All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

As Peter packed his backpack and walked out of the school gate, the setting sun was painting the Queens skyline a dirty orange.

He was stopped at the corner.

Li emerged from the shadow of the telephone pole, hands in his pockets, his movements as casual as if he were waiting for an old friend.

Those dark eyes looked at Peter, a slight smile playing on his lips, conveying a sense of "I already know the answer."

"You're Spider-Man, right?"

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Peter stopped and glanced at him.

"Yes."

Li's expression paused for a moment.

It was a very subtle change—his pupils dilated slightly, and the curve of his lips froze for a fraction of a second; he clearly hadn't expected this answer.

According to the normal script, the other party should deny it first, then he should present evidence, go through rounds of bargaining, and finally reveal his trump card when the atmosphere is most tense.

He prepared many things, but none of them came in handy.

Peter simply said "yes".

This rendered all his preparations futile.

"...You admit it just like that?" Li's tone was tinged with disbelief.

"You've already asked, why shouldn't I tell you?" Peter pulled his backpack strap up slightly, his expression calm. "What do you want?"

Li paused for two seconds, as if reorganizing his disrupted thoughts.

Then he exhaled softly, took his hands out of his pockets, and spread them out, making a gesture of "no hostility".

"I need your help."

Peter didn't say anything.

"To be precise, it's cooperation." Lee's tone became serious. "Are you aware of the news about those rocket launches over Queens in recent months?"

Peter certainly knew.

The news report said that a private technology company was conducting commercial spaceflight tests, and the transmission frequency was abnormally high, but each time it was said to be "experiment failure" or "data collection".

He had come across this company before when he was searching for another time traveler, but the company was very mysterious and he didn't find anything useful.

"I know." Peter nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"That's the company I founded." Lee was waiting for Peter Parker's shocked expression, but he was disappointed.

"I've been launching probes into low Earth orbit for the past few months, not for any commercial tests, but to look for something."

"What are you looking for?" Peter had a vague idea of ​​what he was looking for.

"A parasitic life form from outer space."

Peter's pupils dilated slightly.

Symbiote – Venom!

"It took me four months and seventeen launches to finally bring back the samples in the return capsule three days ago." Li reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass test tube.

The test tube contained a black mass, like solidified tar, with a cold blue sheen on its surface.

It lay quietly curled up at the bottom of the tube, showing no signs of life, but the hairs on the back of Peter's neck stood on end almost the instant he saw it.

The thing was moving, wriggling extremely slowly, almost imperceptibly, like a living creature testing the temperature.

"You carry it with you at all times?" Peter's tone changed.

"The dormant sample is very safe." Li held the test tube up to his eyes as if admiring a work of art. "Magnetic confinement container, plus cryogenic suppression. It can't even parasitize a single ant now."

Peter stared at the black mass.

Spider-Sense remained silent, but his instincts, which didn't require any superpowers, were also sounding the alarm—this thing shouldn't exist on Earth, much less in a high school student's pocket.

"You said you needed my help." Peter looked up from the test tube. "What exactly did you mean?"

Li took back the test tube and put it back into his pocket.

"When a symbiote first binds to a host, it needs a sufficiently strong, genetically stable, and compatible carrier to establish a baseline," he said, his tone becoming serious. "Otherwise, it will devour the host."

Peter knew all this, of course. He'd seen Spider-Man before, and he knew exactly how terrifying that thing was.

Enhancing the host's strength in all aspects is only part of the story; more importantly, it corrupts the host's mind, ultimately turning the host into someone who is not themselves.

However, this was Venom from the original Spider-Man. In the movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Marvel changed Venom's backstory.

However, coincidentally, the Venom symbiote did not appear in the movie The Amazing Spider-Man, so Peter didn't know what special abilities the symbiote had.

"You want me to be the host?" Peter asked.

"It's not permanent; it's just to help it achieve its first stable bond, after which I will take it back," Li said. "Don't worry, we've already prepared the recycling process."

Peter was silent for a few seconds, looking at him.

Having said all that, he was now 100% certain that the person in front of him was another time traveler.

An ordinary person, without any superpowers, simply traveled from another world. With just his hands and what he knew, he managed to create a technology company, launch seventeen rockets into the sky, and retrieve the symbiote from outer space.

Just to find a way to become stronger.

"You're much better than I thought," Peter said.

Li Weiwei tilted her head slightly, clearly not expecting those words.

"I'm serious." Peter pulled his backpack strap up a bit. "Four months ago I was struggling to pay rent, and you're already the boss of a high-tech company. The difference is..."

"...I just benefited from the information gap," Li said, his tone a little softer than before. "Knowing where the treasure is, digging it up is always easier than exploring it."

"There's a river between knowing and doing," Peter said. "Most people don't even get to the riverbank."

Li didn't reply. The air was quiet for a few seconds, and the sunset grew even darker.

Then Li put his hand into his pocket.

When he took it out again, there was a black card between his fingers.

He flipped his wrist and handed over the card.

It was a metallic bank card with no bank logo on the surface, only a laser-etched serial number.

"This is $100,000."

Peter didn't answer.

"Deposit," Li said, his tone regaining its calm and certainty. "After it's done, I'll give you whatever amount you want."

He handed the card forward again.

"Or you can use a symbiote if you need one. There are many symbiotes brought back from outer space; this is just one of them."

"Have you ever conducted live experiments?" Peter suddenly asked.

"It's been done on animals, but not on humans yet. Gene matching is difficult enough, but finding genetically matched volunteers is even more difficult," Li shook his head.

"I need to visit your company." Peter was actually quite interested in the symbiotes in this world.