Chapter 46: Old Green Goblin's Flawless and Desperate Revenge (Only Four Chapters Left!)
Old Green Goblin's face, undulating like withered tree bark, wore a malicious smile, and that hoarse greeting drove into Gwen's already tight nerves like a rusted iron nail.
The moment Gwen heard those words, her heart, which had been pounding wildly due to the bloody massacre outside, seemed to stop abruptly for a split second.
Those memory images that she had forcefully suppressed deep within her heart, trying to cover up with daily sweetness and the noise of rock and roll, burst uncontrollably in her mind.
She remembered; that was the source of all tragedy and chaos.
In the Universe belonging to her, during that destructive final battle, her life-and-death struggle with Norman Osborn triggered catastrophic consequences.
That violent spatial energy tore apart everything around her, not only destroying her traversal device, but also triggering an immeasurable energy leak.
Back then, the out-of-control dimensional rift didn't just swallow her.
That force, sufficient to distort reality, incidentally dragged Norman Osborn, who was at the center of the energy vortex, into the endless turbulent currents of the multiverse.
He was affected, falling just like her, like a lingering curse crossing the barriers of dimensions, forcefully descending into the new life where she had finally found a trace of peace.
Old Green Goblin did not give Gwen too much time to catch her breath and think; his turbid eyeballs, exuding madness, slowly turned, moving his gaze away from Gwen's pale face and falling onto Peter Parker not far away.
Peter's state at this moment was extremely poor; his hands tightly grasped the hem of his jacket, his knuckles turning pale and bluish from using too much force.
His eyes simply could not focus on Old Green Goblin, but instead uncontrollably and from time to time glanced at the horrifyingly tragic street outside the restaurant.
Those mutant Lizard Men outside were wantonly massacring civilians, and people's wails and the loud noises of cars being torn apart pierced his eardrums like needles.
For a young hero determined to protect this city, this sense of powerlessness of having to watch innocent people die a tragic death while being unable to do anything was even more torturous than being hacked a few times directly.
He urgently needed a hidden place to take off this disguise belonging to a high school student and put on the suit belonging to Spider-Man, or rather, expose his identity right here and rush out.
Old Green Goblin saw this young man's anxiety and desire crystal clear.
The corners of his mouth pulled into a creepy arc, even carrying a bit of mocking tolerance.
He suddenly took a step to the side, taking the initiative to clear a path leading to the corridor where the kitchen and restroom were located.
"Kid, didn't you just shout that your stomach hurt and you wanted to use the bathroom? Go now, don't hold it in."
Old Green Goblin's voice exuded a scalp-tingling banter.
Peter was stunned; he completely did not understand what this old fellow, who looked dangerous to the extreme before him, was trying to do, and why he would easily let him leave his sight at such a tense moment.
But every scream outside was constantly counting down human lives, and the situation was so urgent that it fundamentally allowed no time for him to think deeply.
Even if ahead was a trap, even if something terrifying was hidden in the corridor, he still had to bite the bullet and rush forward.
Peter took a deep breath, abruptly lowered his head, like a little leopard driven into a desperate situation, without hesitation followed the passage cleared by Old Green Goblin, and plunged headfirst into the dim kitchen, his figure instantly disappearing from everyone's sight.
The band members remaining in the corner of the restaurant hall had completely fallen into immense panic at this moment.
Mary Jane and several other girls hid behind an overturned wooden table, huddled together shivering.
They were just ordinary students; tonight was originally just supposed to be getting together for dinner to celebrate tomorrow's school anniversary.
They completely could not understand the development of the plot, did not understand why monsters suddenly appeared outside, did not understand why the waiter serving dishes turned into a hideous old man, and even less understood what those messy words spoken by this old man meant.
Fear wrapped around their necks like a cold venomous snake, making even their breathing cautious.
The entrance of the corridor quieted down again; Old Green Goblin slowly withdrew his gaze, once again casting that substantively oppressive gaze toward Gwen, who was protected in Arthur's arms.
He leaned forward slightly, exuding a strong aura of decay from his dilapidated body.
"Miss Gwen, you seem to be zoning out; you haven't answered my question yet."
Old Green Goblin's tone suddenly became incomparably gloomy and cold, like a cold wind blowing from the depths of hell.
"Between your friends and that World being destroyed outside... which do you choose?"
Gwen's lips trembled violently, her words of retort stuck in her throat, unable to make a sound no matter what.
The next moment, a spine-chilling muffled grunt suddenly came from the corner, interrupting this deadlocked confrontation.
Gwen and Arthur's gazes looked toward the sound almost simultaneously.
I saw that Mary Jane and the other few band members hiding behind the table, starting from God knows when, suddenly began scratching their bodies frantically.
Their actions at first were just somewhat irritable scratching, but after merely two seconds, this action turned into near-self-mutilating tearing.
"Itchy... so itchy... why is my body so itchy."
Mary Jane groaned in pain, her originally fair and slender fingers now frantically digging into her neck and arms like claws, her fingernails quickly filled with blood oozing from the scratched skin.
The girl beside her even tore her own jacket, frantically scratching her back.
Gwen's heart tightened abruptly. Although she was in extreme shock, that hero instinct carved into her bones still made her try to break free from Arthur holding her hand, wanting to go over and check what was wrong with her teammates.
Were they poisoned, or bitten by some parasite?
However, before Gwen could even take a step, a scene that caused pupils to violently earthquake and minds to instantly go blank happened.
Just as those girls were frantically scratching, at the wounds of their scratched skin, normal red blood did not flow out; instead, a weird and disgusting green mucus began to seep outward.
Immediately following, large patches of hard and rough green scales burst out from beneath the surface layer of their skin like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, rapidly spreading and diffusing across their bodies at a speed that violated all biological common sense.
In less than a few seconds, the screams were stretched into inhuman roars.
Their bodies were like balloons forcibly injected with high-pressure gas, expanding and deforming at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The bones of their originally slender arms made teeth-aching cracking and recombining sounds, their thigh muscles bulged high, forcefully crushing the jeans and casual clothes on their bodies.
The human facial bones were pulled forward by a rude force, the nose and mouth merging into one, turning into an elongated muzzle filled with fangs.
Thick and powerful tails grew out from the end of the spine, tearing through clothes and heavily slamming onto the wooden floor of the restaurant, smashing deep pits.
Good friends who were just chatting and laughing with Gwen moments ago turned, in a flash right before her eyes, into huge Lizard Men with only primitive killing instincts and no reason whatsoever.
Gwen looked at this scene, only feeling her vision darken, the sky of the entire World completely collapsing in this split second.
The scene before her and the ulcer deep in memory that could never heal perfectly overlapped in a manner cruel to the extreme.
It was too familiar; this sound of flesh tearing, this aberration process from human to monster, was simply like replicating that desperate rainy night.
Back then, her best friend in this World, Peter Parker, who always wore a shy smile, was just like this: in order to gain power as strong as hers to change everything, he blindly injected an imperfect serum.
Right before her own eyes, he shed the outer garment of a human step by step, turning into a maddened lizard monster.
And now, those turning into monsters before her were likewise her good friends that she spent days and nights with in this New World.
Was history going to replay in this small restaurant in an even bloodier and crueler way?
An uncontrollable sense of nausea rushed straight from her stomach to her throat. Gwen stopped rigidly in place, her legs unable to move a fraction as if filled with lead.
She suddenly felt her hands were incomparably sticky; she could even clearly recall the feel of that day when, out of no alternative in a life-and-death self-defense struggle, she killed Peter Parker who had turned into a Lizard Man with her own hands.
The tactile sensation of the monster's scales being torn, the temperature of warm, foul-smelling blood splashing on her face, and Peter's weak and desperate look when he turned back into human form before dying—all of this was like lingering bone-gnawing maggots, biting tightly onto her soul and refusing to let go.
It was too disgusting. The feeling of being stained with the blood of a close friend was simply too disgusting.
The unbearable post-traumatic stress disorder exploded with a roar at this moment.
