Before Umbrella Corporation officially released its weight-loss medication, it conducted a series of interviews with people suffering from severe obesity.
One of them was a man named Phelps.
"Dieting? Don't talk to me about dieting!" he said, throwing up his hands. "The whole point of life is eating what I want and drinking what I want. Why do I work so hard? So I can enjoy a tomahawk steak and grilled jumbo shrimp whenever I feel like it!"
The idea of restricting his diet held no appeal whatsoever.
Especially now.
At three hundred and fifty pounds, exercise sounded even worse.
Another interviewee, Epsilon, was even more passionate.
"Go to a gym? Hire a fitness coach? Please."
He pointed directly at the camera.
"It's my right to eat whatever I want and never exercise. And it's also my right to lose weight! I want to stuff myself with food, sleep all day, and still end up skinny. That's freedom!"
His declaration resonated with a surprisingly large audience.
People didn't want diets.
They didn't want exercise.
They didn't want discipline.
But they absolutely wanted slim, attractive bodies.
Then the celebrities arrived.
Hollywood stars lined up to endorse Umbrella's new miracle drug.
One commercial opened with a bewildered actor staring into the camera.
"Wait. You're telling me I can eat fried chicken, drink soda, never work out, and still look like Director Rogers?"
He blinked.
"Am I dreaming?"
The narrator immediately replied:
"No. You're living in the age of Drex Valen, the greatest genius in human history."
"Umbrella's revolutionary weight-loss pill guarantees up to twenty pounds of weight loss per month."
"No side effects."
"No dangerous surgeries."
"One pill. One hundred dollars."
"If you stop taking it, the weight may eventually return. But for only a hundred dollars a month, why worry?"
Even the President had publicly admitted to struggling with obesity.
Now his physique had returned to healthy levels.
The transformation became a nationwide talking point.
Software developers were among the medication's biggest supporters.
Many spent eight to ten hours every day sitting in front of computers.
Long work hours.
Minimal movement.
Poor eating habits.
The results were predictable.
Roughly half of all programmers were overweight.
A significant percentage qualified as obese.
And they weren't alone.
In a country where nearly one-third of the population suffered from obesity and over half were overweight, weight management was impossible to ignore.
Everyone knew obesity was unhealthy.
Everyone understood the risks.
The problem wasn't knowledge.
The problem was effort.
Dieting was miserable.
Exercise took time.
Even people with enough money and free time often failed.
The reason was simple.
Consistency.
Not everyone could spend six months eating bland health food and lifting weights every day.
Human beings were lazy by nature.
Far more people failed at losing weight than succeeded.
In America, where obesity had become so widespread, many people had simply stopped trying.
An entire culture of avoidance had developed around the issue.
You could insult someone in public and start an argument.
But calling someone fat?
That could trigger an entirely different kind of backlash.
Pretending the problem didn't exist had become easier than confronting it.
Unfortunately, reality didn't care.
Obesity-related illnesses continued killing people every year.
The desire to lose weight had always been there.
People simply couldn't follow through.
Now, for the first time, that obstacle had disappeared.
And Drex Valen stood at the center of it all.
To millions, he looked less like an entrepreneur and more like a savior.
The medication's appeal extended far beyond obese patients.
Models loved it.
Actors loved it.
Anyone whose career depended on appearance loved it.
Maintaining a perfect figure required constant sacrifice.
Strict diets.
Relentless exercise.
Endless self-control.
Now there was another option.
One pill per month.
Twenty pounds gone.
No gym required.
No dietary restrictions.
At one hundred dollars a pill, it was affordable for almost everyone.
The margins were absurd, of course.
Each pill cost very little to manufacture.
Of that hundred-dollar price tag, ninety-nine dollars went directly into Umbrella's pocket.
But consumers didn't care.
The value was undeniable.
Hollywood celebrities quickly became some of the drug's most vocal supporters.
"You know how difficult it is to maintain a low body-fat percentage?" one famous actor complained during an interview.
"You can't eat anything fun."
"No desserts."
"No fried food."
"Everything is measured."
"Everything is monitored."
"You spend hours training every day just to stay in shape."
For years, he had followed a brutally strict regimen.
Hours of exercise.
Nutritionally optimized meals.
Vegetables.
Fruit.
Protein.
Nothing enjoyable.
"Before this pill existed, I spent three months preparing for a movie role."
"Three months."
"Do you know what that means?"
"I didn't eat a single donut."
Meanwhile, his assistant enjoyed donuts and hot chocolate every afternoon while he sat there eating corn and salad.
Another interview featured Scarlett Johansson.
The actress laughed.
"I'll just say this."
"Weight-loss medication is a wonderful invention."
Then came Leonardo DiCaprio.
After years of internet memes and relentless criticism over his changing appearance, he returned to public view looking decades younger.
The reaction was immediate.
Fans who had long since given up on him suddenly found themselves falling all over again.
A single smile was enough.
The combination of low cost and incredible effectiveness proved unstoppable.
Less than six months after launch, Umbrella's weight-loss medication had conquered the global market.
Gyms began closing.
The fitness industry suffered massive losses.
Manufacturers of exercise equipment watched demand collapse.
Entire sectors of the economy felt the impact.
A pharmaceutical hurricane had swept across the world.
And it showed no signs of slowing.
At the top of Umbrella Corporation's five-hundred-meter headquarters in Raccoon City, Drex Valen stood with his hands spread wide.
Below him stretched the completed city.
His city.
A monument to wealth, technology, and ambition.
The skyline glittered beneath the sun.
Drex looked out over it all and smiled.
"At this point..."
He chuckled.
"If I say I'm richer than Batman and more powerful than Superman..."
"Nobody's going to argue, right?"
...
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