Kamar-Taj (Part 1)

"They really investigated thoroughly. I didn't expect gangsters to be so meticulous." Under the escort of the child lawyer, Shen Fei, having sent the police away, couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

"They almost traced it back to me. Good thing my age means they can't press too hard." Although Shen Fei had thought things through carefully, that was only in his own opinion. In fact, he had made quite a few mistakes when leaving—like York's car, still parked right there.

Fortunately, that area was a poor, chaotic place, a gang stronghold. By the time the fire trucks arrived, what needed to burn had already burned. What remained couldn't be traced back to Shen Fei.

That was exactly Shen Fei's purpose in setting the fire.

After all, everyone had died from gunshots, a few with their heads blown off. Claiming a kid like Shen Fei did it would require them to drag Rebecca in as a witness.

Even so, the questioning police still raised a few suspicious points. Luckily, they were just suspicions, and with the lawyer present, even if Shen Fei couldn't fully explain them away, they were treated as minor issues. The police had no choice but to leave empty-handed.

Honestly, this was all thanks to the lack of surveillance cameras in America, especially in that area—not a single one.

It wasn't that the government hadn't installed them; it's that if you put one up today, it'd show up in a secondhand market tomorrow, sold off for cash. The people here had impressive hands-on skills.

York's death sent Shen Fei back to orphan status. Normally, he'd have to go to an orphanage, but since he inherited York's estate and his age made him unsuitable for one, after some discussion, Shen Fei was allowed to live on his own. Of course, he still had a guardian.

"Yeah!" After everyone left, Shen Fei couldn't help but shout in excitement. A two-story house with a yard and nearly five hundred thousand in savings—it was all his now.

"Good thing I have this five hundred thousand, or I'd be broke. That guy barely had any savings." Truth be told, the only thing York left Shen Fei was this house. The five hundred thousand came from Umbrella Corporation's compensation, plus a car that was neither new nor old.

"Three thousand bucks to sell me off—not killing you would've been a crime against heaven." Back when he'd taken out everyone, Shen Fei had glanced at the stack of cash. It looked like a lot, but it was only three thousand.

"Private school is really expensive." Earlier, Shen Fei had discussed schooling with the Children's Organization and the lawyer. Private schools, especially good ones, had sky-high tuition.

For Shen Fei, if he was going to school, it had to be private. Public schools were cheap, but the teaching resources were worlds apart.

So Shen Fei chose Midtown School of Science and Technology—the same school Spider-Man attended. It was also close to Queens, convenient.

As for stealing Spider-Man's opportunity to gain his powers, Shen Fei had thought about it, but it wasn't realistic. The Marvel world was full of mutations—Batman, Hulk, Electro, Sandman—it seemed like anyone exposed to radiation would mutate.

But in reality, the odds were minuscule. Ninety-nine point nine-nine percent of people hit with radiation wouldn't mutate—they'd die.

Human genes were incredibly stable, not easy to change. People didn't turn into Chicken-Man from eating chicken or getting pecked, or Dog-Man from a dog bite, or Lonely Dog-Man.

Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man involved too many coincidences, and those coincidences couldn't be replicated. Instead of trying to steal Peter's opportunity, it was better to study his body after he became Spider-Man.

"Kamar-Taj, the Himalayas." In the Marvel world, besides all kinds of enhancement serums and black tech, another source of power was magic—the Ancient One.

Kamar-Taj's magic was very peculiar. For most people, it was just a flick of the wrist sending a fireball flying, but the Ancient One's lineage used magic to conjure weapons of various shapes and then charged in to slash.

Sure enough, a mage who doesn't want to fight up close isn't a good mage.

Just like a warrior who doesn't want to attack from range isn't a good warrior.

Of course, that wasn't what Shen Fei longed for most. What he really wanted was Kamar-Taj's portal magic and Mirror Dimension magic. With enough power, portal magic could cross planets—Doctor Strange used it to return from Titan to Earth.