Gwen's defense mechanism faced total collapse under Old Green Goblin's scheming.
Her breathing became rapid and weak, just like a dying fish leaving Water.
Those cool girl personas used for disguise externally, that forcefully propped-up toughness and nonchalance, were all ground to pieces. Her body began to tremble violently and uncontrollably, her upper and lower teeth fighting and making subtle clicking sounds.
Facing the deepest fear and despair, she completely submitted to her riddled inner self, weakly and unreservedly shrinking herself into Arthur's embrace.
Her hands tightly clutched the fabric at Arthur's chest, her knuckles turning white, as if this was the only lifesaving straw she could grab in the storm, praying that this man she deeply loved could block this overwhelming nightmare pressing down for her.
Just as Gwen completely fell into breakdown and the Lizard Men inside the restaurant were about to let out a deafening roar, a sudden change came from deep within the corridor once again.
"Oh my god. What the hell is this."
Peter, who had just rushed into the kitchen to change clothes, suddenly pulled a distorted voice and shouted in terror.
Before his voice fell, a muffled vibration came from the direction of the kitchen, even bringing the floor of the front hall along to shake once.
Immediately following, accompanied by a loud boom, the solid load-bearing wall connecting the kitchen and the restaurant was forcefully smashed open from the inside into a huge gap. Bricks and cement debris mixed with flying dust exploded outward.
But what made people feel even more suffocated was the thing gushing wildly out of that wall hole.
That was not some physical monster or shockwave generated by an explosion, but a massive patch of yellowish-brown sand that blotted out the sky and almost filled the entire space.
This sand was as if it had its own life and independent will, high-speed rotating and converging in the air, forming a thick sand pillar.
And at the end of this sand pillar, a struggling figure was tightly wrapped and fixed.
That was Peter Parker. At this moment, he had already changed into that classic red and blue classic Spider-suit at an extremely astonishing speed, missing only that final mask with white goggles which he hadn't had time to put on his head.
But even though he possessed spider strength far exceeding ordinary people, facing this pervasive, heavy sand tightly clamping his limbs at this moment, he could only turn his face red, hanging motionless in midair like an insect sealed in amber.
The flying yellow sand did not stop changing after crashing through the wall. A large amount of scattered grit began to quickly gather and fuse toward the center, those fine sand particles rubbing against each other, continuously piling and sculpting.
Soon, behind Peter Parker, the sand condensed into a huge human upper body outline, even finely portraying every muscle texture of the face.
That was Sandman Flint Marko.
The face composed of sand presented a yellowish-brown rough texture, but on that face at this moment there was no arrogance or triumph of any villain succeeding, instead filled with deep pain, entanglements, and a kind of guilt bordering on despair.
The eye sockets formed by sand even exuded a look similar to entreaty.
Sandman's lips composed of sand slowly opened and closed, the sound emitted like two pieces of rough sandstone rubbing against each other, deep with unstoppable trembling and choking.
"I'm sorry... children, I'm really sorry..."
Sandman looked at Peter whom he controlled, and then glanced at the girls in the hall who had completely degenerated into monsters, the guilt on that sandy face almost overflowing.
"That old fellow kidnapped my wife, and my daughter... He locked them in a place I couldn't find, and before that he even injected them right in front of me with that... that green serum that makes people turn into these lizard monsters..."
Sandman lowered his head; the sand pillar wrapping Peterdropped fine sand rustlingly due to the Master's emotional fluctuations.
He seemed to be looking for an invalid excuse for himself, or rather making the most powerless confession to God.
"That old fellow said, as long as I help him watch this tight-suit-wearing kid, as long as I stop you... he will give me the antidote. That is my family... I have no way to watch them turn into monsters, I really have no way."
Sandman's voice carried a crying tone, echoing in this restaurant that had already turned into an Asura field.
"I'm truly sorry."
Chapter 47: So Hard to Guess, Why Are You the Only One Fine? [ Three Chapters! ]
In this originally bustling and crowded roadside bistro, even the fearful, heavy breathing sounds around them were infinitely magnified at this moment.
Feeling Gwen's uncontrollable, violent trembling in his arms and looking at the crazed mutated Lizard Men before him, Arthur steadily controlled his breathing inwardly and gently pressed his palm onto Gwen's tensed shoulders.
He opened his mouth, trying to soothe her in this completely out-of-control scene, preparing to lay bare all the truth and the trump cards that could resolve the current dilemma.
"Um, I..."
This unformed sentence, along with not even a single complete syllable, was cut short midway by a deafening, violent explosion.
The bistro's exterior wall, already teetering due to Sandman breaking through the wall earlier, burst apart with a roar at this very moment.
The blinding fire mixed with gray-black thick smoke instantly swallowed the space of the entire front hall like an out-of-control Beast.
Amidst the sharp noise of shattering bricks and tiles, accompanied by the harsh roar of a certain turbine engine running at full speed, a demon-shaped aircraft gleaming with cold metallic light forcefully barged in with an unreasonable posture.
Standing on that aircraft was a man wrapped entirely in dark green battle armor and wearing a horrifying goblin mask.
That was Norman Osborn belonging to this Universe, but at this moment, his sanity had long been completely destroyed by chemical agents, and occupying that body was the Green Goblin whose personality was completely distorted and dominated by madness and violence.
Accompanied by the hoarse and manic laughter coming from behind the mask, the This-world Green Goblin drove the aircraft from the sea of fire and lunged directly above Arthur and Gwen almost the instant everyone saw his afterimage.
He did not give anyone any room to react at all, abruptly extending that palm covered in hard armor, like a goshawk swooping down from the sky to hunt, and tightly grabbed Arthur by the collar.
The rear of the aircraft suddenly ejected high-pressure airflow, and the This-world Green Goblin directly and roughly pulled Arthur up from the ground, dragging him to instantly elevate his altitude, and finally fiercely suspended Arthur mid-air in the bistro's dilapidated hall.
This sudden, rough pulling caused Gwen—who was limp all over and buried in Arthur's arms seeking shelter due to a PTSD episode—to completely lose her support.
She was like a tattered ragdoll whose backbone had been suddenly pulled out, crashing heavily onto the wooden floor littered with glass shards and cement dust in the direction Arthur was pulled away.
The pain of her knees and palms striking the rough ground was completely imperceptible to Gwen at this moment.
She was terrified to the extreme, her azure blue eyes reflecting the image of Arthur suspended in mid-air and unable to break free.
That fear carved into her bones of losing the person she loved once again gripped her heart tightly like a cold, giant hand.
She desperately tried to crawl forward along the floor, reaching out despairingly toward the direction where Arthur was suspended in the air, her fingers scratching futilely in the air, trying to grab something that could pull Arthurback.
"No, please, can you not involve him?"
Gwen's voice was completely hoarse and out of tune, carrying a nearly submissive crying tone.
She was originally a cool and unyielding superhero in front of criminals, always wearing that indifferent, haughty mask.
But at this moment, for that ordinary boy hanging by a thread in mid-air, she completely let go of all her dignity and pride, kneeling in the ruins like the most helpless ordinary girl to beg.
Standing not far away, the cross-spacetime Old Green Goblin who planned this disaster quietly appreciated this scene.
A morbid sense of pleasure surfaced on his face, withered like tree bark.
Taking slow steps, he deliberately stepped on the shattered glass on the ground with his leather shoes, making a teeth-gritting friction sound.
"Whoa, does the invincible Spider-Woman care about this boy so much?"
Old Norman put on an extremely exaggerated stunned expression, yet his turbid eyeballs were filled with malicious banter; he slightly spread his hands, as if watching the most perfect tragedy personally directed by him.
Arthur, who was suspended in mid-air with his collar tightly grabbed by the This-world Green Goblin, although in an extremely passive physical situation, actually had no panic whatsoever belonging to a hostage in his heart.
After all, he was well aware of his own strength.
Feeling the tightening force around his neck, he slightly frowned, raised one hand again, and tried to interrupt the opponent's spellcasting startup animation from this slightly comical angle, continuing to clearly explain what he hadn't finished saying just now.
