25: Time travel, yellow-robed man, ruins.

More than a month passed in a flash.

Internationally, news of the Pacific Bank robbery was still being reported.

However, instead of the robbers, the incompetence of the Los Santos Police and various Agents was now drawing more attention.

No matter what happened in the outside World,

it didn't affect Joa in the slightest.

After that phone call,

Joa and Li Hua talked for a long time.

He listed a detailed inventory of the things he wanted.

According to previous calculations, the items he needed, after deducting one billion invested in Merryweather and one hundred million in dividends for DeFrey and Avi, totaled one billion five hundred and twenty million U.S. dollars.

After the blueprints were sent back to East University,

Joa's money was not only not spent, but he even had an additional five billion compared to his original five billion U.S. dollars.

Various materials and military equipment were acquired without spending a single cent, and he still had eight billion nine hundred million U.S. dollars in his account.

This made his favorability towards East University skyrocket.

Senora Desert facility.

In a conference room large enough to accommodate several hundred people,

Joa and Polaris stood on the podium.

Below them were two hundred fully armed mercenaries from Merryweather.

After the money arrived, through expansion, his Merryweather company now had over a thousand highly qualified, battle-hardened veteran soldiers.

Such battle-hardened veterans were hard to find in other countries.

But in America, they were everywhere.

Who made America 'maintain World' peace everywhere and then neglect its retired veterans?

“Who am I? I don’t think I need to introduce myself too much, right?”

“Yes, Sir!”

The shouts were uniform and full of vigor.

Joa nodded with satisfaction.

“The equipment on You, the expenses of your families, the education of your children, your housing, medical care, and even the money that You can’t spend even if You change girls every night.”

“Who gave all of that to You?!”

“I did!”

“While others need to work three jobs a day, and even occasionally sell blood plasma to survive.”

“Tell me loudly!”

“I support You! I give You such high treatment, how should You repay me?!”

Hearing Joa's words, the two hundred fully armed mercenaries below the podium stomped their feet in unison and shouted in chorus.

“Loyalty! Loyalty! Loyalty!”

Seeing that the mercenaries below clearly understood their identities and who had given them everything they enjoyed,

Joa's lips curved into a smile, feeling very satisfied.

‘Good thing Marvel wasn’t filmed in Korea.’

He inexplicably imagined the scene of two hundred mercenaries below shouting ‘loyalty’ in Korean in unison.

Joa almost couldn't hold back.

Forcing down a smile that was harder to suppress than an AK, Joa raised his hand to signal them to quiet down. After the mercenaries settled down, he continued.

“Very good!”

“You’ve been training intensely for over half a month.”

“Now is the time for You to prove your worth to me.”

“I need You to find a flower called Sun Ladder in a ruin for me!”

“I believe You won’t disappoint me.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Seeing the high morale of his mercenaries, Joa said no more.

With a wave of his hand,

a square space-time gate, two meters long and two meters wide, leading to the Resident Evil world, appeared below the podium.

The sudden appearance of the space-time gate did not elicit any reaction from the mercenaries below.

It wasn't that they weren't surprised, but that Joa was watching them.

So no matter what happened in front of them, even if the sky fell,

they would not act without Joa's command.

Seeing that the mercenaries below suppressed their shock with strong psychological resilience and willpower, Joa was even more satisfied.

“Now! Depart!”

“Yes, Sir!”

They saluted Joa.

Then, these two hundred mercenaries lined up neatly in two rows and passed through the space-time gate.

Seeing that everyone had entered and no abnormal movements were reported,

Joa then took Polaris and stepped into the space-time gate as well.

After the two left, the space-time gate disappeared.

However, the next moment,

in the empty conference room,

a figure dressed in a yellow robe, completely shrouded by a hood,

suddenly appeared at the location where the space-time gate had vanished.

This figure stood before the vanished space-time gate, as if carefully sensing something.

A moment later,

the robed figure in yellow began to draw in the void with both hands.

Immediately after, one golden magic circle after another, emitting light, emerged.

Then, waves of green light appeared.

But no matter how hard he tried, the robed man, still having found nothing, sighed and shook his head, looking around the conference room.

He then walked to the podium and looked down.

“Unknown spatial-temporal power, why did it completely disappear from the entire multiverse this time?”

“The Fourth Wall…”

Raising his hand to gently caress the void above the edge of the podium, the robed man looked straight ahead and murmured softly.

“Does it really exist?”

With that, the figure vanished, as if he had never appeared.

······

Africa.

Tropical rainforest.

Near the Nidebaiya tribal ruins.

Two hundred fully armed mercenaries, holding their standard carbine rifles in the tropical rainforest, cautiously guarded against potential dangers around them.

“Spread out a bit, give me some space.”

Receiving Joa's command,

the fully armed mercenaries cautiously cleared obstacles and gradually spread out.

“Enough, be on alert.”

“No living creature is allowed to approach, fire at will!”

“Yes, Sir!”

After an area of nearly three hundred square meters was cleared among the crowd,

Joa took out the drone station from his system space.

Immediately after, he also took out all-terrain armored vehicles, a khanjali tank, and three leviathan fighters.

In addition, there were large numbers of tents, diesel generators, living supplies, various medicines, serums, and so on.

Half a day later,

a heavily guarded temporary command center and a military camp with dozens of tents appeared in the tropical rainforest.

In the command center,

Joa pointed at the photos taken by the drone on the table and looked at the fifteen Instructors in the room.

“A ruin has been discovered more than twenty kilometers from our current location.”

“That should contain what I need.”

“You can take anything from the camp.”

“I have only one request.”

“Bring back the Sun Ladder for me!”

“Did You all understand?!”

Upon hearing this, the fifteen Instructors in the command center shouted in unison.

“Yes, Officer!”

“We will depart immediately and guarantee mission completion!”

With that, these fifteen people turned to leave without the slightest hesitation.

Seeing this, Joa quickly stopped them.

“Come back! I haven’t finished speaking yet.”

After everyone returned to their original positions, Joa continued.

“I’ve already had drones scout the route; it’s not easy to travel.”

“So, I plan to have thirty people airlifted by helicopter first.”

“The rest will remain at the camp and wait.”

Scanning everyone with his gaze, Joa continued.

“The drones didn’t detect any danger outside the ruins, but the reconnaissance personnel haven’t found the entrance leading inside the ruins.”

“Your mission is to find the entrance to the ruins, and also…”

“Eliminate any possible… zombies… or Tyrants within the ruins!”