Alex continued sitting on the bank’s rooftop with Koko, attentively listening to her story. He already knew a lot from the anime, but hearing everything firsthand was far more interesting than just relying on existing knowledge. Koko leisurely began recounting her journey—how she entered the family arms-dealing business as a teenager. From time to time, Alex asked questions, clarifying details about her encounters and the recruitment of her team members.

What surprised him the most was how early Koko had immersed herself in this world—fearlessly and with a clear goal in mind. He was also curious about when exactly she came up with the “Jormungand” plan and her desire to control the skies. However, he decided not to bring it up. What was the point, when the world was already crumbling before their eyes?

Koko, in turn, showed interest in Alex’s life, trying to understand who he was before all this chaos. Alex wasn’t planning to reveal too much, so he skipped over details about his past life and simply recounted his story from the moment he arrived in Night City. He left out details about the city of the future, the cyberpsychos roaming everywhere, and many other things that might have raised too many questions.

Their conversation was interrupted when Valmet stepped onto the rooftop. The hostility she had previously directed at Alex was now gone.

“Yo, Valmet. What brings you here?” Alex lazily turned his head toward her.

“You’ve been up here for over an hour, and Namiyo wanted to know when you’ll come down for dinner,” Valmet replied calmly as she stepped closer.

She took a seat next to Koko while Alex nodded and pulled out his phone. He quickly sent a message suggesting they have dinner right there on the rooftop instead of inside the building. Almost immediately, he received a reply from Rebecca: “Ok.” Satisfied, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and noticed Valmet watching him closely.

“Something wrong?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “Do you want to ask me something?”

Valmet hesitated for a moment, choosing her words carefully.

“Can we spar?” she finally asked. “Brunhilde said you can replicate any move you’ve seen. I’m curious to see how big the difference in skill between us is.”

Alex raised an eyebrow in surprise. Even Koko looked at Valmet with mild astonishment, clearly not expecting such a request from her.

Alex thought about it for a moment. To be honest, he wasn’t particularly fond of training fights—he preferred teaching others rather than fighting himself. If he fought, it was only against those he considered enemies because then he didn’t have to hold back. In sparring, he had to make an effort to avoid accidentally injuring his opponent.

“To be honest, I’m not a fan of training fights,” he admitted at last. “I prefer teaching over fighting. Usually, if I enter a fight, it’s with someone I consider an enemy. That way, I don’t have to restrain myself. But if you’re that curious, we can give it a try. Though I won’t be attacking.”

Valmet narrowed her eyes slightly, studying him.

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll hurt you?” she asked with a smirk.

Alex smirked back.

“I’ll be fine. Now, get up. I want to see what you can do,” he said, rising from his chair and rolling his shoulders.

Valmet nodded and stood up, following Alex as they moved further away to give themselves enough space to maneuver during the spar. Koko, intrigued by the unfolding scene, turned her chair to get a more comfortable view.

At that moment, the girls arrived on the rooftop with dinner and noticed Alex and Valmet standing opposite each other. Valmet had already drawn her knife and taken a combat stance, while Alex, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed, as if he didn’t take the sparring seriously.

“What did we miss?” Shizuka asked, taking a free seat.

“Valmet wanted to see the difference between her skills and Alex’s, and well, here we are,” Koko lazily pointed at the two fighters.

“Is she an idiot?” Rei asked in exasperation, squinting. “She saw how Alex beat that giant zombie barehanded, and now she wants to fight him? Koko, no offense, but I think there’s something wrong with your subordinate’s head.”

The other girls silently nodded in agreement with Rei’s words. Koko simply rolled her eyes in irritation, choosing not to comment. However, Rebecca immediately perked up—the gremlin inside her had awakened again. With a wide grin, she announced that she was taking bets on how long Valmet would last against Alex before losing. The others quickly joined in, throwing out their predictions.

Alex overheard Rebecca loudly encouraging everyone to participate in the gambling and just chuckled. Valmet, on the other hand, rolled her eyes in annoyance and focused on her opponent. Taking a deep breath, she suddenly lunged forward, intent on seizing the initiative.

As soon as her knife gleamed in the sunset light, Alex casually flicked his hand, deflecting the strike and, at the same time, snapping the blade with a crunch.

Valmet froze. In her hand remained only the handle, while the broken blade clattered lifelessly to the ground.

She slowly lowered her gaze to the fragment, realizing that she had lost before the fight had even truly begun.

