It was already late at night.
Arthur had been waiting for something, anything, to happen. But so far… nothing has.
Casually avoiding all surveillance systems within the Life Foundation, he reached into his Disassemble Space and pulled out a hot dog, munching as he clicked his tongue.
"Yeah… still not as satisfying as Lily's roujiamo," he muttered.
One hot dog is gone. Unsurprisingly, it did nothing to fill Arthur's bottomless pit of a stomach.
In fact, he'd recently noticed that he was eating more and more.
Luckily, he was rich; otherwise, he genuinely worried that his future might involve bankruptcy due to food expenses.
"Side effect of getting stronger, maybe?" Arthur guessed.
But for some reason, his thoughts drifted back to that time in the Domain of the Unknown, when that bizarre, uncontrollable hunger had surged up from within him…
Like some kind of grotesque nightmare.
"Am I… really going to end up like that?" he muttered. "Looking at everything like I wanna take a bite?"
Hot dog after hot dog disappeared. It took over twenty before he finally felt the edge of satisfaction.
He didn't keep going, not because he was full, but because something had suddenly caught his eye.
Seeing someone at the Life Foundation wasn't strange in itself. But this person, something was off.
It was a little girl.
Arthur glanced at the time. No doubt about it, half past midnight.
A blonde, blue-eyed girl, looking sweet and delicate like a porcelain doll… And yet she was sneaking into the Life Foundation in the middle of the night?
From the way she scaled the walls, quick, graceful, effortless, it was clear: she was no ordinary child.
"So… she's the new Symbiote host?" Arthur's eyes narrowed. This was criminal.
Such a cute little girl… corrupted by a Symbiote?
He sighed softly. In that moment, Arthur vanished. Then, just as suddenly, he reappeared directly behind the girl. As if sensing something, the girl whipped around instantly, and in that same second,
A surge of pitch-black Symbiote matter erupted like a thousand sharp blades, stabbing toward Arthur from every direction!
"Oh?" Arthur murmured calmly.
Steel body, iron bones, activated.
A sharp clang echoed through the night. The assault bounced off harmlessly. Seeing this, the girl immediately realized things were not going well. She dropped to all fours and sprinted away like a wild animal, her movements beastlike, swift and powerful.
In the blink of an eye, she had already leaped over the compound wall and vanished into the night.
"Giving up?" Arthur blinked.
Then, whoosh, his body soared into the air, black wings unfolding behind him, even darker than the night itself.
As he glided through the sky, he quickly spotted the girl sprinting wildly through the terrain below.
With a sudden dive toward her, the Symbiote immediately sensed danger. She turned her head and spotted Arthur descending upon her, and her face changed instantly.
A writhing mass of black tendrils lashed out like a hundred arms, grabbing onto a massive boulder on the hillside and flinging it straight at Arthur like a missile.
The massive boulder howled through the air.
Arthur caught it with one hand. His five fingers, filled with incredible strength, pierced straight through the rock, gripping it tightly. He was about to hurl it back,
, but paused for a second and instead stored it in his Disassemble Space.
A rock this huge, if dropped, could easily kill someone. Even though it was the dead of night and probably wouldn't hit anyone, smashing flowers, plants, or buildings was still highly irresponsible.
"A true superhero… must be self-disciplined."
Arthur nodded solemnly. Just look at Spider-Man, he'd always treated "with great power comes great responsibility" as his personal code, so much so that he'd nearly forgotten about avenging Uncle Ben.
While he'd been thinking this, that little girl had already reached the edge of the highway.
Arthur looked up just in time to see a car zooming past. The girl moved like a mountain leopard, smashed through the car's window, and slid into the driver's seat.
The car violently shook, but quickly regained balance and began speeding down the road even faster than before!
"Are you mocking me just because I don't have wheels?" Arthur's brows furrowed.
With a gust of wind, his wings spread wide, golden energy rippling around him like a curtain of shadow darker than night itself.
Within moments, he'd already caught up to the speeding vehicle.
He flew to the side window and gave it a knock.
The driver, a man in his thirties, looked pale as a corpse. Even if he wasn't possessed by a Symbiote, he probably didn't have long to live.
He heard the knock, glanced over, and his eyes narrowed the moment he saw Arthur.
"Open up. Let's talk this through. Otherwise… you've already killed quite a few people tonight. If I torch you right here on the spot, you wouldn't even have the right to cry foul."
Whether Arthur's words worked or not was unclear, but the car window rolled down.
Arthur was about to step inside, but the man suddenly reached across and hurled something out the window.
Arthur instinctively prepared to dodge, but his eyes caught a glimpse, and his face instantly darkened.
It wasn't just anything, it was the little blonde girl who had previously been possessed by the Symbiote.
Blue-eyed, Barbie-doll pretty, and now… used as a weapon.
Arthur reached out and caught her midair.
In an instant, he checked her breath and pulse, both extremely faint. The Symbiote's method of survival was either devour others… or devour its host.
This girl's life was hanging by a thread. With a grim expression, Arthur placed her safely inside his Disassemble Space.
He turned back, just in time to see the car speeding off.
Arthur reached into the Disassemble Space and pulled out a Barrett sniper rifle.
"If talking won't work, then don't blame me for being rough."
These Symbiotes were all like antisocial maniacs, completely unwilling to communicate.
And when confronted? Their first instinct wasn't to fight, it was to run.
"What kind of garbage logic is that?" Arthur steadied the rifle, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four rapid shots, so fast they blurred into one. Arthur's marksmanship was top-tier, not through years of training, but by absorbing skill books. A completely different league.
All four shots hit dead-on.
The speeding car suddenly lost all four tires, its undercarriage dragging across the asphalt, spewing sparks like comets.
It skidded uncontrollably, then spun in midair in a full 360-degree barrel roll, finally crashing to the ground with a thunderous boom!
Arthur calmly descended. Eyes narrowed, he stared at the wreck.
Then, BOOM!
The entire car was cleaved clean in two by a jet-black, blade-like appendage.
A whip of black tendrils lashed out, flinging one flaming half of the car straight at Arthur!
(End of Chapter)
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