Marvel's Venom, starting with a Hydra undercover agent.

"Damn it! How can there be so many lizardmen? Just how well prepared is he?" Looking at the lizardmen running around on the ground below, Holm felt a chill run down his spine.

He always felt something was wrong, because there were far too many of these lizardmen. There weren't nearly this many people who had gone missing during this period. Where did Dr. Lizard find all these people?

"We're almost there, get ready! That's where the most lizardmen are around," Spider-Woman's voice rang out again, reminding Holm.

Holm was also looking around. They were not far from Stark Tower, and this was the area with the most lizardmen.

One of New York City’s former landmarks now resembles a lizardman’s lair, crawling with lizardmen with wild, yellow eyes.

They stood on the ground, climbed on the walls, and hid in the shadows, their heads slowly moving in sync with Holm and Spider-Woman's movements. Pairs of eyes shone in the dim light of the swaying searchlights, creating a chilling effect.

Holm and Spider-Woman landed lightly on the roof of the building next door, then stood up back to back, preparing to clear out the lizardmen here first.

"Roar!!!"

With a chorus of roars, one lizardman after another charged toward them, their claws gleaming coldly in the night.

"Get ready to wreak havoc!" Holm said to Venom in his mind.

At the same time, black, viscous liquid began to gush from his hands, forming two jet-black blades that continuously chopped off the lizardmen's heads as he moved.

Several sharp tentacles also sprouted from his body, repeatedly piercing the lizardman's throat and tearing his neck apart amidst the venom's cackling laughter.

Gwen, who was fighting the lizardmen nearby, also caught a glimpse of Holm's battle out of the corner of her eye. The eerie tentacles and the hands that had turned into black blades once again refreshed her understanding of Holm.

Although Holm did not conceal his face, he, like her, harbored secrets.

Holm was focused on the battle and unaware of Gwen's thoughts. He revealed Venom because he knew the secret wouldn't last long.

Whether it's S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, they'll find out sooner or later, because Venom's presence is indeed difficult to hide, especially during combat.

Exposure certainly brings certain risks, but it also brings some opportunities. How to grasp this balance depends on how Holm operates.

This is also why he didn't fully unleash the power of Venom. It was slightly stronger but not outrageous; powerful but still controllable. This is Holm's standard, and also the level that Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. could accept.

In this situation, he can maximize his own interests and keep things under his control.

Under Holm's meat grinder-like fighting style, the lizardmen on the rooftop were quickly wiped out.

In a short time, the two of them had a chance to catch their breath and discuss their next move.

"Don't you think there are too many lizardmen?" Holm asked.

At this moment, he and Spider-Woman were sitting back-to-back in the very center of the rooftop, so that they could spot the lizardman climbing up immediately and react accordingly.

“I’ve specifically investigated the missing persons list. Even if you counted every single person in New York City every month, there wouldn’t be this many people. But right now, I estimate there are tens of thousands of lizard people just around these few buildings.”

“And since we arrived here, I haven’t found a single normal human being, not even a corpse, so… I have some uneasy feelings and suspicions,” Holm continued his analysis.

Hearing his words, Gwen, while adjusting her breathing, replied in a low voice, "Do you also think that many of the lizardmen here were transformed from ordinary citizens?"

Holm nodded in agreement and continued, "Not only that, I also suspect that Dr. Lizard can turn lizards into lizard people, in addition to turning humans into lizard people."

"What?!" Gwen was also surprised by Holm's idea: "How is that possible?"

"Although they are now called lizardmen, they still achieve this by influencing humans; human genes play a dominant role, otherwise they wouldn't have such intelligence and bodies..."

"If lizards were simply turned into lizardmen, how could they swell to such enormous sizes and possess human intelligence?..."

Gwen fell silent as she spoke, then frowned and began to think seriously, her mind racing with the information she had just seen in order to respond to Holm's guess.

Chapter 40, A Terrifying Speculation

While Gwen was thinking, Holm continued, "I'm not entirely clear on the specific scientific principles, but I trust what I see with my own eyes."

"When my companions entered the underground space to carry out the encirclement, they were attacked by lizardmen on the way. If it's just the missing lizardmen, how many could there be? Moreover, they are scattered in two parts, the experimental base and the roadside, so there are even fewer."

"In my experience, unless there is an absolute numerical advantage, my colleagues would not have been able to be driven back with their strength and firepower."

"So where did these lizardmen come from? At that time, they hadn't yet rushed onto the ground, and ordinary citizens shouldn't have been converted yet."

"And have you noticed that the lizardmen we've seen along the way are also different?"

“Some of the lizardmen are as ferocious as wild beasts. They rush up and attack us as soon as they see us. They don’t seem to be very intelligent either.”

"But some lizardmen were very calm. They hid in the dim shadows between the buildings and just watched quietly as the ferocious lizards attacked us."

“There are also some lizards that are somewhere in between, with some pieces of clothing or clothes that haven’t been torn. These should be ordinary citizens who were just transformed into lizard people before we arrived.”

Hearing Holm's reasoned and well-founded analysis, Gwen's thoughts gradually became clearer.

Thinking carefully about the lizardmen we encountered along the way, they can indeed be roughly divided into three categories, just as Holm said.

One type is the berserk lizardman, which is transformed from a lizard. They have lower intelligence and are more like beasts than humans.

One type is the lizardmen who were transformed long ago. They are calm and composed, possessing both outstanding intelligence and a strong physique, just like the two who were killed by Holm.

Finally, there were the ordinary citizens who had just been transformed into lizardmen within the encirclement. They were somewhere in between, not yet finding a balance between wildness and humanity. They looked somewhat dazed, and still had remnants of their clothes on them.

"Phew~ If that's the case, these serums will be even more effective," Gwen said, gripping the strap of her backpack tightly.

