A Difficult Situation

An eerie atmosphere spread through the room. Steve's bleeding heart only extended to his family, and the gulf between worlds left him unmoved by the astronomical figure. He felt only a faint puzzlement.

No one believed it—or rather, the whole thing was so shocking that it was impossible to trust.

Their reaction was perfectly normal. Duncan explained, "Umbrella Corporation's main business is biopharmaceuticals. In fact, most of their drugs are made using a special virus. It can destroy people's cellular structure and eat away at their brains, turning everyone into beasts that know only how to feed."

"Zombies?" Natasha couldn't understand. "Aren't those things only found in science fiction?"

"Yes. Zombies. The undead." Duncan gave the sharp-witted Natasha an approving look and sighed. "They might not exist in your world, but in ours, they're real. The board of shareholders has already voted to release the virus themselves, wiping out all of humanity. Once humanity has gone extinct ten years from now, they'll crawl out from underground and release the Airborne Serum, ushering in a new world."

After hearing Duncan out, Steve's worldview had been turned upside down. Compared with Hydra's plan to purge millions, people in this world were clearly more ruthless.

Ruthless didn't even begin to describe it. They were a bunch of lunatics!

The U.B.C.S. members, who still didn't know the full story, were just as shocked, though they still had their doubts.

"Th-this is... Didn't you expose Umbrella's plot?" Sam's mouth felt dry. Duncan had said only a few simple sentences, yet they'd made the room feel as if the temperature had plunged. Terrifying.

In response to Sam's question, Duncan explained, "Umbrella is a global monopoly with enormous influence. You could call it a country within a country. If I reported them, the most likely outcome would be that I'd be killed, then they'd extract my genes and make a clone to take my place and carry on my work."

Cloning—yet another extraordinary technology!

Natasha was beginning to believe Duncan. As she thought it over, she suddenly noticed several guns rising and cried, "Look out!"

Rat-tat-tat!

"Aaaaaah!"

The piercing gunfire made Susan the eye-catching flower vase shriek in annoyance.

The five Special Operations Force soldiers, who had been standing motionless, suddenly aimed their guns at them. Even though Natasha shouted a warning, some people still failed to dodge the bullets.

Fortunately, none of them were ordinary people. Steve heard the faint scrape of guns being raised and brought the shield he'd been carrying on his arm up in front of him. Using his extraordinary ability to calculate trajectories, he deflected some of the bullets back at the shooters.

Duncan, who had never let his guard down, rolled to the side, drew his pistol from his waist, and quickly emptied the magazine at one of the gunmen.

Natasha also drew her pistol and took down one of them. The four men Bark had recruited earlier were wary of the other two squads' members as well, and quickly reacted.

Umbrella's attack dogs all had the same target: Duncan. The others, huddled together, came under relatively little fire.

Bark took a bullet to the thigh, but gritted his teeth and fired at another Special Operations Force soldier.

Splurt!

Duncan failed to dodge the bullets. He wasn't a professional, after all. One shot hit his left arm and another his right thigh, while a third grazed his waist, tearing through his suit and leaving a bloody streak across his skin.

Steve hurled his shield at the last Special Operations Force soldier, knocking him away. Duncan finished him off.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Only after firing three shots did Duncan drop his empty pistol. He sucked in breath after breath through clenched teeth. "Hiss! I knew it!"

Even after all five Special Operations Force soldiers were dead, the tension in the warehouse didn't ease. If anything, everyone grew more suspicious. The Security Force squad pointed their guns at the seven U.B.C.S. members, who were still bewildered.

"Jeni!" Seeing Duncan wounded, Bark—now fully convinced by Duncan's story—immediately called over the squad's medic. "Stop the boss's bleeding. Don't worry about me yet."

The close-range rifle round had gone straight through Duncan's arm. His left hand was now attached by only a little flesh. The bullet had passed through his thigh without hitting a blood vessel. That was one small mercy.

"Sir..." James, the U.B.C.S. squad leader, was tense as the Security Force members aimed their guns at his team.

As for what they'd just discussed—the Umbrella Corporation leadership's plan to end the world—if no one had attacked them, he might have continued to doubt it, having grown up under Umbrella's protection.

But now, he simply didn't want to accept the truth...

"Do you want to die along with this rotten world, Sergeant James?" Duncan, gritting his teeth through the pain, glared at the seven men when he saw they hadn't lowered their guns.

After hearing the challenge, James slowly lowered his gun and removed his gas mask, revealing the weary face of a Black man. "Sorry, sir. Lower your weapons."

At their leader's order, the other six U.B.C.S. members slowly lowered their guns.

Then, another sudden change took place. One of them made a feint, lowered his gun toward Duncan, who was slumped on the ground, and pulled the trigger.

Just as everything seemed poised to plunge into an abyss, Steve's shield suddenly blocked the bullets' path.

The two bullets struck the Vibranium Shield and miraculously flattened into lumps of metal that fell to the ground.

Seeing this, the Security Force members immediately opened fire on the shooter. A hail of bullets from seven guns tore his body apart in an instant.

Susan, who'd barely been noticed until now, let out another shriek.

Once the gunfire stopped, Duncan cursed again. Sure enough, Umbrella Corporation had planted a mole right beside him!

"Wow... Looks like you've got it even worse than we do!" Natasha reloaded her pistol and warily watched the others.

Six people had died right there in half an hour. That was insane!

Steve didn't know what to say. Seeing how difficult things were for Duncan, he couldn't bring himself to ask him for help.

Duncan's face twitched as he sucked in one pained breath after another. Rolling his eyes, he replied, "Good, you get it. I can't help you. If anything, I need your help."

Kevin returned after searching through the supplies and gestured to Duncan. "Boss, want this?"

Duncan had never been shot before and was close to passing out from the pain. He glared at Kevin, who had terrible timing, and said, "Can't you see I'm about to pass out from the pain? Of course I want it!"

"But, boss, didn't you say the T-virus was bad?"

Kevin opened the small case and took out a metal injector filled with green liquid, still looking a little uncertain.

It was a painkiller and Healing Serum used internally by Umbrella Corporation. It contained a high concentration of the T-virus, but had been stabilized and had no obvious side effects. It could relieve pain and treat internal and external injuries.

Natasha, Steve, and Sam all looked at the green serum with curiosity.

"Please go easy. This hurts more than when I took dozens of knife wounds!" Duncan reminded Jeni, who was treating his injuries. He then sucked in another breath and said irritably to Kevin, "Umbrella's been selling viruses for over a decade. Their mature products are safe enough. Unless you're unlucky enough to be one in a billion, you'll be fine. Quit standing there and inject me."