Venom’s Betrayal!

In the dimly lit passageway of the Underground Prison, Kyle frowned deeply, keenly catching a strong sense that something was wrong in the air.

He was a War Hero who had fought his way through World War II on Earth. His grasp of battlefield situations was exceptionally sharp, and now he could clearly sense an elusive chill in the air.

Who was setting him up?

"What is it? Feeling unwell? Your visiting time is only five minutes, and it’s being counted now," the guard urged when he saw Kyle stop walking.

"It’s nothing." Kyle shook his head and slowly stepped forward.

He sensed no malice from the older guard. If this was a trap, perhaps even the prison guards were merely pawns—this had been buried too deeply.

Thinking carefully, Kyle had only been on Planet Sakaar for a few days. The only people he knew were, at most, Bai Bo and Anli. He had not had the spare time to offend anyone else.

Wearing an integrated Combat Suit and dressed in a half-Black Panther form, he had destroyed an alien gang, released a Dark Elf, and led a Guard Ship around the main city a few times. But he had done all that without revealing his true face. If the guards knew who he was, they would have arrested him throughout the city long ago. Why bother with such a scheme?

After considering it over and over, only one answer remained—the most unbelievable, yet also the most reasonable answer at present.

"Venom." Kyle narrowed his eyes and quietly clenched his fists. Still, he chose to put aside his suspicions for now and followed the guard to see the challenger who had been bonded with Venom.

It would not be too late to draw conclusions after seeing him.

As they emerged from the underground passage, the view opened up before them. Beneath the bright electric lights on the ceiling, the prison’s main hall was spacious, though its floor looked somewhat filthy. The air was filled with the faintly pungent mixed scent of blood and disinfectant.

Along both sides of the hall, metal cages were crammed with aliens dressed in shabby prison uniforms. As the guard led Kyle into the hall, pairs of hollow, cold eyes fell upon him.

"Whoo, another newcomer?"

"Yeah right, look at his clothes."

"An outsider? Can just anyone enter this prison?"

Amid whistles, the voices of countless alien prisoners echoed through the prison.

"Settle down!" the guard warned coldly. Turning back, he said to Kyle in a gentler voice, "Follow me. The four finalists are all in the innermost individual cells."

Kyle nodded and followed the guard inward.

As they passed one of the prison cages, a massive black shadow suddenly lunged outward and slammed viciously into the iron door, triggering flickering electrical arcs from the protective door system that raced across its tough, smooth hide.

The guard jumped in fright and nearly fell to the ground. Kyle merely turned his head coolly, meeting the gaze of a single body with two heads and four faintly glowing green vertical pupils from less than half a meter away.

Sizzle!

Electric arcs crackled around the Two-Headed Snake, numbing and weakening its body. Even so, it remained unmoved, flicking scarlet tongues between its fangs and drooling as it stared coldly at Kyle as if he were delicious food.

Kyle remained expressionless, showing not the slightest hint of fear.

"We need to go farther in. Hurry up," the guard said, patting his chest in lingering fear, unwilling to look at that terrifying cold-blooded monster.

Only after Kyle had left the cage holding the Two-Headed Snake did it twist its coiled body around.

"Interesting." Inside the single cell directly opposite, Scythe Man licked his lips. His pair of scimitar-like arms rubbed against each other, still gleaming with a cold light in the dimly lit cage.

The guard stopped at the innermost cage of the Underground Prison. Looking inside, Kyle saw Tentacle Child sitting in the corner of the cell, with blue-glowing neural paralysis devices fastened to his limbs and neck.

Standing outside the cage, Kyle was five meters away and could not see the Ability Cards on Tentacle Child’s body. The child showed no intention of moving, simply sitting there motionlessly in a daze.

"He’s always like this. Only in the Duel Arena does he display such terrifying combat power," the guard said softly.

"Can I go in?" Kyle asked the guard.

"You can, but be careful." The guard took out a device and operated it to open the door as he reminded him, "Even though we’ve put restraining devices on him, you know how formidable those hidden tentacles of his are."

"I know." As soon as the door opened, Kyle stepped into the cage and approached Tentacle Child step by step.

Five meters, four meters, three meters!

Tentacle Child showed no reaction. By then, Kyle had fully entered the range where he could inspect the cards. He stopped and focused his thoughts.

Galactic Federation Language Mastery, Theft Mastery, Running Mastery…

Only a pitiful few cards appeared, and not a single one exceeded green grade.

This indicated that Venom was no longer on the alien child before him. Otherwise, Venom’s existence would have appeared as information on a Creature Card and could have been drawn through reverse collection.

Kyle was silent for a moment. Looking at the child, he tried asking, "Do you know Venom?"

The child’s entire body trembled. He raised his head, his little face weak and bloodless as he stared blankly at Kyle. Clarity gradually returned to his hollow eyes, and he revealed an eerie smile. "You shouldn’t have come."

"What?" Kyle froze, staring at him. "You really do know Venom. It left your body—where did it go now?"

"More or less, but it has another name now. Since you’ve come here, it’s time for my work to end as well." The child spoke inexplicably to himself, maintaining that eerie smile as his little face suddenly became rosy.

Not only that, before Kyle’s uncertain eyes, the child’s thin, small body began swelling rapidly, like a deflated balloon being filled with air.

"Damn it!" Kyle’s expression changed as he spun around and charged toward the exit. Just as he reached the cage door, the guard outside had already opened his mouth in shock. In his field of vision, the child’s body had swollen to more than three times its original size, red all over.

The next moment.

Boom!

The thunderous explosion was like a bolt from the blue, shaking the entire Underground Prison!

The cage that had held the child was destroyed in the self-destruction. Not even bones remained of the child. As the dust mixed with blood mist settled, only Kyle stood tall and unharmed in the passageway. The guard beside him had been blasted into the wall by the explosion’s shockwave, collapsing unconscious in a bloody mess.

Before the imprisoned criminals could understand what had happened, warning lights began flashing throughout the prison, and a loud, urgent alarm echoed powerfully:

"An intruder has been detected. All guards, proceed immediately! I repeat. An intruder has been detected. All guards, proceed immediately!!"

It really was a trap.

Kyle swept his gaze across the wrecked cage. His handsome face was speckled with drops of blood from the self-destruction, and his expression was chillingly grim.

Venom had truly betrayed him!