"What the... It's… over just like that?"
On a nearby hill, Gwen stared blankly at the raging Hellfire below, a sense of unreality washing over her.
"Heh~ What else did you expect? Before they form an army, Symbiotes aren't as hard to deal with as you think."
Luke's gaze shifted, then turned toward a patch of forest on the right.
There was no red marker there, only a faint yellow one.
Gwen thought of the Symbiote army that had destroyed her world and felt something was off.
"But didn't you say Symbiotes have a hive consciousness? Since they've already destroyed our universe, shouldn't they have evolved to possess abilities like Hulk's or Thor's?"
"I did say that. But the problem is that Symbiotes from different universes don't share the same consciousness."
"They use Knull, the God of Symbiotes, as a central network, forming separate systems based on individual universes."
"Of course, there is also a Symbiote Multiversal Network, similar to Spider-Man's Web of Life and Destiny. But clearly, these Symbiotes haven't reached that level yet."
The Symbiote Universe flashed through Luke's mind.
In theory, Symbiotes are high-dimensional lifeforms, with all their memories and genetic data stored in a higher-dimensional structure.
But based on the current situation, these Symbiotes had not achieved that stage.
They were still invading other worlds in a relatively primitive way.
Of course, it was also possible that only Venom could do it.
After all, Venom was a special case among Symbiotes.
The protagonist.
And protagonists always received special treatment.
"Um…"
Peter Parker, who had been mostly silent, weakly raised his hand. "Can I say something?"
"Hmm?"
Under their scrutinizing gazes, Peter scratched the back of his head nervously and gave an awkward laugh. "I think we should check if there are any Symbiotes still scattered outside this base."
"If there are any stragglers, it probably won't take long before they create another powerful Symbiote army!"
Peter had just fought three mercenaries whose Symbiotes hadn't fully matured.
They could only partially transform, yet they still gave him a lot of trouble.
After realizing how terrifying the Symbiotes' reproductive ability was, Peter couldn't help worrying about the future.
"Someone will tell us, right? Venom."
Luke already had a plan. He raised his right hand toward a certain direction and made a grasping motion, using telekinesis to pull a black frog over from three thousand meters away.
"Croak—"
The frog puffed up its cheeks and croaked, putting on an innocent expression.
"It's a Symbiote too? There really was a straggler?!"
Peter was shocked and quickly grabbed a steel pipe.
Gwen also raised her hand, ready to shoot a web.
"Venom, if you don't speak, I'll send you to join Carnage."
A ball of terrifying Hellfire appeared in Luke's palm, and the black frog croaked urgently again.
"Hey, wait! I'm not your enemy. I'm a victim too!"
"You're not even human!" Gwen said sternly.
"Right, right! I'm a victim Symbiote!"
Venom dropped the act and hurriedly explained, "I'm the Symbiote Venom. Among Symbiotes, I'm considered the weakest—the kind that gets bullied by the others."
"Although I came to Earth with Carnage, the first thing he did after bonding with Drake was imprison me and force me to produce offspring."
"The adult Symbiotes you killed earlier—Extreme, Lava, Scream, and Devour—were, in a sense, all my children."
"And there are many more immature Symbiotes, all individual offspring split from me."
"I swear I've never harmed anyone. Ever since arriving on Earth, I've been exploited by that bastard. I wish I could tear him apart!"
Venom spoke with a face full of grievance.
This world was truly unfriendly to the weak.
Even among the same species, Carnage refused to separate from him and continuously exploited him.
He had originally been a tall, handsome Symbiote, but now he had been reduced to something no bigger than a fist.
He had even nearly been burned to death by Luke and the others, who had been drawn here because of those idiots.
This was outright bullying!
Earth was too dangerous. He wanted to go home.
Gwen's expression turned strange as she fell into thought.
"I know what you're wondering. Why are you the only one still alive when I destroyed everything here?"
In Luke's vision, the marker representing Venom was yellow.
Had he been overexploited by Carnage?
The mention of being imprisoned made the Venom frog flinch slightly, letting out an involuntary croak.
He had thought he was clever, breaking the test tube before the flames reached him and escaping by possessing a lab frog.
"Tell the truth. Besides you, are there any other Symbiotes on Earth?"
The Venom frog answered without hesitation. "No! The others were destroyed in the crash of the spacecraft. Only Carnage and I survived."
"Originally, Carnage planned to use Drake's influence in the Life Foundation to continuously cultivate new Symbiotes, and at the same time build a spaceship to bring more Symbiotes to Earth."
"Oh, and he was also cooperating with a faction called Vanguard Science, planning to invade Earth by parasitizing high-ranking humans!"
Venom revealed all of Carnage's plans in one breath.
Even his frog-like face showed a very human sense of resentment.
Seeing this, Gwen suddenly thought of something.
Could it be that the Symbiotes in her world had all been forcibly bred by Carnage using Venom?
No wonder she had never seen Venom. Could it be that he had been exhausted from constant breeding?
Gwen quickly shook her head, trying to push that terrifying thought away.
"What about Knull? And Annihilation? Can't you share information through the hive mind?"
Luke continued his questioning.
Venom croaked, "The King in Black is imprisoned on Klyntar. As for Annihilation… who is that? Is he powerful?"
Gwen and Luke exchanged a glance and fell into thought.
"This world doesn't have a God of Annihilation?"
"And the Symbiotes here don't follow Knull's commands?"
Luke pondered aloud, "There's another possibility. Something happened after Carnage and Venom arrived on Earth."
"But since Venom is the only one left, it'll be difficult to figure out what exactly happened during that period anytime soon."
Although Gwen felt some regret at not uncovering the truth, she was also relieved that this world might avoid repeating the same fate.
As long as this world was safe…
Safe?
When Gwen recalled the world map Luke had shown her, it felt less like a parallel universe and more like a world filled with horrors.
Humans almost seemed like the intruders.
At that point, did it even matter whether there was a Symbiote army or not?
"Now that everything is clear, how should we handle this?"
Gwen glanced at Venom. In her view, the safest option was to eliminate him.
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