REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!Chapter 72: The G-Virus, Known as the Little Blacklight
The System points drained away like water.
An instant later, Matthew felt a sudden overwhelming sensation that his body was expanding at a violent rate.
Not a sensation, as it turned out.
In the secure room, as the G-Virus completed its integration, Matthew's body began expanding at a rate visible to the naked eye. Within moments, a massive blood-flesh cocoon nearly four meters tall had formed where he had been standing.
Heat poured outward from the cocoon in waves, filling the entire secure room with a dense haze.
The cocoon pulsed in rhythm with each breath.
Its surface gradually dried and hardened as the heat dissipated.
Time passed. When the cocoon had dried completely, the thing inside it finally moved again.
Matthew tore through the hardened surface as though peeling open a cracked membrane, ripped a gap wide enough to step through, and walked out.
He had nothing on.
His musculature had become more compact and proportioned, as if a master sculptor had worked over marble with complete precision.
He felt the power moving through him, but didn't rush to test it. Instead he called up the System panel and read through it carefully.
[Name: Matthew Lawrence (T-Virus + V-Virus + G-Virus Host)]
[Abilities:
Regenerative Evolution LV2: Variant ability from T-Virus + V-Virus + G-Virus fusion.
In normal state, physical damage below sixty percent will have no effect on function.
Regenerated areas become significantly tougher and harder to damage. (Upper limit exists.)
Severed limb regeneration time improved by ten seconds. Contact with blood enables rapid restoration of vital organs including heart and brain.
Monstrous Strength LV3: Standard architecture crumbles before you like paper. Raw force is sufficient to punch through reinforced tank armor and tear the tank apart.
Top sprint speed: 110 meters per second.
Blood Mist Form LV1: Can dissolve into blood mist and move in that state, immune to low-grade physical damage during the process.
Endurance LV3: Capable of sustained high-intensity combat for 120 hours without food, water, or sleep.
Neural Reflexes LV3: Can track and easily dodge close-range supersonic projectiles.
Evolutionary Capacity LV1: Ability granted by the G-Virus. Enables staged positive evolution when the host is near death.
Flesh Control LV1: Variant ability from G-Virus + V-Virus fusion. Allows limited manipulation of own flesh for weaponization and armoring.]
Matthew went through the full list and nodded.
The G-Virus fusion had produced substantial increases across every stat.
Strength in particular had jumped directly from its previous level to LV3.
Even his earlier regenerative ability had upgraded into Regenerative Evolution, meaning every time he took damage and recovered, the repaired area would come back harder than before.
What pleased Matthew most was the G-Virus's Evolutionary Capacity.
With that ability in place, he held a key to his own future development, a path that could keep improving as he went.
Turning this over, he directed his attention to Flesh Control at the bottom of the panel.
After fusing the G-Virus, he could clearly sense that something new had been added to his body. The closest comparison was the feeling of unlocking a new skill after leveling up in a game. It was simply there, waiting for intent to activate it.
He decided he had to try it.
The thought had barely formed when the flesh along his arm began to shift.
In an instant, his right hand had become a massive battle blade composed entirely of flesh. The blade's surface was covered in dark red tissue, while the cutting edge had taken on a density close to metal, not unlike the blade form from Prototype.
He moved to the mirror outside the secure room and, with the enthusiasm of someone who had just discovered a new toy, began working through every shape he could think of.
Shield. Whip-blade. Warhammer. Chainsaw. Whatever he envisioned appeared to follow intent without any meaningful delay.
The ability wasn't unlimited, though. After enough testing, Matthew identified the constraints: transformed sections could not exceed twice their original volume, and he couldn't form them into ranged weapons. If a flesh-formed shape exceeded the volume limit, it snapped back to normal immediately. If he tried to launch flesh as a projectile, the separated mass converted to blood mist partway and lost all connection to him.
Neither limitation struck him as particularly significant. Time was not a problem. He could optimize those later.
He returned to the secure room.
He called up the System again.
This time, he navigated to the Customization Modification interface.
Unless his memory was wrong, he had one Mid-grade Free Modification use remaining. He might as well put it to use on himself.
He thought for a moment. Then: "I want my evolution, when it triggers, to be specifically targeted against the attacking enemy's method of attack."
The moment the words left him, the System screen flashed white. A set of modification options appeared.
[Targeted Evolution: When near death and triggering evolution, can perform one instance of targeted evolution against the enemy's attack type, reducing the effectiveness of further attacks of that kind.
Modification cost: 5,000 System points.]
[Dynamic Adaptive Evolution: The evolutionary state remains continuously active during combat, adapting in real time to the enemy's attacks and generating countermeasures.
Modification cost: 30,000 System points.]
[Immunity Evolution: Each near-death event grants full immunity to whatever caused it.
Modification cost: 150,000 System points.]
[...]
Matthew read through the options. Every single one of them was something he wanted. He would have taken all of them if he could.
But wanting was one thing. His current balance was another. For now, the cheapest option was all he was taking.
"I select Targeted Evolution. Consuming one Mid-grade Free Modification use."
[Mid-grade Free Modification count: -1.]
[Modifying.]
The text cleared.
A moment later, Matthew found that the Evolutionary Capacity entry on his panel had changed.
[Evolutionary Capacity: Targeted Evolution LV1: When near death, triggers staged positive evolution specifically targeted against the enemy's attack type, reducing the effectiveness of further attacks of the same kind.]
Elsewhere.
The Osborn estate.
The Green Goblin brought the glider down and tore off the Goblin mask, breathing hard.
He genuinely had not expected Spider-Man to be that strong.
Strong enough that he hadn't landed a single advantage.
Punching Spider-Man had felt like hitting a solid stone surface. And when Spider-Man hit back, the impact felt like being struck with a hammer, straight through the armor.
If not for the Goblin Glider's mobility, he would have been pinned and pounded into the ground before he'd gotten anywhere at all.
The Green Goblin stripped off his armor and stood in front of the mirror. On his chest, a cluster of black-and-purple bruise marks in the shape of fists.
And that was with the armor absorbing the impact.
Without the armor, he didn't want to think about what the result would have been.
"Spider-Man." The name came out of his mouth quietly. His eyes narrowed. Something dark moved behind them.
"I'll remember you."
Then he turned back to his own reflection and let out a burst of laughter that filled the empty room.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"Henry! You said I was kicked out?!"
"Look at me now! Am I out?" He stared at his reflection. "No! YOU'RE out! All of you are out!"
"And I am the biggest winner in this game!"
The laugh was sharp and discordant, bouncing through the empty villa long after his mouth closed.
When it finally fell away, a voice the Green Goblin had absolutely not expected to hear broke the silence from somewhere in the room.
"Green Goblin. You're not the biggest winner."
The voice was calm and unhurried.
"My boss is."
Before the words had finished, before the Green Goblin could locate the source of the voice, a slender needle shot into his neck.
***
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