“Sorry about the knife,” Alex said with a slight smile. “I’ll get you a new one. Something much better than that junk you’re carrying around.”

“I’m not sighing because of the knife,” Valmet shook her head. “I just didn’t expect to lose so quickly.”

Alex smirked and patted her shoulder.

“If you want, I can train you.”

Valmet nodded, accepting his offer, and followed him back to the others.

When they returned, Alex looked at the girls with interest, waiting to see who had made the most accurate bet.

“Heh, that would be me,” Koko declared proudly, puffing out her chest.

Alex narrowed his eyes skeptically, then glanced at Valmet, who seemed to have long since gotten used to her boss’s antics.

“I’d better get her a new knife as soon as possible before I forget,” he thought.

Calling over GIR, Alex asked the robo-dog to fetch a new blade for Valmet. GIR gave a short nod and dashed off on his short mechanical legs.

The girls exchanged curious glances, wondering what kind of knife Alex had prepared for Valmet, but they were even more intrigued by another question.

“How did you break her knife so cleanly?” Koko asked, examining the broken fragment in her hands. “It looks like it was cut rather than snapped.”

“Chakra,” Alex replied calmly.

The girls stared at him like he was crazy—his answer clarified nothing.

“Could you elaborate? What even is chakra? Is it like that energy martial artists use? Ki or Chi, or whatever they call it?” Rika asked, trying to recall details.

“How do you even know about that? But more importantly—you read manga?” Koko asked curiously, glancing at Rika.

“I don’t read manga,” Rika rolled her eyes. “But when my younger brother lived with me, he was absolutely obsessed with all that martial arts stuff. He’d always mumble techniques to himself, scream that he’d become a Super Saiyan and defeat some Goku guy—whoever that is. And…” she let out a heavy sigh, “he’d shout attack names every night and try to copy them, waking me up in the process.”

Alex struggled to hold back his laughter as he imagined Rika returning home after a long shift, falling asleep, only to be woken in the middle of the night by her brother screaming something like, “KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAA!!!”

But someone couldn’t hold it in—laughter erupted across the rooftop. Even Rika smirked, reminiscing about those old days.

“Yeah, well,” Shizuka chimed in. “When I moved in with Rika, her brother managed to steal my underwear, and after that, she sent him straight back to their parents.”

“Alright, enough about her brother. What about chakra?” Saya asked, getting back on topic.

“To put it simply, so no one gets confused,” Alex crossed his arms, “chakra is a mix of physical and mental energy. Basically, an internal power that flows through every living being. If you learn to control it, you can do some interesting things. For example…” He extended his hand. “Koko, give me Valmet’s knife.”

Koko silently handed over the broken knife. Alex examined the blade carefully before deciding to demonstrate one of the ways chakra could be used. At the point where the blade had snapped, a faint blue energy shimmered, forming the missing part of the knife.

To prove its durability, Alex grabbed a fork from the table and ran the newly formed “blade” along it. A soft metallic sound rang out, and the fork was sliced clean in half as if it were butter under a hot knife.

“Shit…” Rika exhaled in shock.

“Amazing…” Saya murmured, staring at the severed metal. “What else can you do with chakra?”

“A lot of things. Like walking on water, climbing walls… ninja stuff,” Alex shrugged and casually tossed the knife onto the table.

“Like breathing fire and disappearing in smoke?” Shizuka asked, resting a finger on her chin.

“Exactly. Not just fire—also water, wind… It depends on a person’s natural element,” he nodded.

“Wait, you’re saying you can breathe fire and vanish in a puff of smoke?” Ray asked skeptically, narrowing her eyes.

Alex simply nodded. Seeing their doubtful expressions, he realized it would be easier to show than explain.

“Rebecca, give me a hand.”

Without hesitation, Rebecca grabbed the first object she could find on the table and threw it at Alex. The moment it made contact, he vanished, leaving behind a cloud of white smoke… and…

“Is that… a log?” Koko blurted out, staring in disbelief at the wooden chunk now standing where Alex had been.

“Pretty much,” came a familiar voice.

The girls spun around—Alex was already behind them, grinning.

“YOU!” Saya pointed a finger at both him and the log in turn. “How the hell is this possible?! Where did that damn log even come from?! This isn’t scientific!”

“This is the most basic ninja technique. Why are you so surprised?” Alex chuckled and ruffled her hair playfully.

