A Farce

The president of the Umbrella Corporation, who had been missing for nearly a week, reappeared and made a dramatic entrance into the live-streamed hearing. ✩ 🎀  🎀 ✩

After getting over their initial panic, some of the capitalists who had joined the attack on Umbrella gradually calmed down.

There was no need for them to fear a young man. Now, it was almost as if "the whole world" was against Umbrella. Victory should belong to them.

No matter how powerful the Umbrella Corporation was, the tide could not be turned. The world had suffered under Umbrella for far too long!

As long as Umbrella existed, market activity would continue to decline, until the company became a global super-monopoly, effectively controlling the entire world. Everyone would have to act according to Umbrella's wishes.

They wouldn't allow such an entity to emerge. It wouldn't just bring the world's development to a standstill and eliminate healthy competition; it would also breed ambition.

The dozen or so capitalists in the audience quickly reached an agreement: even if they had to resort to dirty tricks, they couldn't let Umbrella continue to grow.

The department heads who saw Duncan walking toward the team led by Umbrella all greeted him. Susan, however, remained slumped in her chair.

"Boss, I... can I resign?" Susan managed a strained smile. The fine lines on her face became clearly visible as she did.

Stress could make people age. Some academics had gone prematurely gray from the pressures of working through the pandemic.

Putting aside any talk of dedication, Susan really was under a great deal of pressure.

Duncan agreed without giving it much thought. Before he arrived, he had already learned from Red Queen what had happened to the Umbrella Corporation during his absence.

Susan really was little more than a figurehead. Even with Red Queen's assistance and the preprogrammed procedures, she hadn't managed to handle everything well.

Things weren't exactly a complete mess, but there was little to praise, either. Take today's hearing: with the Umbrella Corporation's influence, they could have simply ignored it and posted a statement on their official website. There was no need to attend.

When he took over the company, Duncan had familiarized himself with Umbrella's connections. Within America, the company could do pretty much whatever it wanted. As long as it didn't start a war, almost anything could be suppressed.

After returning, he had contacted several American lawmakers, along with a few people connected to Umbrella. Getting into the hearing had been easy. The security guards outside hadn't dared stop him; they had even welcomed him in politely.

This ridiculous hearing was mostly the old European aristocrats, unable to stomach Umbrella's profits, trying to seize its resources.

They were trying to pressure Umbrella through public opinion. Later, they might try to turn the company's employees with threats and inducements, then buy off lawmakers, manufacture a financial crisis, and sabotage Umbrella's assets, all to break the company apart.

The simplest methods were often the most effective!

But this method wouldn't work on Umbrella's core businesses. At most, they could carve off some operations the company could easily abandon. 💝😎  ✋👽

But now that Duncan was back, he wouldn't let that happen.

The Umbrella Corporation was a vital stepping stone on his path to the stars and an essential foundation for his travels through parallel universes. He couldn't let short-sighted parasites ruin the future.

Duncan had the bodyguards who had followed him take Susan away. Then he sat in her place and looked at the chairman on the podium with a smile. "Mr. Chairman, you can continue!"

The chairman's eyes narrowed slightly. He glanced at the people in the audience, and only after they nodded did he say, "All right. We'll now hear from former U.S. military officer Mr. Gallup."

The man chairing the meeting was no champion of fairness and justice, either. He was playing a little trick: instead of bringing Duncan up to speed on what had been discussed, he went straight to the next item on the agenda.

Mr. Gallup, whose close-cropped hair had turned completely white, switched on his microphone. Looking at the prepared script, he read in a flat voice, "The Umbrella Corporation is a multinational monopoly and the world's largest multinational military organization. Its internal security force numbers one hundred thousand personnel, and its armed forces..."

As Gallup read, viewers watching the live broadcast learned just how powerful Umbrella's armed forces were, both from his words and from the video footage prepared in advance.

Umbrella's business included the military industry, and it had always supplied its security force with weapons from within the company.

It had plenty of the powerful missiles and attack helicopters it sold to outside clients, as well as armored vehicles built to military specifications.

Even its publicly known forces were enough to launch a small-scale war. Against some smaller countries, they would have an overwhelming advantage.

More importantly, Umbrella had a complete industrial chain and enormous financial resources. Even if a war broke out, it could keep its supply lines going for quite some time.

All this strength was laid out, one point after another, in Gallup's monotonous reading.

Duncan remained calmly seated. Everything Gallup had said was true; there was nothing to refute. If anything, he hadn't gone into enough detail.

Umbrella had large quantities of special weapons stored in several underground bases, from powerful explosives to crates upon crates of guns and ammunition.

Umbrella's weapons factories regularly shipped newly produced weapons to those underground bases. No outsiders knew about it.

After Gallup finished reading the script, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He looked at Duncan and asked a pointed question: "The weapons held by the Umbrella Corporation are clearly beyond what's normal. If you need protection, you should work with the military or the police, not build up a private armed force. Why are you doing this?"

It was Duncan's turn to speak, and the cameras turned toward him.

"I think it's necessary to reiterate one fact: Umbrella is headquartered in America, and most of our security personnel are based here... Under the rights granted to every citizen by American law, our security division is entirely legal."

Halfway through Duncan's sentence, his microphone went dead. He could only shake his head in exasperation. He had lost all interest in arguing with these people.

They had no intention of following the rules. Rules were only there to restrain the weak.

A middle-aged white man in the seats spoke up, interrupting him. "Excuse me, Mr. Duncan, you said that most of your security personnel are based here. What purpose do they serve? Why don't you work with the military and the police?"

Duncan sighed and shook his head, then took out the transparent phone Tony had given him. It was just a rectangular block of glass.

Many of the programs already installed on it could be controlled by Red Queen. The ability to hack into electronic devices was an essential feature.

A little over ten seconds later, Duncan had taken control of the speakers in the conference hall.

The middle-aged white man, having received no answer, tried to press him further, only to find the speakers had gone silent. How familiar.

Holding up the phone as a microphone, Duncan stood and walked to the middle of the hall, making sure the cameras couldn't ignore him.

"Stop this farce! Do you exist for no other reason than profit?"

Duncan was about to work his magic.