Chapter 150: Taking Over Umbrella (Seeking Monthly Votes)

"Godfather?"

"Mm, that's a suitable explanation for the outside world anyway. I was a close personal friend of your father... Well, have a Chocolate Frog; it will help cheer you up a bit."

Hearing the name James Marcus, Alicia seemed to remember her father all over again, and her eyes instantly reddened. Kahn was not particularly good with children, so he took out some snacks from the wizarding world and placed them on Alicia's bed. The moving Chocolate Frog immediately caught her attention.

As for whether eating chocolate might adversely affect Alicia's health condition, it was of little consequence. The regenerative capabilities of the Extremis virus serum far surpassed those of the T-virus; even severed limbs could slowly grow back, making the treatment of a degenerative disease an effortless feat.

However, Alicia was far too young. If Kahn did not want her to die, he would have to inject her with the perfected Extremis virus serum. No matter how weak Alicia's physical constitution might be, she would easily be able to withstand it.

"Godfather, is this really chocolate?"

Alicia's attention was successfully diverted by the Chocolate Frog, and the sorrow in her heart dissipated significantly. She had nearly gagged on a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean just moments before, having apparently tasted an earwax-flavored one.

"It is chocolate. Go to sleep early tonight. After a short while, I will completely cure your illness and make you healthy."

Kahn waved his hand, and the snacks in front of Alicia instantly flew onto a nearby table. Her mouth was rinsed with a refreshing stream of water, and a gentle force then guided her down onto the bed as a blanket floated over to cover her.

These displays directly fulfilled Alicia's fantasies of what a true wizard could do. Furthermore, she had just personally signed something akin to a magical contract, which stated that her healthy growth would be guaranteed—a concept Alicia was naturally familiar with, as her father whispered a prayer every night before she went to sleep.

Alicia felt an instantaneous wave of deep reassurance wash over her.

After Kahn left the room and turned off the lights, Alicia suddenly sat up in bed a short while later. Tip-toeing out from under the covers, she padded stealthily toward the table where the snacks were piled, hoping to find another honey-milk-flavored bean to make up for the bad experience earlier.

Her luck remained poor, however, as she once again bit into an earwax-flavored bean. Her little face twisted in disgust as she spat it out, after which she finally returned to bed and went to sleep.

Kahn gave little thought to matters upstairs. Upon leaving, he had already cast a localized Armor Charm on Alicia, and by tomorrow, he would provide her with one or two defensive alchemical trinkets, which would essentially guarantee her safety.

Not to mention the dozen or so people downstairs.

Descending to the lower level, Kahn found that among the men sent by Isaacs, Wesker and his entire squad had already been placed under the Imperius Curse. When Isaacs arrived here tomorrow morning, Kahn would gift him with one as well.

Wesker and Isaacs were Alicia's enemies; once Alicia grew older, Kahn could simply hand the two of them over to her. For now, however, he would temporarily spare their lives—Isaacs was needed to help develop artificial intelligence programs, while Isaacs could handle various dirty jobs.

"Your mission is to protect Alicia's safety. You may die, but she must live."

"Yes."

Those afflicted by the Imperius Curse possessed no independent will; they would unconditionally obey the caster's commands.

Having issued his orders to these men, Kahn entered James Marcus's study. There should be some documents left behind by James here, and Kahn intended to use them to gain a preliminary understanding of the Umbrella Corporation.

While heavily encrypted files remained inaccessible, Kahn had no trouble finding Umbrella's corporate structure, personnel rosters, and financial reports on the computer.

"As expected of a global conglomerate with monopolies across multiple industries. Over three million direct employees alone, and undoubtedly far more unrecorded... Aerospace satellites, biopharmaceuticals, national defense..."

There was simply too much data for Kahn to finish reading in a single night. Yet, the scope of Umbrella's research and development was so vast that even if he took back only half of these technologies, it would allow the Pent Group to develop at an explosive pace and expand into numerous domains.

Much of the technology was currently out of his reach; he would simply have to wait until he became the company's chairman with real executive power, and then gradually copy all of Umbrella's technologies.

"Such a wonderful organization... why would anyone want to destroy it?"

Kahn shook his head, shut down the computer, and quietly waited for Isaacs to arrive. Barring any accidents, Isaacs would bring Alicia to complete the notarization process the next morning to become her legal guardian, before subsequently holding a funeral for James Marcus.

The night passed quickly. During this time, Kahn continuously reviewed Umbrella Corporation's documents; since he was about to take charge of such a massive multinational monopoly, he needed to at least be familiar with its primary projects.

By morning, Alicia came downstairs rubbing her sleepy eyes to have breakfast. Having woken up early, her first action was to check whether the magical snacks on the table were still there, which finally set her mind completely at ease.

Even so, upon coming downstairs and seeing Wesker and the other guards and soldiers, Alicia still felt a trace of fear—especially toward Wesker, whom she had always perceived as chillingly terrifying. Furthermore, this man had been inside the house on the day her father met his tragedy.

"Come here, Alicia."

At Kahn's call, Alicia hurried over to the side of the "wizard" who provided her with a sense of security. Her swift trust in Kahn was largely thanks to the aura bestowed by the unicorn genes, which enhanced his favorability among females, and Alicia was no exception.

The villa had servants specifically dedicated to looking after Alicia's daily life, though they were also people arranged by Isaacs. Having been subjected to Kahn's Imperius Curse, they now obediently carried out their caretaking duties.

"Magic... Godfather, may I eat these?"