"Actually, I ac..."
But fate seemed determined to deprive him of the chance to explain on this night.
Just as Arthur's voice fell, the This-world Green Goblinbehind him suddenly stopped laughing wildly.
The opponent drew a strip-shaped tubular object from the metal storage box at his waist—a syringe filled with green, turbid mutated liquid.
The cold metal syringe tube, carrying a temperature devoid of the slightest emotion, pressed fiercely against the thin skin and artery on Arthur's neck.
The veins on the back of the This-world Green Goblin's hands bulged slightly due to excitement; he pressed the needle tip against Arthur's neck, without even lowering his head to look at the hostage he was holding.
Through that ferocious green mask, he turned his head to look at the Old Green Goblin standing in the ruins below, his tone carrying the madness and arrogance belonging to a genius having a mental episode.
"As expected of me, this plan is simply so perfect that not a single flaw can be picked."
He was like talking to himself in the mirror, or as if claiming credit from that older version of himself from another dimension.
The two Norman Osborns, equally crazy and equally distorted by resentment, achieved the most perfect spiritual resonance at this moment.
The Old Green Goblin accepted this praise from himself with great satisfaction.
He slowly turned his head, casting that gaze with substantive oppression back onto Gwen, who was sitting slumped on the ground with a face full of tear tracks. He cleared his throat, his leisurely tone like a dull knife cutting away at Gwen's nerves bit by bit.
"I'm sorry, this poor Spider-Woman, our game options have changed."
While speaking, the Old Green Goblin extended his withered fingers, counting them one by one in the air, pushing that torturous sense of despair to its peak.
"First, choose to save this fragile World being ravaged by monsters; second, your good sisters who have completely lost human awareness and run out onto the main street knowing only how to destroy and kill; third, the little spider about to be minced and crushed alive by a pile of sand in the back kitchen."
The Old Green Goblin's finger paused for a moment, and finally slowly pointed toward Arthur, who was suspended in mid-air with a syringe pressed against the side of his neck.
"Fourth, is the little boyfriend who is about to have a full tube of mutation serum pushed into his blood vessels and turn into an ugly lizard monster."
These four options were like four collapsed mountains, slamming unreservedly onto Gwen's slender shoulders.
Gwen's eyes were already filled with indescribable despair. Her gaze wandered disobediently.
She looked at the sharp syringe on the side of Arthur's neck; as long as the Green Goblin's finger pushed slightly, the person she loved most would follow in Peter's footsteps.
She looked across the collapsed wall at the This-WorldParker in the back kitchen whose face was turning purple and who was almost unable to breathe, entangled by Sandman.
She despairingly listened to the brutal roaring emitted by the monsters outside the restaurant—mutated from Mary Jane and others whom she got along with day and night—and listened to the screams of passersby struck by cars.
The World, close friends, companions, and her emotional sustenance for living on.
All the responsibility, guilt, and affection intertwined in her mind into an inextricable dead knot.
She could finally no longer hold on, arching her body in pain and tightly covering her head with both hands, as if doing so could squeeze all those options burrowing into her brain right out.
Tears overflowed uncontrollably from her eye sockets like a breached dam, mixing with the dust on her cheeks and smashing onto the dirty floor.
"I'm sorry, Yu, I'm truly sorry."
The sound coming from Gwen's throat was shattered beyond recognition, every single word accompanied by the pain of her soul being torn apart.
"I thought I would choose you without hesitation at any time, I thought I could be a little selfish. But, but..."
That was her heroic sense of responsibility, deeply hidden in the depths of her romantic heart, innate yet acting like a curse.
She thought that during these few months of getting along with Arthur, she had already found the haven that could allow her to pull herself out of the heavy sense of redemption.
Every day she craved Arthur's tenderness, wanting to live the most ordinary couple's life.
Yet when so many vibrant lives, including those with direct bonds to her, were about to perish because of her negligence, she found herself utterly unable to just watch Arthur alone survive.
However, right amidst this tragic sentimentality capable of completely shattering a person's will, a highly discordant brief pause suddenly appeared in the air.
After finishing that torturous line of dialogue, the Old Green Goblin prepared in high spirits to welcome the ending where Spider-Woman went completely mad.
As he paced in place, his gaze casually swept across a dining table overturned on the ground.
Beside that table were several tipped-over glasses, the cola in a few of which had long since flowed down the edge of the table onto the ground.
His turbid eyeballs suddenly froze, and his eyebrows, originally full of arrogance, knitted slightly into a bunch.
In this foolproof series of poisonings and raids, there seemed to be a loophole that shouldn't have existed, placed flagrantly right before him.
The Old Green Goblin slowly raised his head, his gaze crossing over Gwen kneeling on the ground, somewhat rigidly locking onto Arthur, who was still suspended in mid-air at this very moment with a syringe pressed against his neck by the This-world Green Goblin.
He carefully scrutinized the black-haired youth's face, which showed no signs of mutation, and his skin, which hadn't grown a single speck of green scales.
"Didn't you also drink that cup of cola? Then why didn't you turn into a lizard?"
The Old Green Goblin's voice, hoarse like an old bellows, suddenly sounded at this moment, carrying unmasked confusion.
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire scene seemed to have been pressed with some pause button.
A silence bizarre to the extreme, like an invisible giant net, instantly covered this chaotic area.
Even the monster roars coming from outside the bistro seemed to be isolated outside by this questioning at this very second.
Gwen, who had been on the verge of collapse and weeping in despair, upon hearing these words, saw her suppressed sobbing stop abruptly in an instant.
She slowly lowered the hands covering her head; due to extreme sadness and panic, those azure blue eyes had been rubbed red and swollen.
With teardrops trembling and about to fall hanging on her eyelashes, she knelt there on the ground, lifting her head bit by bit, her gaze carrying disbelief and astonishment, crossing over the messy ruins to stare fixedly at Arthursuspended high in the air.
That's right. This was an obvious fact.
Mary Jane and the others had mistakenly drunk the beverage mixed with the serum and had now completely mutated into huge, ugly Lizard Men.
Because Peter Parker was nervous and flustered, he hadn't even cared to take a single sip of water the whole time, so he remained safe and sound.
As for Gwen herself, mindful of her image and afraid of burping and making a fool of herself in front of her date, she also deliberately avoided that cup of cola, similarly escaping disaster.
However, among everyone else present, including Arthur, they had clearly drunk that spiked cup of cola completely unprepared.
Why was it that until now, everyone else who drank the beverage had already turned into out-of-control monsters that only knew how to engage in Carnage, while he, Arthur—an ordinary student who should have shown symptoms the earliest—was perfectly fine in this toxic-gas-filled environment, without even the slightest trace of wanting to mutate or warp?
The surrounding air was as heavy as solidified cement, and everyone's gazes—including the vigilant gazes of the two Green Goblins—converged at this moment on the young man who had constantly tried to speak but was repeatedly interrupted.
Chapter 48 Gwen: Eh? Wait a minute? Eh? Eh??? [Two chapters, looks like it needs a bit more]
Arthur was still being grabbed by the collar by the This-world Green Goblin like a little chicken, suspended above the dilapidated restaurant lobby.
Feeling the hard touch of the metal armor at his neck, he couldn't even be bothered to struggle.
He just sighed helplessly, and along with the sigh, he shrugged casually.
This action seemed quite out of place at this moment, completely lacking the panic that a hostage held by a mutated monster should have.
"I've always wanted to say this."
Arthur spoke up in mid-air, his tone as flat as if he were complaining that today's takeout was delivered late. He glanced down at the Old Green Goblin with a doubtful expression below, and then complained:
"Ever since just now, you guys have been talking to yourselves here, and no one has given me even a sliver of a chance to speak."
As his voice fell, the suspended This-world Green Goblinsnorted coldly, clutching the syringe filled with green mutated turbid liquid in his hand. Without a second word, he thrust it fiercely toward Arthur's neck, intending to force this 'big gift' into his blood vessels.
