As Vincent Fox strode away from the Hive, the sounds of gunfire and combat echoed behind him. He didn't look back for him, none of that mattered now. His sole objective in the Biohazard Zone had been to complete Task 3. Everything else was irrelevant. Even if Alice perished, it wouldn't change anything: once their cohort exited the Zone, the entire area would reset to its original state, just as with every Forbidden Zone. In the One Punch Man Zone, Saitama remains C-Class forever he never creeps up to B-Class.
Emerging into the open air, Vincent spotted the two battered buses speeding off they'd been driven away by panicked drivers fleeing an approaching horde of zombies. Several of the undead, drawn by the living, now staggered toward him. Vincent didn't hesitate. He slammed the glass vial containing the T-virus serum onto the cracked asphalt. With a single thunderous CRACK, the vial shattered and its precious contents vaporized into the breeze.
Within moments, the serum drifted across the street. The nearest zombies convulsed and collapsed like malfunctioning automatons. Without the T-virus sustaining them, they died instantly. The mist spread swiftly; the ravenous pack chasing the buses fell in waves one after another, they toppled as though stalked by an unseen reaper until the road lay choked with corpses.
Inside one of the fleeing buses, survivors watched in stunned silence. Just then, a calm, mechanical voice chimed in Vincent's mind:
"Congratulations! You have completed Task 3 saved this world! You will exit this dimension in 10 seconds."
Vincent froze. He'd assumed the mission would only end once every infected soul on Earth succumbed. Instead, the serum's release alone sufficed. A smile curved his lips: less wasted time, more efficiency. After all, had he needed to await global diffusion, the month-long limit might have proved insufficient. Now the serum floated free no virus could escape its reach.
"10…9…8…3…2…1!"
In a flash of white light, Vincent vanished. The survivors saw the empty road where he'd stood and fell to their knees, weeping and bowing as if a deity had descended to save them.
At the Forbidden Zone's surface exit, a group of instructors chatted in the Rest Pavilion. A sudden bell rang out.
"An hour's up our students must be coming out," said one. They lined up in anticipation.
Time inside a Forbidden Zone never matches Earth's flow: no matter how long one stays, only an hour passes outside. Thus, though Vincent had taken mere minutes to finish the toughest task, he returned in sync with those who'd endured thirty days of training.
Moments later, survivors emerged one by one from the swirling portal. The first to appear bathed the exit rim in green light. A cheer rose: "Yes our student got green! Excellent!"