Hiring Dr. Connors

Dinner at Gwen's house was especially warm. What dinner could be better than one where your loving girlfriend kept eagerly piling food onto your plate?

But even the warm dinner had a few little episodes. George, who had been meticulously proper at the table, visibly changed color when he saw the meat soup Helen brought out. Then, after seeing the ketchup his son had squeezed out, he ran all the way to the bathroom, followed by a bout of retching that left everyone at the table looking at one another.

It turned out that George had also participated in the cleanup after the Lizard People riot. Even as a self-proclaimed elite detective, he still could not stop himself from vomiting at the sight of severed limbs and flesh reduced to mush all over the ground.

That was truly beyond the endurance of an ordinary elite...

After dinner, Chen Changsheng kissed Gwen goodbye and returned to his Umbrella Corporation. After all, there were plenty of matters to deal with after capturing so many Lizard People during the day.

Colonel Rhodes and General Ross from the military had already called countless times to urge him. It was time to deal with it.

Dr. Connors's plan to fuse lizard genes into himself, gain incredible regenerative abilities, and then restore his disabled arm could not exactly be called wrong.

But because of the limitations of the era, things had never proceeded as predicted.

Now, however, Dr. Connors had fused with lizard genes and become Dr. Lizard. The animal instincts were severely affecting Dr. Connors's mind every moment, and could turn him into a frenzied, murderous monster at any time.

Fortunately, the Lizard Gene Enhancement Serum still had a limited duration. Before long, Dr. Lizard would turn back into Dr. Connors.

Chen Changsheng's Umbrella Corporation had always wanted to develop a Gene Recovery Serum that could be mass-produced immediately and still match the current level of technology. Dr. Connors's lizard gene serum fit Chen Changsheng's expected effects perfectly.

Chen Changsheng had more than enough ways to make the Gene Recovery Serum lose its activity after differentiating and growing a disabled limb, ensuring that it would not affect the user's normal life or produce another consequence like Dr. Lizard.

Of course, this was not because Chen Changsheng's scientific expertise was especially high, nor because Umbrella Corporation's experimental equipment was particularly advanced.

It was simply because, as a polymer of the Original Virus, Chen Changsheng had gained the ability to directly manipulate genetic material at the molecular level after fusing with the Blacklight Virus.

But this ability was like someone who did not know how computers were made yet could use one skillfully. It was as natural as an ordinary person eating and drinking. Chen Changsheng could instinctively identify the functions of genes, then copy, cut, and use them.

Chen Changsheng had tried writing some gene fragments himself before. But because he could only read the purpose of a gene fragment and could not understand the function of an individual gene particle, he had failed to create anything useful. Most of them were merely meaningless strings of garbled code.

Once, however, Chen Changsheng wrote a gene fragment that directly turned one of his arms into blood. If he had not reacted quickly and amputated the arm to save himself, his entire body might have died and become a pool of genetic soup.

After that incident, Chen Changsheng realized that reckless manipulation could cause unpredictable consequences, so he no longer dared to boldly try writing gene fragments.

The risk was simply too great. The returns were not proportional to the danger. Directly copying something was much more convenient and efficient—and, more importantly, safer.

Gene replication was Chen Changsheng's personal ability and could not increase Umbrella Corporation's value in any way. Therefore, Chen Changsheng still needed professional talents like Dr. Connors.

In human society, one person could never accomplish much by fighting alone. Chen Changsheng was therefore still prepared to recruit all kinds of talented people.

At Chen Changsheng's request, the newly hired manager in charge of Umbrella Corporation's security department injected the conscious Dr. Connors with a potion filled with Life Essence.

In an instant, Dr. Connors's severed limbs were restored. Even his long tail grew back.

After recovering, Connors instantly felt that his back no longer hurt and his legs were no longer sore. That familiar, powerful strength had returned.

His cold-blooded animal pupils swept across the room. An aura belonging to a higher-level predator spread in all directions, making the Umbrella security manager who had come to administer the injection tremble violently before losing consciousness on the spot...

Seeing the security manager frightened into collapsing on the floor, unable to move, Chen Changsheng could not help covering his forehead with his hand. He felt that he had lost a great deal of face.

