Chapter 1285: The Interstellar Grand Stage (Part 9)

"Then I..."

Reilly said somewhat hesitantly, "I actually... sorry, but I really am not Peter Parker. Although I have his memories and abilities, I am indeed just a clone. I really..."

Gwen-Spider saw Reilly's panic and anxiety. She blinked gently and said, "Actually, you don't have to obsess over this at all. There are probably more than 80 Peter Parkers in New York now, so one more of you doesn't matter. You can be whoever you want to be."

"How many?????"

"Wait a moment, let me check." Gwen-Spider opened her Spider App again and started looking around, then said, "Uh, the number of people online now is 72, but some people report as offline because they don't want to be disturbed. Wait a moment, let me ask in the group."

After saying this, Gwen-Spider started typing on her phone constantly. After a while, the phone "ding-ding-ding-ding-ding" kept making sounds. Gwen slid the phone screen down and said, "Look, more than 30 Spider-Men replied to me within just over 20 seconds. They are all Peter Parker."

Gwen-Spider looked at Reilly and said, "Peter Parker is not fashionable enough here because everyone is Peter Parker, so Spider-Men who are not Peter Parker are very popular. For example, me. Of course, female Spider-Men are rare to begin with, so because they are rare, they are precious."

Gwen-Spider changed her posture and looked at Ben Reilly, saying, "The difference from Peter Parker is not a disadvantage but an advantage. Look, because there are too many Peter Parkers, and most Parkers are about the same, they all enter ordinary laboratories."

"But I am different. Because I am a woman, I can participate in the topics of in vitro reproduction and artificial womb research. This project group only accepts women, because so far only women have reproductive ability. Female researchers can avoid privacy and ethical issues in certain clinical trials."

"Of course, there are also project groups studying male reproduction and multi-gender conversion. More importantly, eugenics and gene selection. If you are interested, you can contact Miles Warren. He is an expert in this area."

"Your arrival is very likely to make another discipline valued, and that is cloning. Because there are too many and too messy disciplines, many similar projects have not been valued. If you can produce some research results, your service period will be greatly shortened, and you will directly enter the stage of free research. Believe me, this is good for you."

"You mean, let me research myself?" Reilly's facial features were already wrinkled. Gwen's words were truly subverting his cognition.

All along, he felt that he was a product of error. In fact, every victim of the Jackal's cloning experiment thought so. They shouldn't have existed in this world at all. Reilly even felt that his existence was stealing Peter Parker's life.

Those heroic deeds were not completed by him, but by Peter Parker. Yet he enjoyed other people's labor results for nothing, and even because of his appearance and abilities, others mistakenly thought he was Peter, obtaining the love and respect others had for Peter. This was completely an act of theft.

Although he couldn't decide the way he was born, he had always tried his best to avoid being similar to Peter. Spider-Man's moral sense made him unable to be a thief.

But now, Gwen-Spider actually told him that this was not a disadvantage at all, but an advantage, because he could borrow his special situation to research cloning, shorten his working time, and come out to work alone as soon as possible.

Gwen felt it wasn't enough. She supported her chin with her hand and said very seriously, "The Scarlet Spider of the Spider-Army before, he should be called Kaine, right? He also came here and wanted to enter the laboratory, but his clone body was not very stable, his mental disorder was a bit serious, and sometimes he couldn't even control himself. So he had to accept more than half a year of mental therapy and an observation period of two months before he could put into work."

"It sounds a bit absurd, but in fact, no one loves Spider-Man more than Nick Fury in this universe. This director treats us as his little lambs. In order to extract our greatest value, he must not let us get sick or injured."

"Even when we return to our own universe to fight those villains, he will specifically let S. H. I. E. L. D. agents act as our sparring partners, and send a bunch of equipment before leaving. Even if you only spend a few credits, you can rent a lot of powerful equipment. The purpose is to ensure that we can return alive to work for him."

"I heard that a Spider-Man in a universe is fighting that purple-skinned guy called Thanos. That damn purple head snapped his fingers, and Spider-Man almost died."

"But the life monitoring device Nick hung on him sounded an alarm, and the emergency distress signal was transmitted to the Sanctum Sanctorum. A hell lord named Mephisto... or something like that, descended on the spot and fished Spider-Man back. Now that unlucky guy is still recuperating in the nursing home."

Reilly no longer knew what expression he should make. Although it sounded like his life safety was guaranteed, thinking that the person who saved them was actually to let them work better, it sounded inevitably more evil than those villains.

Gwen was about to open her mouth to introduce, but at this moment, her phone suddenly rang. She extended a hand to signal Reilly not to make a sound, answered the phone, and said to the other side, "Hello? Peter, what's wrong?... Oh, really?... Right, I am explaining the basic situation of this universe to him... No, it has been clarified, it has nothing to do with him. If you are not at ease, just come over yourself."

Hanging up the phone, Gwen said, "Alright, Peter Parker of this universe is a bit uneasy. He is worried that you might have participated in things you shouldn't have participated in due to some people's misleading. You know, every Peter looks the same. If you do something inappropriate, all Peters will be unlucky."

"I was just about to ask." Reilly looked seriously into Gwen's eyes and said, "I heard that the Spider-Man of this universe is already dead, died in a massive explosion, and the current Spider-Man is the third-generation Spider-Man. What is going on with this?"

Gwen revealed a very difficult expression. The female Spider-Man with a doll face touched her chin with a finger, opened her mouth, but closed it again. The expression on her face was so wonderful that Reilly couldn't understand it at all.

