Chapter 1589

In Gwen Stacy's home, two identical girls sat on opposite sides of the dining table. One sat with her back very straight, legs together, hands placed in front of her, appearing gentle and quiet. The other had one hand resting on the table and the other casually on her lap, still wearing a light-colored uniform.

George stood between the two girls, glancing at his own daughter, then at the girl who wasn't his daughter but was no different from her.

"Alright, Captain George, is the interrogation over? Can I leave now?" the girl in the uniform asked.

"This isn't an interrogation, you know it isn't," George said, looking at her. "I just want to figure out why there is another girl in this world identical to my daughter, and she's a Spider-Man, too."

"I've already told you, I have to be Spider-Man; that's non-negotiable. It's just that getting your good girl involved was indeed my fault. I won't come looking for her again. That's it."

Having said that, Gwen Spider-Man stood up and walked toward the door, but George was faster. He took a step forward and blocked her path.

George's physique was naturally more burly than Gwen Spider-Man, who hadn't fully left adolescence, but he still took a step back to avoid causing a sense of oppression with too close a distance. This old policeman knew too well how to maneuver, and besides, for a girl who looked exactly like his own daughter, he couldn't really oppress her like a criminal.

"You say you're Gwen Stacy from another universe. What puzzles me most is how your father could agree..."

"He didn't agree," Gwen Spider-Man shook her head and said. "Even now, he doesn't understand, but I don't care."

"What exactly made you become like this?"

"It's hard to say," Gwen Spider-Man shook her head. "A combination of factors. The situation in our world is far worse than here. Many criminals created super-corporations. Because of an accident, I became a wanted criminal. The East Coast crime boss Kingpin had just been sent in not long ago, and Matt Murdock became the new rising leader of criminal forces. In short, a bunch of trouble."

"Then the police..."

"The police are useless. Aside from adding to my trouble, they serve no purpose." Gwen Spider-Man seemed a bit impatient. She wanted to bypass George, but George grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Don't treat me like your daughter, Captain George. We are two completely different people. Do you think Gwen would join a band as a drummer in high school? If she wouldn't, then it's no surprise that I'm Spider-Man now."

"Then Peter Parker..."

"He was Spider-Man to begin with, in this universe."

"I'm talking about the Peter Parker in your universe. If you're Spider-Man, then where did he go?"

Gwen Spider-Man stood in place, silent. George's career had given him overly rich investigative experience, allowing him to point straight to the point. He said, "Something bad happened between you, right?"

"It can't exactly be called something bad; it's just that he died, and I'm still alive."

George's face softened. He looked at this young girl, who might even be younger than his own daughter, and said, "I'm not accusing you of anything you did with Gwen. I just want to know what you all are doing, you and all the other Spider-Men."

"We're just working here," Gwen Spider-Man said, lowering her head. "Learning knowledge here, earning credits, so we can better save the world when we return to our universes."

George frowned. He had never imagined that the universe he was in was actually the safer and more advanced one among them. If that was the case, how bad were the other universes?

"Dad, me getting involved in these things is inevitable," Gwen said, stepping forward to pull George's arm. "So many Gwens from so many universes couldn't escape death. I can't wait passively. At least this uniform and those weapons gave me some self-preservation ability."

"Can't you just stay away..."

"If staying away were useful, those Gwens wouldn't have died," Gwen said, looking up into George's eyes. "This is some kind of inescapable fatalism. Perhaps I escaped a disaster once, but I might not be able to escape forever."

The look of sadness on George's face almost overflowed. He steadied himself on the kitchen island, looking as if he were about to collapse.

"Someone has to be the unlucky one, right?" Gwen Spider-Man spread her hands. "Either Gwen Stacy dies, or Peter Parker dies. Your daughter is already the number one lucky person in the universe; don't ask for too much."

Having said that, Gwen turned and walked out the door, leaving the father and daughter to digest the sadness. George would need quite a while just to mourn the Gwens who died in other universes. Gwen Spider-Man had no time to waste with them; she had many things to do, such as finishing tonight's shopping and then not having to leave her apartment for two weeks.

Gwen Spider-Man knew George couldn't accept someone identical to his daughter swinging over New York for a while—even seeing it was impossible. So she planned to stay home for a while, listen to the latest albums, or go out for a walk or something.

Gwen really hadn't expected to run into Loki at the supermarket, but it wasn't strange. They weren't going to the kind of supermarket ordinary people went to, but a procurement location designated by S. H. I. E. L. D. Only by buying household goods here could they be reimbursed. Gwen Spider-Man, whose financial situation wasn't exactly great, would naturally come here.

What she found a bit strange was that the Princess of Asgard had come here too. So, she looked at Loki with no small amount of sarcasm and said, "I thought you only appeared in places like luxury streets."

"Move aside if you have nothing to do." Loki bumped Gwen Spider-Man's cart with her own. Gwen Spider-Man looked her up and down and said, "You look like a hungover drunk, your brain isn't working at all. What's wrong with you?"

"What necessity do you have to care about me?"

"Asgard is a big client for the Spider-APP," Gwen Spider-Man turned her cart and walked side-by-side with Loki. "Your brother especially likes to post some very simple but quite generous tasks."

