Shareholders' Meeting

"Stop that outsider!"

"Hack him to death!"

"Hey!"

Duncan's ears were filled with a cacophony of curses that sounded like the croaking of ducks, while his retinas reflected the gleaming sheen of a machete and vast pools of bright red blood.

The stolen pistol fired its final few rounds. In his final moments, Duncan kept his eyes locked on the bastards collapsing in agony, his gaze filled with the grim satisfaction of having taken down criminals.

It was like being jolted awake from a deep slumber, or perhaps truly crossing through hell and completing a cycle of reincarnation in the blink of an eye.

As Duncan's consciousness returned, the pitch-black world before him regained its color.

He opened his eyes to find himself in a grand hall. Both sides of the hall were lined with transparent glass, through which the faint outlines of building tops were visible, suggesting he was on a high floor of a skyscraper.

Shaking his slightly dizzy head, Duncan's blurred vision gradually cleared, the focus adjusting to reveal his immediate surroundings.

He appeared to be sitting at one end of an absurdly long black table. On both sides of the table sat elderly men and women dressed in dapper suits, and at the far end stood a middle-aged white man speaking eloquently.

"We are here today not just to discuss the future of the company; we are here to discuss its mission, and we are here to discuss the end of the world."

What the hell?

Duncan, having just returned from the dead, felt his brain buzzing. He hadn't even managed to get a clear look at the people around him before someone started talking about the end of the world—this was bizarre.

The middle-aged man speaking didn't care whether Duncan had gathered his thoughts, and the other shareholders in the meeting didn't care about him either, treating him like an invisible man.

Beep!

As a soft electronic chime sounded, Duncan noticed everyone at the long table looking at him—or more accurately, looking at the electronic screen behind him that nearly covered the entire wall.

Still feeling lightheaded, Duncan didn't want to appear out of place, so he turned his head as well.

He hadn't sorted out his thoughts yet and wasn't sure if he had transmigrated or if he was in some kind of fantasy space while his real body lay in a hospital... there were far too many cliché TV plots like that!

A red line flashed across the giant screen, followed by the appearance of a red and white umbrella-shaped logo.

The moment he saw the umbrella logo, a wave of dizziness hit Duncan, and memories that didn't belong to him flooded his brain, helping him understand a few things.

He had transmigrated into the world of Resident Evil and was now "playing the role" of a 21-year-old white male named Duncan Aremus.

The original Duncan Aremus had a father named Rex Aremus, a wealthy tycoon in the United States.

Rex Aremus had passed away unexpectedly a few months ago, and because he hadn't left a will, the family had caused quite a scene while carving up the assets.

After a series of dizzying maneuvers, the original Duncan Aremus ended up with the shares of the Umbrella Corporation held by Rex Aremus.

While Umbrella was indeed a top-tier global mega-corporation, business in the United States—unless it was a strictly family-run enterprise—never allowed for one person to hold absolute power. This meant that internal company secrets were impossible to hide from those with the right resources.

The cannibalism incidents that Umbrella had desperately suppressed over the past few years were already common knowledge among the well-informed elite circles in the United States.

With cannibalism incidents occurring frequently of late and the drugs produced by Umbrella confirmed to have severe side effects, this giant multinational corporation couldn't keep a lid on things much longer; its collapse was imminent.

While ordinary retail investors were still frantically buying Umbrella stock, those in the know had already started dumping theirs.

Under these circumstances, the Rex Aremus family, bound by the rules of the wealthy, cleverly offloaded all their Umbrella stock onto the business-naive Duncan Aremus.

Now, Duncan, a transmigrator from China, had inherited everything belonging to Duncan Aremus.

He didn't know yet that the Umbrella Corporation was about to explode, but his memories from his previous life told him exactly what kind of hellish entity Umbrella was!

The expression on Duncan's face shifted repeatedly, but fortunately, he was sitting at the far end of the table facing the screen, so no one else could see his face.

Holy shit!

What the hell is this Umbrella thing!

I spent my life taking out human scum, and after being reincarnated, I end up on a sinking pirate ship!

The images on the giant electronic screen were still flickering. Dr. Alexander Isaacs, the largest shareholder of Umbrella standing at the other end of the table, had finished talking about war and plague and was now discussing global warming.

He was quite eloquent, with vivid expressions and deep emotion. If he went to the United Nations, he could probably usurp the throne of the climate activist girl.

"Global warming will melt the polar ice caps within 80 years, submerging 90% of the Earth's habitable land..."

Dr. Isaacs continued his passionate speech, but Duncan had no heart to listen; he had only one thought in his mind.

This guy is a lunatic, how do I get out of here?

At the same time, Duncan questioned his fate. He had spent his life performing good deeds, only to end up in such a situation after death, becoming one of the villains without even knowing why!

Comparing the two sets of memories in his mind confirmed that he was in the world of the Resident Evil movies.

If he remembered correctly, this planet would soon become a paradise for the undead.

The T-virus could infect anything—land animals, marine life, and even plants!

Hiss!

[Censored]!

Dr. Isaacs had just finished his cliché topic on global warming and was now starting to wrap up his previous setup. "In less than 50 years, the blind growth of the population will catch up with food production, leading to famine. And war—this is not a conjecture, it is a fact!"

Using an alarmist tone, he leaned forward, scanned all the shareholders present, and said, "In any case, the end of the world is coming. The question is, are we going to perish along with it?"

A hoarse, aged female voice broke the silence of the conference room, and everyone, including a stifled Duncan, turned to look at the speaker.

"What do you mean by that?"

It was a woman sitting in a wheelchair, her face withered and gaunt.

Duncan did not recognize this old woman; after all, who would stare intently at an unattractive old woman while watching a movie? He was lucky enough to even recall the general plot of the six Resident Evil films, and right now, his mind was entirely occupied with how to jump off this ship that was heading straight into the abyss.

In the quiet conference room, Dr. Isaac stared at the old woman in the wheelchair for a moment before stating his objective: "I intend for us to destroy the world, in our own way—a meticulously arranged apocalypse to cleanse the world's population, which will ensure that infrastructure and resources remain intact."

Hearing this insane idea, Duncan, sitting at the table, desperately wanted to slam his hands on the table, stand up, and shout that it was absolute nonsense. Even if the world were to end, that was a matter for fifty or sixty years from now; whether a group of people with one foot in the grave like them could even live that long was questionable. It was purely a case of having nothing better to do... and it was even worse than just being bored!

To think they were actually stupid enough to preemptively wipe out humanity to rebuild civilization? Heh!

The shareholders on both sides of the long table were also slightly startled, constantly glancing at the people they knew beside them, trying to find resonance on others' faces.

Isaac was absolutely insane!

Many people saw this sentiment on the faces of those around them, but they were all prominent capitalists who had been tested by brutal business wars; even when faced with such a crazy idea, they could maintain a basic level of composure.

Duncan had died once before, so he was also able to keep his composure on the surface. He felt that Isaac was a hopeless madman and began to consider how to take everyone here out.

A madman is not terrifying; what is terrifying is a madman who holds the weapon to destroy all of humanity!

Isaac had long anticipated the shareholders' reactions. He remained relaxed, lightly tapping the Bible on the table with his hand as he said, "It has succeeded once before. A chosen few will weather the storm, not on an Ark, but in a secure underground facility! When it ends, we will ascend to a purified Earth and shape it according to our own design."