Inside the biotechnology research center at Columbia University, a young man was moving cautiously through the facility.
He advanced with his body bent forward, his eyes fixed ahead, quietly exhaling through his nose.
Relying on the glow from a few pieces of research equipment that were still running, Peter was able to roughly distinguish the target he was searching for.
"This is it." Peter revealed a delighted smile. Under the cold-colored light, several red-and-blue spiders were spinning webs inside a temperature-controlled cabinet.
As if sensing someone approaching, the spiders that had been quiet began to jump up and down.
Unlike most protagonists, our main character was not an outstanding individual. As some of his former friends once said, Peter's personality was truly difficult to describe with a single word.
Some said he acted blindly.
Some said he lacked a clear sense of purpose.
Some said he was obsessed with inspiration.
Some said he was foolish, but not utterly so.
Because of this, those people became his former friends.
Peter moved closer to the display cabinet, glanced carefully around him, then took a deep breath. His arm stretched out from the pocket of his clothes.
Crash. With a forceful swing, the temperature-controlled cabinet with its combination lock smashed onto the floor and shattered into pieces.
At the same time, an alarm sounded.
Fortunately, this was the world of Spider-Man 1, not The Amazing Spider-Man or Spider-Man: Homecoming. If it were the latter two, an ordinary person would definitely not have had such an easy time acting inside a research lab.
The setting of the Spider-Man 1 world was relatively closer to a normal reality.
For example, the spider that transformed the protagonist itself did not involve any particularly fantastical technology. The so-called super spider created by researchers merely relied on calculations using an electron microscope and genetic blueprints to combine the DNA of several spiders into one.
It was only that an inexplicable case of cross-species inheritance occurred within the protagonist.
Of course, in practical terms, this kind of same-phylum genetic hybrid experiment was already extremely advanced technology. However, the kind of cross-species genetic transplantation in humans mentioned in Marvel comics was still nothing more than a very fantastical idea here.
Well…
Perhaps it existed, but it certainly would not appear in an open laboratory.
Hearing the alarm blaring, Peter was terrified. He did not know that this was merely an alert triggered by abnormal equipment operation. All he felt was that a large squad of soldiers might come to surround him at any moment.
He had to escape.
Ignoring the sharp shards of glass, Peter widened his eyes, trying to grab a spider from the ground to take with him.
At this moment, two security guards were running toward the area.
After hearing the alarm, they had originally intended to call and notify the scientists in charge of the laboratory, but one of the guards saw Peter on the surveillance footage, picking things up from the floor.
Things immediately took a turn for the worse.
"Corey, come with me. There's a thief in the main experimental hall."
The Black guard, Corey, said in surprise, "Are you serious? There's nothing here except equipment nobody understands. Someone actually wants to steal from this place?"
"No idea. Maybe some kind of corporate spy. Take your stun baton, buddy. This guy could cost us our jobs, so make sure to give him a few extra hits later," the white guard, David, said through clenched teeth.
Corey sighed. "I hope the supervisor doesn't blame me. God knows how this guy got in."
In fact, he had not broken in.
During the day, when college students came by bus to tour Columbia's laboratories, he blended in with them and hid in a restroom before the staff got off work.
These spiders crawled very quickly. Under the dim lighting, Peter finally managed to catch one. Although it was only the size of a fingernail, it was extraordinarily lively.
He subconsciously wiped his forehead, which was covered in sweat that had built up from holding it in.
Now he could already hear the guards' footsteps in the hall. The young man steeled himself, clenched the spider in his hand, and rushed toward the restroom where he had originally stayed all day.
"There he is."
"Get him."
The two security guards holding stun batons had already spotted the culprit. Peter rushed into the restroom, locked the door, and braced it with his back.
In restrooms like this in formal public places, there was basically no clutter, so there was no way for him to use a mop or anything else to block the door.
"Damn it." The wooden door behind him suddenly slammed once. He almost lost his footing, but quickly regained his balance and did his best to hold the door shut.
