Chapter 88: Ninja Spider

Peter gently pushed open the door. Carrying a stack of documents, he saw a middle-aged man in a white lab coat packing his things. He said, "Dr. Connors, are you leaving today?"

The middle-aged man had graying hair and looked somewhat haggard. More importantly, the right sleeve of his lab coat was empty; clearly, he only had one arm.

"Oh, is that you, Peter? Yes, the research collaboration has ended, and I must be going."

Peter gently placed the documents on Connors' desk and then said in a low voice, "I'm sorry. If I had been a bit more capable, perhaps I could have produced results before the research ended..."

"You are already very capable," Dr. Connors said gently. "You are still just a high school student, yet you are even smarter and more hardworking than the graduate students I've met before. If you'd like, I would be happy to write you a letter of recommendation."

"Thank you, but I haven't decided which university to attend yet, and I still have some time before I start college."

Peter moved his lips and said, "Then where do you plan to go next? The research on the serum is already in its final stages; as long as there is a decent laboratory, it should be completed."

Dr. Connors looked up and glanced around his office, saying, "There won't be anywhere else with conditions as good as Stark Tower. When they first approached me, I agreed precisely because I had my eye on the hardware conditions of the laboratory here."

Using his only remaining hand to pack his things, he said, "But it doesn't matter. As you said, the experiment has reached the final stretch. With just a little more effort, I will succeed."

"By then, perhaps I won't be the only one who can regain an arm. I know many of them lost limbs in the war, and the stipends provided by the military are barely enough for them to scrape by. Those prosthetics are all too expensive. If there really is a regenerative serum, they could recover and become normal people again."

Peter could hear the excitement in Dr. Connors' tone. During his internship, this Dr. Connors had left the deepest impression on him.

Originally, Peter was not interning in this research group, but while running errands for his team leader, he happened to run into Dr. Connors, who had just been invited by the military to participate in the Stark medical research collaboration.

Upon meeting him for the first time, Peter was surprised because Dr. Connors only had one arm, yet this had not hindered his scientific research in the slightest. He possessed a genius brain and was considered world-class in the fields of bionics and serum technology research.

Peter was deeply shocked, as even people with all four limbs might not necessarily achieve such high accomplishments. Thus, he applied to transfer to Dr. Connors' research group.

After all, he himself had only mutated after being bitten by a spider, and he was very eager to figure out exactly what had caused this mutation.

Peter was very smart and diligent. Although he had a bit of a nerd's habits, he was the kind of kid teachers liked best. Soon, Dr. Connors grew fond of this young intern.

From Connors, Peter learned that he had originally been a military doctor and a veteran. It was on the battlefield that he lost his arm, but this had not hindered his path of scientific research.

On the contrary, he embarked on a unique medical path, began researching the effects of serum within biological organisms, and achieved quite remarkable results.

While serving as Dr. Connors' assistant, Peter also learned a great deal of knowledge regarding biology. After gaining his spider mutation, Peter's genius brain turned even faster. With two geniuses working together, the speed of the research naturally soared.

However, just when they were only a tiny bit away from completion, the collaboration between Stark and the military was terminated, and these researchers had to leave Stark Tower.

Normally, for research projects like this where they were invited, even if terminated halfway, the researchers could still receive their compensation. They would be eager for it to end early so they could use the remaining time to go on vacation.

But Dr. Connors was different. He wasn't here to coast; he truly wanted to develop a serum technology capable of limb regeneration to restore his own limbs and benefit those disabled soldiers who, like him, had lost limbs in the war.

Therefore, it was inevitable that he felt somewhat disappointed. But looking at Peter's reluctant expression, Dr. Connors still said, "It's alright. Once you start college, perhaps I will be teaching at a university in the East. You can come to my laboratory, and we can continue the research."

"Then it's a deal!" Peter said happily.

Actually, before this, Stark had also tried to teach Peter knowledge about mechs and artificial intelligence, but Peter wasn't very interested.

He wasn't the industrial fundamentalist type like Stark; he preferred to explore the unknown mysteries of humanity, such as the secrets hidden in the natural world or the magical outer space.

In the process of learning with Dr. Connors, he learned about many mysteries within cold-blooded animals like spiders and lizards, which interested him greatly. He felt that if he became a biologist or an entomologist in the future, that wouldn't be bad either.

If he could be like Dr. Connors and truly invent some technology that could save lives, that would be even better.

