Progressing from Arasaka

"Boss, did they say anything up there?"

When Jettingham, the team commander leading the squad, set down his communications headset in the corner, one of the team members could not help asking.

Their situation was absolutely far from optimistic. Their first encounter with U.S.S had left them badly suppressed and humiliated, and they had also drawn the attention of the mutated William Birkin wandering nearby, resulting in casualties within the team.

Because of the earlier firefight, groups of Zombies were wandering around the area.

U.S.S had pinned them down here. If they caused any major disturbance again, U.S.S would definitely pick them off with precision sniping.

If it were a straightforward engagement, they would not be afraid at all. What they feared was being ambushed by that big-eyed monster during the fight. If things went badly, they could all be wiped out!

"Ma'am, let's hope your method works."

Apparently having been speaking with someone above, the team commander wore a strange and conflicted expression after muting the call. If the other party's coordinates had not been the White House, he would have cursed them out.

He turned around. "They did. They want us to head west along Raccoon Avenue."

Hearing this, the team's Black virus specialist immediately cursed. "How are we supposed to go? That damn big-eyed monster is planted in the middle school at the Raccoon Avenue intersection. Without heavy firepower, we'll die for sure if we go over there!"

"They gave us a solution that barely counts as one."

"What solution?"

"Either we wait here and do nothing, or..."

The team commander fell silent, his conflicted gaze drifting toward the radio in the room. Dragging things out was not an option either. Gritting his teeth, he made up his mind. "We'll try it! We're Echo Six! How can we let Corporate Dogs rescue us?!"

He briefly outlined the plan.

The remaining team members looked at him as though he had to be joking.

"Use sound to lure it away? Which idiot came up with that plan? What sound could lure it? Its wife, or its daughter?" the team medic, a bald and crude fat man, immediately questioned.

"Maybe an old enemy will do."

With that, the team commander picked up the radio and adjusted the frequency. "Execute the order. Move across the street first. Watch for my signal. I'll draw that monster's attention away!" He gestured for his teammates to move at once, then crouched low and headed alone along the wall toward the middle school.

The one silver lining was that the mutated William Birkin attacked everyone indiscriminately. Zombies included.

Every few steps along the way, there were splattered bloodstains and chunks of flesh.

"Help me..."

As he approached the middle school gates, that monster was still making thick, choking calls from inside the building, as though a fish bone were stuck in its throat.

"Roar—!"

Then it turned into an inhuman howl.

Wrecked, abandoned vehicles were congregated outside the middle school. Nearly every one of them was covered in blood, while gnawed-up corpses lay scattered in a horrific scene. The team commander glanced around, then chose a vehicle that looked relatively sturdy and had an open window.

He first turned the radio's volume to maximum. "Hah..." Then he took a deep breath, turned sideways into the most convenient posture for running, pressed the radio's switch, and hurled it into the car.

Thud, thud—

He sprinted toward his teammates, wildly gesturing for them to find cover and retreat westward along Raccoon Avenue!

At that moment, amid a crackle of static, a cool female voice came from the radio:

"Dr. William Birkin, long time no see. It seems you failed again."

The voice was loud.

It sounded especially loud outside the silent middle school, where there was barely any other noise.

In response, boom—!

Amid shrieking metal-on-metal screeches, a steel pipe smashed heavily into the middle school's gate railing. Even the brick walls on either side trembled to varying degrees. The once-silent street was swept by a storm of furious roars.

"Roar—!"

"Vera Adelheid Russell... It's all because of you. Kill you, because of you... Kill you... I'm going to kill you!"

A severely asymmetrical, grotesque figure appeared in front of the sedan producing the sound.

Its tattered white lab coat was drenched in blood and stretched tight over its more-than-two-meter-tall body. The skin on its right side had completely burst apart, a massive eyeball had grown from its protruding shoulder, and its enormous right arm had utterly ceased to resemble anything human.

"How ugly, William Bir—"

"Die!!"

