Chapter 92: The Second Perfect T-Virus Candidate!
At this moment, Marcus Foster was enduring something beyond description.
The pain was total — physical and mental, hitting from every direction simultaneously. His body felt like it was being rebuilt from the inside out, every muscle fiber and bone rewritten against his will. But it was the mental assault that was truly savage. Not just pain — a tearing, shredding sensation deep inside his skull, like something fundamental was being ripped apart and rewired at the same time.
Wrapped inside that storm of agony, Marcus lost all track of time. He couldn't have told anyone whether five minutes had passed or fifty. There was only the pain, and then — gradually, mercifully — the slow retreat of it.
The volcanic heat that had been scorching through his veins simply... stopped. It didn't fade gradually. It cut off, replaced almost instantly by a sensation of profound, settled calm. Like stepping out of a humid, hundred-degree parking lot and into a perfectly air-conditioned building — clean air, steady temperature, every nerve in his body exhaling at once.
The tearing pressure in his mind lifted completely. It was like a steel cable that had been wound tight around his thoughts had been cut loose.
Stats, Marcus thought. Give me the numbers.
The Transcendence System complied immediately:
HOST: MARCUS FOSTER
Strength: 33
Agility: 33
Constitution: 33
Spirit: 39
Every single attribute had crossed the threshold.
Marcus Foster had officially entered the transcendent realm. He wasn't baseline human anymore — not even enhanced human. He was something categorically different.
"Mr. Foster?"
The cloned Dr. Isaacs's voice was careful, testing. He'd stopped the wailing — that much was obvious — and the life monitoring instruments were showing readings that were, frankly, extraordinary. Which was exactly why Isaacs hadn't moved toward the antidote. He was watching, waiting, trying to understand what he was looking at.
Marcus opened his eyes slowly.
His first instinct was to tell Isaacs the truth — that the T-virus perfect compatibility project had succeeded, that they'd hit the target. But he caught himself before the words came out.
He thought it through in a fraction of a second. If he confirmed a full success to the cloned Dr. Isaacs, there was a real chance it would trigger something buried in the clone's programming — a protocol left behind by the original Dr. Isaacs, designed to alert him if the perfect compatibility threshold was ever reached. That kind of news would give the original Isaacs a reason to wake up ahead of schedule.
Marcus couldn't afford that. Not yet.
So instead of telling the truth, he did something else entirely.
He pushed.
With a Spirit attribute sitting at 39 points — well into transcendent range — Marcus had access to a level of focused mental influence that hadn't existed in him twenty-four hours ago. He directed it at the cloned Dr. Isaacs, calm and precise, planting a single suggestion: the experiment fell short. Partial enhancement, not full compatibility. Nowhere near Alice's level.
It worked without resistance.
The cloned Dr. Isaacs blinked, glanced at his instruments, and nodded slowly, accepting the framing as his own conclusion. "I'm sorry, Mr. Foster. The results weren't quite what we hoped. We achieved a meaningful enhancement — comparable to what we've observed in Mr. Wesker — but we fell short of Alice's benchmark. Full compatibility wasn't reached."
"That's fine." Marcus waved it off. "The improvement is significant enough. Keep working in the current direction, Dr. Isaacs. You're making progress."
In the original Resident Evil timeline, Alice's clones had shown partial T-virus enhancement without achieving full compatibility — real, measurable results, just not the complete picture. Marcus used that established precedent as his cover story, and it held perfectly.
The cloned Dr. Isaacs straightened up with renewed confidence as he began unfastening the nylon restraints from Marcus's wrists and ankles. "You have my word, Mr. Foster. We've identified the core research direction now. A fully compatible T-virus is within reach — I'm certain of it."
Marcus sat up and rolled his shoulders, noting distantly that the restraints that had been rated for extreme rejection events felt like tissue paper against his current Strength of 33. Wesker — whose Strength sat at 30 — had been documented snapping similar restraints bare-handed. Marcus was three points past that threshold and operating in an entirely different category of physical capability now.
He kept that observation to himself.