"You can just say he's a sucker."

"I was just about to say that, but to prevent him from zapping me, it's better for you to say it."

Gwen Spider-Man was actually just making small talk. She and Loki had only met once when she went to Asgard to deliver something; they weren't familiar, at best acquaintances.

Gwen Spider-Man just wanted to cast the conversation she just had with George out of her mind. She needed some other information to dilute the memory, and chatting with anyone was a good choice.

Gwen Spider-Man hadn't held much hope, thinking she wouldn't be able to chat for two sentences before being chased away by this Asgardian princess. But Loki didn't seem to mind Gwen Spider-Man coming to chat, and it looked like she wanted to distract herself, so the two chatted at cross-purposes.

"Are you looking for some seasoning?"

"Barbecue rub." Loki stopped in front of the shelf and examined the fully stocked shelves for quite a while before finding the bottle of seasoning she might need. After taking it down, she didn't immediately put it in the shopping cart but turned it over to look at the ingredient list on the back.

"My god, are you serious? You're actually the kind of person who reads the ingredient list when buying things?" Gwen asked, deliberately making a fuss.

"I believe a large part of humans' short lives is because they don't care about what they ingest into their bodies," Loki said in a mocking tone. "Usually, I think the things you add to food are enough to poison a god, yet you can eat them without even looking. Asgardians would have to praise your courage if they came here."

Gwen Spider-Man leaned over to look at the ingredient list, then looked up at Loki with some surprise and said, "You're going to barbecue at your own place?"

"No, they have a barbecue party on Long Island."

"Who is 'they'?"

Loki explained briefly. Gwen Spider-Man shrugged and said, "I'm sure they wouldn't invite me because, in their eyes, I'm just a wet-behind-the-ears kid, and not even a kid from this universe. But I do want to find a place to relax. Do you mind taking me along?"

Only then did Loki stop her daydreaming. She stood in front of the shopping cart, turned her head to examine Gwen Spider-Man from head to toe, and said, "You look like your face is written with 'Why the hell hasn't this damn world been destroyed yet?' I don't think taking you in front of those people who are trying to save the world is a good idea."

Loki pushed the cart forward again. Gwen Spider-Man pushed her cart behind her and said, "I guess you don't know what snacks to buy."

Loki looked back at her and asked somewhat uncertainly, "Buy snacks? Why buy snacks?"

"Come on, a barbecue party without snacks? You're not joking, right? What about alcohol? Didn't you ask about their preferences for alcohol? What if someone doesn't drink sweet wine? What about dice and a turntable? Did you buy those?"

Gwen Spider-Man began rummaging through Loki's cart without treating herself as an outsider, only to find that aside from meat, seasoning, and fire-starting tools, there was nothing.

"My god, you don't think a barbecue party is just about eating barbecue, do you?"

"Is there a problem?"

"This isn't Asgard, please remember, Your Highness. Humans don't hold any party because they're hungry or have to gather to eat. Drinking freely and having fun is the theme of the party. You can't just buy food!"

Loki touched her nose, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "I haven't attended a party on Earth before."

Gwen Spider-Man stepped back two steps quite dramatically, looked Loki up and down with the same look Loki had used to examine her, and said, "No way, you would be the queen of the coolest party in New York! Boys would break their heads to win you over!"

"Don't say those things." Loki frowned, somewhat annoyed, and pushed the cart forward blindly.

"What's wrong?" Gwen Spider-Man was a bit confused, chasing after her and saying, "I was complimenting you on being beautiful and charming. Why are you acting as if I'm being insincere?"

Loki seemed to have been poked in her heart. She stopped, slapped the handle of the shopping cart, turned to look at Gwen Spider-Man, and said, "Are you that happy to be affirmed by those people?"

"Don't you like being affirmed?" Gwen Spider-Man said, somewhat puzzled. "If they pursue you, it proves you're liked and very charming. Even if they only want to sleep with you, it still proves you're beautiful and cute."

"What about the mind, the personality?"

"Come on," Gwen Spider-Man waved her hand in front of her face. "What does that have to do with boys? I only seek this affirmation in the lab or at school, more than my other male and female classmates. Isn't that enough to prove my mind is sharp and my personality is complete?"

Loki stood in place, sighed, and said, "But when I was a male who could only show the charm of mind and personality, no Asgardian affirmed me. I became a female, and quite a few people signed up for my matchmaking show."

"Why did they have this change?" Loki asked as if to herself, and then she answered, "Because the female body has the value of sex and procreation. They think I only have this."

She stood in place, silent for a while, then lowered her hands and said, "Perhaps Odin and Frigga think the same. That's why they are so happy to have a daughter again—another valuable marriage, another valuable descendant will be born."

Gwen Spider-Man walked up silently. Loki looked up out the supermarket window. Twilight was gathering, and the glory of the sunset couldn't see that distant life, but on the head of the backlit cloud waves, a figure seemed to be standing.

"How on earth did you manage to be a princess in Asgard for so many years?" Loki's tone was full of confusion. After a moment of silence, she continued to ask, "And how did you manage to be more than just a princess?"