Chapter 102: Establishing the Alien Gene Bank, Marching Towards a Transcendent Species
After the Great Battle, Earth was a complete mess.
Although no new symbiote legions were descending upon Earth, the ones that had already successfully arrived were more than enough to give its people a hard time.
Despite the whole world uniting to hunt down and kill the symbiotes, Earth was by no means small, and its environment was complex enough for the vast number of symbiotes, who had regained their self-awareness after Knull's defeat, to quickly find hiding places.
Not to mention, various animals, and even some unlucky humans, had already been forcibly possessed and controlled by symbiotes. Their whereabouts were now unknown; God knows where on Earth they were hiding.
The frenzied hunt for the symbiotes would continue for a long time.
But thankfully, the massive Alien Legion was also doing this work, scouring every corner of the globe to drag the symbiotes out.
The biggest winner of this battle was, without a doubt, still Du Wa. The countless symbiotes would become his spoils of war, greatly bolstering the combat capabilities at his disposal.
To say nothing of other benefits, simply using these innumerable symbiotes as equipment, rather than as hosts to incubate Symbiote-Xenomorphs, could instantly grant even the weakest Messenger Xenomorph the ability to survive in the vacuum of space.
Around the world, people were constantly capturing symbiotes to conduct all sorts of experiments.
They felt no pity for the symbiotes. Faced with alien creatures that had invaded Earth, and in such vast numbers, they unhesitatingly unleashed every cruel and inhumane method imaginable, feeling completely justified in their brutal trials.
"These damn things suddenly gained self-awareness, they understand anger and fear, and that's one thing, but by Du Wa, these things can actually beg for mercy? I can hardly believe my eyes. Why were they all so crazed during the war, like machines without any self-awareness?"
"The key issue right now isn't even the symbiotes, Dr. Cliff! As the chief biologist of S.H.I.E.L.D., do you hear what you just said? You don't believe in God, but you pray to Du Wa? You've joined that weird Alien Cult too? Don't tell me you actually believe that Muscle Pastor's nonsense!!"
"What else, rookie? Don't tell me you still haven't heard the news of Fury's death. Before long, it's doubtful if S.H.I.E.L.D. will even exist. If you had to choose a power to defect to in the whole world, who would you pick? Don't tell me you're planning to run to the Mutants?"
Dr. Cliff was covered in scars, making for a rather frightening sight, but he just shrugged nonchalantly. A faint metallic sound came from within his body, and he seemed completely unconcerned.
Though he appeared to have all his limbs, beneath his white lab coat, his body had long been replaced by a large number of bionic organs.
Earlier, while they were extracting the symbiote from the frozen Grendel, Loki had suddenly appeared, wrecked the base, and struck him in passing.
All the other scientists around Dr. Cliff had died. He had been lucky to be left barely alive, and was saved by S.H.I.E.L.D.
But don't think for a second that Dr. Cliff felt any gratitude toward S.H.I.E.L.D. What a joke. They were all agents. On certain matters, you only talk business, not personal feelings. Anyone who tried to talk about feelings with an agent instead of interests was a fool.
Dr. Cliff continuously operated the controls remotely from his console, watching as several symbiotes struggled painfully on the other side of a thick glass wall, constantly sending out signals of surrender.
He criticized the rookie assistant just assigned to him: "Listen to me, S.H.I.E.L.D. is finished. There's no way Director Fury, as some rumors claim, fought to the last breath, refusing to leave the Helicarrier and constantly using its weapons to attack the symbiotes... Anyway, I don't believe a king of spies like him would end his life that way. It completely contradicts the operational logic of a top-tier agent."
This wasn't to say an agent should be treacherous and cling to life. A good agent should always devise a plan with the greatest benefit in a dangerous situation. Only when their own death could bring about a huge advantage should they embrace death calmly.
An agent, after all, is not a soldier. They are two completely different professions.
Now, rumors were flying everywhere that Fury refused to flee and died a heroic death? That he'd rather pilot his command ship to his doom, taking countless symbiotes with him?
