Spider-Man?

"Hey, Gwen." Peter had finally finished arranging the activities he had organized for the first time and hurried over to Gwen’s side. "You haven’t been coming to the martial arts school these past few days. What’s wrong? Are you sick?"

"No, I just… it’s just that there’s been a lot going on at home." Gwen stammered, not knowing how to explain it to Peter, and she couldn’t exactly tell him the truth outright.

Should she say that she planned to quit the martial arts school because his master was a murderer?

"Then let’s go to the martial arts school together after the tour today. I’ll come find you then." Without waiting for Gwen to reply, Peter returned to organize the group and have them collect their temporary visitor badges in order.

Gwen opened and closed her mouth, but in the end, she couldn’t say anything. She could only shrug and dejectedly play the ostrich, planning to hide for as long as she could.

Anyone with even a little emotional intelligence could see Peter’s attitude toward Gwen, so a group of hostile gazes fell on her from all around. Faint curses, including words like bitch, could also be heard.

Gwen paid them no mind. As the perennial top student at Midtown High School, she had long been accustomed to looks of envy, jealousy, and resentment. It was just that this time, the object of their jealousy had changed from her grades to Peter himself.

Rather than care about the wails of these losers, she might as well think about how to deal with Peter’s invitation tonight. Could she… pull Peter out of the martial arts school too?

For a moment, Gwen was tempted, but she immediately realized that it wouldn’t work.

She could freely quit the martial arts school because she had never officially joined. But Peter had already become a formal disciple. According to Eastern customs, the relationship between master and disciple was extremely close, practically like that between father and son.

Lost in thought, she unconsciously followed the crowd into the lobby of Osborn Corporation.

A guide was explaining things to everyone at the front of the group.

"There are more than thirty-two thousand species of spiders in the world, and the order Araneae is divided into three suborders… These spiders possess all sorts of different abilities to help them hunt for food. For example, this spider from Australia has powerful jumping abilities that it uses to capture prey…"

Above everyone’s heads, a spider was slowly crawling across a web it had finished spinning, but no one noticed it.

"This is a web-building spider of the Filistatidae family in the Kukulcania genus. It can spin funnel-shaped webs that are almost as strong as the steel cables used in construction…" The guide continued introducing another spider.

Peter wasn’t particularly interested in spiders and the like, but as one of the organizers, he had to stay with the group throughout the entire tour. He appeared to be listening attentively, but from time to time, his gaze swept toward Gwen at the back of the group. He found that Gwen had been distracted the entire time, seemingly lost in thought.

"This spider hunts using reflexive movements. Its reflexes are incredibly fast, and many researchers even believe that it possesses precognitive abilities, allowing it to sense danger in advance. This is a Spider-Sense."

Peter finally couldn’t hold back any longer. He quietly slipped out of the crowd and made his way toward Gwen. He thought he had moved carefully enough not to attract attention, but he was a major celebrity now, and who knew how many eyes were secretly watching him?

Even the spider above his head trembled as it pulled a strand of silk from the web and slid down.

"For the past five years, the Columbia University Genetic Research Center has been mapping the genetic makeup of spiders. With these DNA blueprints, things that were once impossible have now become possible. By using synthetic RNA to create entirely new genomes and combining them with the genes of three species of spiders, we created fifteen Super Spiders."

The guide continued his introduction, but many people’s eyes followed Peter as he moved. No one noticed that only fourteen Super Spiders remained inside the glass display case.

The fifteenth Super Spider that had escaped locked onto its target. It dropped from above and landed directly on Peter’s shoulder. Amid the crowd’s screams, it aimed at his neck and bit down.

"Peter, watch out!" Many of the female students who cared about Peter were startled when they saw a spider drop from above and hurriedly warned him.

But under everyone’s gaze, a flash of electricity sparked, and the spider was instantly electrocuted into a charred lump.

The Super Spider that Peter’s father, Richard Parker, had placed such high hopes on and painstakingly developed, even incorporating Peter’s genes into it, was gone just like that.

Only then did everyone let out a sigh of relief. "I almost forgot. Peter is Thor now. An ordinary spider definitely can’t hurt him."

"Thanks for your concern. It was only a spider. But how did a spider get in here?"

After hearing that, everyone instinctively looked toward the spider display case nearby, and someone noticed that something was wrong.

"Damn it! There are only fourteen Super Spiders here. That spider just now…"

The students stared fearfully at the spider’s corpse on the floor.

The nearby security personnel hurried over and carefully examined the spiders inside the glass case, only to discover that one was indeed missing.

"Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to kill that spider…" Peter hurriedly tried to explain.

The supervisor at the scene interrupted him and solemnly apologized.

"We should be the ones apologizing. If that spider hadn’t landed on your shoulder, Peter, but on someone else, its venom could very well have caused casualties. We should be thanking you for killing it and preventing an even greater danger."

"Thank you, Peter!"

Thor had once again saved a group of people from the threat of a deadly spider, without even realizing it.

Everyone in the lobby burst into enthusiastic applause and gazed at Peter with admiration.

Although he had experienced this kind of situation many times already, Peter still felt extremely uncomfortable.

"Thank you, thank you, everyone. I only happened to do this by accident. It was all God’s will."

As a result, another group of people began making the sign of the cross and thanking God.

The rest of the tour proceeded smoothly, without any further incidents.

After all the procedures had been completed and the planned tour was over, Peter assigned the homework the teacher had prepared in advance and then dismissed everyone.

He had just reached Gwen’s side and was about to return to the martial arts school with her when Harry Osborn suddenly appeared and called out to him.

"Hey, Peter. My father wants to see you."

Since it was his good friend’s father calling for him, Peter couldn’t refuse. He could only look apologetically at Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. I’m afraid you’ll have to go back first."

Gwen had been worrying about how to find an excuse to refuse, so she immediately took the opportunity to slip away.

After the two parted ways, Peter and Harry went to the top floor and entered the chairman’s office of Osborn Corporation, where they met Harry’s father, Norman Osborn.