"Regardless of whether Dr. Lizard will be purified by the serum, the citizens who have just been converted and the lizard people who were converted before should be able to return to their human state, while the lizards may also return to their original state."

Holm nodded in agreement, then continued, "So we need to speed things up, otherwise the serum might not even have a chance to work."

"My partner told me that the government might end up using missiles to bombard the area and blast all the reptilians to pieces."

"Missile bombardment? How can they do this?" Gwen clearly couldn't accept this approach: "There are still many lizard people here who were transformed from ordinary civilians, and they can still be saved!"

"Don't your colleagues and government officials know? They just witnessed all of this from up there, so they should know better than we do."

Hearing Gwen's question, Holm smiled helplessly and shook his head, saying, "If my partner knew these things, she would have reminded me just now."

"But she didn't mention any of this, so now it seems that my partner probably didn't know either, and no one else told that 'fool' the actual situation."

"Given her personality, she probably shares your view and would never give up here easily."

"Moreover, she has a powerful background, so if she knew the truth, the implementation of this plan would be troublesome, so they did not tell her the truth."

"After all, if the situation gets out of control, we'll have to cover it up, and just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle."

Holm easily figured out why Daisy had been kept in the dark.

Judging from her personality and thoughts, if she knew that most of the lizardmen here were transformed from ordinary citizens, she would definitely not agree to the plan to clean up the area.

Based on what he has discovered so far, Daisy's background is very mysterious and profound.

Grant Ward once said that when Phil Coulson talked to her on the phone, it was in the kind of state he only had with a very small group of close friends.

If that's the case, then Daisy's real background must be at least on par with Phil Coulson, or even higher.

As Holm pondered these thoughts, he patted Gwen on the shoulder and said, "To give us more time, I told her my guesses and findings while I was talking to you, so she should be able to buy us some more time as well."

"What we need to do now is not only to stop Dr. Lizard from using his reagents on the instrument, but also to replace his reagents with our serum so that the antidote can spread to the maximum extent with the help of the instrument."

Gwen nodded solemnly upon hearing this. After learning that the citizens had been transformed into lizardmen and that the government planned to use missiles to clean up the land, she became very tense.

Her desire to stop Dr. Lizard grew even stronger.

......

Outside the encirclement, the rooftop of a building was brightly lit.

A dozen or so technicians were sitting at their desks, looking at their computers, nervously compiling data, and constantly updating the situation within the encirclement via satellite.

After summarizing the situation, a man walked over to Phil Coulson, who was standing by the French windows, and handed him the folder.

"Sir, this is the latest situation. The lizardmen have been completely contained within the encirclement and are being suppressed by our personnel and firepower, preventing them from spreading further..."

Upon hearing the man's words, Phil Coulson, who was standing by the French windows, put down his binoculars, took the documents, and began to look through them.

A moment later, he handed the document back to the man next to him and was about to say something when the door was suddenly kicked open.

As everyone looked on in surprise, Daisy was standing in the kicked-open front door, holding a phone in her hand, her face tense and cold. The moment she saw Phil Coulson, she quickly walked towards him.

“Continue monitoring.” Phil Coulson looked at Daisy walking towards him, then patted the man next to him on the shoulder and said.

The man shrewdly picked up the document, then quickly returned to his workstation to continue his tasks.

Daisy, with her long legs, had already walked up to Phil Coulson and handed him the phone.

Chapter 41, Thirty Minutes

“Daisy, the situation is urgent…” Phil Coulson said with a hint of helplessness, looking at Daisy, whose pretty face was tense.

“I know, so just answer the phone.” Daisy said, stubbornly pushing the phone forward a little further.

Seeing this, Phil Coulson seemed to understand something, and then answered the phone with a helpless wry smile.

"Boss, what are your orders?"

"Are you sure you want to pause? We've only just contained their spread, and if we wait any longer, who knows what other unexpected things might happen?"

"Serum? Is that even possible?"

"Half an hour? I understand... Okay."

After finishing his call, Phil Coulson handed the phone to Daisy and asked, "Did Holm Clint tell you that?"

Daisy shook her head and said, "No, I figured it out myself."

"You didn't even prepare before lying. Your conversation with him is still on your phone." Phil Coulson regained his composure, pointing at Daisy's phone with a faint smile.

Daisy was slightly taken aback by his words, then said somewhat angrily, "How could you lie to me?!"

“I was just saying, it seems you still need to practice more.” Phil Coulson smiled and shrugged.

Although Daisy's work ability has improved a lot, her professionalism as an agent is still lacking. He tricked her into revealing what she wanted to know with just one sentence. Daisy's reaction and expression were too easy to betray her.

After saying that, Phil Coulson also put away his smile and said to Daisy with a slightly serious expression, "Remember to tell him that although the plan is suspended, it will only last for a maximum of 30 minutes."

"If he can't do what he says within these 30 minutes, then our plan will proceed as scheduled."

Hearing Phil Coulson's words, Daisy nodded, pursing her lips, but after thinking for a moment, she still hesitated and said, "Wouldn't half an hour be too rushed..."

"Although he's working with Spider-Woman, there are only two of them. Can't we cooperate with their operations and provide them with some assistance?"

Hearing Daisy's words, Phil Coulson sighed and said, "It's already very difficult to get this half hour. In the end, it's up to the big shots at the top to decide this matter."

"As for the help you mentioned, our strength is limited right now, and it's already difficult enough to maintain the encirclement and prevent it from spreading."

"Giving him 30 minutes is also for this reason; this matter needs to be resolved quickly and cannot be delayed any longer."

“I understand.” Daisy frowned upon hearing this, and at the same time, her eyes looked through the floor-to-ceiling window at the area surrounded by searchlights in the distance.