Grasping Power

13:14.

Sui Bian and his team arrived outside the conference hall within the ancient castle.

They could go no further, as a security door stood between Sui Bian's group and Spencer and the board members.

Standing before the metallic security door, Sui Bian looked it over, while Hunk, positioned to his rear-left, whispered a reminder:

"Sir, the firepower of the MA5B and 40mm grenades cannot breach this door unless we install plastic explosives at the critical points for a demolition."

"Very well, then blow it up. And blow up the entire castle while you're at it," Sui Bian nodded.

?

Hunk was slightly confused.

After all, the mission briefing stated that these traitors were high-ranking company officials, including members of the board of directors; standard procedure would be to take them into custody.

However, Hunk couldn't be bothered to ponder Sui Bian's motives, so he simply nodded and said, "Understood."

Next, the demolition experts from Alpha and Omicron began placing plastic explosives throughout the castle according to Sui Bian's orders.

Thanks to the convenience of their Mechanical Exoskeletons, the two squads carried enough weight in plastic explosives to send the entire castle into the sky.

As for talking to Spencer?

Sui Bian had no intention of wasting his breath on a man destined to die.

13:26.

With the explosives set, everyone began to evacuate the castle.

During this time, Spencer attempted to communicate with Sui Bian using the screens inside the castle, but Sui Bian shot every screen to pieces.

13:28.

All personnel, including the two sniper teams, withdrew to the castle's front courtyard and boarded the four Sikorsky S-76Cs parked on the helipad. Sui Bian knew that the unit price of an S-76C exceeded twenty million dollars.

Leaving them behind would be a waste of resources.

13:31.

The four fueled S-76Cs lifted off in sequence, maintaining a formation at an altitude of about two hundred meters and keeping a safe distance from the castle.

Then, the USS demolition experts detonated the plastic explosives placed inside the castle.

"BOOM--BOOM--~!"

The deafening roar of the explosion, along with the rubble, debris, and dust generated by the blast, completely swallowed Spencer's ancestral castle.

In an instant, the castle that had stood for centuries collapsed.

Sitting in the cabin, Sui Bian looked through the window at the billowing smoke rising from the castle below.

Just as he was about to order the formation to descend so he could send in a few USS teams to sweep the area, the system chimed in his mind:

[Detected that the Host has used the Red Queen and White Queen to bypass the Umbrella Corporation's board of directors, and led the subdued Alpha and Omicron squads to successfully eliminate all directors, including Oswell E. Spencer, seizing full control of the Umbrella Corporation.

Therefore, the system grants the Host 1000 points. Current points: 1160.

Detection indicates that Alfred Ashford still controls several important Umbrella facilities. The Host is advised to resolve this as soon as possible.]

Hearing the system's official death certificate, Sui Bian couldn't help but think: That's it? He's dead?

Following the "no smoke, no damage" trope from games and movies, he half-expected Spencer to reveal some "second form" or escape to make a comeback.

But in reality, no one could survive such a dosage of explosives; the shockwave alone would have pulverized the internal organs of Spencer and his board members.

As for the remaining Alfred Ashford, Sui Bian wasn't too worried about that psychopath with a sister complex. It was his sister, Alexia Ashford, who gave Sui Bian some pause.

That woman's IQ was practically the ceiling of humanity; she graduated from university at ten and created the T-Veronica virus at twelve.

To achieve a perfect fusion with the Veronica virus, Alexia chose to hibernate and was currently "sleeping" within the Antarctic Laboratory.

In the games, she could be considered one of the strongest bosses.

However, she was ultimately a boss defeated by the siblings Chris and Claire, and Sui Bian hoped to squeeze every bit of value out of this "Empress" boss, as her attainments in virology were peerless.

At this moment, the system had one more thing to add:

[The system has also detected abnormal phenomena in the Paris region. The system will now issue mission details; please listen carefully.]

"..."

[Mission: Successfully contain and mitigate the abnormal phenomena before they cause mass casualties or panic.

Mission Success: Reward the Host with one lottery draw.

Mission Failure: No penalty.]

What's meant to come will come, I suppose.

Sui Bian sighed inwardly, then used his headset to order the USS pilots: "Proceed to the Paris Headquarters as originally planned."

"Understood."

August 15, 1998, 15:35, Paris time.

The S-76C flight formation carrying Sui Bian, Hunk, Alpha, and Omicron arrived at the Paris Headquarters helipad.

With the prior arrangements made by the Red Queen and White Queen, Sui Bian took over all affairs of the Paris Headquarters with exceptional smoothness, while also heading to the underground research facility for an inspection.

It was twice the size of the Hive, with a personnel count reaching two thousand.

However, the focus of the Paris Research Center was on the mass production of perfected, mature B.O.W.s, such as the Tyrant T-103 model and Hunter Alpha.

Therefore, the progress of virus development and even high-tech weapon research at the Paris laboratory was much slower than that of the Hive.

Of course, Sui Bian did not forget to dispatch a group of technicians from Paris to the Spencer Family's ancient castle to collect the remains.

Especially the corpses of Sergei and the two Ivan Tyrants.

August 16.

With the assistance of the Red Queen and White Queen, the situation in Umbrella's European division stabilized; in the eyes of the employees, it was merely another "routine" reshuffling of the company's upper management.

The only thing that caused surprise was that the new Chairman was actually a Chinese man, which would inevitably lead to a flurry of rumors in the short term.

But according to the advice provided by the White Queen, as long as the treatment, salary, and benefits were sufficient, the employees would sooner or later be calling Sui Bian "Daddy."

Sui Bian knew that he must not only bestow favors but also wield sufficient authority; only by balancing kindness with severity could Umbrella work more efficiently and ensure the loyalty of its employees as much as possible.

Thus, those turncoats who had long been identified by the Red Queen and White Queen experienced a "door-to-door delivery of warmth" from Alpha and Omicron between the 15th and 16th.

While stabilizing the situation in Europe, Sui Bian had the Red Queen command the intelligence personnel deployed in Paris to search for the anomalous phenomena mentioned by the system.

To put it in layman's terms, Umbrella's intelligence personnel were spies.

Wesker, who had infiltrated STARS and become the captain of the Alpha Team, was actually an intelligence operative as well, though Wesker held a relatively high status and position within the company.

Moreover, these intelligence personnel possessed considerable combat strength and held legitimate identities all over the world, such as police officers, doctors, white-collar workers, and even personnel in government departments.

August 17, 05:35, Paris time; acting on the clues provided by the Red Queen, the intelligence personnel conducted an on-site investigation and confirmed the location of the anomalous phenomenon.