Nanoparticle Experiment Successful

"Fantasy mirrors reality—humanity is honored to welcome their greatest hero: Superman!"

Overnight, the next day, all of New York City, and even the entire world, was broadcasting one message.

Whether on the massive screens lining city streets or the front-page headlines displayed in newsstands across every alley, that towering figure was everywhere.

Superman's name had echoed across the globe in a single night, praised by every media outlet and newspaper.

And crowned with the title of humanity's greatest hero.

"Hmph, they're trying to shackle me with morality."

Glancing at the newspaper in his hand on the way to school, Peter instantly understood their intent.

"Too bad I have no morals. Or rather, I have a flexible moral baseline."

He tore the newspaper into shreds, tossed them into a street-side trash can, and ignored the countless pedestrians buzzing about him and the changes on the moon as he strolled toward school.

"Did you guys watch the livestream yesterday? Superman was so cool!"

But Peter wasn't going to get any peace today.

The moment he stepped into the classroom, he heard several classmates huddled together, excitedly discussing last night's events.

"Yeah, Superman was way too strong. That ugly monster didn't stand a chance. If I had power like Superman's, I'd definitely... hehehe..."

A black kid kept gesturing wildly, as if he'd been the one fighting Hulk last night.

"Hmph, I think Superman's too distant from us. Maybe, like in the comics, he's an alien from another planet, and who knows what his real purpose is on Earth..."

Flash, his arm in a cast and wrapped in bandages, shrank his neck nervously as he saw Peter walk in, seeming a bit scared.

But when he saw Peter just return to the seat he'd sat in yesterday, with no sign of coming after him, his courage swelled again, and he kept chatting with his lackeys about last night.

"Fuck, Flash, you got a death wish? Don't you know Superman has Super Hearing? Saying that, aren't you afraid he'll come after you?"

One lackey, hearing Flash dare to badmouth Superman like that, quickly covered his mouth.

"Anyway, I still prefer Spider-Woman. She's the one who helps ordinary people like us."

Flash used his uninjured left hand to remove the hand covering his mouth, but he didn't dare keep badmouthing, instead grumbling on.

"Spider-Woman? Forget it..."

Clearly, they'd lost interest in discussing her.

Suddenly, a classmate looked around cautiously and whispered, "Did you hear about the changes on the moon's surface? I have a friend in another class who's in the astronomy club."

"According to him, that huge crater that suddenly appeared on the moon wasn't caused by a meteor impact, but by..."

Ring...

As the bell rang, the classroom gradually quieted down, and a teacher walked in.

"Today, our first Ideological Education Class won't cover the old Captain America spirit. Instead, we'll talk about Superman's selfless spirit in bravely defeating the monster for humanity!"

At the start of the new semester, the school always held a few days of ideological education classes.

But Peter never expected that a class usually focused on Captain America would suddenly be about him.

"Well, making me worship myself—that's pretty interesting."

After enduring the day with his eyes closed, Peter finally made it home.

When the night grew deep and Uncle Ben and Aunt May had gone to sleep, he leaped out the window, instantly accelerating through the air, flying toward the Antarctic "research base."

Soon, Peter arrived in Antarctica.

Boom.

He lifted the thick iron door above the base with one hand and flew inside.

After casually stashing the food, water, daily supplies, and some essential lab equipment he'd brought into the storage room, Peter headed toward the lab.

"Great, we finally made it!"

Just as he reached the Nanotechnology Lab, Peter heard an excited shout from inside.

He strode quickly into the lab, and his eyes immediately landed on a transparent glass container holding a special substance—pitch-black, like a viscous liquid.

It was writhing nonstop inside the container.

At that moment, nearly every researcher in the base was gathered in the lab.

They watched the Nanometal particles inside the glass container squirm, twist, shift, and reassemble in response to the tablet controller in Reed's hands, their faces lit up with sheer excitement.

Because they all knew that what they were seeing meant their research direction wasn't wrong.

And it also meant they were one step closer to leaving this damn place.

"Heh, our Mr. Superman sure has perfect timing."

Tony, still lounging on the sofa, was the first to notice Peter walking into the lab.

"Mr. Superman, next time could you bring us some decent red wine? Something on the level of what's in my villa's wine cabinet. I just can't get used to this cheap stuff you've been bringing."

Sitting on the sofa, a glass of red wine in hand, Tony looked at Peter with a hint of anticipation as he made his request.

In truth, aside from losing their freedom, life here wasn't much different from a vacation.

After some time spent setting things up, the environment here had improved considerably compared to the beginning.

Tony had also figured out Peter's personality—as long as their research could proceed normally, Peter would basically grant any reasonable request they made.

Peter casually glanced at Tony on the sofa, then walked straight over to Reed and asked calmly, "I heard you guys succeeded just now?"

"That's right. Based on Dr. Zhao's Regeneration Cradle concept and Princess Shuri's research data on nanomaterials, we managed to create artificially controllable nanoparticles."

"But it's only a preliminary success."

This time when he saw Peter, Reed was no longer as fearful as before.

In fact, when talking about his research results, a glint of excitement shone in Reed's eyes.

For scientists like them, nothing was more thrilling than a successful experiment.

"Mr. Superman, please take a look..."

As he spoke, Reed pointed at the nanoparticles in the glass container, signaling Peter.

Then he manipulated the controller in his hand again.

The next moment, under Peter's astonished gaze, the nanoparticles in the container—resembling a blob of liquid—suddenly began to writhe and twist rapidly.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, they slowly condensed into a pitch-black dagger.

Both edges of the blade gleamed with a sharp, cold light, seeming even sharper than a forged dagger.

Yet, as they watched, the dagger's form held for less than three seconds before shattering with a crash, reverting back to its liquid-like state.

"Is it... that the energy they contain isn't enough to sustain that form?"

Though his Super Intellect hadn't fully awakened yet, Peter instantly pinpointed the real issue.

"Exactly. It's an energy problem."

Reed was surprised that Peter could identify the crux of the issue.

"Unlike ordinary bio-nanorobots, the Nano-Suit you need requires a much stronger energy source to maintain the fixed structure between nanoparticles. Otherwise, the nanoparticles will collapse at the slightest touch, just like that."

"Unless we can find a special material that inherently contains a massive amount of energy to make the nanoparticles, but such material hardly exists on Earth."

"Of course, according to our theory, if we had a small, portable energy storage device that could continuously supply power, it would solve the problem we're facing now."

"But the team in charge of energy hasn't made much progress so far."

As he spoke, Reed glanced at Tony, who was leisurely sipping cheap red wine on the sofa—he was the head of the energy team here.