This security manager had cost Chen Changsheng a huge price to poach from Hammer Industries. He had countless connections with the US Military and high-ranking government officials.

He was a key figure in obtaining large military contracts in the future, so Chen Changsheng could not let Dr. Lizard accidentally slap him to death.

After ordering two Tyrants to carry the security manager to the hospital, Chen Changsheng switched to armored mode and slowly walked into the room.

Hearing the footsteps outside, Dr. Lizard instantly turned his head toward the source of the sound.

The first things to enter his view were two fully armed Tyrants. When he saw the Gatlings strapped to their backs, Dr. Lizard's cold expression froze for a moment.

It seemed that the Gatling Tyrants had left quite a serious shadow on Dr. Lizard.

Seeing that the Tyrants merely carried out the human who had been frightened into wetting himself and had no intention of dealing with him, Dr. Lizard finally relaxed.

Just as he relaxed, the corner of Dr. Lizard's eye happened to catch a pitch-black figure standing in an unremarkable patch of darkness.

Dr. Lizard focused his eyes and saw the black exoskeleton and the rigid figure standing silently... In an instant, an unpleasant memory surged into his mind.

The more Dr. Lizard thought about it, the angrier he became. Looking at the other man, who was only half his height, Dr. Lizard finally gathered his courage. As far as he was concerned, he simply could not accept having once been beaten senseless by this man.

Without the Tyrants suppressing him, Dr. Lizard's confidence swelled several times over.

He first began to walk around Chen Changsheng. After circling him several times and seeing no reaction, a cunning light flashed in the lizard's vertical pupils.

Seeing Dr. Lizard in this state, Chen Changsheng was utterly disappointed. So much for possessing both strength and intelligence—it was completely impossible. In this condition, he really could not give Dr. Lizard too much confidence.

After circling behind Chen Changsheng, Dr. Lizard seemed to have confirmed that Chen Changsheng posed no threat.

The next moment, he raised a fist as large as a sandbag and punched toward Chen Changsheng's head, intending to take revenge.

I've been waiting for you. Chen Changsheng had an abundance of combat experience. Against Dr. Lizard's brain, which had been reduced in intelligence countless times, he really was no match for Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng turned and caught Dr. Lizard's heavy blow, though the tremendous force still sent him retreating a long distance. He remained firmly on his feet, then accelerated and charged to Dr. Lizard in an instant. With a forceful leap, he punched Dr. Lizard hard.

The punch struck Dr. Lizard's chin with the flair of an uppercut. By the time Dr. Lizard hit the ground, his head had caved in and he lay motionless.

But the effects of the Life Essence were astonishing. Even in such a state, Dr. Lizard slowly began to recover.

Chen Changsheng wanted to teach Dr. Lizard a proper lesson. He walked over, placed one hand on Dr. Lizard, and began extracting the energy within him. Whether it was flesh and blood or the Life Essence that had just been injected, Chen Changsheng absorbed more than half of it.

With no energy from his body to sustain it, the effects of the lizard genes gradually weakened. In the end, Dr. Lizard became a skinny, naked man with a severed arm and collapsed weakly onto the floor...

Looking at the naked Dr. Lizard, Chen Changsheng found the sight unbearable. In the end, he had the security staff find a set of work clothes and cover him with them.

Dr. Connors had only just recovered and was still extremely weak. Looking at the empty sleeve, Dr. Connors felt terrible.

To gain something only to lose it again was truly painful.

Becoming a Lizard Person and gaining powerful regenerative abilities was not without a price. Dr. Connors's body was now incredibly weak. The feeling of having his body hollowed out perfectly described his current condition.

The lizard genes required a huge amount of energy to maintain themselves. Even if Chen Changsheng had not intervened, Dr. Lizard's continuous regeneration would have exhausted his internal energy before long. Chen Changsheng's actions had merely accelerated the process.

Chen Changsheng had nothing to hide from the newly awakened Dr. Connors. He directly told him that he had a way to restore his severed arm without any side effects, but the price was that Connors had to work for Umbrella Corporation.

The weak Dr. Connors was highly skeptical when he heard that Umbrella Corporation could restore his arm without any side effects.

