261: Chapter 261 I'll give you a little pet

New York, Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse duplex, the night was as dazzling as a tapestry.

Yet, Duke Edgar Winston felt a chill shoot straight from his tailbone to his scalp.

The assistant's report sounded like it came from another world: "...The Morgan Consortium's offshore trusts were wiped clean overnight, Old Morgan is subsisting on liquid food in a public hospital in Brooklyn... The Rockefeller Family has even mortgaged their ancestral home to Umbrella."

The Old Money Alliance, those behemoths that had entrenched themselves for over a century, had crumbled within a week.

And he, Edgar, had chosen to play dead during that forced abdication drama at the ancient castle.

He thought he could stay out of it.

"Your Grace." The butler pushed open the heavy oak door, his face deathly pale, "There is a delivery for you. The security scanners couldn't penetrate it."

A massive, custom-made black wooden crate was pushed in.

"The delivery person said it was a private gift for you from Mr. Chen in Los Angeles."

The words "Mr. Chen" struck Edgar's heart like a heavy hammer. He waved his assistant away, leaving only two personal bodyguards.

"Open it." His voice was trembling.

A crowbar pried open the wooden planks, revealing a liquid nitrogen freezing pod emitting white vapor.

Through the bulletproof glass, Edgar saw a curled-up mass of skinless, blood-red muscle.

A black-gold greeting card was stuck to the control panel, the handwritten cursive English exuding a chill:

"Your Grace, I heard you haven't been sleeping well lately. Sending you a pet to guard the house. — Chen"

"Beep—"

With a soft sound, the freezing pod's temperature indicator light turned from blue to red.

"Protect the Duke!"

The two bodyguards drew their guns to shield him, but it was too late.

The pod door popped open with a "bang," and the mass of flesh moved.

Edgar only heard two muffled cracks of bones being forcibly snapped, and the two bodyguards, who were former special forces Soldiers, became two piles of pulp, sliding limply against the wall.

The monster crawled on all fours, silently climbing onto the back of the sofa, and leaned in toward Edgar, less than ten centimeters away.

The thick stench of blood mixed with the smell of formalin, rushing straight to his brain.

A drop of viscous, cold saliva dripped down from its exposed gums, landing on Edgar's expensive suit trousers and spreading into a small dark stain.

He went rigid, holding his breath.

Just then, the encrypted phone on the table rang shrilly.

The monster tilted its head, and surprisingly, like a human, it stepped back half a meter, sitting and waiting like a hound awaiting orders.

Edgar, soaked in cold sweat, tremblingly picked up the receiver.

"Do you like the gift?"

On the other end of the line, Chen Feng's voice was devoid of emotion, with faint screams heard in the background.

...

Meanwhile, Los Angeles, Umbrella's core laboratory on the seventh underground level.

Chen Feng stood before the one-way glass, nonchalantly taking the call.

On the other side of the glass, twelve stripped men and women were locked in individual isolation pods. They were the "prime vessels" the Red Queen had screened from three hundred thousand critically ill patients.

A burly bald man was frantically pounding the special glass with his fists, cursing, "Let me out! Do you know who I am! I'm 'Razor' from the Rockefeller Family! I've crushed the necks of Navy SEAL captains!"

Chen Feng said nonchalantly into the intercom: "Too noisy."

Then, he continued to Edgar on the other end of the line: "Don't be nervous, it's been vaccinated and won't bite. However, it's windy in New York, so Your Grace must keep the doors and windows closed. If this little guy gets out and makes the news, it wouldn't look good."

On the other end of the line, Edgar dropped to his knees with a thud, knocking over the wine cabinet behind him; expensive red wine and broken glass littered the floor.

"Mr. Chen! Voice of the Globe will always be your most loyal mouthpiece! All shares of the Winston Family will be transferred to your name first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Look at you, being so formal. I was just sending a pet." Chen Feng chuckled, "Take good care of it."

He hung up the phone and tossed it onto the console.

Beside him, Mia was holding an eight-inch strawberry cake, grabbing handfuls to stuff into her mouth, her face covered in cream.

Sensing Chen Feng's mood, she burped and walked up to the glass.

Her originally clear right eye instantly turned into a ghostly green slit pupil.

A sense of oppression originating from the depths of her genes pierced through the special glass, enveloping the entire isolation zone.

The burly bald man, Razor, who had been clamoring just moments ago, fell abruptly silent.

He stared at the little girl covered in cream outside the glass as if he had seen a ghost; his legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees, a foul-smelling liquid leaking down his pant leg.

The other eleven subjects were also clutching their heads, shivering.

"So pathetic." Mia pouted in disdain, "They smell sour; not as chewy as the meat chunks from Siberia."

"They aren't for you to eat." Chen Feng turned to Samantha, who was frantically recording data, "Begin the G-Virus phase two live experiments. I want to see stronger adaptability in them than the G-Tyrant."

Samantha pushed up her glasses and licked her cracked lips: "Leave it to me. In one week, combined with the 'Marionette', I can give you an absolutely obedient G-Creature assault team. But their genes need an 'anchor' to suppress the collapse."

She pointed at Mia: "She is the perfect anchor."

"No way!" Mia refused immediately, "It's so boring here! I want to watch SpongeBob! Eat pizza!"

Chen Feng pressed down on her head: "Ten cheesy stuffed-crust pizzas a day, two tubs of Häagen-Dazs. I'll have a 100-inch TV brought in for you to watch."

"Deal!" Mia's expression changed instantly, and she stood obediently beside Samantha.

After arranging the laboratory matters, Chen Feng returned to the top-floor office.

Sarah was standing at the desk, wearing a well-tailored black professional suit. A black tentacle extended from her right sleeve, elegantly holding a freshly brewed cup of black coffee, which she handed to Chen Feng.

"Boss, there is movement in South America." Sarah handed over the tablet.

Chen Feng took the coffee and took a sip: "Dr. Park has already become fertilizer, what kind of movement could there be?"

"It's the U Federation military." Sarah swiped open a satellite map, "President Clark bypassed the Ministry of Defense and secretly mobilized a special forces unit under the President's direct command, codenamed 'Shadow,' which is currently assembling in the Colombia rainforest."

On the tablet, a group of fully armed Soldiers was entering the rainforest.

"What's the target?"

"Searching for the remains of the Progenitor mother body." Sarah's voice was cold, "He wants to possess biological weapons outside our control."

Chen Feng laughed.

That old dog Clark, after sitting in the presidential seat for a few days, really thinks he's something?

"Eating my food, using my stuff, even the chair under his ass was bought with my money, and now he wants to bite back?"

Chen Feng walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the city below.

"Should we have Mia handle it?" Sarah asked.

"No need, she has to stay here as an anchor. Dealing with a few flies doesn't require using nuclear weapons."

Chen Feng pressed his earpiece.

"Hunk."

"Present." A voice like the Grim Reaper's sounded.

"Take Alpha Squad and head to Colombia. Since Clark's 'Shadow' squad likes the rainforest so much, let them stay there forever as fertilizer. Make it clean."

"Understood."

The communication cut off.

Chen Feng turned around, looking at Sarah, his face expressionless.

"Connect to the White House red line."

He picked up his coffee and took a slow, deliberate sip.

"Tell President Clark that the dog leash around his neck has loosened. I'll give him ten minutes; if the 'Shadow' squad doesn't crawl out of the Colombia rainforest, I will fly to Washington myself and tighten it for him."