Return and Gains

"No! If you put me on trial, all anyone will see is another freak show!" Green Goblin shouted. "I never want to be some spectacle for others to laugh at again for the rest of my life! Never!"

Green Goblin twisted his body, trying to find a way to break free.

—Perhaps it was also because Peter's webbing hadn't completely bound him just now.

Peter merely casually added another strand of webbing, firmly securing his body to the wall.

"No one can ever lock me in a cage again!" Green Goblin was furious. His emotions had become wildly unstable as his miserable past continually assailed him, tormenting his nerves.

Peter simply watched him.

Although he had already decided not to kill Green Goblin, intending instead to send him to court and let him tear into those people like dogs fighting dogs before being killed by someone else, so he could feel pain before he died—

Even so, seeing him struggle on the edge of agony made Peter feel waves of satisfaction.

No, perhaps that was an emotion passed on by part of Shadow Spider-Man?

Thud!

A heavy object hit the ground somewhere nearby.

A figure slowly walked toward Green Goblin.

It was Kraven the Hunter, covered from head to toe in venomous spiders!

He staggered toward Green Goblin. "Osborn, save me! Save me."

"No, don't come over here, you ugly freak!" Green Goblin screamed in terror.

But his hands were stuck to the wall by webbing, and he could not break free for the moment.

Just like that, Kraven the Hunter crashed into Green Goblin's arms, covered in spiders.

Like a contagious disease, the venomous spiders quickly spread from Kraven the Hunter's body to Green Goblin's body and mouth, completely engulfing him.

"Ahhh—"

The underground passage filled with desperate screams.

With a light leap, Peter jumped to the ceiling of the underground passage.

His hands and feet clung to the ceiling as he turned to look down at the ground.

The spiders seemed like the wronged souls of a newspaper reporter whose codename in life had been "Spider." Having finally found targets for their vengeance, they tore huge mouthfuls of flesh from Kraven the Hunter and Green Goblin.

Very quickly, they reduced both men to skeletons.

After finishing everything, the venomous spiders scattered in every direction and vanished into the underground passage.

Peter stared blankly at the scene and muttered to himself.

"Was what I did right? Just watching him get swallowed by spiders?"

"You were still a teenager, weren't you?"

".Yes."

"A few years ago, when I was still a teenager too... well, probably about your age. Uncle Ben took me to see Frankenstein once, and it gave me nightmares. When I woke up, Uncle Ben held me in his arms."

"I hoped Uncle Ben would tell me there were no monsters in the world, but he thought I was old enough to understand the world's 'monsters.' Uncle Ben told me that all he could do was protect me from being harmed by monsters."

"Monsters? You meant more than just monsters, right?"

"Yeah. Sometimes, people carry monsters in their hearts—monsters that may be even more monstrous than monsters themselves. Be careful of the human heart, Peter."

"Thank you, Peter."

Peter slowly closed his eyes.

After a while, when he opened them again, his gaze had turned sharp and gloomy.

After thinking for a moment, a smile curled across his lips. "I should thank you too, Peter, for facing it with me when I was at my lowest."

Then, after taking one final look at the two skeletons on the ground, he nimbly climbed out of the underground passage.

He had one last thing to do, to bring this all to a perfect conclusion.

—

New York, Queens.

Peter opened his eyes and abruptly sat up in bed.

He first felt his body. He was wearing his own pajamas, and his body had reverted to his comparatively "small" self.

Well, I haven't finished growing yet. In a few years, I'll be as tall as he was.

And more handsome!

Peter encouraged himself.

Only then did he realize that his body seemed to have undergone some changes.

It seemed... his spider abilities had become easier to use?

Was it because he had personally experienced them through Shadow Spider-Man, whose abilities had already been almost fully developed?

Or was there some deeper reason?

Peter fell into thought.

He checked the time and realized it was nearly six in the morning.

It seemed that when he traveled to Shadow Spider-Man's world, time had indeed flowed at the same rate in both worlds.

He had spent nearly three hours in that world, and nearly three hours had passed here too!

In a few more hours, the famous Mr. Iron Man would come visit his home.

After thinking it over, Peter decided not to sleep.

If Iron Man arrived while he was still asleep, that would be far too rude and would leave a bad impression.

But Mr. Iron Man was a capitalist too, wasn't he?

Stark Industries was no small company.

Would he exploit his employees?

Was Stark Industries a sweatshop?

Should he secretly gather some relevant information, just in case—

Peter violently shook his head, momentarily speechless.

"Was this a side effect of briefly merging with a private detective Spider-Man with such a grim, hard-bitten style? Good thing it was only three hours. If it had been three days, three months, three years..."

However, Peter also realized that, setting aside this instinctive conditioned reflex of rejecting capitalists, his current state was probably one of the benefits he had gained from the fusion.

His ability to observe and analyze things had become stronger. In the past, he had simply been quick-witted, but he had never specifically studied such skills.

But as a newspaper reporter with the qualities of a private detective, Shadow Spider-Man had been well taught in these abilities by Yuri, so Peter had learned quite a bit as well.

A very simple example:

When someone without relevant knowledge saw a shoe, they would only know it was a shoe—at most, they could identify the style, such as a sneaker or slipper, and its color.

But Peter could now estimate the owner's height from the shoe's length, judge the owner's walking posture from the wear on its inner and outer sides, and even infer their occupation, preferences, personality, and more from its style and color.

Finally, by combining all those factors, he could narrow the shoe's owner down to a certain range. With further careful screening, he could find the actual owner!

For his dream of becoming a superhero, this ability was undoubtedly a very good improvement.

He vaguely felt there was more to it than that, but he had not discovered anything else yet. He would see in the future!

Peter closed his eyes again and "looked" at the web in his mind, discovering that the glowing point representing Shadow Spider-Man was no longer glowing.

Perhaps when it lit up again next time, he would be able to go there once more!

And did each of the nodes on this web mean that every node represented a Spider-Man from a different world?