The Symbiote's learning speed was astonishingly fast; Schiller had only just replicated this ability, and in merely one afternoon, the other voice in his mind could communicate with him through clear brainwaves. Although it could only express some emotions briefly, this was already quite remarkable.
After being able to communicate with this Symbiote, Schiller planned to start experimenting with its abilities. He thought this Symbiote was similar to Venom, believing that if he just shouted “Mask!” like in the movie, a sticky, gooey substance would emerge to envelop him, complete with two large White eyes, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and a long tongue.
The Symbiote could directly perceive the images Schiller imagined. It transmitted a series of denying brainwaves, repeatedly saying in Schiller's mind:
“I won't be gooey, I won't be gooey, I won't be gooey, I won't be gooey, I won't be gooey…”
It seemed as if it sensed that Schiller didn't particularly like the sticky feeling of the Symbiote.
To be honest, Schiller just didn't want to hurt this newborn little fellow; after all, it would be his capable assistant in the future. Schiller wasn't just dislike the gooey texture of the Symbiote; he found it quite intolerable.
No matter how powerful the Symbiote was, that texture, like a pile of mud, was truly unsettling.
Seemingly eager to prove it wasn't gooey, the Grey Mist, having just learned to communicate, took control of Schiller's body and stood up before Schiller could react. In an instant, Schiller found that the World in his eyes had changed.
He had lost his eyes, or rather, he had lost his entire tangible body, and gained thousands of sensors.
Schiller discovered that he could suddenly clearly perceive every detail of everything in the clinic's bedroom. These signals continuously poured into his brain, but it wasn't something he saw; it was something he felt.
His vision was nowhere near good enough to see the uneven details of every fiber in the quilt, yet he was feeling them now. Initially, a large amount of information from each sensor overwhelmed his brain, but very quickly, this information was processed by his other thinking organ, the Symbiote, and then fed back to Schiller's brain. Such an abundance of detail gave Schiller a sense of control over everything.
Following this, Schiller realized he seemed to be able to control this state, so he began to coordinate the work of all the sensors, allowing them to spread out as much as possible.
Until these sensors spread to the full-length mirror in the bedroom, Schiller saw that he had become a mass of grey mist.
Indeed, he had lost his entire body and transformed into an elusive mist.
Every factor in the mist became his sensor. Thousands of Symbiote factors quickly wove into a vast information collection network, missing no detail. As long as the factors could enter a place, there were no secrets for Schiller.
For instance, Schiller could even see the arrangement of iron elements in the electric kettle. If he concentrated, he could also sense the distribution of oxygen in the air, as well as the presence of other rare gases. This microscopic observation ability, reaching molecular and even approaching atomic levels, made the World appear grander and more magnificent than what Schiller, as a human, could observe.
“Thank goodness, you're not that mud-like Symbiote,” Schiller thought.
The Grey Mist seemed to feel praised, transmitting a very happy emotion. As if to further demonstrate its power, it directly controlled Schiller, and the mist he had become dispersed.
The grey mist began to spread out evenly, no longer gathering together like ordinary mist. Soon, Hell's Kitchen was enveloped in a hazy mist.
Large numbers of factors became more dispersed, yet they continuously transmitted various information to Schiller's brain. As the range expanded, this information grew by hundreds or thousands, but with the Symbiote helping him process it, Schiller could simply focus his attention on a specific area. For example, he could even sense a gang shootout happening five or six blocks away, in the heart of Hell's Kitchen.
He could even feel the trajectory of every bullet in the crossfire.
He focused his attention, trying to find a bald man with a target symbol on his forehead.
The Grey Mist instantly locked onto him, even transmitting all the microscopic elemental information of his surroundings back to Schiller's brain.
This ability was truly too powerful; wherever there was mist, no one could escape Schiller's eyes.
Schiller felt that if his own brain had to process so much complex information, he would probably go insane on the spot, but this Symbiote seemed to have such an ability innately.
In a dense fog, the information returned by every factor could be classified, filtered, and concentrated by it at an extremely fast speed. In a very short process, Schiller only needed to focus his attention on what he wanted to know, and he would naturally know it.
He was like someone playing a City simulation game from a God's perspective, able to observe all movements within the mist at any time, with no detail escaping the penetration of the Grey Mist factors.
Additionally, these magical factors could penetrate the interior of objects to cause destruction, such as breaking down stable molecular structures, causing objects to instantly turn to dust.