However, in that absolute fleeting moment when an ordinary person wouldn't even have time to blink, Arthur's body moved.
Under the blessing of the Rabbit Talisman, his speed was so fast that it exceeded the upper limit of what the human retina could capture.
He didn't make any superfluous leverage movements; he merely raised his right hand, and his fingers clamped precisely like a vise onto the wrist of the This-world Green Goblin who was holding the syringe.
Arthur gave it a casual twist, and before the fingers of the This-world Green Goblin even had time to react with resistance, that metal-cased syringe was directly and neatly snatched into Arthur's own hand.
Immediately after, Arthur made a crazy move that caused everyone present to gasp in cold air.
He didn't throw away the syringe or stab the enemy holding him; instead, he gripped the syringe, aimed that sharp steel needle at his own carotid artery, clenched his fist, and slammed it downward without hesitation.
This blow did not have the dull tearing sound caused by any sharp tool piercing skin and flesh.
When the cold needle tip poked the skin at Arthur's neck, that patch of skin seemed to have transformed into some kind of armor plate with an extraordinarily high strength.
There was no feeling of the needle piercing the body, and absolutely no blood seeped out.
Only that originally hard and straight steel needle, under the force applied by Arthur himself, was stubbornly pressed against his body reinforced by the talisman, directly making a crisp 'click' sound and bending on the spot.
A few drops of the mutated liquid trickled down the crack in the broken syringe.
Arthur didn't even glance at this pile of scrap metal, and backhanded it away like throwing a worthless piece of trash, casually tossing the bent syringe into the ruins below.
The glass tube smashed against the bricks and broken wood planks, making an inconspicuous shattering sound.
The next second, the This-world Green Goblin suddenly felt a lightness in his hand; the young man he had been tightly gripping vanished into thin air.
Before the Old Green Goblin and the This-world Green Goblin could close their jaws due to this bizarre scene, Arthur was already standing steadily on the cluttered, broken wooden floor below, his landing motion not kicking up even a trace of excess dust.
At this moment, the tense and explosive air inside the restaurant completely solidified.
Everyone's gaze was nailed to Arthur as if attracted by a magnet, their eyeballs filled with immense shock and incomprehension.
Arthur completely ignored the two villains with question marks all over their heads nearby. He turned around, took unhurried steps, and walked directly in front of Gwen, who was still in a downed state, her face covered in a mix of tears and dust.
He bent down, firmly grabbed Gwen's arm which had been trembling from fear, and with a little effort, helped her up as she sat paralyzed on the ground.
"It's okay now."
Arthur's voice was very soft. He raised his other hand and used his cuff to wipe away bit by bit the teardrops rolling uncontrollably down the corners of Gwen's eyes.
Then he pressed his palm against her gradient short hair, gently stroking her furry head. That familiar body temperature transmitted through her scalp.
After confirming that Gwen stood quite steadily, Arthurstraightened his waist and turned around again.
Meeting the wary and annoyed gazes of the Old Green Goblin and the This-world Green Goblin, he unhurriedly spread his hands, striking an unmasked show-off posture.
"I'm dropping the act."
Arthur twitched his mouth, patted off a bit of dust on the shoulder of his hoodie, and spoke in a loud, declarative tone:
"I'not pretending anymore. Originally, I just wanted to get along with you guys in this World as an ordinary high school student, thinking we could all be a bit more peaceful."
"But what I got in return was only contempt from people like you. I was standing right here properly, yet you guys kept adding unnecessary drama one after another, not even letting me finish my sentence."
Arthur completely put away the gentleness he had when soothing Gwen just now. His gaze at this moment became sharp and aggressive.
"Now, I'm dropping the act. I'm no ordinary person."
After saying this, he didn't even want to spare the opponent another second of nonsense.
Arthur directly raised his arm, his finger pointing accurately at the Old Green Goblin who was still frowning and calculating not far away, and let out a light chuckle:
"Old timer, your serial poisoning plan is indeed very perfect; anyone else would have gone crazy here long ago. But unfortunately, you ran into me."
Before the voice even echoed in this dilapidated hall, Arthur's figure vanished strangely from his spot.
The next moment, he appeared before the Old Green Goblin without any warning.
The distance between their noses was less than half a meter. The Old Green Goblin's turbid pupils shrank violently, and just as his hand reached for the pumpkin bomb at his waist, Arthur's fist had already swung solidly forward.
Accompanied by the unreasonable, pure freakish strength of the Ox Talisman, this punch heavily smashed against the unprotected chin of the Old Green Goblin.
A crisp sound of bone fracture echoed all around, and the lean body of the Old Green Goblin was as if it had been hit head-on by a high-speed heavy locomotive.
His entire body directly left the ground, flying horizontally backward, smashing all the broken load-bearing pillars behind him, and finally he collapsed deep into the ruins with a muffled grunt, passing out directly.
After knocking out the older generation Norman Osbornwith one punch, Arthur had no intention of stopping at all.
Taking advantage of the gap while the Old Green Goblinwas flying horizontally, he exerted force under his feet and directly chased after him, grabbing one leg of the Old Green Goblin with one hand like catching a chicken.
Then he squatted down slightly. With the help of the strong impact force burst by the Rabbit Talisman, Arthurused the Old Green Goblin's leg as a weapon, and his whole body rose from the ground like a cannonball leaving the barrel, charging straight up toward the This-world Green Goblin who was still stunned while stepping on the glider.
"Is flying high useful?"
In mid-air, Arthur's arm swung out in an exaggerated semi-circle, directly using the Old Green Goblin in his hand as a heavy meteor hammer, violently smashing toward the location where the This-world Green Goblin was.
Accompanied by the muffled sound of two bodies colliding heavily, the This-world Green Goblin was hit square in the center by the Old Green Goblin's equally heavy armored body.
The two lost balance in mid-air, letting out a burst of screams, and fell heavily toward the ground together with their armor.
The heavy inertia caused them to smash a deep pit with a diameter of two meters into the floor, bricks and tiles flying everywhere.
The moment he landed, Arthur stepped steadily beside the demon glider that had lost its Master's control and was still roaring with its engine.
He didn't look much at the two dizzy villains in the pit, directly bending down to grab both ends of the Green Goblin glider.
Arthur took a deep breath, the muscles on his arms bulging chunk by chunk, exerting force purely relying on raw physical strength.
"Crack—clack!"
Amidst a teeth-aching sound of metal tearing, that high-tech glider equipped with a precise navigator, autocannon, and sturdy armor was directly snapped into two halves right down the middle by Arthur as crudely as breaking a biscuit.
Electric sparks crackled and popped as they darted out along the broken wiring.
"I'll let you fly!"
Arthur casually threw the two smoking pieces of scrap metal onto the faces of the two Green Goblins, sneering mockingly:
"Is flying supposed to be awesome? Who can't fly these days? Act all high and mighty in front of me again, and I'll throw a Cliff's Edge Sword down to knock you right out of the sky."
This dazzling flurry of physical salvation took a total time of not even five seconds.
Gwen, standing in the rear, had her eyes—which had originally been swollen from crying—completely widened at this moment.
She had broken down for ages just now, her tears hadn't even completely dried, and the expression on her face froze in an extremely comical state.
She tremblingly raised a finger, pointing at her boyfriend who was showing off his mighty power while stepping on top of the Green Goblin not far away, her mouth opening and closing, spitting out words intermittently.
"Eh? You?"
Gwen's neck twisted stiffly, and she pointed again at the scrapped glider on the ground, "Eh? Wait a minute... Eh?"
She now felt that her brain was a complete blank, and she completely gave up thinking.
Whatever past shadows of Peter's mutated miserable death, whatever heavy blows of the end of the World, were all forcibly cleared out at this moment.
She felt as if her CPU had completely crashed and her hardware had burned out; she completely lacked any extra logical capacity to process everything happening right before her eyes.
How did her ordinary boyfriend, who always needed her protection and gave her a sense of security in the movie theater, turn in the blink of an eye into a monster capable of tearing heavily armored thugs apart with his bare hands?