After all, Connors was an expert in this field. How far had modern technology progressed? Was he not aware of it?

If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you can find it next time.

In the end, however, Dr. Connors readily accepted the proposal with the attitude of giving it a try.

In Dr. Connors's view, the current situation was one where the butcher held the knife and he was the meat. He did not have many choices.

Fortunately, Connors also realized from Chen Changsheng's words that he still had some value to Umbrella Corporation, and thus put his mind at ease.

Of course, Dr. Connors had another concern: once the authorities learned about what he had done, he would inevitably spend the rest of his life in prison.

But as one of the few great scientists, Dr. Connors also felt that he could obtain an amnesty. Still, who would be willing to wait until the very end? If that happened, he would truly be selling himself to the country.

On the surface, the Lizard People incident had passed, but it had still left behind a huge mess.

For example, several hundred ordinary people had been infected by the Lizard Gene Enhancement Serum. Their mutated Lizard People forms were now waiting for the government to produce an antidote.

When creating the Gene Enhancement Serum, Dr. Lizard had considered that he would soon return to his original form, so he had deliberately increased the dosage.

Now, however, there was a problem. Many people remained in their Lizard People forms and could not change back.

As for the fact that they could change back after consuming all the energy in their bodies, that was something only Chen Changsheng had discovered. As long as Chen Changsheng kept quiet, no one else would know.

The authorities assigned the task of developing an antidote to Umbrella Corporation and Osborn Industries.

The former was a newly risen high-tech biotechnology company, while the latter was an established biotechnology company. The government was highly confident that assigning the task to both companies would solve the problem in a short time.

Several hundred infected Lizard People were sent separately to Osborn Industries and Umbrella Corporation, but various forces still interfered during transportation.

As a result, the number of Lizard People delivered to Umbrella Corporation's laboratory was short by several dozen. What became of the missing Lizard People in the future was naturally outside Chen Changsheng's consideration. If someone wanted to play with fire, Chen Changsheng would not stop them.

After the incident gradually subsided, Dr. Connors, the chief biologist of Osborn Group, announced his resignation. After Umbrella Corporation paid a large sum of money, Connors joined Umbrella Corporation and became its chief scientist.

Without Connors, Osborn Group could not keep up with Umbrella Corporation's progress in researching the antidote.

In a very short time, Umbrella Corporation developed an antidote that restored Lizard People to ordinary humans, earning the company considerable fame among the public.

In fact, Connors, the culprit behind the incident, felt rather guilty about it. After researching day and night, Connors truly developed the antidote very quickly.

After this incident, Chen Changsheng had a new idea. Based on Dr. Connors's Lizard Gene Enhancement Serum, he invented a controllable Gene Enhancement Serum with a limited duration.

The principle was to inject a Gene Enhancement Serum that strengthened the human body, allowing ordinary people to possess strength far beyond that of normal humans for a short time.

Then, before human reason was overwhelmed by animal instincts, they would inject a serum that removed the genetic enhancement. This meant that they now had a mass-producible human enhancement serum that would not affect human thought.

Furthermore, by extending the research on the Lizard Gene Enhancement Serum, Chen Changsheng had ideas for developing even more potions: an attack-enhancement type, a Lion Enhancement Serum, a Giant Bear Enhancement Serum, a White Tiger Enhancement Serum... speed-enhancement types, a White Deer Enhancement Serum and a White Rabbit Enhancement Serum... defense-enhancement types, a Tortoise Enhancement Serum, a Crocodile Enhancement Serum, and so on.

That was the meaning behind the saying that once one method was mastered, all methods became accessible. With Dr. Connors's research, Chen Changsheng believed that Umbrella Corporation would possess a flagship product besides the Tyrant series.

As for who would conduct the research, it would naturally be Connors. As Umbrella's chief scientist, it was not unreasonable for him to do some work while earning an astronomical salary. Researching dozens of enhancement serums a year was perfectly reasonable, too.

Of course, this series of products was not ready to be released yet. The military had only just placed an order for the Tyrant series. Immediately launching new products would be disrespectful to the customer and would amount to digging their own grave.

