2 Type B 25: Character Card—YoRHa No.
2 Type B Half a month had passed since Ethan successfully led the Foundation in containing SCP-939, “With Many Voices.” During that time, he hadn’t simply relaxed and taken it easy.
Instead, he threw himself into intensive training and base development.
The Foundation’s Air Assault Company had now completed half a month of training at the Mobile Task Force Training Center.
After finishing its reorganization and training, the unit was finally granted an official Mobile Task Force designation.
Based on its airborne assault specialization, Ethan designated it as: Mobile Task Force 001 Codename: “Helljumpers.” The Helljumpers had now become a brigade-sized Mobile Task Force with nearly 2,000 personnel.
Ethan spent the remaining ten-thousand-plus Rumor Points entirely on Foundation support through the System Shop.
After gaining E-Class clearance, the quality of available items had increased significantly.
Unfortunately, so had the prices.
Several new categories of products had also appeared.
Among them, Ethan spent a full 5,000 Rumor Points on a Unit Formation Upgrade Card.
A single card could upgrade the organizational size of one Foundation combat unit.
Ethan used it on the Helljumpers.
Originally, they had only possessed a battalion-level establishment with a maximum strength of 500 personnel.
After the upgrade, that limit expanded to 2,000, transforming the Helljumpers into a brigade-level combat formation.
There was an important reason for this.
Only Foundation units formally recognized by the system received free monthly replacement personnel, ammunition, supplies, and equipment replenishment.
Any troops operating outside an official system-recognized formation?
Ethan would have to replace their losses himself.
Considering the increasingly dangerous threats he knew were coming in the future—such as Loki bringing an alien invasion force to Earth during the events of The Avengers—Ethan needed to prepare as thoroughly as possible.
That was why he had been willing to spend so many Rumor Points expanding the Helljumpers.
Once their reorganization was complete, their original eight V-44X Blackfish transports increased to twenty.
They were also assigned two AC-160M Salamander gunships capable of providing aerial support at any time.
Their ground vehicles were likewise expanded to match a brigade-level organization.
Ethan took the elite veterans who had personally fought alongside him during the SCP-939 containment operation and reorganized them into a dedicated special operations company.
This special operations company was equipped with the experimental WL-01 Stealth Mech, which Tony had helped analyze, improve, and prepare for limited mass production whenever he had spare time.
Meanwhile, William Birkin had already completed the basic analysis of the T-virus.
His team was now experimenting with a T-Gene Enhancement Agent intended to strengthen the human body without causing harmful mutations.
Research on the T-103 Tyrant was also underway.
However, they had yet to find sufficiently suitable test subjects.
Even after using D-Class personnel for compatibility testing, Ethan had only obtained three experimental T-103 Tyrant prototypes so far.
Although he still felt that the Foundation’s combat power wasn’t quite sufficient, Ethan had no choice but to begin considering a new containment mission.
Tony Stark had already finished developing the Mark I and Mark II.
That meant the main storyline of Iron Man had now officially begun.
Tony had publicly announced that Stark Industries would withdraw from the weapons business, creating a severe conflict of interest between himself and shareholder Obadiah Stane.
Ethan knew the original storyline.
But there was no reason for him to interfere unnecessarily and create unpredictable butterfly effects.
Unfortunately, that also meant Ethan temporarily couldn’t keep taking advantage of Tony’s research ability by having him focus on Foundation exoskeleton development.
More importantly, if Ethan continued delaying containment operations, the Foundation—already under the scrutiny of S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, and numerous other factions—would only attract more covetous attention.
If the Foundation failed to demonstrate overwhelming strength, then sooner or later, once a truly powerful enemy appeared, both Ethan and the Foundation would be finished.
The requirement for initiating containment missions had also changed.
At F-Class, a mission only required 1,000 Rumor Points.
Now that Ethan had reached E-Class clearance, initiating an E-Class containment mission required 5,000 Rumor Points.
The dramatically increased price obviously meant the difficulty would rise as well.
But Ethan no longer had the luxury of avoiding it.
The only reason he’d waited this long before beginning another mission was because the System Shop held a monthly promotional event.
During these promotions, rare items could appear at steep discounts, clearly designed to tempt the host into spending Rumor Points.
Sure enough— The moment the clock reached midnight, the system’s voice sounded inside Ethan’s mind.
[Ding!
Host, the monthly System Shop promotional event has begun.] [Today’s special promotional item: Random Discounted A-Class Character Card.] [Original price: 50,000 Rumor Points.] [Promotional price: 5,000 Rumor Points.] “An A-Class Character Card?” Ethan’s eyes immediately lit up.
“That’s good stuff.” He instantly thought of Dr.
William Birkin.
In only fifteen days, William had already produced an astonishing amount of technological progress for the Foundation.
A villain who had died relatively early in the Resident Evil storyline had nevertheless brought enormous improvements to the Foundation’s scientific capabilities.
One man had effectively led an entire research team to accomplish, in just over two weeks, things that might have taken an ordinary nation decades to achieve.
After personally witnessing the value of an A-Class talent, Ethan had no hesitation whatsoever.
“Exchange for it.” [Ding!
Random A-Class Character Card successfully purchased.] [Character obtained from NieR:Automata.] [YoRHa No.
2 Type B—2B.]