Employee Grades

June 5.

The day of the purge.

16:14.

Raccoon Police Department, second floor, inside the chief's office.

Irons sat in his office chair, rhythmically tapping the armrest with the fingers of his right hand while lightly pinching his round chin with his left, as if deep in thought.

Sitting across from the perverted police chief was Sui Bian, legs crossed and hands clasped over his stomach, wearing a faint smile.

The office was decorated in a similarly old-fashioned style, with taxidermied deer heads, bear heads, and other specimens hanging on both walls.

The afternoon sunlight streamed through the window behind Irons, falling directly on Sui Bian.

It was a little dazzling.

Sui Bian then asked, "Chief Irons, have you made up your mind?"

"Mr. Sui, I'm just a lowly police chief. I wouldn't dare refuse your request, of course. It's just..."

Irons looked troubled as he continued, "How am I supposed to explain this to the team? Besides... this isn't something that can be handled with a single document."

His tone and expression made it sound as though transferring STARS would be incredibly difficult.

"Heh."

Sui Bian only smiled and said nothing.

A moment earlier, he had asked Irons to hand STARS over to him, but he hadn't given him a reason.

After all, the fact that Umbrella would soon be secretly fighting anomalous phenomena was something only Sui Bian knew for now. He had no intention of explaining himself at length to Irons.

But Irons's words just now had instantly put Sui Bian in a foul mood.

Everyone knows you, Irons, practically rule Raccoon City with an iron fist, and now you're telling me this is difficult?

Sui Bian mocked him inwardly, but kept smiling as he rolled his neck, producing a few crisp pops.

"Don't worry, Chief Irons. The company will cover all the paperwork and fees. All you need to do is have every member of STARS meet me at the warehouse in the southwest district at 10 a.m. on the fifteenth of this month."

"Mr. Sui, you really are easy to talk to! Haha! Thank you... Thank you for understanding."

The moment he heard that Umbrella was willing to pay, Irons's attitude did an about-face, and he immediately broke into a beaming smile.

"You're welcome. I still have to deal with the Hive, so I'll be going."

Sui Bian said this, waved his right hand, and stood up before heading for the office door.

"I'll see you out, Mr. Sui."

Irons hurried to his feet as well, eager to curry favor with Sui Bian.

Sui Bian didn't refuse. He even chatted and laughed with Irons, knowing that this wasn't the right time to deal with him.

Since most of the police force was out on missions, Irons accompanied Sui Bian straight to the entrance of the secret passage beneath the police department, where four members of Alpha had already been waiting for some time.

Only then did Irons take the initiative to stop flattering him, tactfully excusing himself from the area.

Sui Bian and the four members of Alpha then entered the passage and reached the rail station built beneath the police department.

They boarded.

The train started up.

It carried them to the first level of the Hive.

Seated at the rear of the carriage, Sui Bian gazed absently at the tunnel outside the window.

Once he had taken full control of Umbrella, he would reform the company's existing employee system, creating four employee grades: A, B, C, and D.

The higher the grade, the more access employees would have to the company's core technologies and secrets, as well as anomalous phenomena that couldn't be disclosed to the public.

Of course, D-Class Personnel were not included in any of the above—or, rather, they weren't considered employees at all.

D-Class Personnel were defined as expendable. They came from prisons around the world and were violent criminals, especially those sentenced to death.

D-Class Personnel were used in experiments, assigned to work in extremely dangerous environments, or made to interact with various containment objects so researchers could better analyze their properties.

Umbrella had to have D-Class Personnel!

In fact, Sui Bian didn't oppose human experimentation. What he opposed was kidnapping innocent citizens and homeless people to use in biological experiments.

If they wanted to create more advanced B.O.W.s and Super Soldiers, human experimentation was indispensable.

He planned to use Umbrella's influence to contact the wardens of prisons throughout Colorado, the state where Raccoon City was located, and secretly sign confidential agreements to bring violent criminals and death-row inmates to the Hive.

Especially those violent child molesters. They had to be brought to the Hive and used as D-Class Personnel.

They were scum, and they were going to die sooner or later. Why not make a great contribution to humanity's progress?

Having sorted out his thoughts, Sui Bian also planned to persuade Irons with promises of promotion and honors, secure some D-Class Personnel for the perverted police chief, and have Birkin conduct the first human experiment with the G-Virus on him.

"The Hive has been reached."

A female voice from the train interrupted Sui Bian's absent-minded thoughts.

The train slowed to a stop, and the door on the right opened automatically.

"Let's go, sir."

"All right."

Sui Bian and the four members of Alpha left the train.

Back at the Hive.

Sui Bian dismissed the four members of Alpha to rest and await further orders, then returned alone to his bedroom on the second level of the Hive.

17:24.

The Hive's second level, employee residential area.

At the southeastern corner, in the bedroom at the end of the corridor on the right.

The room had been assigned to Sui Bian. It had a bedroom and a living room, and its layout was similar to that of his previous bachelor apartment.

But the walls were no longer the American-style "cardboard" that provided poor sound insulation. They had been replaced with cold metal.

The kitchen counter had no stovetop or oven, just a sink, a refrigerator, and a microwave.

As for the open-air balcony from his old apartment, it was impossible to have one dozens of meters underground.

Having just taken a hot shower and changed into black pajamas, Sui Bian sat at the computer desk in his bedroom, talking with Red Queen.

"Red Queen, notify the technicians to make sure your main body is intact. Then notify the Hive's transport department to move your main body to the Hive."

"Understood. Do you have any other orders?"

"Hmm... Red Queen, arrange the safest route and have the last two USS squads secretly make their way to Raccoon City. I'll need enough manpower for the operations ahead."

"Yes, sir."

"Mm." Sui Bian gave a quiet acknowledgment and ended the conversation with Red Queen.

Then he silently opened the holographic System Store and said to the system in his mind:

"System, I want to redeem an MA5B Assault Rifle."

[Received. Deducting 300 points for redemption.

Redeeming...

Redemption complete. Congratulations, host. You have obtained an MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle.]

As the system's voice faded, an MA5B with an empty magazine and a USB drive identical to the one that came with the Mechanical Exoskeleton appeared "out of thin air" on the computer desk once again.