"Not-Anywhere" Door

The meeting chaired by Dr. Isaac continued in an orderly fashion. The woman in the wheelchair voiced her firm opposition, but she was the only shareholder who did so.

Duncan could tell that none of the dozen or so well-dressed beasts in the room gave a damn about ordinary people's lives.

As a Young Pioneer born and raised under the red flag, he was ashamed to be associated with this bunch!

Unfortunately, the situation left him no choice. If he opposed them without knowing he could get away with it, he'd only end up as a low-value test subject on an operating table.

The shares he'd inherited from Rex Arems were worth a lot, but they weren't worth much to him.

The shareholders all looked down on Duncan's predecessor, believing he was just a spoiled rich kid who knew nothing but eating, drinking, and having fun—fundamentally different from old hands like them, who'd spent years dominating the business world.

So under normal circumstances, the shareholders didn't include Duncan in their plans. Other than today, he'd never attended a shareholders' meeting since inheriting the shares.

As the meeting drew to a close and Dr. Isaac was about to arrange cryogenic pods for the shareholders, Duncan finally raised his hand.

Seeing Duncan's raised hand, Isaac asked in some surprise, "Mr. Duncan, do you have any questions?"

Lounging back in his chair, Duncan imitated the way his predecessor had acted in his memories, putting on an eager expression. "This plan sounds pretty good. Pretty interesting, too. But it's so interesting that if I don't get to see how it all unfolds, I'll regret it for the rest of my life!"

"Oh? So you want to..."

Dr. Isaac perked up, and the other shareholders turned to look at the young man who seemed so out of place.

Snap!

Duncan snapped his fingers and put forward a bold idea. "I want to stay behind and watch humanity go extinct."

Everyone present seemed civilized, but in reality, they were a pack of well-dressed beasts. If his proposal displeased them, he'd be gunned down as soon as he left the company.

They wouldn't even need to hire a lunatic with a gun. After killing the original, they could use Duncan's current genes to grow a clone and cover up the truth. No one would ever find out he'd died.

So if his proposal failed, he'd grab the fountain pen on the table and kill the old Black guy beside him. At least he could get rid of one menace.

Duncan was just that reckless—and he never forgot a grudge. If you crossed him and he got the chance, he'd make your life a living hell.

The shareholders exchanged glances. Dr. Isaac was momentarily stunned, then broke into a kindly smile.

"Of course you can! But you'll have to give up cryogenic preservation and stay in the outside world until the day you die. Knowing that, do you still want to stay?"

Duncan felt a little relieved. Isaac hadn't rejected him outright, which meant there was room to negotiate—as long as he gave a reasonable explanation.

After thinking it over for a moment, he suddenly looked up and smiled. "Isn't a world collapsing into chaos, with no order left, one giant amusement park?"

The shareholders all believed the villainous persona he was playing.

After hearing him out, they took him for a little madman. Giving up the chance to enter cryogenic preservation and greet the new world, just to stay outside and watch the world rot—that was a ridiculously stupid, insane decision!

Dr. Isaac didn't get angry at Duncan's choice. Instead, he watched him with an intrigued expression.

"Haha, Mr. Duncan, you can stay. But I'll revoke some of your access within the company. When you die, your shares will be reclaimed rather than inherited."

Umbrella Corporation's shares represented more than just money and power within the company's internal system. Red Queen, the artificial intelligence responsible for managing that system, granted each shareholder access according to the size of their holdings.

Red Queen herself was a miracle, an artificial intelligence created from the combined efforts of every computer engineer at Umbrella Corporation.

Within Umbrella, Red Queen was the universally recognized overseer. Even Dr. Isaac, who had created her, couldn't alter her core programming. He could only abide by the rules that had been set and make small adjustments around them.

After all, without rules to keep them in check, no one would dare make a deal with a madman.

If Duncan voluntarily gave up his shares, Isaac could reclaim them and surpass everyone else in the company. He still wouldn't have absolute control, but he'd have enough power to make some autocratic decisions—and more resources at his disposal.

Duncan didn't want those troublesome shares, so he agreed without hesitation.

Perhaps Isaac wanted to show the other shareholders how generous and benevolent he was, or perhaps he had another motive. Either way, he smiled and said, "Since Mr. Duncan has chosen to give up his place in the Ark, I'll grant you more access within the Security Department. I hope you enjoy yourself in the new world!"

