The Industrial Park Was Completed

At the New Century opening ceremony in Raccoon City, Umbrella Corporation showcased its strength to the public.

Faced with Umbrella Corporation, which outclassed them in every way, some smaller businesses wisely chose to join or submit. After the New Century opening ceremony ended, one small business after another expressed interest in cooperating. The company's new recruits were left to handle them.

Duncan was desperate to bring in management talent. Even if some oversights during the training process cost the company a portion of its profits, it didn't matter. Umbrella could afford the loss.

He wasn't particularly skilled at handling company affairs, either. He was simply choosing to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term investment, all while holding the key to success.

Some businesses recognized the gap and chose to cooperate. Others refused to face reality or coveted Umbrella Corporation's technology.

Infiltration attempts against Umbrella Corporation were on the rise. Bark and the others in the Internal Affairs Department grew increasingly busy, and they brought in quite a few capable subordinates from Umbrella Security Company.

The Internal Affairs Department's growing workload also kept the Raccoon City Police Department busy. Even street patrols were outsourced to Umbrella Security Company. Umbrella Security Department vehicles patrolled the streets at all hours, ready to arrest anyone acting suspiciously.

The citizens, won over by Duncan's money-spending tactics, felt little resistance toward Umbrella's security personnel. On the contrary, they welcomed them.

After a hectic stretch, the industrial park on the outskirts was completed. The entire project had taken seven months.

Since it was close to Meimen Bridge, Duncan, who couldn't be bothered to think up a name, simply called it Meimen Industrial Park. He named it after one of Raccoon City's bridges, a fitting metaphor for the industrial park as a bridge between two worlds.

On the day the industrial park was completed, large quantities of the purchased metal materials began arriving at the buildings. The Arc Reactors, already manufactured in advance, were rushed to the park for assembly, ready to replace the aging power system completely.

The entire city's electricity had been free since the day Duncan made those three promises. Powering Raccoon City for a single day cost a fortune, and this pointless waste needed to end as soon as possible.

Another ten days passed, and the Arc Reactor was fully assembled. Duncan, his android, and a group of media reporters arrived to give the energy companies that loved stirring up trouble a look at the Arc Reactor's startup ceremony.

Skipping the pointless speeches, they "ignited" the cold fusion reactor. Blue arcs of electricity filled the entire power room.

Electricity flowed through the cables, reaching every corner of Raccoon City and bringing light back to thousands of homes.

The stable power output stunned the scientists in the Resident Evil world. Cold fusion technology, which they had only ever studied in theory, was now laid before the world in tangible form. Just how advanced was Umbrella's technology?

With the real thing right in front of them, some conservatives who had still clung to wishful thinking finally defected to Umbrella's side. Others, unwilling to relinquish their interests, began spreading rumors online that cold fusion technology was imperfect and posed enormous safety risks...

The "war" between international corporate giants also threw the world into turmoil.

This was especially true in regions whose main source of income was energy, where Umbrella naturally faced intense resentment.

One letter after another inviting Umbrella Corporation to negotiations arrived, leaving Duncan struggling to keep up.

He put off dealing with the invitations from various regions for the time being.

That night, he put on his Iron Man Armor and left the Hive base. Under cover of darkness, he made his way to Meimen Industrial Park.

Only five hundred Clone security guards were patrolling the industrial park now. All the workers had been transferred to other construction sites.

Duncan entered the circular Transit Center. It was still spacious and bare. Apart from the bright white lights overhead, the only thing inside was a gigantic square frame at the center—the spot where the "door" would appear.

With a slight movement of his mind, the frame rippled like a calm lake struck by a pebble. The waves spread outward, then settled into a massive doorway twenty-five meters tall and twenty meters wide.

Beyond the door was another broad indoor space, though unlike the empty Transit Center, the space on the other side was anything but bare.

The door he opened this time was special: a two-way passage. As soon as Duncan opened it, the people on the other side could see it too.

Tony, wearing a T-shirt, had been waiting behind the door. When it suddenly swung open, he naturally found himself face-to-face with Duncan in his armor. He let out a long breath.

Tony clapped his hands. The quiet warehouse sprang to life, the sounds of machinery starting up filling the hall.

By the time Duncan took off his armor and walked from the quiet Transit Center into the noisy warehouse, the racket had nearly deafened him.

"It's finally happening!" Tony greeted Duncan with a relieved expression.

He had made so many preparations that, if he hadn't occasionally seen Duncan wandering around his world, he would have started to suspect the whole thing was just a dream.

Duncan smiled as he watched the unmanned transport vehicles file through the portal in orderly fashion. He was quite pleased. "Yeah. The future is reaching out to us! Did you watch the video I sent you? What did you think of my speech?"

The video was a recording of Duncan taunting the capitalists at the hearing and announcing Umbrella Corporation's plans for the future.

If they wanted humanity's glory to endure forever, Tony's strength would be crucial. He was a cheat code, a man cursed with knowledge.

As long as he set his mind to something, he could get it done. He had even made some progress on building a portal between worlds.

"It was pretty good. I didn't know you had a talent for public speaking. There's no point just standing around here. How about we go outside for a drink?" Tony wanted to have a proper talk with Duncan, too. Until now, their meetings had always been about cooperation and development.

Using the video as a conversation starter, Tony wanted to discuss the future with Duncan. Duncan's words in that recording had shaken him deeply.

Humanity... Even after becoming Iron Man, Tony had constantly worried about humanity's survival. But all he had ever done was try to be a good hero, setting an example and inspiring others to find the good in themselves.

He thought he had done a pretty good job. Plenty of people had come to see him as a hero and dreamed of becoming heroes themselves.

Peter Parker from Queens was the finest testament to the impact of his heroism.

But after watching Duncan's speech, he realized he could probably do more.

Duncan was willing to sacrifice his company's profits and lose money to bring change to the world. What about Stark Industries?

After thinking it over for a long time, Tony could only shake his head slightly. The Umbrella Corporation in another world was a special case. Stark Industries couldn't take on global capital yet. He needed time to grow.

Duncan gave him a look that said he felt the same way. "Sure!"

The two of them made their way through the mass of machinery.

Duncan watched as an unmanned transport vehicle rolled past. Three layers of cylindrical robots were neatly arranged on its bed. These robots had tracked chassis and were highly modular industrial machines.

These were the first-generation industrial robots featured on the GG Billboard's holographic display at the New Century opening ceremony.

Highly modular, these industrial robots could handle the complex environments found in factories. Their interchangeable modules let them take on all kinds of tasks that required nimble hands.

They only needed to be operated by an artificial intelligence, and then they could replace human labor and achieve true full automation!

These unassuming robots had taken up a great deal of Tony's time and effort. His technology was sound; the difficult part was bringing the cost down to a level suitable for mass production.

In the end, each robot cost around a hundred thousand dollars. Their conservative estimated service life was thirty years.

Most of this batch of robots had been built by hand. They would manufacture new companions on the production line, working for Umbrella alongside them until they were finally scrapped.