The Butterfly Effect, Lizard Men Appear!

Toby's two fingers were like Gin's clubbing blow, smashing Peter's edgy detective spirit to pieces!

Peter's earlier guesses had been fairly normal, so how had he suddenly turned Toby into some kind of conspirator by the end?

Toby himself hadn't even known he'd supposedly thought up so much. Gwen was even his accomplice...

Toby admitted that the parts of Peter's guesses were correct—for instance, that his father had bred the Super Spider, and that he had indeed deliberately placed the Super Spider on Peter's neck yesterday.

But he denied Peter's other edgy theories and added two points.

First, he had secretly investigated all this after previously looking through the relics Richard had left behind with Peter. (This was a lie.)

Second, according to his secret investigation, Peter's parents had not committed suicide. Norman Osborn had intended to use the Super Spider bred by Peter's father for warfare, but Peter's father had refused. That was why Norman Osborn had sent people to silence them.

That was why, after taking away some of the Super Spiders, he had set fire to the ones that had never belonged to Osborn Enterprises in the first place. (This was the truth.)

Amid Toby's half-truths and half-lies, Peter received this heavy truth from his cousin.

Toby also gave Peter two choices.

First, kill Norman Osborn directly and avenge his parents. Peter could do it himself, or Toby could do it for him.

Second, let the matter go, accept this "gift" from his father, forget the pain of the past, and start a new life.

And Peter chose... to be alone.

He made no choice. He merely took off his Spider-Man suit in silence, walked out of the basement in a daze, and locked himself in his room.

Toby did not offer Peter much comfort.

He had already done everything he could for Peter, and said everything he could say.

What remained depended on Peter's own choice.

Whether he became a demon or an immortal was for Peter alone to decide...

However, no matter which choice Peter made, Norman Osborn of this universe was ultimately destined to die.

Leaving aside Norman Osborn's inherited terminal illness, Toby himself would never let Spider-Man's lifelong nemesis go.

After all, Toby had no desire to have a sinister man constantly watching his family from the shadows.

The Green Goblin might not be particularly powerful in the Marvel universe, but when it came to the danger he posed to Spider-Man's family, he ranked among the very worst!

Still, before dealing with Norman Osborn, Toby wanted Peter to make his own choice first.

Otherwise, it might leave the kid with lifelong regrets.

Besides, Norman Osborn had yet to become the Green Goblin, so there was no rush.

But Toby had clearly forgotten just how powerful a butterfly he was.

Every flap of his wings affected far more than one person...

And this time, in addition to Peter, his influence set off a chain reaction throughout Osborn Enterprises.

A fire had killed all the Super Spiders, and it also extinguished another ray of hope for the already critically ill Norman Osborn.

Naturally, Norman Osborn vented that anger and pressure on all of Osborn Enterprises.

That included one of Richard's former colleagues, Dr. Connors.

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Norman Osborn gave Dr. Connors a final deadline—just one last week. If Dr. Connors could not complete the regenerative serum research within that week, he could pack up and leave!

This was undoubtedly bad news for Dr. Connors.

It was not that he was truly afraid of being fired by Osborn Enterprises...

After all, a leading authority in such a specialized field as himself would have countless top companies lining up to invite him aboard, even if Osborn Enterprises fired him.

Just like Toby when he had first graduated.

What Dr. Connors cared about was that if Osborn Enterprises truly fired him, all the effort he had put into the company over the years would be wasted!

That was because the intellectual property rights to those research projects belonged to Osborn Enterprises!

In other words, not only would he be unable to use the research he had already completed, but more importantly, he would not even be able to continue researching the lizard regeneration serum he was currently developing!

That crossed Dr. Connors's bottom line!

Restoring his body to wholeness had always been Dr. Connors's lifelong wish.

Now, with Peter's algorithmic help, he had finally seen hope of fulfilling that wish.

But just as that hope appeared, it was about to be taken away. How could Dr. Connors possibly accept that?

Thus, over the following days, although Peter did not help Dr. Connors with the lizard regeneration serum research because he had been dealt a crushing blow by the truth of his parents' deaths, and Gwen was unable to serve as Dr. Connors's assistant because she had school from Monday through Friday, Dr. Connors still accelerated the research on his own, conducting biological experiments on the lizard regeneration serum day and night without rest.

And hard work paid off. Before Norman Osborn's final deadline arrived, Dr. Connors's experiment succeeded!

A white mouse that had lost a forelimb successfully grew an entirely new leg under the effects of the regenerative serum!

The news immediately reached Norman Osborn's ears as he lay in his sickbed.

To prolong his dwindling life, Norman Osborn ignored Dr. Connors's objections and had someone forcibly take away the regenerative serum before it had undergone human testing.

This also seemed to make Dr. Connors understand why Richard had once insisted on leaving Osborn Enterprises with the research results.

Because Norman Osborn had gone completely mad!

Kind-hearted Dr. Connors, unwilling to let his regenerative drug—which had not undergone human testing—produce unforeseeable consequences after being used on Norman Osborn, gritted his teeth and injected himself with a dose of regenerative serum, intending to personally test its effects on the human body.

If the serum worked and had no side effects, then everyone would be happy.

If it had side effects, he could lead by example and let Norman Osborn see them for himself, thereby stopping him from using it!

And as for the result, naturally, an accident happened just as expected.

After Connors injected the regenerative serum, his missing right arm did grow back—but it seemed to be just a tiny bit different from the original!

Why did it look a little green?

And the new arm was not merely green-skinned; green scales like those of a lizard had also grown over it!

Nor were the scales limited to the newly grown arm. As if they were a virus, they began spreading from his arm throughout his entire body.

Seeing this change, how could Dr. Connors not realize that his lizard regeneration serum had gone horribly wrong?

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