Don't be ridiculous. Dr. Cliff wanted to laugh his head off just hearing it. If he'd had any other choice, Fury would have bailed from the ship long ago, already planning his comeback.
Fury's death meant only one thing: he had no choice but to die.
"Of course, I guessed there was something suspicious about the Director's death. It's highly likely Du Wa did it. Many of us suspect it—the grudge between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Du Wa runs a bit deep. It's completely irreconcilable."
Grant Ward, a rookie agent on the surface but in reality a Hydra agent, was completely dumbfounded.
He really wanted to go back and ask his Hydra superior if Dr. Cliff was also a Hydra member. How else could he defect so matter-of-factly, even placing himself on the moral high ground?
Ward felt like he was a fake Hydra agent.
But Ward had to admit Dr. Cliff was right. Since Du Wa had killed Fury, there was no reason he would spare S.H.I.E.L.D.
"These symbiotes..."
Ward's eyes glinted as he looked at Dr. Cliff's focused back.
If they could develop an electronic signal device to control the symbiotes, commanding such a vast number would be a huge asset to their goal of world domination... but then he thought about having to face a monster like Du Wa on that path, and Ward felt a wave of despair.
Even the grand army of symbiotes at its peak had suffered a crushing defeat at Du Wa's hands. What was the point of them gathering these defeated symbiote forces?
Does Hydra really have a future? If you cut off one head, will two more really grow in its place? He was afraid even the body would be taken by Du Wa to incubate Xenomorphs.
Ward was lost. If it were them, what could they possibly use to deal with Du Wa? Could it be the Cosmic Cube, as some Hydra personnel rumored?
"I don't care who sent you to be by my side, just don't get in my way," Dr. Cliff said without turning his head. "And if you have some dangerous scheme, don't involve me. Even if you combined all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power, you still couldn't deal with that man."
"What about the Cosmic Cube, then? You must know about it. That thing greatly enhanced Captain America's power. We could totally use the Cosmic Cube to create many Captain Americas to serve us, and equip each one with a powerful symbiote..."
"And then send all of them to Du Wa to incubate Captain America-Xenomorphs? That's a brilliant idea."
Dr. Cliff looked up and said sarcastically, "Du Wa can already produce Xenomorphs like the one that was an enhanced Captain America, in a continuous stream. It's clearly related to vampires, but I can't figure out where he found the vampire hosts. Don't forget, you can only use things from Earth to fight Du Wa, but Du Wa has already spread his Xenomorphs to many worlds beyond Earth. He can obtain power from different worlds."
Even if someone really did use the Cosmic Cube to blanket the globe and wipe out all the Xenomorphs at once, could they then go to Jotunheim, Asgard, or even more distant planets and kill every last Xenomorph?
That was simply impossible, which was why Dr. Cliff had completely resigned himself to fate.
"I plan on going to have a chat with that recently famous Muscle Pastor. What was his name, Carl Burbank? Anyway, he's a great fighter. Maybe I can get a Xenomorph egg implanted in me too."
Dr. Cliff had actually already lost interest in the pleading symbiotes before him.
If he had the chance to study Xenomorphs, who would waste time on symbiotes? It's not like he had a choice!
Ward's confusion was shared by many people around the world. People celebrated the victory in the war, filled with immense joy, but certain people in power quickly broke free from that joy, only to look on with utter helplessness at the Xenomorphs that were now everywhere on Earth.
They moved in swarms, omnipresent, as if they were a natural part of human society.
Where there were humans, there were Xenomorphs. In places untouched by human feet, there were also Xenomorphs.
Anyone with half a brain knew that humanity's future was one of coexistence with the Xenomorphs. This had nothing to do with whether humanity was willing or not; it all depended on what the Xenomorphs' master—a person who was, in theory, also a human—was thinking.
For most ordinary people, this situation was completely acceptable. They even embraced the arrival of the new era with fervent enthusiasm.
What was so bad about coexisting with Xenomorphs? Did they slaughter ordinary humans on sight? Did they indiscriminately capture ordinary humans as hosts for parasitism and chestbursting?