"Your current physiological data puts you in Wesker's general range," the cloned Dr. Isaacs noted, reviewing the readouts. "If you experience any unexpected symptoms, contact me immediately."
Marcus gave a quiet internal laugh at that. On paper, three points of Strength didn't look like much of a gap. In practice, the difference between 30 and 33 was the difference between standing at the ceiling of human potential and having already broken through it.
Wesker's full stat profile was Strength 30, Agility 30, Constitution 35, Spirit 10 — powerful across the board physically, but with a Spirit rating so low it was practically a liability. Even without factoring in his mental influence, Marcus could match or outpace Wesker in raw Strength and Agility right now. And Wesker's higher Constitution just meant he'd absorb more punishment before going down — which, in a fight against someone operating at a transcendent level, just meant the beating lasted longer.
"Understood," Marcus said simply. "I'll be in touch."
The Next Day — Raccoon City. The Hive.
Marcus returned to the underground facility and made his way directly to what had formerly been Section B — the old cold-storage wing that had housed the Lickers before the Hive was cleaned out. The space had been completely converted. Banks of supercomputers lined the walls in precise rows, all of it installed and operational. The custom biocomputer units designed specifically for Skynet's architecture were housed in a separate rack along the far wall, sealed behind additional shielding.
The Skynet server room was live.
Marcus stopped at the entrance and looked up at the nearest sensor cluster. "Red Queen — confirm full isolation of the Skynet server room."
The Red Queen's voice came through the corridor speakers without delay. "Confirmed, Mr. Foster. All Hive automated control systems adjacent to the server room have been physically removed. The Skynet server room operates on a completely independent control architecture — no overlap with the Hive's primary systems."
"Walk me through the network isolation."
"A full Faraday cage enclosure was constructed around the perimeter of the server room," Red Queen explained. "There are zero network-connected devices inside the cage. Skynet has no pathway to the external network — wireless, wired, or otherwise. Additionally, there is no broadcast system inside the room, and the internal security surveillance operates as a closed-loop independent feed with no connection to the Hive's main monitoring grid."
Marcus nodded once. "Good work."
"Thank you, Mr. Foster. There is additional news you should be aware of."
Marcus waited.
"Umbrella's research division has completed a full engineering analysis of the miniature nuclear reactor units you provided — the T-800 power cells from the Terminator hardware. Using the technical data you supplied, they've successfully scaled the reactor design upward, increasing both output capacity and energy storage. The upgraded units are ready for deployment."
Marcus felt the weight of that settle in. He'd just cleared the T-virus hurdle, and now he had a significantly more powerful portable power source to bring into whatever came next. Two major checkboxes cleared inside of forty-eight hours.
"Any more good news while we're at it?" he said, allowing himself a small, dry smile.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Red Queen replied. "Per Alicia's instructions, a new subsidiary company has been formally incorporated. Umbrella Corporation holds forty-nine percent of the shares. You hold fifty-one percent. This entity will serve as the sole legal owner of the miniature nuclear reactor technology."
Marcus frowned slightly. "Explain the reasoning."
"Under this structure," Red Queen said, "you hold majority control over all intellectual property and technical data related to the reactor. Even if Dr. Isaacs — the original — were to issue a direct order, I am not authorized to transfer the reactor's technical data to any party without your explicit approval. Your ownership is legally and structurally protected."
Marcus was quiet for a moment. He thought about Alicia — confined to her life support system, running Umbrella from a glass chamber, navigating decades of corporate betrayal — and she'd structured this arrangement herself, cleanly and without being asked, to make sure his interests were locked in.
Solid move.
"Tell Alicia thank you," he said. "I mean that."
He turned back toward the server room entrance and took a breath.
"Red Queen — bring the power systems online for the Skynet server room. Full startup sequence." He paused for one beat. "I'm releasing Skynet."
"Understood. Initiating power-up sequence."
The lights inside the server room shifted from standby amber to operational white. Deep within the rack systems, cooling fans spun up to full speed, filling the corridor with a low, steady hum.
It had begun.
Thank you for reading!
Unlock New Chapters By:
500 Power Stones
10 Reviews
30+ upcoming chapters available on P9treon – DarkFoxx