Peter felt like his back had been hit by a truck. Even with his powerful healing ability, he was no different from any other Spider-Man in one regard.
The back was the weakest point.
Especially since the power he had inherited belonged to Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, the undisputed king of back pain. Naturally, that lovely chronic back problem had come along with it.
"System, open the Level 3 Treasure Chest!"
[Ding. Opening Level 3 Treasure Chest...]
[Ding. Congratulations, Host. You have obtained Perfect Combat Skills, Adamantium Spider Arm Blades, and the passive skill: Bloodthirsty Slaughter!]
Jackpot.
This was absolutely a jackpot.
[Perfect Combat Skills: After use, your fighting skills will reach a perfect standard. Your control and awareness of your body will become more complete, allowing you to deal with enemies more easily.]
[Adamantium Spider Arm Blades: A cold weapon forged from durable Adamantium. Worn along the forearm. When activated, an eighty-centimeter curved blade will extend from the forearm, easily breaking through enemy defenses.]
[Passive Skill: Bloodthirsty Slaughter! A passive ability originating from a Runeterra hero. For every point of damage received, attack power increases by 0.25%! Can stack up to 25% of your own ability! Duration: three minutes!]
All three items from the chest were exactly what Peter needed most right now.
But when he read the description of the third item, he frowned and asked, "System, you're supposed to be a Spider Hero Skin System, so why do you have skills from other games too?!"
[Ding. This system provides Spider Hero skins, yes. It never said the skills and equipment had to be Spider-related as well.]
Alright.
That was technically true.
"Then load all the skills for me, along with that extra one-fifth of Spider-Man's powers."
[Ding. Loading...]
As the system's voice sounded in his mind, Peter's first sensation was that his body had become much lighter. Then every cell in his body seemed to expand, as if some kind of instinctive muscle memory had awakened inside him. At the same time, all kinds of fighting techniques and combat knowledge flooded into his mind.
Now he had night vision too, which was an ability Spider-Man should have had in the first place. It looked like this latest one-fifth increase had not only strengthened him across the board, but also let him perfectly master night vision.
Peter felt like he could see farther, jump higher, and hit harder. Even his body coordination felt much less stiff than before.
Knock knock knock...
Just as Peter was feeling out the changes in his body, someone knocked on the door. Aunt May's voice came from outside.
"Peter, are you back yet?!"
"Yeah, Aunt May, I just got back too..."
Peter hurriedly threw on a jacket to cover himself, opened the door, and saw Aunt May carrying a plate of fruit.
"I didn't even notice when you got home. Your Uncle Ben bought some watermelon and kiwis, and I thought you'd definite... oh my God! Peter, what happened to your face?!"
She had been talking casually, but the moment she looked up and saw his injuries, her expression turned to shock and pain.
One side of his face was swollen. His nose was scraped red. There was dried blood at the corner of his mouth, and his right eye was badly bruised. He almost did not look like himself.
"I'm fine, Aunt May. Just a little accident..."
"Did someone hurt you, sweetheart?"
She set the fruit down on the desk and gently touched the wounds on his face, her eyes full of worry.
"No, Aunt May. I just got into a fight with someone. He was pretty strong, but I still won in the end."
Peter tried to make it sound casual. He did not want her worrying about him too much.
"My Peter really is terrible at lying..."
Aunt May pulled him into a light hug, then said softly, "I don't know why you came home looking this beaten up, but you have to protect yourself. If you can't win, then run. There's nothing embarrassing about that."
"Were the other three alright?"
Peter naturally knew who she meant, because before coming home he had already sent her a text. Aunt May had carefully warned him to stay safe because things had been dangerous lately, and also reminded him not to drink.
"Gwen and M.J. weren't hurt. Harry... Harry was hurt pretty badly..."
"I think you should go see Harry, Peter..."
"I will, Aunt May..."
...
Elmhurst Hospital, the finest and most luxurious hospital in New York.
Harry looked at what remained of his arm and felt a little down, but he still managed a smile.
In the end, the arm had not been saved.
Then again, even the bone had started turning black. Just staying alive was already lucky enough.
M.J. had stayed with him the entire time in the hospital. Gwen had arrived before Peter, and Peter himself had already tried to mentally prepare for this, but the moment he stepped into the room, his heart still trembled.
"Hey, Peter, what took you so long?! And what happened to your face?!"
Harry looked at Peter's battered condition and asked.
"I got jumped by a bunch of thugs after coming out of the bathroom. That's where all this came from."
Peter walked over and lightly touched Harry's left arm, now ending halfway up the upper arm.
"I heard the noise and came out, but you were all gone. The street was a complete mess, and the police had taken Flash away. If Gwen hadn't told me about your arm, I would've thought you'd all gone home already."
"What a shame you missed the part where I was awesome."
"I'm very glad you didn't see the part where I was pathetic."
Harry and Peter spoke at the exact same time.
"Hey, man, that doesn't sound like you. Cheer up a little. It doesn't even hurt that much. And besides, my dad came by a little while ago with Dr. Connors."
"You know Dr. Connors is researching regenerative technology, and he's almost done. In six months at most, I'll probably be able to grow the arm back. Before I recover, I'll need to wear a mechanical arm for a while though. That thing over there... heavy as hell."
Harry sat up and pointed at the mechanical arm nearby, though the movement tugged at his wound and made his face twist in pain.
Still, the mechanical arm had been made almost perfectly. The outer surface used synthetic skin technology, and once it was attached, it would be very hard for anyone to tell it was artificial.
"I honestly never thought that guy would turn out to be Flash. I heard he got taken away, injected with some weird drug, and then turned into that insane monster. Thinking about it, this really wasn't his fault..."
Harry kept talking to himself nonstop.
M.J. sat by the hospital bed, her eyes still a little red, staying silent. Gwen, meanwhile, kept looking at Peter's face. The slap mark on it looked suspiciously like one she herself had left, though maybe some random delinquent girl in New York had done it instead.
After all, New York never lacked for thugs, male or female.
But Peter, lost in thought, barely heard any of it.
The moment he heard about Connors's regenerative technology, his mind felt like it had exploded.
In this world, Connors had not lost an arm because of an accident, so Peter had always assumed the Lizard would never appear.
And originally, this was supposed to be a project Peter participated in.
The one who should have injected the gene and turned into the Lizard was supposed to be Peter.
But now, through some twisted accident, that role seemed ready to shift to Harry instead.
Did that mean that as one of Spider-Man's enemies, the Lizard had to appear no matter what?
Was changing his own fate also changing everyone else's fate at the same time?
Was this what people meant by a closed loop of destiny?
If that was really the case, then Peter's guilt was only going to grow even heavier.
(End of Chapter)
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