Chapter 71: Optimizing the G-Virus
News of Matthew's injury spread through the company and didn't stay quiet.
The entire organization was holding its breath, watching with genuine worry as the stretcher was carried through the doors.
The concern on their faces wasn't a performance. It had nothing to do with salary. Since Matthew had taken his position, he had shown real consideration for everyone at every level of the company, making people actually feel that they belonged here rather than that they were tools brought in to generate revenue.
Win people's hearts and you win everything. This was a demonstration of that principle in practice.
In the private office next to the medical department.
Ada had heard that Matthew was critically injured and unconscious. She dropped what she was working on and made straight for the medical wing. Their first meeting had been somewhat unpleasant, but everything they had been through since then, the shared operations and the growing mutual trust, had turned things genuinely warm. Calling them close friends at this point wouldn't be an overstatement.
Click. Click. Click.
Her heels rang through the corridor.
She arrived at the medical department in short order.
"Where's the boss?" She directed the question at the nurse on station.
The nurse looked at the urgency on Ada's face and responded with an expression that didn't quite know what to do with itself. "Mr. Lawrence is in the premium ward at the back."
Ada moved to go in. Then the nurse's next words stopped her.
"He said when you arrived, don't come in yet. He'd like you to go downstairs first and get him a pineapple ham pizza. He says he's hungry."
Ada: "..."
"He's fine?"
She looked at the nurse.
Faced with the boss's personal assistant and no reason to be cagey, the nurse gave her the straight version. "All indicators came back normal on examination. And also..."
"And also what?"
"And also he climbed off the stretcher the moment he came through the door. There's no trace of injury on him."
"...Fuck. He played me again. That bastard."
That said, she let out a long, relieved breath.
Knock knock knock.
"Come in."
Matthew, sitting on the sofa watching television, looked toward the door.
Ada came in carrying a pineapple ham pizza.
The room was technically a ward. In practice it looked more like a private residence designed for senior staff. Kitchen, study, billiards room, karaoke setup, gaming area, and a swimming pool, with enough medical equipment distributed throughout to address a genuine emergency if one occurred.
"Ada. You made it."
"Sit down and have some?" Matthew stood to take the pizza from her, grinning.
Ada looked at that grin and felt her jaw twitch. She took the pizza anyway.
They sat together on the sofa and watched the news.
One of the stories running was: Umbrella Corporation Executive Matthew Lawrence Critically Injured in Attack.
In the live footage, Ada could also see Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit circling above the city, attempting to track down whoever was responsible.
The Green Goblin had long since vanished without a trace. Finding him was not going to happen.
Ada watched the coverage on screen, then glanced at Matthew beside her eating pizza as though nothing had happened to anyone ever, and remarked: "Boss, I'm hearing you were killed. Is that accurate?"
Matthew swallowed his bite of pizza and nodded without any particular feeling. "Accurate. But my physical condition is, as it turns out, exceptional. I was basically recovered by the time I got back to the office."
"One more thing, Ada. I won't be making any public appearances for the next few days. Just tell people externally that I've come out of surgery and I'm still recovering."
"And if anyone wants to come see me, I'm not available."
He estimated Tony would come looking for him at the hospital once the search for the Green Goblin came up empty. Cutting off that possibility entirely was the cleaner option.
As for explaining it convincingly, that wasn't something Matthew needed to worry about. Ada would handle it.
Ada looked at the latest task that had just been dropped in her lap and let out a resigned sigh. "In that case, Your Excellency may rest comfortably here and focus on your recovery."
"I'll leave you to your convalescence."
She took a slice of pizza and walked out, leaving Matthew alone in the ward.
After she left, Matthew hung the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Then his form dissolved into blood mist and moved back through the ventilation system to his own bedroom.
Voiceprint. Iris. Fingerprint.
Triple verification cleared, and the door to the secure room opened.
Cold white light. Temperature extremely low. His breath condensed mid-air into visible white. Along both walls, uniform rows of wall-mounted safes, each flush with the surrounding surface.
He opened one and retrieved the G-Virus.
Matthew looked up at the System.
[System points remaining: 13,440.]
The point balance was at an all-time high.
Which meant this was the moment he had been waiting for. Time to optimize the G-Virus.
He skipped past the System's overview of the G-Virus and went directly to the list of optimizable defects.
[Optimizable defects: Uncontrolled Evolution. Consciousness Dissolution. Host Termination.]
[Uncontrolled Evolution: The virus accelerates and compresses an evolutionary process that would otherwise span thousands to tens of thousands of years. Each time the host sustains major injury, it triggers an uncontrolled evolutionary change, ultimately transforming the host into an amorphous biological mass.
Cost to optimize: 5,000 System points.]
[Consciousness Dissolution: Following injection, the host's own consciousness gradually dissolves until nothing remains but the virus's basic instinct to propagate and reproduce.
Cost to optimize: 2,000 System points.]
[Host Termination: Once the G-Virus reaches maturity, it kills the host entirely and assumes direct control of the body.
Cost to optimize: 4,000 System points.]
"G-Virus optimization really does cost a fortune. Even now I'm barely covering it," Matthew murmured.
If he hadn't put on that performance in front of Tony Stark, he'd have been going without a lot of things for quite a while before he could afford this.
"Optimize all."
[Optimizing.]
[Optimization complete.]
[System points remaining: 2,440. Nursery project income continuing.]
"Open the Fusion interface."
The System flickered and the Fusion panel appeared. It looked more or less exactly like a Minecraft crafting table.
Matthew focused his intent.
The G-Virus icon and Matthew's own portrait dropped into the Fusion panel simultaneously.
[G-Virus + Matthew Lawrence (T-Virus + V-Virus): compatibility 80%.
Note: 20% probability of host rejection resulting in explosive cellular failure and death.]
[Fusion cost: 2,000 System points.]
"Twenty percent chance of my body tearing itself apart..." Matthew's jaw twitched.
"Good thing I looked first. I would have just exploded on the spot."
When he had fused the V-Virus, the death probability had been 2%, and even then he had been reluctant to risk it. A 20% death rate was nowhere close to a number he was willing to test.
"So. I choose to pay and fuse."