But the Grey Mist told him that this ability only worked on things with stable molecular structures and could not be interfered with by any other forces, otherwise, it would also be unable to exert influence.
But this was truly a powerful enough ability.
When returning to human form, Schiller could choose to gather his body in any mist-filled place, meaning that within the range the Grey Mist could cover, he could disappear in one place and suddenly appear in another an infinite number of times.
However, this could not completely replace teleportation, because transforming into Grey Mist, the Grey Mist dispersing, condensing, and then transforming back into human form required a certain amount of time, and was not as fast as teleportation.
Things in Marvel were temporarily concluded. Daredevil Matt was recovering, and Little Spider wanted to follow Stark to learn how to be a Super Hero, but unfortunately, he had final exams coming up and had to catch up on missed lessons, so he didn't have much time to wander around. Stark was annoyed by that bald man Nick Fury and had been hiding in his laboratory tinkering with mechs all day, not going out much. So Schiller took a nap and returned to the DC World.
Not long after returning to DC, Schiller discovered a troubling aspect of the Symbiote within him.
Back in the DC World, Schiller was organizing his equipment. Among them, due to Jonathan's arrest, the Fear Toxin was running low. Fortunately, he had almost cleared out Jonathan's previous stock, and the remaining Fear Toxin he had was concentrated, high-quality stuff.
He was taking out the remaining Fear Toxin to dilute it, preparing to put it into spray bottles for easy use.
Fear Toxin had no effect on Schiller, so he didn't need to cover himself completely during experiments like Jonathan. In his entire apartment, the only two living beings, Schiller and Pikachu, were not afraid of this Fear Toxin, so Schiller didn't care if it leaked out during experiments.
Additionally, he had no background in chemistry education. When diluting, he probably violated about two hundred laboratory rules per minute; not wearing gloves or a gas mask were minor offenses. Therefore, after he finished each time, the room would basically be filled with low concentrations of Fear Toxin.
This time was no different. After a series of extremely unconventional chemical dilution operations, Schiller managed to decant the Fear Toxin into different spray bottles. But then, a series of excited signals suddenly came from his brain.
“This is tasty, this is tasty, this is tasty, this is tasty, this is tasty, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat…”
Schiller was stunned. Was this Symbiote saying Fear Toxin was tasty?
He suddenly remembered the comic's setting for Symbiotes, especially for Venom. The reason Venom could eat chocolate instead of human brains was because both contained a substance called “phenylethylamine.”
This is a chemical that excites the human brain, and it is found in both human brains and chocolate.
Could Fear Toxin also contain it?
Schiller thought about it. This was indeed very possible. Fear Toxin induces the deepest fears in people's brains and suddenly activates their negative emotions. It's hard to say whether Jonathan used this chemical when making this toxin.
Now it seems he not only used it but also quite a lot.
“How do you want to eat it?” Schiller asked in his mind.
The Symbiote didn't seem to understand; it only knew that the substance in front of it was very appealing. Schiller had no choice but to take out a bottle of diluted Fear Toxin and spray it directly into his nose.
He instantly felt the Symbiote in his mind become excited, constantly shouting in his head: “Tasty, tasty, tasty, tasty, not enough, not enough, not enough, not enough, more, more, more, more…”
Well, Schiller thought, Symbiotes must have quite an appetite. He simply took out a small bottle of undiluted, liquid Fear Toxin and directly poured it into his mouth and drank it.
This stuff had no taste, but in an instant, he could feel the Symbiote inside him, seemingly so excited it was a little disoriented.
It gibbered a long string of brainwaves that Schiller couldn't understand at all, then shouted with all the words it had just learned in Schiller's mind.
Finally, after a while, a mist began to emanate from Schiller's body. This mist was deeper than ordinary Grey Mist, becoming somewhat dark. Schiller sniffed it and thought it might be Fear Toxin.
Well, Schiller thought, it seems that high-concentration Fear Toxin is like strong liquor to the Symbiote; the Grey Mist got drunk directly.
Moreover, the Symbiote's reaction after getting drunk was somewhat similar to a human's: first, it threw a drunken fit, talked a lot of nonsense, and then it threw up.
The mist around Schiller should be what the Grey Mist threw up after getting drunk.
The Grey Mist recovered quite quickly, but after recovering, it still wanted to ask Schiller for more to drink, which Schiller sternly refused.
But it was clearly not giving up, whimpering and feeling very wronged in Schiller's mind.
Schiller was helpless. How did his Symbiote become a drunkard?