Arthur didn't plan to give her a lengthy popular science lecture right away either. He patted away the rust slag on his hands and turned to look in the direction of the back kitchen.
There, Sandman Flint Marko was manipulating a large amount of yellow sand to entangle Peter Parker in mid-air.
The Sandman, who was still fulfilling his guarding duties, after witnessing the whole process of the boss being smashed to pieces with a single punch and the high-tech armor being torn apart barehanded, now had his entire mass of sand stiffening unnaturally.
Arthur extended a finger, pointing straight at the Sandmanwho was still in a dazed state, and issued an instruction at a fast pace:
"Man, no matter what you did before, you're innocent now. The premise is, put Parker down for me right away. By the way, I can take you directly to find your family in a moment, and conveniently help cure the illnesses of you and your daughter."
Not to mention the enticing conditions in the second half, before Arthur's half-sentence had even completely landed, the Sandman had already made the most honest physical reaction.
Given the overwhelming, freakish strength Arthur had just demonstrated, the Sandman knew very well in his heart that if the other party wanted to fight just now, he could completely treat this pile of sand like a spinning top and whip it continuously on the ground for three days and three nights.
Although he had a sandy physique and wouldn't actually be beaten to death by physical means, he definitely didn't want to be used as a punching bag and beaten up relentlessly.
He still had a wife and kids; he certainly didn't want to look for trouble here.
"Clatter—"
Those yellow sand that had originally tightly trapped Peter Parker instantly lost their tension in mid-air, directly collapsing and disintegrating like a waterfall.
Parker, who had been choked until his eyes rolled back, was completely unprepared. Accompanied by the collapse of the sand, with a 'thud', his whole body tumbled and scrambled into a pile of scrap metal in the back kitchen, knocking over several woks and letting out a dry howl.
Having settled this biggest threat, Arthur finally clapped his hands and slowly strolled over to Gwen's side.
Looking at Gwen's stunned appearance with her mouth slightly open and eyes staring blankly, he couldn't help finding it somewhat amusing, and his previous anger dissipated quite a bit along with it.
"Hey."
Arthur lowered his head slightly, his gaze looking straight into her eyes, his tone carrying a bit of the teasing and black-bellied attitude he usually loved to use:
"Give me a kiss, and I'll take full responsibility for cleaning up the mess outside afterwards."
Gwen stood in place, even the frequency of her blinking going out of whack. A kiss? What kiss? Where was there any memory capacity to process the command of asking for a kiss right now?
Every single one of those worldview-shattering events just now could make a normal person take a whole year to recover.
Her gaze switched back and forth between Arthur's cheeks, the two green wrecks on the ground, and the screaming Parker, completely not knowing how she should react.
Arthur sighed helplessly. He knew that this silly girl's neural pathways were already tied in knots now.
"Alright." Arthur approached half a step forward without any burden, directly using one hand to gently cup Gwen's dust-smudged chin, lowering his head slightly, and leaning in without any obstruction.
He took the initiative to gently place a kiss on Gwen's soft lips.
This was a touch without any romantic desire, purely meant for comfort and establishing a sense of security. It parted the moment they touched.
Arthur raised his head, his finger scraping the tip of Gwen's nose, the corner of his mouth hooking into a wicked smile:
"A mature boyfriend must learn to proactively ask for a kiss. Since you didn't refuse, I'll just take it that you proactively gave me this kiss. Deal is made."
Before Gwen, whose cheeks were rapidly flushing red, could recover from this direct pitch, Arthur had already turned around and strode in the direction of the main street outside the restaurant.
Outside, the largest and most destructive mutated Lizard Man was smashing a school bus. Judging from the familiar torn clothing scraps scattered beneath it, it was none other than the lead singer Mary Jane, who had heavily chugged the spiked cola earlier.
Arthur walked up to that roaring giant beast.
The Lizard Man mindlessly opened its bloody mouth, waving its arms covered in long Talons as it slashed toward Arthur.
Arthur didn't dodge at all, directly raising one hand and pressing it firmly onto the Lizard Man's chest covered in thick green scales.
Horse Talisman, activated.
A powerful and gentle energy without any sense of repulsion flowed along Arthur's palm, madly pouring into the body of the mutated monster before him like a pouring flood.
As the saying goes, the noble horse will expel all external influences.
The description of the Twelve Talismans only says to restore the perfect state, but it doesn't specify whose body or which external force to expel. Wordplay is something anyone can play.
The moment this unreasonable recovery energy entered Mary Jane's body, a miracle happened.
The giant lizard beast that was still frantically struggling to kill a second ago instantly froze in its actions.
Immediately after, that thick layer of ugly green scales began to peel off in large swaths like dead leaves encountering a raging fire, dissipating into the air.
Its skeleton, which had originally expanded to over three meters tall and was filled with rough muscles, rapidly retracted at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The thick tail rapidly retracted and degenerated, and the ferocious lizard head began to regrow that iconic red hair.
In just the span of a few breaths, the massive Lizard Man completely vanished. Standing in front of Arthur was a familiar girl slowly transforming back into human form.
At the same time, along with the recovery of the flesh, the concept of the Horse Talisman restoring objects to an intact state also extended to clothing.
Those clothing fabrics that had been completely blown apart and shattered due to the enlarged size seemed to undergo a reverse of time, pieces of fabric flying and splicing themselves in the air, completely stitched and restored, steadily wearing on Mary Jane who had completely regained human consciousness.
After all, she was a teenage girl; out here in broad daylight in front of everyone, Arthur couldn't possibly let someone lie here dead without wearing anything.
Seeing Mary Jane weakly paralyzed on the ground, her eyes gradually regaining clarity, Arthur didn't stay for even half a second.
His legs suddenly exerted force, and the divine speed of the Rabbit Talisman manifested once again.
Leaving only a blurry afterimage on the road, Arthur had already appeared a hundred meters away in front of another Lizard Man destroying streetlights.
He pressed one hand on it, the Horse Talisman lit up again, forcibly expelling the lizard serum inside the opponent's body without any obstruction. Judging by the restored state of this outfit, it should be the band's bassist.
Afterwards, before the entire street fell into a complete dead silence of chaos due to the previous disaster, Arthurwas like a ruthless repair machine, shuttling through the ruins at divine speed, constantly repeating this simple, crude, but completely unreasonable rescue cycle.
Chapter 49: I, Gwen Stacy, publicly admit it! My family status is low! But so what?!
The night wind poured fiercely through the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows of the ruined restaurant, blowing the dust and scraps of paper all over the floor into a chaotic swirl.
On the main road, the disaster scene that previously resembled a hellish apocalypse was being forcibly reversed in a completely illogical manner.
The chaos on the streets subsided beyond everyone's imagination.
Arthur stood in the middle of the road and clapped the dust off his hands.
Just in those brief few seconds moments ago, those massive Lizard Men who had gone berserk and smashed several blocks to smithereens had all completely vanished without a trace.
Replacing them was a large group of ordinary citizens slumped haphazardly across the road.
Their clothes were completely intact, and not even a trace of a tear could be found along the edges of the fabric that had originally been stretched to bursting by their mutated muscles.
These people sat on the asphalt pavement with looks of complete bewilderment, blankly staring at the flattened cars, knocked-down fire hydrants, and shattered traffic lights scattered all over the ground around them.
A few citizens with poor mental resilience felt their stomachs churn violently upon seeing the severed limbs and remains not far away caused by Old Green Goblin's earlier pumpkin bomb throws, and they crawled hand and foot directly to the trash can at the corner of the street, vomiting up a storm.
Arthur stood in the center of the street, turned his head to glance at the scattered remains of civilian corpses in the ruins that had perished from the explosion's aftermath.
He raised a hand to rub his throbbing temples and let out a heavy, long sigh.
Leaving them alone like this was obviously not an option; after all, this incident had blown up far too much, and leaving a ground full of dead bodies would probably cause tomorrow's news to make all of New York explode.