William Birkin's head, already being squeezed and displaced toward the left shoulder and chest by the G-Cells, let out a shriek. Eyes that should have been nearly swallowed by the mutated flesh actually tore open, bloodshot and wide. The blood-smeared eyeballs seemed to gleam with a scarlet, bloodthirsty light as it swung the steel pipe in its hand. Boom! The sedan was smashed flat, its windows shattering into fragments.

Boom! Boom boom!

Once, twice, three times. When the steel pipe bent and broke, it used its hands instead. No one knew how many times it struck the car. The sedan was reduced to scrap, the radio was probably crushed flat, Vera's voice disappeared, and the vehicle's metal frame had twisted into a mangled lump.

"What kind of grudge is that?"

While William Birkin was distracted by repeatedly smashing the car, Echo Six seized the opportunity to pass through the middle school and enter the eastern entrance of Raccoon Avenue. Listening to the relentless thudding and smashing, and hearing that clearly shouted name even from something that had become inhuman, team commander Jettingham felt his throat go dry.

"This is Echo Six. We have entered Raccoon Avenue. Over."

The White House, War Room.

Creak.

After setting down the headset, Vera saw everyone around her wearing silent, hesitant expressions. She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you all looking at me?"

Thoughts on Going Premium

(A Note on Losing Subscribers)

As the title says, this book will go premium tomorrow, Friday, April 26.

This is Qingjiu's second book, and my second book to go premium.

I suppose I'm a typical reader-turned-author. During the pandemic lockdowns, I could not find anything I wanted to read. I was home on break, learning to drive with nothing else to do, so I started writing.

With the experience from my previous book, this one undoubtedly had a far better start than the last one. When I published my last book, I even forgot to add a cover.

Thank you to all the readers and fellow book lovers for your support, especially the longtime readers who followed me over from my previous book. Without you, there would be no Qingjiu today.

Thank you to editor Nanxi for taking care of me.

As for this book's content, everyone knows Qingjiu wanted to write something a little different.

The reason I chose Cyberpunk 2077 as the opening setting was because I had wanted to write it ever since 2077 was released. But I was more obsessed with Honkai at the time, so I wrote Honkai instead.

In this book, I would make my way through Arasaka and rise through the ranks as a Corporate Dog.

That was the tone I set.

Let's talk about the content.

The more you understand the Cyberpunk world, the more despairing it becomes. Legends cannot change anything at all.

Even if you accompanied David, Lucy, and V in blowing up Arasaka Tower, it would not change the world. Once Arasaka withdrew, new Major Corporations would always fill the gap. They might even become stronger after swallowing Arasaka's share, making the situation even more hopeless.

Vera's identity was designed specifically for climbing through the company. Otherwise, considering the setting and logic, it would be impossible for her to hold such a high position while still young.

The "progress" in this book's title was something I thought over carefully. Progress included climbing through companies, but also institutions—rising through the ranks of any faction.

This was the path I chose.

Resident Evil was the same. First, she would work her way through Umbrella, then seize an opportunity to break away and become independent. Thinking about it carefully, there seemed to be few stories like mine, where the protagonist was not in Raccoon City during the Raccoon City incident, but was instead in Washington.

But that fit this book's theme, though I did not know whether everyone would enjoy it.

Of course I know about the protagonist's share of the spotlight, and I will pay attention to controlling the frequency. The protagonist cannot possibly remain behind the scenes in every identity. There would naturally be sudden accidents that required her to step in personally. I would arrange that in the later Cyberpunk arcs, the later worlds, and even the later Resident Evil storyline.

Feel free to point out any mistakes. Everyone is also welcome to offer good suggestions and ideas.

As for guaranteeing completion, any guarantee is empty talk. I have completed a 3.5 million-word novel before, but in the end, time will provide the answer.

There is no point saying more.

Finally, as for tomorrow's mass update, I'll do my best!

I can definitely put out a big update.

Just not that big.

Although I did not open a reward campaign, I still owe three Silver Treasure Chests, along with monthly votes, tips, and several blades. I will definitely repay them. Even discounted repayments still count as repayments.

