I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 575 The Mystery Club President
Back in Queens, Peter resumed his daily routine—or rather, his vacation. It was hard to believe that almost half of summer vacation was already over, and that a whole month of it had been Kangzhi's reign.

While most people possess memories of a timeline where the Kang Dynasty never occurred—the timeline where the Avengers successfully boarded Kang's flagship and defeated him—Peter spent a full month of his summer vacation within the Kang Dynasty, and upon his return, he still had some cleanup work to do.

"There was also massacre, even more massacre..."

Peter muttered to himself as he pondered, as if the massacre and his host had vanished without a trace.

Logically speaking, symbiotes should be easy to find, especially villainous symbiotes like this one—symbiotes need phenylethylamine as an energy source for survival, and the simplest way to obtain this substance is through the human brain.

So theoretically, once a headless corpse like the one in the funeral home is found, the trail can be continued. But right now...

Could it be that I guessed wrong, and that the strange killer wasn't actually the mass murderer at all? That's possible, since symbiotes are generally afraid of fire, and the other party crawled out of an incinerator.

Peter frowned as he thought about it. His phone rang, and he picked it up, glanced at the message, and then picked it up again to leave.

Today is a date with Cindy, and since there's nothing troublesome in the police communication system, Peter plans to relax and clear his head first.

However, before leaving, he made two phone calls, the first of which was to Jessica.

"Hey, senior? How's the information on Cletus coming along? He was executed in November 2012... just like what I found."

The information Jessica found was the same as what Peter knew. He had already checked this information through the Avengers' system, which was why he thought the massacre no longer existed.

As for Cletus being a prisoner on Rikers Island, that's not even remotely related.

"But there's something strange." The senior student sat at home, accessing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system on her laptop and searching for relevant information: "A prison guard in Rikers Island's death row died a couple of days ago. The cause of death was said to be heart failure, but it seems there's something seriously wrong..."

Peter paused for a moment: "Just one prison guard died?"

“Yes, it’s strange that only one prison guard died, right? Generally speaking, if you’re planning to hide something, it’s best to eliminate all clues, not just one. If this prison guard was really guarding some cells that other prison guards couldn’t reach, then the other prison guards would also know about this area, so it wouldn’t achieve the initial effect of silencing him.”

This isn't a clue at all; it's more like a trap, a trap designed to lure others into investigating.

Such traps generally serve two purposes: one is to lure people into the trap and attack them, and the other is to set up a bunch of random distractions to create a smokescreen.

But the question is... why?
"Let's put aside all the clues for now, even the one that the enemy is a symbiote. What we can be sure of now is that a monster crawled out of the incinerator. This monster is a death row inmate from Rikers Island, but there are no recent death sentences for him."

Jessica reasoned on the phone: "Why?"

"Because someone wants to keep these death row inmates."

"why?"

"The murder was committed to conduct clandestine human experiments, and they needed to find test subjects."

Hydra or other organizations have done this kind of thing many times. For example, Luke Cage conducted experiments at a secret base on Rikers Island, which Peter even visited. "So... could this be an isolated case?"

Peter immediately understood Jessica's meaning. Unless it was a special case like the Captain's, an experiment couldn't possibly be conducted only once; this experiment had undoubtedly been performed many times. The reason it was only discovered now was because this time it was successful.

"Therefore, by investigating the death penalty records of major prisons and the cremation records of funeral homes, we can quickly find these dead people and study their characteristics—if any."

Peter rubbed his temples and followed his senior's line of reasoning: "The reason for cremation is to destroy evidence. Since these death row inmates are no longer on the records, no one will come to claim their ashes. Cremation is the fastest way to destroy the evidence generated by the failed experiment."

Peter's mind suddenly clicked, and he instantly understood the situation: "In other words, death row inmates must undergo rehabilitation during a specific period before their execution."

"Yes."

Jessica smiled with satisfaction, having already completed her deductions—she pulled up the Rikers Island surveillance footage from the 72 hours following the murder, searching for any clues.

"There are two missing video clips from Rikers Island. Not only these two, but it seems that all the relevant surveillance footage from the surrounding roads in the nearby time period is missing a few seconds. Do you know what that proves, Peter?"

The ability to destroy evidence on such a large scale within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system seems like a blatant attempt to cover something up. There's only one answer: those conducting these human experiments must be inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

Jessica received this answer with a long face. She already knew from Peter and Cindy at headquarters that there were a large number of Hydra agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

But when I actually experienced it, I was still shocked and troubled.

Jessica's reasoning had temporarily stalled, but conversely, she now had a wealth of information to investigate. Peter hung up and used Spider-Man's special phone to contact another person in charge of the investigation.

Venom Agent Lightning Thompson.

"Good morning, Agent Venom. Any discoveries about the enemy?"

"Hard to say."

Lightning sat pale-faced in front of an apartment building. The horrific scene inside terrified him. He couldn't believe that such horrific people existed, turning people into food and tableware.

He vomited outside for a long time and still wasn't quite recovered until Peter called.

"I'm not entirely sure if this is related to the guy we're tracking, but there's no doubt it's a vicious monster. Don't worry, Spider-Man, whatever this monster is, Agent Venom will bring it to justice!"

Listening to Lightning's jubilation, Peter sighed helplessly and then gave a reminder.

"If you need help, Lightning, let me know."

"I am always here."

(End of this chapter)