When Aiden woke up, it was already the next day. He found himself lying on a hospital bed. But he realized he wasn't in a proper hospital in Raccoon City, but a private clinic.
Other than Enrico and the helicopter pilot Brad who accompanied him, Jill and the others were all here. Although they had all sustained injuries of varying degrees, they were not as severe as Aiden and Enrico's, so after sending Enrico to the hospital, they brought him here.
At this moment, they were arguing about something, but the just-awakened Aiden didn't clearly hear it. Just as he was preparing to listen carefully, Rebecca noticed he had woken up and lightly cleared her throat.
Jill and Chris tacitly stopped arguing, then looked at him with different expressions.
Seeing their faces, Aiden guessed that they probably knew about what he had done. Just now, they were probably discussing how to deal with him.
Sure enough, Jill frowned and said, "Aiden, the robbery of Robert's gun shop, was it you who did it?"
Aiden didn't deny it, and very honestly nodded his head, "It was me."
"You don't know that's an illegal act?" Jill continued to frown.
"Of course I know." Aiden continued to nod.
"Then why did you still rob it?" Jill raised her voice, "That's illegal!"
"Because I needed weapons." Aiden also raised his voice.
"You could've bought them!"
"But I had no money."
"..."
Jill was speechless. She rubbed her brows hard and said with frustration, "Perfect logic. Aiden, you should become a lawyer, because you people always manage to find a suitable reason."
Aiden smiled awkwardly, treating it as Jill's compliment. Then he asked seriously, "So, did you all come to a decision? Hand me over to the police station or hide me?"
"We were originally planning to hand you over, but Jill disagreed, because you saved her." Chris interjected, "Also, you got lucky. Robert didn't remember your appearance, and the surveillance in the gun shop was broken. We... have no evidence to arrest you."
Aiden wasn't surprised at all; this was all within his expectations.
What did surprise him a little was Jill's attitude. He knew Jill didn't have a great background, so after becoming a police officer, she resolved to be a good cop. Yet now she had chosen to cover for a robber like him.
"Thank you, Jill." Aiden didn't know what to say. After holding it in for a while, he could only say a thank you.
"No need, after all, you've saved me more than once." Jill shook her head, then continued, "I owe you a favor, don't I?"
Aiden smiled and nodded, "Then you've got a lot to repay."
"Actually, there's not that much to repay."
At this time, Barry, who had been silent all along, also spoke up. He ignored the meaningful glance Jill gave him and said, "After Jill guessed that you were the one who robbed Robert's gun shop, she entrusted me to send a large amount of money to Robert to compensate for his loss. You should know, our salaries aren't high. Jill basically spent all her savings for you."
"So that means, now I owe Jill a favor?" Aiden asked.
"What do you think?" Chris, beside them, suddenly chuckled. He patted Aiden on the shoulder, leaned toward his ear with a tone of someone who had been through it before, and said, "Jill's a good girl."
Hearing this, Aiden was stunned for a moment. Before he could process what that meant, Chris had already left the hospital room with Jill and the others, leaving him alone.
'Tsk... from the way Chris spoke, it sounds like there's something ambiguous between me and Jill…'
After a while, Aiden finally figured out the meaning behind Chris's words. Then he curled his lips and said, "How can feelings develop after just one night together! That's way too ridiculous…"
However, this matter didn't bother him for long. Soon his attention shifted to the system space.
Before he passed out, he remembered the system issuing the reward for completing the Mansion Incident.
Aiden rubbed his hands excitedly and opened the system space. Then on the semi-transparent light screen, a reward interface popped up, clearly listing the rewards he had received.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Host has completed the main storyline mission: Mansion Incident. Evaluation: Excellent. Now issuing the following rewards]
[Reward One: Comprehensive enhancement of host's physical fitness]
[Reward Two: Special card awarded to host: Gene Lock Experience Card ×1]
(An item from the Lord God's space, allowing the host to temporarily experience unlocking the First-Level Gene Lock. Duration: five minutes. After the effect ends, there are no side effects.)
[Reward Three: Increases the favorability of remaining S.T.A.R.S. members toward the host]
[Notice: Card pack activated. Host may check on their own]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
No matter where, being hospitalized is an expensive affair, especially in this country.
What's more, Aiden didn't have medical insurance, and he was staying at a private clinic. In just over half a month, Jill and the others had already emptied out their savings for him.
