Marvel: The Amazing Spider-Man in the Multiverse

The air conditioning in the comic book store hummed, but it couldn't disperse the gazes fixed on Peter Parker. Those eyes were like sticky syrup, tinged with envy and sourness. After all, a lucky guy bringing a beautiful girl like Gwen to buy cosplay outfits was a rare sight in a store filled with otaku and potato chips.

However, he wasn't looking at comics or chatting with others. Instead, he was waiting for Gwen to change, scrolling through his phone, checking the latest crime map of New York that J.A.R.V.I.S. had fed him.

The good news was that New York had indeed been quite peaceful recently, so peaceful that Spider-Man had no use for his powers.

The bad news was that this was probably because someone else was doing his job for him.

Many new videos of Spider-Man battling various thugs and villains had reappeared. They were entirely in his style, with similar moves. If Chameleon hadn't already been caught, he'd suspect Chameleon was behind it.

Or rather, it was Chameleon, who had escaped or been released. After Herman ran free, he shouldn't have held any expectations for the NYPD's security measures; they were about as reliable as Chief George's breakfast for Gwen—almost non-existent.

"Are you sure this looks okay on me?"

Peter looked up and saw Gwen emerge from the changing room. She was wearing a classic Supergirl comic suit. After a spin, she asked Peter uncertainly, who naturally responded with an encouraging smile.

"Of course, it suits you well."

"When I first got it, I was worried about the skirt length, but thankfully, this length should be fine even for my dad."

"If Uncle George is worried, you could always wear pants underneath."

Gwen looked puzzled: "Are you serious? Wearing long pants under a superhero costume?"

"We're just attending a school theme day, Gwen. It's not the San Diego Comic-Con. No one will care if it's not perfectly accurate. Besides, you've already seen superheroes like Sherlock Holmes and Pikachu mascot suits at school."

"Alright, wait for me; I'll go change back."

Once Gwen was back in the changing room, Peter continued scrolling through his phone. He had sent a request to J.A.R.V.I.S. to investigate the fake Spider-Man appearing in the city. This time, the fake Spider-Man wasn't just a simple cosplay; it still featured complete web-swinging scenes and superhuman combat style. Even without Chameleon, the still-unseen Mysterio was subtly pulling strings.

However, Peter didn't yet understand why Mysterio hadn't revealed himself, choosing to remain in the background. Was his equipment still imperfect? Could he only rely on projectors for fixed scenes, unable to create illusions on the fly, and unable to fool thermal imaging, which is why he chose to hide?

Peter frowned, unsure of the other party's intentions. Mysterio's little sphere was still with him, and he could analyze it thoroughly at Avengers Tower tonight.

"Do you have something else to do?"

Gwen, having bought her cosplay outfit, asked Peter, who was slightly surprised and replied: "What?"

"Well... you know, I told you, I haven't been able to catch you since high school. You wake up really early every day, and we don't go home together after school anymore. So I was thinking, maybe you're really busy, always out and about."

Peter didn't know how to explain after hearing that. He shook his head, holding his phone, which showed no unexpected news: "No, really, it's just club activities, evening runs, stuff like that."

"Really?"

"Really? Nothing much. Want to walk home together?"

Gwen looked at Peter with some suspicion but said nothing more.

"Alright then, let's go together."

Peter let out a sigh of relief, gripping his phone, hoping nothing requiring Spider-Man would happen on the way home.

Not everyone was in such a good mood, like Karl King. When Peter Parker caught him rummaging through his locker today, for some reason, he felt incredibly scared, as if he worried that in the next second, Peter Parker would transform into that freak in a Spider-Man costume and rush over to break his legs.

The thought of Peter Parker possibly being Spider-Man terrified Karl. He thought about how he had bullied him and others since childhood, never feeling any problem with it, thanks to his excellent physique.

But if he was bullying someone who could pull a car and smash people with it, Karl King felt afraid every time he thought of it. Besides that, every time he considered that the scrawny Peter could make him so anxious, Karl King felt even more furious.

He, he was afraid of that little guy?!

Angry and scared, Karl returned home. There was no one else in the house besides his mother. Mrs. King nervously asked her son.

"Are you alright, Karl? You don't look very..."

"If you can see it, don't babble! Is dinner ready?!"

Karl said impolitely, throwing his backpack onto the table, then turned on the TV to watch a live soccer game.

Karl stared at the family photo on the fireplace. His father's hand, wrapped around his shoulder, wore a Rolex Submariner—now that watch was probably molding in prison with its owner. His father couldn't help him now; otherwise, the old man would probably hand him a gun and tell him in that whisky-scented voice he remembered:

"Hey, since you're scared, just follow him, shoot him dead, and you'll never have to be scared of a dead man."

"I miss you, Dad," Karl murmured, grabbing a can of beer from the coffee table, opening it, and chugging it down. Then he thought of Peter Parker again, clenching the can flat with gritted teeth.

"Oh my goodness, Karl, you're bleeding."

Mrs. King came over with dinner and discovered Karl's hand had been cut by the can. She quickly found the alcohol and gauze in the house, but Karl King slapped her hand away, taking the gauze himself to disinfect his wound.

"This little bit, who's it for?!"

"There's more, there's more."

After sending his mother away, Karl disinfected his hand. After finishing dinner, he went back to his room.

His mind was constantly recalling the fibrous material he found in the chemistry lab, and the similar web fluid he found the day of the Shocker fight. He had originally intended to check if they were the same thing the next day, but by then, the material had completely disappeared.

Damn Peter Parker.

Lying on his bed, Karl King opened his phone and searched for Spider-Man. Some clips of Spider-Man's heroic acts had clearly occurred while Peter Parker was still at school, but he didn't know why, he just felt something was off.

He took out the brightly colored spider from his backpack, that Oscorp Industries spider. He had held this very spider and placed it on Parker's neck; it was his masterpiece, specifically designed to pay Parker back for three years of defiance in middle school.

It was precisely for this reason that he had preserved this spider as a specimen, to scare others.

"Even if Parker really became Spider-Man because of this spider, it's meaningless now... the flesh has been hollowed out; it's just an empty shell."

Karl King was about to put the spider down when a daring idea sparked in his mind—what if he ate this thing?

It was preserved in alcohol, not formaldehyde, and it had been several months. Even if he ate it, he wouldn't die. At worst, he'd feel sick for a few days? If this shell really still worked...

Karl King hesitated, placed the spider on the table, and then lay on his bed.

He closed his eyes, and unconsciously, the scene of Spider-Man fighting Shocker flashed before him, where he smashed an entire giant billboard onto Shocker.

Karl King immediately sat up in fright, looking at the spider specimen on the table. He grabbed it, shoved it into his mouth, chewed the entire specimen into fragments, and swallowed it.

He didn't know why he did it, but perhaps after gaining some sense of security, Karl King finally fell asleep.