Chapter 29 29: Always the Umbrella Corporation

— — — — — — Later that day - Inside the base After Veyron finished explaining why the chat group had come— They were here to find these survivors, help them out of danger, and make sure they could actually keep living in this world now overrun by the zombies. Busujima Saeko, Miyamoto Rei, Miyamoto Kiriko, Takagi Saya, Takagi Yuriko, Marikawa Shizuka, Minami Rika, Maresato Alice, and Nakaoka Asami. These nine women, confirmed by Merlin's clairvoyance to be the last survivors in Tokonosu City, were left speechless, staring at each other. Since the outbreak, they had been desperate for help from the outside world. Even after learning—thanks to the U.S. virus, that the whole world had pretty much collapsed, they still kept someone on standby in the communications room 24/7, just in case any signal came through. But... this was still a bit much to process. "Aliens? Time travelers? Psychics from some hidden world?" Takagi Saya fired off three questions in one breath—none of which, in a normal pre-outbreak world, she would've ever seriously considered. "Hmm..." Veyron tilted his head, then asked, "Wanna guess?" "..." Saya froze. Stay calm. Don't lose your temper. You can't afford to piss this guy off. This is the guy who can split the ocean with a karate chop. "Just kidding~" Merlin chimed in with a bright smile. "But seriously, in a world like this, no matter what we say, you probably wouldn't believe us anyway, right?" The 9 survivors stayed silent. Can't lie, she wasn't wrong. If Selina and Gwen's ridiculous superhuman feats—treating rooftops like flat ground, jumping and sprinting faster than cars over uneven terrain—could maybe be explained away as some kind of weird mutation that came from being infected but not turning into zombies... Then what about Veyron? The guy who split the sea with a wave of his hand? Or the pink petals that followed their group without showing up on any of the base's visual or radar scans? Yeah, no way you could explain that as just a little DNA tweak. So even if their explanations sounded "logical" on the surface... There was no way the survivors could fully believe them. Not yet. "And for the record, you don't need to overthink our motives either. Like, whether someone sent us or what we're really after—you can fill in the blanks whatever you want," Veyron added casually. "And no, don't bother suspecting we caused all this. We're not taking the blame." "!!!" One of the survivors was shocked. "Not mind-reading," Veyron said, calm as ever. "Your face just gave it away." "...Was it really that obvious?" "Ahem... Actually, we weren't really suspicious of you to begin with," a mature voice spoke up to defuse the situation. It was Takagi Yuriko—long, purple hair, and clearly more refined and experienced than the younger girls around her. She continued, "We already had a theory about who might be behind all this." "That's actually what we wanted to ask you about," Veyron said, turning his gaze toward her. He'd overheard bits from Miyamoto Kiriko earlier that hinted at this. "Mind filling us in, ma'am?" "I might not know everything..." Yuriko gave a barely noticeable glance toward Saya and Rei, which only Veyron and Merlin caught. "But in America, there's this multinational monopoly called Umbrella Corporation. They're involved in basically every high-tech field—medicine, pharmaceuticals, military-grade hardware, you name it." "From what I know, even twenty years ago, they already had biotech that honestly felt like straight-up science fiction. Genetic engineering, bio-modification—you name it." "Before I came back to Japan, I used to work on Wall Street. Due to some business connections, like most people in that field, I had some dealings with Umbrella." "Once, one of their higher-ups took me to a secret research facility." "Even back then, they had the technology to turn humans into living weapons—creatures that felt no pain, had no thoughts of their own, and followed orders like machines. They could carry out missions that would've been suicide for normal people." "The bio-weapons you saw there... they're the same as what's overrun the world now?" Veyron asked. "Somewhat similar... but not quite the same." Yuriko thought for a second, then clarified, "More like... what's outside now is a stripped-down, degraded version of what I saw at Umbrella. "There were two main types of bio-weapons I remember." "The first was called Licker. They had no eyes, but insane hearing. They could hear footsteps, breathing, even heartbeats. Strong limbs and razor-sharp claws let them climb walls and ceilings like spiders. Their agility let them dodge automatic gunfire, and their mutated tongues could pierce through several centimeters of steel. "The second was nicknamed Nemesis—also known as The Pursuer. These were built for tactical missions and could be equipped with miniguns, rocket launchers, all kinds of weapons. Their external bio-armor could tank full-power rifle rounds, machine gun fire, even sniper shots. Just one of them could wipe out a whole modern military squad." ...Is this just straight-up Resident Evil now? "So what you're saying is, the world turning into a living nightmare—we basically know who's behind it," Veyron said, rubbing his chin. "But even if Umbrella's bio-tech is way ahead, the global science community isn't exactly primitive. It's hard to believe something like this—just human-to-human transmission—could take down the whole world so fast." "Any thoughts on that?" "No, I don't," Yuriko said, shaking her head. "I actually left Wall Street and came back to Japan because Umbrella was already under heavy scrutiny. The global community had sanctions in place. Outside of their HQ in America and some labs in Africa, most regions had full authority to deploy military forces if there was even a hint of Umbrella activity." She'd thought that returning to Japan, teaming up with Shoichiro Takagi—someone with major political clout—would be enough. He provided protection under the guise of being her husband and Saya's father, while she brought in the capital and intel she'd gotten from the States to support his political faction. She truly believed they'd be safe. Who would've thought that after more than a decade of peace, the next time she saw Umbrella's monsters again... it'd be like this. A global apocalypse. . . . --- P.S. Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter! If we hit Top 20, get ready for a Mass Release! 50+ advanced chapters available at???? patreon.com/_Coreal