Negative Times Negative Equals Positive

"From now on, unless it's the President calling, reject all requests. Do you understand?" Duncan glanced sideways at Susan, slowly lifting his coffee to take a light sip.

Susan nodded hurriedly, making a note of the instruction.

Processing official business all morning left Duncan with a splitting headache, which only strengthened his resolve to hire more staff.

The moment he finished his work, he summoned the Red Queen. The small, crimson-clad girl appeared on the surface of his office desk.

"Red Queen, help me post a recruitment notice on the official website for the talent we're missing in various departments. You will screen the resumes; no racists, no one with suspicious backgrounds. For ordinary positions, base it on ability. The secretarial team must be young and attractive, under 30 years old. Once you find suitable candidates, present their profiles for my review."

The Red Queen replied obediently, "Understood. I am drafting the recruitment notice now."

Having casually resolved the hiring issue, Duncan pulled out his phone and called Alice, who was currently undergoing training at the Umbrella Corporation security campus, to invite her out for a meal at a restaurant.

Alice agreed without hesitation. Most of her memories had returned, and she recalled that she was indeed an employee of Umbrella. Faced with an invitation from the big boss, she had no reason to refuse.

Shortly after, Duncan and Alice met at a quiet Western restaurant. There were no pretentious champagne or red wines on the table; instead, the small table was covered with several plates of steak, one after another.

Duncan's ravenous way of eating made it look as if he had truly come just to eat, which made Alice, who had dressed up carefully in a star-blue dress, appear quite bewildered.

"Eat up, you need to eat more to have the strength for training!" Noticing that Alice seemed a bit restrained, Duncan greeted her warmly. "Don't worry about me. The thing I dislike most is all that complicated etiquette surrounding dining; that's only something people with nothing better to do would care about."

Just then, a waiter approached and placed two cans of cola on the table.

"Pfft!"

Alice couldn't help but laugh, the tension she had been feeling vanishing instantly. "You really are an interesting boss."

"Hmph!" Duncan didn't react much, cracking open the cola and downing it.

If he were forced to play the part of a refined American gentleman, he would feel incredibly uncomfortable. He preferred this feeling—unrestrained and free. Others wouldn't look at him with disdain because he now represented authority.

An ordinary person eating steak with their hands in a high-end restaurant would be seen as a savage and uncouth, but a billionaire eating steak with his hands in a high-end restaurant would be seen as unique and unpretentious.

That is how the world works...

When you have money and status, everything you do is analyzed by others. Even a dish name scribbled down casually would be interpreted as containing metaphors and over-analyzed.

Alice let her guard down as well, cutting her steak and eating continuously. While her table manners weren't as uninhibited as Duncan's, they were much more natural.

The lunch ended in a relaxed atmosphere...

After finishing dessert, Duncan finally brought up the serious matter. "Alice, I'm going to tell you something, and you must not get agitated!"

Seeing the sudden serious expression on Duncan's face, Alice sat up straight and nodded. "Mm..."

"You must have noticed it yourself, that your physical fitness is stronger than that of an ordinary person..." Duncan organized his thoughts, stared straight into Alice's eyes, and said, "You are actually a clone, a clone implanted with false memories by the Umbrella Corporation."

"..."

Alice was first confused, then her face filled with disbelief, which later shifted into deep suspicion and shock.

Before she could say anything, Duncan quickly spilled the rest of the details.

He included the fact that Alice was a perfect clone of Alicia with her illness removed, and that most of her memories were implanted by the Umbrella Corporation.

She already knew the marriage was fake, and she no longer wore the company wedding ring on her ring finger.

The power of the truth was like a lightning strike, leaving Alice's mind completely blank. She didn't even know how she followed Duncan out of the restaurant.

It was only when she regained her senses that she found herself in the morgue of the Raccoon City Central Hospital, looking at the corpse of Alicia.

"She is your original self. Before she died, she said, 'The rich memories of the future will be rewoven into a complete life; you, are you!'" Duncan reached out to pat the bare shoulder of Alice's dress, and finding that insufficient, he pulled her into an embrace.

Slap!

Alice pushed Duncan away, her face filled with anger and confusion. If it weren't for the small amount of goodwill she had accumulated toward Duncan, she wouldn't have just pushed him away—she would have swung her fist.

"Do you... have anything else to explain?"

"Yes!" Duncan raised his hands to show he was harmless. He wasn't Steve; he figured he wouldn't survive more than a few of Alice's punches, so he naturally didn't dare to court death while she was agitated. "Umbrella Corporation is Umbrella Corporation, and I am me. Isaac was killed by me, and you should be aware of the company's recent series of actions. I am not one of those power-hungry schemers!"

Alice's expression softened slightly, but she still stared at Duncan, asking, "When you found me that day, you already knew I was... a clone. Why tell me this now?"

Duncan lowered his hands and replied, "Because I am just like you!"

Like her?

Alice looked at the aged face of Alicia's corpse, then back at Duncan, wearing an expression of disbelief.

"What are you thinking? I mean I am a clone, not a clone of the same person!" Duncan rolled his eyes, stepped forward, and pushed Alicia's body back into the cabinet.

Overwhelmed by the influx of information, Alice's brain couldn't process it all. She crouched down, clutching her head in distress, and murmured, "Why did it have to turn out like this?"

Duncan kindly stepped forward to crouch beside her, gently patting her back to comfort her, but he felt uncomfortable under her complex gaze.

"Don't look at me like that. I haven't done anything bad!"

Alice was much calmer now. She had one more thing she was curious about, so she asked, "How did you find out about your identity and break free from Isaac's control?"

Here it comes!

Duncan had been waiting for Alice to ask this. He felt a surge of joy internally, but on the surface, he pretended to be deep in thought. After a long pause, he said, "I think it was the choice of fate. It was during the first board meeting I attended, where Isaac announced his insane plan to destroy all of humanity... Right after the meeting ended, my head felt like it was going to explode. My mind was filled with destruction, rebirth, and the world."

"I don't know if the world chose me, but I awakened a special ability to open a portal across worlds. That was when I met Steve and Natasha."

"You've seen them; they are actually people from another world! I invited them to help stop Isaac's plan to destroy the world, to regain control of Umbrella, and to make Umbrella a company that promotes human progress rather than destroying it!"

After finishing, he looked into Alice's eyes, and Alice looked back with an expression that said, Are you kidding me?

The two stared at each other in silence, neither speaking first.

Although no normal person would believe such a claim, Duncan was not a normal person, so the negatives canceled out—this was the truth!