A Piece of Information

"Sound cannons ready."

Tony raised both arms, aiming at the symbiote Spider-Man, whose limbs had been forcibly pulled apart by five thick ropes and pinned in midair in a spread-eagle shape. He glanced at Yuri beside him and asked with some unfamiliar concern, "Are you sure you'll be okay? The thing on you might be related to it."

"Don't worry."

Yuri patted Tony on the shoulder and said confidently, "They are related, but the one on me has been modified."

"Fine."

Tony gave the hand resting on his shoulder a fleeting glance, then activated the sound cannons against the massive target that did not need any aiming assistance.

"NO! NO! Stop!"

The instant the visible sound waves struck him, the black-and-white suit on symbiote Spider-Man rippled violently. Tiny mucus-like tendrils struggled as they were squeezed out, exposing the original red-and-blue suit underneath. A huge, vicious head emerged from Spider-Man's chest and stared fixedly at Yuri, demanding in disbelief, "Why are you fine?! Why aren't you afraid of these damn sound waves?!"

"Turn up the power."

Yuri turned to Tony. "Until it can't speak anymore."

Tony shrugged in irritation. Being ordered around while having no choice but to comply felt absolutely awful.

"No! Stop!"

"Please!"

The symbiote on Spider-Man grew smaller and smaller, its huge head now reduced to the size of a fist. At that moment, Peter finally regained control of his body. Enduring the indiscriminate assault of the sound waves, he looked at Tony and shouted with all the toughness he could muster, "Harder! It's not enough!"

"Shut up, all of you!"

Yuri was one thing—after all, Tony owed him too much. But what was this little Spider-Man who had broken into his home and nearly killed him doing, ordering him around? Tony frantically increased the sound cannon's power while moving closer to the black slime that had curled into a ball and was about to detach from Spider-Man, narrowing the attack range and increasing the damage.

Splat!

The fist-sized symbiote finally detached from its host. Its frail, slug-like body and wavering soul were fully exposed to the unending sonic assault. Yuri immediately released Spider-Man and used his own symbiote to create a container, rescuing it.

"Alright, alright. If you keep this up any longer, your penthouse mansion is going to be completely destroyed."

At that, Tony decisively shut off the sound cannons on his arms. He looked around at the rubble and broken walls as far as the eye could see, dust filling the air. He was not particularly heartbroken over it; what really gave him a headache was figuring out how to explain what had happened to Pepper once she flew into a rage.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Stark."

Seeing Tony sitting on the ground with his head in his hands, Spider-Man assumed he was worried about the cost of rebuilding the mansion. To show his sincerity and remorse, he hesitated before pulling off his mask, revealing a young face full of sorrow. "If you're willing, I can work to pay you back. It might just... take a very long time."

"So it's Dutch brother."

Yuri withdrew his symbiote, drew in the shattered glass scattered across the floor, and fused it into a hollow glass sphere the size of a fist. After stuffing the symbiote that had once parasitized Spider-Man inside and sealing it shut, he glanced at the street below, where police cars and fire engines had gathered in large numbers. He promptly said goodbye to Tony. "A lot of people are coming up. I'll be leaving first. Remember not to be too hard on him. In this terrorist attack against you, he was only a bystander."

As soon as he finished speaking, a faint dark-blue pulse of light flashed, and Yuri vanished instantly.

Tony sat on the ground thinking hard for a long time, but in the end, he still could not come up with a solution. With a sigh, he looked at the guilt-ridden Spider-Man, whose youthful face was filled with dread over an unknown punishment.

"This has nothing to do with you anymore."

Tony got to his feet and spread his hands. The Mark 4, missing its abdominal armor, split open down the middle. He stepped out, unconsciously rubbing his completely uninjured ribs and waist, which did not hurt in the slightest. Seeing that Spider-Man still wanted to say something, he cleanly cut him off with a wave. "Don't think about working to pay me back, kid. I'm not short on that amount of money—uh, money you probably couldn't earn in your entire life."

He spread his hands and smiled self-deprecatingly. "That might be my only superpower."

Spider-Man took a few helpless steps closer. "I'm smart. I mean, I'm smarter than normal people. I can tell you the formula for the special web fluid I developed. It can be worth a lot of money. I can also study, and once I learn more, I can work for you for free to pay back the money..."

Tony smiled and patiently listened to his incoherent introduction of his own value. Only when Spider-Man could no longer get another word out did he speak earnestly. "Those are things for later, Peter. What I think you need to do right now is go home and properly explain to Aunt May why the cash box stolen by the black Spider-Man showed up in your bedroom—assuming you didn't deposit the money in a bank."

"Holy shit!"

Spider-Man suddenly remembered that he had scattered all the money across Aunt May's bedroom, and his face instantly crumpled like a bitter melon.

Tony looked at him and asked with glee, "I guessed right?"

Spider-Man raised his head. "It's worse than that... Mr. Stark, I have to go home. I'm immensely sorry for the damage caused today. Please rest assured, I'll definitely find a chance to repay you!"

With that, he fired a gleaming white strand of webbing at the building opposite him. After a short run-up, he leaped into the air and swung out of Tony's sight, tugging on the web.

Ancestor's Handicraft Shop.

Yuri jumped down through the automatically splitting ceiling of the third floor, coming face-to-face with Silly Bird and Silly Cat, who had just emerged from the bathroom. The former let out a howl and threw herself into Yuri's arms, while the latter calmly picked up the bath towel Silly Bird had dropped. After shooting Yuri a flirtatious glance, she swayed her hips and slipped into bed.

"Boss, it's rare for you to come back so early. How about the three of us play together tonight?"

Silly Bird's eyes were hazy. She had clearly already started getting into character, but Yuri mercilessly tossed her onto the bed. After straightening his clothes, he said coldly, "I still have something to do. It might take a long time, or it might not. You two sleep first. Once I'm done, I'll wake you up myself."

After closing the bedroom door, he placed the glass sphere containing the symbiote that had once parasitized Spider-Man on a simple workbench. His eyes turned completely white as he activated his mental ability and forcibly entered the symbiote's body.

Control the body, read the memories, extract the information.

A dozen seconds later, Yuri withdrew his mental energy with an unreadable expression. The symbiote inside the glass sphere had been stripped of its soul and consciousness, lying quietly within like a puddle of melted asphalt.

"Knull, the God of Symbiotes, is in the Arctic too..."