Edward opened his mouth to say something and eased the situation when William suddenly acted to reveal his hands. He held a grenade with the pin removed, and his thumb was pressing on to prevent an explosion.
"Nobody moves," William said. "You kill me, and this thing explodes and we all die." The tension suddenly escalated.
"There is no need to do this," Edward said. "The virus won't kill you for 2-3 hours, which is more than enough time to pass this mission. The Samsara Hall should have a cure."
"That's right," Nate said as he suddenly saw hope. "Let's all calm down.
"Shut up," William snapped. "I need you all to throw all your weapons more than 20 meters from your location, or we will all die."
Booth kept his hand on his gun, and his eyes seemed to be calculating. However, William's eyes were focused on him.
"I know you're superhuman, but if you even twitch, this grenade will go off," William threatened. "Now, do as I say. Time is running out." The zombies continued to approach this area because of the commotion.
"This isn't about the virus, is it?" Edward suddenly asked. "You want to separate from the team. The question is why?"
"You have quite the sharp sense," William said, looking at him. Ever since he was young, William noticed he had a low sense of existence, almost making him invisible. Such an ability made it challenging for him to make friends, maintain relationships, or even achieve success in his job, as his boss often forgot his name or the quality of his work.
One time, while in desperate need of money, William tried gambling and won a lot of money. However, it was an underground casino, and they did not appreciate losing so much. William used his ability to hide from these gangsters, and from now on, his life in the crime world began.
Before being summoned to the Samsara Hall, William was being chased by a group of people who owed a substantial amount of money, and these individuals appeared to have access to military-grade equipment, rendering his abilities useless.
"I just don't trust your plan," William said.
"No, that's not what this is about — at least, not entirely," Edward said. He observed William closely. "You want to join Alice's team and get the extra 200 points. And maybe accomplish a few of the submissions."
William squinted. "So what? Haven't you figured it out by how that bastard behaved? Points are everything."
"Idiots. Meeting with Alice's team will increase the mission difficulty to the highest level," Booth sneered. Following Alice's team means encountering the Nemesis and that asshole Dr. Isaac, who is currently in charge of the situation in Racoon City.
"The greater the risk, the higher the reward," William replied, revealing his gambling addiction side.
"Let's do as he says," Edward said as his intuition was warning him of upcoming danger. He was the first to follow the example and set his weapons aside.
"Hers too," William pointed at Dr. Frey. Edward had to remove her weapons while she was still unconscious. William looked at Nate.
"Me too?"
"Do you think I would take you because we are both infected?"
Nate sighed before disarming himself.
"It's your turn," William said while looking at Booth, who remained stoic. "I'm not playing around." However, after seeing Booth's calm reaction, he suddenly smiled. His eyes were full of malice and craziness. William shook the grenade in his hands as if he were waving a flag.
"Now is not the time to be macho," Edward cursed at Booth. He saw that this man Williman was truly mad, and he might gamble their lives away.
"Fine," Booth compromised. He threw away his guns, grenades, and long sword.
"The knife on your boots," Williman said. Booth grunted before throwing the knife away. "Now, I need you to move another 20 meters away from the weapon."
"Don't push your luck."
"Don't push yours," William sneered. This man was superhuman, meaning he could still run fast enough to take the weapon and kill them. Booth looked at him ferociously before following his words. Once he was far enough away, Williman suddenly took out a smoke bomb from nowhere and threw it on the ground.
Everyone covered their faces, and by the time the smoke disappeared, William was gone. 'This is not the first time he's done this,' Edward thought. He heard how quickly William ran to the nearest corner of the street and disappeared from sight.
"What…what's going on?" Dr. Frey suddenly said. It appeared the smoke had awakened her, but she was still drowsy.
"Let's move," Booth said as he had already recovered his weapon.
"What about me?" Nate asked.
"You'd better hope his plan works," Booth said. The team headed to the university. Booth seemed to have fire lit underneath him as he went on a warpath. He annihilated any small-scale zombie horde they came into contact with.
Edward felt lucky he had such a "dedicated" nanny, or this mission would have been harder, given his weak human body. The team's destination was the computer lab, and luckily for them, the power system was still operational. So, after cleaning out the zombie in the lab and barricading all entrances, Edward started his work.
He first used a USB cable to connect his watch to a computer and revive Morgana. 'What a shoddy program,' he secretly cursed. Even by usual standards, this program — while advanced for Earth — was shoddy. Well, it couldn't be helped since his clone, while created as a genius, was limited by the knowledge and resources of that earth.
Edward took this opportunity to upgrade the program before invading Umbrella's network. He found much valuable information, including the formula for the T-Virus, its antidote, and other research data gathered from Nemesis and Alice. But, he suddenly frowned.
"Is something wrong?" Booth asked. He was keeping a close eye on Edward.
"Raccoon City's network is separated from their headquarters," Edward revealed.
"In other words, your plan cannot work?" Booth asked, his voice full of gravitas.
"Not necessarily. I just need to be a little creative," Edward said calmly. He quickly wrote two programs: an algorithmic program and one to bypass firewalls. Umbrella was a public company, meaning information about its employees was available online. Additionally, the Raccoon City Network also contained some information.
His algorithm analyzed numerous employees and chose one who was more gullible and prone to mistakes. The algorithm showed him Helen Theraux, an elderly woman and secretary to Umbrella's CFO. She was old with poor vision and showed signs of declining mental acuity. She remained in her position because of years of loyalty.
Edward sent her an email that looked like it was from Raccoon City and had the highest security. As expected, Helen opened the email and downloaded the link, which contained Edward's second program. As soon as the download reached 100%, Edward had infiltrated Umbrella headquarters's network.
"These people made a mistake by shutting down the Red Queen," he commented. After the first movie, the Red Queen — which was Umbrella's AI — was shut down. They hadn't had the time to create its predecessor, the White Queen.
Without such high-level protection, Morgana was able to easily bypass all their protections and access their network and data center. Edward then secretly created a profile for himself and granted the second-highest level of security access, below that of the president.
Umbrella had its own private guard, so Edward sent them an order from that account, ordering them to extract a group from Raccoon City that was on a secret mission and was not part of the list of people extracted when the virus was first released in the city.
"The helicopter will be in here in 25 minutes," Edward said.
"Good," Booth said. With three people surviving this mission, his bonus will be quite handsome.
"We can finally leave this hellhole?" Dr. Frey asked.
"Yes," Edward nodded. However, his focus was already on studying the T-Virus.