The guards tried ramming the door a few times, but soon realized that the two of them simply could not break it open, so they quickly gave up.
Since the criminal had run into the restroom, unless the person inside could teleport instantly, there was basically no way for him to escape. They decided to call the police first.
Inside the restroom, Peter leaned against the door.
After a long while, there was no more vibration coming from behind him, which made him let out a sigh of relief.
Taking advantage of the fact that the people outside were not making any moves for the moment, Peter took a short rest. He touched his face and only then realized that he was already drenched in sweat.
"Now it's time to get back to business."
Peter moved the thing pinched between his fingers forward slightly, and a vividly colored arthropod appeared before his eyes.
It looked somewhat like a black widow. Both belonged to relatively small arthropods, except that its abdomen and legs looked more powerful than those of a black widow.
If released into the wild, it would certainly be a killer in the natural world. But Peter would not do that. He had not forgotten that this killer was the source of a normal person gaining Spider-Man's powers.
Licking his lips, the young man relaxed the strength in his fingers and nervously watched the spider crawl across his palm.
"Bite me, hurry up and bite me!"
Peter urged anxiously, but the spider only seemed interested in crawling and could not understand him at all.
After a long wait, it finally stopped crawling, but then began spinning a web between his fingers, looking as if it wanted to return to the ground.
Peter immediately panicked. He reached out, trying to move it to the right spot.
This time, perhaps because he used too much force, the spider sensed the threat. In a place difficult for an ordinary person to observe, its fangs instantly sank down.
Hiss.
By reflex, he flung the spider to the ground. When he realized what had happened, overwhelming joy surged through him.
"I've been bitten. I'm going to become a superhero!"
Peter spun around excitedly inside the restroom, but he soon heard voices coming from outside the door. This time, there were definitely more than two people.
Peter's eyes widened involuntarily. At this moment, someone outside had already inserted a key into the lock, and the silver handle in his sight slowly began to turn.
Three, two, one.
"Don't move."
"Hands on your head."
The security guards and officers burst in from outside with weapons in hand, but found no one inside. Guard David, unwilling to believe it, checked every single stall in the restroom, yet still found nothing.
"He got away?"
One officer shrugged. "Let's report this to the supervisor first. The thief will have the police after him tomorrow."
The other guards nodded. "That's all we can do."
Just as they turned to leave, they had no idea that, in another world, inside an ordinary apartment, a young man appeared in an instant.
Back in a familiar environment, Peter relaxed completely and lay on the floor, letting sweat soak and dirty it.
His violently pounding heart gradually calmed down, and Peter was still laughing loudly. This trip had been far too thrilling, and the gains were not small.
He had originally planned to steal the protagonist's opportunity, but ended up missing it because he could not understand English.
His original plan was to secretly catch the spider that bit Peter, but who would have thought that the mutated spider died after biting Peter.
That had left him both angry and panicked. Fortunately, his quick reaction allowed him to hide in the restroom. Thinking of this, he could not help but laugh smugly again.
After a while, once his emotions had settled down considerably, Peter stood up from the floor. By then, his body already felt feverish and hot. According to the movie's setting, his bodily mutation would begin today.
After hastily swallowing his dinner, Peter began to feel discomfort in his heart, lungs, and other areas.
He returned to the bedroom and stood at the bedside in a daze for a few seconds. His mind became extremely heavy, and his body felt as if half of it had been placed in a sauna while the other half was riding a 360-degree roller coaster, painful and nauseating at the same time.
"So hot. Is this what getting stronger feels like?"
With the last of his strength, he pulled off his shirt, grabbed the blanket, and collapsed onto the bed.
It was already midnight. Outside, a gust of wind suddenly picked up. The black night revealed itself through the gaps in the curtains, and chirping sounds came from outside, not birds, but the sounds of bats flying past.
Peter lay on the bed. His thoughts temporarily fell into a standstill, but the changes to his body would not stop.
(End of chapter)
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