New York.
A bustling city of the century.
And in Manhattan, it was prosperity within prosperity, luxury within luxury!
But the denser the jungle, the darker it is inside.
Manhattan had its dazzling side, and it also had a filthy side.
Hell's Kitchen.
This place was the muck of the muck, the hell of hells!
In Hell's Kitchen, every kind of evil was routine. In New York, this city of sin, it was sin's very center!
Hell's Kitchen was only eight small blocks, but the crimes here were so insane that if Satan himself showed up, he would still have to offer those criminals a light and hand them a cigarette.
Even the devil would get chopped up here and served on a dinner table.
At night, the ones wandering Hell's Kitchen were all sorts of shady types.
From small-time junkies and pimps, to the Hand, and even Kingpin's men…
They did every kind of dirty business, except doing anything good.
There was only one type of person you would never see here.
A normal person.
Because a normal person would never roam Hell's Kitchen at night, unless they wanted to die in some sunless trash heap and rot there forever.
All in all, this was basically New York's own Gotham!
So here's the question.
There's a hero who wears a tight suit that's bulletproof, a cowl that shows his chin and has two sharp horns, comes out at night, and is even passionately played by Ben Affleck (oh, Ben again)!
So who is he?
That's right, he's Daredevil.
New Yorkers' very own Batman!
Fake Batman: Goes out with high-tech weapons to fight crime.
Real Batman: Fights crime using echolocation.
Of course, Daredevil wasn't important.
What mattered was that in this stinking sludge, in this dark place where evil kept breeding nonstop, there was a naive, hot-blooded kid who didn't know how big the world was, and he charged in headfirst.
Peter had been swinging around Queens in the first place.
But Queens was pretty safe, and he got bored quickly.
Then he remembered Stark Tower, where a huge battle had just happened a couple days ago. Curiosity got the better of him, and he planned to find time to go check it out.
As expected, he ran into an underground deal.
And what was being traded wasn't drugs like he imagined.
It was people.
Peter froze on the spot.
He couldn't believe that in New York, the most prosperous place in the world, even in Manhattan, not far from Stark Tower, something like this could be happening!
'Doesn't he ever deal with this?'
Peter followed the group while thinking.
Ever since Tony Stark publicly announced that he was Iron Man, Peter had admired him.
Peter believed that after Tony became a superhero, he helped a lot of people. He even shut down the weapons division…
Peter thought Tony was a good person. Iron Man's existence made New York better.
But now, it didn't seem that simple.
'He's always flying high up in the sky. Of course he can't see the evil hiding in dark corners.'
That was what Peter thought.
Maybe Iron Man was just too eye-catching. People's attention, including his own, always drifted toward world-shaking crises.
He went to the Middle East to wipe out terrorists, fought a giant metal hunk, battled monsters…
So he overlooked one or two ordinary people who needed help.
But those people shouldn't be overlooked like this.
'Good thing I can help them!' he thought.
But at that moment, Peter's spider-sense suddenly flared.
He didn't even think. He instinctively ducked, and the next second, something sliced through the air right over his head.
The first strike missed. The attacker seemed surprised, but he adjusted almost instantly.
Mark was surprised, but not truly shocked.
He could hear the strong, powerful heartbeat of the person clinging to the wall in front of him.
'This isn't a normal person,' he thought, and he snapped his baton out toward Peter!
Mark's baton rhythm was fast. Trained by Stick, the short baton in his hands whipped up gusts of wind with every swing.
An ordinary person would never be able to withstand his techniques.
But his opponent right now was Spider-Man!
Even putting spider-sense aside, Peter's reaction speed was far beyond what Daredevil imagined.
And with Peter's current physical condition, even if Mark's baton hit him, it wouldn't be much.
He was dodging purely out of instinct.
Compared to Mark's refined technique, Peter's attacks had no real structure.
In fact, most of the time he avoided directly throwing punches, because if he slipped up even a little, he might blow someone's head apart.
That was why Spider-Man always used webbing as his weapon.
Right now, Peter lifted his wrists, and two strands of web shot out instantly.
He didn't think the man in front of him had the ability to dodge. But he didn't notice Mark's ear twitch. The moment Peter pressed the button in his palm, Mark had already prepared.
Mark rolled to the side, dodging the attack.
'Not a gun, and not darts?'
He paused, stunned.
When Peter raised his arms and hit the buttons, Mark had thought the weapon might be wrist-mounted bolts, but now it didn't sound like that.
That sound wasn't like any weapon he'd encountered before. It sounded more like something being sprayed out…
That thought made him feel a little disgusted.
Mark was about to continue attacking when he heard Peter speak in surprise.
"It didn't hit?"
That made Mark even more surprised.
Peter's voice sounded extremely young. Ordinary people might not notice, but Mark could easily tell the owner of that voice was only a half-grown kid.
Then he felt something like sadness.
"In a place like Hell's Kitchen, even a kid like you is taking part in evil."
Peter blanked out.
What? I'm a criminal now?
"Wait, wait, I think there's a misunderstanding here." He waved his hands quickly. "I'm not a criminal. I'm Spider-Man!"
"Spider-Man?"
Mark had been too busy lately to pay attention to what was trending online, so he hadn't heard the name Spider-Man. But obviously, the name sounded a lot like Iron Man.
Clearly, he took Spider-Man for some cringe kid copying Iron Man and fantasizing about saving the world.
"Hell's Kitchen isn't a place a brat like you should come to." Mark put away his baton and spoke coldly to Peter.
In truth, Peter was far stronger than Mark. But in Mark's eyes, a kid was still a kid. He shouldn't be carrying the burden of fighting crime in a place like Hell's Kitchen.
"Go home, kid."
Peter obviously wasn't going to listen.
He could be stubborn.
Back when he didn't have powers, being timid was one thing. Now that he had powers, if he was still timid, then what were those powers even for?
With that thought, he stopped paying attention to Mark. He shot a web, swung forward, and charged straight at the armed gang members.
"Wait!"
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