Chapter 25: The God of Street-Cursing

Although Ma Te had been resuscitated, he was still not out of danger and remained under observation in the Intensive Care Unit.

Shiler said to Strange, "Dr. Strange, consider me in your debt. If you ever need help in the future, you can come find me."

Strange's complexion was poor. After all, he had been dragged here since the afternoon and had performed surgery for nearly ten hours straight. He said with great impatience, "God bless me, may I never see you again, you freak."

Shiler said, "I believe you have already witnessed my abilities. So, I will offer one final piece of advice: be very careful when you drive."

Strange said, "Don't play these weird little mind games with me. I'm going back to sleep."

After saying this, he left. Shiler shrugged. He knew it was impossible to change the fate of Doctor Strange; in his current state, Strange wouldn't listen to a word anyone said.

But that didn't matter. When the time came for him to beg for help to heal the injuries on his arms, he would naturally think of Shiler.

After returning to the clinic and getting a good night's sleep, Shiler woke up to find he had gained two more random chat opportunities. This meant he had exerted a significant influence on two important characters in the plot—likely Daredevil, Ma Te, and the other, Spider-Man.

Shiler planned to use one now. It seemed his abilities were in urgent need of strengthening. After witnessing the accident involving Daredevil Ma Te, he felt his defensive and evasive capabilities were still insufficient, especially his reaction speed. Even if he could flash-step, within a fraction of a second, no one could guarantee they would be able to react in time. Relying on that hit-or-miss Spider-Sense just wouldn't do.

Thus, Shiler opened the chat system and used one random chat opportunity.

Soon, his chat partner arrived. Strangely, the avatar was odd; the frame was pitch black, with only two eyes gleaming.

As soon as the connection was established, Shiler heard a string of language he couldn't understand from the other side.

Previously, all his chat partners spoke English. Even when the Ancient One communicated directly with his brainwaves, the meaning was easy to grasp.

But this time, the partner he encountered was muttering away, and Shiler couldn't understand a single word.

He tapped the system and asked, "Can't the chat system translate? What country's language is the other side speaking?"

Due to his past life's experiences, Shiler had visited various universities for tours and exchanges. Besides English and Chinese, he knew a bit of several European languages, but the other party's language seemed to be none of those. Shiler had never heard such a language before.

The system provided a line of response: "The chat system automatically translates any language of the chat partner. If content remains incomprehensible, it indicates a difference in life form between the host and the partner, or that understanding the language requires a special brain organ."

Shiler understood then. The other party was definitely not human. The long string of unidentified sounds he emitted might require a specific brain organ to receive; it wasn't a language, but more like a signal. Shiler was a human and likely lacked the brain organ of their species, so naturally, he couldn't understand what was being said.

Shiler clicked on the avatar and saw, sure enough, a few words clearly written: "Knull, God of Symbiotes."

He hadn't expected this random connection to actually link to Knull.

The God of Symbiotes had been described in great detail in the Venom-related comics. Simply put, he was an ancient creature that had existed since the beginning of the universe, the Lord of the Abyss. He had forged a weapon called the All-Black the Necrosword, decapitated a Celestial, and then began wreaking havoc on other civilizations in the universe.

He had researched a method to create dark creatures, which was to split off symbiotes. He rampaged through the universe with his symbiote army and the dragon legion he created.

Until one day, he ordered the symbiote legion to attack Earth, only to be struck by a bolt of lightning from the old man Thor, leaving him battered and disconnected from most of the symbiotes he had created.

Most symbiotes were scattered across the universe, possessing various life forms. Among them were many kind and rational aliens, which made the symbiotes realize that their creator's behavior of destroying civilizations was evil, so they collectively rebelled.

After the rebellion, the symbiotes imprisoned their creator, Knull, the God of Symbiotes, on a remote and desolate planet—the so-called home planet of the symbiotes.

Shiler didn't rush to use the next chat opportunity. Instead, he began to study with great interest what Knull was actually saying.

Since the connection started, Knull had been going on at length, with those incomprehensible syllables being sent over rapidly.

The setting here was relatively reasonable; it wasn't like in the comics where the whole universe spoke English. Shiler couldn't understand a single word the God of Symbiotes said, but because the God of Symbiotes kept going on at length, Shiler actually managed to figure out some patterns.

After repeated confirmation, Shiler finally understood what the God of Symbiotes was expressing—he was cursing.

That's right. Although the whole universe didn't speak English, the tone of all creatures in the universe when cursing was basically the same, and certain swear words appeared with high frequency. The God of Symbiotes was just like that.

Shiler heard a syllable, "Nattaru," repeated frequently in the God of Symbiotes' angry tone. He guessed this must be a swear word in the symbiote language equivalent to the F-word.

So, when the God of Symbiotes finished another long rant, Shiler said nonchalantly, "Nattaru."

The other side fell into an eerie silence.

The God of Symbiotes had been cursing for so many years, and this was the first time he had been cursed back.

Shiler's guess was spot on; that word was indeed a swear word in the God of Symbiotes' language. The God of Symbiotes retaliated with an even angrier string of language, but Shiler still just nonchalantly replied, "Nattaru."

