Felicia Hardy

Ben returned to his seat and sat down.

In a place like the United States, teachers would never punish students just for arriving at the classroom right on time. In fact, it was already a blessing that these students were willing to come to school at all.

At that moment, a blonde girl leaned over while the teacher had her back turned and whispered,

"Hey, Ben, why were you late today?"

"Being late by one second doesn't count as being late, Hardy," Ben replied as he took his homework out of his backpack.

Felicia Hardy.

She was a well-known rich girl at school, and she was very pretty too. But what interested Ben even more was her other secret identity—Black Cat.

Of course, Felicia still didn't know that her father was the famous Cat, nor had she become Cat herself.

"You always have an excuse." Felicia straightened up. When she saw the homework notebook Ben had placed on the desk, she wasn't surprised.

Ben was fairly serious about his studies at school. Felicia had never seen him skip homework or do it halfheartedly. He worked hard enough academically, but unfortunately, in this Marvel world full of geniuses, hard work alone was not particularly useful.

Ben could handle ordinary schoolwork, but when it came to competition-level knowledge, his brain simply wasn't quite enough.

For many people in this world, genius was merely an admission ticket. Even someone as intelligent as Peter would be criticized by Connors or Otto for not working hard enough, let alone ordinary people.

Felicia could completely relate to that, because she was the same kind of person: hardworking, but not especially gifted.

Watching Ben take out his textbook with a troubled expression, Felicia felt that the two of them were practically kindred spirits!

Maybe I should hold a Study Group and invite Ben to join, she thought. Just as she was about to lean over and tell him, the Class Teacher turned around, scaring Felicia into quickly pulling her head back.

As for Ben, he didn't notice any of that.

From the moment he sat down, he had been thinking about the Iron Suit. Few boys could refuse a suit of Iron Armor, especially when it was an authentic original taken directly off Tony Stark!

I can turn into Grey Matter, take it apart, and study it!

Although he had already dismantled it once, XLR8's dismantling could only be called taking off parts. Grey Matter, however, could thoroughly study the suit's structure and technology.

Unfortunately, I can't remove the most crucial Arc Reactor, he sighed inwardly.

The Arc Reactor was actually the core technology of Iron Man's suit. In essence, it should have been cold nuclear fusion.

Cold nuclear fusion was a technology that had been nearly impossible to achieve in Ben's previous life, yet Tony had accomplished it here. Not to mention that Tony had managed to shrink such enormous energy into something the size of a heart.

Aside from its power source, the armor was filled with other technologies that were equally difficult to achieve.

Ben wasn't actually that interested in science. He studied hard only because he didn't want Aunt May and Uncle Ben to be disappointed in him.

But studying armor and building a suit of his own fascinated him. If he could fully understand Iron Armor technology, he could research an Iron Suit of his own, or even create a batch of robotic monsters.

Just as Ben was still lost in thought, a faint prickling sensation came from his brain. He instinctively reached out and caught a note.

[I'm planning to hold a Study Group and invite Gwen. Do you want to come to my house?]

It was signed by Felicia.

A Study Group?

Ben froze for a moment, then glanced to the side and saw Felicia blinking at him, silently mouthing,

"You can bring your cousin, Peter Parker."

That sounded pretty good.

Ben thought about it.

Gwen and Peter could be considered the two best students in school. Their grades had always ranked first or second.

More importantly, Felicia and Gwen were both pretty girls. If he brought Peter to the Study Group, maybe Peter could get to know Gwen. That would be better than having him talk about Liz Toomes all day.

But... what did that have to do with him?

I don't have time for some Study Group. After school, I still need to study the Iron Suit!

Ben thought.

He could turn into Grey Matter and study it thoroughly, or he could turn into Upgrade and merge with the armor to see what changes he could make to it. Maybe he could use the traits of a Galvanic Mechamorph—Upgrade's abilities—to upgrade the armor, or make Peter a Spider Suit.

