The Greater the Ability, the More Money!

But Ben flatly denied May's guess, waving it off with a dismissive expression.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"That young man may have a build similar to Peter's, but Peter doesn't have that little red guy's physical abilities. Didn't you see him going toe-to-toe with that Dinosaur Man?"

"If it were Peter, one swipe from that green dinosaur and he'd probably owe the guy several extra lives!"

"Now, if you said our son could go toe-to-toe with that Dinosaur Man, that would be more believable. After all, our son was born freakishly strong—even in elementary school, he could beat up those high school bullies who tried to extort him!"

As Ben denied that the person was Peter, he also took the opportunity to praise his own son.

Toby smiled helplessly to himself.

He wondered whether Peter would be happy or upset if he found out that the reason no one suspected him was Ben's fixed impression of him...

Tsk tsk, poor little Peter~

May rolled her eyes at Ben and lectured Toby, "Toby, don't listen to your father. I'm glad that you're healthy enough to protect yourself, but you must never use that strength to bully others, understand?"

Toby nodded indifferently. "Don't worry, May. I won't bully the weak. I don't need to pick on weaker people just to make myself seem strong."

At least, not so far.

He had always used strength against strength—using his own powerful force to smash those robbers' heads in, then taking their money!

After all, what money could weak people possibly have?

If he was going to make money, he might as well make it from those wealthy "strong people"!

Seeing Toby's indifferent expression, May couldn't help reaching out and tapping his head with two fingers.

"Of course I know you wouldn't, but you also can't be like that young man in the news, trying to play hero and putting yourself in danger against inhuman monsters like that. Understand?"

Before Toby could speak, Ben objected first.

"That's not right. With great power comes great responsibility. If Toby has that kind of ability, then it's perfectly fine for him to help others within his means!"

"Otherwise, if everyone became selfish and cold-hearted, what would happen to this society? This country?"

Hearing his father utter that classic flag, Toby's mouth twitched hard, and he hurriedly cut him off.

"Come on, Ben. I'm not interested in bullying the weak, but I'm just as uninterested in protecting them."

"I don't know how great the responsibility is that comes with greater power..."

"But I do know that the greater the ability, the more money you can make, and the better you can make this family's life."

"So if we have to talk about responsibility, then making money so this family can live better is my entire responsibility."

Having said that, without waiting to see whether Ben and May agreed or disagreed, Toby got up and went upstairs to his room to rest.

It was nine o'clock. Time for bed.

After all, he had a date tomorrow.

As for Peter, Toby said he would cheer for him in his dreams~

Knock knock knock—

The next day, Toby was awakened by knocking.

When he opened the door, Peter stood outside with a bruised and swollen face, grinning at him as he waved.

"Hi, Toby. Morning. Can I borrow some of that magical Eastern medicine of yours?"

Toby: ...

It seemed his cheering for Peter in his dreams hadn't worked after all...

"Come in."

After inviting Peter inside, Toby took out a homemade medicinal liquor for bruises and sprains from his bedside cabinet.

He had learned how to make it from an older colleague when he worked as a delivery driver in his previous life.

As that senior had put it, people in their line of work were bound to get banged up often. If they didn't want to keep running to the hospital, they needed to know a few ways to treat themselves.

And the medicinal liquor really was effective. It worked wonders on bruises and sprains, as well as the stiffness and soreness caused by sitting for long periods while driving.

So even after transmigrating into this life, he had always kept some on hand.

It was the magical Eastern medicine Peter had mentioned...

Once Peter lifted his shirt and lay facedown on the bed, Toby took one look and thought, Wow, that's something else.

Peter was covered in bruises from head to toe!

As Toby applied the medicine to the bruises on Peter's back, he asked in confusion, "What exactly did you do last night? If you were only saving people, you shouldn't have ended up like this, right?"

Faced with Toby's question, Peter scratched his head awkwardly and slowly explained what had happened.

It turned out that Peter had indeed only intended to save people last night.

And the rescue itself had gone very smoothly.

Thanks to Peter's timely arrival, he successfully saved everyone on the Manhattan Bridge and drove off the Lizard Man.

But this time, there was no melodramatic scenario of a child trapped in a burning car.

So when the Lizard Man discovered that Norman's secretary—the target—had vanished and tried to flee, Peter broke from the original plot and followed him.

Using the thermal sensors in the high-tech combat suit Toby had given him, he tracked the Lizard Man all the way into the sewers.

Although lizards were cold-blooded creatures and had only a slight temperature difference from their surroundings, making them far less distinct on thermal imaging than humans, Peter's superhuman spider vision made up for that perfectly, allowing him to track the Lizard Man with ease.

But Peter had clearly forgotten one thing: while his suit had thermal imaging and waterproofing functions, the damp, gloomy city sewers were not a spider's main battlefield. The surface city, filled with towering buildings, was!

The tangled, labyrinthine sewers were the lizard's home ground!

And fighting on someone else's home ground was undoubtedly an extremely foolish thing to do.

So, after realizing he was being followed, the Lizard Man turned around and launched a sudden counterattack on Peter, who had chased him into the sewers!

The sewers were already not Peter's domain, and in the cramped confines, he couldn't use his webbing to take advantage of his agility. With all those negative buffs stacked against him, Peter naturally came out worse for wear.

Though he ultimately escaped the sewers in a miserable state, the Lizard Man gave him a brutal beating before he got out!

If not for the incredibly durable combat suit Toby had given him, Peter would probably not just be covered in bruises right now—he would be scattered in pieces!

At the very least, he would have gained a few more scars—the "badges of honor" of a man!

After hearing Peter's account, Toby merely shook his head at his recklessness and did not criticize him.

Harsh verbal lessons did not actually accomplish much, and sometimes they even had the opposite effect.

Only lessons taught through real pain could truly help someone grow.

Just like that damn father-and-son scammer pair. That incident had completely extinguished Toby's desire to become a superhero after crossing into the Marvel world, turning him into a supervillain who killed without batting an eye!

So when Peter said that if Toby had been there, the two brothers would definitely have been able to capture the Lizard Man together, Toby's hand, wet with medicinal liquor, came down hard on Peter's bruised back.