"Splash..."
Several bags of weedkiller, carried by the water, slowly poured into the underground water tank, contaminating the seemingly delicious corpse and blood of the giant snake. Plant 42, which had been happily absorbing the nutrients from its roots, instantly sensed that something was wrong. It was like drinking an iced tea that tasted fine at first, only to realize later that it was mixed with vintage urine from '82—a sour and exhilarating experience.
The giant snake's corpse and blood were now mixed with weedkiller. This meant that Plant 42 would be unable to consume these delicious nutrients, just like an old ox that had ingested arsenic. The entire body was toxic and could not be eaten; it could only be left to rot. Of course, that wasn't the most critical issue.
The most critical issue was Plant 42's roots. Because of the weedkiller, Plant 42 had already absorbed a significant amount of the mixture before it noticed. On top of that, the weedkiller itself had a very high temperature. At this very moment, Plant 42's roots had begun to burn and rot slowly. Sensing the changes in its body, Plant 42 became furious. Its remaining thirty-odd tentacles thrashed wildly, whipping the countless walls and open floors in the area to pieces. Sawdust and broken stones flew everywhere!
But because its core had been destroyed, Plant 42's senses were not as good as they once were. It had no way of sensing Javier and the others who were hiding in the corner. It could only try to find them by touching them with its tentacles. Therefore, Plant 42 was currently in a state of impotent rage!
"How's the taste?" Javier asked, wearing his gas mask, a cold sneer on his face. "It's like finding a green-headed fly in a delicious meal; absolutely disgusting. But the party has only just begun. Now for the main course. Barry! Throw the barrels in hard. I'll blow them up. Let's have some fresh grilled bean sprouts today!"
Looking at the impotently raging Plant 42 below, Javier turned to Barry in the distance and quickly gave his orders. Barry was the strongest of the group. As an avid fisherman, it would be no problem for him to throw two barrels of gasoline. He could definitely throw them right onto Plant 42's "face."
"Alright!" Barry nodded. "Come on, girls, give me the gasoline barrels."
Barry took the dusty gasoline barrels from Rebecca and Jill. He lit the rags wrapped around the front of the barrels with a lighter, then tensed his muscles and, with a powerful, single motion, performed a perfect hammer throw. Gripping the handles tightly, he performed a full 360-degree whirlwind spin and threw the barrels over 30 meters, almost flying directly into Plant 42's face!
"Click!"
"Bang—!!!"
At the same time, Javier racked the slide of his Desert Eagle. The black muzzle of the pistol was aimed precisely at the flying gasoline barrels. He pulled the trigger, and a powerful orange bullet with a strong air vortex shot out, instantly hitting the center of a barrel.
"Bang...!"
"Boom—!!!"
With a loud crash, the powerful hollow-point effect of the .50 caliber bullet caused the gasoline barrel to explode. The gasoline inside came into contact with the flame, and in an instant, a terrifying high-temperature firestorm was created, engulfing Plant 42.
As before, it's worth noting that without tracer rounds, it's very difficult for a regular bullet to cause an explosion in a gasoline drum or canister. A normal bullet tip has no sparks or enough heat to ignite gasoline, so it's very hard to cause an explosion this way. Therefore, every time Javier has to blow up a Molotov cocktail or a gasoline barrel, he first lights a rag before throwing it, relying on the bullet's hollow-point effect to force the fuel to come into contact with the flame. This ensures a 100% success rate of ignition. This frustrating rule still holds true in Resident Evil. To break this "pseudo-rule," Javier would need to buy more cheat codes, like his Gun-Kata, from his golden finger. Anyway, they're all fantasies, so it just depends on which fantasy setting is "harder." After all, physics is a fringe branch of metaphysics, unbound and can be established or discarded at any time. Who's to say what truth is but a new truth that constantly negates the previous one?
The explosive flames, along with the splashing fuel, covered Plant 42. The scorching flames began to burn fiercely on its body. Although its body had a high water content, the combustion time of the fuel was also very long, so the two were evenly matched.
"Bang—!"
"Boom—!!!"
Another gasoline barrel exploded. The fire became even more ferocious. Some of Plant 42's tentacles had completely lost the ability to resist, becoming charred, shriveled, and lifeless. Plant 42 thrashed in agony. If it could still make a sound, it would surely be a sharp, piercing shriek. But unfortunately, its core and petals had been corroded away by the giant snake's venom. Besides the wildly flailing tentacles, there was no other way for it to express its emotions.
Because Plant 42 was truly in great pain. It was almost helpless. The high-temperature fuel flames were scorching its body, and it was in great pain. To resist the burning flames, it naturally had to absorb a large amount of water. But there was a fatal problem: the underground water tank from which it could absorb water had been contaminated with weedkiller. If Plant 42 wanted to resist the flames, it had to absorb this contaminated water, which would severely damage its circulatory system and lead to a faster death. But if it didn't absorb water, its entire body would be burned to a crisp.
Simply put, no matter which option it chose, it would be a slow death. This left the not-so-intelligent Plant 42 unsure of what to do. To prolong its life, it chose to absorb the weedkiller-laced sewage. The greenish-blue chemical sewage entered its body, and in an instant, its entire root system began to shrivel and rot, even turning yellow and withering. This meant that Plant 42 had absorbed a large amount of weedkiller sewage and was not far from a permanent death. But because of this, the influx of a large amount of water gave Plant 42's tentacles some relief, and the flames burning on its body began to weaken...
