The Situation

"What do you mean?" Birkin furrowed his brow.

Sui Bian didn't answer. Instead, he stood, walked around the table to Birkin, and reached out with his left hand to grab Birkin by the collar. Then...

!!!

"Mr. Sui, what are you doing?!"

As Birkin exclaimed in shock, Sui Bian lifted him effortlessly with one hand, then released him before he could start having trouble breathing.

"What..." Back on his feet, Birkin stared at Sui Bian in astonishment.

But he quickly forced himself to calm down.

Sui Bian's actions had given Birkin a clear sense of his superhuman strength, instantly piquing the genius's curiosity.

Doing was always more convincing than talking.

That was exactly the effect Sui Bian wanted.

But when he saw Birkin's eyes seemingly light up, Sui Bian immediately took two steps back to put some distance between them.

"Ahem." After coughing twice and straightening his tie, Sui Bian explained to Birkin:

"Dr. Birkin, not long ago I injected myself with a serum that raised my physical abilities to the human limit.

For certain reasons, I lost the formula, so I need you to use my blood to extract it again. Would you be interested?"

"A serum? The human limit? Hmm... I have no reason to refuse."

Birkin had no intention of probing how Sui Bian had obtained the serum. He knew better than to ask questions he shouldn't.

Besides, Birkin was both a genius and a madman. Faced with the 'temptation' of the serum, he readily agreed.

"However..." There was one thing Birkin needed to ask Sui Bian. "Mr. Sui, I want to know how I can trust that you won't come after me and my family once I've completed the G-Virus and extracted the serum."

There was something else Birkin hadn't said aloud: How could he know Sui Bian wasn't cut from the same cloth as Spencer?

After all, Sui Bian had just said he would take complete control of Umbrella. Spencer, too, had done plenty of unsavory things to gain control of the company.

Of course, Sui Bian could hear Birkin's concerns. He chuckled. "Doctor, no matter what I say, it won't put your doubts to rest. And you have a history of colluding with the U.S. military.

"But I can tell you this: completing the G-Virus and extracting the serum aren't about benefiting the company or me personally. They're about ensuring the survival of our species."

"The survival of humanity...?" Birkin was taken aback.

"That's right. I'm doing this for humanity." As he spoke, Sui Bian walked over to the meeting room's automatic doors.

As the doors slid open to the left, Sui Bian glanced at Birkin and added, "Doctor, rather than agonize over it here, you should focus on your work again. It won't be long before you get close to the truth."

With that, Sui Bian walked out of the meeting room, and the doors closed behind him.

Birkin was left alone in the room, his brow furrowed.

Out in the hallway, the Lieutenant, who had been waiting there, stepped forward and quietly asked Sui Bian, "Sir, what should we do about William Birkin and his family?"

"Assign two teams to keep an eye on them separately. Try not to interfere with William Birkin's work, and don't use his family to threaten him," Sui Bian replied.

"Yes, sir."

Next.

Omicron dispatched two combat teams to 'protect' Birkin's wife and daughter, as well as Birkin himself.

As for the fact that Wesker was dead, Sui Bian planned to tell Birkin only after they had established a stable working relationship.

Birkin and Wesker had been close. Though Birkin knew about Wesker's ambitions, there was still the bond of shared misfortune. If Sui Bian told him too soon, it would only shatter the little trust they had managed to build.

With William Birkin taken care of, all that remained were the more than seven hundred employees.

Two days earlier, the Red and White Queens had conducted a comprehensive investigation and analysis of the employees, sorting them into four groups: loyal, just doing their jobs for the money, slackers, and disloyal.

Sui Bian planned to give the employees who were merely there to coast and those who harbored disloyal intentions memory-erasure surgery, then send them home and dismiss them by force.

That was right...

Umbrella already had 'brainwashing' technology, but memory-altering surgery carried serious side effects and had a high chance of causing brain death.

However, the technology for erasing a specific memory was fairly advanced, with almost no side effects.

The Hive was the first base Sui Bian had come to in this world, and it was also his main base. He had to ensure its secrecy and safety, keeping it hidden from the outside world and society.

After the first round of removals, more than six hundred employees remained. Slackers and disloyal employees were a minority, after all.

The Hive's employees returned to their posts, and Birkin continued his work on the G-Virus under surveillance. Sui Bian planned to wait until Birkin had finished the G-Virus before bringing up the serum extraction.

June 1, 09:00.

Sui Bian officially moved into the second level of the Hive. The Hive also became the base of operations for Alpha and Omicron, while Wesker's body was kept frozen on the fourth level.

The Red Queen changed Birkin's clearance. Sui Bian was now the Hive's director and person in charge.

The employees adapted to the change quickly.

As the former director, Birkin had focused entirely on developing viruses and had never paid much attention to managing the Hive. In truth, he had barely made his presence felt.

After successfully taking over the Hive, the system judged that Sui Bian had completed the main mission, and the 150 points were duly credited to his 'account.'

As for the challenge mission, defeating Marcus, the Leech Queen, was his next objective. But before that, Sui Bian still needed to bring the Raccoon Police Department under his control.

Chris, Rebecca, Jill, and Leon, who wouldn't enter the picture until late September, were all exceptional talents—some even abnormal phenomena. Naturally, Sui Bian wouldn't let them slip away.

There were plenty of tough men and women in the Raccoon Police Department, too—especially Deputy Chief Raymond, who had sacrificed himself to wipe out the entire street's horde of zombies.

If Chief Brian Irons hadn't deliberately cut communications, fed them false intelligence, and strictly forbidden the use of heavy weapons, there was a chance the disaster in the game could have been brought under control.

Although Sui Bian was fond of Deputy Chief Raymond and wanted to put him in charge, Brian Irons was also a loyal lackey of Umbrella.

So, to eliminate Marcus with the fewest casualties possible, Sui Bian still needed Irons's cooperation to mobilize Raccoon City's police force and have them assist him fully.

Of course, during this time, Umbrella's higher-ups had also noticed that two USS teams, which had been carrying out missions in Europe and South America, had disappeared without a trace.

From the Red and White Queens' report, Sui Bian learned that Spencer, who was hiding in his family's castle, seemed to take the incident very seriously. He was afraid that something might go wrong at such a critical moment.

Spencer had also dispatched Colonel Sergei Vladimir—the original template for the various Tyrant models—to investigate the incident in person.