Chapter 430: Symbiote Molding Candidates

Chapter 430: Chapter 430: Symbiote Molding Candidates

Although Darian spoke with great ambition, he knew in his heart that with the current strength of the Dark Legion, they were not yet qualified to directly challenge Thanos.

His Dark Legion had just emerged from the Beginner Village (novice village). Compared to Thanos’ Black Order, which spanned star systems, they were far too inferior. Actively seeking them out would be courting death. It was better to lie low and develop first.

In the following days, the entire legion began to operate at high speed like a precise machine.

The Moon Base was designated as a transit hub, with large space portals open 24/7. Sokovia’s engineering troops and transport fleets passed through the portals batch after batch, heading to Apokolips, transporting building materials and industrial equipment to lay production lines on the Planet’s surface as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Sokovia’s military forces also began to deploy to Apokolips.

Leading the team was Sokovia Captain Bucky.

He wore a new combat suit made of Vibranium alloy, and even his alloy arm had been replaced with Vibranium. It was equipped with various weapon systems and auxiliary functions. It could be said that the cost of this arm alone was enough to buy countless fighter jets. In short, being rich meant being willful.

Due to not being brainwashed for a long time, Bucky’s memory blockade had subtly loosened, and fragmented images began to uncontrollably pop up in his mind, along with an unforgettable blonde figure.

According to Darian, that figure was his childhood sweetheart and first love, Stevie Rogers.

Bucky tried hard to imagine a curvaceous blonde beauty, but for some reason, every time, that figure would eventually turn into a well-endowed, perky-buttocked blonde muscleman.

This was terrifying!

Darian said this was his emotional trauma, imagining his first love as his best buddy.

Even more terrifying, he had started to recall fragmented memories of growing up and sleeping together with that person.

According to Darian’s memory recovery process, the next steps should be bathing together, exchanging saliva, disrobing together, and doing...

This absolutely cannot happen!

To prevent himself from overthinking, Bucky immediately applied to be transferred to the cosmic front to expand Sokovia’s territory, moving away from Earth, a place full of dangerous memories, and hoping to get rid of these memories through high-intensity combat.

Accompanying him were several Interstellar Warriors, as well as an entire squadron of Extremis Soldiers and Super Soldiers.

After this period of development, the number of Interstellar Warriors had increased by a few, but due to the lack of talent, the third phase of the enhancement plan had been stalled without substantial progress.

But it wasn’t a big problem; the Universe never lacked talent.

Once the Dark Legion officially stepped into the Star Sea, the enhancement plan would naturally experience an explosive growth.

On the other side, Talos also began relocating his people to Apokolips.

Large numbers of Skrulls settled down on Apokolips with their families, with only a small portion remaining on Earth, scattered across the World as spies, maintaining a global intelligence network for Sokovia.

As for whether these copycat aliens would cause any trouble after leaving Earth, Darian wasn’t worried at all.

Once his military forces were deployed on Apokolips, this Planet would officially be incorporated into Sokovia’s territory, becoming his domain, and enjoying all the buffs of a monarch.

So Darian simply granted all Skrulls Sokovian nationality, and now these Skrulls had become legal citizens of Sokovia.

With the monarch’s inherent twenty points of Base favorability as a safety net, coupled with their entire race settling on Apokolips, unless they collectively went crazy and wanted a racial ’match-three’ game, no one would be so foolish as to stir up trouble.

Of course, Darian would not waste the Skrulls’ vast human resources.

He instructed Talos to conscript a group of powerful Super Skrulls and incorporate them into the Dark Legion as formal combat forces.

These Super Skrulls could all use one or more superpowers, and their combat effectiveness far exceeded that of ordinary soldiers, making them excellent elite units.

As for the rest of the Skrulls, they were assigned to various construction departments to contribute to the construction of the Apokolips Base.

With the hard work of the Skrulls, these ’beast-of-burden’ aliens, the construction speed of the Apokolips Base was astonishingly fast, with buildings rising from the ground.

It’s just that the scale Darian wanted was a bit too large, roughly the size of several Earth countries combined, so these ’beast-of-burden’ aliens would probably have to work themselves to death for quite some time.

At this point, Darian’s Dark Legion had begun to take shape.

The entire legion was mainly divided into three parts: the Sokovian Army, the Ravager Ravagers, and the Skrulls.

Although they were still far from top cosmic powers like the Black Order and the Asgardian Army, dealing with other cosmic forces was not a problem.

The only thing Darian was not satisfied with was that he didn’t have many high-end combatants under his command.

