Counseling, Hunting

Tap, tap, tap!

With Makoto Kyogoku's combat experience and the Lizard Serum-enhanced hearing, Peter instantly recognized the visitor—Gwen Stacy.

Peter was not surprised by Gwen's sudden arrival.

This was something he had anticipated.

After suffering a setback, it seemed Gwen could only come to confide in him, her childhood friend.

With that thought, Peter immediately left his bedroom and went downstairs, pretending to be looking for a late-night snack.

Just then, the doorbell rang at exactly the right moment.

Peter turned and opened the door.

"Gwen?!"

The right amount of surprise appeared on his face, and his voice was neither too loud nor too soft—just enough for the two elders in the living room, who had their ears perked up, to hear.

Almost the instant he called her name, Peter keenly noticed that the television in the living room had quietly been turned down by several notches.

He could not help rolling his eyes inwardly.

Uncle Ben, Aunt May, at your age, how are you still this nosy?!

While Peter was grumbling to himself, Gwen outside first showed an expression of profound relief, then leaned close to his ear and whispered:

"Take me to your bedroom. Don't let Uncle Ben and Aunt May follow us."

Peter nodded knowingly. His deep gaze swept over the wound on Gwen's lower abdomen before he turned and called out to the elders:

"Aunt May, Uncle Ben! It's Gwen. She has a few homework problems she doesn't understand and wants to ask me for help, so I'll take her upstairs first!"

"Oh, right. She said she's been trying to lose weight lately, so don't prepare any late-night snacks for her, or she'll get mad!"

In the living room, Uncle Ben and Aunt May exchanged a smile, their eyes filled with the mutual understanding of people who knew exactly what was going on.

"Sure, sure. You young people study hard. We won't disturb you." Uncle Ben gave Peter a mischievous grin, raised his eyebrows at him, and deliberately turned up the television a little.

"Click."

Only after the bedroom door had been locked did Gwen finally relax completely, nearly collapsing into Peter's arms.

After rushing all the way from Manhattan Bridge, who knew how much blood she had lost.

An ordinary person would have gone into shock by now.

Seeing how pale she was, Peter did not waste words. He pulled out a first-aid kit he had prepared long ago from beneath the bed.

He gestured for Gwen to sit by the bedside, then carefully lifted her shirt.

Three horrifying claw marks stood out starkly against her smooth, fair lower abdomen.

This was the first time the two had crossed the line into such close contact—close enough for Gwen to clearly feel Peter's warm breath brushing against her lower abdomen.

A strange tingling sensation spread from around the wounds, making Gwen's face heat up without her realizing it.

"How did this happen?" Peter asked casually as he cleaned her wounds with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball.

The sting of the alcohol made Gwen softly hiss, dispelling the faint sense of intimacy in her heart.

She organized her words and recited the excuse she had prepared long ago:

"Did you see the reports about Manhattan Bridge?"

"I... I happened to be on Manhattan Bridge earlier, and I ran into that lizard monster..."

"I saw with my own eyes... saw him trying to kill Ms. Saji, the female secretary from Osborn Group we met before. I wanted to help, and then I got caught in the crossfire..."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, thick with self-reproach and distress:

"Later... Ghost Spider saved me... She was amazing. She drove off the lizard monster, but Ms. Saji still died."

"Peter, do you think I'm useless? If I'd been a little braver then, maybe I could have saved Ms. Saji..."

As he listened to Gwen's account, Peter could not help grumbling inwardly.

This silly girl really never forgot to protect her superhero image, did she?

Wasn't she afraid that one day he would tell her he had fallen in love with that elusive Ghost Spider?

Grumbling aside, after treating Gwen's wounds, Peter spoke in a serious tone:

"Gwen, this isn't your fault."

"You already did everything you could. You even got hurt because of it... There's no need to blame yourself so harshly."

As he wrapped bandages around her, Peter analyzed the situation in a guiding tone:

"Think about it. In such chaos, that lizard monster specifically targeted and killed Ms. Saji. What does that tell us?

It means this was very likely a revenge killing."

"Since his goal from the very beginning was to kill Saji, even if you or Ghost Spider could have saved her temporarily,

that monster might still have hurt other people on the bridge to divert your attention before turning back to complete the assassination."

"So, in a situation like this, you really don't need to blame yourself too much. As long as you know in your heart that you did nothing wrong, that's enough."

After Peter's words of comfort, Gwen indeed felt much better.

At the same time, Peter's reminder made Gwen suddenly understand many details she had overlooked before.

Then a name abruptly surfaced in her mind—Doctor Connors!

If things were really as she suspected, didn't that mean... Osborn Group could still be in danger?

"I understand, Peter. Thank you!"

Once Peter had finished bandaging her wounds, Gwen did not dare linger. She merely thanked Peter, then hurried back home on the excuse that she was worried her father would discover that she had snuck out.

Watching Gwen's figure vanish into the night, Peter knew full well that she was definitely heading to Osborn Group to verify her suspicions.

After hesitating for a moment, he still chose to follow her silently.

Although he knew that so much time had passed that Doctor Connors had likely already left with the serum, and Gwen would only find nothing even if she rushed there immediately.

But Gwen was injured, and the Lizard, after replenishing his serum, was in a state where he recognized no one. It would be bad if anything unexpected happened.

Just as Peter had expected, Gwen's trip to Osborn came up empty, and she could only leave in disappointment.

However, neither Gwen nor Peter had expected this.

As Gwen swung away on her webbing, two pairs of eyes in the darkness of the executive office on the top floor of Osborn Tower silently watched her departing figure:

"Oh? So there really are others like us."

The corners of Green Goblin's mouth beneath his helmet kept rising. As he watched Gwen's back, his eyes were filled with greed.

He could be certain that this girl calling herself Ghost Spider was a perfect creation.

"You should have let me keep her." Curt Connors's dissatisfied voice came from beside him.

"No. Acting now would make it too easy to alert them!"

Green Goblin's eyes gleamed with calculation as a plan to kill two birds with one stone took shape in his mind:

"Rather than act now and alert them, why don't we go to Midtown High School, where Peter Parker attends, tomorrow and put on a little waiting game?"