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Chapter 130: The Ouroboros Plan
Through the entire night, Batman laid an inescapable net across Hoffman Island.
Even if Ant-Man, the Hulk, the Lizard Professor, and Anti-Venom arrived simultaneously, Batman had prepared multiple contingency plans for each of them.
Without any delay, the moment his preparations were complete, Batman opened the containment unit.
"Robin, come onto me." Batman's voice rumbled low.
The symbiote's nature meant it wouldn't be infected by Earth's viruses. Batman wasn't concerned that exposing Venom to the air before bonding would infect him.
"No problem, Dad."
Venom spoke in a relaxed tone. The pitch-black symbiotic material spread rapidly, covering Batman's entire body in the blink of an eye.
"Once Anti-Venom appears, you must immediately retreat inside my body. Under no circumstances should you emerge," Batman commanded. "Otherwise I'll confiscate all your chocolate."
"I—I promise to be obedient!"
Venom was startled by Batman's threat. The phenylethylamine in chocolate had made it completely fall in love with this Earth snack. It promised without hesitation.
Batman raised his hand. An earth-yellow web strand shot outward, pulling his body into a tree's canopy where he concealed himself.
One... two...
Batman counted silently in his mind.
He wasn't just waiting for Anti-Venom's arrival. He was also waiting to see if—after Venom Robin bonded with him—the original Venom consciousness would reawaken.
Batman had concentrated all his mental energy. He wouldn't allow himself to experience that brief physical paralysis from Venom invading his consciousness again.
"Dad, your name is Bruce?"
"Dad, you were a god for a while? God of Knowledge? Where's that chair? I want to try sitting on it too."
"Dad, you have so many enemies. Joker, Scarecrow, Professor Pyg, Bane... Superman? He counts as your enemy too?"
"Don't worry, Dad. Your enemies are my enemies! We can defeat all opponents!"
"So there's more than one Robin? But they're not in this world. I'm Dad's favorite Robin."
"I want to wear that sixth-dimensional suit..."
The reawakening of Venom's consciousness that Batman had guarded against didn't occur. Venom Robin remained Venom Robin—capable of reading Batman's memories to a certain degree but showing no sign of probing his deepest recollections.
But one thing Batman hadn't anticipated: after bonding with him, Venom Robin seemed to have discovered treasure. It found everything in Batman's mind fascinating beyond measure.
"Robin, stay quiet. Don't try touching anything in those memories." Batman warned. "Three pieces of chocolate."
Between vigorous curiosity and craving for chocolate, Venom chose the latter without hesitation.
"Four pieces!"
"Then four it is." Batman spoke quietly.
Almost the instant Batman's words finished, a tall white figure descended from the sky, landing with a heavy thud on North Brother Island's shore.
Skin white and lustrous as pearls appeared perfectly smooth. But irregular pitch-black patterns and the face's pure blackness destroyed the pearl-white's holy impression, making it look quite grotesque.
Anti-Venom sensed Venom's presence. It had arrived.
Hoffman Island was perfectly silent except for occasional sounds of small birds flapping wings.
The instant Anti-Venom set foot on the island, it detected something wrong. This place overflowed with viruses—from smallpox to Ebola, virtually every virus capable of infecting humans existed here.
Symbiote senses alerted it to danger. But Anti-Venom's purification ability made it confident it could handle any toxin.
"I sense Venom's presence. How could that thing still be alive?"
"It's hiding on this island..."
Anti-Venom's voice was like nails scraping on glass. But before it could finish speaking, Venom's presence emerged from the Island once again.
"I don't know how it survived, but does it think the viruses on this island can threaten me? It's too naive."
Anti-Venom's mouth stretched nearly to both sides of its head. Without hesitation, it moved.
"Plan A: Smallpox, typhus, Ebola and other viruses present on the island pose no threat to Anti-Venom itself."
"But like a room filled with dust, every moment on the island, Anti-Venom will instinctively purify environmental viruses continuously."
"This creates sustained, low-intensity consumption."
Venom's presence flickered briefly then vanished. Batman constantly lured Anti-Venom to roam across the Island.
He wasn't worried Anti-Venom would immediately retreat after detecting the island's viruses. He'd prepared contingency plans.
Since Anti-Venom was advancing rather than retreating, Batman temporarily shelved those plans.
Those viruses lethal to humans required almost no effort for Anti-Venom to purify. The consumption to its symbiotic material was negligible.
For Batman, that was sufficient.
Currently, the Island held over one hundred biological pheromone lures created by Dr. Banner. These lures would activate one by one according to Batman's design, continuously guiding Anti-Venom around the island.
The lure placement seemed chaotic. But as Batman activated them sequentially, Anti-Venom's advancing trajectory never overlapped with previously purified areas.
Like a constantly tightening fishing net, the virus-containing range grew smaller and smaller. Anti-Venom finally moved from Hoffman Island's perimeter into the island's interior.
Simultaneously, along Anti-Venom's path, miniature sensors hidden in various corners collected data on Anti-Venom and transmitted it to Batman's suit.
"Plan B: Various island regions have been seeded overnight with numerous artificially cultivated viruses—high transmission but low lethality, like flu strains. They pose minimal danger to humans and minimal burden to symbiote purification abilities."
"This will make Anti-Venom lower its guard."
"But these viruses' characteristic is rapid reproduction—multiplying exponentially every moment. Anti-Venom will face surging processing volume like antivirus software suddenly facing massive network attacks."
As Anti-Venom followed the lures Batman had placed, stepping into the Island's interior range, Batman's second plan activated.
Simultaneously, Batman's suit custom-built for Anti-Venom began frantically calculating data from the sensors.
Batman used Anti-Venom's speed and method of clearing different viruses from Hoffman Island's perimeter to calibrate in real-time and confirm Anti-Venom's current purification capability threshold and level.
"If I already had nanotechnology, theoretically I could directly use nano-bacteriophages to dismantle Anti-Venom."
Batman's mask was a single one-way screen. He was currently recording all collected information in his mind.
"When Anti-Venom lowers its guard and truly enters the island's center, Plan C activates."
Plan C: Since Connors arrived on North Brother Island, Batman had obtained tissue samples from Professor Connors numerous times, secretly researching the "Ouroboros Plan" targeting him.
This was a plan for dealing with the Lizard Professor. But cells from the Lizard Professor combined with viruses formed one method for dealing with Anti-Venom.
After Anti-Venom purified this virus, its remaining genetic fragments would rapidly self-reorganize and regenerate at extreme speed, forming complete virus bodies again—trapping Anti-Venom in an infinite loop of purification, replication, purification.