During his spare time, Chen Changsheng also contacted Mother Nest in the depths of the sea. The door was charging very slowly. Clearly, the door in this world required far more energy than the one he had used to cross over to the Prototype world.

He still needed to obtain more energy through other means, and Chen Changsheng thought of Tony Stark's Arc Reactor.

At this moment, Tony was probably struggling to survive in some cave in Afghanistan, completely unaware that someone thousands of miles away had set his sights on him.

Because of Edward Stark, Tony was a key person under the watch of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the military.

As an important character in the story, Chen Changsheng had naturally never considered forcibly obtaining the Arc Reactor. Buying it with money would clearly require an enormous expense.

So what other way was there in this world to obtain new energy?

After thinking it over, Chen Changsheng really did find a solution: one option was Ivan, the Russian nuclear energy research expert, and his father. The other was Dr. Otto of Osborn Industries.

Speaking of which, had Otto already begun researching nuclear energy?

After learning the relevant information, Chen Changsheng discovered that Dr. Otto had begun researching nuclear energy long ago. However, Osborn Group had devoted most of its funds to researching gene serums, so Dr. Otto had received little research funding.

Now that there was a demand, Chen Changsheng naturally did not hesitate to provide Otto with a huge sum of funding. At the same time, he could push the plot forward and allow Doctor Octopus to appear sooner.

Of course, the most important thing was profit. The nuclear fusion sun researched by Doctor Octopus was also the key to opening the future!

Osborn Industries had truly suffered terrible luck. First, Chen Changsheng poached Dr. Connors, its expert in genetic research. Then he poached Dr. Otto, its expert in nuclear energy research.

Norman Osborn's mood at this moment was probably not very good...

In fact, Norman Osborn's mood was downright awful. First, Umbrella Corporation had seized a large portion of his company's orders.

Then, during the Dr. Lizard incident, his company had suffered collateral damage. During the research into the antidote, it had fallen behind again.

Worst of all, Norman Osborn's health was deteriorating rapidly, and he was clearly nearing death. On the brink of death, Norman Osborn gradually developed some increasingly insane ideas.

Norman Osborn himself was a genius in biochemistry. Otherwise, he would never have been able to establish the enormous Osborn Industries.

After gathering all of Osborn Industries' research materials on physical enhancement, Norman Osborn came up with a mad idea: inject the unfinished Super-Soldier Enhancement Potion into his own body.

To Osborn, this was a gamble. If he won, he would survive. If he lost, he would die.

Osborn was not afraid of losing. After all, even without the injection, he would still die.

The Super-Soldier Enhancement Potion developed by Osborn Group was not very successful, but it did have some effect. Norman had not dared to try it before, but now he could no longer afford to be so cautious.

After the injection, Norman Osborn struggled through it. But the greatest feature of the Super-Soldier Enhancement Potion was not that it enhanced the human body. It infinitely magnified a person's personality.

For example, Captain America Steve's indomitable nature was magnified, turning him into the Captain America known to every American. When Osborn's personality was magnified, he became the Green Goblin.

After being enhanced into the Green Goblin, the first thing Norman Osborn did upon waking was kill the researchers who had helped inject him with the Super-Soldier Potion.

After Osborn Industries experienced the resignation of Dr. Connors, the chief research scientist of its biology department; Dr. Otto, a nuclear energy researcher, partnering with Umbrella; and the mysterious death of a researcher in its Super-Soldier research department, the company had suffered a severe blow.

To make matters worse, Osborn Group's stock price plummeted at the same time, provoking the severe displeasure of the capital behind it. Thus, at Osborn Group's board meeting, a group of shareholders launched an impeachment against Norman Osborn.

At the board meeting, Norman Osborn begged the directors to give him a little more time. He would definitely lead Osborn Industries back to the top.

But clearly, not a single one of the board members, who were capitalists, believed Norman Osborn. Their cold expressions deeply wounded Norman.

After all the board members left the meeting room, Norman Osborn began to laugh, and his laughter gradually became manic.

Finally, a figure clad in green armor flew rapidly out of Osborn Tower on a high-tech glider and vanished into the sky.

That same day, several important shareholders of Osborn Group died under mysterious circumstances.