Chapter 94: Rotten Story (Part 1)

The hands of the pocket watch turned backward, and the lens began to trace back with time.

When the lizard-man fell from the roof of Stark Tower, Dr. Connors only remembered the whistling wind ringing in his ears. Gradually, he remembered the sound of shrapnel splashing that had also whistled past his ears many years ago.

Accompanied by the huge pain of falling to the ground and a piece of bright red before his eyes, Connors felt as if he had had a dream.

Many years ago, he was just a military doctor who had just joined the army. Like all young people of that era, they firmly believed in the principles of defending their country, so he and his comrades participated in the war full of confidence.

Connors could no longer remember the feeling of being full of ambition at that time. The cruelty of the battlefield shattered all their dreams. Injuries, death, and bleeding would not show mercy to anyone because of ideals and ambitions.

When he returned to his hometown, Connors had become a scarred stray dog. He received a sum of compensation, and then was thrown into the corner of the sewer like a garbage bag leaking everywhere.

This cruel society would not show mercy to his difficult life of being unable to take care of himself because of his former merits and honors. He began to clumsily learn how to live with one hand, like a clown on a stage with twisted movements that made people laugh.

The sound of those bottles and jars colliding and falling echoed constantly in Connors' ears. His dreams became deeper and deeper. Some memories with colors began to gradually disappear, and what remained was endless darkness.

He remembered a young soldier in their squad who once loved to joke the most. When Connors saw him again, he was already old, but he still told Connors with a full face of smiles that he would soon be saved. The country hadn't abandoned him, and he would soon become better.

This group of young people who were once hot-headed mostly didn't have Connors' high level of education. Most of them hadn't been to college either. Therefore, as long as some seemingly profound terms were brought out, they would feel that they had truly obtained a heaven-sent opportunity to change their fallen lives.

From that old comrade, Connors learned of a secret plan of the military.

The dark night in his dream began to become deeper and deeper. Connors only remembered the cold light of the computer screen flashing in his vision. When he saw the data recorded in a certain text, he knew that from now on, he had to keep his mouth shut and remain silent forever.

In this terrible scam, no supporting role with a clear head was needed.

After losing an arm, Connors lost the ability to speak again. He became a mute.

Countless data became clearer and clearer in his dream. They surrounded him. That intense guilt and the pressure that made him almost crazy completely engulfed him.

Connors decided from that time that if life was destined to be a process of falling downward, then just like what he was doing now, even if he were to die here, he must leave a sufficiently painful trace on this land.

The last word that existed in his consciousness was the name he still couldn't forget in so many silent nights—"Extremis Project."

The cold light of the computer screen shone on Peter's face. He was searching for data in the laboratory once used by Dr. Connors in Stark Tower.

After Dr. Connors was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, guilt engulfed Peter. He knew that the problem must be in the serum Dr. Connors had been researching. He couldn't help with the rescue, so he wanted to start from the research data of the serum to see if he could find a way to find a method to lift this serum.

Although Dr. Connors withdrew his data from Stark Tower, the research results of this collaboration belonged to Stark Industries and the military, and a part of this was still retained in the terminal data recording equipment of Stark Tower.

Peter knew that Dr. Connors had the authority to change the data on these devices. He wanted to find some clues from them.

But what made Peter strange was that the data device used by Dr. Connors was too clean. No one would even delete the records of the calculator on it, except for a series of numbers obtained as results, nothing else was left.

Peter felt very strange. Dr. Connors wasn't that kind of person. His research on academics was very rigorous and he wouldn't do such a thing as deleting all the problem-solving processes and only leaving a vague result.

Peter kept searching in the computer and finally discovered some clues. He discovered that the combination of some numbers seemed quite regular. Peter began to tap the keyboard quickly. The blue light of the screen reflected on his face and eyes. After a while, the light changed, and Peter said: "What is this? A website?"

Because this kind of data terminal device didn't allow networking, Peter could only seek help from Jarvis. Jarvis analyzed the website and discovered that it pointed to an encrypted website. This website was encrypted layer by layer, but this couldn't stop Jarvis. Soon, Jarvis obtained a picture from this website.

Peter looked at the holographic screen in front of him and said: "What is this? This looks like an abstract graffiti drawn by a child. Are you sure this is what that layer-by-layer encrypted website wants to protect?"

"There is indeed only this, Mr. Parker."

In the somewhat dark laboratory, Peter hugged his arms and stared carefully at the messy lines on the painting. It was a piece of white paper with many black lines on it, looking completely irregular, just like drawing two strokes with a crayon at will.

