After acquiring Marvel, William finally realized that Halsey spending 100 million to buy a hospital back then... was truly wasteful!
Thinking back to the cost of the Spartan mjolnir armor, and performing a simple conversion with this World, one set was equal to the price of an Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer... he felt relieved.
One hundred million? Hah. That was just an 'appetizer' for Halsey.
Our boss does not wish to be disturbed.
I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask if he needs any service.
"Hmm?" Hearing the sound of an argument, William stopped staring out the window to zone out, and instead turned around to look through the gap in the USS's blockade.
It was a hot-bodied waitress arguing with the lead USS.
The lead USS had a resolute face, was stern, and was shorter than the other USS.
But this seemingly ordinary bodyguard was actually the strongest one William had drawn so far, 'God of Death' Hank.
Andre had also discovered Hank's uniqueness and arranged for him to be the Captain of William's personal bodyguards.
The dutiful Hank saw the waitress approaching and directly blocked her outside the defensive line, leading to the scene that just occurred.
Upon seeing William turn around, the waitress immediately became enthusiastic and said: "Sir, do you need any service, like hot coffee or something similar?"
"..." Hearing this, William didn't even want to acknowledge her; he turned back around and waved his hand.
The four USS immediately understood the meaning and took a step forward simultaneously. Hank, still using a tone devoid of emotion, said: "Miss, our boss does not need those things. Please leave."
"This... alright." The waitress wore a look of disappointment and had no choice but to turn and leave.
William, with his right elbow resting on the seat armrest and his chin propped up by his fist, looking out the window, certainly knew what the waitress was thinking. A pheasant becoming a phoenix.
Originally, William had learned indirectly through the Marvel crowd that James Cameron was in Washington, D.C. looking for investors, so he planned to stop by and discuss matters with that director.
But after the incident just now, he prepared to advance the schedule for purchasing a private jet and building a private airport in Halifax.
Besides being harassed, personal safety was paramount. Currently, Umbrella was only relatively famous in Halifax; if he continued to travel like this in the future, his life might be in danger.
Fortunately, Umbrella had its own exclusive Engineering Team, so transforming the land he had acquired on a large scale and building a large private military Base was just a matter of 'minutes'.
Subsequently, William and Hank and the others took a flight to Washington to meet with the long-famous director, Cameron.
William knew exactly how formidable this director was. In the original World, Avatar alone had changed the landscape of Hollywood and even the entire film industry. The box office earnings were massive, not to mention the series of chain revenues.
Moreover, Cameron was not yet considered a top-tier director; he had only filmed one masterpiece, True Lies, and after that, no investors dared to employ him. The reason was that the expenses for large-scale scenes were too high.
Although the box office was guaranteed and the reputation was there, the investors didn't actually receive that much money. They respected Cameron, but didn't dare to use him. But William wasn't afraid. He didn't care about those few hundred million; couldn't he just invest exclusively himself?
It was only after William contacted Cameron that he learned the other party wasn't preparing the so-called Avatar, but wanted to film the second installment of starship troopers 2.
Through conversation, William discovered that in this World, Starship Troopers had no sequels. Unlike the original World where they kept getting worse and ruined a good brand, he had no objections to this.
Especially since Cameron held the title of 'King of Sequels'. Like Aliens and Terminator 2 in the original World, he pushed their respective series to their peak.
But William had his own requirements, which was that the original cast must perform. Money was not an issue. Most importantly, William really liked the protagonist Johnny Rico and the deceased Dizzy Flores, and the romance between the two of them.
Except for bringing Dizzy Flores back to life, William did not interfere with the script at all, giving Cameron extreme creative freedom.
After finalizing starship troopers 2 with Cameron, he was not ready to return to Canada, because he had a bunch of things to do in the United States.
First, he contacted Kashimo, asking him to build a military Base in the shortest possible time, requiring a runway and hangars that could accommodate the takeoff and landing of large transport aircraft. The accommodation requirement was not for hundreds, but at least over ten thousand people.
There was also the Hive construction, and the schedule for building containment facilities in the no-man's-land also needed to be accelerated. As for government permits, William again handed that to Frank, that lawyer.
Andre continued to fulfill his duties as Colonel, usually training the UBCS and USS to ensure the two units had synergy. At the same time, he arranged to expand the scope of searching for Soldiers from one province to the entire North America.
Veterans with financial difficulties at home and high combat effectiveness were the primary candidates; those who passed the tests would be recruited into the UBCS, and finally, through regular assessments, promoted to the USS.
After staying and relaxing in Washington for a few days, William, under the protection of Hank and the other USS, traveled to Hartford, Connecticut, on the U.S. East Coast.
They didn't come here for tourism, because this place had the long-established U.S. arms company, Colt. Of course, William wouldn't rashly acquire Colt. Merging a company that had existed since the nineteenth century was unrealistic.
But a small arms company in Ontario, Canada, called Diemaco, happened to have been acquired by Colt. And William's target was precisely that Diemaco.
The senior executives of Colt were initially unwilling to transfer it; after all, their ambition was to secure the order for the Canadian military's standard-issue rifle. However... unfortunately, the price William offered was too tempting.
Given the Canadian military's configuration of 60,000 troops and the nature of the country, the annual firearm order was capped at around ten million, and plus, Colt only spent over 100 million when acquiring Diemaco. Yet, William proposed a price of 250 million, directly striking the greedy hearts of this bunch of capitalists.
With ready money laid out, wouldn't it be a sin not to take it? So, after a few days of negotiation and the feigned reluctance of Colt's executives, William successfully obtained ownership of Diemaco.
Of course, William wasn't just wealthy and idle... well, maybe he was; if you don't spend it, it's wasted, and anyway, it would reset after four months.
One of the main reasons for acquiring Diemaco was to let Halsey utilize her 'jack-of-all-trades' ability. With ready-made factories and equipment, he could let the USS be the first to be equipped with optical camouflage suits and design standard weapons for the Umbrella armed forces.
William believed that Halsey would definitely be able to produce the weapons and equipment from the halo series. Although William couldn't acquire high-end technology arms companies like Lockheed Martin for the time being, he could make large-scale investments after a while. He could vaguely see the C-130, F-22, and F-35 waving at him.