chains wandered around.
No matter how many times they knocked it down, after a while, the monster would always stand back up as if nothing had happened.
In other words, there was almost no safe place in the entire mansion.
After making contact with the captain, Karen felt relieved.
She thought listening to the captain's advice was a good idea; staying in the mansion and not running around would be safer.
"Sorry, I need to complete my mission."
Ada Wong refused without hesitation.
Karen didn't say much more; she turned her gaze towards Asa.
"Asa, how about you stay with us and wait for the captain and the others to return?"
Karen said earnestly.
In her view, although Asa, as a researcher, had some combat capability, he would still be stretched thin facing the monsters throughout the mansion.
"Sorry, I also have my own things to do."
Asa likewise refused.
"Alright, stay safe."
Because Asa had saved Karen and Lawrence, her attitude towards him was noticeably different and warmer than her attitude towards Ada Wong.
"You can collect some of the herbs in the mansion."
As they parted ways, Asa informed Karen about the effects of the local herbs of Raccoon City.
This was a specialty of Raccoon City, after all; one had to experience it.
Watching Karen return to the mansion to meet up with Lawrence, Ada Wong was a bit puzzled:
"You saved them, but they didn't act according to your wishes and join you. Aren't you disappointed?"
"Agent, what are you thinking? I never hold kindness over others to demand repayment."
Asa gaze was sincere.
"I'm planning to clean up the monsters in the mansion. Want to join me?"
Ada Wong considered it for a moment, then smiled beautifully and agreed.
She was equally curious about the mysterious Asa, and at the same time, she was very interested in where Asa had found the potions and weapons he carried.
"Let's go."
Asa lifted his chin and raised an eyebrow, signaling her.
The monsters in the mansion were such great leveling materials; Asa would absolutely not miss this opportunity.
The two walked into a small room, where there was only a small note recording a child's longing for her parents.
The handwriting on it was childish.
Ada Wong could almost imagine the tragic experience of the child imprisoned in the room.
"Is this another 'good deed' done by your company?"
Handing the note to Asa, Ada Wong's heart felt heavy.
"It's tragic, isn't it?"
Asa took the note; it contained words written by Lisa to her mother.
"Actually, I happen to know about this."
Asa recounted the secrets buried within the mansion.
In 1963, Spencer, under the guise of "building a private mountain residence," hired George at a high price to design the Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains, which was the very place where Asa and Ada Wong were currently located.
George poured his heart and soul into completing this building filled with intricate mechanisms, secret chambers, and complex layouts.
Only he and Spencer knew all the secrets of the mansion.
Just like the craftsmen who built the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in the ancient times of a certain Eastern power, on the day the mansion was completed, Spencer, in order to keep this secret, lured George's family over under the pretext of an invitation to visit.
After imprisoning his wife and daughter, they became test subjects injected with a variant of the Progenitor Virus.
George's wife died quickly due to rejection of the mutated virus, while his daughter Lisa fused with the Progenitor Virus and turned into a monster.
However, the days after fusing with the virus were not easy; what awaited Lisa was only more terrifying torture.
Spencer was disappointed to find that Lisa had no intelligence whatsoever after the fusion, which was completely different from the long-lived, powerful, and intelligent fusion he had envisioned.
Lisa should have been destroyed like other early B.O.W.s, but after William coincidentally implanted the NE-alpha Parasite into Lisa, the Progenitor Virus and the parasite fused to produce a new type of virus, the G-Virus.
The company then began to value this test subject that had fused with the Progenitor Virus, allowing Lisa to survive.
After the two viruses combined within her body, Lisa regained some of her sanity and began searching for her mother inside the mansion.
Listening to Asa recount everything that had happened here, Ada Wong, who was standing with her arms crossed, unconsciously clenched her fists.
Not to mention Spencer's inhumanity, the researchers here were not good people either.
Previously, when Ada Wong deceived the honest-looking laboratory director John Clemens, she had felt some remorse, but now she felt none at all.
This guy deserved to go to hell just like this mansion.
But on second thought, Ada Wong couldn't help but imagine what H.C.F. would do with the virus after obtaining it, and she herself was an accomplice in it.
She became even more resistant to this mission.
But wouldn't the result be the same if Umbrella Corporation's disaster countermeasures team retrieved the virus?
Was there any power in this world that would remain indifferent after seeing the prospects of biological weapons?
Ada Wong fell into a daze for a moment, and it took a long time for her to come back to her senses.
"Sorry, I lost my composure."
Asa patted her on the shoulder, as if brushing off dust.
"I understand. Do you need a reliable shoulder? I happen to have one right here; I'll lend it to you for free. How about it?"