Chapter 4: The Report for Spencer

After the turmoil in the Ark Laboratory completely subsided, the entire underground facility sank back into a deathly silence.

The researcher who was shot and subdued was sent for treatment due to his injuries and extreme shock, while the researcher who had been held hostage by Chloe, after confirming that all surveillance and data were intact, locked himself in an independent records room. With trembling fingertips, he typed out line after line of cold text.

He did not dare to omit even a single detail.

Eight-year-old Series 70 Test Subject, Chloe.

According to The Ark's original plan, all the children taken in by The Orphanage were intended as backup vessels for Memory transplantation experiments.

Their ultimate purpose was to undergo Memory transplantation, Personality overwriting, and Mind control, becoming stable living hosts.

This riot was triggered because some of the children experienced severe rejection during the Pre-operative induction and Neural adaptation testing phases, leading to mental breakdowns and eventually causing a large-scale loss of control.

All the children developed symptoms of rage.

All the children lost their sanity.

All the children became failures.

Except for Chloe.

She had never undergone Memory transplantation surgery, nor had she even entered the operating room; like the other children, she had only undergone basic Neural adaptation testing and Pre-operative induction.

Yet even so, she still displayed the exact opposite: stability.

The same environmental stimuli, the same neural intervention, the same Pre-operative induction...

While the other children were manic, violent, out of control, and attacking each other,

she remained absolutely lucid.

Not only lucid, but unusually calm.

She could disguise herself, feign weakness, hide a gun, take hostages, exert precise intimidation, and plan escape routes.

Her intellect, judgment, self-control, and stress resistance far exceeded those of children her age, and even those of adults.

This was not a failed experimental subject; this was the first individual since the start of the T-Virus project to truly achieve a stable mutation.

Chloe had not been modified by surgery, yet she naturally possessed top-tier resistance to mental interference, neural collapse, and experimental side effects.

She was a natural, perfect vessel for Memory transplantation that would not break down.

This was the ultimate goal The Ark was truly pursuing.

The researcher took a deep breath, finished organizing all observation data, surveillance footage, physiological indicators, and behavioral analysis, marked it 'Class A Top Secret · For High-Level Eyes Only,' and submitted it through Umbrella's internal encrypted channels, level by level.

The document first arrived at the Arklay Research Facility.

At that time, Albert Wesker was standing in front of the surveillance screens, flipping through comparative data between the Progenitor Virus and the T-Virus. When he received the encrypted file, he originally only glanced at it casually, but his gaze paused slightly when it touched upon keywords like 'Stable mutant,' 'controllable sanity,' and 'Series 70 Test Subject.'

Before long, William Birkin was also called to the office by him.

William wore glasses, and his eyes were bloodshot from long-term experimentation. He was initially impatient, but after reading all of Chloe's data, those eyes—usually immersed in his own world—suddenly lit up with a light bordering on madness.

'The same virus... and it didn't lead to rage in her, but instead strengthened her brain and self-control?' William gripped the paper report tightly, nearly crushing it. 'Lisa is a monster of the flesh, but she... she is a breakthrough on the level of sanity.'

Wesker stood by the window with his hands in his lab coat pockets, looking out at the perpetual mist of the Arklay Mountains, his voice calm and steady:

'The people at The Ark botched The Orphanage experiment, but they accidentally raised a specimen that should never have appeared. She has all the potential of an Out-of-control subject, yet retains human reason and thinking ability. Once controlled, she will be the perfect weapon.'

The two looked at each other, both clear on the weight of this report.

This was not a common experimental development; it was a major breakthrough capable of shaking the direction of the entire virus research.

They did not hide anything and immediately attached the Arklay Research Facility's preliminary review to the bottom of the report, re-encrypted the data, and sent it with the highest priority directly to Europe, into the hands of Oswell E. Spencer.

The founder of Umbrella, the supreme controller of all research facilities.

A few days later, at the European Headquarters, inside a secret castle study.

Spencer sat behind a large mahogany desk, his fingertips lightly brushing over this top-secret report from the Ark Laboratory on the outskirts of Raccoon City.

His gaze slowly swept over the lines of text. When he saw the phrase 'possesses all physiological characteristics of an Out-of-control subject, yet maintains high rationality and intelligence without undergoing berserkification,' a faint, imperceptible ripple finally appeared in his aged but sharp eyes.

Lisa Trevor had been studied for decades, but she only had an immortal body, not a controllable mind.

The Memory transplantation, Personality replacement, and Consciousness Immortality Projects he had invested his life in never lacked surgical technology or means of control; they lacked a perfect vessel that would not collapse, reject, or lose control.

T-Virus subjects came in batch after batch, all of them monsters that only knew how to destroy.

But this little girl named Chloe had walked a third path.

The virus had not swallowed her sanity; instead, it was suppressed by her consciousness.

Wasn't this the prototype of the perfectly evolved human vessel he had been pursuing all his life?

Spencer was silent for a moment, then picked up a pen and wrote a short, cold line in the approval section at the end of the report that would determine Chloe's entire life.

'Immediately transport her in secret to the Arklay Research Facility, with Wesker and William in full charge of the research.

This specimen is strictly forbidden from being destroyed or leaked; categorize her as a top-level controlled living subject.'

The moment the pen tip landed, Chloe's fate no longer belonged to The Ark.

She would be sent to the Arklay Research Facility deep in the mountains, falling into the hands of Wesker and William, becoming the most secret and precious pawn of all Umbrella.

Meanwhile, the little girl in The Ark's isolation room knew nothing about it.

She just curled up in the corner of the cold bed, lamenting her future fate.

'I knew I couldn't get out of The Ark. If I'd known, I would've taken a gamble at The Orphanage,' Chloe said with regret.

She thought what awaited her would be death, unaware that his transmigration had given Chloe a different fate.

She did not know that a longer, darker period of imprisonment, closer to the truth, was waiting for her ahead.