With that, the meeting ended. Dr. Isaac left the room first, followed by the other shareholders. They were going to provide tissue samples for their clones.

Duncan remained slouched in his seat. Sensing a piercing stare from the side, he turned to look.

It was the old woman in the wheelchair. She was staring straight at him, as if trying to see through his disguise.

"We should go." The tall man in a suit and sunglasses walked up behind the old woman and pushed her wheelchair out of the meeting room.

Only after everyone had left did Duncan get up. Following the directions in his memories, he headed for an office on one of the middle floors of Umbrella's headquarters.

He took the silver elevator down, passed a crowd of busy workers, and pushed open the door to his office.

His mood had started to sour as soon as he'd left the meeting room. By the time he'd passed through the elevator, he wasn't even trying to hide it—and he couldn't have hidden it anyway.

Some people were just slow to react. It was like having a stranger insult you out of nowhere: you didn't think of a comeback at the time, then the more you thought about it afterward, the angrier you got, endlessly replaying the moment in your head and imagining all the things you could've said.

Duncan's bad mood caught the attention of the workers near the office area, who kept glancing over at him.

Their department had easy, undemanding work. They'd only been busy earlier to put on a show for the new boss. Now that he was gone, they could go back to slacking off and collecting their paychecks.

The old hands in the workplace knew how to read their boss's mood. The last thing they wanted was to get fired by mistake.

Thud!

A muffled crash came from Duncan's office, which wasn't very soundproof. The employees grew even more uneasy, all turning to look at one person.

The blonde woman in business attire drew everyone's attention. With no choice, she headed for the office and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Inside the office, Duncan sprawled in his leather chair. He'd just used his extraordinary desktop-clearing software, and the floor was a mess, though the desktop itself was spotless.

His scrunched-up features had relaxed. He raised an eyebrow at a blonde beauty cautiously poking her head in and asked, "What is it?"

"Boss..." The blonde beauty stepped into the office in her high heels, closed the opaque door behind her, and walked slowly toward Duncan, who was sprawled in his office chair, her eyelashes fluttering.

Duncan was a little puzzled, but didn't pay it much mind. After clearing off his desk, he'd noticed another new change since arriving in the Resident Evil world.

The transition had taken a long time. From the meeting until now, it had lasted a total of two hours.

It was like watching a progress bar. The moment he swept everything off the desktop, the bar finished loading.

He saw a phantom door floating in his field of vision, one that could grow bigger or smaller, longer or shorter.

Information about the door appeared in his mind automatically. It was a portal to a new world, something like a parallel-universe "Not-Anywhere Door."

Opening the door would take him to a random world, and that world's coordinates would be recorded. After that, he could travel back and forth between the two worlds whenever he wanted, and even bring people along.

The door wasn't limited to a single world. There could be one here, and another over there.

After gaining this ability, Duncan's mood finally improved.

He'd known it! He'd spent his whole life doing good deeds, so there was no way he'd really been reincarnated as a villain. He was bound to enjoy the good life!

Once he reached another world, he'd be able to escape the pressure of staying alive for a while. Duncan was a good-hearted man in every respect—except for one little flaw: he couldn't stand idiots!

Especially idiots like Umbrella's top brass. He was definitely going to sabotage their plan to destroy the world.

Lounging back in his chair was Duncan's ideal thinking posture. He threw himself into figuring out how to wreck Umbrella's doomsday plan, sparing only a small part of his attention for the blonde beauty who'd suddenly walked in.

It wasn't until she knelt down and reached for his belt that he realized what this capitalist lackey was up to!

He slapped the blonde beauty's hand away. "If you don't have anything to do, get back to work. Stop bothering me!"

The blonde beauty looked aggrieved. Duncan searched his predecessor's memories and found the relevant information.

She was Rex Arems's secretary. After inheriting the shares, Duncan Arems hadn't fired her; he'd kept her on.

This considerate secretary knew exactly where she stood. Not only could she carry out Rex Arems's instructions flawlessly, she could also take care of Duncan Arems's needs without the slightest hesitation!

After seeing what his predecessor had gotten up to in the office, Duncan had a whole string of curses stuck in his throat. He could only keep waving at the woman, telling this secondhand secretary to get lost as far away as possible.