You're Really a Damn Genius

In the depths of the alley, the air reeked of sour, rotting garbage.

Peter casually tossed the Shocker he had been carrying over his shoulder onto the ground with a dull thud.

"Gah~"

Shocker felt as though every bone in his body was about to come apart. He wanted to cry out in pain, but then he met the Phasing Mask, which looked incomparably sinister and savage in the shadows.

So he forcibly swallowed his cry of pain.

Peter crouched down and efficiently tore off Shocker's yellow-and-red mask, revealing an unremarkable middle-aged white face tinged with nervousness and sleaziness.

"Name. Where your equipment came from. Your objective."

Peter's voice was low and devoid of emotion.

Herman's eyes darted around as he forced out a smile uglier than a cry.

"I... I'm Tom..."

Crack!

Before Shocker could finish, Peter grabbed his wrist and gave it a light twist.

Another bone snapped.

Shocker's body convulsed violently, and his entire face twisted out of shape from the sheer agony. He wanted to scream, but Peter covered his mouth directly, leaving him able to make only muffled, agonized growls.

"Did you know the human body has 206 bones?"

Peter casually stated a piece of trivia, but it sent a chill through Shocker's heart.

How could he fail to understand the implication behind Peter's words?

If he dared lie again, this madman would break every bone in his body!

After realizing that, Shocker no longer dared play any tricks. Tears and snot streamed down his face as he immediately said,

"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

He no longer dared conceal anything. Like beans pouring from a bamboo tube, he spilled every last detail about himself.

For the next while, "Shocker," or rather Herman Schultz, began recounting his experiences.

To put it simply, he had been a poor kid who never even finished high school. After realizing he was a physics genius, he had tried to change his fate through self-study, only for those goddamn capitalists to repeatedly steal his inventions.

He had tried to steal back the fruits of his work, only to end up in prison.

After that, he had fallen into a life of habitual theft, fantasizing about getting rich without working through the equipment he invented...

At first, Peter found the story rather dull. The stories of these Marvel villains were all more or less the same. There was really nothing new about them.

Until...

"These Concussion Gloves were invented by me! They're powered by specially designed high-density battery packs..."

"Wait."

For the first time, Peter's voice changed. He brutally cut off Herman's tearful account.

"What did you say? Powered by battery packs?"

Peter was genuinely stunned.

He had considered that Shocker's equipment might use an extremely futuristic, advanced power source.

But he had never expected it to be this futuristic—so futuristic it could practically be called magical...

A battery module capable of instantly releasing a shockwave powerful enough to destroy an entire building, while still being reusable at least a dozen times?

What kind of godlike battery capacity was that?

"That's right! Batteries!" Seeing Peter take an interest in that, Herman clung to it like a drowning man grasping a lifeline and hurriedly explained,

"This is a miniature high-energy battery pack I developed myself! I discovered the material ratio by accident!

Its capacity is more than a hundred times that of all the common batteries on the market..."

Before Herman could finish, Peter had already roughly torn open his red-and-yellow bodysuit.

After ripping through layers of unknown composite cushioning material, Peter saw more than a hundred crystalline blue batteries, each no larger than a button cell.

Gasp~

Peter could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

You really were one ruthless bastard!

He pointed at the batteries, his voice even changing pitch.

"Aren't you afraid these things might suddenly short-circuit while you're fighting, or get punctured by something, then go boom and blow you into fireworks?"

"They won't! Absolutely not!"

Herman's tone was filled with absolute confidence.

"I ran countless tests when developing these solid-state batteries. They have absolute stability! Even if you stabbed one directly with a nail, it would only fail. It would never catch fire, much less explode..."

Listening to Herman, Peter felt his vision go dark again and again.

Holding technology this godlike... what couldn't you have done with it?

Make phone batteries, and every phone manufacturer in the world would be kneeling down and calling you daddy!

Make electric vehicles, and you could overturn the entire auto industry in minutes!

Yet this guy had actually used such godlike technology to... rob banks?!

At that moment, Peter truly wanted to become Li Yunlong and give the guy a thumbs-up.

Heh, you really were a damn genius!

If Peter had previously only intended to recruit this guy as a useful tool, with the attitude of taking a swing and seeing whether he hit anything.

Then now, his thoughts had completely changed.

Looking at this "wastrel" trembling on the ground from pain and terror, Peter felt as though he were looking at an inexhaustible super gold mine.

What a talent!

As long as he could firmly keep Herman Schultz and his battery technology under his control, wouldn't the business empire he had envisioned instantly gain an unshakable foundation?

"Herman Schultz."

After a long silence, Peter finally spoke.

His voice was low and magnetic, carrying a peculiar allure.

"Do you think robbing banks is the only path left in your life?"

The instant he heard those words, Herman froze completely.

He truly had not expected this demon, who had just viciously snapped his wrist, to suddenly say something like that.

After a long silence, Herman finally spoke bitterly.

"I... I really have nowhere left to go. I've been imprisoned for theft at least five times. No company is willing to hire me.

I told them about the technology I possess, but no one believed me. They just thought I was crazy..."

If he had a choice, if he had not been completely disappointed in this goddamn world, who would want to become a notorious criminal chased all over the world by the cops?

"I believe you!"

Peter suddenly said,

"I've seen your talent!

And I'm willing to give you an opportunity—an opportunity to truly realize your value, an opportunity to ensure your talent is no longer buried."

At that moment, even the wind in the alley seemed to stop.

Herman stared blankly at Peter, clearly feeling his heart pound wildly in his chest!

"Y-you... what do you want me to do?" Herman's voice trembled slightly with excitement.

Hearing that question, Peter slowly rose to his feet and looked down at him like a god gazing upon his follower.

"It's simple. Work for me."

"With your battery technology and some of the ideas in my head, we can absolutely build a business empire no less formidable than the Osborn Group, Hammer Industries, or Stark Industries!

"I'll make you obscenely rich, letting you seize wealth that 99.99% of people in this world could never reach even if they spent their entire lives trying.

"You'll be admired by countless people. Those who once looked down on you will only be able to kneel on the ground and lick your shoes!"