Seeing the lavish breakfast spread before her, Alicia asked with a trace of eager temptation. Although treatment had allowed her to rise from her sickbed, her diet normally remained strictly regulated, usually consisting of bland nutritional meals.

Kahn replied dismissively, "Of course. I told you I would cure you. In the future, you will live like any normal person and can eat as much roast meat as you want."

Hearing Kahn's words, Alicia licked her lips, immediately pushed her bland nutritional meal to the side, and picked up a fork to sample a slice of ham.

At that moment, a sudden commotion arose at the entrance, and Isaacs strode in with his men.

"Why have you all walked in here? Get outside and take your respective posts right now! Wesker, they—"

Before Isaacs could finish his reprimand, the sharp *click-clack* of pistols being unholstered echoed from the doorway.

Isaacs could scarcely believe his own eyes. The loyal subordinates he had personally hand-picked had all betrayed him overnight—especially Wesker, who, without his intervention, should long ago have been strung up and eaten by African mercenaries.

"Wesker, do you have any idea what you're doing! Drop! The! Gun! And then—"

A cold gun barrel pressed directly against the center of Isaacs's forehead, abruptly cutting off his teeth-gritting tirade. With the weapon jammed firmly against his skull, he was marched step-by-step into the spacious living room.

"Ah, it seems we have a guest. Since they all apparently betrayed Umbrella because of you, I think we can—"

Uninterested in listening to Isaacs's nonsense, Kahn directly struck him with an Imperius Curse. Isaacs instantly ceased his arguments, the expression on his face shifting completely as he bowed obediently to Kahn and said, "Master."

"Don't be so surprised, Alicia. This is also a kind of magic. He now realizes his mistakes, which is why he is sincerely repenting," Kahn explained to the astonished girl. "When you grow up, I will hand these two over to you. You don't quite understand it yet."

Alicia indeed understood very little, and could only nod in a dazed, uncomprehending manner.

After breakfast, Kahn and Isaacs departed to complete the shares transfer, accompanied by Alicia. Once that matter was settled, he intended to administer the perfected Extremis virus serum to Alicia. Her physique was indeed rather weak; had Kahn not covertly used healing magic on her earlier, she would likely have vomited after eating the ham.

***

"Shareholder shake-up at the Umbrella Corporation! The man behind the scenes surfaces, and it turns out to be..."

"Founder James Marcus dead: who stands as the primary beneficiary?"

"The astonishing relationship between the beneficiary of a ten-trillion-dollar conglomerate and James Marcus's daughter..."

Even a slight leakage of such news was enough to trigger widespread attention, but Umbrella's immense influence quickly clamped down on every piece of news related to the corporation.

The world Kahn had entered was that of the movie version of *Resident Evil*, where Umbrella's power far surpassed its counterpart in the game series.

With a decade of accumulation allowing them to execute the Apocalypse Project, Umbrella's economic scale, sphere of influence, and technological accumulation were at least a match for the top ten developed nations—perhaps even surpassing them. Aside from the top three superpowers, virtually no nation possessed the capability to sanction the Umbrella Corporation.

The share transfer was completed in a remarkably short time; no one dared to obstruct Isaacs in this regard. Furthermore, Kahn had become Alicia's legal guardian. He now held the highest executive authority within the Umbrella Corporation, with his shareholdings exceeding fifty percent.

Yet, newly appointed to his position, Kahn was immediately confronted with a deeply thorny issue:

The side effects of the T-virus.

Although the "Patient Zero" incident had been successfully contained by Umbrella, other T-virus-related commercial products remained in circulation. Every single one of these products carried the potential for side effects. For the sake of corporate profits, Isaacs and Marcus had rushed products onto the market that had not fully cleared testing procedures.

While this move had generated vast fortunes for Umbrella, it had simultaneously amplified the risks exponentially.

The reason Isaacs had argued with James and ultimately killed him was that James intended to halt the distribution of T-virus-related products and issue a massive recall. Such a move, however, would instantly shatter Umbrella's most profitable biopharmaceutical sector and potentially drag the entire conglomerate down with it.

Tens of millions of people had purchased pharmaceuticals from Umbrella Pharmaceutical. A compensation payout of even ten thousand per person would deal a devastating blow to Umbrella, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy.

A recall was utterly out of the question; Kahn was here to take over Umbrella's power, not to clean up a mess. If Umbrella truly went bankrupt, countless greedy corporate vultures would immediately swarm in from all directions.

Moreover, recalling the T-virus products would not solve the core problem—it would merely narrow the spread of the crisis, while individuals who had already consumed the T-virus medications would still face the lingering risk of latent side effects.

Upon taking control of the company, Kahn's very first action was not to call a board of directors meeting, but rather to summon the primary research personnel working on the T-virus.

"From this moment onward, pour all your efforts into researching a cure. This is an order from the board of directors."

Having convened the meeting, Kahn issued only this single instruction. Under Isaacs's leadership, the T-virus research team immediately launched an intensive project to develop a definitive cure.

Within this team, alongside Isaacs, was Dr. Charles Ashford—the original inventor of the T-virus, whose creation had subsequently been acquired by James Marcus and heavily developed by the Umbrella Corporation.

Kahn could only hope that this research team would successfully synthesize the antidote before the crisis erupted on a massive scale. When that time came, they could secretly disperse it via spray aircraft across various regions and pretend the T-virus products had never possessed any side effects at all.

For Kahn, this was undoubtedly the optimal choice.