Bucky, Yondu, and Nebula barely counted, but their combat power was still some distance from true powerhouses.

Looking at Thanos, his Black Order generals were each more formidable than the last.

Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Black Dwarf—any one of them could be pulled out and stand alone as a BOSS-level entity.

Darian did have two trump cards in Wanda and Pietro, with Chaos Magic and super speed, whose combat power was not inferior to the Black Order generals.

But their personalities were such that they were not suitable for constant campaigning like Bucky and the others, and Sokovia also needed someone to oversee it. No one could guarantee that something unexpected wouldn’t suddenly pop up on Earth.

Darian pondered for a moment, then threw a Pure Iron Poké Ball to summon Max, hoping to slightly make up for the lack of high-end combat power.

Max’s auxiliary role for him was no longer significant.

He couldn’t handle high-level battles, and wasn’t needed for low-level ones. Keeping him around was a waste, so it was better to let Max contribute to his conquest.

But this was still far from what Darian had imagined.

In his vision, he needed at least a group of BOSS-level henchmen around him to show the prestige of him, the dignified Lord Doom.

As he was wondering where to recruit BOSSes, Talos, who had already been promoted to Darian’s number one henchman, immediately stepped forward.

He said eagerly, "Leader, if you need help, I do have a suitable candidate here."

Darian raised an eyebrow, becoming somewhat interested: "Oh? Who is it?"

Talos turned around and waved behind him, and a figure quickly walked forward.

He introduced, "She is my daughter, named G’iah."

[NPC: G’iah]

[Favorability: 60]

[Evaluation: Green-skinned Dragon Mother, beautiful when not smiling, a Muggle when smiling]

Talos proudly said, "This child has extremely high talent, a rare genius among our Skrulls in a hundred years. She, like Gravik, can fuse multiple special genes, and her compatibility is no worse than Gravik’s."

G’iah stood aside, her eyes full of reverence as she looked at Darian: "Leader, I am G’iah, and I am very willing to serve you."

To have a Planet of their own as a new home had been the long-cherished wish of all Skrulls for many years.

For Darian, who had helped them realize this wish, the Skrulls held deep admiration and respect, and G’iah was naturally no exception.

Moreover, she learned more of the truth from her own father, knowing that Darian was not one of their Skrulls, and felt an added sense of gratitude.

Darian asked curiously, "G’iah, how many genes have you fused?"

G’iah immediately replied, "Currently only four: Abomination, Extremis Soldier, Groot, and Luke Cage."

"Good."

Darian nodded slightly, a look of approval on his face.

The limit for ordinary Skrulls was usually fusing three special genes, and those were typically more common types.

Once it involved special genes like Hulk’s, which were full of gamma energy, the body would experience severe rejection.

G’iah being able to fuse four special genes, all of which were decent genetic templates, indeed showed outstanding talent.

However, she still couldn’t compare to Gravik back then.

That guy had fused at least ten types of genes, even incorporating Captain Marvel’s genes, forcing Darian to use his most treasured items to defeat him.

But Gravik’s fusion was forced, with the constant risk of collapse, while G’iah took a steady approach, fusing gradually. The nature of the two was completely different.

Darian looked at G’iah and immediately decided: "From now on, you are one of the Four Dark Heavenly Kings of the Dark Legion. All Skrulls are under your command. Don’t disappoint me."

Upon hearing this, G’iah’s face instantly lit up with joy, and she grinned: "Thank you, Leader! I will definitely not let you down!"

Darian watched her face, which completely broke when she smiled, and his mouth twitched.

Such a good-looking face, why did it exude a goofy aura when she smiled?

He lightly coughed and said seriously, "Smile less in the future. We are a serious organization."

"Yes, Leader."

G’iah immediately stopped giggling, instantly reverting to her cold expression.

Darian then included Bucky, Yondu, Nebula, and Max as the Four Dark Heavenly Kings, just to make up the numbers.

So, some might ask, why are there five people in the Four Dark Heavenly Kings?

It’s simple: because Max is the ’Darkness,’ and the other four are the ’Four Heavenly Kings.’ Together, they are the Dark Four Heavenly Kings.

However, these positions are not fixed, adopting a merit-based system where whoever has the ability takes the seat. Whether they can maintain their position depends on their own capabilities.

After arranging the deployment on Apokolips, Darian didn’t linger and immediately teleported to Sokovia’s Hive Research Institute.

Sokovia’s research institute was not built on the surface but deep underground. The entire facility had a complex structure and a vast area, with laboratories of all sizes nested like a beehive, hence it was also called the Hive.