That was what he truly wanted to learn. If he could get to Kamar-Taj now, he'd have gone to find the Ancient One long ago. Who'd still be stuck in school here?

Kamar-Taj didn't seem to have any special restrictions on outsiders wanting to learn magic. Doctor Strange opening portals across planets seemed a bit exaggerated to Shen Fei, but even portals spanning a hundred meters or a kilometer would be incredibly powerful.

One year later, Midtown School of Science and Technology.

As soon as Shen Fei stepped into the hallway, three people appeared in front of him and blocked his way. They moved to a corner, where Shen Fei took out three items and handed them over. Each person gave him a stack of cash in return.

"Figures that figurines are the most profitable." Stashing the money in his backpack, Shen Fei couldn't help but grin.

Over this past year, Shen Fei had come up with a moneymaking scheme: selling figurines. They were all finely crafted handmade pieces, thanks to the Op-Op Fruit's power. By now, Shen Fei was something of a celebrity at school—a nerd.

Compared to grades, American girls preferred all kinds of sports stars—football, basketball, whatever. If you were good at it, you were popular with the girls. The cheerleading captain position was the most fiercely contested, almost to the point of catfights.

He had to admit, the openness here was astonishing. Even after a year, Shen Fei hadn't fully adapted.

Naturally, Shen Fei became the school's oddball. Usually, someone like him would be the prime target for bullying—campus harassment was serious here.

Even Spider-Man, Peter, had gone through it.

After all, Peter was a nerd too. Before becoming Spider-Man, he was a very smart guy.

But nerds weren't popular among students, though teachers liked them—they could get full scholarships.

Similarly, good athletes could get sports scholarships.

Athletes were really popular here. Whenever a famous athlete visited the school, tons of girls would come to welcome them, some even willing to offer themselves.

Shen Fei didn't care about any of that. If he wanted to, he could breeze into the Olympics without any problem.

As for campus bullying, after Shen Fei once took down three of the school's top bullies in one go, no one bothered him anymore.

"Didn't expect to make this much money." Looking at the amount in his account, Shen Fei was startled. Just from selling figurines, he'd earned fifty thousand dollars.

Thanks to the Op-Op Fruit's power, his handmade figurines were now famous in the industry. Orders poured in from websites, school, and even anime conventions.

Unexpectedly, Captain America figurines sold the best. Some people even custom-ordered life-sized ones.

"Sigh, failed again. So close." Watching the spider silk snap instantly, Shen Fei shook his head in disappointment. To recreate Spider-Man's webbing, he'd wasted a lot of time and money. He'd made some decent silk, but none matched the toughness of Spider-Man's.

Beep beep beep.

Hearing the sound from the computer beside him, Shen Fei immediately went to check. He pulled up a chat window and saw it was about tonight's operation. Smiling, he shook his head and replied, "Don't contact me anymore. I'm out."

Without waiting for a response, he left the chat group and deleted the messaging app.

Over the past year, besides studying, Shen Fei had browsed many hacker forums to learn computer skills. Eventually, he joined a hacker group: Rising Tide.

An organization he was very familiar with—a hacker group that claimed to expose government secrets as its guiding principle. Of course, that was just to fool the believers. In reality, this hacker group wasn't much different from any other—they took money to do jobs.

But because Rising Tide's facade was well-maintained, it had a high reputation in the hacker world.

Shen Fei had joined the organization to learn advanced computer skills. Now that he had mastered the techniques, of course he was going to leave.

Staying on with the Rising Tide wasn't a bad option either—after all, this hacker group had excellent intelligence—but unfortunately, Shen Fei had to move on now.

After using his hacking skills to forge a fake identity and passport, Shen Fei decided to set off toward his long-determined destination: Kamar-Taj.

He had two major reasons for learning hacking techniques. One was this; the other was artificial intelligence. After all, Stark had Jarvis.

"I hope the Ancient One is reasonable." After posting a notice that his online figurine shop was temporarily closed, Shen Fei grabbed his backpack and left.

P.S.: Spider-Man's timeline is such a mess, it's dizzying.