9K–10K

Qingjiu is not a full-time writer. That is about my limit for a day.

I'll see if I can keep up the mass updates for several days straight.

Qingjiu knows my output efficiency is not high, but I still hope everyone will come show their support.

Rolling around and begging o(￣ε￣*)

Vera at the White House

The meeting continued.

Spread across the table was a map of Raccoon City, along with compiled intelligence folders on Raccoon City gathered by Chris, Jill, and other former S.T.A.R.S survivors, as well as U.S.F forces.

Rustle.

While pretending to browse through them, Vera sensed the gazes around her and looked up. It was Simmons. Noticing the thoughtful, questioning expression on his face, she smiled and took a light sip from her coffee. "Ahem, Mr. Simmons, is there a problem?"

"I had long heard about the conflict between you and Dr. William Birkin. Seeing it in person truly lives up to the rumors."

"Not at all, Mr. Simmons."

Vera gently Shook her head and looked toward the president and White House staff passing nearby, as well as the generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were clearly showing interest.

Hmph! You all want to gossip about William and me that badly?

Slowly setting down her coffee cup, Vera spread her left hand and supported the side of her face with several fingers. Her eyes shifted slightly as though recalling something. "William Birkin and I were not personally close. We merely had some simple disagreements on the Board of Directors. I admired his talent in biology, but I did not agree with his personality, and I opposed his strategy. It was that simple."

William Birkin as a person.

How should she put it?

Vera did not like him, but she did not harbor much pure malice toward him.

She simply happened to need a target and an opponent.

William Birkin came to her, so he was the one.

Vera knew William found her deeply irritating and loathed her, but she had not expected it to be so exaggerated.

He was about to enter the second stage of the G-Virus. The G-Creature had already grown the beginnings of its own head. His consciousness and ability to think should have been fading, yet he had become so agitated upon hearing her formulaic criticism. His eyes had torn open through the flesh membrane, and he could still clearly speak her full name. It was truly impressive.

But when she thought of William's past deeds, it was not surprising at all.

His personality was proud, extreme, sensitive, competitive, and prone to wild swings of joy and despair.

He was one of the world's greatest virus researchers, but not the greatest.

To obtain the T-Virus research results and sole authorship, he killed his own mentor, Dr. James Marcus;

Later, because Alexia Ashford had graduated from a prestigious university at the age of ten, even though Alexia had never targeted him, he felt tremendous pressure himself and nearly suffered a mental breakdown.

Only after Alexia disappeared did he recover. Then, as Umbrella's Chief virus researcher and the creator of the G-Virus, he enjoyed a period of good days. At last, Vera Adelheid Russell joined Umbrella.

Vera had clearly only opposed him verbally, always keeping within proper bounds. She had never used official matters to obstruct him in practice.

Because of Vera's presence, Umbrella's revenue had soared. Compared to the original timeline, even if his funding made up the same proportion of Umbrella's annual investment—or even less—the funding he received and the hardware conditions at the Raccoon City Underground Research Institute had both improved and increased. But William could not see that.

He only saw that his standing in the company had declined, that Vera had taken a greater share, and that the funding should have belonged to him.

Just as he had once faced the pressure brought by Alexia, he faced even greater pressure from Vera. He drove himself mad with internal obsession, becoming pathologically half-insane.

Perhaps from William's perspective, his eventual decision to cooperate with the US Military and betray Umbrella had been forced upon him. Vera, that bitch, had driven him to it.

After being infected with the G-Virus, his chaotic thoughts only intensified that disgust and hatred.

"Let us not mention him anymore. He is a fool who brought about his own destruction. As Umbrella's former USA regional director, the Umbrella Paris Headquarters may not care whether Raccoon City lives or dies, but I—and all of you responsible for maintaining the stability of the United States—cannot ignore it."

After subtly flattering everyone while elevating herself in the process, Vera shifted the topic back to the assessment work for saving Raccoon City.