After-School Time

From 3 PM to 8 PM was Midtown High's after-school enrichment time for students.

During these hours, students could participate in club activities, sports programs, and the like.

And for Peter, this meant he was finally. Finally done with school!

You don't understand how long Peter had waited for this moment.

The second the time arrived, Peter grabbed his textbook from the desk and rushed into the hallway. He then opened his locker, took out his small backpack, and with the backpack in hand, he leaped out the back door, which was mostly deserted!

His movements were fluid and seamless.

After all, he'd been doing this for over half a month, so he was already very familiar with the routine.

As for whether he'd be discovered?

The chances were very, very slim.

Because among his spider abilities, he possessed a stealth capability.

Concealing himself was a spider's instinct, and Spider-Man naturally inherited this instinct.

This instinct allowed him to find the safest places to transform from Peter Parker into Spider-Man without being detected.

Furthermore, after visiting the world of Shadow Spider-Man, this instinct had been slightly enhanced, giving him a slight boost in his stealth, tracking, and counter-tracking abilities.

If he had possessed his current stealth capabilities back then, perhaps Iron Man wouldn't have found him so easily.

Well, only "not so easily."

In fact, in this era of big data, with super artificial intelligence and the Avengers' vast information network, if Iron Man truly wanted to find someone, it would be very difficult for any secret to remain hidden from him.

It was merely a matter of time and the amount of resources invested.

Of course, Iron Man and Peter were "on the same side" now, so thinking about such things was pointless.

After Peter climbed out of school, he followed his usual routine: finding a small alley to change into the suit Iron Man had given him.

Then, he used his web-shooter to spray a few spots on his backpack and colored the white webs with a marker.

A backpack of the same style but completely different color appeared.

Peter slung the backpack over his shoulders.

He used to hide his backpack where he changed, and several times, it had been stolen by passersby who were empty-handed.

Each time, he had to shamelessly ask Aunt May for another backpack.

So, he decided he would be a "Backpack Spider-Man" from now on.

He was a reserve Avenger now, after all. Iron Man had told him personally that his operational scope was between what Iron Man did and what Iron Man didn't do.

A gray area.

Pretty clever, right?

At least, Peter considered it very clever.

So, as a reserve Avenger, as long as he didn't actively expose his identity, the Avengers would help him cover it up.

"Good afternoon, Peter."

"Hello, Miss Karen." Peter greeted the artificial intelligence in the suit.

"Peter, which lesson are you planning to undertake today?" Karen asked.

Peter raised his hand, and a list of preset lessons appeared on his wrist. These lessons taught him how to be a qualified superhero.

With the mindset that "it wouldn't hurt to learn," Peter decided to tackle these daily, treating them like daily quests.

"I'll study this today: The scientific principles of web-swinging combined with gymnastics for aesthetic movement. Good grief, who came up with this course name?" Peter was a bit speechless.

"It was probably Mr. Stark," Karen honestly sold out her creator.

Peter: ".He's truly a genius at naming things!"

Karen remained silent.

Peter then asked Karen to activate the suit's receiving device. This device could connect to the Queens regional police radio, allowing him to be immediately aware of any incidents and quickly reach the scene.

To Peter's great relief, Queens was very peaceful today.

He wandered outside from 3 PM to 5 PM, and in the end, he only helped an old lady cross the street and then helped a little girl who had gotten separated from her mother find her mom.

The old lady treated him to a meat pie, and the little girl gave him a chocolate bar.

This made Peter very happy.

It wasn't because he received rewards; he didn't help people for those rewards.

It was because he felt recognized by others.

That was the most important thing.

Peter returned home and had a simple dinner.

Aunt May's charity event, which was possibly sponsored by Red Bull, would take several days to complete.

She prepared some food and some money in the refrigerator.

Peter had to sort out his own meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner these past few days.

Afterward, Peter shut himself in his room to improve the web-shooter.

He planned to install two "ammo compartments" on the web-shooter. One would be for his own webbing – which Peter named Webbing One – and the other would be for Amazing Spider-Man's webbing – which Peter named Webbing Two.

Webbing One had better elasticity and could be used to capture criminals, save people, and so on.

Webbing Two had higher toughness and could be used to hold vehicles, buildings, and similar things.

They could also be used together normally. When the two different types of webbing were mixed, they would form a thicker, stronger web.

However, this would also increase consumption.

Considering his own web fluid supply, Peter felt this should only be used when absolutely necessary.

As for the web-shooter's improvement, it was actually quite simple.

He just needed to add a parallel circuit to the original part.

In just one hour, Peter had finished modifying the web-shooter.

Then, he took out paper and pen and began to transcribe the internal structure of the pneumatic electronic single-fiber tensile tester he had secretly recorded from school.

His memory was strong, and it became even stronger after he was bitten by the spider and awakened his superpowers.

Soon, he had written down everything he had memorized.

Next, he would use this diagram to reassemble and modify the manual tensile tester in his room, which he had pieced together from junk.

This part was more complex.

It was even more complex than making a new one.

But he couldn't really make a new one.

It was simple: he had no money.

He was building this thing, first to make it easier to debug his equipment in the future, and second to thoroughly research the performance of his webbing so he could talk to Tony Stark about cooperation!

So, he only had tens of dollars on him right now, which was his meal money for the past few days.

He wondered if the intern Avengers' salaries were paid monthly.

Were they paid at the beginning or end of the month?

Wait!

Peter suddenly looked up.

He suddenly remembered something very important.

He had forgotten to ask Tony Stark how much his salary as an intern Avenger actually was!

His Spider-suit was subsidized by the September Fund, but Tony Stark had said that Avengers like Black Widow had a living allowance!

Even though he was just an intern, he should... have one too, right?