“Now breathe fire!” Koko grabbed his shirt, shaking him insistently. “I wanna see it! Come on, do it!”

Alex glanced down at Koko, who was practically shaking him like a ragdoll, then shifted his gaze to the rest of the girls. They all stared at him with genuine curiosity, clearly expecting more. He glanced at Rebecca and Brunhilde, but they just shrugged, their expressions saying: You brought this on yourself, deal with it.

Alex smirked, nodded, and then noticed Alice looking at him with bright, eager eyes.

He smiled, deciding to show off a little for his younger sister. Deep down, he hoped Alice would reconsider becoming a Battle Sister and instead want to become a ninja. Though, he really, really hoped she wouldn’t turn out as useless as Sakura, despite their identical hair color.

Stepping a little farther back, Alex formed the hand seals and exhaled a fireball into the air. The girls, seeing this, clapped in awe, as if they were spectators at a magician’s performance.

“With skills like that, you could perform at a circus or an illusionist show,” Koko said, nodding in approval.

“Somewhere far away, all the real ninjas just flinched,” Alex replied, grabbing Koko by the nose.

He couldn’t help but laugh at how she compared him to a magician. Returning to his spot, he braced himself for the endless flood of questions that immediately bombarded him. The girls asked what chakra was, how to train it, and what hand seals were for.

At that moment, G.I.R. burst into the room, holding a knife in his paws. He rushed over to Valmet, shoved the weapon into her hands, and immediately ran back to his table, where Mimi, Stitch, and Alice were sitting. Valmet curiously examined the knife, waving it a few times to check its balance. Koko, seeing this, decided to see where her new knife had come from.

“Alex, did you make this?” she asked.

“Yeah. I was getting bored, so I decided to make one,” he replied with a shrug.

After getting her answer, Koko handed the knife back to Valmet, and dinner continued at its usual pace, with the only difference being that Alex was still answering an endless stream of questions. The girls begged him to demonstrate new techniques so they could see them in action. At one point, the conversation turned to his battle with El Gigante.

“What fighting style did you use then?” Saeko asked, intrigued by the topic.

“Two styles. The first is the martial art of the Leaf School, the second is soft fist techniques,” Alex explained.

“What’s the difference?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.

“The first style is focused on breaking bones and the body of the opponent. The second, as the name suggests, is a soft fist, designed to cause internal damage. Each style requires different training. For the first, you need a strong body, while the second uses chakra control and flexibility. Additionally, you need to understand the structure of the body to deliver precise strikes.”

Gradually, Alex delved deeper into his explanation, providing examples to help the girls understand the difference between the styles. At one point, he even spoke about the Internal Gates and their purpose. He talked so much that he felt his throat dry out.

But then a thought crossed his mind: What if he started teaching someone ninja techniques? Even just awakening chakra in people would significantly increase their chances of survival.

“Hey, sweetie,” Rika suddenly spoke up, “Can you charge bullets with your chakra?”

Alex thought for a moment.

“In theory, yes. But it’s very complicated. Outside the body, chakra dissipates quickly, and for a bullet to hold it, you’d need either a special metal or incredible chakra control. It’s like charging a battery and using it later.”

“What kind of metal would you need? Maybe I’ve seen it in my work and didn’t even know?” Yuriko asked. “I managed various companies, so I might have come across something like that.”

“I don’t know the exact name, but in old records, it was referred to as chakra metal. It has excellent conductivity and can hold residual chakra. If we find it, I’ll let you know,” Alex replied, shaking his head. In the Naruto anime, they didn’t give this metal a specific name, so he couldn’t be sure.

Yuriko merely nodded, contemplating that perhaps she had encountered such a metal before but hadn’t been able to recognize it. Koko also thought about it—if they could find such a material, it would significantly increase the group’s chances of survival, especially if they could arm people with such weapons. Alex agreed with their reasoning and decided that in the future, he would try to create the metal himself and then claim that he had “accidentally discovered” it.

Meanwhile, he became curious about the progress Saeko had made with her breathing technique. As soon as Alex mentioned it, everyone immediately stared at him, awaiting an explanation. However, Brunhilde decided to speak up and briefly explained the essence of the technique on his behalf. Saeko, with a slight smile, confirmed that she could now breathe in a special way without interruption, and when she fought zombies, she noticed a significant increase in her strength.

Alex nodded in satisfaction.

“Great. Soon, I’ll begin teaching you more advanced techniques. But first, I need to figure out which breathing style suits you best.”