Fortunately, Aiden's physical fitness had greatly improved, and his recovery rate had increased several times. In a little over half a month, his injuries were already mostly healed, so he moved out of the private clinic and into a cheap rental apartment Jill had arranged for him.
Aiden had no complaints about this. He knew Jill and the others weren't doing well right now. They had long been suspended from duty.
As for the reason for their suspension, just like in the story, because of Police Chief Irons' inaction and deliberate concealment, and to calm the citizens' anger, with pressure from Umbrella, they were forced to take the fall.
So, in anger, they resigned and planned to investigate the truth behind everything on their own.
But the process didn't go smoothly. During the investigation, Umbrella interfered with them. With no other choice, Jill and the others began acting separately, and didn't even have time to take care of Aiden.
Of course, in order to let Aiden at least have the ability to protect himself, before leaving, Jill and the others gave him a handgun and a few magazines.
Now Aiden was inside the rental apartment maintaining the handgun Jill gave him, a Beretta 92F, with the S.T.A.R.S. emblem engraved on it. It was Jill's service weapon.
Soon, Aiden had finished maintaining the handgun. He quickly assembled the gun, inserted a magazine fully loaded with bullets, racked the slide to chamber a round, then switched off the safety, holstered it, and prepared to head out.
In fact, carrying a loaded handgun out is a very dangerous thing, because it could easily misfire, either injuring someone else or himself.
But he had no choice. For safety's sake, he could only do this.
Not because he was worried about zombies, since the virus hadn't fully spread into the city yet, but because he was worried about Umbrella's people.
Yes, just like Jill and the others, he too had been targeted by Umbrella's personnel. It's just that the other side hadn't taken action yet, so for now, he was still relatively safe.
"Sigh." Letting out a light sigh, Aiden put on a baseball cap and left the rental apartment.
On the street, Aiden walked with his head down, sticking close to the wall. Not having gone outside for a long time, he extremely enjoyed the outdoor air. Of course, if it weren't for the "free" scenery by the roadside, he'd probably be in an even better mood.
Although the virus hadn't fully spread into the city, there were still many infected creatures appearing.
That's because Raccoon City's underground lab waste disposal system had long been overloaded. Many corpses that hadn't been dealt with in time were randomly discarded, and then they turned into zombies, appearing all over the city through the sewers.
Their appearance made the already panicked citizens of Raccoon City even more frightened. The city's functioning basically collapsed.
And the limited manpower of the Raccoon City Police Department had been sent out to clear the infected in the city, resulting in the spread of crime. Violent incidents were everywhere.
Raccoon City… was gradually tilting toward hell.
Aiden didn't wander on the streets for long, because he went out today for a specific purpose.
To go to Robert Kendo's gun shop to collect weapons.
Originally, those guns were reserved by Barry. After all, he and Robert were good friends, but he had already gone to Europe with Chris, so he could only inform Jill to retrieve them.
Jill was busy, so she used the radio to notify Aiden, and so he made time to go.
Since he was familiar with the route, very quickly, he arrived at the entrance of Robert's gun shop, just in time to see the owner, Robert, loading luggage into a car.
"Robert, you finally came to your senses. Leaving?" Aiden called out.
"What else? Stay here and get eaten by monsters?" Robert turned around and saw it was Aiden, stopped what he was doing, then pulled out a cigarette and tossed it to him.
He also lit one for himself and continued, "That scene last time scared Emma. I don't want my daughter staying in this damned place anymore."
In truth, Robert hadn't wanted to leave at first. Even though Aiden tried to persuade him several times, he didn't listen. "I won't listen to a robber," he would say every time Aiden came.
But a few days ago, something happened that made him change his mind.
An infected broke into his shop by accident and bit a customer who came to buy a gun right in front of him. Although that scene didn't scare him, it terrified his daughter… Emma.
The poor little girl had nightmares for several days in a row. Loving his daughter deeply, Robert finally made the decision to leave.
"A wise decision. You should've left long ago." Aiden exhaled a puff of smoke and nodded.
"But back then, I actually believed the mayor's bullshit. This isn't some ordinary violent incident." Robert said angrily, "They're playing with the lives of the citizens. They lied to us."
"They've always been like this. They've never changed." Aiden also took the chance to curse, which earned high praise from Robert.
After chatting for a while, Aiden didn't forget the main reason he came. He threw away the cigarette butt and asked, "Robert, are the things ready?"
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