Yet cleaning up this mess was an absolute, soul-torturing physical chore.
Arthur's Mini-Class is now in session!
Question: Given that the core ability of the Dog Talisman is to grant immunity to non-destructive fatal attacks and bestow eternal youth and immortality upon living beings.
Then the question arises: if the target's current state is thoroughly dead to the point where it is hard to even find a complete torso, how can one make them receive the heaven-defying immortal effect of the Dog Talisman?
Slightly clever friends must have already guessed the answer by now.
The logic is actually quite simple and brutal—since this person is dead, then just directly take action to resurrect the other party.
As long as these people are first resurrected into a breathing, living state, wouldn't they logically be able to receive the immortal effect bestowed by the Dog Talisman?
This is simply a flawless genius solution that can even casually exploit the World's rule bugs.
Dog Talisman: "My ability is eternal youth, immortality, and immunity to fatal wounds."
"You ask me how a dead person can achieve immortality?"
"Isn't this simple? I'll resurrect him, won't he be unable to die!"
"(Blame it on this group of readers who correct the use of my talisman every day; now I've been completely broken by you all.)"
Thus, a resigned Arthur took a deep breath and moved again.
This time he had to run back and forth all over the streets, bending down beneath the chassis of wrecked cars and within the crevices of collapsed wall ruins to pull out all the remains of those unlucky citizens.
He even had to personally move those separated bodies a little closer together before decisively activating the Dog Talisman.
Along with a gentle wave of power spreading out from Arthur's palms, those corpses that had just gone cold on the ground twitched abruptly, their chests violently rising and falling accordingly.
This group of people who had originally completely canceled their Earth household registration opened their eyes right there on the main road and sat up alive and kicking.
To gather half a street's worth of corpses and resurrect them one by one with buffs, Arthur truly expended a considerable amount of effort this time.
Compared to solving the Lizard Men crisis in just a few seconds earlier, searching for remains and restoring them unexpectedly consumed over a minute of his time.
When he stopped this damn work on hand, Arthur was even panting heavily from exhaustion, feeling as though his exercise quota for his entire life had been overdrawn tonight.
Dragging his slightly sore legs, Arthur turned around and strolled back to the small restaurant that had been battered beyond recognition.
The moment he stepped onto the floor of the front hall, he was met by three direct gazes filled with various complicated emotions.
The pile of yellow sand forming Sandman Flint Marko's body had solidified by now, and he honestly shrank against the doorframe of the back kitchen, not daring to move even a bit.
Peter Parker, who had just crawled out from a pile of scrap metal, didn't even have time to put on his mask, his mouth wide open enough to stuff an apple in.
As for Gwen, she knelt beside the broken glass scattered all over the floor, her entire person looking as if she had been hit by a pause button, her eyes wide and staring.
Arthur looked at these three living statues, casually spread his hands apart, and spoke in that casual tone used for discussing what to eat tonight, "Isn't it just superheroes finishing a fight and casually resurrecting innocent civilians? Isn't this operation no more normal than usual? Why are the three of you looking at me like that?"
As soon as the words fell, Peter Parker's mouth corners immediately twitched wildly and uncontrollably several times.
What do you mean by normal operation? Where on Earthis this normal?!
Every single night, he, Peter Parker, swung around with Web-slinging through the skyscrapers of New York in the cold wind, usually helping to catch bag-snatching thieves, helping old ladies cross the street, and fighting life-and-death battles with those mutated Lizard Men in the sewers.
This was the hard labor a superhero was supposed to do in his impression!
But today, as luck would have it, someone not only smashed two tech tycoons to pieces with a single punch, but even hand-crafted a group resurrection spell on the street right under a streetlight.
If this was the passing line for a superhero, then Parker felt he could just retire on the spot right now.
At this moment, Gwen's nearly striking brain finally managed to painfully reboot a small portion of its operating functions.
She stared at the young man in front of her who stood with no proper posture and was patting the dust off his clothes, her lips trembling a few times.
"Yu..."
Gwen's voice was floating, and she subconsciously swallowed her saliva. Due to excessive disbelief, even her pronunciation became stuttering: "That... this... are you, are you really Yu?"
Gwen couldn't help but doubt.
In her cognitive World, her boyfriend Arthur was an ordinary college student who didn't even know how to fight.
He was gentle, somewhat sly, would prepare hot milk for her at night, and occasionally say a few punchable words to make her happy.
But who on Earth was that monster standing on the street just now, with the power to alter reality at a whim?
Gwen now reasonably and strongly suspected whether that boyfriend of hers who originally needed her help even to open a bottle cap had been directly possessed and replaced by some terrifying alien dimensional lifeform.
Arthur didn't waste his breath at all to explain this messy possession hypothesis.
He took a large step forward and walked directly in front of Gwen.
Before Gwen could make any dodging movements, Arthurhad already reached out to cup the back of her head with its pink-gold short hair, applied a little force to pull her toward himself, and then lowered his head to kiss her lips unhesitatingly.
This kiss was completely different from the comforting touch earlier, carrying a hint of punishment and the tyranny of declaring sovereignty.
Arthur's familiar kissing skills were displayed without reservation, prying open her defense line and unreasonably barging in.
Gwen's eyes widened even further instantly.
Yet after just a few seconds, her originally stiff body softened in this embrace.
That's right, this unreasonable kissing technique, this unique feedback when their bodies fit together, and that familiar scent mixed with a hint of mint fragrance at his collar were all telling her unmistakably: there was no possession at all; this was her original boyfriend who always loved to tease her and had her completely wrapped around his finger.
After a long while, Arthur leisurely let her go, a signature bad smile hooking at the corner of his mouth: "Hey, silly girl, are you awake now? Have you come to your senses?"
Gwen blinked her eyes fiercely several times, and the blush that had faded earlier occupied her cheeks once more.
She nodded: "Mhm... should, seem, probably have come to my senses."
She then drew a breath, just wanting to ask all the questions she had held back for a long time in one breath: "However, Yu, you clearly..."
Arthur had no intention at all of giving her a chance to reverse the situation.
He put away the smile at the corner of his mouth, gazed straight into Gwen's eyes, and directly dragged the topic back forcibly to the key point he cared about the most.
"There will be plenty of time to slowly interrogate my matters later."
Arthur's tone became serious and full of oppressive pressure: "Now let's talk about your problem. Gwen, when that old fogey was shouting just now, he said he 'crossed over' together with you. What on Earth does this mean?"
This sentence struck Gwen's forehead like a heavy hammer.
The scene of Old Green Goblin smugly exposing her cross-Universe identity instantly surfaced before her eyes.
The moment the two words "crossed over" were mentioned, the tiny bit of composure Gwen had managed to find just now immediately crumbled.
She lowered her head with a guilty conscience, her vision darting around randomly, simply not daring to make eye contact with Arthur, while stammering and muttering: "That..."
Just as half her words were spoken, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Gwen's mind.
That's not right.
She raised her chin and secretly glanced at Arthur.
Why did I feel guilty just now? What right do I have to feel guilty!
You, Arthur, clearly possess such terrifying strength, capable of even resurrecting dead people, and tearing mechs apart by hand is easier than tearing newspapers.
Then when you watched me racking my brains every day looking for excuses to hide my suit and saying I was going to rehearsal when I was actually going on patrol, what were you thinking?
Didn't you also spin me around in circles?!
This clearly shows that both of us are big liars full of secrets, shouldn't this matter directly be a tie?!
Thinking of this, Gwen took a deep breath, feeling that reason and confidence had once again occupied the high ground of her IQ.
She frantically cheered herself up in her heart: "Gwen, oh Gwen, you are Ghost Spider, you have defeated countless bad things head-on. When it comes to romance, family status must absolutely not be so low right from the start. You can't always let him lead you by the nose. You must bring out your momentum! Question him on why he pretended to be an ordinary person! Fight for the status you deserve!"
Having completed her full psychological build-up, Gwen's gaze instantly turned firm.