Saeko smiled approvingly.

“No problem. We still have time for training.”

When the questions finally subsided, Alex decided to check something important—whether key characters from the Resident Evil series existed in this world. He began by searching for mentions of Raccoon City. As soon as he entered the name into the search engine, results immediately appeared—the city really existed, complete with tourist guides and a list of landmarks.

Alex’s face twisted slightly.

“Of course… If this city exists in this world, then the Umbrella Corporation is probably lurking somewhere here, or maybe it was replaced by the Evil Corporation,” he muttered, sensing that the main villain of this story likely had quite a specific sense of humor.

Moving forward, Alex decided to check the police department’s database for Raccoon City. His suspicions were confirmed—he found files on the S.T.A.R.S. team members. However, he was only interested in a few individuals: Barry Burton, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine… and, of course, Albert Wesker.

Alex began reading through the dossiers of these people one by one, searching for details he couldn’t know from the games. Soon, he noticed a significant divergence from the original story—the events of the first Resident Evil game did not fully repeat here. The main difference was that Wesker disappeared before the S.T.A.R.S. team even went to Spencer’s mansion.

“Interesting…” Alex delved deeper into the investigation but found nothing new, except for some small differences in the sequence of events. Everything pointed to the fact that Wesker had disappeared earlier than expected.

Noticing how intently Alex was flipping through the files, the girls couldn’t help but become intrigued. They exchanged glances, but no one asked questions—everyone was used to the fact that if Alex took an interest in something, there were solid reasons behind it.

Brunhilde, however, decided to investigate things herself and re-established her spiritual connection with Alex to look into his thoughts. Seeing that he was gathering information that would help him plan for the future, she simply nodded in silence, understanding that Alex was already thinking ahead about his next steps.

Meanwhile, after finishing with the S.T.A.R.S. team, Alex shifted his focus to other key figures—Leon Scott Kennedy and Claire Redfield. He wanted to understand whether the events of Resident Evil 2 had happened in this world. It turned out they hadn’t—Leon’s life was progressing along familiar lines, just like in the original story, while Claire had joined TerraSave.

Once he was done with them, Alex moved on to the main beauty of the Resident Evil series—Ada Wong. To gather complete information on her, he had to use a special program created by G.I.R., which helped retrieve hidden data and compile it into a single dossier.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, Alex was able to view Ada Wong’s full dossier. As in the original story, she remained a spy hired to steal corporate data from various companies. While reviewing her financial accounts, he couldn’t help but whistle—the sums in her accounts were impressive. However, these funds were likely worthless now.

The next item on his investigation was the Los Illuminados cult. Analyzing the available information, Alex confirmed that the cult did indeed exist in this world, which intrigued him slightly. However, there were very few details— the organization operated covertly. What interested him most was whether the cult had any ties to the “Evil Corporation.” Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any clear leads, leaving him with even more questions.

Alex lit a cigarette to clear his mind and turned to Koko.

“Koko, do you know anything about the Los Illuminados cult?”

“Hmm… let me think…” Koko frowned, trying to recall. “The name sounds familiar…”

The girls, hearing the strange name, became curious and looked at Alex, waiting for an explanation. While Koko was racking her brain, Alex briefly explained the cult, its activities, and the reasons for his interest. When they learned that the organization might be linked to the “Evil Corporation,” many of them immediately understood.

“Also,” Alex added, “it was the members of this cult who found the parasite that later became El Gigante. We encountered it when we were helping the shelter in Tokyo.”

Those who had been involved in the battle now realized what the strange creature that emerged from El Gigante’s body after its death had been.

“Right! I remembered!” Koko suddenly perked up. “Some guy named Osmund Saddler… or something like that… He tried to order weapons from our company! But I turned him down right away—he seemed like a shady guy from the start. Too suspicious. Now that I know who he is, I realize I made the right call. If I had agreed to the deal, I might have turned into some disgusting zombie myself. Sure, he offered a lot of money, but I’m not working with someone who reeks of problems.” Koko nodded self-satisfied, as if reaffirming the wisdom of her decision.

Alex nodded too, acknowledging that she had indeed made the right choice. However, he still decided to clarify:

“Did your brother or anyone else from your company take up that contract?”

Koko shook her head.

“No, my brother may act a bit carefree at times, but he’s not an idiot. Someone else might have taken it, but I’m not sure.”

