Truly Rich Enough to Rival a Nation

After adapting for a moment.

Sui Bian returned to the bedroom and sat before the computer desk. Facing the old-fashioned screen, he continued to pose the questions weighing on his mind to the Red Queen and White Queen.

First, what was the state of Umbrella's military power?

Second, just how wealthy was Umbrella?

Regarding the military aspect, the Red Queen continued to narrate in a tone devoid of emotion, simultaneously displaying relevant documents and images on the screen to provide Sui Bian with a more intuitive understanding of Umbrella's current status.

Umbrella had a total of 2,744 armed personnel under its command, with 77 in the reserves.

The primary armed forces were divided into three tiers, ranked from lowest to highest based on equipment and elite status:

Umbrella Security Service (Armed Security), Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS), Umbrella Security Service (USS).

The armed security force consisted of 2,544 personnel, typically retired soldiers or former police officers. They were responsible for protecting Umbrella's assets worldwide and held formal employment contracts and non-disclosure agreements.

The UBCS possessed four combat platoons totaling 120 men, with members mostly consisting of mercenaries, war criminals, and retired soldiers.

Judging purely by equipment, salary, and elite status, the UBCS crushed the armed security force in every regard.

However, in reality, the UBCS was merely a "disposable product" to Umbrella, used to test combat data for Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s), and the UBCS possessed no concept of loyalty.

Finally, there were the USS and the reserves.

The USS was the company's most elite private army, with members recruited from the retired elite of various nations. Even high-ranking Umbrella employees could not access any files regarding the USS.

There were currently 80 members, divided into four squads.

The number of reserves fluctuated; there were currently 77. They trained year-round on Rockfort Island, and when the USS suffered casualties, the reserves would replace the fallen or wounded members.

Within the files, Sui Bian also discovered many familiar faces.

Such as Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor, and Nicholai Ginovaef, who appeared in Resident Evil 3, as well as—

"Hunk."

Sui Bian had a deep impression of Carlos, Victor, and Nicholai, as Resident Evil 3 was the second game in the series he had ever played.

He had also happily added the remake of Resident Evil 3 to his library, but after spending four hours clearing it...

Damn you, Capcom.

Although the Red Queen clearly stated that the UBCS was a disposable "product" of Umbrella, there were many people like Carlos and Victor.

In many versions of the game, Carlos did his utmost to rescue civilians, ensure the safety of his teammates, and was a loyal and reliable person.

Victor was an even greater platoon leader who stood his ground against the Pursuer by sacrificing himself in an explosion.

In the original plot, there was even an unnamed UBCS soldier who was still protecting the little girl in his arms even at the moment of his death.

However, guys like Nicholai, who only cared about money, made up the majority.

And then there was "Hunk."

If the protagonists were defined by skill as a supplement and luck as the primary factor, then Hunk was an absolute badass for whom skill was the primary factor and luck was merely a supplement.

Hunk first appeared in the "The 4th Survivor" mode of Resident Evil 2, where the player had to control Hunk, wearing his "octopus head" mask, to escape the underground laboratory in Raccoon City.

Along the way, he had to face zombies, Zombie Dogs, crows, Lickers, Giant Spiders, Ivy, G-Adults, and the Tyrant.

Sui Bian admitted that he was clumsy; he had never cleared the original version as a child, and even the remake required cheats to get through.

But in a game, levels could be retried, whereas in reality, you only had one life.

Under such harsh conditions, Hunk could still successfully escape, which was enough to prove just how formidable this Grim Reaper truly was.

It was just that Hunk's teammates and subordinates usually met a miserable end; in most life-or-death missions, Hunk was the sole survivor.

Subsequently.

As Sui Bian reviewed the files and images, he judged from the attire of the UBCS and USS that this world was not only leaning toward the games but specifically the remakes.

It seems there is no Wolfpack, Sui Bian thought to himself.

The codenames for the four squads in the USS files were Alpha, Omicron, Epsilon, and Zeta.

Each squad specialized in a different field.

Alpha: Recovering important company assets or covertly plundering important assets from rival companies.

Omicron: Assassinating high-level executives of rival companies or government officials who hindered Umbrella's development.

Epsilon: Rescuing board members who had been held hostage or kidnapped.

Zeta: Responsible for supporting the other three squads.

As for the annual funding Umbrella provided to its private armies, it reached as high as 430 million US dollars.

430 million in 1998...

Furthermore, the USS took the lion's share of the budget, possessing every top-tier individual weapon and piece of equipment imaginable, along with a full complement of sea, land, and air vehicles.

When executing missions in regions like Africa or the Middle East, the USS even had the authority to call in aerial gunships and airstrikes.

Hmm...

As expected of Umbrella.

Next is the question of "just how wealthy they are."

It is a very vulgar question, but it is also one that Sui Bian wanted to figure out before he transmigrated.

White Queen, who is responsible for explaining this aspect, also uses a combination of uploading files and data to the computer and verbal narration to resolve Sui Bian's confusion.

Her voice is just as icy as Red Queen's, almost devoid of any emotion, and her way of answering is also very rigid.

Through White Queen, he finally understands the extent to which Umbrella's scale has reached.

Truly, wealthier than a nation.

The industries Umbrella is publicly involved in include the production and sale of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery manufacturing, digital products, health supplements, transportation, tourism, and entertainment and film.

In this world, Umbrella is the first company with a market capitalization exceeding 600 billion USD, with a current total market value of 650 billion USD.

The data also mentions that the United States' GDP in 1997 was 8 trillion USD, accounting for 27.26% of the world's total.

Although a company's market value and a nation's GDP are not the same thing, it still proves that in the eyes of the public, Umbrella is a "colossus" that possesses both strength and a good reputation.

Privately, Umbrella also has mining areas and oil fields built in Africa and the Middle East, extracting resources for sale.

The colonialism and plunder prevalent in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries caused vast amounts of wealth and resources to fall into the hands of European nobles and families.

Among Umbrella's three founders, Spencer and Alexander Ashford were European nobles; these two provided the capital to establish the company, while Marcus, who held a doctorate in biology, contributed his technical expertise as his share.

In reality, Umbrella is the epitome of Western nations, relying on occupation and monopoly to reap massive profits, all while calling it making the world more "free."

Free my ass.

Setting aside the aforementioned industries, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Umbrella has purchased a large quantity of weapons and equipment at extremely low prices, selling them to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, while also recruiting quite a few Soviet weapons experts along the way.

Energy.

Medicine.

Arms.

Umbrella is an absolute titan in all three of these sectors; it is no wonder they are being targeted.

—"A tall tree catches the wind, and a man of high reputation invites his own ruin."

As for the research institutes, facilities, and military bases under their command...

There are just too damn many, so Sui Bian had to have White Queen create a new document to list the important assets with significant investments in manpower and material resources.

-

① Paris Underground Laboratory.

Location: Situated beneath the headquarters building in Paris, France.

② Sixth Research Institute.

Location: Situated beneath the Ireland branch building.

③ Africa Laboratory.

Location: Situated in Burkina Faso, West Africa, next to the Ndipaya Tribe ruins north of the capital, Ouagadougou.

④ Rockfort Island.

Location: Indian Ocean, north of the St. Luke Islands.

Specific coordinates: 10°43'S, 165°55'E.

⑤ Antarctic Laboratory.

Specific coordinates: 74°41'S, 164°16'E.