He couldn't let Peter run around fighting crime in baby pajamas forever, could he?

He had so many things he could do. Which one wasn't more interesting than attending a Study Group?

So Ben crumpled the note into a ball and shook his head at Felicia.

"Sorry, Felicia. I have things to do after school. As for Peter, I don't think he has much free time lately either."

Ben was telling the truth. These past few days, Peter had been constantly thinking about spiders, Osborn, Dr. Connors, and his parents. He probably had no interest in attending a Study Group either.

Besides, if Ben remembered correctly, Gwen also had club activities after school. She, Mary Jane, and several others had formed a small band.

"Fine, forget it!" Felicia spoke in an icy tone, with a hint of anger. She clearly hadn't expected Ben to reject her. She turned away and forced herself not to look at him.

She clearly remembered that Ben barely participated in club activities. He went home as soon as school ended every day. Saying he had no time was obviously just an excuse!

If you don't want to study with me, just say so. Hmph!

You awful Ben! Once I invite Gwen and form a Study Group, my grades will improve by leaps and bounds! Then you'll have plenty of time to regret it! By then, joining my Study Group won't be so easy!

She thought through gritted teeth.

"Unless he hugs my legs and begs me!"

Not only that, Felicia decided that she wouldn't pay any attention to Ben until school was over today, just so he would understand how formidable she was!

As for Ben, after rejecting Felicia, he didn't pay any more attention to her. Instead, he focused on class.

He didn't know whether it was just his imagination, but today, his mind seemed to have become clearer. Knowledge that normally required time and practice to understand now seemed understandable at a glance.

"Did I get smarter?" he wondered in surprise.

"Did the spider abilities stimulate my brain? Or did transforming into Grey Matter affect me?"

Ben suspected it was both.

The spider abilities had strengthened his body almost across the board. In that case, it wasn't impossible for his mind to become more agile as well. And although transforming into Grey Matter hadn't permanently changed Ben's genes, at least some physical knowledge had remained in his mind.

Besides that, Grey Matter's way of thinking might also have influenced him.

Of course, no matter which it was, neither could turn Ben into a genius in an instant.

For the first time, Ben felt that class passed incredibly quickly.

The feeling of immersing himself completely in studying felt wonderful. For one brief moment, he even thought he had truly become a genius.

But in reality, if he were truly a genius, he wouldn't need to expend effort seriously studying what was taught in class.

To geniuses, that knowledge didn't even count as the basics. Take Peter, for example. While still in middle school, he had been able to develop Silk material that the technology of Ben's original world simply couldn't achieve.

In fact, not only Peter—even Dr. Connors possessed intelligence far beyond the reach of ordinary people. His research might fail in every world, and sometimes he seemed more like a foil for Peter or Peter's parents, but technology capable of turning humans into Lizard Men still surpassed reality.

Compared to them, Ben's intelligence was still at an ordinary person's level.

But he wasn't unhappy about that.

After all, he had been an ordinary person to begin with. More importantly, he had now successfully activated the Omnitrix. Among millions of alien DNA samples, there were plenty of extraordinarily intelligent species he could transform into. Galvans were only one of them. Brainstorm, Juryrigg, and others were all species exceptionally skilled with technology.

Naturally, the omnipotent Alien X also meant omniscience and incomparable wisdom.

After an entire day of studying, Ben felt refreshed all over. Felicia, meanwhile, was suffering and enjoying herself at the same time. On one hand, Ben was sitting right beside her, making it difficult to ignore him all day. Forcing herself not to speak to him felt like a cat was scratching at her heart with its claws.

"I ignored him all day. He must be miserable!" Felicia thought smugly. School was over now, and she couldn't wait to see Ben's reaction. She guessed that he must have felt just as uncomfortable as she had.

But when she turned her head, she found Ben's seat completely empty.

Looking up into the distance, Felicia only saw Ben's retreating figure as he rushed out of the classroom without looking back.

"Benny!"

She stomped her feet in anger.