After hearing it more, Shiler even learned a few other swear words, even mimicking the tongue-trilling and pronunciation exactly.

The God of Symbiotes kept sending long rants, and Shiler would often pick a few words from them to curse back.

Anyway, the God of Symbiotes couldn't crawl through the internet cable to hit him. So what if he was the Lord of the Abyss? So what if he killed a Celestial?

While cursing back and forth with the God of Symbiotes, he recalled the origin story of this ancient creature.

The God of Symbiotes was quite unlucky. Regardless of whether he was good or bad, the scraps he dropped had rebelled and locked him up, imprisoning their creator alone on a planet. And judging by the current situation, he had likely been imprisoned for a long time.

Actually, it wasn't hard to understand why he was cursing. If it were Shiler, Shiler would curse too.

Then Shiler began to study copying the God of Symbiotes' abilities, but he was actually a bit hesitant. He estimated that the God of Symbiotes' ability was to create symbiotes, but Shiler didn't want that ability.

He clicked on the avatar and found that the four words for copying abilities had turned red, with a parenthesis appearing next to them: "The other party's ability is currently mutating; please copy with caution."

This was the first time Shiler had discovered such a phenomenon.

This had to start from the origin story of the God of Symbiotes.

After being imprisoned, the God of Symbiotes wasn't just going to give up; naturally, he would try every possible way to escape. Shiler had arrived at the perfect time—not long after the God of Symbiotes thought of this method, Shiler had connected with him.

The God of Symbiotes was a very ancient creature. Although it couldn't be confirmed if he was the first creature in the Seventh Universe, he was definitely among the first few.

His power came more from his innate talent; his brain actually wasn't very useful. The method he thought of to escape wasn't through wisdom, but by utilizing his special nature. Shiler hadn't read much of this part of the comics in his past life, but he knew that the abilities of the descendants created by the God of Symbiotes were not the same; some were very strong, some were very weak.

There were also some symbiote descendants that possessed special abilities, and the God of Symbiotes intended to utilize this characteristic. He planned to create a special symbiote; he wanted this descendant he split off to have no physical form, but instead become a conscious mass of smoke. When he transferred his consciousness into this descendant's body, he could escape the shackles of the planet prison.

Honestly, this wasn't a very brilliant method, and it might not necessarily allow him to leave that place. But the God of Symbiotes was imprisoned on a lonely planet; if he didn't find something to kill time, what else could he do? So his daily routine consisted of only two things—cursing and spawning.

Just as he had created this new descendant and was preparing to transfer his consciousness, Shiler connected with him. That was why the God of Symbiotes' ability was mutating, because he was transferring his consciousness into the new body, and the ability was also transforming into the ability of the new body.

Generally speaking, if it were a chat partner like the God of Symbiotes, it would be like the young Spider-Man before being bitten; Shiler would almost be unable to copy his abilities. The God of Symbiotes originally relied on the powerful Living Abyss All-Black the Necrosword when fighting in the universe. Later, his ability to split off dark creatures also came from his innate nature, an ability that suddenly emerged after he was defeated and fell, with no other source.

These things were impossible for Shiler to copy. And even if he could copy them, he wouldn't want to copy this ability. Why would he want to cut himself into pieces? And if things went wrong, these scraps he split off might unite to betray him; that was simply too unreliable.

So Shiler chose without hesitation to copy the ability that was currently mutating. If this ability was of the invisibility or damage-avoidance type, then Shiler would have hit the jackpot. Even if it were like Venom, capable of having relatively powerful strength, or turning into something like a battle suit, that would also be good.

"Symbiote Gray Mist (Special Ability) has been loaded."

In an instant, Shiler felt he had suddenly gained another field of vision. He was still using his eyes, but it wasn't he himself who was using them. The signals received from the eyes were still transmitted to his brain.

He seemed to have directly copied a symbiote over.

No, it seemed a bit different. The abilities copied by the system wouldn't bring Shiler any external objects, nor could they copy the other party's equipment or other physical items.

For example, if Shiler copied Iron Man's ability, he might get Stark's genius brain or his ability to develop equipment, but he couldn't get a finished suit like the Mark 5.

The system could only copy the abilities of the chat partner themselves, not things outside their body.

Shiler felt as if a naive soul had been stuffed into his body. But that wasn't an external object; it was still himself. That symbiote didn't become something like Venom that could leave the host at any time, but instead became a part of Shiler.

Simply put, it became an ability loaded onto Shiler by the system, becoming a part of Shiler, just like other abilities Shiler obtained from the system. It couldn't leave Shiler. If Shiler died, it would also perish; it couldn't escape, and it was even less possible for it to have a second host.

But it also possessed some characteristics of a symbiote. For example, it could think. Shiler could feel that a region in his brain seemed to have been changed; the symbiote had become an organ of his brain. The communication between them was more like a dialogue between one personality and another.

This symbiote was indeed very special. Shiler would understand later that when the God of Symbiotes created it, he had added even more ambition.

And after being copied over by the system, in order to allow the characteristics of the symbiote to merge with the characteristics of the system-loaded ability, the system made further modifications to the symbiote, which led it to become a life form that was perhaps unique in the entire universe, and also an incomparably powerful life form. ===== CHAPTER 26 =====