Times Have Changed

Fifteenth floor, no elevator.

He certainly picked an interesting place!

With the elevator out of commission, the only option was to take the emergency staircase.

Russell approached the emergency staircase next to the elevator, pushing open the fire door to take a look.

At a glance, the emergency staircase seemed normal.

Aside from not being cleaned for a long time, that is.

However, in a corner of the emergency staircase, Russell spotted something unusual.

Something that definitely shouldn't be here.

Impressively cautious!

Truly deserving of a man who could have the hotel charge a four gold coin urgent fee.

The small device situated in the stairwell wasn't anything else but a mini surveillance camera, and it was wireless.

Though the performance of these mini surveillance cameras might not match conventional ones, the advantage was that they were compact enough to easily be overlooked.

Having discovered the mini camera in the stairwell, Russell was reasonably certain that the Punisher was currently in the safehouse.

Wireless mini cameras like this had limited battery life and would only be installed when necessary.

If the Punisher wasn't in the safehouse, there would be no reason for them to be activated.

Closing the fire door, he checked a few other emergency staircases.

As expected, all the emergency staircases were equipped with these mini cameras.

Since all the emergency staircases had cameras, the next steps were quite straightforward.

Taking a deep breath, Russell transformed into his Venom form.

In the next moment, he, resembling a black monstrous entity, dashed into the emergency staircase without hesitation.

It's just the fifteenth floor, right?

No problem!

With his enhanced physiology further bolstered by the symbiote, he surged up the staircase like a shadow.

Sprinting up fifteen floors might take some time for an ordinary person, but for Russell, it was no challenge.

Just as Russell, resembling a black monster, charged out of the emergency staircase, a flashbang and a frag grenade landed in front of him.

Boom! Boom!

The flashbang and the frag grenade exploded in rapid succession.

The flashbang went off a moment before the frag grenade, its blinding light and deafening noise causing Russell's steps to falter.

The blinding light held no harm for Russell in his Venom form.

However, the tremendous noise did pose some slight inconvenience.

One of the symbiote's vulnerabilities happened to be soundwaves.

Although the hertz of the flashbang's noise didn't fall between the symbiote's most intolerable range of four to six thousand hertz, it still caused a minor stress response within it.

To be precise, a part of the symbiote on his body reacted to the stimulus.

Several dozen black tendrils erupted uncontrollably, as if attempting to detach from his body.

Yet, this stress reaction lasted for less than a second before vanishing completely.

However, at this moment, the shockwave and flames from the frag grenade arrived.

Compared to the flashbang, the frag grenade's effects were even less substantial.

The concussive force that could be deadly for an ordinary person was akin to a light breeze brushing against Russell now.

Though flames were another vulnerability of the symbiote, the flames generated by the grenade were too short-lived to leave any marks.

The Punisher, although unaware of the symbiote's vulnerabilities, was fortunate, to say the least.

In a serendipitous collision, the flashbang and the frag grenade coincidentally struck two of the symbiote's weak points.

With a few more instances like this, he'd surely uncover these weaknesses.

Unfortunately for him, his good fortune had reached its limit.

In the next second following the detonations of the flashbang and frag grenade, the monstrous Russell arrived before the Punisher. His demonic claws swung towards the Punisher.

The Punisher was truly a man worthy of being rated as a "Level 10 Agent".

In this critical moment, he placed the rifle he held across his chest, using it as a shield.

Thud!

Russell's right claw swept across the rifle in the Punisher's hands, the immense force directly shattering the weapon.

The shattered fragments scattered all around.

The tremendous force transmitted through the rifle impacted the Punisher, sending him flying.

Before landing, the Punisher drew his pistol, firing relentlessly at Russell.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang...

The bullets hit Russell predictably.

Then, they bounced off.

Witnessing this scene, the Punisher's expression grew extremely grave.

Having realized that bullets couldn't harm Russell, the Punisher swiftly ceased his gunfire.

Upon landing, without a moment's hesitation, he rolled, discarding his pistol and drawing two grenades.

Ripping the pins, he hurled one grenade forward and the other behind him towards Russell.

At Russell's current speed, evading the grenades the Punisher threw was no challenge at all.

However, he didn't do so.

At the exact moment the Punisher threw the grenades, Russell manipulated the black tendrils to retrieve a pistol from his body.

Though Russell, in his Venom form, wasn't convenient for using firearms, it didn't mean he couldn't shoot a gun.

At present, the black tendrils were as good as his hands.

Although these black tendrils looked nothing like human hands from the outside, that was inconsequential.

Bang! Bang!

The moment the Punisher hurled the grenades towards himself, Russell, with the black tendrils under his control, fired the pistol.

Bullet Curving technique!

The bullets curved through the air, accurately striking the airborne grenades.

Boom! Boom!

The struck grenades exploded as expected!

In reality, even without the Bullet Curving technique, Russell could have hit the two airborne grenades.

However, straightforward bullets were somewhat lacking in creativity.

In the midst of the explosion's sound, Russell manipulated two more black tendrils to draw another pistol and a rifle from his body.

A symbiote that was only capable of melee and cold weapons couldn't be considered an exceptional one.

The greatest distinction between humans and animals lay in humans' use of tools.

Russell's current Venom wasn't true to its essence, nor had he considered developing it in the conventional manner.

Though he could easily assume various forms, why confine himself needlessly?

Wouldn't it be great to be a firepower turret, wielding a Gatling gun and a rocket launcher?

Normal humans could use at most two guns simultaneously.

However, as long as he could keep up with the control, a symbiote could handle up to two hundred guns at once.

Times had changed, and so too should his mindset evolve with the era.

Seeing the monstrous Russell unleash the Brotherhood's signature Bullet Curving technique, the Punisher's already grim expression grew even darker.

He had clashed with the Cross only yesterday, making him no stranger to unreasonable shooting techniques like the Bullet Curving technique. It wasn't something he would mistake.

The fact that Russell could use the Bullet Curving technique was surprising enough.

Observing Russell manipulate more black tendrils to retrieve a pistol and rifle from within his body, the Punisher knew that today wouldn't be an ordinary kind of trouble.

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