Spider-Man's Great Wisdom (Part One)

"Hello, Dr. Ethan, this is Dr. Connors. You two will have a lot in common," Schiller introduced to Yinsen.

"Hello." Yinsen and Connors shook hands, Schiller continued, "I remember you both have experience teaching at the University of California, right?"

"Oh, right, that's right," Yinsen said. "I taught physics at the University of California for six months, that was several years ago."

"I'm in a similar situation, except I was Visiting Professor, so my teaching period was shorter, and as you know, biology wasn't highly regarded back then..."

"Remember those brats who caused such a mess at that graduation party?"

"Oh! You mean the Onion Club? Of course I remember. Those sheep ran rampant on campus for three or four days. I heard that Professor Old Frank even got his ass kicked, hahahahahaha..."

The few of them chatted for a while, and Schiller guided the conversation without leaving any trace. Soon, Ethan said with emotion, "That's really a narrow escape, right?"

"... They didn't have the advanced methods for disposing of corpses. I went into shock, and they just threw me into the mass grave. Luckily, a kind-hearted scavenger noticed that I seemed to be alive and dragged me out. Afterwards Stark sent people to find my body so they could bury me, and that's when they discovered I wasn't dead..."

"It's all thanks to him. That place lacked medical care and medicine. If Stark hadn't sent someone back to find me, I probably wouldn't have survived more than two days."

Dr. Connors shook his head and said, "Why would you give up a perfectly good professorship to go to that place? Afghanistan is a complete graveyard; even regular troops wouldn't fare well there."

Yinsen sighed and said, "There was supposed to be a secrecy clause, but there's nothing to hide now. It's related to a military plan."

Connors's fingers tightened. He glanced at Schiller, Schiller exchanged a look with him, then coughed and said, "Coincidentally, we've also recently discovered a military program involving human experimentation..."

"That doesn't matter anymore," Yinsen said. "I did everything I could to stop the inhumane things happening here, otherwise I wouldn't have been left alone in that godforsaken place."

The group continued chatting, and Schiller gradually learned from Yinsen about his miraculous survival.

Yinsen is a physicist who was supposed to be conducting a secret experiment in Afghanistan with the military. However, things went wrong during the experiment, Yinsen seems to have sabotaged some of the experiments, causing them to fail. When the military withdrew, he was left alone in Afghanistan and was subsequently captured by the group that captured Iron Man.

When the group heard that Yinsen was a PhD in physics, they wanted him to make weapons for them. This led to the plot of Iron Man 1, except that Yinsen didn't die in the end and managed to escape.

This resolved a question in Schiller's mind. Logically, Stark should have been very keen to close the weapons manufacturing division, but the Stark he encountered changed his mind after only a little persuasion. Schiller knew that he was just a Doctor, not God. How could Stark change his mind so easily?

The reason is that the key element of Dr. Ethan's death was missing from the stimulus given to Stark. Therefore, although Stark reflected on the fact that his creation of weapons might harm more people, he was not as obsessive as in the original work. This led to Schiller only needing to give him a little advice before he changed his mind. Otherwise, no matter how much others tried to persuade him, Stark would not have turned back.

Schiller briefly told Yinsen about the recent events concerning Stark. Yinsen was somewhat saddened, but in the end he said, "No matter what, his uncle who grew up with him is not dead. He is not alone. He still has family, which is a good thing. People always need something to care about so that they don't fall into despair and can't turn back."

The three continued chatting in the psychological clinic. They actually had a lot in common because they were all at similar levels of education and had many similar experiences.

In fact, all three are alumni. Dr. Connors has three doctoral degrees, while Yinsen and Schiller each have two. They have also taught at many different schools, with one or two schools overlapping. They always have a lot to talk about when discussing these experiences.

A moment later, the clinic door opened softly, Peter entered with his backpack. He was immediately overwhelmed by the aura of academic excellence emanating from the room. He said, "Uh, did I come at the wrong time? I'll come back later..."

Before he could slip away, Dr. Connors stood up, grabbed him, put his arm around him, and walked over, saying, "Look, look at our genius kid, Yinsen. This is Peter, still in high school, but he did very well during his internship in my lab, no worse than any of the graduate students I've supervised."

"Peter, this is Dr. Ethan ..."

"Hello, Dr. Ethan."

