Drift Of The Multiverse: [Marvel] [Resident Evil] [DC] [Bleach] [DB]

Ethan always believed that payment should be commensurate with effort. No one would help a stranger—or even a potential enemy—without reason. Considering Annette didn't seem like a warmhearted person, her earlier actions clearly indicated that she had something to ask of Ethan.

She wasn't sure whether she had enough leverage to move or persuade Ethan, so she chose to make a good impression first. Since Ethan wanted to collect all kinds of viruses, she would give him all the samples. The rest would depend on his character.

If it worked, the best outcome would be that Annette got what she wanted.

Even if it failed, she wouldn't lose anything. Even if Ethan didn't take those virus samples, she couldn't bring them with her. Given the current state of Raccoon City, this secret research facility would certainly be abandoned and destroyed.

"You said you came from another world, which means you possess the technology or ability to travel between different universes."

"Yes."

Ethan immediately understood what Annette wanted.

"You want to leave this world?"

Annette was silent for a moment, then nodded firmly.

Ethan wasn't surprised that Annette wanted to leave. He didn't know if she had any lingering attachments to this world, but he was certain that even if Annette escaped Raccoon City, her future would be anything but peaceful.

As a member of Umbrella who helped William Birkin create the G-virus and knew the full development process, anyone with sense could guess what fate awaited her once she got out.

As for whether the government would protect her? Ethan believed it would. Such a valuable researcher would surely be deemed important by government officials, whether for further development of the G-virus or for researching a serum or vaccine. Annette would be a high-value asset.

But being valuable didn't necessarily mean good news. It almost certainly meant that Annette would spend the rest of her life in captivity. She would have no say in the matter, as she was partly responsible for the Raccoon City disaster. It would be easy for the government to fabricate charges and make her bear the consequences.

Freedom? That was laughable.

Even if she escaped the government's pursuit, she might not avoid Umbrella's revenge. Now that she had broken with Umbrella, that so-called conglomerate made up of lunatics wouldn't let her live freely.

In short, Annette was in a terrible situation. Neither side would offer her a good ending. She could give up and die here, but then she had to think of her daughter.

What about Sherry?

She was only twelve years old. Should she really lose both her parents and grow up as an orphan?

Annette had no solution. She had originally hoped to trade her freedom for Sherry's safety, but she doubted that would succeed. Sherry's existence was the best way to control her. She didn't believe those officials were kind enough to give up such leverage.

Moreover, even if Sherry was genuinely granted freedom, there was no telling what Umbrella's lunatics might do. Without government protection, Sherry could be in danger again.

Annette had reached a desperate impasse, until Ethan emphasized that he came from another world. That's when she began to consider that escaping to another world might be a good option.

Go to another world and live as an ordinary person. No one would know who they were. She and her daughter could start over.

"It's not impossible."

For Ethan, this wasn't a difficult task. It was something he could solve with minimal effort. And he truly couldn't stand seeing a little girl locked up for over a decade and treated like a lab rat.

Of course, from others' perspective, this might be understandable... but why should Ethan consider their point of view? He wasn't on their side.

Hearing Ethan's seemingly willing response, Annette let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know what he would ask for, but his willingness to agree was already a good sign. The worst-case scenario would be if Ethan was totally unwilling to negotiate.

She didn't have time to bargain. She could sense that her difficult life would begin the moment she left Raccoon City. If she didn't resolve this now, she had no idea how to move forward.

"Can you send us away immediately after we leave Raccoon City?"

"No. I need to stay in this world for about a year."

It was true that Ethan came to this world to collect viruses, but he didn't want to waste that year. Now, the energy required to travel between worlds had been reduced to a very low level. Most of the energy was used during the transfer itself. Staying in the current world didn't consume much space-time energy.

In this case, the longer he stayed in one world, the more cost-effective it was. Moreover, time was also a valuable resource to him now.

"A year..."

Annette frowned again but still continued leading the way. She had mentioned earlier that there was a dedicated train within the research facility, which could take them out of Raccoon City and even directly to a nearby town.

"However, it's best not to go there. This is an internal Umbrella train, and the station is also Umbrella property. Everything from equipment to personnel belongs to Umbrella. Going there would be the same as handing ourselves over."

Everyone remembered this point. They only needed the train to leave Raccoon City. As for what to do after that, they hadn't thought it through.

"Just getting out of this hellhole is good enough."

Ethan wasn't concerned about Umbrella's issues, because he had no reason to waste his time and energy on them.

In this world, Umbrella wasn't as powerful as in the movie version. After the biocrisis broke out in Raccoon City and the entire city was destroyed by a nuclear bomb, the Umbrella Corporation quickly fell into decline and was soon completely dismantled.

Before long, Umbrella would go from a world-renowned multinational corporation to a "rat on the street" that everyone wanted to kill. Though many remnants still operated in secret, they could only cause trouble while wearing masks.

In short, the rest of the journey went smoothly. Although deeper into the research facility they encountered stronger mutant zombies and bizarre monsters, let alone Ethan, even Leon and the others could now handle them with ease.

This group had gained rich combat experience along the way. They had a clear understanding of how to deal with any monster they faced. More importantly, with Ethan—the powerful otherworldly mage—watching over them, they didn't need to worry or panic. They could face all dangers with relative ease.

They could even joke around a bit. This casual attitude, as if they were on a picnic or playing a game, made a certain elite agent very uncomfortable, especially since she was still thinking about how to steal the G-virus sample.

But even after boarding the train and returning to the surface, Ada couldn't find an opportunity. Through observation, she had already concluded that Ethan had stored the virus samples in another space—likely a storage spell or something similar. She had no way to deal with that kind of ability.

She was an elite agent, not a mage. How would she know how to crack a mage's magic?

Watching the scenery fly by, Ethan estimated that they were far enough from Raccoon City and asked Annette to stop the train. Next, they would walk to a nearby town. At this point, the problem was no longer how to escape, but how to resolve the lingering issues from before.

No one felt a sense of surviving a great disaster. When Ethan first revealed his powers and led them through countless monsters as if on a sightseeing tour, they had already lost that ever-present fear of death. So, escaping in the end brought no real sense of relief.

It was like watching a mystery movie where you already knew the ending. Naturally, the final reveal lost its impact.

Without the pressure of survival, some unresolved issues could no longer be held back and finally surfaced. This was thanks to Leon's excellent self-control.

"I can't let you take them."

Leon was a police officer. Although the Raccoon City Police Department was essentially defunct, and they were now outside the city, strictly speaking, Leon no longer had the authority to arrest anyone.

However, the matter involving Annette was too significant. He couldn't just stand by and let Ethan take the two of them away.

"I expected this."

Ethan wasn't surprised at all that Leon would try to stop him. He also noticed that Robert, Claire, and the others stood behind Leon in support.

As for Ben the reporter and Ada, who had always acted like neutral bystanders, they quietly stepped aside and remained uninvolved.

"But as I said, you don't have the power to stop me."

Ethan casually snapped his fingers. Annette, who had been extremely nervous, suddenly saw Leon and the others standing there in a daze, motionless, as if they had turned into statues.

"What did you do to them?"

"I just triggered an illusion, trapping them in a hallucination I created... This illusion won't actually hurt them. For them, it's like dreaming."

"A dream? What kind of dream?"

"A dream about how they would have escaped from a Raccoon City overrun with monsters... without my presence or help."

(To be continued.)

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