"No need to be concerned. We're from the Earth Defense Force. My serial number is 45462." The woman behind the door walked out slowly. The woman wore an Earth Government Security Suit, just like the one worn by Zhang Heng. There were four other western wearing the same suits right behind her.
Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow, feeling something was off, and asked, "You people are from this base?"
"Indeed, and who might you be?" The woman wasn't at all surprised by Zhang Heng's Asian appearance.
"Just some regular guy." Zhang Heng shook his head and looked as if he was relaxing, but he kept his guard up. "Could you guys tell me what's happening now, and where are the rest of the personnel from the base?"
"It's the power of the Marker," the woman said dejectedly. "The Marker's taint spread through the entire base. Countless people killed themselves and became those terrifying necromorphs after they died. Then they went out to kill just about everyone else. The few. of us you see here are the only ones immune from the corruption who stayed sane and alive."
"Why don't you guys calling for help then?" Zhang Heng asked, feeling puzzled, but he regretted asking the question right away. The Dimensional Star would only transport him to planes where human civilization had been wiped out. As such, it was obvious that the plane that was called the Dead Space plane has long had its native human civilization destroyed.
"Call for help?" The woman gave Zhang Heng a weird look before continuing, "The Earth Government was wiped out by the 'Blood Moon' about a year ago. There are only a handful of survivors free from the corruption all over the world, hiding as best as they could. Where could any help even come from?"
"I get it." Zhang Heng nodded. It became obvious that the other party saw him as yet another survivor.
While it was quite a psychological relief to run into other humans, he was unable to shake off the feeling that something still wasn't quite right. However, he was unable to place what it was that didn't feel right.
The two of them talked for quite a bit and it was only then that Zhang Heng learned that the so-called 'Blood Moon' referred to the living entity that was as huge as a planet found in the third installment of the games, which was formed by countless necromorphs coming together. It was the Markers that turned humans from all over the world into necromorphs with that corrupting power of theirs, before absorbing said turned beings into the Blood Moon, that caused the eventual collapse of the native human civilization.
As the Blood Moon hovered near Earth's orbit, the powerful tidal force caused drastic calamities all over the world. The world outside was thrown into an ice age, and only military bases, which were powered by nuclear power generators, were able to barely sustain life.
The five people Zhang Heng had met were hiding in the military base's food stores, which had enough to last the few of them for decades.
"The world outside isn't safe and only the barrier of the food stores will be able to resist attacks from necromorphs," the woman continued. "Now that you've found your way here, how about joining us? I bet that there's hardly anywhere out there that's as safe as our place here."
Zhang Heng buckled at what he just heard. He was actually somewhat moved at the suggestion.
The dimensional travel mechanism cooldown duration of the Dimensional Star was about 36 hours, and that meant that, whether he completed the mission or not, he had to stay in that hellish base for over a day and 12 hours more. In actual fact, however, he didn't feel confident about surviving for even a day in the base on his own.
However, when he recalled that there was a 72-hour limit to finish the mission, he knew right away that he simply couldn't afford to run from danger. With the limit set by the Dimensional Star only 72 hours, it was very clear that his current mission wasn't something that he could finish in 24 hours. He spent 48 hours when he went on his first adventure in the world of Resident Evil before he was able to complete his mission. That fact alone showed that, while the system did give the host some breathing room, it definitely wasn't going to go too easy on the host. Zhang Heng was permitted to waste a certain number of hours, but there was simply no way that he could spend more than two days loitering about.
As such, he eventually suppressed the urge to just run away and refused the offer from the other party without hesitation. "Sorry, but there's something else that I need to see to."
Zhang Heng thought about it for a bit before asking, "Since you people are from the base, I assume that you guys would know things about the Marker, like DNA sequences and some such. Where is all that data located?"
"You're going to the Marker?" The woman looked at Zhang Heng in disbelief. "Well, there is indeed a Marker stored within the base, but the location is top secret and the only one who knew where the Marker was exactly would be General Froyland, and he took that secret to hell with him."
Zhang Heng shook his head, feeling exasperated, before turning around and leaving.
"Where are you going?" The woman took two steps forward and asked. "While over 99 percent of the necromorphs out there have been absorbed by the Blood Moon, there are still a good number of them loitering about. Hell, there are hundreds all over this base alone!"
"I need to take care of something." Zhang Heng didn't turn around. He continued walking into the darkness.
"We'll go with you." Zhang Heng heard footsteps coming from behind him. The woman was walking fast, catching up to him. He turned around and felt surprised, as the woman wasn't the only one who came, but all the other four behind her as well.
"What are you guys doing coming with me?" Zhang Heng narrowed his gaze and that feeling that something was off became even more pronounced. However, he couldn't actually find anything that was out of place, when he actually thought about it.
"I just figured that it'd be better to head out to where the Marker is with you, instead of living out the rest of our days here. I'm sure you're out to destroy the Marker, no? Only by destroying all the Markers all over the world can we truly be saved," the woman said with a determined look on her face and she actually extended her hand. "My name's Angelina. Yours?"
"Zhang Heng." He didn't tell her what he was truly there for, just shook hands with her casually before turning around and walked at the forefront.
The lights in the corridors were dim and eerie. The dark, empty rooms along the sides felt like demons opening their mouths wide, getting ready to pounce on anyone that happened to pass by. However, with fellow humans by his side, Zhang Heng felt somewhat more at ease, or at least, that was how he should have felt.
In actual fact, not only was he not relaxed, he was actually feeling even more wary. There was a lingering sense of unease in his mind that he was unable to just shrug off, feeling as if he had forgotten about something extremely important, something that would determine his eventual fate.
The woman named Angelina, despite being covered all over by that exoskeleton suit of armor, still looked very alluring and attractive. That voluptuous figure of hers, which she was unable to hide behind her suit, coupled with her sexy facial features, made it clear that she was quite the typical pretty girl from the west.
Zhang Heng watched her in secret, trying to find out if there really was something out of place with her. He was feeling puzzled and frustrated, wondering what was it that he had overlooked.
They walked for about half an hour before Angelina pointed at a door in front of them and said all of a sudden, "The emergency lift is right ahead. It should take us to the bottommost part of the base as quickly as possible. The way I see it, something as mysterious as the Marker will definitely be somewhere at the bottom."
Zhang Heng nodded. His current mission wasn't all that different from the one he carried out when he was back in the Resident Evil plane. Both missions involved looking for relevant data in data rooms, and both the data room and armory were found at the bottommost part of the base. As such, his objective was totally aligned with seeking the Marker.
However, just when they were about to enter the lift, Zhang Heng halted, hesitating all of a sudden.