There had never been a single such case.
An ordinary citizen who rashly tried to pet a stray cat or dog on the street still ran the risk of being scratched or bitten. As long as you didn't court death by provoking a Xenomorph, you wouldn't be attacked in any way.
Besides, Xenomorphs themselves were highly intelligent creatures, fundamentally different from animals. It was a huge mistake to judge this globe-spanning swarm of Xenomorphs as if they were kittens and puppies.
On the contrary, in places where Xenomorphs were present, the safety index was off the charts. All criminal activities could be stopped in an instant.
Bullying? Robbery? Smuggling? Human trafficking?
Normally, these things were difficult to eradicate at their source. But with Xenomorphs, it was different. The Xenomorphs didn't even need to solve these problems at the root; they just needed to use their vast numbers, spread out everywhere, and be omnipresent, to kill the people associated with these roots at the fastest possible speed. Then, all criminal activities would naturally cease.
More importantly, the Xenomorphs could do the same thing day in and day out for decades, even centuries, without feeling bored or weary. They could continue to execute their commands with high efficiency until all crime was eliminated, helping human society enter an unprecedented future.
Many people thought of this, and various sociologists fiercely debated it on television programs.
Everyone knew the discussions of these talking heads were completely useless. It all depended on what Du Wa thought.
Unless you blew up the Earth, this future was inevitable.
"A bunch of irrelevant people arguing about the world's changes, as if they have any chance of making a decision. How absurd."
Mr. Blue rarely came out to meet people, which surprised many in Du Wa's faction. Some who had joined recently were even seeing Mr. Blue for the first time and were extremely curious about this chief scientist under Du Wa, who had previously only existed in rumors.
"Just looking at that guy's big head, I can feel this wave of wisdom wash over me. It's such a strange feeling," Flash Thompson muttered. He looked around nervously; logically, with his status, he wasn't qualified to be in a setting like this.
He was just a mortal. After defecting to Du Wa with the pastor Carl Burbank, he had received a Xenomorph, and only then did he cross the threshold into the Transcendent.
Flash Thompson also saw a familiar figure, the Martial Arts Master who had joined Du Wa's faction in the same batch as him.
"I will grant rewards based on your performance in this war. I'm a man who values fairness above all, so don't worry that your life-and-death struggles will go unnoticed. On my side, ridiculous things like deceiving superiors, hiding merits, or stealing credit are impossible."
As Du Wa spoke, every word was logical and convincing.
Du Wa bestowed a symbiote upon Flash Thompson, which left Thompson a bit stunned.
He looked down at the clearly very active symbiote.
"This symbiote is rather special. It's called Venom. Although in terms of strength, it's not outstanding compared to other symbiotes, and is even a bit weak, its potential is not low. You should know, when I was repelling Knull in outer space, this thing existed as Knull's tongue."
Du Wa encouraged Flash Thompson.
If Spider-Man were still alive, Du Wa would have been happy to give Venom to him. But since the Spider-Man of this universe had already been killed by the Inheritors, Du Wa settled for the next best thing and gave Venom to Flash Thompson, personally creating this Agent Venom. This could be considered satisfying a certain perverse taste of his.
In any case, the current Venom was not yet worthy of Du Wa's notice. Perhaps in the future, when it became strong enough to parasitize a being on the level of the Celestials, would it then be worthy of Du Wa casually keeping it by his side.
"Can we get down to business now? I believe everyone sitting here is a key member of our group, although I temporarily can't see what talents some of you possess."
Mr. Blue spoke quickly, "What I want to say is that, before long, all the Xenomorphs will undergo a massive transformation. This change concerns every single one of you."
Du Wa looked at him with a calm expression. "It seems you've already established the Alien Gene Bank?"
"The first-generation gene bank is complete. It was originally supposed to take another week or two, but having this group of symbiotes, which can adapt to any gene, greatly accelerated my research progress."
Mr. Blue said, "With this, we can finally directionally cultivate different Alien Queens to give birth to Xenomorph offspring possessing different Super Genes."
(end of chapter)