Initial Venom

Chapter 42: Initial Venom

My luck has exploded!

The moment the purple card was drawn, Kyle's mind went blank, dizzy from the overwhelming joy.

This happiness came too suddenly, completely unexpected, with no mental preparation!

After a moment of daze, Kyle's mental avatar quickly grabbed the purple card and checked its information.

[Giant Ancient Dragon Turtle]: A colossal marine monster from ancient times, resembling a snapping turtle in appearance. A purple Creature Card.

Its natural lifespan reaches tens of thousands of years, with astonishing defensive capabilities, easily withstanding the bombardment of heavy weaponry. Its temperament is docile, with low combat ability, and its movement speed on land is extremely slow. Its speed on water is comparable to a fast speedboat sailing with the wind.

Its most notable feature is its immense size, exceeding two kilometers in both width and length, with few creatures in the galaxy being larger.

Due to its colossal size, the Ancient Dragon Turtle only eats once every hundred years, maintaining its vitality through continuous hibernation. It subsists on marine microorganisms, sometimes sleeping for months on end. This causes its shell to become a reef base over time, forming vast tropical forest islands.

Current Status: Can only be summoned in regions with abundant water resources.

"This isn't a creature card, it's practically a mobile fortress island," Kyle marveled. Purple cards truly surpassed blue-quality cards.

The only drawback was that it was a creature card. If it were a purple ability card, he couldn't imagine how much it would boost his strength.

Although he could continue drawing cards in the future, the energy factory bases in Germany were basically lost and annihilated, meaning fewer spoils of war would reach blue quality.

"Perhaps this will be the only purple card in my card space for a very long time," Kyle sighed with a mix of gain and loss, placing the [Giant Ancient Dragon Turtle] at the very top of the creature card area.

His gaze naturally fell upon another new blue rare quality card. The moment he saw the name, he froze.

[Initial Venom Symbiote]: A sentient alien organic life symbiote, generally appearing in liquid form.

Venom needs to bond with a host to survive, usually manifesting as clothing that envelops the host's body, enhancing the host's strength and abilities. It is extremely afraid of ultrasound and high temperatures.

Its learning ability is exceptional, constantly learning the host's language, personality, abilities, and more, growing rapidly with the host's advancement.

Current Status: Rapid learning, can shapeshift into observed clothing, resistant to ordinary bullets, powerful adaptability, liquid repair.

Number of previous hosts: 0 (The higher the number, the stronger Venom will become)

Kyle withdrew his consciousness from the card space.

Leaning back against his headboard, Kyle took the [Initial Venom Symbiote] out of the card space, holding it in his hand and staring blankly, unsure of how to proceed.

"It's Venom?"

Kyle murmured to himself. He knew about this thing. In the Spider-Man standalone movies outside the Marvel universe, Spider-Man's body had been taken over by a symbiote like Venom, influencing his mind and turning him into the Black Spider-Man.

It was hard to say whether Venom was harmful to its host. The nature of a symbiote placed it between good and evil, right and wrong. Especially the initial Venom, like a dry sponge, it would absorb similar thoughts and abilities from the hosts it bonded with.

If the host is righteous, Venom becomes righteous; if the host is evil, Venom becomes evil.

If the host is strong, the host gains the upper hand; if Venom is strong, Venom gains the upper hand.

This was the nature of a symbiote – not a slave, nor a master, but a liquid life form that had signed an equal co-existence treaty with its host.

Because of this, Kyle felt a sense of unease. Unlike Blue Eagle and the Ancient Dragon Turtle, Venom's potential was too high. Once it grew stronger, it could potentially influence his mind and thoughts.

"However, there's no reason for me to fear this mere card creature," Kyle clenched the card, his eyes filled with firm confidence.

Not only was he a potential host for Venom, but he was also Venom's cardholder!

Under the Card Draw System, all creatures from creature cards must obey the cardholder's commands. Even if a creature from a creature card unexpectedly refused to obey the cardholder's orders, the cardholder had a final resort – Forced Draw!

Any creature summoned from a creature card could be forcibly drawn back into a card by Kyle within a certain range, essentially re-carding it.

"You are merely a product of my Sacrifice Draw, so you will forever remain beneath me, with no chance to become the master," Kyle decided, no longer hesitating, and directly summoned the card in his hand into a physical being.

The next moment, a ball of elastic black liquid appeared in his palm.

Gurgle—

The Initial Venom, like a newborn creature, treated Kyle as its mother, covering his hands with its cool, black liquid and wriggling around to express its joy.

It used a part of its liquid to form black tendrils, affectionately touching Kyle's chest, abdomen, and face. More tendrils extended beyond the bed, touching the military boots, the bedsheets, the chair, the mirror, and the combat suit on the hanger.

Venom was like a baby, curious about everything in this world.

"From now on, your name is 'Venom', understand?" Kyle said tentatively. The liquid creature in his hand immediately secreted more liquid, happily extending and covering his arm.

Kyle didn't want to be completely covered by a black blob. He pointed to the combat suit on the hanger and gave an order, "Try shapeshifting into that."

Gurgle—

Venom seemed to understand Kyle's words. A black tendril extended and wrapped around the combat suit. After a few seconds of pause, its main body quickly covered Kyle from the neck down.

Under Kyle's gaze, Venom then shapeshifted into the black combat uniform set up by Howard at a speed visible to the naked eye, with no discernible difference from the outside.

"This feeling..." Kyle suddenly got out of bed, stretched his arms, and tried moving. The combat uniform transformed by Venom was not only more form-fitting and comfortable but also gave him a surge of exhilarating power.

His strength had increased by nearly a fifth.

Kyle mused inwardly, clenching his fist, now covered by Venom's glove. He could genuinely feel a significant increase in his strength.

This was just the initial stage of Venom. After accompanying him on battlefields and growing by adapting to his host's body, Venom would become even more powerful.

"From now on, when we're outside, you need to maintain the combat uniform's form. Don't reveal your liquid state in front of others, understand?" Kyle cautioned, pulling at the cross emblem on his chest. The Venom combat uniform, like highly fibrous material, playfully bounced back.

The original combat uniform was also of good quality, but he had to wash off bloodstains every time he returned. Furthermore, Kyle habitually used his right Vibranium Bracer to block energy lasers, often resulting in the right sleeve of his combat uniform needing repairs by Howard after battles.

In a way, Venom, with its self-learning, self-repair, and ability-enhancing capabilities, was the best combat uniform in the world.