Chapter 81

The banquet was drawing to a close, but Zhou Yi had no intention of staying any longer. He and Alfred had each gotten what they wanted, and there was no need to stay. Neither he nor Xiarisi had any desire to continue socializing.

Leaving the Ashford Manor with Zhou Yi, they returned to the hotel. As soon as they entered their private space, Xiarisi let out a sigh of relief. She kicked off her high heels impatiently and walked around the room barefoot.

"Hey, darling, didn't you have fun?" Zhou Lan, who had been waiting for Xiarisi to return, quickly asked, concerned. After all, this was Xiarisi's first time attending such a banquet, and she had to hide her mutant identity. Zhou Lan couldn't help but worry.

"I'm sick of all this nonsense. Everyone is so annoying, and I couldn't even enjoy my food in peace." Xiarisi untied her hair, trying to free her ears. "And this suffocating dress, oh my God! I swear, I'll never attend such a banquet again."

"My dear, this is just the beginning." Zhou Yi reminded her kindly. "You'll definitely experience more of these in the future, so it's best not to be too absolute."

"Don't even think about it!" Xiarisi crossed her arms emphatically. "You can flirt with pretty girls at those places, but what can I do? Wait for others to flirt with me? No way! If that keeps up, I'll really lose it and teleport them into the walls."

"Phew! That's torture indeed!" Zhou Yi whistled, realizing it was best to stop this argument.

"Dear, you'll get used to it. These things aren't always so unpleasant." Zhou Lan gave her son a look, expressing her dissatisfaction with his lack of support. She hugged her daughter, trying to comfort her.

Xiarisi snuggled into Zhou Lan's embrace and said in a coquettish voice, "Mom, you're the best. I want to sleep with you tonight, okay?"

"You're such a big girl, but you're still like a child." Zhou Lan playfully pinched her nose, but didn't refuse.

Looking at the time, Zhou Yi said, "It's late. Goodnight, Mom and Xiarisi. Sweet dreams!"

"You should rest too, dear!" Zhou Lan nodded, leading Xiarisi to the vanity to remove her makeup.

"Go away, go away. You annoying brother!" Xiarisi waved her hands at Zhou Yi, clearly resenting his behavior of leaving her to flirt with girls.

Shaking his head, Zhou Yi pushed open the door and walked out. It wasn't time for him to rest yet; he still had some things to arrange based on the recent news.

Entering his room and locking the door to prevent anyone from coming in, Zhou Yi put on a special pair of glasses and began to contact Medusa.

"Medusa, search for a detailed map of Raccoon City and mark all the buildings owned by Umbrella."

"Yes, sir. According to the data, there are 1,744 buildings in Raccoon City owned by Umbrella. These include the Raccoon City Umbrella branch, the Raccoon City Central Library, the Raccoon City Sports Center, the Central Elementary School, the Umbrella Medical Center, and various subsidiaries, employee dormitories, and executive retreat centers."

In Zhou Yi's field of vision, a large 3D city map appeared. This was a new city built by Umbrella, encompassing several sparsely populated towns. It was a unique city where most of the industries belonged to a single company.

As Medusa responded to Zhou Yi's request and marked the Umbrella-owned buildings, red dots began to appear on the map. By the time Medusa finished, most of the city was covered in red.

Clearly, it was unrealistic to identify which of these buildings was the surface cover for the Umbrella underground research center.

"Medusa, remove the public facilities and keep only the buildings used exclusively by Umbrella that require certain permissions." Zhou Yi issued a new command, starting to filter through them. He believed the answer was hidden among them.

"Sir, to do this, I need your authorization to hack into Umbrella's internal system and access its internal data. I must warn you that this will likely expose our location and cause unnecessary hostility. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

Considering her owner's position, Medusa expressed her opinion. In her logical thinking, such an action would clearly go against Zhou Yi's interests, and authorization was required to execute the command.

"I'm sure. Medusa, ensure your safety and avoid being traced. As for whether they raise the alarm, ignore it."

