The Insignificant Parker

"Go, Peter! Confess to Mary!"

From the street corner nearby, Ned poked out half his chubby face, anxiously watching Peter stand there dumbfounded and at a loss, continuously whispering encouragement to him.

"Don’t waste your breath. With Peter being such a coward, he probably couldn’t even say a complete sentence in front of Mary."

Kraft leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, mocking him.

Things developed exactly as Kraft had said. After stammering for a long while, Peter finally managed to calm down.

"No, no, no! That voice just now was one of Kraft’s pranks!"

Peter frantically waved his hands as he explained to Mary Jane, who was leaning on the windowsill with both hands and smiling brightly.

"Even though I don’t know how he did it, that really wasn’t me!"

"Kraft?"

After listening to Peter’s explanation with a smile, Mary brushed back her fiery red hair, the smile on her face growing even wider. Because of Aunt May and Peter, she was fairly familiar with Kraft as well. In particular, Kraft would occasionally use her name as an excuse to tease Peter. Rather than getting angry, Mary found it quite amusing.

Mary Jane did have some feelings for Peter Parker, but his timid, submissive personality greatly displeased her. Her childhood experiences had left her severely lacking in a sense of security. No matter how outstanding Peter was, as long as he remained like this, Mary could never become his girlfriend.

That was also why, when Kraft used her to tease Peter, she not only did not get angry, but sometimes deliberately played along.

"Yes, him!"

Peter nodded frantically, then finally remembered to take the opportunity to invite Mary Jane to Aunt May’s birthday party.

"Actually, today is Aunt May’s birthday. He came to invite you to the birthday party on my behalf."

Unfortunately, he had chosen a truly terrible moment.

"So if he hadn’t come over to play a prank, you weren’t planning to tell me at all?"

Mary Jane frowned and put on an angry expression, though she was genuinely a little upset as well. Regardless of her relationship with Peter, she had always deeply respected Aunt May as an elder. She did not want to miss her birthday party for such a reason.

"Ah… no… I just… temporarily forgot to tell you. I was originally planning to come over before the party started…"

In his panic, Peter casually made an extremely perfunctory lie riddled with holes, making Mary Jane even more displeased.

"I understand. I’ll change and head over."

Mary’s face turned cold. Leaving behind a bewildered Peter, she stepped away from the window and returned to her room.

"Damn it!"

When Mary disappeared from the window and Peter lowered his head in disappointment, Ned, who had not heard their conversation, knew Peter must have chickened out again. Frustrated by Peter’s failure to rise to the occasion, he punched the wall.

"What a perfect opportunity! How could Peter just let it slip away?"

As he spoke, he ran toward Peter, who was dragging his feet back.

"You idiot! That was such a perfect chance! Why didn’t you take the opportunity to confess to Mary?"

"Ned?"

Peter, who had been staring at the ground, looked up and saw his friend glaring at him irritably. He scratched his head in confusion before belatedly realizing something.

"You saw all of that!"

Thinking about his embarrassing display being witnessed by his friend, Peter panicked. But he quickly became dejected again, because something else upset him even more.

"I think I made Mary angry…"

"How did you manage that?"

Ned sucked in a breath, staring at Peter in awe.

Kraft, who had arrived a step behind Ned, was equally impressed. He had repeatedly teased Peter because he had noticed that Mary had some feelings for him. Logically, even if Peter had not taken the chance to confess, Mary should not have been angry. If she got angry over things like this, Peter would have already angered her to death.

"I don’t understand why either…"

Peter grabbed his hair in frustration and told Ned every detail of his earlier conversation with Mary.

Ned: "…"

"You could have at least said you were originally going to notify Mary, and then I cut you off and used it for a prank…"

Kraft, following behind them, was speechless. He rolled his eyes and complained.

This gave Peter quite a fright.

"Kraft? When did you get here?!"

Kraft shook his head helplessly. He truly had nothing left to say to Peter’s stupidity, so he walked past Peter and Ned toward the Parker house.

"…"

Peter also realized he had said something stupid. After falling silent for a moment, he remembered that he was supposed to settle the score with Kraft.

"Wait! You tricked me again!"

Peter took two quick steps forward, caught up to Kraft, and grabbed his shoulder to pull him back.

"I was clearly creating an opportunity for you. You were the one who was too cowardly to seize it."

Kraft shook off Peter’s hand, his face full of contempt.

"I don’t need you to create opportunities for me!"

Peter stubbornly retorted.

"Oh, Peter, forget it. If it weren’t for Kraft, you wouldn’t even dare speak to Mary at all."

Yet Ned, his supposed friend, chose this moment to twist the knife.

