The Osborn Group's building stood thirty-three stories tall, with floors one through fifteen serving as offices for ordinary employees.
Floors sixteen through twenty-five housed laboratories dedicated to researching and developing various new products.
Research into individual combat armor and human enhancement serum took place on the twentieth floor. Although the personal weaponry still could not be mass-produced, the laboratory already had fully developed prototypes.
By comparison, the human enhancement serum remained only partially developed. It had undergone animal testing, but no human trials.
Research showed that any creature injected with the human enhancement serum became extremely aggressive and filled with destructive urges.
Because they could not overcome this problem, human trials had been delayed indefinitely.
According to Osborn's original plan, the human enhancement serum needed further refinement. Only after its side effects were eliminated could it be used on humans.
But now, he could no longer wait. Many shareholders were about to withdraw their investments, and only better research results offered any hope of persuading them to keep supporting him and save the Osborn Group.
So he decided to use himself as the test subject for the next phase of human trials.
Arriving on the twentieth floor, Osborn activated the equipment and stepped into the test chamber.
As the chamber door closed, a cloud of mist sprayed out, and a flicker of madness flashed in Osborn's eyes.
With no way back, he would either succeed in developing a perfect human enhancement serum or die in the chamber. This was his last desperate struggle.
Prepared to die, he let the human enhancement serum flood his body. Instantly, a tearing agony surged into his mind, and a scream echoed across the twentieth floor.
At his seaside villa in Freedom City, Tony finally gathered information on Ivan Vanko through JARVIS.
Once he had the information, he sent it straight to Peter and called him.
"Hello, Spider-Man. Good evening."
"Did you get the information?"
"I hope to see this man disappear tonight. Don't disappoint me."
Without waiting for Peter to reply, Tony hung up and had JARVIS bring up a live view of Peter.
Besides tracking his location, the Wristband could monitor Peter's actions in real time. Tony was ready to enjoy the spectacle of a superhero's fall from grace.
Meanwhile, at his home, Peter stared silently at the information projected from his wrist after the call ended.
After committing all the information to memory, Peter took his Spider Suit out of the wardrobe.
Looking at the suit that represented justice, Peter gave a self-mocking smile.
He had vowed to protect the public, but today, he would betray his principles and kill an innocent man with his own hands.
"I don't want this either. I just want to survive."
Muttering those words to himself, Peter put on his Spider Suit, leaped out the window, and swiftly left home.
Swinging through the concrete jungle, Peter soon reached his destination: Hammer Industries.
His target, Ivan, was Hammer Industries' chief weapons designer. According to the information, he spent practically all his time inside Hammer Industries, so Peter first had to find a way to infiltrate the building before he could eliminate him.
As a leading defense contractor, Hammer Industries had exceptionally tight security. Even the world's finest elite soldier could not hope to slip inside unnoticed.
But that security could only handle ordinary people. Although Peter's strength was nowhere near that of a god, it still surpassed human limits.
Against him, Hammer Industries' security was a complete joke.
Using nothing but his webs, Peter easily reached the top floor of Hammer Industries.
With the spider-like hooks on his palms, he easily cut an opening in the top-floor glass large enough for a person to pass through and crawled inside. Then he entered the elevator and headed straight down to the third basement level.
This was Hammer Industries' weapons research department, and where Ivan worked.
In his villa, Tony sipped red wine as he watched the entire infiltration on video. He smiled. "It looks like our Spider-Man is even better than I imagined."
"JARVIS, compile a capability profile based on his performance. Also, try to project how his abilities might develop."
"Yes, sir. Recording has begun."
As JARVIS acknowledged the order, Peter successfully reached Hammer Industries' third basement level on the video.
Ding.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
More than a dozen dark gun barrels appeared before Peter. His pupils instantly contracted, and he instinctively sprang upward, grabbing the elevator ceiling.
The next second, gunfire erupted, and bullets came whistling toward him.
The intense heat left black streaks across his Spider Suit.
With no time to think, he quickly shot a web from his wrist, ensnaring the guards at the elevator doors and cutting off their gunfire.
Seizing the opportunity, he swiftly escaped the cramped elevator. Moving at top speed, he knocked out the guards outside it in just a few seconds.
The instant they fell unconscious, an alarm blared throughout the research facility. With his keen hearing, Peter caught the sound of numerous footsteps rapidly approaching.
He could not help swearing, "Fuck, how did they spot me?"
He had been painstakingly careful during his infiltration and had not made a sound. He could not figure out where he had given himself away.
Peter brooded in frustration, unaware that security in this new weapons research department was more than three times tighter than outside.
Guards watched the elevator entrance around the clock, and they could monitor everything inside the elevator at all times.
Although he was powerful, he was still a novice with little experience and had completely overlooked this.
So he had been discovered the moment he entered the elevator, leading to the deadly ambush waiting the instant its doors opened.
With no time to work out how he had been exposed, Peter darted deeper into the research department.
Relying on his agility and speed, he evaded large groups of guards trying to surround him and soon found his target: Ivan Vanko.
As the villain of Iron Man 2, Ivan was certainly intelligent, but without having developed the Whiplash Armor, he was barely stronger than an ordinary person.
When Peter appeared before him, Ivan looked utterly stunned.
He had naturally heard the alarm in the research department. He assumed someone from another organization had been caught trying to steal the plans for the new weapons, which had little to do with him.
He had never imagined that the intruder was after him, leaving him completely unprepared.
"Wait!"
Ivan opened his mouth to say something.
But Peter gave him no chance. He stepped forward, grabbed Ivan's neck, and twisted hard. With a single crack, Ivan was dead.
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