Although Peter had become Spider-Man and was actively fighting crime every night, as a good student, his life path planning wasn't just about being a superhero.

He still wanted to follow the standard path of getting into a good university, then choosing a major and direction he liked for research, and ideally, obtaining a few doctoral degrees before staying on to teach or opening his own research center.

Perhaps due to the influence of the spider mutation, in the process of researching with Dr. Connors, Peter felt a special sense of closeness to these cold-blooded creatures, so he gradually solidified his future goals.

The motivation of having clear goals largely dispelled the sadness of parting with his teacher. After leaving Stark Tower, Peter was full of energy again, planning to continue his Spider-Man career.

His last fight with Bullseye had taught him a lot. Peter discovered that although he had web-shooters and could swing among high-rise buildings, in reality, this speed wasn't very fast—at most, it was just a bit faster than a car. More importantly, such flamboyant movements meant that as soon as he struck, all of New York would know he was out fighting crime again.

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By the time he swung to the location, slightly experienced robbers would have long since vanished.

In the last operation, the only plan of Peter's that received collective praise was his use of the intricate sewer system beneath New York.

This was a fantastic tactic. The environment of New York's sewers was not good; the walls and floors were slippery, and it was dark and damp. Ordinary people could not move around there with ease.

But Peter was different. He was Spider-Man; he could stick to any wall, and when running, he didn't have to worry about whether the ground beneath his feet would make him slip.

Moreover, the straight and wide ground of the underground sewers was like a runway tailor-made for Spider-Man. There were no traffic jams here, nor were there pedestrians. When sprinting at full speed, he was much faster than speeding cars.

Most importantly, it was sufficiently covert. He moved underground and then emerged from the nearest sewer manhole; no one would ever discover where he had gone or where he had come from.

This was most effective when dealing with experienced robbers.

Previously, there had been a gang of bank robbers who were all veterans. Just the lookouts alone numbered three or four. Peter had clashed with them, but as soon as his figure appeared on the horizon, this group would instantly vanish.

Later, Peter used the sewer tactic to catch them off guard. Before they could even transfer the bags of cash into their car, Spider-Man emerged from the nearest sewer manhole at the street corner and with one punch, destroyed the engine of their getaway car. The robbers were then captured as a matter of course.

With this, Spider-Man discovered the convenience of the sewers. To him, it was simply an express elevator that could reach any location in New York at any time.

Thus, Peter began to take an interest in the structure of the sewers.

New York's sewers were built very early and had undergone countless renovations; almost no map could completely and accurately depict all the sewer routes.

So Peter decided to personally traverse all the sewers and then draw a route map.

Anyway, his studies weren't busy, he had plenty of time, his speed was fast, and he wasn't afraid of wasting any physical energy. He could cover half the city in a single day.

This day, Peter was wandering in the sewers again. He held a map in his hand and was using a marker to label the structure of the sewers.

He had been drawing very intently and hadn't been watching his feet. His spider-sense flared, and he discovered that a piece of brick beneath his feet was loose. If he had continued without watching his path, he might have tripped.

So Peter put down the map in his hand, planning to look at it after finishing this area.

And just then, he discovered a detail that was different.

Generally speaking, most of New York's sewers were never visited by anyone. The ground was entirely covered in various slippery moss and scale. But the moss here looked as if it had been cleaned by something.

Peter walked to the junction of the wall and the floor tiles and discovered a tiny bit of white powder. He leaned in and smelled it, discovering that it was an acidic substance, seemingly specifically used for cleaning moss.

Who would be bored enough to come here to sweep the floor? Peter thought. Even for him, if it weren't for fighting crime, he wouldn't want to stay in this dark and damp hellhole.

He continued to follow these traces forward and then discovered that in a sewer maintenance point that had been abandoned for a long time, there were traces of human activity.

This was easy to judge; there was a smell of fuel having been burned here. Clearly, someone had built a fire here. Peter glanced into the iron door of that maintenance point, and his excellent vision allowed him to discover that there seemed to be traces of someone living inside.

Peter did not use violence to kick down the door because he knew this would very likely be discovered by someone. He didn't have any lock-picking tools on him either, so Peter took out his map, drew a dot on it to mark this location, and planned to bring some tools in a few days to come back and take a look.

No matter who they were, living in the sewers was truly too strange. If they were a good person forced to hide in the sewers, then Peter was willing to help them. If they were a bad person, then Peter could just happen to bring them to justice. ===== CHAPTER 89 =====