Wilbur Whateley/History

## College

At some point in his life, Wilbur attended college and study Counterside archaeology. However, he came to think his professor was a mere money-grubber with no real interest in the subject.

## Dive with Horizon Finance

To fund his own research projects, Wilbur took out a loan from Horizon Finance but for unclear reasons went off the grid for months and ended up in the Matchmaker's hideout. He was almost killed by the Matchmaker's men but was tracked down and rescued by Horizon Finance's employees, Rita Arsenico and Dash. When Horizon and Rita demanded he pay his debt (which by then had skyrocketed to 5 million credits due to accumulating interest), Wilbur desperately begged them to give him a few more days as he scheduled an expedition to the Counterside to find ruins and offered to give them whatever Eternium he collects as payment. Horizon found his offer pathetic, but Rita accepted it under the condition that she come along on the expedition.

The next day, after a turbulent dive, Wilbur and his crew arrived at the ruins Wilbur was searching for. While gathering the eternium inside the ruined building, one mercenary stumbled upon an instant camera that seemed to be broken. Wilbur hastily demanded that he hand it over to him, claiming it could be an artifact, and scolds him for dismissing it as junk. Wilbur then decided to test the camera on a curious Dash by taking a snapshot of her. A photograph was developed, and a Shadow greatly resembling Dash spawned out of it and almost immediately attacked the two. Dash held it off and Rita joined in the fight, but their attacks were fruitless. The Shadow seemed invincible until Horizon analyzed that it was actually an illusion projected through a medium, in this case the photograph it came from. Dash located and destroyed the photo, causing the Shadow to finally disappear. After seeing a wound on Dash's arm, Rita near-strangled Wilbur and declared she was taking whatever the crew collects, including eternium and artifacts (though this was only a partial threat to get Wilbur over himself).

Later on as the mercenaries were loading up all the spoils onto the ship, Wilbur, feeling spiteful, tried to persuade the captain to abandon the loan sharks, but the captain refused since it was because of their efforts that the crew was able to make it this far. Soon after, Corrupted Objects began attacking the crew, prompting them to send out a mayday signal. Although they were able to suppress the initial threat, the crew suddenly encountered even more C.O.s—including three Category 3 C.O.s that ended up destroying the rescue fleet sent in by Daymine Mining and killing many of the crew members; it is implied that Wilbur had made these C.O.s appear through the use of the camera.

Wilbur's crew managed to take off when Dash, carrying a heavily injured Rita, latched onto the ship's loading ramp. Wilbur took a gun and threatened to shoot the two of them off the ship unless they beg for their lives like they made him beg for a second chance. Dash naively complied only for Wilbur to cruelly fire them off anyway.

## Jehuty Biotech

### Becoming CEO

The expedition crew returned safely to the Normalside, and Wilbur was surprised to his former professor waiting for him at the landing zone. Wilbur mocked him and boasted about all the artifacts and eternium he got from the dive, but Professor James showed no interest and was in fact displeased by his former pupil's egotism and materialistic attitude. He then has armed soldiers from ESPR abduct him and kill the rest of the crew.

Wilbur was offered as a sacrifice for Anna MacCready, then-president of ESPR, but James decided he was unworthy of sacrifice. Instead, ESPR made Wilbur the CEO of Jehuty Biotech and gave him the false name "Dean Connor."

### Dealing with Horizon

One day at work, Wilbur received a call from Shena, a Shadow who serves as Jehuty Biotech's head of security, who informed him that Horizon has been making contact with Coffin Company. Angered that Horizon was still alive and now apparently working with the TASKFORCE company that shut down his lab, Wilbur ordered Shena to send a strike squad to Horizon's location and bring the loan shark to him alive so he can take personal revenge on her. At Horizon Finance's building, the strike squad encounters Rachel Dodds and decided to interrogate and torture her. Horizon then came back to her office and effortlessly took down the squad before taking Rachel to the hospital.

Shena reported back to Wilbur that she and the Strike Squad failed their mission to capture Horizon. She also noted that all the squad members died in the process, but Wilbur deduced immediately that Shena herself had murdered them after they were incapacitated because of her distaste for human life. Wilbur was frustrated by the news but decided to make the best out of the situation by framing Horizon as a mass murderer and a terrorist responsible for the massacre.

Horizon eventually found and confronted Wilbur and said he owes her 700 million credits, but Wilbur escaped with his girlfriend using a specialized mask that disguised his whole body and biometrics. They take refuge in a underground bunker at the Jehuty Biotech Defensive Measures Zone, managed and run by former members of the Replacer Syndicate, and waited for the Shena to come get them. Despite the bunker's impressive defenses, Horizon breached through them at great speed even while fighting off guards and genetically-modified C.O.s (including an Abomination). Shena finally arrived with the Chorus, and Wilbur made his way to the landing dock but not before having all the researchers executed for their failure to stop Horizon. Once Horizon makes it the control room, she snags a storage device containing data about the Mental Printing technology from a mass-market automaton. She jumps onto the Chorus while it is mid-air and attempts to disable it, but Shena repeled her off the ship and drops her into the ocean.

Upon reaching land, Horizon started rampaging through multiple Jehuty Biotech facilities, causing mass destruction and causalities but, again, no deaths. Jehuty stock prices fell dramatically as result, and Wilbur blamed Shena because she didn't finish Horizon off when she had the chance. Desperate to keep his position, Wilbur decided he'll capture the loan shark and offer her as a tribute to the Society, unaware that the Society, under Regina MacCready's decision, had already dropped its sponsorship of the company for its illegal clinical experiments.

As Horizon closed in on his location again, Wilbur gets even more exasperated while Shena mocks him for underestimating the loan shark. Wilbur ignored her and told his engineers to amplify the camera power output. Later, he and his girlfriend fled to the rooftop while Shena went down to deal with Horizon once and for all. Horizon defeated Shena and proceeded to the rooftop, disabled the helicopter meant to escort Wilbur to safety, and demanded the CEO to finally pay up once more. Wilbur, now unhinged and out of options, used his camera to summon multiple Britras from above, not caring if they end up destroying the city and kill all the people below. Horizon then activated the Simurgh Silhouette of her combat frame and eliminated all the Britras in two seconds.

With no more threats in her way, Horizon approached a dumbfounded and frightened Wilbur and kicked him off the roof. Wilbur latched onto the edge of the building and begged Horizon to spare him. Horizon gave him a chance by making him confess his crimes and faults only to then replay the same exact words he last said to Dash before shooting him to his death.