Alex realized that it was better not to ask any more questions—they would eventually have to confront the members of Los Illuminados sooner or later. However, another thought began to form in his mind: could the Las Plagas parasite be a variant of those sleeping necromorphs? At the moment, it was the most logical explanation.

To check the last detail that interested him, Alex decided to find information on Miranda and Alcina Dimitrescu. After digging through the database, he found mentions of the Dimitrescu family. However, the available information was minimal—the region where their family was based had no network access, and everyone who entered it seemed to disappear without a trace.

Realizing that there was no more useful information to gather, Alex switched to the final point of his investigation—the Uroboros virus. According to the data, it was supposed to be developed in Africa from a plant called “Stairway to the Sun.” However, he didn’t find any specifics. The only thing he was able to uncover was that TRICELL Corporation was actively engaged in charitable activities in the impoverished areas of Africa.

“Well, well…” Alex muttered thoughtfully, clicking his tongue.

It was obvious that TRICELL was somehow connected to the “Evil Corporation.” The only question was how deeply. After all, “Evil” wouldn’t tolerate a competitor interfering with their plans.

Having finished checking the information, Alex didn’t notice how quickly time had passed. The girls continued chatting to pass the time, while behind them, a trio of troublemakers, including Alice, were engrossed in playing video games. When Alex finally looked away from his phone screen, the girls, of course, couldn’t help but ask what he had found.

“Find anything useful? Or the usual?” Rebecca asked lazily.

“Not as much as I’d hoped,” Alex lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. “Most of the information about the cults is either classified or exists only in the stories of the few who managed to escape. But even those who escaped soon disappeared without a trace. The only thing I was able to find is possible allies… just in case. Although their locations are still unknown.”

“Allies?” Kiriko raised her gaze from her coffee cup, intrigued. “Who are they?”

“I can give you their files if you want to read them. Although one of them is… quite specific,” Alex exhaled a puff of smoke, carefully choosing his words.

“Did you include her on the list because she’s pretty, or because she can do something useful?” Saya asked, narrowing her eyes as she adjusted her glasses.

“Probably the second, but it’s more complicated than that. She’s a wild card. She’s hard to predict, and I’m not sure if I can trust her until I meet her in person. Before all this chaos, she was involved in industrial espionage—stealing corporate secrets and selling them to the highest bidder. The most important thing is that she values her freedom and doesn’t want to get tied down to anyone,” Alex explained.

The girls exchanged glances, understanding why Alex described her the way he did.

“Are you talking about Ada Wong, by any chance?” Koko suddenly asked, squinting as if trying to remember something important.

“You know her?” Alex asked, surprised, looking at her with interest.

“Of course, I do! That fox has tried to scam me out of money more than once!” Koko waved her hand in frustration. “Sometimes she bought spy gadgets from me, and a few times, she even used my services herself. But damn it, how can she try to scam me when she already has so much money?!”

Valmet sighed heavily, remembering what usually happened when Koko and Ada met.

“Can anyone really fool you, Hekmatyar? Aren’t you the one who tricks others?” Rika smirked.

“It’s not the same thing!” Koko threw up her hands in irritation. “When Wong bought devices from me, she would always start haggling, trying to get the price down to almost nothing! It drives me crazy! I’ve wanted to hit her so many times! And then after she buys something, she makes snide comments like, ‘We’re women, we should understand how hard life is for us.’ Ugh, she annoys me even more than you, Minami! At least you can be irritated, but that woman can piss anyone off!”

“Poor thing,” Valmet murmured with a slight smile, patting Koko on the back as she tried to calm down.

Alex watched the scene with mild astonishment. He hadn’t expected Koko and Ada to be acquainted, let alone so “well.” But what surprised him the most was Koko’s reaction. He glanced at Valmet, silently asking her, “Is this true?” Valmet, understanding without words, just nodded and mentioned a few examples of their encounters, which always ended with the same result—Koko in a rage, Ada satisfied.

Even Rika felt a bit of sympathy for Koko, realizing that she, in her place, would probably have shot Wong by now.

Alex could already feel a headache coming on. If he met Ada, Koko and Wong would most likely argue non-stop. This was bound to be worse than the endless squabbles between Hestia and Loki.

Koko continued to complain for another half hour, recalling every time Ada managed to outsmart her. She was boiling with anger, while the others found it amusing, like funny stories of two friends who just refuse to admit it.

To be continued…

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep