But Ben directly denied Mei's guess, waving his hand with a look of indifference to indicate it was impossible:
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
"Although this young man's physique looks similar to Peter's, Peter doesn't have the physical fitness of this 'Little Red Man.' Didn't you see how he could go back and forth with that Dinosaur Man?"
"If it were Peter, with one swipe of that Green Dinosaur's claws, Peter would probably end up owing the other guy a few lives!"
"If you said our son could go back and forth with that Dinosaur Man, that would be more like it. After all, our son was born with divine strength; in elementary school, he could already beat up high school bullies who tried to shake him down for money!
As he spoke, while Ben denied that the person was Peter, he also took the opportunity to praise his own son.
In response, Lock smiled helplessly to himself.
He wondered if Peter would be happy or sad if he knew the reason he wasn't suspected was because of Ben's stereotype of him... Tsk tsk, poor little Peter~
Mei gave Ben a white look and lectured Lock: "Lock, don't listen to your father. I'm gratified that you're healthy and can protect yourself, but you must never use this power to bully the weak, do you understand?"
Lock nodded nonchalantly: "Don't worry, Mei, I won't bully the weak. I do not need to make myself seem powerful by bullying those who are weaker."
At least not so far.
He had always bullied the strong, using his great power to blow the heads off those bandits and then take their money!
After all, what money could the weak possibly have?
If you're going to make money, make it from those wealthy 'strong' ones!
Seeing Lock's indifferent expression, Mei couldn't help but reach out and rap him on the head with two fingers:
"I know you won't, but you also can't try to be a hero like that young man in the news, putting yourself in danger to face that kind of inhuman monster, do you understand?"
Before Lock could speak, Ben was the first to disagree:
"That's not right to say. With great power comes great responsibility. If Lock has that ability, then it's fine to help others within his means!"
"Otherwise, if everyone becomes selfish and cold, what will become of this society, this country?"
Hearing his old man utter that classic line, Lock's mouth twitched violently, and he hurriedly interrupted him:
"Forget it, Ben. While I have no interest in bullying the weak, I also have no interest in protecting them."
"I don't know how much responsibility comes with great power..."
"But I do know that the greater the ability, the more money one can definitely make, and the better one can make our family."
"So if you insist on talking about responsibility, making money so our family can live better is my entire responsibility."
After saying that, without waiting for Ben and Mei to agree or disagree, Lock stood up and went upstairs to his room to rest.
It was 9 o'clock; time to sleep.
After all, he had a date tomorrow.
As for Peter, Lock told himself he would cheer for him in his dreams~
Knock, knock, knock—
The next day, Lock was woken up by the sound of knocking.
Opening the door, he saw a black-and-blue Peter standing in front of his door with a wide, toothy grin, waving at him:
"Hi, Lock, morning. Can I borrow some of that miraculous oriental medicine of yours?"
Lock:... It seemed that his cheering for Peter in his dreams didn't work... "Come in."
After inviting Peter into the room, Lock took out a homemade medicated wine for bruises and injuries from the nightstand.
This was something Lock had learned from a senior back when he was a delivery driver in his previous life.
In that senior's words, in their line of work, it was inevitable to get bumped and bruised often; if you didn't want to run to the hospital all the time, you had to know some treatment methods yourself.
And the efficacy of this medicated wine was indeed good; it had miraculous effects on bruises and injuries, as well as the body stiffness and soreness caused by long hours of driving.
So even though he had transmigrated in this life, he always kept this medicated wine ready.
This was the 'miraculous oriental medicine' Peter spoke of... Once Peter lifted his shirt and lay face down on the bed, Lock took a look—whoa, he couldn't help but exclaim internally.
Peter's entire body was covered in black and blue bruises!
At this, while applying the wine to the bruises on Peter's back, Lock asked curiously: "What on earth did you do last night? If you were just saving people, you shouldn't have ended up like this, right?"
Facing Lock's question, Peter scratched his head sheepishly and slowly explained the reason to him.
It turned out that last night, Peter had indeed only intended to save people.
And the process of saving people was very successful.
With Peter's timely arrival, he successfully saved everyone on the Manhattan Bridge and repelled the Lizard Man.
But this time, there was no cliché plot about a child being trapped in a car or a vehicle catching fire.
So when the Lizard Man discovered that the target, Norman Osborn's secretary, was gone and fled, Peter deviated from the original plot and followed him.
Furthermore, using the thermal imaging of the high-tech suit Lock gave him, he tracked the Lizard Man all the way into the sewers.
Although lizards, as cold-blooded animals, have a very small temperature difference from their surroundings and aren't as obvious under thermal imaging compared to the human body...
Peter's Spider-vision, which far exceeded that of ordinary people, happened to make up for this, allowing him to easily track the Lizard Man.
But Peter had clearly forgotten one thing: although his suit had thermal imaging and waterproofing, the dark and damp city sewers were not a spider's home turf—the surface city with its towering skyscrapers was!
The intricate sewers were the lizard's home turf!
And fighting on someone else's home turf was undoubtedly a very foolish move.
So, sensing he was being followed, the Lizard Man turned back and launched a surprise counterattack on Peter in the sewers!
The sewers weren't Peter's home turf to begin with, and in the cramped space of the sewer, Peter couldn't use his spider silk to deploy his agility advantage. Under all these negative buffs, Peter naturally couldn't get the upper hand.
Although he eventually escaped the sewers in a sorry state, he was beaten up quite badly by the Lizard Man before getting out!
If it weren't for this super-strong defensive suit Lock gave him, Peter probably wouldn't be black and blue right now—he'd be in pieces!
At the very least, he would have several more 'scars of a man's honor' on his body!
After listening to Peter's account, Lock just shook his head at his recklessness and didn't offer any harsh criticism.
Verbal education from people often doesn't have much effect, and sometimes it even has the opposite effect.
Only the lessons brought by real pain will make a person truly grow.
Just like that, damn my extortionist father and son; that incident directly obliterated Lock's heart to become a superhero after transmigrating to the Marvel Universe, turning him into a cold-blooded super-villain instead!
So when Peter said that if Lock had been there, the two brothers working together would have surely caught the Lizard Man, Lock's hand, dipped in medicated wine, slapped heavily onto Peter's bruised back.
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