Little Spider

He paused for a moment to spare a thought for the scum already flowing into the sewers, then Heisenberg began savoring the feeling of sudden wealth.

Over six hundred thousand Origin Matter!

How to spend it?

Heisenberg hesitated for a moment—should he trade for an Audrey Hepburn, or ten Audrey Hepburns?

Ahem...

All fleeting clouds. How could he be so shallow?

No, he had to prioritize eliminating the Kryptonite weakness.

"System, remove my genetic weakness to Kryptonite!"

"Done!"

In the span of a single sentence, one of Heisenberg's weaknesses was gone...?

This... was utterly joyless.

It cost about forty thousand Origin Matter, leaving over five hundred thousand. What to do with the rest?

Should he... as he'd once thought, go back to his hometown for a visit?

Of course. Heisenberg meant what he said!

But not now. There was no need to rush like that.

He hadn't even finished his meal yet!

By the end of the meal, Heisenberg felt a twinge of regret.

He was tired of steak and grilled meat. He was starting to miss proper Chinese food.

Especially a few dishes he used to really enjoy!

"Billy!"

He waved his hand, and the young man Billy quickly walked over.

Once Billy stood beside him, Heisenberg gave a quiet instruction.

"Find time to hire two Chinese chefs for me. Their skill has to stand up to scrutiny. I want to taste the most authentic Chinese food!"

"Yes!"

Billy nodded hastily.

As Billy turned and left, Heisenberg slowly drank two bottles of bourbon.

No matter how much he ate American-style Chinese food, it would never have the right flavor. He'd have to find time to go back home and taste the dishes from his hometown!

Whether it was the alcohol kicking in or the nervousness of nearing home, for the first time, he felt like taking a stroll outside.

Thinking it, he did it. Heisenberg immediately went back to his room, changed clothes, put on a relatively casual suit, and left Heisenberg Mansion.

Today, New York was unusually empty.

After walking just over three hundred meters, Heisenberg spotted more than ten fire trucks and ambulances.

No surprise—the two punches he'd thrown at the Hulk last night had destroyed hundreds of buildings. This problem wouldn't be solved anytime soon.

Heisenberg paid it no mind. He had already done what he wanted and what he needed to do.

If he had let the Hulk rampage freely through the city, given the Hulk's habit of not stopping until he'd vented for over ten hours...

Then far more innocent people would have been hurt or killed.

Heisenberg wasn't Clark Kent. Having already minimized the suffering, he wouldn't heap the remaining pain onto himself.

All he could do was be himself.

He kept walking along the street. After about two kilometers, Heisenberg stepped into Hell's Kitchen.

To his surprise, it was completely different from the other districts. The people here felt oddly cheerful to him.

There were even folks gathered on the street drinking together!!!

That really shocked Heisenberg. As long as the Earth hadn't ended, Hell's Kitchen was still Hell's Kitchen?

Heisenberg moved closer to the party crowd, had a couple of drinks with them, and chatted with two homeless men for a while.

That was when he learned that the reason they could throw this party was all thanks to him, Heisenberg.

When Heisenberg had ordered Bullseye to take people onto the streets to calm the public, Bullseye had first pacified Hell's Kitchen.

And what kind of calming methods could a street mercenary and professional thug use?

It wasn't like the Federal Government, which could drag a mayor up to give a speech, let the crowd below curse him out for hours to vent!

The Federal Government could do that—after cursing the mayor, the governor, and even the president, the citizens would cool down.

But Bullseye couldn't do that.

So old, simple Bullseye just sent countless drinks and booze to the people of Hell's Kitchen.

Kingpin's gang had always had a smuggling business for alcohol, and after Heisenberg's anti-drug campaign on the streets, the arms and alcohol trades had taken up an even bigger share.

In this line of work, how could you not have enough stock? Hell's Kitchen practically had enough for every resident to drink two or three bottles of beer for free!

Beyond the free drinks, Bullseye also issued an order in Heisenberg's name, forbidding any trouble on the streets of New York.

After killing Kingpin, defeating Daredevil, and taking down the Hulk, Heisenberg's reputation alone could stop a child's crying at night.

With that order, aside from the Nuke Gang, not a single gang member dared to roam the streets of New York.

Everyone in the underworld knew Heisenberg was a madman who killed at the drop of a hat, a madman with strength like Superman!

Who the hell would dare provoke a madman?

So now, Hell's Kitchen had gone from a bird-shit-strewn neighborhood ruled by gangs to a paradise with zero gang activity.

The original residents of Hell's Kitchen were instantly ecstatic.

Watching the joyful crowd, even though Heisenberg knew none of them were good people, at least this festive atmosphere made him happy enough.

He left Hell's Kitchen with a satisfied smile. Bullseye had done his job well in this neighborhood, really well.

Only someone like him, who'd lived on the streets, knew what the citizens of New York's streets truly needed.

They didn't need a meal, or just enough to keep from starving.

They needed a sense of security, true ease and happiness—even if they starved to death.

And of course, the freedom to never wear a mask, even if they wore a hood, but never a mask.

Leaving Hell's Kitchen behind, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, Heisenberg passed through Washington Square and arrived in Queens.

This was one of the most famous districts in the Marvel Universe, the hometown of Little Spider, Peter Parker.

How to describe Spider-Man's popularity?

On the origin Earth, the top three best-selling comics in the United States were always those three.

Superman, Batman, Spider-Man.

One represented the perfection of humanity, one wrote the darkness of humanity, and the last Little Spider painted the ordinariness of humanity.

And Queens was Little Spider's home.

Heisenberg looked toward Queens. His hearing had already locked onto Little Spider's location.

At the same time, his vision let him see the life of eight-year-old Little Spider.

The kid was being forced by Aunt May to sit at home and watch TV.

Little Spider was lively by nature, and with a rare day off from elementary school, he desperately wanted to go out and play football with his friends.

But no way. Aunt May and Uncle Ben, knowing the danger on the streets, easily kept him in check.

So, sitting in front of the TV, Little Spider felt even the cartoons weren't as fun anymore.

Watching this Little Spider, Heisenberg suddenly wanted to do something.

He took off, and in an instant, appeared at the window of Little Spider's house.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May weren't rich, but they still lived in a standalone house—don't overthink it, it was because they'd lived in New York for a very long time.

Heisenberg tapped lightly on the window. The sound made Little Spider look over curiously.

The moment Little Spider saw Heisenberg, Heisenberg smiled and waved at the kid.

The next second, Heisenberg quietly entered the room and appeared behind Little Spider.

Just as Little Spider was wondering why the man at the window had vanished, Heisenberg ruffled his little head.

"Ah!!!"

Little Spider jumped in fright, which made Heisenberg flash a mischievous grin.

Seeing Heisenberg's smile, Little Spider frowned in displeasure.

Kind of cute...

So Heisenberg kept ruffling Little Spider's head, making the kid dodge with a full face of annoyance.

"Who are you, how did you get into my house, this is private property, sir!"

"Haha, alright, alright, private property. Looks like I made a mistake!"

Heisenberg said with a laugh to Little Spider, while extending his left hand to take off the watch on his wrist.

"Since I made a mistake, I need to make up for it. How about I give you this watch?"

"No thanks!"

Faced with the obviously beautiful watch, Little Spider pouted and refused.

"You don't need to give me this at all, and I can't accept gifts from strangers—that's what Uncle Ben told me!"

"But I did trespass on your private property."

"You need to apologize, sir. Aunt May and Uncle Ben are upstairs, I... I..."

At this point, Little Spider suddenly thought of something.

He glanced at Heisenberg's burly frame and couldn't help squeezing himself deeper into the corner of the sofa.

Despite his fear, he suddenly didn't want Aunt May and Uncle Ben to come downstairs—he was afraid his loved ones might get hurt.

In a slightly worried whisper, he said.

"Can I accept your apology for them? Would you apologize?"

"Hmm, of course you can, but you seem scared?"

"I'm not scared. You're not a bad guy, right?

And you're going to give me a watch, so you'll apologize—because apologizing is a lot cheaper than a watch!"

Little Spider convinced himself with that reasoning, and it also made Heisenberg laugh.

Heisenberg chuckled and ruffled Little Spider's head again, muttering to himself.

"Yeah, even a kid knows that bowing your head is easier than paying the price, but adults just won't do it."

With that, Heisenberg patted Little Spider's head.

"Alright, that's enough for now.

As for the watch, it's not compensation, nor a gift—it's an expectation."

Heisenberg firmly grabbed Little Spider's hand and slipped his own old watch right onto Little Spider's wrist.

Before Little Spider could take it off, Heisenberg floated up into the air.

His flying posture thrilled Little Spider, and in an instant, the boy struck a Superman flying pose toward Heisenberg.

"Oh my god, oh my god, are you Superman? The one everyone's been talking about lately?"

"Haha, you recognized me, so take good care of my expectation, kid!"

With those words, Heisenberg drifted to the window, politely opened it, and for the first time left someone else's territory without smashing through a wall.

Leaving Little Spider alone on the sofa, bouncing and cheering with excitement.

Having given away the last link to his past, Heisenberg entrusted his former ordinariness to the child most worthy of it.

And by giving away that watch, he made a clean break with who he used to be.

It had been eleven days since he arrived in the Marvel Universe.

After countless mental struggles, Heisenberg had finally become his true self—the one of now and the future.

He quickly flew back to the rooftop of his office building and lay back down on his lounge chair.

"Saying goodbye to my old self feels good. Time to make a simple plan for what's next," he muttered to himself.

"Right now, I've established a preliminary authority in New York, and my infiltration and recruitment of Hydra is still ongoing.

I need to put in some effort to keep them balanced with S.H.I.E.L.D., so neither side has the time to cause me trouble—that'll make Rumlow's defection operation easier.

At the same time, Hydra's crisis and my threat will push the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. members and the US Government to keep researching the Cosmic Cube.

They need power that gives them confidence, and those studies are the perfect bait to drag them into the abyss.

Beating the Hulk will keep countries around the world from acting against me unilaterally, but that's not enough. They need external enemies—crises that make them trust me, rely on me, even force them to worship me.

That crisis starts with Thor's idiot brother.

Chitauri technology will give Earth technology a leap forward, and the new energy Iron Man discovered will reshuffle the existing industrial chain.

Under the impact of a new era, if those once-great people want to stay great, they have to be trendier than the new age itself.

What better plan for them than stepping out of the Solar System?

Earthlings, you'll get out there. Soon enough..."