Chapter Eleven: Alice

"Hey, hey, hey! Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I’m not with the Umbrella Corporation—in fact, to be precise, I’m not even from this world." As he spoke, Wang Jing gave the fresh juice in his hand a little shake.

"Would you like some? Freshly squeezed, guaranteed to have been produced no more than three days ago!" Wang Jing offered.

Alice glanced at the neatly stacked bags of rice beside him and asked, "What are these?"

"Mainly rice, though I can’t say exactly what else is in there," Wang Jing replied.

Alice then looked at the powered exoskeleton Wang Jing wore. "And what’s this you’re wearing?"

"Powered exoskeleton. There’s nothing like it in your world!" Wang Jing declared, taking a sip of his juice.

"Why do you know about me?" Alice asked, her guard relaxing when she noticed Wang Jing carried no weapons.

"That’s a bit complicated to explain. Are you familiar with the concept of a quantum multiverse?"

"So, you’re saying you’ve seen what’s happened and what will happen in my universe?" Alice pressed.

"Can you put the gun down first? I’m unarmed, and you, with the T-virus inside you, have little reason to be so cautious," Wang Jing reasoned.

After confirming Wang Jing truly had no weapons, Alice snatched the juice from his hand, took a swig, and asked, "If you’re from another world, why are you here?"

Seeing her lower her gun, Wang Jing sighed in relief and grabbed another bottle from the crate. "I didn’t want to come to this forsaken place either, but I had no choice. My coordinates must have been off during the jump—I was supposed to deliver these supplies to another world, but in the blink of an eye, I ended up here."

While he spoke, Alice examined the production date on the bottle in her hand. When she saw the year 2035, she began to believe Wang Jing’s story, though reason told her he might just be another lunatic driven mad by the apocalypse.

"Do you know what happens to me in the end?" Alice asked.

Wang Jing smiled at her. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Alice nodded, resolute. "Yes!"

"Alright. The ending is that you fulfill your goal. You wipe out everyone at the Umbrella Corporation and end the bioweapon crisis. But by then, there’s hardly anyone left alive on Earth." Wang Jing shrugged.

He watched her, but she showed little reaction.

"Doesn’t hearing your own fate surprise or intrigue you?" Wang Jing asked.

"Perhaps that might be the ending for you, but for me, the future is just that—the future. It can change. It’s unknown."

"That’s rather philosophical," Wang Jing remarked.

Alice gave a slight laugh and walked into the abandoned hut behind them. Inside, the air was thick with the stench of rot, and the corpse there was crawling with flies. Alice covered her nose and mouth, but upon spotting a notebook under the body, she forced herself to retrieve it.

She rushed back outside, taking a deep breath of the cleaner air.

Wang Jing, sitting atop his supplies, called over to her, "Why not join us? We can help you take down the Umbrella Corporation!"

Alice looked up at him. "You can’t even get yourself home. How are you going to help me?"

"Who says I can’t get back? I’m just waiting for them to finish decontamination protocols. After all, your world is saturated with the T-virus. If I go back without precautions, my world will face a bioweapon crisis too."

"Fine, so when are you going back to fetch reinforcements for me?" Alice asked absently, flipping through the notebook.

"In two hours."

"Well, I don’t have time to wait here for you," Alice replied, tucking the notebook away.

"I know—Las Vegas, right? It’s a trap. Dr. Isaacs is waiting for you there," Wang Jing warned.

"Even if it’s a trap, I still have to see for myself," Alice said, heading toward a motorcycle parked nearby.

"I’ll find you in Las Vegas. I hope you’ll reconsider by then," Wang Jing called after her retreating form.

Meanwhile, in the main universe, when Song Guohua heard Wang Jing wanted to help Alice, he immediately filed a report requesting the formation of an interdimensional expeditionary force.

Song Guohua’s request was quickly approved, and as soon as other nations learned of it, they dispatched their own elite special forces.

Two hours passed swiftly. When Wang Jing returned to the main universe, he was subjected to a thorough decontamination, then carefully checked from head to toe. Only once they were sure he hadn’t brought back any strange viruses was he allowed out of quarantine.

As soon as he emerged, Song Guohua approached. "What kind of world is it?"

Wang Jing gathered his thoughts and replied, "It’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The root cause is a company called Umbrella. They created a virus that turns people into zombies—the thing I killed as soon as I got there."

"Umbrella wants to use the T-virus to wipe out humanity and rule the world. Oh, and the T-virus doesn’t just create zombies—it also kills all plant life."

"It can kill plants too? That’s terrifying," Song Guohua exclaimed.

"That’s why I had you set up a decontamination quarantine. If a virus like that made its way into our world, it’d be over."

"Is there no cure?" Song Guohua asked, frowning.

"There is, actually, and two ways to get it. First, Alice—she’s perfectly merged with the T-virus. If we get her blood, we can make a T-virus serum. The other way is in the Hive, Umbrella’s underground base. We should pursue both: recruit Alice, then deal with the Hive."

"Is there any black technology worth gathering in that world?" Song Guohua asked.

"Plenty: artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, biological modification, cloning, memory implant and retrieval, plasma laser tech, and brain-assist computers."

"Where can we find all this tech?"

"It’s all in Umbrella’s Hive."

"But it won’t be easy to take. Umbrella used the T-virus to create all kinds of monstrous bio-weapons—some can regenerate almost instantly. If you don’t completely shred them, they’ll heal right back up. You’d better bring heavy firepower—if you have tactical nukes, all the better."

"Is that necessary?" Song Guohua’s eyes widened at the suggestion.

"If you ever saw a literal sea of corpses, you wouldn’t ask."

"By the way, have we started mass-producing powered exoskeletons from the Wandering Earth universe yet?" Wang Jing asked.

Song Guohua shook his head. "The prototypes are done, but they’re not in full production."

"Then we’ll have to borrow some from the United Government of the Wandering Earth universe," Wang Jing said with a sigh.

"The negotiation team will handle that. You just need to take them over," Song Guohua replied, just as the delegation approached.

Wang Jing led them to the Wandering Earth universe and joined them in the ensuing negotiations.