The cameo role was very simple.
It was for the charity gala scene in "Iron Man 1," where William, playing an aristocratic entrepreneur, simply shakes hands and greets Tony Stark.
This cameo also allowed William to meet Stark's 'real person,' Robert Downey Jr.
As for Megan, her screen time seemed to have increased significantly because of William.
Originally set to be a female reporter in the opening, she was changed to a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent acting alongside Coulson, prepared to participate in a future series of Marvel movies.
It could be said that because of the kidnapping incident, Megan directly obtained top-tier resources.
Moreover, when William was leaving the filming location, Megan even hinted:
"Boss, I've been a devout Catholic since I was a child... so, are you free to have dinner together sometime?"
William was well aware of what Megan meant.
She was merely influenced by the suspension bridge effect and the power of money.
He politely declined her and stopped by Marvel's headquarters on the way to inquire about the USS and UBCS comics.
To his surprise, Marvel had actually come up with "anomaly crisis (Abnormal Evil)."
It turned out that various rumors about the Athabasca incident had already spread, despite the official clarification from the Canadian government that a superbug had broken out in the town.
However, many people still doubted the truth, believing it was a bacterial leak caused by some illegal government experiment.
In this era of low-resolution video, someone had already uploaded a video online of an Umbrella helicopter formation heading toward Athabasca.
Netizens speculated that perhaps the government couldn't fix its own mistake and finally requested Umbrella's help.
The Marvel editors, who were already quite imaginative, drew a lot of inspiration from the internet.
"anomaly crisis" was born.
The story of the first chapter was roughly as follows:
The female lead is named Jill Valentine, the only former female member of Canada's Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2).
After retiring, she returned to her hometown of Edmonton to serve as a Police officer, living a peaceful life.
Later, in Raccoon City north of Edmonton, a series of disappearances and 'cannibalism' incidents occurred.
(Athabasca was redefined by Marvel, growing from a population of two thousand to a small-to-medium town of fifty thousand.)
The Director dispatched Jill to Raccoon City to assist the local Police in investigating the cases.
Just as she arrived at the town's Police station, she encountered an attack by a 'person' with a severely gnawed face, beginning a journey of escape and self-redemption.
At the end of the story, S.T.A.R.S. (Special Trained Abnormal Response Services), a special forces unit dispatched by Umbrella to handle anomalous incidents, arrived just in time.
A Gunnery Sergeant in STARS, Carlos Oliveira, saved Jill from several dangerous situations.
Subsequently, before the government conducted a full-scale bombing, Jill, Carlos, and other STARS members took most of the survivors and escaped Raccoon City.
The first chapter ended with Jill on a helicopter, looking back at the city being bombed in the distance.
After reading the manuscript in his hand, William could only say that these editors really had wild imaginations.
He had only told them the concepts of the UBCS and USS units, and Marvel was able to create STARS.
They were truly something else.
Moreover, Jill and Carlos's facial features and personalities were similar to the "Resident Evil 3 Remake" from William's original World.
Jill was stunningly beautiful.
Carlos was reliably strong.
The day William read this comic was also the second day of "anomaly crisis's" release.
Sales directly surpassed the settings of the original Superheroes.
After all, imaginative youths and netizens in reality were all exceptionally focused on the Athabasca incident.
Combined with Jill's character design and Umbrella's sense of mystery, it instantly drained the wallets of those people.
Furthermore, on various website forums, the most discussed topic was whether Umbrella actually possessed a special forces unit for dealing with anomalous phenomena.
Some even wanted to sign up directly.
Hah.
However, this was within William's expectations.
The system said to hide things from the general public as much as possible, but it didn't say society couldn't know at all.
What if a containment operation's combat scale was so large that governments worldwide couldn't hide it?
Letting people have some psychological preparation through the media would prevent them from collapsing due to being unable to accept it, much like the concept of various alien war movies filmed in his original World.
Then, through Halsey's brainwashing technology, Umbrella could slowly minimize the impact of the events.
Not bad.
Marvel had perfectly fulfilled William's expectations; it was time to throw in another wave of money.
Microsoft's average stock price was only 28 dollars.
Hmm...
So cheap.
Sorry, Mr. Bill Gates, the World's richest man.
Umbrella then began to aggressively acquire Microsoft stock, becoming the largest shareholder in an instant.
Because William needed to get the Xbox out and make "anomaly crisis" the launch title for the first console in this World.
By then, Umbrella's influence would hold a pivotal position among teenagers in North America and even the entire World.
Cultural export achieved.
...
In fact, on the Forbes World's Billionaires list at the beginning of the year, first and second were Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
What about William?
He didn't even make the top ten.
William was still being mocked by Wall Street newspapers, saying he was afraid the World would know Umbrella was suffering heavy losses, which is why he didn't dare to take the company public.
He wondered how those Wall Street idiots would mock him after the acquisition of Microsoft.
But William didn't care about those rumors at all; besides, it was enough for Umbrella to be seen as a conscientious enterprise in the eyes of the ignorant masses.
Only with public opinion is there profit.
Otherwise, those newspapers would have vanished long ago.
William's original plan was to head to Hollywood on the West Coast to inspect the filming progress of "starship troopers 2."
But he was afraid a certain crazy woman would get anxious, so he worked overtime for a week to finish all the above matters in New York.
On February 14, 2007, he returned to Troy Base in Halifax.
After another face-to-face argument with that old hunk Andre, William hurried to the entrance of the Hive underground facility in the city center.
————————
...
Hive Research Center, second floor, employee residential area;
Under the protection of Hank and the other Alphas, William followed a USS Agent to Halsey's dormitory.
The USS Agent specifically assigned to protect Halsey had a slightly strange expression on his face after leading William and the others to the door, saying:
"Boss, Dr. Halsey hasn't been in a very good mood lately... please be careful."
"Hmm?"
William thought, was there really a need to be angry just because he was a few days late?
But he still nodded and said, "I understand."
He then pressed the call button of the dormitory and said, "Halsey, open the door. Didn't you say you had new equipment to introduce to me?"
However, there was no response for a long time.
Just as he was about to press the button again to remind her, Halsey's somewhat hesitant voice came through the speaker:
"Come... come in, but it can only be you alone!"
"Fine."
"Swish—"
With the opening and closing of the automatic door, William walked into Halsey's dormitory.
But when he saw Halsey, he couldn't help but exclaim:
"How did your skin color turn into this?!"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"