She abruptly raised her head, puffed out her chest, and was just about to kick the ball back to Arthur's side with the toughest tsundere tone.
Yet, when her gaze crashed straight into Arthur's bottomless, rippleless yet unresistingly serious pupils, all the courage she had accumulated just now was like a balloon punctured by a needle, accompanied by a loud "pfft" sound deep in her heart, completely leaking away to nothing.
Arthur just looked at her quietly, his gaze seemingly giving a glaring warning to her: "Dare to beat around the bush and see what happens."
Gwen's puffed-up shoulders immediately collapsed.
Whatever Ghost Spider's majesty was, whatever struggle for family status was, all of it was instantly cast to the nine heavens.
She silently comforted herself in her heart: "What's wrong with having a slightly low family status?"
"Having a boyfriend who gives this much sense of security to back me up, without needing to shoulder everything myself, aren't I happy to do so? I just like being a little good-for-nothing."
Under this perfect psychological guidance, Gwencompletely gave up resistance.
She extended two fair and tender index fingers, poking at each other pitifully in front of her chest.
She probed softly with that extremely weak, flattering tone: "That... Yu, have you... ever heard of the Spider Totem?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Gwen bitterly smiled inwardly.
No matter how strong Yu's physical strength was, how could he possibly understand?
She sighed, resignedly walked over to a wooden chair nearby that hadn't been smashed down, casually wiped away the dust on it with her hoodie sleeve, and honestly sat down.
Then she reached out and patted the relatively intact chair beside her, using her eyes to signal Arthur to sit over as well.
"Sigh, this matter is a long story."
Gwen rested her hands on her knees, her slender fingers twisting together to cover up the tension and unease in her heart: "You sit down first, and I'll explain everything to you slowly from the beginning."
Chapter 50 Spider-Totem [Huh? Exactly 10 chapters to wrap things up, huh]
Arthur pulled over a wooden chair beside him with half of its backrest missing, and without caring how much dust was on it, he sat down boldly and unceremoniously.
His dark eyes narrowed slightly, and listening to the four words "Spider-Totem" pop out of Gwen's mouth, his inner thoughts instantly became lively.
As a transmigrator who understood quite a bit of the inside story, he was naturally familiar with this term to the extreme.
This was by no means some insignificant little background; it was simply a mega event in the Marvel Universe that strung hundreds of thousands of Spider-Man together on a single rope.
Just as Arthur was quickly piecing together those messy comic plot points in his mind, Gwen had already cleared her throat, sat on the chair beside him, and prepared to begin detailing this grand cross-Universe past.
However, Arthur did not follow her rhythm.
He raised a hand, made a pause gesture, and straightforwardly interrupted Gwen's freshly started topic.
He turned half his body and cast his gaze toward the two extremely superfluous figures deep inside the restaurant.
One was Flint Marko leaning against the collapsed cabinet; the other was Peter Parker lying sprawled out beside a broken table, still clutching the red-and-blue mask in his hand without having recovered his wits yet.
"We are going to chat about some rather private family matters next."
Arthur looked at them and asked in an easygoing tone,
"So, two friends, do you plan to stay and listen in for a while, or go back to your respective homes right now?"
This question practically had "All idlers hurry up and leave" written all over his face.
Hearing this, Sandman Flint Marko first froze for a moment, an obvious hesitation showing on his weathered, rough face, and then he shook his head heavily.
His mind was currently a complete mess, but he still clearly remembered the thing he cared about most.
His innocent wife and lovely daughter were still at the mercy of that madman Old Green Goblin with their lives hanging in the balance; how could he have any leisure to sit in this ruin and listen to someone else's cross-Universehero stories.
He had to set off immediately and rummage through the entire New York to find his family.
Looking at Sandman's anxious expression, Arthurunderstood tacitly.
He casually reached out and rummaged through the debris of the table nearby, unearthing a fairly clean tissue and half a ballpoint pen dropped by goodness knows who from beneath a pile of shattered glass.
Arthur padded the paper on his thigh and scribbled down a string of numbers.
"Buddy, listen up."
Arthur stood up, walked over, handed the wrinkled tissue to Sandman, and said in a casual tone as if instructing a neighbor to help pick up takeout,
"If you search alone like a headless fly, the efficiency is simply too low. I'll give you a contact; this is the phone number of Stark Industries boss Tony Stark."
"When you call, just drop my name and make him figure out a way to contact a one-eyed Director named Nick Fury. Have that S.H.I.E.L.D. Director mobilize official forces to help locate the whereabouts of your wife and daughter."
"After they help bring your family out safely, you can come find me anytime. I guarantee to help you completely remove that damned Lizard Men mutation effect and turn you back into a complete, ordinary person."
Sandman lowered his head, staring dazedly at the feather-light tissue in his palm, as if it were some priceless treasure that could not be exchanged for a thousand pieces of gold.
He had witnessed all of the magical reversal ability that Arthur displayed outside using the Horse Talisman, and he knew that the young man in front of him possessed the absolute power to keep his promises.
In the eyes of this man who had constantly been forced to do bad things and struggled in despair, hard-to-conceal gratitude suddenly welled up.
He moved his lips and said thank you repeatedly in a hoarse voice.
Afterward, without further delay, his entire body rapidly disintegrated and collapsed, transforming into a fine stream of yellow sand that silently slipped into the night wind outside through the cracks in the floor tiles and the damaged back door.
Having seen Sandman off, Arthur turned his gaze back to the local Universe Peter Parker lying on the ground.
The cognitive shock suffered by this young superhero tonight was simply overloaded.
Parker climbed up slowly, patting the dust off his red-and-blue battle suit.
Listen to a story? He didn't want to hear any bizarre cross-Universe stories at all right now.
Just this single night, there was the sudden emergence of the Green Goblin, Lizard Men running amok all over the streets, and finally a fierce guy who could directly tear monsters apart with his bare hands and perform resurrection miracles right on the street standing in front of him spouting nonsense.
The concentration of all these events combined had stretched a high school hero's mental capacity to its limit.
Parker felt that if he stayed here any longer, his brain would probably crash and catch fire from overheating.
His only thought right now was to hurry home, throw himself onto that soft bed, cover his head with the blanket, and take a good, deep breath to calm down.
Thus, Parker awkwardly waved his hand as a farewell, and jumped out of the window smashed with a big hole as if fleeing for his life, disappearing from sight in a flash.
Accompanied by the successive departures of the two super third-wheels, this shabby little restaurant completely quieted down, leaving only Arthur and Gwen sitting facing each other in the spacious ruined space.
Arthur leaned back against the chair, adjusted to a comfortable posture, and looked at his quieted-down girlfriend,
"Alright, the clearing is complete now. Continue with your topic from just now, what's the deal with that whole Totem Resistance Army thing?"
Confirming that there was no one else around, Gwenfinally relaxed her tense nerves.
She twirled the pink-gold lock of hair by her ear with her finger and began to recount leisurely,
"Actually, if you really want to talk about it in detail, it could go on for three days and three nights. To put it simply."
"It's just that a madman suddenly popped up in the multiverse. This madman listened to a prophecy from goodness knows where, which prophesied that he was destined to be killed by Spider-Man. So this guy got hyper-sensitive and, using some ability to travel across dimensions, ran all over various parallel Universes to slaughter those Spider-Man belonging to different dimensions everywhere, trying to nip this threat in the cradle."
As she spoke, she also stretched out both hands in the air to exaggeratedly gesture the enemy's actions,
"And then, naturally, the rest of us Spider-Man who hadn't been wiped out didn't want to sit and wait for death. For survival, everyone had to assemble across the Universe, unite all forces, and form a resistance alliance."
"Finally, after a fierce, heaven-shattering and extremely tragic battle, all the Spider-Man united as one and finally managed to kill that madman, completely ending that multiverse hunting crisis."
When speaking of these final few sentences, Gwen's emotions clearly became high-spirited.
Her back, which had been slightly drooping, straightened up, her chin involuntarily lifted, and then she proudly puffed out her chest.
