Current Situation

After learning this from the system, William fell silent, while the system also remained quiet.

Not long afterward.

He lay back down, using both hands as a pillow behind his head. His right leg was stretched out, while his left knee was bent as he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.

This world's year was 2006, more than a decade behind the world he had traveled from.

It had a similar level of scientific and social development, as well as similar laws and nations.

But there were still subtle differences.

For example, Capcom existed, but the game Resident Evil did not.

Sony and Microsoft had not released the PlayStation or Xbox consoles either, let alone Nintendo's GBA and NDS, among others.

Marvel Comics existed, but it had not become embroiled in a copyright dispute with Sony.

As a result, the most classic movie, Spider-Man, had never been released, while the X-Men were still nowhere in sight.

And Marvel remained as it was, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

And so on.

Besides, relying solely on the 50 billion provided by the system and Halsey could indeed rapidly advance the company's technological level.

But once its technology surpassed that of the world, how would the world treat Umbrella?

Cooperation?

Hostility?

Regardless, in its early stages, Umbrella would still need to work with governments around the world on containment and control.

Moreover, before possessing overwhelming military power, it had to present itself as a "philanthropist" to confuse outsiders.

Thus, while secretly developing its military capabilities, it would have to use the convenience of the 150 billion in annual funds available from the system to slowly infiltrate the markets of various countries.

Especially the United States.

Although William had investigated and confirmed that the United States had no Freemasons like those in the Original World,

the design printed on the dollar bills still featured the Eye of Providence—or perhaps the Eye of Horus—on a pyramid looking down upon all living things.

That showed the USA was still the same, intent on establishing hegemony.

No matter what, given the USA's sour-faced attitude, it would definitely become Umbrella's primary obstacle in the future.

Fortunately, there was no Rockefeller who had relied on the Napoleonic Wars to purchase all of Britain's national debt and become the world's first billionaire.

It had to be known that in the Original World, the Rockefeller family owned shares in the central banks of most capitalist countries.

Even the Federal Reserve was likewise a "private possession" of families such as the Rockefeller and Rothschild families.

Thinking of this...

William could not help sighing over his deceased and eccentric father.

According to his memories, the Russell Family had done something similar to the Rockefeller family in the nineteenth century, at one point controlling Britain, Spain, and other European countries.

How had such colossal capital been squandered away by his father?

Forget it. If he could confirm that there was no family monopolizing the world, then the resistance he would face while using the system to control everything would be much smaller.

How should he make a fortune on a massive scale...

The first thing William had to rule out was Bitcoin.

In the Original World, he had not been an "internet addict," but he had browsed websites and the like from time to time.

Some people said that if they traveled back to the early 2000s, the one thing they absolutely had to buy was Bitcoin, then sell it before the crash.

A guaranteed profit.

William could only say that applying such an idea to himself was far too childish.

First of all, the concept behind Bitcoin was to give the world a unified currency.

But one of the most important powers of every country was the right to issue and control its currency.

The emergence of Bitcoin would strip countries of this power. No country could possibly accept it.

Countries would never acknowledge its monetary nature. They would regard it as a financial commodity instead.

Especially since there were only around 21 million Bitcoins in total.

When they were worthless in the early stages, Umbrella would have been fully capable of buying up every coin that was mined, but it would inevitably have drawn the hostility of every government.

Moreover, the emergence of Bitcoin had been a mystery even in William's original world, making him suspect for a time that there really was a time traveler.

No...

He himself seemed to be a time traveler.

William shook his head, casting away those jumbled thoughts, and continued staring at the ceiling, calmly pondering.

The business opportunities in 2006 were indeed endless.

Actually, before 2007 and 2008, he could make a killing on Wall Street.

Inside the first-class waiting lounge of Kennedy International Airport in New York, USA;

Compared with the public hall outside, it was much quieter. There were also quite a few beautiful female attendants serving the travelers.

However, four brawny men dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses stood guard, seeming somewhat out of place in the waiting lounge.

William, dressed rather casually, sat by the window under the protection of the four USS members Andre had arranged to accompany him.

After finalizing a series of acquisition plans yesterday...

he had come today to the seventh floor of the Marvel Comics headquarters at 135 West 50th Street on Manhattan Island, New York.

He had discussed the acquisition with the current editor-in-chief, C. B. Cebulski, the publisher John Nee, and a group of other executives.

The retired former editor, Stan Lee, had also attended the meeting.

Unexpectedly, the other party had readily agreed...

without even haggling.

For a price of only 300 million dollars, excluding the exact remainder, he had acquired all the IP rights and the entire company.

William, who had instantly become the new owner, told everyone at Marvel to continue working and creating as usual, so they would not panic because of his arrival.

However, the Marvel suffix had to be attached to Umbrella, and the company also had to appear in the comics as a positive force, among other requirements.

As for making movies, Marvel's executives wanted to use the highly popular Spider-Man as the first one.

But William insisted on his own opinion, choosing Iron Man as the first film in the cinematic universe.

Furthermore, the actor had to be Robert Downey Jr., whose career had fallen into a slump because of various scandals, and the producer had to be Kevin Feige.

Although the group of executives was deeply perplexed, they had no choice but to obey the stubborn demand of the one footing the bill.