Umbrella's Advance

"The Hive?"

Seeing William's beaming expression, Halsey couldn't help but retort, "It feels really unsafe."

"Uh..." William choked.

Indeed...

Whether in movies or games, Raccoon City's underground facilities were always the first to be breached.

Although he couldn't refute her, William waved his hand and said, "As long as the name sounds good."

"Fine," Halsey blinked, shrugged, and stopped teasing him.

"Click!"

At this moment, Andre pushed the door open and said to William, "Kid, I just spoke with that old guy Frank about the military contracting. Giving his law firm two million dollars should be enough to handle the feds, get the certificate, and allow us to transport fully automatic weapons into Canada."

William knew who Frank was. In his memory, Frank had been his grandfather's exclusive lawyer. If it weren't for Frank, his father might have squandered all his assets, and this lumber mill wouldn't exist. Furthermore, Canada only allowed the purchase of semi-automatic weapons without a permit; fully automatic weapons were completely banned. Two million dollars was an astronomical sum in '06, but it was well worth it to establish military contracting in Canada.

"Okay, transfer the money to him tomorrow," William readily agreed, standing up and walking to Andre. "Tomorrow, you'll accompany me to a construction company in the suburbs. We'll convert this place into a military camp before the permit comes through."

"No problem," Andre patted his chest.

"Boss," Halsey said lazily from the sofa, raising her right hand. "I'll go talk about acquiring the hospital tomorrow too. Just letting you know, I won't haggle."

Looking at his two highly capable 'employees' brimming with fighting spirit, William was also filled with confidence. He nodded and smiled, "Heh, great. No matter what, Umbrella is officially entering the world stage!"

The next morning;

William and Andre went to a bank downtown and transferred two million to Frank's firm in Toronto. The moment Frank received the funds, he called Andre and William. The gist of it was... if the original Umbrella company (lumber) was to be converted into a private military contractor, the consultant with the ATF license must co-own the company as a shareholder. After all, William, as the owner of Umbrella, did not have an ATF license nor any military experience. William did not object. Andre was like a father and friend to him, and through the system's loyalty monitoring, he knew this strong man's loyalty was already maxed out. Therefore, there was nothing to worry about.

With everything confirmed, Frank began negotiating with the federal government to apply for all the necessary documents and permits for Umbrella.

As for Halsey... this female genius, who had officially signed a contract and become an Umbrella employee, had visited William's seaside villa earlier. She had re-planned the area of William's existing factory and designed blueprints for a military camp capable of housing and training two hundred people. When handing the drawings to William, Halsey simply brushed her hair aside and said nonchalantly, "I was bored tonight, so I just whipped it up."

From then on, William truly believed Halsey was omnipotent.

Afterward, Halsey headed to Dixon Private Hospital near the city center park to discuss the acquisition. William and Andre drove to the suburbs to a construction company called FlyChicken. The owner was a Chinese man in his thirties named Wang Zhaofeng, who was slightly overweight. Although there were only a few people inside the company, it was one of the largest construction companies on the East Coast of Canada. According to Wang Zhaofeng, employees were only gathered when taking on jobs to save money.

Based on Halsey's blueprints, Wang Zhaofeng guaranteed completion within forty days. Including the cost of various building materials and other fees, the total came to four million Canadian dollars, equivalent to 2.8 million US dollars. William found the price incredibly cheap. Perhaps with fifty billion in hand, a few million felt like pocket change.

He quickly finalized his employment with Wang Zhaofeng's company and was eager to see how fast they could work, promising an extra 100,000 bonus for every day they finished ahead of schedule.

Of course, quality had to be guaranteed.

Since the camp would take at least another forty days to complete its renovation, William instructed Andre to recruit retired soldiers and active police officers within Nova Scotia.

William clearly stated two requirements.

First, no bad habits such as excessive drinking or smoking.

Second, priority would be given to those with difficult family circumstances, particularly those with family members suffering from serious or terminal illnesses.

He gave Andre a general overview of the concepts behind UBCS and USS.

The plan was to initially assemble a regular force of one hundred men and a special forces unit of twenty.

William believed that Andre, with his KGB background, would be able to perfectly fulfill his requirements.

What shocked William the most was that Andre, at forty-nine years old, possessed a combat power of ninety-three according to the system's detection.

This suited William's needs perfectly; he needed someone capable to intimidate the mercenaries.

Andre was the ideal candidate.

Furthermore, with the image of a strong man from a warrior nation, he could immediately give off the impression of being the boss.

Next was the matter of acquiring Dixon Hospital.

Dixon, the owner and director of Dixon Private Hospital, initially couldn't believe that a nineteen-year-old girl had the capability to purchase a hospital.

However, when Halsey stated that the hospital occupied an area of twenty thousand square meters, with a building area of fifty thousand square meters, 414 beds, and various medical equipment valued at approximately seventy-seven million six hundred and twenty thousand US dollars...

Dixon, a physician over fifty, along with more than twenty doctor shareholders, couldn't resist Halsey's enticing offer of two hundred million US dollars and readily agreed to sell the hospital.

Upon hearing this, William almost spat blood.

Although he had said he wasn't short on money, who would offer more than double the price right off the bat?

And the buyer was the one driving up the price!

After a long pause...

William stopped dwelling on the two hundred million issue. It was the system's money anyway.

Thirty-two days later, on July 23rd.

The former lumber mill had been successfully converted into Umbrella's private military camp.

It featured four two-story barracks with sixty single rooms each, a two-kilometer athletic field, and a conference hall capable of accommodating two hundred people simultaneously.

The area with simple steel-frame buildings could simulate urban combat, and there was also a shooting range and a helipad, among other facilities.

Every building necessary for a small military base was fully equipped here.