She tilted her head slightly, looking at Arthur with hopeful, bright azure-blue eyes, like a mischievous student showing off her full-score test paper.
"How is it?"
Gwen raised the corners of her mouth smugly, her tone carrying a bit of unmasked showiness,
"Isn't your girlfriend amazing? In that chain-killing spree and that intense large-scale multiverse war, not only did I not hold back, but I successfully survived, oh."
Looking at her cute expression waiting for praise, the corners of Arthur's mouth couldn't help but curve upward.
He reached out, unceremoniously covering her hair tips with light pink gradients, and gently rubbed her head like petting a small animal, completely treating it as a substantive affirmation and reward.
Feeling the warmth and affectionate force coming from the top of her head, Gwen squinted her eyes with great enjoyment, letting out a happy 'hehe' laugh, completely shedding the cool and fierce rock girl's cold, hard disguise she usually wore.
After the two of them shared a brief moment of tenderness, Arthur's hand slid down her hair, resting gently on her shoulders, and his gaze turned serious once more.
"I believe this part."
Arthur pulled the question back to the most core and crucial point,
"Then, returning to the time-travel topic Norman mentioned just now. Since you guys already defeated that madman and the matter is over, how did you leave your own World and run over to this completely different Universe?"
Hearing this question, Gwen's once brilliant smile seemed to be suddenly wiped away by an invisible hand.
She unconsciously pulled her shoulders inward, and the pride that once flashed in her eyes quickly dimmed, enveloping her entire being in a heavy, palpable depression.
After a long while, she stared at a piece of broken tile on the ground and continued with a slightly hoarse voice,
"After everything was over back then, I returned to my own World through cross-dimensional teleportation…"
"But I didn't live in peace for long before that World's Norman Osborn came looking for me. That madman was harder to deal with than ordinary enemies. I soon confronted him head-on, and we engaged in a fiercely tragic battle across the city."
Speaking of this, Gwen's voice trembled involuntarily.
She bit her lower lip hard, the light in her eyes dimming even further, mixed with a hint of deep self-blame and fear.
"Right at the most chaotic moment of that battle… My father, George, rushed to the scene to fulfill his duty as the Police chief… During this process, he was accidentally caught in the violent attack of the Green Goblin. He just like that… in a battle that belonged to me, was accidentally killed by the Old Green Goblin."
That was a huge trauma deep inside her heart that could never heal.
First Peter Parker, and then her own biological father.
Gwen paused for a long while, as if trying hard to suppress those churning, bloody memories back to the bottom of her heart.
After her breathing calmed down a little, she continued to complete the story.
"After my father's accident, I was completely isolated and helpless. I found that Norman's power was extremely strong, and it was already difficult for me alone to completely defeat him."
"So, I thought of a special cross-dimensional device left to me by my allies from parallel Universes during the Spider-Totem incident."
"I originally wanted to activate that device to send a cross-dimensional distress signal to Spider-Man in other Worlds again."
"However, that insidious Norman actually guessed my plan to bring in reinforcements in advance. He suddenly launched a desperate attack and destroyed my cross-dimensional device in a single blow."
She twitched the corner of her mouth self-deprecatingly and spread her hands helplessly,
"He didn't foresee the consequences himself. The moment that high-tech dimensional device was violently destroyed, the core inside suffered a serious malfunction, directly triggering a large-scale spacetime energy disorder."
"The entire space was like being torn open by a huge gap, and the huge suction instantly sucked both of us in, just like throwing away trash, randomly teleporting and throwing us into this strange World. I don't know where he was teleported, but I became a homeless waif who couldn't go back."
Arthur listened quietly to these words and nodded slowly.
All the logic finally connected completely at this moment. The obsession of the Old Green Goblin, Gwen's isolation and helplessness, and why she had a mindset of wanting to protect this city yet always feeling insecure—all of it had a reasonable explanation.
But another involved detail immediately popped into his head.
Arthur raised an eyebrow, pretended to put on a straight face, and suddenly asked in a tone of sudden realization,
"Wait a minute, let me follow your logic… You just said that your father in your Universe was unfortunately killed by the Green Goblin by mistake in that battle, right?"
Seeing Gwen nod silently, Arthur leaned forward slightly and stared into her eyes.
"Then I must ask properly. Since your father is not in this World at all, why do you always look serious and use your father as an excuse to pressure me when you are late for dates at night or have to leave in a hurry?"
"Saying things like 'the Police chief's curfew is very strict' or 'if my dad catches me, I'm dead'… So, you've actually been using this non-existent excuse to lie to me all along?"
Gwen's body stiffened abruptly upon having her lie exposed. The sorrowful emotions she was just mourning were instantly interrupted, replaced by a strong sense of guilt at being caught red-handed.
Her face suddenly flushed red, and she didn't dare to look into Arthur's oppressive eyes at all. She could only lower her head somewhat sheepishly, her chin almost touching her collarbone.
"Th… That's because there were special reasons…"
Gwen's voice became softer and softer, like a wrongdoing cat making excuses.
"When I was first with you, I always thought you were just an ordinary college student. How could I dare tell you that I was a mutated alien who fell from another spacetime and didn't even have a home?"
"At that time, I just wanted to conceal my identity as much as possible, and wanted to pretend in front of you to be an ordinary girl with a complete family and a normal lifestyle. That way we could have a relationship without constant anxiety like the most ordinary campus couples…"
After explaining this, Gwen knew she was in the wrong.
She raised her eyes, secretly observed Arthur's expression, and found that the other party was not really angry.
Therefore, this aloof Ghost Spider, who usually struck heavy blows against criminals, decisively decided to adopt a roundabout tactic.
She suddenly moved her chair closer to Arthur, reached out both hands to tightly hug Arthur's right arm. Not only did she wrap her arms around it, but she also rubbed her side face gently against Arthur's shoulder, looked up, and said in a deliberately prolonged, sweet, and spoiled voice,
"Alright, alright~ I know it was wrong of me to lie to you, so don't be mad at me anymore, Yu~ Everything is in the past, and now you also know that I've confessed everything, really no secrets left~"
Looking at the hedgehog in front of him that used to have its quills up, now softly leaning against his arm and acting cute to beg for mercy with such a pitiful and adorable appearance, the anger that Arthur hadn't even felt in his heart instantly vanished without a trace, not to mention he never had any intention of blaming her from the very beginning.
He knew too well how much mental pressure Gwen had been carrying over the past few months, having to hide from him to secretly go out as a vigilante while facing the endless panic of potentially losing such an ordinary and warm life with him alone.
Arthur reached out his other hand, gently yet irresistibly wrapping it around her slender shoulders, and pulled her whole body steadily into his embrace. He lowered his head, resting his chin gently on top of her head, feeling her shallow breathing.
"I'm not angry, I just feel bad that you carried so much all by yourself."
Arthur tightened his arms and solemnly spoke in her ear with a voice more firm and steady than ever before:
"However, since everything is out in the open, from now on, let me protect you. Whatever identity you want, whether you want to be a hero or an ordinary girl, whatever makes you happy. If anything happens, I'll hold up the sky even if it falls, and you won't have to live in fear all by yourself anymore."
Hearing these words, Gwen, nestled in Arthur's arms, suddenly felt her eyes sting a little.
She reached out, tightly wrapped her arms around Arthur's waist, buried her face deeply into his chest, and then nodded vigorously.
Her Universe had always been losing things. Losing close friends, losing her father, losing her original Universe. She had always walked a tightrope with her nerves taut all by herself.
But now, being embraced by Arthur with such solid arms, listening to that unreasonable yet incomparably reliable promise, Gwen truly experienced for the first time that being protected unreservedly by someone else, and being caught and supported like a little girl, was such a reassuring feeling that made one want to shed tears.
She pressed her face against that warm chest, listening to the steady heartbeat. The huge stone in her heart that had been hanging all day out of fear finally dropped to the ground.
From now on, she would never have to worry about her close loved one encountering danger because of her identity, nor would she have to worry about the other person leaving her out of fear.
How wonderful.