Squelch!
As expected, the moment Xia Luo’s fingers locked onto Steve’s spine, the piercing, high-frequency sound waves abruptly stopped. Steve’s entire body went limp, unable to summon his octopus tentacles any longer.
“Oh, my back…”
With a weak groan from Steve, Xia Luo’s arm muscles tensed, and with a powerful yank, he tore out Steve’s spine.
Rippp!
“Arghhh!!”
Steve’s scream was bloodcurdling as his spine was ripped from his body. Now unable to resist, he seemed to understand his inevitable fate.
Trembling, Steve clawed his way toward the crystal coffin amid the wreckage.
The short distance of just a few meters felt like an insurmountable journey, with Steve giving everything he had just to inch forward.
His back was a gory mess of flesh and blood, and though his movements became slower and slower, he refused to stop.
As he neared the crystal coffin, his vision blurred.
“Carter…”
He called out for his beloved, as if invoking her name could bring some warmth to his cold, broken heart.
The bloody scene unfolding before them left everyone present utterly horrified.
“My God, this is too brutal.”
“What a terrifying black Spider-Man.”
“Captain Steve Rogers is finished.”
“They’re all monsters, both of them.”
“New York doesn’t need these monsters to protect us. They’ll destroy everything!”
Fear and unease rapidly spread through the crowd, yet no one dared step forward to criticize or curse at them.
They had been quick to judge the red-and-blue Spider-Man because they knew Spider-Man only captured criminals and never killed. But this black-suited Spider-Man filled them with dread. They didn’t have the courage to challenge him.
Even George, the lead officer, stood frozen, too afraid to speak or intervene.
For the first time, they had seen such a savage side of Spider-Man.
Fear of the strong and disdain for the weak—this moment was a perfect demonstration of that principle.
Meanwhile, Xia Luo calmly watched the scene unfold. He tossed aside the now blackened spine, slowly raising his right fist, ready to deliver the final blow.
Sympathy for your enemy is suicide.
And he wasn’t ready to die just yet.
Crack!
Suddenly, a sound came from the crystal coffin, which was now close to melting. Both Steve and Xia Luo froze in surprise.
Crack, crack, crack.
As the crystal coffin rapidly fractured, a woman in a red floral dress slowly sat up, her body stiff and her expression weary.
It was Carter.
She had awakened earlier but had been unable to move due to her body being frozen for seventy years. Fortunately, after winning her own resurrection battle, her body had strengthened somewhat, and the heat from the plane crash had melted the damn coffin. Finally, she had fully revived.
“Carter!!”
Seeing her alive again, Steve was momentarily invigorated, crawling rapidly toward her.
“You… you’re alive. How is that possible?!”
He stared at Carter in disbelief, reaching out as if to touch her but afraid it might all be a dying hallucination.
Carter turned her head, looking at the pitiful Steve with calm, almost mocking eyes.
“I’ve been conscious the whole time, Steve Rogers. It seems your plan failed, didn’t it?”
She turned her gaze to the approaching black figure.
“Xia Luo Parker. So it was you after all,” she said with a smile.
Xia Luo nodded. “I guessed correctly. We’re from the same world.”
“I’m glad to see you again,” Carter said, her smile unwavering. But when she turned back to Steve, her expression hardened once more.
“You…”
Steve was surprised that Carter and Xia Luo knew each other, but he was too far gone to care much about it now.
He lay on the ground, bitter and defeated.
His trembling hands reached toward the ground, and with a grimace, he forced himself to chew on a piece of bloody, mud-covered octopus tentacle. It gave him just enough strength to speak again.
“Yes… I should thank you for teaching me so much. I should repay you. But so what if I had the Super Soldier Serum? The higher-ups only saw me as a mascot. They made me perform on stage, spouting things no one believed. Do you know what they said about me behind my back?”
“They called me a clown, a coward afraid to fight. They said I was just a pathetic man who needed a woman to survive.”
“I wanted to prove myself, but all I got in return was solitary confinement. Even though I blew up so many enemy bunkers and saved so many lives, to them, I was just another soldier who got lucky with the serum.”
“They never gave me the credit. I was just another lab rat. The other lab rats died, and I survived. But to them, it was their success, not mine.”
“I couldn’t argue back because even though I had the Super Soldier Serum, I was still just a soldier. I had no right to defy them.”
“From that moment, I realized the importance of power. I had to become one of them. I had to have absolute control—that was the only way my life would have meaning.”
“To achieve that, during one mission against Hydra, I met John. I let him go, and in return, he helped me. We became friends, and I joined Hydra, learning their secrets.”
“They were conducting their own super-soldier experiments. I volunteered to be their test subject because, unlike the others, they respected me.”
“The experiments went well. I became even stronger.”
“But even so, I was still small in the grand scheme of things. I couldn’t overthrow the world because, in the end, I was just a soldier—no matter how strong.”
“I knew that once this era ended, someone like me, with superpowers, would be dealt with. They wouldn’t allow soldiers like me to exist.”
“They feared me. I didn’t want to be controlled.”
“That era was brutal, especially for someone like me.”
“Heroes have always had a tragic fate.”
“I needed to live on into the next era—that would be my time.”
“The freezing project began. My clone, along with John, helped me complete the plan.”
“And I also accepted Hydra’s most powerful force. It was an experience like no other.”
“I was finally free.”
Steve said all this, looking at Carter with a hint of guilt in his eyes.
“That night at the dance… I was happy you agreed to be with me, but I never expected you’d uncover my secret.”
“So you killed her,” Xia Luo interrupted.
Steve took a deep breath. “Yes. If she hadn’t died, I would’ve. The Hydra power hadn’t fully fused with me back then, and I was too weak to escape the base.”
“You think telling me this will make me forgive you?” Carter asked, standing over Steve.
“I don’t oppose your desire for power, but you should never have betrayed your friends and comrades. They trusted you, and you turned them into monsters,” she said, her tone cold.
“I don’t need anyone’s forgiveness!”
Steve let out a bitter laugh. “John taught me that if you want something, you have to be willing to give something up—whether that’s friendship, love… none of it really matters.”
“But I failed. I couldn’t fully let go of those things. I shouldn’t have taken you with me, and now this damn bug has caught me.”
He looked at Xia Luo, his face filled with bitterness.
“I’m not willing to accept this, Xia Luo Parker. You’re just lucky. That mutated spider gave you powers everyone envies.”
“If I had known, I never would’ve approved that meaningless experiment.”
“Your parents betrayed me, and now you’ve finished me.”
“I only lost to myself.”
“But don’t get too cocky. After I’m gone, all the defective mutant spiders in the lab will be unleashed on the entire city. I’ll…”
“Just shut up.”
Before Steve could finish his sentence, Xia Luo’s fist smashed into his head, exploding it on the spot.
“So annoying.”
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