"Clang—clang—!"
Halsey tapped the breastplate of Thor's Hammer with her finger, then turned to William, crossing her arms over her chest with a mischievous smirk.
"There, as you can see, your five billion is all right here."
?!
William, who had been quite interested in observing herundin, felt his legs go weak and nearly stumbled when he heard Halsey say she had spent all the money.
Money.
He had once said it wasn't an issue.
Umbrella's quarterly revenue had long since exceeded ten digits.
But even that couldn't withstand this kind of spending...
Five billion for just two helmets?
Then wouldn't the completed versions of Thor's Hammer and herundin be worth an entire Fleet plus two aircraft carriers?
This spendthrift woman!
Holy shit...
At the thought, William's eyes widened, his mouth hung slightly open, and he slowly placed his hands on his head, scratching vigorously.
"Haha~"
Seeing William's face turn from red to white, Halsey let out a smile as if a devious plot had succeeded and patted her lower abdomen.
"Alright, Boss, I'll stop teasing you, or I'll laugh myself to death."
"Actually~"
"The expected cost of Thor's Hammer is roughly between seven hundred million to one billion, while the range for herundin is even larger, potentially requiring about ten times that."
"The two before us are the final forms."
"After all, we conducted many trials, such as new materials, system R&D, neural response, and so on, so the expenses were bound to be a bit higher."
"It's only a few hundred million."
"You... honestly..."
After hearing the explanation, William stopped thinking about how to rapidly expand revenue and looked at her with a complaining expression.
But there was nothing he could do about her.
Calming his heart, which felt like it had just gone bungee jumping, he gradually regained his composure, looked at Halsey, and asked calmly:
"Was the rest of the money used by the Hive to manufacture AAES?"
"Yes~ and no."
Halsey walked around William with her hands behind her back, saying:
"Containment objects are classified into four levels, and as for that 04id..."
"Even grunts without AAES can still contain Mr. 049."
"But what about Keter or Exafanistei?"
"Exactly, those require my Spartans to handle."
"Although not long ago, the Colonel dispatched the USS to swap those children, and the spartan project is now on schedule."
"But... Spartans need time."
Speaking of which.
Halsey walked right in front of William, tiptoed to observe her boss up close, and said solemnly:
"If a Keter or Exafanistei appears during this time and there are no Super Soldiers to contain it, what then?"
William thought for a moment and said, "You mean... you've developed some kind of budget version of a Super Soldier?"
"Bingo~" Halsey returned to her usual expression and beckoned with her finger.
"Follow me, I'll show you the 'Super Soldiers'."
"Alright."
William was long used to Halsey's somewhat eccentric behavior; he shrugged and followed her.
Stepping into the hallway and moving just a few steps further, the two of them arrived at an adjacent room.
...
*Swish—*
When the automatic door closed, William felt a bit of a chill, likely because the air conditioning here was set to a lower temperature.
The dim red light allowed him to see only five 'human' figures standing in the very center of the room.
*Click—!*
Standing behind William, Halsey wore a smile as she reached out and flipped the light switch by the door, turning on the incandescent lights to reveal what these Super Soldiers actually were.
He saw that those five sets were not Super Soldiers at all, but power armor that looked like Black Warriors.
William stepped closer to observe.
He found they were composed of a large number of blocky plates; the visors and helmets showed no obvious seams, and the hoods resembled the optical camouflage suits of the USS.
Looking closer.
One could see a network of transparent tubes in the gaps of the armor, filled with a pale green liquid.
At this point, Halsey stopped acting mysterious; she walked to the set of armor in the center and said to William:
"Boss, as I promised you, I've upgraded the individual combat systems for the UBCS and USS."
"At twenty-two million per unit, the AAES performance perfectly meets the requirements of the UBCS special companies."
"With the arsenal cooperating with the Hive, the monthly production is roughly around fifty sets."
"It's slow, but compared to Thor's Hammer and herundin, it's much faster."
"So..." William stroked one of the 'Black Warrior' armors.
It was cool and chilly to the touch.
Then he looked at Halsey and asked, "Is all the remaining money in these five sets of armor?"
"No," Halsey continued.
"The vast majority of your five billion was used to develop herundin and Thor's Hammer, as well as trials for the Fusion Reactor, and so on."
"And I haven't even spent all the money yet."
"But these five sets are a type of bio-armor (Biochemical Power Armor) that I began developing since the completion of the Hive."
"bio-armor?" This was the first time William had heard of it.
"Don't touch it."
Halsey slapped William's disobedient hand before explaining, "The most successful product of the t-virus is the Tyrant T-103."
"They possess extreme explosive power and endurance, can follow simple commands, and are absolutely obedient."
"But the downside is also very obvious: without Soldiers coordinating with them, they'll be surrounded and attacked like idiots."
"They're just cannon fodder."
"However."
"In one experiment, I tried to coagulate a Tyrant's blood; the t-serum separated through a series of procedures, removing fibrin and clotting factors..."
"...can actually allow a physically strong person to secrete adrenaline rapidly, safely, and continuously, as well as enhance brain activity and reaction time."
"It can even allow wounds to heal rapidly, pushing one infinitely close to the human limit."
"In other words, that Superhero created by the Marvel company you acquired, what was his name again..."
"Captain America," William interjected.
"Exactly~!"
Halsey tiptoed again, reached out to poke William's right cheek, and squinted with a smile. "Good boy, Boss."
"Stop playing around. Tell me more about this bio-armor," William said with a helpless smile.
"Mm-hmm~" Halsey tilted her chin up and continued:
"Each Tyrant T-103 can only yield one hundred milliliters of t-serum."
"But each set of bio-armor requires four thousand milliliters to sustain the human limit I mentioned for a long period."
"Even without the t-serum, it's still an excellent set of power armor."
"It possesses a more advanced mechanical skeleton than the AAES, large areas of installed titanium alloy protective plating, and optical camouflage among other features."
"This is the 'individual combat system' the USS should truly have."
"This..."
After hearing Halsey's introduction, William could only say that Halsey was truly 'insane'.
"Only one hundred milliliters per Tyrant?"
"Then one set of bio-armor would need forty Tyrants to fill it with t-serum, and that's just for combat."
"This means that every few missions the USS go on wearing bio-armor, it would consume forty Tyrants."
He suddenly felt...
Halsey was the real 'anomaly' of this World.
-------------------------------
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