"I really find it hard to explain to you." Gwen said with a look of difficulty, "If there is anything bad about this universe, it is... well, it's a bit crazy here. Every superhero here has died, and some more than once."

"Forget it, let Peter come over and explain it to you himself. He also wants to see you."

After saying this, Gwen gave up her position, but Reilly looked at her movements with some confusion. He said, "Does he work nearby?"

"Of course not, he is on the other side of New York, but he should be here soon."

As soon as Gwen finished speaking, with a "crackle," another portal opened in mid-air. Peter, with short hair, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and wearing a laboratory uniform, walked out of it. He took off his gloves, walked up, shook hands with Reilly, and said, "Hello, I am Peter Parker 6302. You should have already received your number, right?"

Reilly froze for a moment, but at this moment Gwen walked up and explained, "No, he is not Peter Parker, so he doesn't have your special number. His name is Ben Reilly, and he is Peter Parker's clone."

Reilly opened his mouth wide and said, "What is a number?"

"Because there are too many Peter Parkers, we all look the same. In order to facilitate distinction, we each have a number. In fact, Peter Parker is not important, the number is the main body."

Then Peter said somewhat surprised, "Oh, you are a clone, then I think you and Kaine should have some common language, and with me too."

Reilly's expression of shock had already made his chin a bit stiff. He asked uncomprehendingly, "What do you mean with me too?"

And in Reilly's even more shocked gaze, the skin of the Peter Parker in front of him began to gradually turn blue. He directly turned into an alien appearance, but soon turned back.

"I am a Skrull. Of course, I am also Peter Parker, and also the second Spider-Man in media reports, now acting as Peter's work on Earth."

Reilly was already completely stiff on the spot. Gwen pushed him, let him sit back on the sofa, sat beside him, and said, "Don't make such a fuss."

"But how can you, you, I mean... don't you feel, um?" Reilly stammered, pointing at himself with his finger for a while, and pointing at the Peter opposite him for a while.

Peter seemed to understand his meaning. He revealed a wry smile and said, "You aren't obsessing over your identity as a fake, are you? How about this, I'll arrange for you to be Director Nick's assistant for a few days."

"By then, you will know that no matter who you are, as long as you can look like Peter Parker and have his genius brain, Nick won't care who you are. He will only roar at you, 'I don't care if you are Spider-Man or an alien, now roll away and take out the genius ideas in your brain, and then contribute to the human cause, do it until you die!!!'."

Peter shrugged and said, "Originally, I had already gone to the empty new area of the Dark Quadrant with my people, intending to rebuild the old Skrull Empire. As a result, Nick called me through my clansmen left on Earth, saying that Stark and Strange were fighting over Spider-Man, and they fought three times in a week. I should go back and be Spider-Man immediately, so that each can have one."

"So, you are responsible for the magic side of work?" Gwen tucked her hair behind her ear and asked.

"On the contrary, I am responsible for the technology side." Peter spread his hands and said, "Skrulls' imitation ability can only imitate the abilities the other party originally has. Abilities like symbiotes, which are similar to external armor, cannot be imitated."

"And the magic ability possessed by the real Peter in this universe is actually the ability of his symbiote. I don't have a symbiote, so naturally I can't use magic. So Peter went to be responsible for the magic side, and I stayed at Stark Tower to do experiments."

Peter nodded at Reilly and said, "You should be very confused about how they can trust me, but in fact, this was originally a disadvantage of Skrulls imitating others' abilities, but now it is considered an advantage by them."

"Because I inherited all the abilities and memories, I often forget who I am. Most of the time, I feel that I am Peter Parker. If it weren't for that psychologist helping me maintain the memories of the life experiences possessed by Skrulls, I guess I would have really thought I was Spider-Man."

"As for the guilt of stealing someone else's life that you might feel, I can only say that if the world only needs one Spider-Man, you might indeed be redundant. But this universe is very lacking in Spider-Men, very lacking. We might need more than 20,000 Spider-Men. If you want to be Spider-Man, it is our honor."

Reilly was already completely dumbfounded. The information received within the past two hours was like some crazy factors infecting his brain.

At this time, Gwen-Spider lowered her head again and gently smoothed her long hair, saying, "I envy this universe, and I love this place. This is like a beautiful dream I had while hiding in the quilt at home on a warm night."

"But no matter how barren and chaotic my world is, it is my hometown. I will use the knowledge learned here and the abilities obtained to build it, making it as beautiful as it is here."

"I don't care who I am, I don't care if there is another me in this world who lives better than me. I only know that the meaning of my life and the source of happiness should only lie in the fact that I used my own abilities to change the world and make it better."

"By then, the happiness felt by everyone whose life gets better is my happiness, their happiness and satisfaction is my happiness and satisfaction, their laughter is my laughter, and the hope they see is my hope."

Gwen's eyes sparkled with unparalleled brilliance. It was a light like the surface of grass washed by spring rain, with the gentleness and quiet power unique to women.

This made Reilly understand that Spider-Man is Spider-Man not because of appearance and ability, but because every one of them is a kind of light.

"This is the highest value pursued by every Spider-Man who comes and stays here. We will no longer be us, but a possibility for our universe, our civilization, and our race to move toward the sea of stars and obtain ultimate happiness."

Peter looked into Reilly's eyes and said, "So, don't be afraid that you are not you anymore. You go be Spider-Man, and you are Spider-Man. I am not Spider-Man, but I am also a grain of sand in the same great ideal."

"It is that I don't need to be me, success doesn't have to be in me."

Smart, healthy, energetic, kind, gentle, selfless dedication

Chosen Worker · Spider-Man