"Holy crap! Are you human or a ghost?!" Bide's eyes widened in shock.
His astonishment wasn't just because of the strange, inhuman way this person had appeared—it was also because of how he looked now.
The figure now fully stood before Bide.
Under the streetlight, his entire form was revealed.
And he was… black and white!
No, more accurately, black, white, and gray.
He wore a long gray trench coat over a tight black suit. On his head, he had a hat with old-fashioned goggles, the kind pilots would wear to shield their eyes from wind.
He looked completely out of place in this world.
"Huh? Buddy, your style seems a bit different from mine~" the figure said with surprise.
Bide could only groan in reply: "I should be the one saying that, right?"
"Hmm~ Your lines are soft. You don't really look like a fighter, more like a scholar," the man observed, sizing Bide up.
"Alright, you got me. I am just a weak, powerless guy. But you haven't answered my question—who are you? You said we're 'kindred spirits'? What does that mean? And do you know why I'm here?" Bide asked, firing off a string of questions.
The man waved his hand: "Okay, now I believe we're truly kindred spirits—because you talk as much as I do."
Bide: …
The man continued:"Hi, nice to meet you. My name's Peter Parker, but most people call me: Shadow Spider-Man."
Bide: !!!"Spider-Man! You're Spider-Man!!!" Bide's eyes nearly popped out.
He couldn't believe it at first.
But his mind instinctively recalled all of Shadow Spider-Man's actions since appearing:
Hanging upside down from the eaves without any external support.
Jumping from more than ten meters without a glider or wires, landing perfectly unharmed.
The style was… unique.
"Yeah, aren't you?" Shadow Spider-Man shrugged, looking at Bide, puzzled.
"I? No! I'm just an ordinary person!" Bide replied. He had always wanted to be Spider-Man, but he wasn't mutated—though now he vaguely remembered being bitten by a spider.
He instinctively raised his left hand, where white bandages wrapped his fingers.
"Come on, it can't be that simple, right? If just getting bitten made people Spider-Man, then getting bitten by worker ants would make me… Worker-Man?" Bide thought, nervously unwrapping the bandages, a hint of hope rising in his chest.
Shadow Spider-Man remained silent, arms crossed, as if expecting the reveal.
The bandages came off.
To Bide's astonishment, the wound that had been swollen yesterday was now completely smooth.
Not even a scar remained!
"You just got bitten?" Shadow Spider-Man asked.
Spider-Men are highly intelligent. As a mature Spider-Man opposing monopolistic capitalists, Shadow Spider-Man could easily deduce the situation.
Bide nodded instinctively: "Alright, now I'm starting to believe you."
Shadow Spider-Man smiled and casually draped an arm over Bide's shoulder, seeing in him a reflection of his younger self:"I've been where you are. Soon you'll adapt. But for now… how about we grab a drink?"
"Sure," Bide agreed. In this unfamiliar and unsettling environment, a small drink seemed wise.
So the two walked, arm-in-arm, toward the alley exit.
But soon, they stopped again.
Before them was a huge screen, displaying a shocking image.
A Spider-Man in a blue-and-red suit appeared on the screen.
"This is… Spider-Man, Peter Parker!" Bide stared in disbelief.
He was certain this wasn't a movie clip. He had watched multiple Spider-Man movies, and none had this scene.
His memory was sharp—he knew this was real.
The screen read:"Special bulletin: tragic news.""Our hero Spider-Man has left us today. His death is related to a mysterious earthquake in Brooklyn.""Confirmed by multiple sources: Peter Parker, 26-year-old grad student and part-time photographer, had been Spider-Man for over a decade."
Alongside the news were images of Spider-Man and Peter Parker.
"This world has Spider-Man too… and he's dead?" Bide and Shadow Spider-Man stared at the screen, stunned.
Bide's mind raced—he seemed to recognize which universe this was.
He hadn't seen every Spider-Man adaptation, only the movies.
But he also played the PS5 game Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the spinoff of the 2018 Marvel Spider-Man game.
Miles Morales was a young Black-Latino boy from the Ultimate Universe, bitten by a genetically engineered spider from Oscorp, gaining powers similar to Spider-Man—plus invisibility and bioelectric abilities.
In the game, the original Spider-Man hadn't died, but Bide later researched Miles' background and discovered:
In this timeline, Peter Parker had indeed died after Green Goblin's exposure.
Miles Morales, inspired by Peter's creed "With great power comes great responsibility," became the second Spider-Man.
Through comparing memories, Bide quickly concluded:
This was the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610).