George's Warning

George took the business card and glanced at it.

The card had no title or position on it, only a name and a phone number.

"Whose card is this?"

George asked with a frown.

"The Secretary of Defense."

Roy replied calmly.

"Who?"

George's eyes widened as he stared at Roy in disbelief and asked again.

"The current Secretary of Defense. This is his private number."

Roy said unhurriedly.

This...

After confirming that he had heard correctly, George's first reaction was that Roy was pulling his leg.

However, seeing the calm expression on Roy's face, he quickly dismissed that guess.

If the number was fake, it would be exposed soon enough.

Though he did not know Roy well, he did not seem like an idiot who would tell such an easily exposed lie to his face.

After thinking for a moment, George slipped the card into his pocket and slowly asked, "How do you have his private number?"

"He hired me before."

"Although he paid me, he still owes me a favor."

Roy replied calmly.

"He's the Secretary of Defense. Even if he really ran into trouble, he wouldn't need a private detective to help him."

George stared at Roy in confusion.

"I told you earlier, private detective is only my public-facing profession."

"In terms of what I do, I'm more like an independent contractor who handles difficult problems."

"He does have considerable power and can mobilize a lot of resources and personnel, but some matters can't be handled just by being in a high position."

"He ran into a difficult problem that his own authority couldn't solve, so he found me through an intermediary."

"I took care of it, so he paid me and owed me a favor."

Roy said slowly.

Speaking of that, it was necessary to mention his complicated history with the military.

At first, the military, like S.H.I.E.L.D., wanted to capture him and find out why he had "superpowers."

After the capture operation failed and they paid a heavy price, the military was forced to reach an agreement with him.

The military paid a massive settlement, classified his records as top secret information accessible only to a small number of senior officials, and agreed to provide military backing when he needed it, making it easier for him to handle certain matters.

In return, he would let the military's previous attempt to capture him slide, and the two sides would call a truce.

Of course, if senior military officials ran into trouble and were willing to pay him an appropriate fee for help, he would consider whether to accept.

It was not just the military. S.H.I.E.L.D. had a similar truce agreement with him.

Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director would have been replaced long ago.

George fell silent and stared at Roy with a complicated expression.

More than ten seconds later, he sighed and continued, "I can't determine whether what you're saying is true right now, but I have some advice for you."

"Go ahead."

Roy replied.

"Gwen must have her reasons for liking you. I won't stop the two of you from being together."

"However, if I find out that you've bullied Gwen, toyed with her, or betrayed her feelings, I won't let you off, no matter what you really do or how many important people owe you favors."

George stared at Roy with a grave expression and spoke quickly.

Roy was not surprised that George had warned him so sternly.

It was a normal reaction for a father.

It would have been strange if George had said nothing.

"You can rest assured. I sincerely like Gwen, and I will never betray her."

Roy replied seriously.

George said nothing more and turned to look toward the stage.

Finally got that settled!

With an inward sigh of relief, Roy scanned the seating area for the graduates.

Without much effort, he spotted Harry Osborn and Mary Jane sitting among the crowd.

As for Peter...

He did not see Peter anywhere.

Even at a time like this, is he still busy fighting crime?

Roy sighed inwardly.

He did not dislike Peter spending all day fighting crime.

However, in his opinion, Peter had become a little obsessed with fighting crime.

Fighting crime was fine, of course.

But letting his own life become a complete mess just to fight crime was not very wise.

After all, Peter was not a real police officer.

In the eyes of the authorities, the current Spider-Man was just a self-appointed "vigilante."

The more crimes Spider-Man stopped and the more criminals he caught, the more the New York Police Department disliked him.

Because it made the New York police look like a bunch of useless idiots who got paid for doing nothing.

When the clock struck ten, the graduation ceremony began on schedule.

Like every graduation ceremony, the first item on the agenda was the principal's speech.

After a long and passionate speech, the principal standing behind the podium said, "Now, please welcome the representative of this year's graduates, Gwen Stacy, to deliver the graduation address on behalf of all graduates."

Thunderous applause erupted from the audience.

Under everyone's gaze, Gwen rose and walked toward the stage.

After shaking Gwen's hand, the principal yielded the podium to her and returned to his chair behind it.

"Good morning, respected teachers and dear classmates. It is my honor to stand here today..."

"We all believe that we can create immortal achievements in the future. We have graduated, and that is exactly what we should believe..."

"Just like this brief high school life, its preciousness lies in the fact that it is not eternal, that it will eventually come to an end..."

"I feel this deeply, and what I want to say today is meant to remind everyone that life is short. Don't waste your time simply going with the flow."

"Live out your own worth. Fight for the things you cherish, through wind and rain alike."

"Even if we cannot succeed, that is still part of our lives!"

When Gwen finished her graduation address, thunderous applause broke out once again.

With both the principal and student representative done speaking, it was naturally time to receive the diplomas.

Gwen stepped aside and returned the podium to the principal.

At the same time, staff brought all the students' diplomas onto the stage and neatly arranged them on a table to one side.

Once everything was ready, the principal began reading the students' names one by one from the list.

"Horton Guerrero, Michael Oz, Tavin Fraser, Julia Orchard, Jay Castro, Maeve Cake, Liam Whitaker..."

Although she was the graduate representative, Gwen was not the first to receive her diploma. Instead, she stood beside the principal and shook hands with each student who came up to receive one.

Peter had not missed the graduation ceremony.

When the principal called his name, he jogged all the way to the stage in a dark blue graduation gown with a backpack on his back and accepted his diploma.

Once all the graduates had received their diplomas, the graduation ceremony officially came to an end.

The next part was simple.

The students began taking photos with family, friends, and classmates, putting the final period on their high school lives.

Gwen pulled Roy over and took quite a few photos with him.

Besides photos of just the two of them, Gwen also asked other classmates to take several group photos of Roy with her entire family.

After taking the photos, Roy took out his phone and prepared to book a restaurant.

Just then, a brown-haired middle-aged man in a sharp suit came over to him and said, "I never expected the renowned Fourth Hokage of the underworld to attend his girlfriend's high school graduation ceremony."

Roy turned and glanced at the middle-aged man. "If you're here to cause trouble, I suggest you abandon that idea."

The middle-aged man speaking to him was none other than Norman Osborn, the first Green Goblin.

"I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm only here to attend my son's graduation ceremony."

"I just didn't expect to run into you here."

Norman said calmly.