Harry Awakens

Peter sat in a chair with a dejected expression, watching the unconscious Harry on the hospital bed. Li Nian and Mary Jane stood beside him, caring for him together.

"I'm sorry... I did something so awful..." Peter did not dare look Mary Jane in the eyes. He had been bewitched by those black creatures before, which had made him arrogant and unable to consider other people's feelings.

"Jane..."

"It's okay, Peter." Mary Jane gently took Peter's hand. "That wasn't what you truly meant. I know you still love me."

Her words left Peter utterly ashamed. Mary Jane's understanding and forgiveness only made him feel even more guilty.

"Harry's okay." Li Nian suddenly spoke up, drawing Peter's attention. At the same time, Harry let out a soft groan from the hospital bed and slowly opened his eyes.

"Pe...ter? Mary... Jane?" Harry's eyes opened hazily as he asked weakly, "What happened, Peter? Why are you here?"

"Harry?" Peter looked at his friend on the bed in surprise. Harry should have looked at him with nothing but hatred.

"It seems he doesn't remember what happened before." Li Nian leaned close to Peter's ear and whispered, "Want me to restore his memories? I'm very good at this sort of thing."

Peter hesitated. He looked at the weak Harry chatting happily with Mary Jane, then thought of the boy who had lived in pain every moment of his life. Peter made up his mind.

"No. Harry will feel better this way."

Li Nian gave Peter a long look. It was probably not for Harry's sake, but for Peter's own.

"My father... passed away, didn't he?" Harry asked with difficulty. His memories were too chaotic, consisting only of a few fragments, like casually glimpsing ants beneath a tree—so faint that they barely left an impression.

"Yeah." Peter nodded, looking at Harry nervously. He was afraid Harry would remember those things and break with him again.

Peter decided that, until Harry naturally regained his memories, he would refuse to tell him anything about their past. It would be better for everyone this way.

"Heh... it feels... like I went on a long journey, and then... I finally came back..." Harry lay on the hospital bed and spoke self-mockingly. Mary Jane's heart ached at the sight of his despondence. They had once been lovers, yet things had become like this.

"Sorry, but I think you should leave now. Let the patient rest by himself for a while."

Just as the conversation fell flat and no one knew what to say, a Black orderly came in at the right moment and ushered Li Nian, Peter, and Mary Jane away from Harry's side.

"He'll get better, right?"

"I think... he will. What do you think, Peter?"

"Yeah..."

Peter did not want to talk much about the subject. He felt particularly conflicted now. He hoped Harry could live peacefully and safely, but he also hoped Harry could forget those bad memories. Yet Peter had no say in it, nor could he make it happen.

Li Nian watched Peter's ever-changing expression and silently sighed.

"I'll head out first. Oh, Peter, Aunt May is still waiting for you at home for dinner. Bring Mary Jane along too, though Aunt May should be asleep by now."

Li Nian reminded Peter so he would not make too much noise when entering and wake Aunt May. Elderly people slept lightly, and someone as old as Aunt May needed proper rest even more.

Li Nian drove away. He had no intention of giving Peter and Mary Jane a ride, because he still needed to go to Otto's laboratory, and Flint was there. It was best not to let Peter and Flint meet right now.

After all, Flint was also one of the culprits behind Ben Parker's death.

Thinking of this gave Li Nian a headache. He was worst at dealing with interpersonal relationships. Even the relatives who visited during the holidays in his previous life had made him tense and uneasy, afraid of becoming their after-dinner gossip.

That was why Li Nian had moved out to live alone early in his previous life. During the New Year, he only stayed home for three days. Whenever relatives came visiting, he would lock himself in his room, put on an eye mask and earplugs, and sleep until noon.

"And Venom..."

Lately, Li Nian had often gone to the outskirts at night to search for traces of Venom. A few days ago, he had found signs of Venom's landing, but he had not discovered where the symbiote was now.

Li Nian frowned deeply. Could it have bonded with some passerby and hidden in the city?

He did not believe Venom could have found a good host. There were not many good people in that area. Of course, it was also possible that it had bonded with some animal. After all, in the Venom movie, the alien symbiote had once bonded with a dog.

Li Nian only felt an overwhelming headache. Sandman was another ticking time bomb. Even before becoming mutated, villains like him were not law-abiding people. Once they gained powers, there was even less chance they would obediently listen.

Lost in thought, Li Nian drove up to Otto's laboratory.

It was already late at night. Aside from homeless vagrants, there was no one on the streets. The silence was terrifying.

Li Nian did not dare open the door, since making too much noise would inevitably attract the attention of certain people. Instead, he phased directly into the building.

Otto was still working hard at the experimental bench, but Flint was nowhere to be seen. No one knew where he had gone.

"Where's Flint?" Li Nian frowned. He remembered telling Sandman not to go out for the time being. Had he taken his words as nothing but wind?

Suppressing his anger, Li Nian said gravely to Otto, "He's a criminal. If he causes any more trouble, I won't be able to clean up after him. It was already very difficult to erase the fallout from what happened to you."

"I'm here..." Flint emerged from the sewers. Grains of yellow sand swirled through the air before gradually gathering on the ground into a human form.

"Where did you go?"

"To hide the money. I went to stash the money I robbed from the bank." Flint admitted it frankly. "I don't trust you, so I had to leave myself a way out."

Li Nian could only rub his forehead helplessly at those words. "Do whatever you want, as long as you don't go out."

Then he joined Otto's research efforts.

Eddie had never felt so good, so exhilarated. He wanted to sing at the top of his lungs, to show off his talents like an excited monkey.

Crimson streaks ran across his grotesque black body, while his pure white eyes brazenly surveyed the city's nightscape.

The breeze sweeping past the high-rises gently brushed Eddie's face. He had completely fused with the Venom symbiote and was enjoying unprecedented power.

"That monster... gave me the power to rule the world..."

Eddie had fought that mutated monster in the outskirts. As expected, Eddie, bonded with Venom, had won. Just as when Venom had bonded with Spider-Man, the Venom torn from the monster's body possessed abilities identical to the monster's.

With Venom and his own evil will, Eddie easily tore the monster apart and devoured it, like a Chihuahua infected with a vicious disease, madly attacking its opponent.

Eddie silently looked at the black ring on his hand. Strange runes were etched into it, carrying a faint aura of dark magic. It gave off factory-like black smoke that lightly coiled around Eddie...

"There are other worlds too... the multiverse... Here I come!"