Dr. Connors, Held Hostage by Toby's Morality

Clap clap clap—

Listening to Dr. Connors's "grand declaration," Toby applauded him sincerely.

It had to be said that sometimes, the astonishing ideals of certain villains were indeed greater than the ideals those so-called superheroes preached about protecting world peace.

Take Dr. Connors's plan to evolve all humanity together, for example.

Of course, that was only if there were no side effects...

Because according to the usual logic of American comics, any path involving mass evolution would generally end up going wrong, even if nothing initially went wrong.

In the end, humanity would either turn into a race of Lizard Man monsters like in The Amazing Spider-Man 1, or everyone would mutate into six-legged, eight-eyed spider monsters like in the comic Spider-Island.

And Toby did not want to see either outcome.

Even if Dr. Connors truly managed to develop a side-effect-free formula that perfectly combined Spider-Man's and the Lizard Man's abilities, Toby still would not agree to his plan for universal evolution.

On the larger scale, power made people swell with ambition. If everyone possessed Spider-Man's strength, this world would probably be finished within a year.

On the smaller scale, everyone had selfish desires, and Toby was no exception. If everyone became Spider-Man, wouldn't that make him no longer special?

Unless... after all humanity became Spider-Men, he could defeat them one by one and gain their spider powers, just as he had gained Peter's spider powers.

That way, even if the whole world became Spider-Men, he could still be the ultimate tyrant Spider-Man in a world full of Spider-Men.

But Toby felt that was unlikely.

On one hand, no author would let the story go that way. Otherwise, wouldn't he just level up to the maximum and reach the ending immediately?

On the other hand, his Spider-Sense told him that only special Spider-Men like Peter could grant him spider abilities. Ordinary people would not work, even if they gained spider powers.

And ever since he had relied on that Spider-Sense to obtain Peter's abilities last time, he had trusted that intuition without question.

So, looking at Dr. Connors, who was awaiting his answer, Toby ultimately gave him a negative reply:

"Although your global evolution plan does sound great, I'm sorry, but I can't trust you while you're being manipulated."

"So let the real Dr. Connors talk to me instead."

When Dr. Connors saw that Toby, after pondering for so long, had ultimately rejected him, his expression darkened.

"What are you talking about? Look carefully. I'm not some lizard freak now—I am Dr. Connors!"

But Toby ignored him. Instead, he walked straight to a refrigerated safe, unlocked it with his palm print, and took out a tube of green serum amid a burst of cold air.

The moment Dr. Connors saw the lizard serum, his face changed dramatically. The way he looked at it became both greedy and yearning.

"So it was you. That day, while Peter was ruining my plans, you took my regeneration serum from Norman's secretary!"

Toby nodded in admission. "That's right. And I deceived you before as well. I said I wasn't very good at biological research, but actually, I understand a tiny bit."

In this life, he was Peter's cousin, a natural-born Spider-Man, and a genius who had completed his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of eighteen. How could he truly know nothing about biology?

It was simply that he usually preferred solving problems through overwhelming force.

Making money was the same. He preferred using his strength to make money rather than his brain.

Fundamentally, if he were willing to take things seriously, he was even more of a genius than Peter.

Otherwise, why did Toby think he had specifically built an entire laboratory level on the second basement floor?

When you encounter ads asking, "Are you a real person?", there is no need to pay attention to them. Just close them. Do not scan any QR codes or send text messages!

When Dr. Connors saw Toby carrying the lizard serum toward the experiment table, the greed on his face turned into fear.

"Wait! You... what are you trying to do?!"

Without turning around, Toby placed the test tube into an analyzer and said flatly:

"You know, Peter was never the only one who knew the final formula for the Lizard Regeneration Serum. Back when Peter was looking at the formula his father left him, I was there too..."

"It was just that I didn't have the research facilities back then. And by the time I finally finished building this laboratory over the past two years, you happened to deliver the finished product right to me, saving me some brainpower..."

"Although this finished product isn't quite perfect and doesn't meet my expectations, using it to reverse-engineer an antidote is still a very simple matter."

As he spoke, Toby did this, then that, and finally produced a sample. Before long, he had created a vial of azure Anti-Lizard Serum.

The instant Dr. Connors saw the serum, he began struggling at once, desperately trying to retreat.

"No, no, no! I don't want to! I don't want to turn back into that cowardly Curt Connors! You can't do this!!!!"

Naturally, it was futile. Toby grabbed Dr. Connors by the hair, ignored whether he was willing or not, and shoved the injection straight into his neck!

As the blue serum entered Dr. Connors's body, the green skin on his body visibly reverted to normal human skin, and clarity returned to his eyes.

After finishing the injection, Toby casually tossed the empty syringe into a trash can several meters away. Then he tore the ropes off Dr. Connors and extended his left hand toward him.

"Welcome back, Dr. Connors."

Freed from the constant temptation of his second evil personality, the clear-headed Dr. Connors stood there in a daze for a long while before finally taking Toby's left hand with a bitter smile and getting to his feet.

"As a scientist, I truly was foolish. I actually injected myself with an untested serum..."

"Toby, did I... hurt a lot of people?"

Toby nodded calmly. "Yes. But fortunately, both times you acted after becoming the Lizard Man, Peter and I stopped you. Aside from several officers who died in the line of duty during the second incident, there were no civilian casualties."

"And you don't need to blame yourself too much for the officers' deaths. In America, they had long been prepared to face such a day when they chose to become police officers."

"They won't have died in vain, either. I'll anonymously support their families financially, ensuring they can carry on with their lives after losing their breadwinners."

"Of course, I'm fronting that money for you. It'll be deducted from your salary later."

Naturally, this wasn't because Toby was kindhearted, but because it would allow him to better control someone like Dr. Connors, who possessed a strong moral conscience.

Sure enough, Dr. Connors did not simply kill and walk away like certain superheroes. Instead, he accepted responsibility for the consequences he had caused.

Dr. Connors sighed.

"This was my responsibility to bear in the first place, but I'm afraid I'll have to owe you this money for a while. After this failure, I can no longer remain at Osborn Enterprises..."

"And although it wasn't truly my intention, I did kill several innocent police officers. I think I'll need to spend a very long time in prison..."

Toby interrupted Dr. Connors. "Of course you can't stay at Osborn Enterprises any longer. But is turning yourself in and repenting in prison really what you want?"

"Don't you want to continue your research into the regeneration serum?"

"Don't you think that only by completing this limb-regeneration research, which could benefit all humanity, and helping countless police officers disabled in the line of duty, can you truly offer the best repentance to those innocent officers who died?"

Faced with Toby's righteous words, Dr. Connors could not help but feel tempted, though he still hesitated.

"But... even if I'm willing to continue the research, Osborn Enterprises holds the research rights to the Lizard Regeneration Serum. Without Osborn Enterprises' authorization, no legitimate company would agree to let me continue researching the Lizard Regeneration Serum..."

Toby merely gave a disdainful smile and pointed at his laboratory. "Doctor, do I look like any kind of legitimate company to you?"

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