Chapter 2470

Spider-Man looked rather awkward, because first, his bedroom wasn't large, and moreover, many of its furnishings hadn't completely shed their childhood origins — for instance, behind him was a common loft bed with a desk underneath, the small table he ate at was a discarded tea table, but the stool was one of those colorful plastic cartoon-shaped triangular stools for kids, round and roly-poly overall, looking very cute, but the stool legs had already been worn bare of paint.

The posters he had up were also outdated models, because new posters were more expensive, so he could only rummage through the newsstand for those old models to piece together; his comic books were all old books too, because he simply couldn't afford new ones, the carpet was even a ridiculous little-dog pattern, used until it was starting to fuzz.

Without a doubt, in an American campus environment this would absolutely be an object of ridicule and bullying, so Spider-Man had never invited a single friend to his house; otherwise he would definitely become the biggest laughingstock in the entire school, he would acquire a nickname like "Baby Peter" or something, though his current nickname wasn't much better either.

Suddenly an outsider appeared in his bedroom; Spider-Man acted at a loss, his hands now behind his back, now fidgeting in front of him, he shrank into the corner as much as possible, leaving what little space there was to the powerfully built Jason.

Jason was a bit too powerfully built; to say it again, he could even pin Arkham Batman in a room unable to move — if he just straightened his body a little, he could knock the lampshade off the ceiling; if he stretched his limbs a little, that already tottering loft bed would be completely wrecked.

Spider-Man had actually already prepared himself for this, because of the scar on his face Jason didn't look friendly in the least, and he habitually frowned, making him look even more fierce.

But Jason didn't; he crouched down in a posture even more awkward than Spider-Man's, contracting his limbs as much as possible, squatting in place like a quail with puffed-up feathers.

But he kept his head raised, incessantly sizing up the room's furnishings, until his gaze landed on the photo of him and his uncle and aunt placed on Spider-Man's desk.

"Are those your parents?" Jason asked.

"No, they're my uncle and aunt." Spider-Man also crouched down, but he curled up in the corner, his body language expressing that he was completely a pushover.

"You have to keep your voice down, my aunt is right outside the door, but if she sees you she should be pretty happy, after all she always says to bring friends home to play." Spider-Man tucked both hands into the gap between his body and knees.

"You never brought any back, you disappointed her." Jason hit the nail on the head.

"Maybe." Spider-Man shrank his neck back and said: "I don't have any friends at school, they definitely wouldn't be interested in my room either."

Even though Jason hadn't gone to school much, he could tell that Peter Parker looked just like the most common kind of bookworm and pushover in school — no friends, no crew, always alone, anyone could bully him.

Jason suddenly twitched his nose; his gaze fell on the food on the small tea table in front — unlike a traditional American white family's meal, Aunt May had pan-fried a large slab of steak, baked bread, steaming hot cream spinach pie, and even a large turkey leg.

"Are you hungry?" Spider-Man asked: "My aunt is used to my appetite increasing, but I actually can't eat this much anymore, the two of us can eat together."

Jason did indeed feel his stomach empty, so he didn't refuse either, sitting down right there; that small tea table looked even smaller in front of him, he had to cross his legs so Spider-Man could sit opposite.

"So why did you appear in my house, am I dreaming?"

"I guess probably yes." Jason said: "I was dreaming before too, traveling through many worlds, someone kept chasing me, I just ran all the way, and as a result, when I pushed open a door I saw you."

Spider-Man looked a bit hesitant; he said: "Maybe I fell asleep by your bed, so the two of us entered the same dream."

Soon he cheered up again, saying a bit excitedly: "So that means my trip to Gotham wasn't a dream, the photos I took are real too, I can post them on the forum when I get back?! That's awesome."

Spider-Man acted very excited, but Jason frowned; he looked Spider-Man up and down again and said: "You have no friends in reality? Not a single one?"

"Count as having some, I guess." Spider-Man said somewhat uncertainly: "I have a few familiar classmates at school, they're about the same as me; in the Spider-Army I also met a few Spider-Men, they're all pretty friendly to me, and Nick, Nick takes pretty good care of me too."

"Oh my god, Nick!" Spider-Man slapped his forehead as if just remembering: "He still doesn't know I came to Gotham, he must be really worried."

Spider-Man had hit the mark this time; Nick was nearly going crazy with worry — after Spider-Man left that one anomalous photo he disappeared, and Nick and the other Spider-Men who saw that photo all knew this Spider-Man had gone missing.

It's not their fault for being so anxious; actually this Spider-Man is very special, because he comes from "Amazing Fantasy" Issue 15 — that's right, the comic where Spider-Man first appeared; he is the first Spider-Man.

Although Nick and the other Spider-Men don't know the comic appearance order, the Time Bureau can use special means to see the universe's derivation order, and can also see the birth order of each superhero in each universe.

