Little Spider

In Marvel, Working for the System

What did a sincere apology feel like?

Ahh~

Mike lifted his chin and puffed out his chest. "It felt great!"

Things got improper before lunch, but they really did eat a proper lunch.

Italian pizza.

Someone even came over midway through to ask Tracy for an autograph. Tracy smiled gracefully and handled it with ease, every bit the polished news anchor.

Then he thought about the studio...

What was that called?

A contrast bitch?

Anyway, Mike thought... it was pretty nice.

Mike and Tracy did not have much in common. Their only shared interests were a pursuit of beauty and exercise. Tracy probably needed someone to talk to, so she spoke about frustrations at work and about her sister.

When it came to Jessica Jones, Tracy was vague and skipped over anything involving superpowers. It was obvious that she genuinely cared about her sister.

Mike did not know much about Jewel. He only knew four things: she possessed immense strength, was bulletproof, was wild—just like Tracy—and could probably collapse a bed beneath her.

Her enemy was Purple Man.

Purple Man... Mike only knew that he controlled people around him by releasing a virus (P.S.).

But how far did the infection spread? How long was the delay between exposure to the virus and being controlled?

Aside from controlling people, Purple Man's physical abilities were no different from an ordinary person's. To kill him, all they had to do was find him and take him out with a long-range shot.

The problem was that very few people knew about Purple Man—or rather, believed he existed.

At present, Jessica was the only person immune to Purple Man's control. Mike was not sure whether he was immune himself—that was one reason he did not want to get involved.

Besides... Jessica had actually had chances to kill Purple Man, more than once. But she wanted to prove that he and his abilities existed, then punish him within the framework of the law.

The result... was the deaths of a whole lot of innocent people.

In the end, Jessica finally came to her senses. For lunatic scum, physical removal was the best solution.

That was the second reason Mike did not want to get involved. If he blew Purple Man's head off the moment they met, Jessica might even blame Mike for casually taking a life. Believe it or not.

Mike did not like doing thankless jobs, and he did not want to do them unless the money was right.

"Thank you for listening to all that."

After lunch, Tracy sat inside the sleek, cool-looking Saleen S7. Sports cars did not particularly appeal to her, so she only politely complimented it. "Nice car."

"If there'd been a toad sitting across from me, I probably wouldn't have had the patience."

"So you're saying I'm pretty?" Tracy beamed.

"Wasn't that obvious enough?"

"Your mouth is so sweet."

"Sweet? Want a taste?"

This was when the drawback of a sports car became apparent. The interior was too cramped to move around properly. Still, out of the eighteen martial arts, there was always a stick technique to perform.

On the way home, Mike felt refreshed and could not help wondering what Tracy was thinking. There was no doubt that she was an independent woman who did not rely on men.

And with her intelligence and experience, she could probably tell that Mike was only after her body, not her heart.

Was Mike just a tool?

So... stop assuming Mike was the one taking advantage, okay? Nobody knew who was taking advantage of whom. It all depended on perspective and attitude.

In the eyes of an independent woman like Tracy, men were probably not much different from cucumbers or eggplants. She simply picked the good-looking, useful ones.

Working man, tool man... sigh. Better go home and be an eating man.

As Mike came out of the garage, he spotted someone peeking around outside the supermarket.

Peter Parker had seen a job advertisement in the newspaper. It was a part-time handyman position in Hell's Kitchen. It was a little far from Queens, but the pay was good.

However, the interview was being held at a small grocery store. That was pretty strange.

So Peter, as a "streetwise guy," decided to observe the place first.

Sensing someone approaching from behind, Peter spun around. "What are you trying to do?"

Peter was extremely wary. He put on a stern face and tried his best to look fierce. The problem was, no matter how he looked at it, his features made him seem like an adorable submissive type.

"I should be asking you that. You're lurking outside the supermarket. What are you up to?"

Mike recognized "Dutch Bro." He had deliberately restrained his presence and softened his footsteps, yet Peter had still noticed him. So... had he already been bitten and turned into Little Spider?

"Oh, I get it. You're planning to rob the place, aren't you?" Mike decided to tease Little Spider. He leaned closer to Peter and lowered his voice. "Hey, bro, you picked the right place. Look, there's only an old Black man watching the store. I could take him down with one slap. And let me tell you, this supermarket sells Chinese groceries. The owner might be Chinese American. You know Chinese Americans, right? Honest and timid. Threaten them a little, and they won't dare call the police."

Thump, thump, thump!

Little Spider's eyes widened. Good lord, Hell's Kitchen really was dangerous.

"How about we work together? Here's the plan: after I go in, I'll pretend to buy something. When it's time to pay, I'll pull out a gun and point it at the old man. Then you take the chance to clean out the register, and we split it fifty-fifty." Mike's acting exploded into life. He looked exactly like a chatty street thug.

Peter: Oo

At that moment, Old Earl poked his head out from the supermarket. "Mike, what are you doing?"

"I'm teaching someone a lesson."

"A lesson?"

"An acting lesson."

Peter:

Mike headed inside, then turned back to Peter, who was still dazed. "Come in."

Old Earl's gaze landed on Peter. "Your friend?"

"No. He's here for an interview."

"Oh."

Peter timidly followed them into the little supermarket. He curiously looked around and asked in a low voice, "So you're the interviewer? That earlier bit was actually a special part of the interview?"

"Of course... not." Mike said, "I'm the Chinese-American owner who's so timid that a little threat will keep him from calling the police."

Peter: "..."

Looking closely, Mike's facial features did indeed carry many Chinese-American traits.

"Where's Skye?" Mike noticed that the laptop was on the table.

"Upstairs."

Thump, thump, thump!

Skye jogged downstairs, then ran right back up halfway down. She was wearing Mike's shirt, and she had seen that there was a stranger present.

"Ah, ah, this..."

Peter pointed at the staircase, stammering so badly that his features nearly twisted into a fight.

"Hey, hey, pointing at a girl isn't gentlemanly behavior."

"N-No." Peter finally got his tongue straight. "Didn't you see it? The doll was running by itself!"

A doll?

Mike understood. Peter had seen Babi.

"That's not a doll. It's the legendary creature, Charmander." Mike made a fire-breathing gesture. "The kind that breathes fire."

Hearing Mike say that only made Peter suspicious. Rubbing his chin, he said, "So it's actually a child wearing a little dinosaur cosplay outfit, right?"

"Uh, was it that obvious?" Mike pretended that his lie had been exposed and the truth seen through, acting as though he was not embarrassed when he was actually extremely embarrassed.

Tsk tsk, that acting...

"Haha."

Peter happily said, "Not obvious. Honestly, that cosplay outfit was way too realistic. It had no flaws at all! But after calming down and thinking about it, how could there possibly be a fire-breathing dragon..."

See? When the truth was spoken, nobody believed it. People liked to doubt, then imagine "facts" that better fit their own understanding—and believe in them without question.