After the gathering ended, Gwen paid no mind to Peter and Harry's teasing looks. Using the excuse of discussing unfinished coursework, she stayed behind to help Lin Hai clean up the traces of the gathering.
Watching Lin Hai clean the backyard, a complicated expression flickered through Gwen's eyes. She looked at him. "Now you finally don't have to charge ahead alone."
Lin Hai paused slightly, then understood that Gwen was referring to how he had always been on the most dangerous front line during the Mexican Gang and Green Goblin incidents. He chuckled. "Yeah. With Peter helping, things will be much easier from now on."
"Do you really think Peter can help?" Her voice was soft.
Lin Hai stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "You're worried?"
"It isn't that I don't trust him." Gwen pressed her lips together. "It's just that Peter is innocent and reckless. If he really faces danger in the future, he might rush to the front. That could bring unexpected danger to both of you."
Lin Hai fell silent for a moment, then said quietly, "I'll keep an eye on him."
Gwen stared at his profile and suddenly said, "I've noticed that you don't seem surprised that Peter mutated into what he is now after being bitten by that spider, am I right?"
A girl's intuition could indeed be this unreasonable sometimes. Lin Hai neither denied it nor saw any need to.
"Why?" Gwen grew even more curious.
"Because some things are destined to happen. All we can do is guide them in a better direction." Lin Hai raised his head, his gaze profound.
In the Main Universe, Peter becoming Spider-Man was somewhat like Barry Allen from the neighboring DC becoming the Flash. Both were inevitable events. If they failed to become the identities they were meant to be, then this Main Universe, along with the other parallel universes, would face enormous problems.
Gwen did not ask any more questions, but her eyes said everything. She would not let Lin Hai bear everything alone.
Meanwhile, Harry had returned to Osborn Tower and was sitting alone in the top-floor office belonging to the Osborn family, gazing out at New York's nightscape.
"My father's armor and enhancement serum... perhaps..." he murmured, his fingers lightly tapping against the desk.
The envy passed in an instant, replaced by an eager ambition. If Peter and Lin Hai could possess extraordinary powers, then why should Harry Osborn be content with being ordinary?
A week later, Peter excitedly rushed into the Chen-Style Chinese Medicine Clinic, holding up a metal wrist device.
"It worked!" he shouted, strapping the device onto his wrist and aiming it at the backyard wall—
Whoosh—smack!
A white, sticky strand shot out and firmly adhered to the wall. Peter gave it a hard tug, sending himself into the air before landing steadily in the corner by the wall.
"Wow!" Gwen exclaimed. "You really turned biological spider silk into a launchable device?"
"Chemically synthesized spider silk. It was one of my father's research projects, and I saw related information at the Osborn Group before." Peter proudly adjusted the wrist device. "But I improved the formula with high-tensile polymers. It can support the weight of a sedan!"
Harry leaned closer to inspect it. "How did you solve the power issue?"
"Compressed gas canisters." Peter pointed to the small container on the side of the wrist device. "Each refill can fire around two hundred times."
Lin Hai stood nearby with his arms folded, a smile at the corner of his mouth. "Looks like Spider-Man's standard gear is complete."
"Spider-Man?" Peter blinked.
"You need a codename, don't you?" Lin Hai shrugged. "What, did you want to call yourself 'Flying Peter'?"
Everyone burst into laughter, but Peter thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "Spider-Man? That sounds pretty good."
While Peter gradually mastered his abilities, Professor Curt Connors was staring through a microscope in an underground laboratory at the Osborn Group, his single eye gleaming with fanaticism.
"Richard's formula perfectly solves the genetic rejection issue!" He trembled as he picked up a test tube filled with green liquid. "The Lizard Serum is finally mostly complete."
The liquid in the test tube gave off a green fluorescence under the lights, writhing faintly as though alive.
Connors glanced at his empty right sleeve, his gaze gradually turning resolute.
"It's time to prepare for human testing."
At night in New York, neon lights blurred into hazy halos in the damp air. Peter and his Uncle Ben had just left the supermarket, carrying the ingredients Aunt May had asked them to buy.
"Peter, you seem a little distracted lately." Ben carried the shopping bags and glanced sideways at him. "Is school putting too much pressure on you?"
"Huh? Oh, no... I just hit a snag with an experiment idea recently." Peter came back to himself and instinctively touched the Web Shooters on his wrist. He had been constantly refining the device lately, and the bursts of inspiration that came to him from time to time had made him seem absentminded.
Just then, a commotion broke out at the street corner.
"Hand over the money! Now!" A hooded man held a knife against an elderly woman's waist while roughly yanking at her bag with his other hand.
Ben abruptly stopped walking.
"Peter, call the police." He spoke in a low voice, shoved the shopping bags into Peter's hands, and walked toward the robber without hesitation.
"Hey! Buddy, calm down!" Ben raised both hands, his voice steady. "How much money could this lady possibly have? This isn't worth it."
The robber spun around, pointing the knife at Uncle Ben. "Mind your own business, old man!"
Peter's heart nearly stopped for a second. He saw the robber's other hand reaching into his pocket.
A gun!
Lin Hai's long-term training had made Peter's body faster than his thoughts. He instinctively knew what he could do.
Whoosh—!
A strand of webbing shot precisely at the robber's wrist, knocking the gun aside just as it was drawn. Bang! The bullet struck the ground, spraying gravel. Peter flicked his wrist, and the webbing stuck to the gun before violently yanking it back. At the same time, he shot forward like an arrow.
"What the fuck?!" The robber had not even reacted before a sweeping kick knocked him down. Peter immediately bound his hands and feet with webbing, then smacked him onto a fire hydrant by the roadside.
The entire process took less than five seconds.
The elderly woman collapsed onto the ground, while Ben Parker stood frozen in place, his eyes fixed on Peter. More accurately, they were fixed on Peter's wrist, where the metallic gleam of the Web Shooters could faintly be seen.
Not long afterward, a nearby patrol car approached from the distance with its siren blaring.
"We need to go," Peter said in a low voice, quickly pulling Uncle Ben away from the scene. "It'll be hard to explain all this to the police."
Still shaken by what he had witnessed, Uncle Ben remained silent on the way home. Peter did not know what to say either, so he could only remain silent as well.
It was not until they were almost home that Uncle Ben suddenly spoke.
"Aunt May must never find out about this, understand, Peter?"
Peter's throat tightened. "Yeah... okay, I understand."
Aunt May was making hot cocoa in the kitchen. Hearing the door open, she poked her head out. "Why were you gone so long? Did you get the milk?"
"We did," Uncle Ben replied, his voice returning to its usual gentleness. "We ran into some neighbors and chatted for a while."
Peter lowered his head and hurried upstairs. "I'll go do my homework first!"
After closing his bedroom door, he sat on his bed and stared blankly at the Web Shooters on his wrist.
Knowing a little martial arts was easy enough to explain. He could say it was the result of martial arts training with Lin Hai. But he had no idea how to explain the Web Shooters and his overly agile movements to Uncle Ben.
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