Peter frowned and looked for a long time, then said: "No, this picture shouldn't be looked at like this. Jarvis, please help me flatten this picture and turn the lines on it into 3D."

"Is it like this, sir?"

Jarvis indeed did as Peter said, but what was presented was still a mess. Peter said: "Yes, that's right... Can you turn them into straight lines? Just follow the current turning rule..."

It didn't take a second, and that pattern originally composed of a lump of black curves turned into a pattern composed of broken lines.

Peter widened his eyes and said: "It's a map of New York's sewers!"

He hurried to open his backpack, took out the piece of paper he had recorded, and compared it with that piece of paper, saying: "Yes! That's right! This is a 3D sewer map. Look here! This road is the one I often walk... I definitely didn't remember wrong. I wandered inside for several days..."

"But what is the significance of this? Why did Dr. Connors hide this picture? As long as someone wanders in the sewers for a few days, they should be able to derive this route, right?"

Peter scratched his head. He continued to look at the pattern, then turned it around, and then lowered his head to compare the route he had obtained.

"... No, there seem to be a few wrong roads in here. Like this one, this clearly should be turning right after walking down the next step. Why does this show turning left? There is no manhole here either. Where these few routes intersect... that reservoir!"

"Dr. Connors is pointing to that reservoir! But what is there? That laboratory? But..."

Peter thought about it, quickly put away the map in his hand, then took his schoolbag, and said: "Jarvis, keep in touch with me at any time! Perhaps I will need your technical support later..."

"No problem, Mr. Stark has opened the vast majority of technical support permissions to you."

Peter carried his schoolbag and ran out of Stark Tower quickly, found the nearest manhole, and dove in. He traveled quickly in the sewers and soon arrived at the reservoir where the laboratory he burned down was located.

Opening the door of that maintenance station, traces of burning still remained there. Peter only felt something was wrong at this moment. Although this maintenance station looked like an evil laboratory, it was actually just looking like one. Peter didn't find any useful data here.

On the contrary, various specimens were placed here, and there were even some unidentified organ specimens. As an insider, Peter knew that in fact, many times biological experiments weren't like what ordinary people thought about playing with corpses. These specimens that had been soaked for a long time had no use at all.

(Author's Note: My Healing Game)

Now he knew that this laboratory was Dr. Connors' work, which made it even stranger. Dr. Connors was also an insider. How could he carefully place a pile of equipment and specimens that couldn't be used in the experiment at all here? It was as if it was specifically to make people feel that this was a biological laboratory?

Everything here seemed to be for laymen to see, satisfying their fantasies about some evil scientists.

Before, Peter didn't know that the owner here was Dr. Connors, and he didn't care about this wrongness. But now, when coming here again, Peter recalled the scene inside the laboratory he saw at the time. Compared to a real biological laboratory, this was more like a stage that had been carefully arranged.

Peter was more and more confused. If this wasn't the place where Dr. Connors was truly conducting experiments, then what on earth did he hide a clue here for? What did this refer to?

Peter wouldn't give up and searched here, feeling for possible secret doors on the walls and floors, but he didn't find anything.

Peter left the maintenance station somewhat disappointed. He suddenly discovered that the moss at the entrance of the maintenance station had also been cleaned. White powder was also left in the corner. Peter began to think rapidly. He remembered that on the way here, the moss in some places had been cleaned, while in others it hadn't.

He ran forward a few steps and saw a corner where the same traces were left. Peter followed these traces that had been artificially processed and walked forward, discovering that on the same road, there were these traces on a step going down, while there were none on the road continuing forward.

Peter followed the traces where the moss disappeared and searched all the way, and finally, these traces pointed him to an endpoint at the very end of the sewer.

There was also a maintenance station there.

The door of this maintenance station wasn't locked, and it looked like it had been abandoned for a long time inside. After all, this was the very bottom part of New York's sewers, a place that truly never saw the sun.

Peter opened the door, and what appeared before his eyes was an ordinary maintenance station, piled with some messy boxes and cleaning tools that hadn't been used for a long time. It all looked like something from the last century.

Peter waved his hand in front of his face to disperse the dust. He opened all the boxes, and then at the very bottom, found a box containing an unidentified object.

Opening the box, inside was a device Peter hadn't seen before. It was a square black device with an antenna. Peter took a picture with his phone and then called Jarvis. Soon, Jarvis told him that this seemed to be an old data terminal plus a signal transmitter. Although the version was relatively old, the power was still quite good.

"So what is here?" Peter asked.

"You can take it to Stark Tower, and I can perform physical cracking."

So Peter put this data terminal into his schoolbag and then carried it away. ===== CHAPTER 95 =====