Osborn Manor.
The once magnificent estate now seemed especially lifeless.
Apart from Osborn Enterprises executives hurrying in and leaving with cold expressions,
all that remained were servants walking through the manor in fearful silence, along with fully armed security teams patrolling the grounds.
"Jack, h-how much longer until Harry returns?"
In an unlit room deep within the manor stood and lay two indistinct figures.
Standing beside the bed in a tailcoat was Jack, the old butler who had served at Osborn Manor for two generations.
As for the one lying in bed, it could only be Norman Osborn himself, the master of this estate.
Butler Jack respectfully lowered his head toward Norman and answered,
"Sir, I have already notified the young master, as you instructed, to return as soon as possible. He agreed, so he should be back within this month."
"Within this month?" Norman tore the breathing mask from his face, his voice sinking.
"No. Make him get back here by next week. I... cough, cough... I'm afraid I won't last that long..."
"Without Richard, Connors is nothing but trash. After ten years, his Lizard Regeneration Serum still failed, and with it went my last hope of being cured!"
"Those vampires in Osborn's upper ranks already know I'm finished. Every last one of them is eyeing my position, hoping I die sooner!"
"I... I have to hand everything over to Harry before I die—my company, and... the hope of continuing the Osborn Family!"
Jack's body trembled slightly. With a complicated look in his eyes, he asked, "The hope you mean is... Spider-Man?"
"That's right..." Norman slowly sat up from the bed.
For the first time, his face emerged from the shadows. It was utterly unlike the complexion of an ordinary person.
Apart from yellow, pale, or dark skin, a normal person's face would only turn red when overwhelmed by emotion.
But Norman's face was an extremely unnatural grayish green.
He looked like a corpse that had been dead for some time, and faint green light even flickered in his eyes!
Norman's face suddenly twisted into a savage expression, his voice turning hoarse and crazed.
"The moment I saw that so-called Spider-Man on the news, I knew it. The power in his body was absolutely bestowed by the correct Super Spider formula that traitor Richard took away!"
"Only the Super Spider cultivated by Richard can give humans effects beyond Dr. Erskine's Super-Soldier Serum!"
"And besides the Lizard Regeneration Serum, the Super Spider is the only other way to cure the Osborn Family's hereditary disease!"
"So no matter the cost, Spider-Man must be captured!"
Even Jack, the old butler who had already seen off one generation of the Osborn Family, instinctively took two steps back in fear at the demon-like Norman.
Looking at his master, he felt nothing but unfamiliarity, as though the Norman before him had become a different person...
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Jack swallowed against his dry throat and advised in a trembling voice,
"Sir, have you increased the dosage of that medicine again? Dr. Ophilia Sarkissian said that although she used a poison-against-poison method to balance the imperfect Lizard Regeneration Serum with Super Spider venom, creating a special drug that could slow your condition..."
"But Dr. Ophilia Sarkissian also said that it could only prolong your life and could not cure your hereditary disease. And it absolutely must not be used excessively, or it could lead to severe, unpredictable consequences..."
After several seconds of silence, the crazed expression on Norman's face suddenly returned to calm. He said flatly,
"I know my own body better than you do. If I don't increase the dosage, I don't know whether there will be unpredictable consequences, but I definitely won't live until Harry comes back..."
"So go. Get Harry back as soon as possible..."
"Sir... yes." Jack looked at the master before him, who had become familiar again. His eyes grew moist as he lowered his head, turned, and prepared to leave.
He knew that he might once again have to see off a generation of the Osborn Family lost to their hereditary disease...
Thinking back, Norman's father had also been seen off by him when Norman did the same...
"Wait..." Just before Jack left the room, Norman called out to him again.
The instant Jack turned around, Norman tossed a USB drive toward him. Jack hurriedly caught it.
Norman lay back down in the shadows of the bed, his voice low and somber.
"This contains all the investment projects I left for Harry that might possibly cure the Osborn Family's hereditary disease. I don't have time to verify them one by one..."
"If Harry returns and I am already gone, give this to him. Let Harry uncover his own hope..."
Listening to his master's instructions, which sounded like final words, Jack could no longer bear to remain. Wiping away tears, he turned and left Norman's room.
He could not show weakness or tears before his master. He still had to arrange his master's funeral, look after the young master for him, and live to see the young master recover and have a healthy little grandson!
Boom—
Jack was walking while setting flags in his heart, and unsurprisingly, something went wrong.
He had barely taken a few steps away from Norman's room when it felt as if he had been struck by a hundred-ton truck. His aged body flew through the air like a torn sack and slammed into the wall of Norman's room!
By the time Jack's twisted body slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind, he was bleeding from every orifice and thoroughly dead...
The culprit behind Jack's miserable death was naturally Toby, who had just finished clearing out the manor's security teams and arrived here.
The moment he arrived, he saw Norman's chief lackey walking out of Norman's room carrying something. Naturally, Toby had no intention of letting him go.
Toby casually slipped the USB drive he had snatched from the butler's hand while sending him flying into his pocket, then walked step by step toward Norman's room.
With one kick, Toby smashed open the password-protected security door and swaggered inside.
Yet Norman was nowhere to be seen inside the room. There was only an empty hospital bed and the beeping of medical equipment.
But Toby was not in the slightest hurry. He walked straight toward a bookshelf.
That was right. This was the location of the hidden safe room entrance marked on the manor layout Kingpin had given him.
Toby's hands shot out like arrows and plunged into the wooden bookshelf. He forcibly tore the shelf apart to both sides with brute force!
As wood chips flew everywhere, the bookshelf split in two, revealing a heavy silver metal door before Toby.
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