Chapter 268: The Shadow Symbiote General
"Venom? Venom?" Eddie kept calling out the name, over and over.
After a long time, just as Eddie was about to give up hope...
"You're too loud, Eddie. I need to sleep." Venom let out a massive yawn and poked his head out from Eddie's shoulder.
"Hahaha! I knew you wouldn't die!" In a burst of relief and excitement, Eddie actually planted a kiss on Venom's head.
Venom wiped the saliva away with a look of pure disgust. "What did you wake me up for?"
"To replenish your strength." Eddie gestured to the Crab Ninjas, who dragged the unconscious soldier over to them.
Venom's eyes lit up instantly. He licked his jagged teeth. "I'm starting to like you, Eddie."
Without another word, Venom surged out behind Eddie and swallowed the soldier whole in a single gulp, followed by a satisfied burp.
"That definitely speeds up my recovery." Venom realized that the mask on Eddie's face was affecting him too. It sent a strange surge of information into his consciousness—it seemed he was no longer afraid of fire or high-frequency noise.
"Eddie, find something that makes a loud noise. I want to test something," Venom said, wanting to confirm his theory.
"Are you crazy? You were just tortured nearly to death by sound, and now you want to try it again?" Eddie couldn't fathom what was going through the alien's mind.
"I want to verify something about this Shadow Mask." Venom could feel himself growing significantly more powerful, which meant Eddie was becoming stronger as well.
Eddie couldn't win the argument, so he commanded a Crab Ninja to bring over a megaphone.
"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Eddie asked one last time.
Venom nodded firmly. "Just do it."
Eddie braced himself to turn it off at a moment's notice.
BONG—!
A wave of sound blasted forward, passing right through Eddie's body.
"This feels amazing!" Venom shouted with excitement. He truly wasn't afraid of the noise anymore.
"Nothing happened? That's incredible!" Eddie was genuinely happy for him. At first, he had viewed Venom as nothing more than a man-eating parasite forcibly occupying his body. But after the house collapsed, Eddie realized Venom wasn't a cold-blooded monster; he had feelings.
"Hey, Venom, can you tell me who your previous host was?" Eddie asked curiously.
Venom tilted his head. "Why do you want to know?"
"We should go find him and give him a little 'lesson,'" Eddie suggested.
Venom's face twitched. He shook his head so hard it looked like a bobblehead. There was no way he was doing that—it would be a suicide mission. He really wanted to tell Eddie: Do you realize the mask on your face was given to you by that guy's brother?
"What's wrong? Don't you hate him?" Eddie thought Venom would jump at the chance for revenge.
"Let the past stay in the past, Eddie. Right now, you owe me ten cases of chocolate." Venom wasn't about to forget the promise.
"You're right. Let the past stay in the past," Eddie agreed, nodding.
"EDDIE!" Venom yelled.
"Look, Venom, you can eat people, but they have to be bad people." This was Eddie's one condition. He wasn't exactly a saint, but he wasn't a villain either.
"I don't know who's bad and who's good," Venom grumbled. To him, the simplest solution was to grab whoever was closest when he was hungry.
"No, no. If you don't listen, no chocolate." Eddie used the chocolate as leverage.
"Aaaargh... fine." Venom reluctantly conceded.
Eddie walked into a small convenience store to buy Venom's favorite treat.
"Hi, Mrs. Chen." As he entered, he greeted the old woman behind the counter. They were clearly old acquaintances.
Mrs. Chen looked up and gasped. "Eddie! What are you doing here? Run, child! I won't tell the police." She had seen the news about Eddie being a fugitive, but she knew his character; she didn't believe he was a "cannibal" for a second.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Chen. I'm just here to buy something, then I'm gone." Eddie smiled and walked to the snack aisle.
"You lied to me. You said ten cases," Venom muttered, feeling cheated by the small basket Eddie was carrying.
"Relax, Venom. When I have more money, I'll buy you a hundred cases. Right now, we're on a budget." Eddie picked up a box of chocolates. "Like these?"
"They look good. I want those potato balls next to them too." Venom could smell the sweetness and was already drooling.
"Whoa—don't get your spit inside my body." As Eddie headed to the counter to pay, he heard a commotion.
"Hand over the money, Chen! Time's up!" A fierce-looking man pointed a gun at Mrs. Chen, demanding protection money.
"We're just a small business..." Mrs. Chen pleaded, trembling.
"Shut up!" The man clearly wasn't interested in excuses; his finger tightened on the trigger.
Terrified, Mrs. Chen turned to the register to hand over the cash.
"He's a bad guy, right?" Venom asked.
Eddie nodded. "Yeah. Definitely."
"Then let's have a midnight snack." Venom surged over Eddie. He reached out with his right hand, crushed the man's gun hand, and tossed the weapon to the floor.
"What are you?!" the man shrieked, staring at the monster in terror.
Venom leaned in close. "Do you know what? I'm hungry. And it's snack time."
"No—no—no!" The man's legs gave out.
Venom didn't care about his consent any more than the man cared about Mrs. Chen's. He swallowed the thug whole.
Having finished his meal, Venom retreated back into Eddie. Eddie turned, placed the snacks on the counter, and asked, "How much do I owe you, Mrs. Chen?"
"Eddie... was that...?" Mrs. Chen was starting to believe the news reports. Eddie was a cannibal—he just happened to eat the bad guys.
"Uh... it was an accident. I have a very large parasite. How much?" Eddie tried to make his smile look as non-threatening as possible.
"No charge, Eddie. Just go." Mrs. Chen wasn't about to take money from the man who just saved her life.
"Thanks." Eddie didn't argue; he was broke anyway.
"Wait! Eddie! What did you just call me?" Venom demanded, sounding offended.
"A parasite. It's a term of endearment." Eddie chuckled.
"No! I hate it. Apologize."
"I won't."
"APOLOGIZE!"
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry."
"The experiment was a complete success. No complications." Silas sat in his chair, listening to Little Black's report.
The fusion of the Shadow Mask and the Symbiote had been seamless. Venom was now the first-ever Shadow Symbiote General.
"Very good. Crab Ninjas, continue to keep an eye on your General," Silas said, eyes closed, to the shadows in the room.
The Crab Ninjas bowed silently. They were the failsafe—a secret monitoring force that even the General himself didn't know existed.
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