Chapter 1103

Walking through the portal located at the Multiverse Spider-Army base, the next second, Peter found himself in another narrow space. This was clearly also outer space, but it was completely incomparable to the brightness and spaciousness of the newly built Spider-Army base.

"Is this a space station?" Peter asked. He looked at the surrounding environment up and down and found that there was no feeling of future technology at all. On the contrary, there were exposed pipelines everywhere, looking as if technology had regressed.

"This is a small space station above the New York Sky Island, and it is the only space station I control." Spider-Man 2099 explained. He led Peter to the living room in the space station with familiarity.

There was a small window here that could just see the view of the Earth.

As soon as Peter walked over, he was stunned by the scene before him.

Outside the space station, what appeared was not the blue planet Peter was familiar with, but a celestial wreckage that had long since shattered into countless fragments.

Although the Earth maintained a spherical shape as a whole, to be precise, it should be maintaining a radial sphere, just like when fireworks explode. Countless fragments were arranged in different orbits, having long since lost their original complete and rounded shape.

The edges of each fragment were embedded with mechanical facilities, which seemed to be mechanical equipment for maintaining gravity and orbit. It was not difficult to see that these pieces of equipment had multiple styles and should have come from different companies.

Moreover, many fragments were also connected by mechanical equipment. However, the mechanical devices on the sky island body were physical objects, while the ones used to connect the sky islands were more like energy chains.

The number of energy chains was so large that the naked eye could not distinguish them at all. Many of the abandoned parts were not repaired by anyone. The endless energy chains were like terrifying tentacles, constantly waving near the Earth. The entire Earth looked like pieces of meat that had been cut into shreds but were strung together by iron wires—terrifying, ugly, and hair-raising.

And the many small spaceships flying between the fragments were like flies seeing this piece of rotten meat. There was no sense of beauty in the order brought by technology. There was only a density that made people feel disgusted.

Peter was stunned by this scene and stood in place, unable to say a word for a long time.

Spider-Man 2099 stood by his side, also looking at his hometown through the small window. He said: "I'm very sorry, I didn't go directly to your universe to find you, because I'm really afraid of seeing a complete Earth."

"From the time I was born, my hometown was like this. Until one day, in another universe in the multiverse, I saw what the Earth should have looked like. These greedy big corporations destroyed our beautiful mother planet..."

But to his surprise, young Peter did not immerse himself in negative emotions for too long. He turned to look at Spider-Man 2099 and asked: "You said this is your space station?"

"That's right. In this era, space stations are private property. As long as you have money, you can buy all kinds of mansions. The shareholders of big corporations all live in such space stations. Spacious rooms, beautiful greenhouses, fresh air—they have it all."

"And the surface, except for the slums, is factories built by big corporations. Everything produced in the factories is also to supply the rich people on the space stations. This is exactly the reason why they plotted the conspiracy to blow up the Earth."

Spider-Man 2099 led Peter all the way inside and said: "In the decades before the Earth was blown up, global production activities were in full swing. People thought that all the Earth's resources should be concentrated and then distributed equally."

"The wealthy conspirators were of course unwilling to do so, so they established big corporations, began to monopolize history, culture, and technology, and finally, used the technological means they possessed to directly blow up the Earth."

Only they had the ability to build space stations and live on them, while those civilians who didn't have the ability to do so were left on the broken surface. If they wanted to survive, they could only rely on the corporations.

"As a result, the entire Earth became a huge resource extractor. These big corporations held the switch. Resources were continuously transported to the shareholders of the corporations to enjoy, while the poor on Earth didn't even have the means to resist. They couldn't reach the high-and-mighty space stations at all."

"However, people did not give up. Under the high-pressure rule of the corporations, a group of freedom fighters who wanted to reverse the current situation was still born. I am one of them."

From Spider-Man 2099's words, Peter keenly discovered some key points, so he asked: "Why were freedom fighters born? Shouldn't all the ruled civilians unite to resist?"

Spider-Man 2099 shook his head and said: "You think of all this too simply. Big corporations possess robots that can completely replace human labor. That is to say, they are willing to give civilians a job—that is already mercy... Or rather, all the civilians who survive now are actually used for the rich to amuse themselves. They are their entertainment items, not survival necessities."

"Big corporations will implant identity systems into civilians. The system will upload all the privacy they possess to the corporation's database, and the shareholders can select the civilians they want to use for amusement in the database, and then send spaceships to bring them home."

"My daughter died like that."

Peter felt his heart suddenly sink. He had already guessed why this was. The jaw Spider-Man 2099 revealed when drinking just now showed that he was actually very handsome, so his daughter might also be very beautiful.

And what surprised Spider-Man 2099 somewhat was that Peter did not indignantly curse the corporations, but said something that made Spider-Man 2099 feel a chill down his back.

"What does the space station rely on to fly in space?"

"Of course, it's the big corporation's power system, but you'd better not have any designs on them. Even the most powerful hacker can't hack into this part of the system..."