"Yes, sir. Please wait!" Medusa began to execute Zhou Yi's command. In the digital world, she infiltrated Umbrella's internal network through a limited external connection and started searching for the data Zhou Yi needed.

In the face of such advanced AI, Umbrella's firewall was like an open door. Medusa quickly found the information he needed.

"Sir, I have found the data you requested. According to your criteria, there are three buildings that meet your requirements."

Medusa began to display the details of these three buildings to Zhou Yi.

"Umbrella Raccoon City Branch, requires employee access. Located in the city center."

"Umbrella Medical Center, certain areas are for use by Umbrella executives only. Located in the southeastern part of the city, near the commercial center."

"Umbrella Executive Retreat Center, used exclusively for high-level training and vacations. Located in the southwestern suburbs of Raccoon City."

"Three to choose from, this kind of thing can't be openly displayed to the public." Zhou Yi muttered to himself and continued giving orders. "Medusa, gather all the information about the Executive Retreat Center. I want to know everything about it."

"Data acquisition in progress. High-level encrypted data detected, continuing search." It seemed that Umbrella had implemented very strict protection measures. Although Medusa was working hard, the speed of obtaining information was much slower than at the beginning.

However, she didn't disappoint Zhou Yi.

"Umbrella Executive Retreat Center, high-level company asset. The following confidential data has been found: employee list, building expansion report, material input report, and experiment report. Details as follows!"

Just as Medusa began to report her findings, a large amount of red appeared in Zhou Yi's field of vision, and Medusa's voice became urgent.

"Warning, unknown data is attacking the system. Reverse search has begun. Firewall under attack, expected to fail in ten seconds. Disconnect all external links."

The image in his eyes flickered and then dimmed. After about a minute, the image reappeared, and Medusa's voice came from his ear.

"Sir, we have been attacked by an unknown program. It is likely an internal AI of Umbrella. The following can be concluded: Umbrella has a high-level AI that is not inferior to me. Your recent command has triggered their defense system. I apologize, but the data was not fully retained. For safety, I abandoned the data that was not fully downloaded."

"That's enough, Medusa. As long as you're safe!" Rubbing his temples, Zhou Yi felt that a network intrusion by Medusa was more exciting than going out to fight. Although he didn't understand why AI was so prevalent, it was good to have some results.

"Show me what you've got!"

"Most of the high-level confidential member data in the personnel list has been destroyed by the other side. Only a partial list of security personnel remains. This is the highest-ranking person in the current data."

Medusa displayed an image of a woman with dark brown hair. She looked well-trained, with a professional and efficient demeanor.

"Alice Jovovich. Security Director of the Umbrella Executive Retreat Center. Graduated from West Point, she has executed multiple special orders. She was later expelled for disobeying orders and invited to join the Umbrella Security Company, where she received three years of training. Due to her excellent performance, she was promoted to a security executive and transferred to Raccoon City a year ago to serve as the Security Director of the Executive Retreat Center."

"She's fit, but that's not what I'm looking for. Is there anything else?" A security director wasn't the information Zhou Yi needed, so he continued to ask his AI assistant.

"Part of the experiment report remains, but it has been damaged."

"Show it to me!"

Two files appeared in Zhou Yi's vision, including descriptions of the experimental materials, photos taken at different stages, and parts of the experiment report.

The experimental materials were varied. In the report, he saw not only common lab mice, chimpanzees, and humans, but also less common species like lizards, pythons, and sharks. It seemed their experiments were not limited to humans.

Reviewing the experiment report, Zhou Yi found that most of the materials had died. The report frequently mentioned rapid changes in cell chromosomes, significant alterations in the organisms, and the experiments becoming uncontrollable, leading to their termination.

This seemed to indicate that the experiments were not progressing smoothly, as they lacked stability and controllability. Such results could not be considered successful.

Continuing to read the report, Zhou Yi noticed a problem. There were no records of human experiments, which had clearly been intentionally deleted during the attack. This could only mean one thing: the human experiments had different outcomes. But what was different?

Flipping through the limited data, Zhou Yi began to analyze it. When he reached his final conclusion, his expression was not pleasant.