T-Virus

"Clang-clang!"

Halsey tapped the chest plate of Thor's Hammer with her fingers, then turned to William. Crossing her arms over her chest, she smirked wickedly and said:

"There you go. As you can see, all five billion of your money is right here."

?!

William had been watching Herendine with great interest, but when he heard Halsey say that she had spent all the money, his legs went weak and he almost lost his balance.

Money.

He had said it wasn't a problem.

Umbrella's quarterly earnings had long since exceeded ten digits.

But even that couldn't withstand spending like this...

Five billion for just two helmets?

Wouldn't the completed Thor's Hammer and Herendine be worth an entire fleet plus two aircraft carriers?

This spendthrift woman!

Holy crap...

Thinking of that, William's eyes widened, his mouth fell slightly open, and he slowly put both hands on his head and scratched hard.

"Haha~"

Seeing William's face shift between red and white, Halsey smiled as if her scheme had succeeded. She patted her belly and said:

"All right, boss, I'm not teasing you anymore, or I'll laugh myself to death.

Actually~

Thor's Hammer's projected cost is around seven hundred million to one billion, while Herendine's range is much wider. It might cost about ten times as much.

The two in front of us are their final forms.

After all, we conducted many experiments involving new materials, system development, neural responses, and so on, so the expenses were bound to be a little higher.

It's only a few billion."

"You, you..."

After hearing her explanation, William finally stopped thinking about how to rapidly expand his profits and looked at her reproachfully.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

After calming down from his near heart attack, he gradually regained his composure and looked at Halsey, asking flatly:

"Was the rest of the money used by The Hive to manufacture AAES?"

"Yes~ and no."

Halsey clasped her hands behind her back and walked around William as she spoke:

"Containment Objects have been classified into four levels, and that Mr. 049 is classified as Euclid.

Even ordinary soldiers without AAES can contain Mr. 049.

What about Keter or Exafanistei?

That's right. Those require my Spartans to deal with.

Although the colonel dispatched USS not long ago to replace those children, and the Spartan Program has also entered its scheduled phase,

Spartans need time."

As she said this,

Halsey happened to walk in front of William. She rose onto her tiptoes and observed her boss from close range before saying gravely:

"If a Keter or Exafanistei appears during this period, and there are no Super Soldiers to restrain it, what should we do?"

William thought for a moment. "You mean... you developed some kind of low-end version of a Super Soldier?"

"Correct~" Halsey returned to her usual expression and crooked a finger. "Come with me. I'll show you a 'Super Soldier.'"

"All right."

William had long been used to Halsey's somewhat eccentric behavior. He shrugged and followed her.

They reached the corridor, and after moving only a few steps, the two entered the room next door.

"Whoosh—"

When the automatic door closed, William felt a little cool. The air conditioning here must have been set to a lower temperature.

The dim red lighting allowed him to see only five 'human' figures standing in the very center of the room.

"Click!"

Standing behind William, Halsey smiled and pressed the light switch beside the door, turning on the fluorescent lights to reveal what these Super Soldiers really were.

The five suits were not Super Soldiers at all, but Power Armor resembling Darth Vader's armor.

William approached to examine them.

He discovered that they were made of a large number of block-like armor plates. There were no obvious seams between the faceplates and helmets, while their hoods resembled the Optical Camouflage uniforms used by the USS.

Looking more closely,

he could see transparent tubular networks between the armor plates, filled with pale green liquid.

Halsey stopped pretending to be mysterious. She walked to the suit of armor in the middle and said to William:

"Boss, just as I promised you, I upgraded the Individual Combat Systems of UBCS and USS.

Each AAES costs twenty-two million, and its performance is a perfect fit for UBCS special units.

With the armory working together with The Hive, production should reach roughly fifty suits per month.

It's slow, but compared with Thor's Hammer and Herendine, it's much faster."

"Then..." William stroked one of the 'Darth Vader' suits.

Cool and refreshing.

He then turned to Halsey and asked, "Was all the remaining money spent on these five suits of armor?"

"No." Halsey continued:

"Most of your five billion went toward developing Herendine and Thor's Hammer, as well as experiments involving the fusion reactor and so on.

And I haven't even spent all of it yet.

But these five were a type of Biochemical Power Armor that I began developing when The Hive was first completed."

"Biochemical Power Armor?" It was William's first time hearing of it.

"Stop touching it."

Halsey flicked William's disobedient hand before explaining: "The T-Virus's most successful product is the Tyrant T-103.

They possess tremendous explosive power and endurance, can follow simple commands, and have the advantage of absolute obedience.

But their weakness is equally obvious: without soldiers coordinating with them, they get surrounded and beaten like idiots.

They're just cannon fodder.

However,

during one experiment, I tried coagulating a Tyrant's blood and removing fibrin, clotting factors, and other components through a series of separation procedures. The resulting serum...

actually allowed people with strong physiques to rapidly and safely sustain adrenaline secretion, while also increasing brain activity and reaction speed.

It could even make wounds heal rapidly, bringing the body infinitely close to the Human Limit.

In other words, the Super Hero from Marvel that you acquired—what was his name again..."

"Captain America." William picked up the thread.

"That's right~!"

Halsey rose onto her tiptoes again and poked William's right cheek, narrowing her eyes in a smile. "Good boy, boss."

"Stop messing around. Tell me more about this Biochemical Power Armor." William smiled helplessly.

"Mhm~" Halsey raised her chin and continued:

"Each Tyrant T-103 can yield only one hundred milliliters of T-Virus Serum.

Each suit of Biochemical Power Armor requires four thousand milliliters to maintain the Human Limit I mentioned earlier for an extended period.

Even without T-Virus Serum, it's still an excellent suit of Power Armor.

It has a more advanced Mechanical Skeleton than AAES, large areas of Titanium Alloy protective plating, Optical Camouflage, and various other functions.

This is the Individual Combat System the USS should have."

"This..."

After hearing Halsey's explanation, William could only say that Halsey was truly 'crazy.'

Only one hundred milliliters per Tyrant?

That meant one suit of Biochemical Power Armor required the serum from forty Tyrants to fill it, and it could only be used for combat.

That meant every few missions the USS carried out in Biochemical Power Armor would consume forty Tyrants.

Suddenly, he felt that...

Halsey was the world's true 'anomaly.'