Angel Investor

Thanks to his extraordinary senses, Peter easily made it back to school without alerting anyone and successfully took off his suit.

Almost as soon as he finished all that, the class bell rang.

When Peter returned to the classroom, none of the other students paid attention to where he had been.

Only Gwen Stacy stared at him without blinking, her expression incredibly complicated.

Don't get the wrong idea. It wasn't because she suspected Peter was the "Arbiter."

She was simply extremely unhappy about Peter's "mysterious disappearance"!

She was already in a terrible mood because of the stark contrast with the Arbiter and the police misunderstanding her!

So after returning to school, she instinctively wanted to find Peter and chat with him to ease her foul mood.

Yet she couldn't find him anywhere, which only made her feel worse.

Anyone who had ever dated knew that when your girlfriend was unhappy, even breathing was a mistake. If you dared look happy, it was practically like dancing on a grave.

Therefore, when Gwen, who had been unable to find Peter anywhere, saw him appear before her with a cheerful grin, her cheeks instantly puffed up like buns.

"Where did you go? How come I couldn't find you anywhere?"

As a transmigrator, Peter naturally handled this with ease.

"Oh, I heard later that Ghost Spider had shown up at Manhattan Bank too, so I wanted to go see what was happening."

"But there were just too many people watching. I couldn't squeeze my way in at all."

"I also heard them saying Ghost Spider had been getting beaten down by the robbers the whole time, so I figured they must have mistaken someone else for her. How could righteous Ghost Spider possibly be that weak?"

"So I left early and went to the library to read for a while."

"Oh, right. Didn't you go watch the excitement first thing this morning? Did you see Ghost Spider?"

Peter's words nearly choked Gwen to death on the spot, and her pretty face turned bright red.

Sorry for being so weak!

At the same time, though, she couldn't help secretly feeling relieved.

Fortunately, Peter hadn't seen her embarrassing performance earlier. Otherwise, this guy might have ended up becoming a fan of the Arbiter!

Faced with Peter's question, Gwen hesitated for half a second before finally giving up on lying that she "hadn't seen Ghost Spider at all."

Mostly because she was worried that new videos would appear online today, and she wouldn't be able to explain herself then.

Thus, Gwen, who had originally wanted to act a little petulant with Peter, was left speechless. She could only awkwardly exaggerate how troublesome Shocker had been and how unreasonable the newly appeared Arbiter was.

That performance, that expression... she looked as helpless as a man.

After easily getting a handle on Gwen, Peter began planning out his business empire again during the boring class.

Even with Herman's battery technology, building a tech company from scratch was no easy task.

Production lines, raw materials, designers, distribution channels, marketing... every single step was a money-devouring beast.

Even if he invested all four million dollars he had "borrowed" from Kingpin, it would only be a drop in the bucket.

Not to mention that the money couldn't see the light of day at all.

So if he wanted to quickly take this most difficult first step, the best way was still to find a reliable angel investor!

Speaking of investors.

The first person who came to Peter's mind was that man with the flashy little mustache and the words "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" practically written across his face—Tony Stark.

As the man at the helm of Stark Industries and the future Iron Man, Tony's wealth and connections were beyond question.

But the thought lasted less than a second before Peter decisively snuffed it out.

Tony and Peter's "father-son bond" was an exclusive setting from the Holland version.

It had absolutely nothing to do with Peter from this Gwen Spider universe!

Not to mention that Tony wasn't even Iron Man yet. He was just a pure, unadulterated playboy!

If an unknown high school student like him showed up at Tony's door with so-called black technology...

The most likely outcome was that he would end up like Killian in Iron Man 3, ruthlessly stood up and left to freeze on a rooftop all night!

Peter had no desire to accept that kind of "humiliation."

So Tony... pass!

After ruling out Stark Industries, what other giant corporation could become Peter's angel investor?

The answer was obvious.

Osborn Group!

In the universe Peter inhabited, just like Peter in the movie universe, he and Harry Osborn, the young master of Osborn Group, had been best friends since childhood!

Moreover, Harry's father, Norman Osborn, the future Green Goblin, thought very highly of him—far more highly than he did of his own son.

Compared to seeking investment from a Tony Stark who didn't know him at all, seeking investment from Norman Osborn was obviously much more reliable!

Given how much Norman appreciated him, as long as Peter could produce a battery sample and then present Norman with the smartphone concepts in his head...

Getting tens of millions of dollars in angel investment from him shouldn't be a problem!

And with Osborn Group as his backer, he wouldn't have to worry about his business being eyed up and swallowed by other capital tycoons.

It was just that doing so might leave him owing the Osborn family a huge favor...

Under normal circumstances, Peter was unwilling to owe anyone favors!

But the Osborn family was an exception.

The reason was simple: their favor would be far too easy to repay!

The genetic disease inherited by the Osborn family was incurable to others, but to Peter, who possessed the Horse Talisman, it was merely a matter of lifting a hand.

Although the Horse Talisman couldn't instantly cure genetic defects either.

As long as it could help Harry and Norman eliminate their symptoms and slow the frequency and onset of their episodes, wouldn't that be enough?

As long as he could help the Osborn family solve their genetic defect, the entire Osborn Group would become his staunchest ally!

Wasn't that far better than kissing Tony Stark's ass?

The more Peter thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed.

So after school, he pulled out his phone without hesitation and called Harry Osborn.

"Hey, Harry. Long time no see. Are you free after school?"

Harry was overjoyed that Peter had taken the initiative to contact him, and his excited voice immediately came through the phone.

"Oh, Peter, you finally remembered me! I was planning to come find you this weekend, but this works out perfectly. Wait for me, I'll come find you right now!"

Not long after Harry hung up, a rather flashy convertible sports car pulled up outside Peter's house.

Harry jumped out of the car and gave Peter a big hug before casually asking.

"What are we doing today? Basketball or arcade games?"

Faced with Harry's question, Peter discreetly twitched the corner of his mouth before speaking.

"Uh, actually, I asked you to come because I wanted to ask whether you'd be interested in starting a business with me?"