Chapter 34: The Red Queen and the Solar Staircase (Part 1)

"This guy dares to inject any virus into his body," Daniel Davis remarked while preparing to act alongside Ada. This wasn't an immediate departure; it required some preparation. During these days, Daniel began analyzing the viruses in Wesker's body.

T-virus, G-virus, parasites, and a mysterious virus, which, unsurprisingly, was likely the Progenitor virus. The fact that Wesker could maintain a human form without mutating, with four viruses mixed in his body, truly spoke to his exceptional resilience.

Simultaneously, Daniel also prepared to hypnotize Wesker. For someone like Wesker, whose will was incredibly strong, hypnosis was exceedingly difficult. Even renowned Marvel hypnotists like Kilgrave wouldn't have much success with someone like Wesker.

However, this wasn't a problem for Daniel. With the Ope Ope no Mi's abilities, he could open up Wesker's brain. The reason he needed a few days was that Daniel had never previously considered needing to extract information from someone's brain. He needed to familiarize himself with the brain's structure first.

For most people, understanding the brain's structure would be highly challenging, but for Daniel, it was as simple as directly slicing it open and examining it, without the grossness of dealing with an actual brain.

"I see how it is," Daniel finally understood after consulting with a neurology professor at Imperial College New York.

For most, performing brain surgery is highly complex, but for Daniel, it was simple and didn't even require a sterile room.

The room created by the Ope Ope no Mi was a perfect surgical room.

Since he could obtain the information this way, Daniel had no further interest in persuading Wesker. Using Wesker's son as leverage was also unnecessary.

"What an unexpected surprise, Spencer is still alive," Daniel thought after extracting a lot of information from Wesker's brain through his abilities.

After the Raccoon City incident, some die-hard Umbrella Corporation members still followed Spencer. This faction was led by Sergei, who was also the head of Umbrella's USS unit and Spencer's loyalist.

Sergei was also the prototype for the Tyrant and had a virus adaptation similar to Wesker's.

After the Raccoon City incident, Sergei was the only loyal follower left. The incident pushed Umbrella into the spotlight, and the heads of its global laboratories, who weren't exactly upstanding individuals, began having their own agendas.

Following the combined efforts of SHIELD and international forces, these labs quickly changed hands.

As for Sergei, he was lured into having his base attacked by the BSAA, and Wesker personally killed him.

Wesker's motives were simple. Firstly, to find Spencer. Wesker's betrayal stemmed from discovering he was merely one of Spencer's test subjects, a lucky survivor.

As a baby, Wesker, along with many others, was taken in by Spencer and injected with the Progenitor virus. Ultimately, only two survived—a male and a female, both Weskers.

Such circumstances were intolerable for Wesker.

His other motive was the Umbrella Corporation's data that Sergei had taken. Raccoon City was Umbrella's stronghold, and all research data was stored in the AI, the Red Queen.

Wesker, being a vengeful person, couldn't let even an AI that had wronged him off the hook. After killing Sergei, he formatted the Red Queen, though not before making a backup. This showed just how vengeful Wesker could be.

Originally, Wesker planned to seek immediate revenge, but after Ada's report, he intended to kidnap Daniel before dealing with Spencer.

Perhaps discovering his test subject status had twisted Wesker's mind. He planned to use bioweapons to select new humans, with himself as their god.

For this goal, he needed to perfect the virus. Daniel was exactly the kind of person he needed. Wesker hadn't come specifically to deal with Daniel; he was simply in New York for business and decided to make a detour.

Wesker's business partner was none other than Daniel Whitehall, one of Hydra's leaders. Obsessed with genetic technology, Whitehall was an ideal partner for Umbrella.

Besides collaborating with Hydra, Wesker also partnered with Tricell Pharmaceuticals, one of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies, much like the former Umbrella.

Money was essential for research. Without it, even with Umbrella's core data, those files would remain just data on the Red Queen's hard drive.

"Finally, the Solar Staircase and the Red Queen are mine," Daniel thought. Wesker's arrival allowed him to achieve two major goals. From Wesker's memories, Daniel learned the Solar Staircase was on a small island in West Africa.

This island, along with the Raccoon City base, was Umbrella's true core. Other bases didn't even know of its existence.

"What to do with Wesker's body?" After obtaining the necessary information, Daniel pondered, staring at Wesker's body.

The Ope Ope no Mi had a transplant ability, allowing him to transfer a person's consciousness into Wesker's body, granting them Wesker's physical attributes.

Daniel had decided never to expose this ability. Unlike showing his magical prowess to Rebecca, this was entirely different. If Rebecca found out, he might have to silence her.

One reason Daniel hadn't made many friends in this world was the vast difference in values and worldviews between East and West.

Being flashy and famous was common in the Western world, as seen with Iron Man and Spider-Man. Even Hydra, which had stayed hidden for so long, only did so to make a grand entrance.

"Forget it, can't take the risk," Daniel decided after much consideration. With his current strength, hypnotizing someone was easy, but hypnosis couldn't guarantee absolute safety.

Humans are unpredictable. Just as a mother can exhibit incredible strength when her child is in danger, even with the Ope Ope no Mi's abilities, Daniel couldn't guarantee perfect results.

Although the chance was slim, Daniel wasn't willing to take any risk of exposure. If he needed subordinates, he could always use virus enhancements. Even if they weren't as strong as Wesker, it would suffice.

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