As a player, Darian had a common habit shared by most players.

That is, he wanted to pick up everything he saw, regardless of whether it was useful or not.

Having traversed so many places and crossed countless servers, the items he collected were innumerable and diverse, so much so that he himself couldn’t remember how many things he had collected.

Each time, he kept the useful items, and the remaining unused items were all packaged and handed over to the HYDRA research team.

Darian walked along the futuristic corridor, and through the observation windows on both sides, he could see HYDRA’s research team analyzing and experimenting with various items.

For example, Extremis, Super Soldier Serum, Fear Gas, Super Steroid, Plant Toxins...

However, these items were considered routine projects in the Hive, relatively safe and controllable.

Truly dangerous items were kept in deeper areas.

Those areas were heavily isolated. Once any sign of loss of control appeared, the entire area could be fully sealed within seconds, with physical isolation and emergency response systems activated simultaneously, stifling the risk deep underground and absolutely preventing it from affecting the upper levels.

Of course, even the most dangerous experimental subjects were limited.

After all, this was his territory, and Darian naturally wouldn’t follow Atlantis’ example of detonating nuclear weapons in their own territory.

He passed through the main corridor and walked deeper into the Hive, eventually passing through a thick alloy door and entering a laboratory.

Inside the laboratory, Baron Strucker and several researchers were in front of a cylindrical cultivation tank. Inside the tank, a viscous black liquid slowly wriggled, occasionally changing shape like a living creature.

This thing was none other than the Venom Symbiote that Darian had brought back from the Wasteland Universe.

Darian walked to the cultivation tank, took a look, and asked, "How’s the research going?"

As soon as Strucker saw him enter, he reported truthfully: "It’s not going very smoothly. This symbiote has possessed too many hosts, and its body is mixed with a large amount of chaotic memory fragments, leading to its extremely unstable mental state. All experimental hosts, without exception, are affected after contact, falling into extreme madness and completely losing their minds."

Darian was not surprised to hear this.

The relationship between a symbiote and its host has never been a one-sided parasitic one, but rather a bidirectional penetration (infiltration). The host’s personality influences the symbiote, and the symbiote then carries this influence to the next host.

The Venom’s original host in the Wasteland Universe had died countless years ago. Over the years, it had passed through countless hosts, stitching together all sorts of chaotic memories. It would be strange if it weren’t insane.

However, Darian felt that the fundamental reason probably lay at the source.

If he remembered correctly, in the comics, Venom’s first host was Wade, that goofy character whose mental structure was comparable to a septic tank. Anyone who came into contact with him would lose sanity.

Perhaps Venom’s fear of noise was a sequela from being tormented by Wade’s incessant chatter.

Darian waved his hand: "Since that’s the case, then activate the Stud Plan."

Anyone who has read the comics knows that Venom’s true power never lies in its own combat ability, but in its incredibly absurd reproductive capability.

Venom can sexually reproduce and split into brand new symbiotes, and these offspring are often stronger than the parent body, with increasingly violent tempers, often staging classic scenes of sons chasing and beating their fathers.

The idea behind the Stud Plan is this.

Since Venom itself cannot be used normally, then take another route.

Use Venom as a breeding mother to mass-produce symbiote offspring and create a symbiote army.

A researcher spoke up to remind: "There’s a problem that needs to be considered in advance. The personality of symbiote offspring will be directly influenced by the parent. If the first host’s personality is negative, the offspring that split off will also become extreme and violent, which is not conducive to our control."

"Therefore, the candidate for the first host must lean towards the positive, using a stable personality template to neutralize the negative imprints on the parent body."

The researcher paused: "But the problem is, we don’t have such a candidate here."

They knew their own situation best. As the largest evil organization on Earth, HYDRA had all sorts of people under its command, but it lacked good people. Finding an upright person would probably be harder than finding an alien.

If the symbiotes were molded using them, they would probably mass-produce a nest of super antisocial symbiotes.

Darian glanced at the researcher and smiled slightly: "Very good, very good. To be able to think of this point, you are indeed a talent. Report to the Talent Department tomorrow."

"Ah?"

The researcher immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The Talent Department was the most important department in the research institute, full of talents, responsible for being researched.

Strucker shook his head at the sight.

These researchers really only read books. Saying that they didn’t have such a candidate here effectively included Darian himself.

Darian ignored the researcher who was being dragged out and said cheerfully, "However, regarding the candidates for symbiote molding, I already have two good choices in mind. You just need to hand over the reproduced symbiotes to me."

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