Obtaining Peter's spider abilities also made Lock's mind race with possibilities.
That is, since he could obtain Peter's abilities, could he also obtain the abilities of other Spider-Men?
Although normally, every universe only has one Spider-Man.
But as said, that's just "normally."
From the moment he intruded into this universe, the universe itself was no longer so normal; he was destined to change many things about it.
Since Peter could become Spider-Man under his intervention, could others do the same?
For example, Ben Parker, who is also Spider-Man in a certain universe.
And Gwen Stacy, who is Ghost-Spider in a certain universe.
If Ben and Gwen also gained spider powers under his intervention, could he then continue to acquire other Spider-Men's abilities by defeating them?
Anyway, he still has over a dozen super spiders left; why not give it a try?
Lock was a bit tempted.
But he wasn't impulsive.
Ben and Richard are biological brothers, so perhaps they could obtain Spider-Man's abilities.
But the Gwen of this universe cannot.
The super spiders of this universe had been genetically encrypted for the Parker family by Peter's father.
Gwen doesn't have the Parker family genes; if she were bitten rashly, not only would she not become Spider-Man, but she would likely die from genetic collapse.
Furthermore, Lock wasn't sure if a universe could support two or more Spider-Men simultaneously, besides himself, the anomaly who wasn't bitten by a spider in this life.
In the Spider-Verse, it was because the super spider from Earth-42 accidentally bit Miles that the original Spider-Man of that universe died.
If he turned Ben into a second Spider-Man, Peter wouldn't die because of it, would he? Considering this possibility, Lock ultimately suppressed the idea for now.
There's risk involved, so caution is necessary.
Besides, his stats had suddenly surged by a third in all aspects, so he needed some time to let things settle.
While Lock was thinking, Peter regained some strength thanks to Spider-Man's incredible recovery ability and scrambled up from the ground.
Lock obtaining the spider abilities from Peter wasn't a direct absorption of Peter's own power; it was more like copying a set of data from Peter and adding it to himself.
So Peter still retained his spider abilities.
However, even if Peter still had his powers, the pain was very real!
Peter stood up while clutching his waist, ripped off his mask, and complained to Lock:
"Good grief, Lock, do you have some kind of grudge against my kidneys? Why were eight out of ten hits aimed at my lower back?!"
Lock also pulled off his mask and said calmly, "The more you get hurt now, the less you'll bleed later."
"According to my investigation, at least fifty percent of death cases in New York involving attacks are due to sneak attacks from behind."
"And among those, besides the head and heart, the waist is the area with the highest mortality rate when attacked."
"This is because people generally subconsciously protect their heads and hearts—the two most vital spots—but often neglect the equally fragile and lethal waist area."
"The reason I kept attacking your waist was to make you adapt in advance and learn to protect this third vital weakness."
Lock wasn't just making this up.
Even without counting the deaths of ordinary people from waist attacks, looking across superhero history, many superheroes lost their ability to fight due to severe waist injuries.
For instance, even Spider-Man himself has had his back injured more than once.
After all, Lock didn't want Peter to be clutching his waist one day, shouting, "My back, my back!"... Peter thought about it and felt that Lock's words made sense.
Thus, he accepted the reason and noted the key point of always remembering to protect his waist during combat.
Afterward, Lock took Peter back to the second basement level and arrived in front of an ecological tank.
When Peter saw those familiar-looking spiders in the tank, he was struck as if by lightning, and a bolt of realization flashed through his mind.
Without Lock needing to explain, Peter connected all the dots himself!
Because the appearance of these spiders was identical to the photos of the radioactive super spiders in the briefcase his father left behind!
Coupled with Lock's earlier statement that their abilities came from spiders.
And yesterday, while evacuating with the crowd during the fire at Oscorp, he did feel something bite his neck.
Combining these two things, Peter reached an even more terrifying conclusion!
That is, all of this was actually man-made!
Whether it was the appearance of the radioactive super spiders or his being bitten by one, it was all orchestrated!
The person who specifically bred these super spiders was his father, Richard Parker!
And the one who let the super spider bite him was none other than his cousin, Lock Parker!
The super spiders were bred by his father while working at Oscorp, so they should be at Oscorp right now!
But now that they were here, it meant... even yesterday's fire at Oscorp was caused by his cousin!
After taking the super spiders from Oscorp, his cousin set fire to the breeding room to cause a distraction, and then, amidst the chaos, placed a super spider on him!
Given the terrifying strength he had personally experienced from Lock today, Lock was entirely capable of doing all this silently!
And perhaps his meeting with Dr. Connors yesterday was also arranged by Lock!
Maybe Gwen was also Lock's "accomplice"?
After all, it was Gwen who invited him to Oscorp!
When Peter voiced his suspicions to Lock in the tone of a detective, unsurprisingly, his head received another sharp smack from Lock.
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