Turmoil

The forest was quiet, but this silence revealed a sense of eeriness.

The Beta Team of the squad had taken another helicopter to the site of a different plane crash, and now the members of Alpha Team had no way of knowing if they had come under attack.

Piers reported the situation to the supporting police officers via radio, and only after confirming they had received the message did he lead the members of Alpha Team deeper into the forest.

They were Raccoon City police officers; matters like this were exactly what they were supposed to risk their lives to handle.

Jill felt a faint sense of unease in her heart. It was now confirmed that this was a premeditated attack, and the assailants were still lingering at the scene.

The enemy's firepower was unknown, and by rushing in blindly, they might be walking into an ambush.

Just in the forest not far from Alpha Team, a group of ten armed militants was rummaging through the wreckage of the helicopter.

They were an international mercenary organization composed of freelancers, and two months ago, they had received a massive contract!

Kill the current leader of the Umbrella Corporation, Duncan Aremus, and bring back his body or 500 grams of his biological tissue.

The employer had offered a price no one could refuse. They had attempted to assassinate Duncan multiple times, but every time Duncan left Raccoon City, he was accompanied by a large group of armed Security Force, and he would have people scout the route ahead of time. His security level was terrifyingly high, until today, when their informant provided them with excellent intelligence.

Duncan would be taking a helicopter to inspect the construction progress of the industrial park!

The mercenary team leader had acted decisively, successfully shooting down all three helicopters with rocket launchers. Now, they only needed to bring back the target's body to collect their reward.

"Haven't you found him yet?"

The leader beside the plane wreckage was anxious. Even though their firepower was not weak, they were no match for the Raccoon City Police Department with its hundreds of officers, not to mention the thousands of Umbrella private soldiers in Raccoon City. No matter what weapons their group of thirty carried, they couldn't win.

Umbrella might not have reacted yet, but because of the threat of rocket launchers, they might not use helicopters anymore. If they approached by car, it wouldn't be long before the Security Force could easily surround them.

Seeing the urging, the team members stepped up their efforts to extinguish the fire, searching for the target's body inside the pried-open helicopter.

The employer had paid a huge sum for them to kill the head of a giant corporation. Such a violation of unspoken rules easily invited collective retaliation from capitalists. They had undergone a long internal struggle before taking this job, but they would be financially free once it was over, and none of them wanted to mess it up.

"Leader, we didn't find the body!" a few mercenaries finished rummaging through the wreckage and said helplessly.

After hearing this, the leader pressed his earpiece and asked, "Leopard, Eagle, did you find anything on your end?"

"Nothing found!"

"Shit, me neither!"

Responses quickly came through the earpiece, and the answers were uniform.

Was the intelligence wrong?

Just as this bad thought crossed the leader's mind, dense gunfire erupted from the forest to their side.

Rat-tat-tat!

Two mercenaries who were poorly positioned fell instantly, while the others hid behind trees the moment they heard the gunfire. Seconds later, the mercenaries returned fire in the direction the bullets were coming from.

For a moment, bullets and wood chips flew everywhere in the forest!

Alpha Team, who had been sneaking over cautiously, had hoped to catch them off guard, but once the exchange began, they realized the people on the other side were well-trained. Even after being ambushed, they hadn't lost their composure; it was clear they were professionally trained or had even seen combat.

"Motherfucker!" The mercenary leader changed the magazine on his rifle and signaled his companions to retreat. They didn't want to tangle with the Raccoon City police.

The mercenaries planted booby traps nearby, used smoke grenades to obscure the battlefield, and took advantage of the complex forest terrain to quickly vanish from the scene.

Blocked by the smoke, Alpha Team attempted to pursue.

Peyton was pushing forward and didn't notice the situation at his feet. While passing through a patch of grass, his keen hearing caught the sound of a grenade pin being pulled. He shouted in alarm, "Grenade!!!"

With that, he dove to the side.

Boom!

Shrapnel from the grenade explosion sprayed out. Peyton, having dove in time, was lucky enough to be uninjured. The others, alerted, also dove in time and were not harmed by the booby trap, but they dared not continue the pursuit.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Jill waved away the smoke in front of her, carefully watching her feet as she pulled up the team leader, Piers, who was lying on the ground.

Just as they were about to say something, the sound of helicopter rotors came from the sky.

Looking up, through the gaps in the tree branches, a large number of armed helicopters bearing the Umbrella logo were flying overhead.

Among them were several tilt-rotor aircraft resembling Ospreys. These aircraft passed over the forest, and to their astonishment, they deployed a large number of flares before firing a round of rockets into the distant woods.

The members of Alpha Team below were left dumbfounded. The prominent Umbrella logo on the sides of the aircraft was too eye-catching. Were these aircraft already military-grade models?

Even they, as police, didn't have such powerful firepower. Did a private company's security team really need such exaggerated equipment?

Regardless, the three plane crash sites were quickly taken over by Umbrella Corporation personnel. The police were only responsible for maintaining order at the scene, specifically ensuring that reporters could not get close.

The internationally renowned mercenary team suffered heavy casualties in the bombardment, with only seven escaping through a previously dug tunnel.

Perhaps due to the deliberate spread by interested parties, the news of the attack on Umbrella Corporation CEO Duncan Aremus quickly hit world headlines over the next two days. The discussion remained high, with clear signs of artificial manipulation.

Duncan's second secretary, Susan, was forced to accept interviews from reporters. She appeared very reluctant in front of the cameras, insisting on the narrative that Duncan was merely missing, and her answers were essentially led by the nose, giving the impression that she was trying to cover something up.

Netizens generally didn't believe it. The direction of the discussion shifted from the attack on the Umbrella Corporation CEO to whether the Umbrella Corporation should be broken up, and whether the private armed forces possessed by the Umbrella Corporation were too exaggerated.

With wolves circling outside the company, the mood inside was equally anxious.

Susan sat haggardly in the secretary's office, mechanically processing documents under the guidance of the Red Queen. Any problems she couldn't handle were temporarily set aside.

She was feeling very lost right now; having seen Duncan travel across worlds, she didn't believe he would die so easily, but having not seen the boss for two whole days, it was hard for her to confirm the facts in her heart.

Added to the complex and overwhelming workload, it was as if she had aged several years all at once.

Susan had originally been nothing more than a pretty face, possessing zero experience in handling such major, sudden crises. After only two days, she had already begun to miss the old days when she could just lie around and throw money away at will.

"Miss Susan, we've received another..."

The office door was pushed open at that moment, and a brown-haired secretary from the secretarial team placed a newly arrived letter on Susan's desk with a conflicted expression.

Staring at the white eagle emblem on the envelope for a long time, Susan clutched her head in a headache and waved her hand to dismiss the brown-haired secretary.

She messed up her hair and looked up to scan the minimalist, luxurious office, only to feel that it was a place that made it hard to breathe; the pressure now was so great that it made her consider resigning.

Some people, even after entering society, do not necessarily represent true independence and self-reliance.