Nick could naturally tell that Spider-Man was Number One, so he took particular care of him; once he let it slip, so the other Spider-Men all found out, and they have a special affection for this little spider.

However, because the Spider-Man appearing in "Amazing Fantasy" is actually set as the autistic high schooler the public knows best, the pathetic little guy nobody likes in school, Peter often acts very withdrawn, but once he puts on the Spider-Man suit he becomes overly excited — this has kept him from making any close friends.

Right now Nick is frantically searching for this lost Spider-Man; after seeing that series of trap buttons, Nick knew it was definitely Shiler's doing — besides him, no one could grasp Spider-Man's psychology this accurately; but the problem is, Shiler can't be reached right now either.

Back to Spider-Man — he and Jason ate and chatted; although neither knew how they came to be in this dream, nor who that person chasing Jason was, they actually had plenty to talk about.

Spider-Man's usual chat partners would always choose to talk about school stuff — after all, chatting with teenagers this age there aren't really other topics to discuss.

But this always troubled Spider-Man, because he really had no campus life to talk about — his entire campus life was attending lectures, doing homework after class, the moment school ended diving straight into his bedroom to read comics; no friends, no activities, nothing interesting at all.

He could only meekly say nothing, the other person would think he didn't want to chat, so they could only leave; Spider-Man wanted to keep them, but he really had no interesting topics.

Jason isn't a good chat partner, because his words are always barbed, but in certain conversations he's always the one guiding the topic, and he always has lots of things to talk about — just Gotham street life alone he could talk for months.

How he ran errands and did odd jobs in nightclubs as a kid, which mob boss was sleeping with which stripper, how a tycoon's legitimate wife stormed into a nightclub to catch a cheater, how their little crew haggled with those crafty fences...

From Jason's narration Spider-Man learned a more real and vivid Gotham; he silently recorded all these things, preparing to write his own "Gotham Travelogue."

Jason reminisced from childhood to adulthood; his story inevitably featured Batman — his story with Batman isn't much to tell, anyway it's just that one day he was stealing tires on the street and Batman picked him up, then the two of them fought crime together.

The story stopped abruptly there; Spider-Man was listening with great relish — the adventure story with Batman was way more exciting than most of the old comics he read; he even stopped eating, just staring with bright eager eyes waiting for Jason to continue.

Jason began eating in silence.

"Please." Spider-Man raised his voice: "You can't let the story stop here, and then what? You two definitely caught that bastard and threw him in prison, right? Batman wouldn't tolerate that guy called Joker provoking him like that, you should've beaten him to a pulp..."

"The facts are exactly the opposite." Jason said: "What comes after isn't a good story, and it's not something you should hear; it ends here."

"Don't do this!!!" Spider-Man wailed: "You have to tell me, otherwise I'll be as sad as if I couldn't buy the comic's ending!!"

"This isn't a comic, it doesn't conform to comic plot requirements at all, it's more like a ghost story." Jason pursed his lips, bit off the last mouthful of meat on the turkey leg, pulled over a bit of paper from the side, wiped his hands and said: "For the sake of your mental state, it's better not to listen."

After finishing eating he stood up and said: "Now we have to study why we appeared here, and who that person who kept chasing me and blew up your bathtub duck really is."

Spider-Man hung his head dejectedly, very dissatisfied, but he had no choice, only able to prop his face with his hands in place and say: "Do you think those two are the same person?"

"Of course." Jason frowned and recalled: "I don't remember those previous chaotic dreams too well, but I vaguely remember the person chasing me seemed to have a pair of metal claws."

"Metal claws?"

"Right, his fingers were different from a normal person's." Jason recalled: "They seemed to have turned into sharp daggers, looked pretty terrifying."

But Spider-Man laughed and said: "Didn't expect you'd find something terrifying too."

Jason froze, looked down at Spider-Man and said: "What do you mean? Why wouldn't I find it terrifying?"

"Well, I mean, you look so powerfully built, simply stronger than the strongest Thompson at our school." Spider-Man used an exaggerated tone with constant gesturing hands: "You look simply like a giant, could it be you're still afraid of a monster with dagger-fingers?"

Jason found Spider-Man a bit baffling; he paused a moment then said: "You mean a tall person's skin should be like metal armor, impossible to be sliced by a dagger, or do you think I wouldn't bleed if I got slashed twice by a dagger?"

"Uh, that's not what I meant, but I feel you naturally strong types, your guts must be a lot bigger than others' right?" Spider-Man scratched his head: "Like Thompson, he seems afraid of nothing, swaggering wherever he goes."

"Unlike me." Spider-Man sighed: "I'm not short, but I'm just too skinny, no strength, no athletic ability, bullied at school and can't fight back, not good with words either, don't know how to retort."

Jason looked at him speechlessly, practically grinding his teeth: "Spider-Man has no strength, no athletic ability, not good with words???"