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Chapter 14 - "The Lottery of Doom"

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[Group Notice: Member "Shut-in Angel" has won "Special Homemade Burger" in the free lottery.]

[Shut-in Angel: "???"]

[Shut-in Angel: "Where's my UR?! My huge, glorious UR?!"]

[Hell's Blizzard: "Give it up. Two points already told you your luck's garbage today. If you can, maybe don't leave the house."]

[Shut-in Angel: "This isn't fair! I'm an angel!"]

[Saeko: "Pfft."][Bad Woman: "Yeah, luck's not on your side today."][Shepherd: "Could be worse. At least it's edible."][Hell's Blizzard: "True. At least you won't go hungry."]

[Shut-in Angel: "I know you're all laughing non-stop!"]

Gabriel jumped up, ready to grab a bottle of cola to soothe her wounded soul—and then take out her frustrations on the burger.

But maybe all that gaming had dulled her reflexes—her right foot caught on her controller's cord. She stumbled, flailed, and smacked her toe hard against the table leg.

Half a second later, the apartment rang with her anguished scream.

Wearing a tracksuit, the girl rolled on the floor, clutching her toe.

[Saeko: "Well, since Gabriel's drawn, I might as well try too."]

[Group Notice: Member "Saeko" has won "Enhanced Gene Serum ×1" in the free lottery.]

[Group Notice: Member "Hell's Blizzard" has won "Body-Strengthening Technique" in the free lottery.]

[Group Notice: Member "Bad Woman" has won "Automatic Rifle ×1" in the free lottery.]

[Saeko: "What's Enhanced Gene Serum?"]

[Saeko: "Oh, got it—it's a virus-based serum that boosts physical ability. The description says it's the final product of Umbrella Corporation's T-virus research—this version's been purified by the chat group to remove side effects. Umbrella only ever made a prototype."]

[Shepherd: "Umbrella? As in the red-and-white logo megacorp?"]

[Saeko: "Yeah. Why?"]

That caught Rosen off guard.

In the original Highschool of the Dead storyline, the virus's origin was never explained.

The anime even said outright that America had already fallen.

Japan—specifically Tokonosu City, where Saeko lived—was the last to be hit.

The rest of the story was just the group fighting to survive, with no real detail on the virus's source.

And since the author died before finishing, it was left hanging.

But if Umbrella was involved… Rosen didn't even need to think to know who started it.

Umbrella Corporation—straight out of the Resident Evil universe.

The original Raccoon City outbreak? All them. The T-virus spreading worldwide, the apocalypse? Yep, their fault.

That was the movie version.

In the games, after the U.S. nuked Raccoon City in Resident Evil 3, the incident got exposed. The world's major powers demanded sanctions against Umbrella.

The company declared bankruptcy soon after—but like a cockroach, it refused to die.

Its bio-weapons kept circulating on the black market, and terrorist groups got their hands on plenty.

In the movies, after Raccoon City was nuked in the second film, the whole world collapsed within months.

So yeah—if the HOTD virus was from Umbrella, everything made sense.

[Shepherd: "The serum's fine. The problem is Umbrella—they're the ones who caused the outbreak."]

[Saeko: "Huh? But I thought they had a great reputation—always doing charity work in poor regions."]

[Shepherd: "Yeah, under the charity mask, they're running virus experiments."]

In places like Africa, nothing's well-developed.

Even if something goes wrong, ordinary people wouldn't know.

Locals might know—but who cares?

If you've got food and money, some might even deliver their own people to Umbrella's labs.

[Saeko: "I never knew about that… Gabriel never mentioned it either."][Shepherd: "Well, you didn't mention Umbrella existed either. Gamers know them all too well."]

[Bad Woman: "So just one company caused a worldwide apocalypse? Tragic, yeah… but I'm curious—how can a single company take down the whole world?"]

"..."

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