He's Already Here!

Seeing this, Anton put down his phone with satisfaction and felt a surge of happiness.

But when it came to money, Bruce Wayne of Gotham City was truly rich. Anton was far behind him.

A man who defined his superpower as "being rich"—how terrifying!

In the Marvel world, only Tony Stark and Wakanda's future king could barely qualify for such an enviable superpower.

One was rich enough to rival a nation; the other was even more ruthless—he was literally a king.

"That's a thigh we need to cling to tightly!"

Venom let out an astonishing sigh in Eddie's head.

"Did you really need to tell me that?"

Eddie retorted reflexively.

After saying that, he saw the other three staring at him and wished he could crawl into a crack in the floor. He gave them an awkward smile.

"Let's continue the discussion, continue the discussion! Where were we? Oh, right, symbiotes' weaknesses are sound and fire..."

Eddie hurriedly picked up the previous topic, afraid the three of them would press him about what he had just said.

Meanwhile.

A little girl walked out of San Francisco Airport.

She shook free of her mother's hand and vanished into the crowd in a flash.

Ten minutes later.

While her mother was still anxiously searching the airport for any trace of her daughter, the girl mysteriously appeared at the Golden Gate Bridge.

The trip from the airport to the Golden Gate Bridge took around half an hour by car, yet the little girl had arrived in just ten minutes. It was nothing short of miraculous.

Some passersby noticed the pale, blank-faced little girl and grew curious.

But no matter how they called out to her, she ignored them and continued toward the Life Foundation's experimental base not far from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Only the little girl knew that the person she was looking for was here, along with her own companion.

To the creature inside her, this world was beautiful—so beautiful that it made one want to destroy it.

"Stop right there, little one. Where did you run off from?"

A security guard at the entrance spotted the little girl and walked over with a frown, his tone impatient. "Your mother isn't here. If you're lost, I can help you call 911."

"Hm?"

The little girl stopped and looked at the tall man in front of her, who was holding a firearm.

"What kind of look is that?"

A chill ran through the man's heart. Something felt wrong.

Boom!

The little girl suddenly transformed into a monster.

Though it was only the size of an adult and seemed much weaker, those familiar sharp teeth and gaping maw immediately made him think of someone.

"No way, again..."

The next moment, a blade that had formed from the little girl's arm pierced through his chest, and he was violently flung away.

The man never imagined that, although he had been lucky enough to avoid Eddie's attack not long ago, he would not escape today.

The wheel of karma turned; who could escape Heaven's judgment?

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The Life Foundation experimental base's alarms sounded once more.

Everyone froze in alarm, terrified that another incident like Eddie's had happened.

That terrifying monster had frightened everyone to the core.

Many researchers had felt their hearts race and their scalps tingle even after merely watching the surveillance footage.

That thing had eaten a person alive!

Rumble!!

The security personnel quickly assembled and rushed toward the alarm's location.

When they arrived and saw a creature roughly the size of an adult, one that looked almost exactly like the monster Eddie had transformed into before, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness. This one didn't look as fierce!

They clearly did not know that it only looked that way because it had bonded with a little girl.

In terms of combat strength, Riot was probably stronger than Venom.

On the other side, Anton and the others' discussion did not last long.

There was only one plan.

Once Riot appeared, they would use its contact with Carlton Drake as an opportunity to take out both bastards at once.

Quick and efficient.

It was not that they could not make a move against Drake ahead of time.

The problem was that if Riot refused to show itself, it would remain a hidden danger forever.

The best course was to wait until the two of them exposed themselves together.

That way, they could kill two birds with one stone and eliminate the threat for good.

"By the way, Anton, when will our helper arrive?"

Eddie was curious.

He could not help asking.

"Things haven't been peaceful in New York lately. I saw on the news that the Life Foundation sent people after the Daily Bugle. How is it going? Is everything okay?"

After a pause, Eddie added, "I know what kind of place the Continental Hotel is. Don't forget, I worked for the Daily Globe in New York for a long time. Our helper is probably Batman, right? The one who appeared out of nowhere and took down every assassin in the Continental Hotel in less than one night?"

Anne and Lewis exchanged glances.

Neither of them was very familiar with New York or the Continental Hotel, so they could not quite grasp Eddie's point.

But they immediately understood the topic of "Batman."

That was because Batman was currently a viral online buzzword.

The photos of Batman appearing in Manhattan, New York the night before last had already become popular animated images online. Some people had even turned them into memes.

[Want to learn how to ride a motorcycle? I'll teach you!]

After two days of spreading online, Batman's coolest pictures had gained countless fans.

Americans loved cool guys.

If Batman was not cool enough, then there was no cool person left in the world!

As for Tony Stark, that was not cool. That was swagger.

On top of that, with all the wild gossip spreading online and Anton's Batman Begins, a film far above the passing mark, many people had begun to treat Bruce Wayne as a real person.

They even suspected that Anton was Batman, while Bruce Wayne was merely a fictional identity he had created to hide himself.

There were many reasons for this.

It was undeniable that Anton had been the first to introduce the concept of Batman.

Second, Tony Stark and Anton were "friends"—though that word definitely needed quotation marks.

Either way, wasn't Wayne Enterprises, the movie's nation-rich corporation, and Bruce Wayne, its nation-rich owner, simply a reworked version of the real-life Stark Industries and Tony Stark?

With Tony Stark's genius brain and Stark Industries' technological support, building Batman's equipment would not have been difficult, right?

The biggest impossibility was that, in everyone's minds, the real Tony Stark could never possibly become Batman.

Batman and Tony Stark had nothing in common. They were not merely people from different worlds; they were practically creatures of entirely different concepts.

So if it came down to one of the two, Anton had to be Batman.

In fact, Anton had seen the post too. He had really wanted to leave a comment beneath it—You couldn't be more wrong.

All right, back to the point.

There was another irrefutable part of the netizens' speculation.

Batman had stepped in and dealt with the assassins the Life Foundation had sent after the Daily Bugle.

Wasn't that solid proof?

As for those who stubbornly refused to admit that Anton was Batman, they had their own arguments and spoke with equal conviction.

Anton's entire life story had been dug up in exhaustive detail.

Countless people summarized it and reached a final conclusion: he was a lucky rich kid born into wealth, a spendthrift with nothing impressive on his résumé while growing up—picking up girls did not count, and anyone could throw money around.

Yet this very same spendthrift had suddenly dropped out of school and made an outstanding film, creating the superhero genre and even defining what such films should be.

These people generally believed that Batman was someone Anton knew.

Anton's success had to be the result of that "Bruce Wayne" guiding him from behind the scenes. Otherwise, how could a spendthrift suddenly become a genius director?

As long as someone was backing you, even a pig could find the right gust of wind and take flight!

Both sides hurled insults and clashed head-on, neither willing to give an inch. The argument was extraordinarily fierce.

Because of Eddie, Anne and Lewis also followed the Daily Bugle, so they were naturally familiar with Anton, the man behind it.

They were very invested in this subject.

Now, as they looked at Anton, they were just as eager as Eddie.

Seeing this, Anton chuckled, his tone calm.

"Batman?"

"In fact, he's already here!" After a pause, Anton smiled mysteriously. "Whenever you need him, he'll appear before you at any time."