"If you relied on yourself, you’d never have a chance of winning Mary Jane over in this lifetime."

"Hey! Ned!"

"Yelling at me won’t help. Admit it, Peter. Whenever you’re in front of Mary, you’re a coward."

"It’s not like he’s particularly brave the rest of the time either."

Kraft curled his lip and mocked him.

"Oh, no, I just… I just wasn’t ready…"

Peter had no mood to bicker with Kraft right then.

"If you keep getting ready, Mary will become someone else’s girlfriend. I heard Flash has been constantly courting Mary lately."

After Ned said that, Peter became even more despondent. He had heard about it too, but considering the gap between himself and Flash Thompson, Peter had no confidence at all that he could win the beauty’s heart.

"Hey, Peter, are you interested in going to the movies with me next weekend?"

Just as Peter was growing depressed over Thompson, Mary Jane’s voice suddenly rang out beside his ear, instantly lifting his spirits.

"I’m interested! I’m very interested!"

Overjoyed, Peter spun around, only to find no sign of Mary. All he saw was that brat Kraft holding a little megaphone and grinning mischievously at him.

"Then I’ll leave the movie tickets to you. I want to see the newest Nightmare on Elm Street!"

Kraft continued teasing Peter in Mary’s voice.

Meanwhile, Ned was laughing so hard he was nearly out of breath.

"Kraft!!!"

At that moment, Peter finally understood exactly what Kraft had used to imitate his voice.

What an interesting invention. I wonder how it worked.

As Peter chased Kraft, he thought to himself that despite being filled with rage, he was still immensely interested in the little megaphone in Kraft’s hand.

Although Peter was several years older than Kraft, Kraft had adjusted his Power-Enhancing Shoes long ago. With Peter’s weakling-level stamina, there was no way he could catch him. After Kraft fled back to the Parker house, with Aunt May and Uncle Ben favoring him, Peter had no way to deal with Kraft at all.

Before long, Mary Jane arrived at the Parker house after changing clothes. Fortunately, America was not particularly particular about bringing gifts, otherwise Mary, having only received the invitation now, would not have had time to prepare one.

Even so, she did not give Peter Parker a pleasant look. Until the party ended, she mostly ignored him, making Aunt May and Uncle Ben shake their heads helplessly.

After the cheerful birthday party ended, Kraft’s life returned to tranquility. With Martin Lee away from home, he could visit Fatty Liao every day for a good meal. His days were wonderfully comfortable. The only thing troubling him was that his dream technology had hit something of a bottleneck.

Since Kraft had no control over what he dreamed about, gaps had appeared in many areas of his technical knowledge. Even though he could study on his own while awake, much of the relevant teaching material and information was beyond his reach.

And many things Kraft was currently capable of making either required equipment he did not have, materials he could not obtain, or were simply too dangerous.

Just as Kraft was wondering whether he should take the chance to rest for a while, a new figure appeared in his dream.

"This isn’t scientific…"

Kraft woke up in alarm from his bed once again, then held his head and began questioning his life.

This time, another japanese person had appeared in his dream. Like Professor Agasa, her name was simply Doctor. Judging by the technology she displayed in the dream, she truly deserved the title Doctor.

But the problem was…

What the hell did eight years old mean?

Were Japanese elementary school students trying to defy the heavens?!

That boy detective Shinichi Kudo, whom he had only heard of and never met, had already been exaggerated enough. But an eight-year-old little girl, Dr. Dongyun, creating a humanoid intelligent robot all by herself was simply too unbelievable!

Kraft had once been rather pleased with himself for mastering so much scientific knowledge through his dreams, but after seeing the absurdly gifted little Dr. Dongyun, he was truly devastated.

"I must be dreaming… no, wait! I was dreaming in the first place… So it was a dream. Then it’s fine!"

The blow had muddled Kraft’s thoughts. In the end, he deceived himself and lay back down, pretending nothing had happened.

By the time he woke again, Kraft had completely accepted the fact that he was inferior to an eight-year-old little girl. Only then did he have the leisure to recall every detail of how Dr. Dongyun had made the robot in his dream.

Then he realized…

"With my skills, I think I can make it!"

Kraft immediately became excited.

A robot almost indistinguishable from a human in appearance and behavior had actually been created with a pile of relatively simple technologies. Like Professor Agasa, Dr. Dongyun had to be some sort of unscientific scientist. And if he could truly reproduce an identical robot, it would prove that his dreams did far more than merely impart knowledge.

If he could replicate even this kind of strange science, then were magic and immortal arts really that far away?

Kraft could not help but lose himself in fantasy.

I’ve kept up daily 3K-word updates for ten days! I’m amazing… (￣ˇ￣)