Umbrella Corporation Undertaking Social Responsibility

The art of shifting blame, a skill used by everyone across the world, was practiced with absolute clarity by Duncan. By the time the Raccoon City rescue operation began, he was already inside the Umbrella Corporation security compound, connected via conference call to the directors of eight other underground Umbrella bases.

Umbrella, daring enough to concoct a world-ending plan, certainly possessed the strength for it. Their eight underground bases were located beneath major cities across the globe.

The Paris branch, London branch, Tokyo branch, Siberia branch, São Paulo branch in Brazil, Nairobi branch in Africa, Toronto branch, and Mumbai branch.

Releasing the virus from these branches simultaneously would have allowed the T-Virus to spread across the entire world in a short time. Fortunately, it was stopped in time, with only the Tokyo branch leaking a small amount of the virus.

"Mr. Adanom, I will leave the materials to you. They must be transported to headquarters within three days. No problem, right?"

As the meeting drew to a close, Duncan had finished pressuring these ambitious men hiding underground; he had no intention of liquidating them just yet.

Right now, he only wanted to obtain the materials needed to produce the Airborne Serum. He had to seize the time while the pharmaceutical factory in Raccoon City was still operational to ramp up production of both the Airborne Serum and the T-Virus serum.

Sensing the subtle threat in Duncan's words, a dark-skinned man with a glossy complexion made a subtle swallowing motion and replied, "Understood. I will arrange for a plane as soon as possible."

"Very good. Any other questions?" Duncan crossed his hands and looked at the people in their seats with a smile. The lingering silence provided the answer. "Good, meeting adjourned!"

As his voice fell, the people around the conference table twisted and vanished like corrupted video files.

The lifelike people in the conference room were actually holograms!

It was rumored that military technology was 20 years ahead of civilian technology, and Umbrella's technology was 20 years ahead of the military's—this was clearly no exaggeration!

After mastering cloning and gene-editing technology, Umbrella had been attempting to create smarter humans by influencing fetal development.

There were many results, and over the twenty-plus years of Umbrella's expansion, these results had gradually been converted into the company's scientific research achievements.

After ending the meeting, Duncan left the conference room, accompanied by the James Squad that followed him at all times, and prepared to head to the indoor training ground where the compound was sheltering refugees.

As he walked, Duncan took off the suit jacket he was wearing over his upper body and changed into his original special combat uniform.

To put on a full show, he was now the CEO and owner of Umbrella. In front of others, he had to establish the image of a kind, approachable man who charged to the front lines of the epidemic response. Only then could he win people's hearts, and he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world!

When he entered the indoor training ground, it was just in time for the dinner break, after the volunteers had finished distributing the evening meal and everyone was enjoying a moment of peace.

The arrival of Duncan's group did not attract much attention from the people eating. They just went about eating their food, chatting with people they were familiar or unfamiliar with.

A female employee from the publicity department, who was responsible for propaganda work at this shelter, spotted Duncan and hurried over to report the situation.

The propaganda work at the shelter was going well. After seeing the photos and data, most people had already believed their narrative, leaving only a small portion of suspicious individuals who remained doubtful.

However, their emotions were no longer as agitated as they had been at the beginning. Influenced by the majority who believed, that small group would soon be unable to withstand the pressure and choose to trust Umbrella.

In this way, their propaganda work had been successfully completed.

Once the meal was over, Duncan would announce the compensation plan, which would likely resolve this crisis.

There would certainly be an impact. After all, the rough casualty figures were already out: nearly two thousand people had been infected by the virus and turned into zombies, nearly a thousand had been injured in the chaos, and many patients in hospitals had lost their lives because the medical staff had fled.

Adding it all up, the direct impact affected nearly five thousand people, and indirectly affected the entire city.

"Hey?! Mr. Duncan!"

A familiar voice came from the crowd, shouting Duncan's name loudly.

Duncan turned his head at the sound and saw an old man, somewhat bloated and wearing a baseball cap, waving his arms high. That familiar face—wasn't it Kendo, the owner of the Kendo Gun Shop whom he had met twice before?

He waved back at the man to acknowledge him.

Upon receiving a response, Mr. Kendo stood up excitedly, squeezing through the people around him while shouting, "Mr. Duncan! Mr. Duncan! You've come at just the right time! My companions have many questions. You are a shareholder of Umbrella and can certainly make decisions. You must listen to these questions! I even have your work ID here! Mr. Duncan!"

Kendo's voice was very loud, drowning out most of the people in the training ground and causing many to notice him running in a certain direction.

The hall fell silent for a moment as everyone listened carefully to what Mr. Kendo was saying.

Standing at the edge of the training ground, Duncan's mouth twitched. Looking at Kendo, who was waving and shouting repeatedly, he really wanted to say that this wasn't necessary.

It was less than fifty meters away. Even with the crowd blocking the way, the indoor area was planned and partitioned, and there was a perfectly good path he could have run along.

Instead, he insisted on pushing through people, stopping every three steps to look down—he might as well have just told everyone, "The person in charge of Umbrella is out, everyone go block him," which would have been much more straightforward.

After hearing Mr. Kendo's booming shouts, everyone in the venue knew that the real person in charge had arrived.

They weren't dealing with some temporary worker playing games, so they excitedly crowded around, aiming to get a clear statement from Duncan.

It took nearly five minutes for Mr. Kendo to finally reach Duncan. When he stopped, he was panting like someone who had just finished a marathon.

Duncan was soon surrounded by many people, including some burly individuals, blocking him so tightly that he could inhale a heavy dose of "philosophical" scent with every breath.

"Everyone, take it easy, take it easy!"

Duncan tried to soothe them to no avail, so he had the female employee from the publicity department bring a microphone to hold a Q&A session.

Once order was maintained, Duncan stood firmly on the platform like he was at a press conference, answering the questions raised by the people below.

"Please, that gentleman, go ahead!"

"Are there really commercial spies? Why didn't anything happen before, and why did it suddenly happen now!"

"Great question!" Duncan gave a thumbs up to the clever man with the full beard and said, "Because we didn't know when the spies would act. We are just a publicly traded company, and our identity verification requirements aren't that high. As long as someone is capable, no matter where they come from, we accept them. This gave those with ill intentions a chance to exploit the system. Next question... this lady!"

"What should we do? I mean... my boss is dead, I should be out of a job now, and I have two children to raise. I can't afford to have no income."

Duncan put on a serious face and nodded. "Please rest assured, ma'am. We already have a solution for this. Although this incident was a disaster created by ambitious people with ill intentions, Umbrella is willing to shoulder its corporate social responsibility. After the incident subsides, we will provide $10,000 in humanitarian aid to every person affected. If a family member passed away in the incident, we will provide $100,000 in humanitarian aid. Those who have lost their jobs can also obtain a basic position at an Umbrella subsidiary. This humanitarian guarantee will cover every resident of Raccoon City."

"Can the children also receive money?" the mother of two asked expectantly.

"Yes!"

With money leading the way, the citizens' favorability toward the Umbrella Corporation increased.