But unfortunately, this was just drinking poison to quench its thirst.
About half an hour later, Javier and the others witnessed a horrifying scene. Plant 42, which had been a green hell and a tropical rainforest, had completely transformed into a withered plant from winter. Its countless vine tentacles and moss had become dry and shriveled. Plant 42's massive body and roots had turned yellow and collapsed limply into the weedkiller-filled water tank, showing no signs of life.
It seemed... Plant 42 was finally dead!
"It..." Jill stood on a high platform, looking at the withered Plant 42 below. Her voice was uncertain as she muttered to herself. "Is it really dead? It's not playing a trick and faking its death again, is it? The giant snake was fooled once. If we get fooled again, that would be truly hilarious." She didn't want to be tricked by a plant. Besides... if Plant 42 wasn't dead and escaped outside, that would be a huge problem.
"Even if it's not dead, it won't live for long," Javier said. "It absorbed too much weedkiller, and its entire circulatory system has completely collapsed. It won't be able to cause any more trouble. Speaking of which... how many cursed masks have you collected?" Looking at the dying Plant 42 below, Javier didn't pay much attention to it and instead asked Jill and Barry about the cursed masks. For Plant 42, it was a huge achievement to have dealt it such a blow. After all, the vitality and resilience of plants are incredibly strong. Even its natural enemy, weedkiller, couldn't kill it instantly.
But as long as Plant 42 couldn't move for a while, the plan was a success for Javier. After all, the mansion base would self-destruct eventually, and even if Plant 42 were still alive, the fire from the explosion would completely destroy it. So Javier wasn't too concerned about whether Plant 42 was truly dead or not.
"Is that so..." Jill took out the two cursed masks from her belt bag. "Barry and I were lucky. We've collected two cursed masks. What about you two? Don't tell me you haven't found a single one, because that would slow us down too much."
Facing Javier's explanation and question, Jill finally stopped worrying about Plant 42 and slowly took out the two cursed masks: the one without eyes and the one without a mouth or nose. They were the masks that could not see the devil and could not speak or smell the devil.
"It's not that we haven't found one, it's just that we only found one. Rebecca and I were quite unlucky. We found this one in the giant snake's lair. It's the mask that cannot see the devil. The condition was to kill the giant snake to get it. So you can understand the difficulty of this mission!"
"If we hadn't accidentally led the giant snake here and made it fight Plant 42 in a lose-lose battle, Rebecca and I would have probably spent much longer to get this mask. Also... I forgot to tell you, the Bravo team's communications officer, Richard Aiken, has been confirmed dead."
"He was bitten to death by a snake and was poisoned heavily. He also lost a lot of blood. By the time Rebecca and I got there, he had been dead for several hours. The communication device he was carrying was also damaged. That's why Rebecca and I couldn't contact the rest of the Bravo team on the walkie-talkie."
Javier shook his head helplessly and slowly took out a cursed mask from his tactical backpack to explain. Compared to Jill and Barry, their progress was indeed much slower, but there was nothing they could do about it, as the difficulty was entirely different.
At the same time, Javier also announced some bad news to Barry and Jill: the Bravo team's communications officer, Richard Aiken, was confirmed dead. This meant that the only people left to rescue from the Bravo team were the captain, Enrico Marini, the sniper, Frost Spencer, and the pilot, Edward Dewey, whose whereabouts were unknown. The bodies of these three were not seen, so their deaths could not be confirmed immediately.
But in reality, only Captain Enrico Marini was still alive. In the original timeline, the pilot, Edward Dewey, was bitten and infected by a Doberman zombie dog at the beginning. He later turned into a zombie and attacked Rebecca. He was the first person to be infected and turned into a zombie! Since his body hadn't been found, he was probably lying and rotting in some bushes in the Arklay Mountains. As for the sniper, Frost Spencer, when Javier and the others went to the second floor of the mansion to search other rooms, they might find this "hero" on the balcony of the corridor, holding a sniper rifle, being hunted by Hunters, and eventually dying from excessive blood loss. His body was then eaten by mutated crows. He was the first person to arrive at the mansion, but he was too overconfident and decided to clear out the zombies in the mansion by himself to prepare for the rest of his team. He didn't expect to encounter two ferocious Hunters and was caught off guard.
As for our Bravo team captain, Enrico, his death was also not far off. Chris and Wesker, his temporary partners, were about to find him. If Wesker were to find out that this guy knew his secret, there was no way he would let him live. He would definitely kill him to make things clean and simple. After all, dead men tell no tales.
"Thump thump thump..."
"Thump thump thump…"
In the hidden underground research tunnel, Chris, with a serious expression, and Wesker, looking cool and aloof, were walking side by side. The two quiet temporary partners were still silent. The only sound in the air was their footsteps. Along the way, even without verbal communication, their combat effectiveness was truly extraordinary. Chris and Wesker's teamwork was solid, and they were not in as dire a state as Javier and the others. After killing many zombies along the way, they were the first to find the mansion's secret research facility, which was built underground as usual. Chris and Wesker were now following the tunnel deeper underground, and Chris's intuition told him that the biggest secret of the Umbrella Corporation was hidden inside!