One Year

"Chirp~ Chirp~"

Deep within a forest somewhere, a pair of gray sparrows chirped merrily.

Blinding sunlight filtered through the gaps in the maple leaves, casting beams onto the damp earth below. Closer inspection revealed various insects flitting about.

Of course, one couldn't forget the sneaky masked bandit, the raccoon.

If a camera were set up here, the scene would undoubtedly be worthy of National Geographic or Animal World. Everything appeared so serene.

"Rumble-rumble-!"

However, the roar of a black Hummer's engine shattered the natural tranquility.

Despite the lack of a clear road through the forest, the vehicle, with its brute off-road capabilities, charged deep into the woods as if on level ground.

Inside the car;

"Hoo... ha..." the breathing sounds of someone fast asleep.

In the passenger and driver's seats were Alpha and Hunk, both dressed in suits.

In the back, William leaned against a cushion, head tilted back, mouth agape in sleep.

"Grumble! Grumble!" The tires seemed to be rolling over larger stones, causing the car to shake.

Even William swayed with the car's movement, yet the commotion failed to wake him.

"Lieutenant."

The Alpha driving the Hummer asked Hunk, "We're almost there. Should I wake Boss?"

Hunk replied calmly, "No, let Boss rest a little longer."

"Yes, Lieutenant."

The two Alphas fell silent again, leaving only William's steady breathing in the car.

A short while later.

The Hummer passed through the previous obstacle course and arrived at a dirt road obscured by even denser foliage.

"Ughh~! Err~!"

William stretched, rubbing his stiff neck, then rolled down the window to look outside.

Ah, the cool breeze under the shade of the trees helped him wake up considerably.

It was August 17th, 2007. It had been over a year since William arrived in this world.

Umbrella had also developed at a breakneck pace within that year, monopolizing the vast majority of enterprises in Canada.

Even though the outside world had no idea of William's true wealth, America's Fortune magazine still ranked Umbrella twentieth among the Fortune Global 500 companies.

Fortune calculated based on Umbrella's publicly visible enterprises, estimating its operating revenue at around 100 billion and profits at approximately 14 billion, with a workforce of 120,000.

Umbrella's various figures surpassed those of America's banks, making it the twentieth largest company in the world.

And the world's number one?

It was...

Walmart.

That's right, Walmart.

Walmart's operating revenue was 351.1 billion, with profits of 11.2 billion.

But the world's second-largest company, British Petroleum, had profits as high as 22 billion, even surpassing Umbrella's 14 billion. How did Walmart become number one?

It was because Walmart's employee count reached a staggering 1.9 million, allowing it to maintain the top spot in the Fortune 500 for many years.

However, Fortune magazine's evaluation of Walmart wasn't very favorable. On the contrary, it praised Umbrella highly.

It even published articles multiple times, calling Umbrella the "navigator of humanity in the 21st century," a stance clearly opposing Wall Street.

In this regard, William had to express his gratitude.

Precisely because of the undeclared war between Fortune and Wall Street, his Umbrella had firmly secured its position in the spotlight.

Money was pouring in.

Therefore, William didn't need to resort to any subtle maneuvers to gain attention. Of course, he had Fortune magazine to thank.

The previously calculated 14 billion in profit was, for the most part, deposited into accounts managed by the System, entirely belonging to him.

The System's funds allowed for a monthly spending limit of 500,000 on himself, but compared to 14 billion...

William couldn't even be bothered to touch that 500,000.

Speaking of the System.

Fortunately, William had bought the Bank of Nova Scotia long ago.

Otherwise, if the whole world knew he had 150 billion annually...

That would be quite amusing.

In this year, William used the Athabasca Protocol signed between Umbrella and the United Nations to frantically acquire various arms companies.

The first to fall were Lockheed Martin, followed by Boeing, and then a variety of old-line arms companies.

This meant...

Core technologies such as the V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor Transport Aircraft, C-130 Hercules, and F-22 were all mastered by Umbrella.

The USA had grievances, but it didn't amount to much.

Umbrella was not a nation; it was William's personal property.

And capitalism, in its extreme form, venerated personal property. With money, you were the boss.

The working class?

They had no rights.

They spoke of democracy and freedom, but in reality... heh.

William was now the sugar daddy to the vast majority of companies in North America.

Leveraging this, Umbrella's arms division used various core technologies, along with blueprints purchased in Ukraine early on, to produce a large number of enhanced vehicles and weapons for its armed forces.

As for the Xbox development plan, it had stalled somewhat.

On the other hand, the concurrently developed Abnormal Crisis was nearing completion.

William had immense confidence in the Bungie development team.

After all, the Xbox launch title in his original world, Halo, was created by Bungie.

When William became a major shareholder of Microsoft and discovered that this world also had the Bungie team, he was ecstatic.

Xbox was able to go toe-to-toe with Playstation precisely because of the masterpiece, Halo.

But in his original world, Microsoft's higher-ups had a mental lapse and forced Bungie out, letting 343 take over, nearly ruining the Halo series.

Getting back to the point.

William was certain that Abnormal Crisis, produced by Bungie, would be the first shot fired in the gaming industry.

However...

As mentioned before, the Xbox development had stalled.

Software for games was manageable, but hardware was a bit of a problem.

Microsoft's engineers and designers simply couldn't understand the console William described, as it was very different from ordinary computers.

In the end, they only managed to produce a casing and a driver system.

Fortunately, the casing looked good, similar to the final version of the Xbox 360 from his original world...

What use was that!

During the time William spent researching Xbox at Microsoft, he had invested over a hundred million.

They produced just a casing for that kind of money?

Think of how many agents or soldiers that money could have saved?

Therefore, William directly used one of his rights as a major shareholder to fire those engineers who were truly eating for free.

But then there was another problem: who would develop it...

In his frustration, he had to seek help from the genius, Halsey.

William hadn't held out much hope initially. After all, no matter how smart Halsey was, she couldn't possibly understand what players needed in a console... right?

The reality was, she finished all the circuit diagrams and software systems for the Xbox in just two nights.

"..."

Thinking about this, William looked out at the scenery outside the window and was truly speechless.

The Xbox console and its launch titles, such as Abnormal Crisis, were scheduled to be released at midnight on January 1, 2008.

Concurrently, Iron Man would premiere on November 11 of this year.

And as the grand finale, Starship Troopers 2 would have its premiere at midnight on December 26, after Christmas, during Boxing Day.

At that time, Umbrella's three major works would be released one after another.