Osborn's intervention slowed the collapse of Stark Industries. When Osborn Technology announced its participation in the Stark Stark Industries Expo, it indeed provided a massive boost to investor confidence.
However, none of this had much to do with Peter. He sent messages to every Earth-616 spider totem he could get in touch with, preparing to head to headquarters to discuss the recent occurrences regarding the Spider-Verse.
In reality, there were only four of them. Aside from himself, there were Gwen, Cindy, and his senior, Jessica. Although Flash was working alongside Venom to pose as him, they were not actual spider totems and couldn't handle many of these matters.
"Just like that, I only came back to say a few words to Uncle Ben before having to leave again."
As Peter spoke, he and Cindy arrived at the Triskelion. Since both Cindy and Jessica were on the payroll of Hydra—or rather, SHIELD agents—the Triskelion was chosen as their gathering point.
At this point, Peter glanced at Cindy. "Are you alright? How is your body feeling?"
"It's much better now. I have no trouble with daily operational training."
"You might need to be a bit careful during this operation. The closer we get to the enemy, the worse your physical condition might become. The moment you feel uncomfortable, tell me immediately. I'll need to take you to a safe place."
As Peter spoke, he walked toward their destination. Ahead of them, Jessica was already waving to catch their attention. Just like Peter and Cindy, Jessica had already suited up, ready to depart at any moment. The room they were currently in was an empty one prepared by SHIELD.
"Good morning, you two."
Jessica inquired with considerable curiosity, "What exactly is our mission again?"
"We'll talk about it once we reach headquarters. This matter needs to be discussed with the Spider-Men there."
As Peter spoke, he looked around inquisitively. "Has Gwen not arrived yet?"
"Actually, she's been here for quite a while."
Gwen was also in uniform, though she was still wearing Mysterio's helmet. She had just used the helmet to maintain her invisibility and had been staying nearby the entire time.
Seeing that all four of them were accounted for, Peter nodded. He had actually attempted to invite Madame Web to come along, but Julia clearly had no intention of getting involved. She acted entirely like a quest-giving NPC, completely ignoring the related affairs.
"Then it's time for us to depart."
As Peter spoke, he tore open a rift leading to another universe, and the four of them entered one by one. Accompanied by a wave of dizziness, and in coordination with the watches on their wrists, they successfully arrived at the Spider-Headquarters located in the Wasteland Universe.
The Wasteland Universe remained much the same as before. From an outward appearance, it seemed as though nothing had changed. Although practically all the villains had been eliminated, the destruction caused was not so easily resolved.
In fact, the only reason the reconstruction progress had reached its current state was thanks to Reed's initial planning and the construction of the Spider-Headquarters.
Peter thus arrived at the headquarters once more. He first called upon the headquarters' control system, the artificial intelligence of Spider-Man 2099, Lyla. "Hello, Lyla. Long time no see."
"Hello, Spider-Man of Earth-616. Long time no see."
"Yeah, long time no see. What is Miguel busy with right now? The matter I requested his help with earlier..."
"The Spider-Men of the alliance have investigated a vast number of parallel universes and have already gathered quite a bit of relevant data."
Unlike Jarvis and other artificial intelligences, Lyla possessed her own humanoid virtual avatar. She appeared beside Peter, pointing with a pen on the computer's holographic projection, casting one image after another in front of everyone.
Simply put, the investigation Miguel conducted was incredibly direct and crude. He first went to each universe to look for the local Peter Parker. If a Peter Parker was found, he would check whether the counterpart was a spider totem. If not, he would search for the actual spider totem of that universe.
Under the condition where it was confirmed that absolutely no spider totem existed, the investigators would then look into the reason behind the lack of a spider totem.
Doing this was basically determined to be of little use. According to Madame Web, the spider totem represented by Cindy originated from fortuity, sorcery, and magic. The Spider-Man who currently fit this description best was Spider-Man Noir, whose spider powers originated from the totem statue of Anansi.
However, they did indeed gather data on a massive number of universes that completely lacked spider totems. And within this vast data, they discovered several universes where Peter Parker was supposed to become a sorcerer but failed to do so.
"These universes share a similar characteristic, which is that the Sorcerers Supreme of their respective universes all met bizarre deaths. Furthermore, most of these Sorcerers Supreme kept a magical spider, and these magical spiders are dead as well."
The one uttering these words was not Lyla but Miguel. Upon walking in and seeing the group of four spider totems from Earth-616, he revealed a puzzled expression. "What's going on? Why did everyone run over here?"
"Uh... pretty much. I have some matters on my end, so I had to run out to take refuge for a while."
After Peter shrugged, he looked toward Miguel. "Are you certain? The Sorcerers Supreme are all dead, and the magical spiders have vanished?"
"Certain. I don't know if they had any contingencies, but I can be sure that even if they did, it didn't play any role."
As Miguel spoke, he brought up another set of data. "In addition to that, there is another group of data. The counterparts of Spider-Man Noir encountered a similar situation. Virtually all of his counterparts were gnawed away completely by the spiders inside the totem poles, instead of being bestowed with power by Anansi... I know what you're thinking, but it isn't him."
"It's not him?!"
Among the deities of the Web, Peter had already witnessed two. One was Anansi, the god of stories and lies, and the other was the King in Black Spider-Man, the pinnacle of Spider-Man in a symbiote form. As far as he knew, there were other deities of the Web—for instance, the Sorcerer Supreme Spider-Man, who had been the primary force holding back Chthon outside Limbo initially.
After hearing the description, Peter originally thought it was him, but it wasn't?
"Our members encountered him on their investigation route, so we are even more certain it isn't him. On the contrary, the Sorcerer Supreme Spider-Man is investigating the exact same matter."
Because of this, Miguel appeared rather gloomy. "An enemy we know absolutely nothing about, an enemy who might be neither an Inheritor nor part of the Spider-Army. Tsk, and our information is likely lagging behind."
"Do we have a Strange who was bitten by a spider, or a similar origin—a magic-based Spider-Man?"
Peter looked toward Miguel and questioned back, "Right now, it's only the birth of Spider-Man that is being prevented, right? But Spider-Men with a magic-based origin should still exist."
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi