I’ve Seen This Episode Before!

Peter had approached him on his own earlier, and Kraft had immediately felt that something was off. After glancing at him, he found him even stranger, though he could not put his finger on why. He looked Peter over for a long time before finally realizing what felt so wrong—the old-fashioned glasses Peter Parker had always worn were gone.

"Oh, this!" Peter touched the bridge of his now bare nose and said nonchalantly, "Didn’t I make a friend this semester? His father is the chairman of the Osborn Group, and the Osborn Group needed volunteers for a study on curing nearsightedness. So I signed up, and it got cured by accident."

"Oh? Weren’t you afraid they’d accidentally blind you?"

Kraft knew the friend Peter was talking about. He had met him a few times—Harry Osborn, a rich kid with a fairly decent personality.

But Peter Parker was far too bold. He had casually gone and joined an experiment that had not been fully perfected, without worrying that something might go wrong. If he usually had this much guts, Kraft would not have looked down on him so often.

It was only an adjustment for nearsightedness, hardly an actual human experiment, but Kraft still did not particularly like that sort of thing.

"The research had already entered its final stages, so its safety was guaranteed. Even if it failed, it wouldn’t harm the participants. I only got in because of Harry."

Peter explained briefly, then suddenly seemed to remember something and slapped his forehead.

"I need to go help over there. We’ll talk later."

With that, he slipped away.

"I keep feeling like that guy is hiding something from me…"

Peter had obviously seemed much more confident than before. Did curing nearsightedness come with fixing psychological issues too?

Kraft shook his head, not paying it much attention.

Maybe he had successfully hooked up with Mary Jane?

Thinking back on Peter’s usual cowardly behavior, Kraft shook his head and laughed.

"How could that be…"

"Phew… I almost let Kraft notice something was wrong…"

After slipping away, Peter Parker walked to a secluded corner and let out a long breath. Then he knocked himself on the head in annoyance.

"Bah! What a loser! Why was I so scared of that brat Kraft?!"

That stuff about the Osborn Group’s nearsightedness research was obviously a lie, though it was not entirely unrelated. His nearsightedness had disappeared after a spider bit him while he was visiting an Osborn Group product expo.

Along with it came a greatly enhanced physique, a miraculous danger sense, and the ability to walk freely on walls…

Just like a spider.

Peter Parker had only gained these strange abilities two days ago, but he had already taught Flash Thompson, who had always bullied him, a lesson at school. His relationship with Mary Jane had also taken a brand-new turn, and it had made him suddenly confident.

Confident enough that when he saw Kraft today, he had dared to go up and provoke him. Unfortunately, Kraft’s years of intimidation were too deeply ingrained. Besides, Kraft was not like Thompson, who relied on brute strength to bully him. Not to mention Aunt May was backing him. So after Peter Parker rashly went up to provoke him, one casual glance from Kraft quickly sobered him up, and he decisively admitted defeat and ran.

But after admitting defeat and running away, Peter Parker felt a little embarrassed. He already had special abilities—how could he still be so easily bullied by a younger brother four or five years his junior?

Peter Parker felt that he needed to reclaim the dignity of being an older brother.

"Woof?"

A bark startled Peter Parker out of his self-encouragement. Looking down, he saw a goofy-looking yellow Shiba Inu tilting his head at him.

"Oh, Quinn. Good boy, how did you get over here?"

This hilarious-looking and incredibly intelligent dog had recently become the shelter’s star mascot, and Peter naturally liked him very much. He crouched down, rubbed Quinn’s head, and affectionately touched his nose to the dog’s black snout.

Who would have thought Kraft could raise such a well-behaved dog? No! This had to be Alice’s doing. That brat definitely did not have the patience to train a dog!

Peter Parker thought with a trace of envy, jealousy, and resentment as he played with Quinn.

"Big brother! Peter Parker is hiding something from you!"

After returning home, Quinn put on his red scarf and immediately tattled to Kraft.

"Oh? What is it?"

Kraft casually asked as he helped Alice, who was cooking. He was not particularly curious about Peter’s secret, but if he could use it as leverage to tease him after learning it, that would be great.

"I don’t know, he didn’t say," Quinn said, wagging his tail as he circled Kraft’s feet. "He just said he almost got found out by you, big brother, then started rubbing my face nonstop."

"Oh, I see…" Kraft put the chopped potatoes onto a plate, shook the water from his hands, and reached down to pat Quinn’s head. "Good job. I’ll give you an extra meaty bone later."

Wasn’t this stupid dog being so eager to claim credit because he wanted a reward? Kraft had already planned to reward Quinn for helping at the shelter today, so he simply went with the flow and gave him the reward he had intended to give him a second time.

"Yay! Thanks, big brother!"

Quinn, not realizing he had been fooled, happily wagged his tail as he ran out of the kitchen to show off in front of Bea.

Before long, the sounds of him arguing with the little black cat came from the living room.

Well, Kraft had long since gotten used to it.

After those two little troublemakers caused trouble a few times and received a harsh lesson from Kraft, they now mostly stopped at arguing. Occasionally, Bea would get impatient and smack Quinn a couple of times, then retreat to somewhere high up while the defeated dog barked furiously below.

"Smells so good." Not long after, Martin’s head suddenly popped in from outside the kitchen doorway. He smiled as he looked inside, then praised, "I haven’t even eaten yet, and I’m already drooling. Alice’s cooking is getting better and better."

Although he knew full well that Alice was only a robot, this robot was far too thoughtful and sensible. She was infinitely better than that brat Kraft, so Martin Li quickly accepted her as a member of the family.

After dinner, Kraft, who had spent the whole day working at the shelter, did not plan to return to the laboratory to continue working. The family sat in front of the television, chatting while watching some boring program to pass the evening, then returned to their rooms to sleep.

And Kraft had a dream again after a long time.

The futuristic, technologically advanced setting filled Kraft with delight. But when he saw the protagonist of the dream afterward, his eyes went wide in shock.

Kraft went through the entire dream with his mind in complete chaos. When he sat up in bed, he still wore an expression of utter disbelief.

Because this dream…

No…

I’ve fucking seen this episode before!

Thanks to Yan Ge Kuang for the tip.

I prefer the comic version’s setup of "because his name is Peter Parker, he becomes Spider-Man." The movie version’s setup was practically nonstop slandering Peter Parker’s parents.

I’m mainly talking about the Garfield version here. The spiders were funded and bred by Osborn, and even the webbing he used was originally an Osborn product. Later, when Harry begged Peter for help, Peter refused because he was afraid it would be dangerous…

I was completely baffled… the guy was practically dying!

I don’t remember much about Garfield’s Spider-Man, but I remember Osborn very clearly… because he was just too miserable!

So miserable that I could not stop myself from shouting: Come on, skateboard big brother!

The new book’s bookmarks have officially surpassed the old book’s. Thanks everyone for the support!