Peter said nothing, his silence making Spider-Man 2099 unable to see through him, so he said half-jokingly: "I thought only Spider-Man Noir would be so taciturn..."

After speaking, he pushed open a door. Behind the door was a small shuttle that looked like a fighter jet, but it didn't have such large wings and instead relied on the cosmic thrusters at the rear to work.

Spider-Man 2099 pulled open the cockpit door and sat in. Peter immediately sat in the co-pilot's seat. Accompanied by the roar of the engine, a small plane flew toward one of the celestial fragments.

After landing, the scene here made Peter feel even more surprised. The ground was not very broken, nor was it a wasteland. On the contrary, there was a city here that looked quite high-tech, and it was very prosperous.

"Before the Earth was blown up, we already had quite high technological skills. That group of shareholders, in order to numb the civilians, claimed that they had withdrawn from the city and given up their property."

"So, many people moved into the buildings in the city center. However, this was all just a scam. People thought they had gotten what they wanted, but the next second, disaster struck."

Spider-Man 2099 pressed a button, and the shuttle disappeared on the spot. While leading Peter into a small alley, he said: "Miracle Lady should be in the Nord Building. That is not the freedom fighters' territory. It's a mixed bag—there are corporate employees, mercenaries, and wanderers. We need to trick the identity identification system to mix in, and then we can find her."

"Wait a minute." Peter stopped Spider-Man 2099 and then said: "It's not me who wants to find the female Loki, but another Loki. Since there is already a definite clue, I'll call him over now. He is also a God of Mischief; maybe he can help..."

Spider-Man 2099 sighed and said: "If I weren't in a bad state, I wouldn't need anyone else's help at all. We are all Spider-Men; don't think that only you know how to do scientific research."

Peter reached out and patted Spider-Man 2099 on the shoulder, letting him sit in place and rest for a while. Then he dialed Loki's communication and explained the current situation to him.

Soon, with an orange square portal appearing on the ground, Loki, holding Helen, appeared in front of the two Spider-Men.

At this time, she was still in her female image, but after seeing Spider-Man 2099's shocked gaze, he changed back into the male Loki.

But soon, Spider-Man 2099's gaze fell on Helen's face. Before Loki could speak, Spider-Man 2099 looked at him again and asked: "Is this your daughter?"

Before Loki could answer, Helen shouted first. She raised her hand high and said: "That's right, this is my dad. Ah, sometimes he's also my mom."

Spider-Man 2099 just wanted to step forward, but his movement stopped, as if he was afraid of scaring Helen. He hesitated for a moment and said: "Don't be afraid, little girl, it's just... you look a bit like my daughter."

Just as Loki was about to say something, Peter gave him a wink, so he took the initiative to change the subject.

"I heard that you have already found clues about Sylvie. Where is she? I hope to find her quickly."

"She is in the Nord Building, but that place is no longer a prosperous commercial center now. You can understand that place as a large market, a paradise for brokers. If we want to get in, we must first crack the identity identification system there."

"That's easy." Loki snapped his fingers and said: "As long as you let me take a look at someone who can get in, I naturally have a way to disguise us."

"Disguise won't work." Spider-Man 2099 shook his head and said: "The chip of the identity identification system is implanted in the human body. Just imitating the appearance won't fool the security system."

"I didn't intend to just imitate the appearance. What I use is not illusion magic." Loki shook his head and said: "Let's go over first. Soon, you will know..."

Spider-Man 2099 didn't seem to approve of Loki doing this. However, Peter was on Loki's side, and this was their task, so Spider-Man 2099 led the two through the alley and arrived at an abandoned station.

The transportation here made Peter feel somewhat surprised, because it was somewhat similar to the flying shuttles that were in full swing on the Earth in the universe he was in.

"Are you surprised? Actually, there's nothing surprising about it. The Earth in my universe also once headed toward the sea of stars, but unfortunately..." Spider-Man 2099 shook his head and said: "In the end, all the achievements of human civilization belonged to big corporations, and it had nothing to do with ordinary people..."

The closer they walked to the depths of the station, the thicker the darkness became. Peter saw traces of countless pedestrians here. Once upon a time, this place was also like his hometown—civilized, prosperous, and full of vitality.

"Development—who is development for?" Peter asked softly. He muttered in a low voice: "If not everyone can enjoy the fruits of civilization's development, then what is the meaning of us doing all this?"

Spider-Man 2099 took the lead and walked into the darkness. In the darkness, he looked back at Peter, his eyes carrying a sorrow and helplessness that Peter could feel.

"Big corporations took everything, including my child, and also the children of many people."

"If I were like you, born in the initial stage of civilization's vigorous development, I would also have such doubts like you."

"And after I experienced all this, I can only tell you, the answer in my heart is—Spider-Man is always born for ordinary people."

"No matter how high or far others fly, I will always be consistent, swearing to defend the interests of ordinary people who are like me."