Just as Peter was greeting Peter, Steve walked in, holding a hot dog. He hadn't met Connors yet, so Schiller introduced him, "This is Dr. Connors, a Doctor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Biology; Dr. Ethan, a Doctor of Mathematics and Physics; and as for me, you probably already know me, a Doctor of Psychology and Philosophy."

Steve opened his mouth, then nudged Peter's arm with his elbow and said, "There are seven doctors in the room now, right?"

There are only 5 of us in total.

"On average, we each have more than one." Steve winked at Peter smiled and whispered, "I'm going to get two, no, three PhDs in the future, so the five of us will have ten PhDs, which is two on average each."

"Then I have two doctorates now, Thank you so much."

After saying that, the two of them huddled together and laughed.

The group sat down, and as is typical of their conversations, the topic inevitably turned to the youngest member. Yinsen asked Peter, "Have you decided on your future major? Which university are you planning to apply to?"

"I haven't really thought about it yet," Peter said shyly. "Although my grades are pretty good right now, I'm not very confident about applying to those top universities. After all, there are just too many people with good grades..."

"Don't worry, we can write you recommendation letters, but of course, you also have to work hard yourself, otherwise even if you can get into a university, graduating will be a difficult task."

"You're underestimating him," Dr. Connors said. "When he interned with me, he showed absolutely top-notch talent. I think he could easily go straight to graduate school now, let alone university."

"Oh, don't say that! Doctor, I'm still far from good enough."

Connors noticed Peter's lack of confidence; he wasn't being modest, but rather seemed genuinely insecure about himself.

He gave Schiller a look, and the two went to the rooftop to smoke together. Schiller said, "Peter's family wasn't well-off before, and he was quite ostracized at school. Even though his grades were pretty good, he still had to worry about college tuition every day. His uncle is a good man of average ability..."

"I know, it's the same again. I've seen many students like this; most of them lack self-confidence."

"Peter's problem is more serious, you know. He's Spider-Man. He puts all his hopes for realizing his life's value into his identity as a superhero. We're all trying to correct him and encourage him to be more of Peter Parker. But you also know, suddenly having such great power and being able to use that power to help others, of course he'll do it."

Schiller said, "You can't preach too much to people of this age or use any professional knowledge to help them understand the balance between two identities. They don't have that much self-control. They will rely more on whichever identity gives them a greater sense of accomplishment."

"That's such a pity. I don't want him to become someone who just wanders around and fights with street thugs. He's very talented and smart, and he could have achieved much more."

As they were talking, Schiller noticed a wisp of smoke rising from the horizon, followed by a tall figure. Schiller squinted and looked closely, and realized that it seemed to be a monster.

Schiller stubbed out his cigarette, threw it on the ground and stomped on it, then said, "Let's go back first, something's happened."

He had just gotten downstairs when Stark called, "There are monsters in the East District. Go ask Dr. Connors if he has any clues."

"Dr. Connors? Why ask Dr. Connors?"

"Because this monster looks a lot like an iguana, I think it should be in the same family as lizards, right?"

At this moment, Dr. Connors also saw the scene in the distance through his binoculars. The creature that was jumping around in the city was a monster with fiery red skin. Unlike ordinary lizards, it looked more like an iguana, with sharp spikes on its arms and head, rougher skin, and layers of throat pouches under its neck.

Dr. Connors swore, put down his binoculars, picked up his coat, and Peter leave when Peter grabbed him and said, "Doctor! Where are you going?"

"Go to the Stark Tower lab. Oh, right, Schiller! Get him to grant me access. This is very likely a product of that military project. I need to figure out how to deal with this problem."

"No, getting from here to Stark Tower might take us through that affected area. You're just an ordinary person, so I'll take you there."

"How are you planning to get me there? Make me swing around in the air like you? That stupid monster will definitely chase after us and bite us."

Connors put on his coat, strode out of the clinic, and Peter followed behind. Connors walked to his car and said, "Let's go, get in."

Peter immediately sat in the passenger seat.

However, he soon regretted it, because he forgot that Dr. Connors, like Steve, was a veteran.

When the car arrived at the Stark Tower, Peter squatted on the ground, holding onto the bumper, and almost threw up.

The monster's destruction didn't even affect them; they couldn't even see their taillights.

Dr. Connors said, "When I had both hands, I could drive a car for more than ten kilometers while being bombed by six bombers. He is far from being able to do that."

After he finished speaking, a thumbs-up slowly extended from the front of the car's engine.