In a deep, dark alleyway, the air was thick with the sour, rotten stench of garbage.
Peter casually tossed Shocker off his shoulder onto the ground, resulting in a dull thud.
"Hiss~"
Shocker felt like his skeletal frame was about to fall apart. He wanted to cry out in pain, but he met that Hollow mask in the shadows, which looked incredibly sinister and hideous.
As a result, he forced the cry of pain back down his throat.
Peter crouched down and swiftly ripped the yellow-and-red mask off Shocker's head, revealing an unremarkable, middle-aged white face that looked somewhat nervous and wretched.
"Name, the origin of your equipment, and your purpose."
Peter's voice was low, devoid of any emotion.
Herman's eyes darted around, and he squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying.
"I... my name is Tom..."
Crack!
Before Shocker could finish his sentence, Peter grabbed his wrist and gave it a light snap.
The sound of a bone breaking echoed again.
Shocker's body convulsed violently, his entire face twisting in extreme agony. He tried to scream, but Peter covered his mouth, leaving him only able to let out muffled groans of pain.
"Did you know? There are exactly 206 bones in the human body."
Peter shared a random piece of trivia, but it sent a chill down Shocker's spine.
He couldn't possibly miss the underlying threat in Peter's words.
If he dared to lie again, this maniac would break every single bone in his body!
Realizing this, Shocker didn't dare play any more tricks. Tears and snot streaming down his face, he immediately spoke up.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
He didn't dare hide anything else, spilling his entire life story like beans from a jar.
Over the next few minutes, 'Shocker'—or rather, Herman Schultz—began to recount his experiences.
To summarize: he was a poor kid who hadn't even finished high school, realized he was a physics genius, and tried to change his fate through self-taught brilliance, only to have his inventions stolen repeatedly by greedy capitalists.
He tried to steal back his own inventions, but ended up in prison for it.
After that, he fell into a life of habitual crime, fantasizing about getting something for nothing using the equipment he invented... Peter initially listened with some boredom; these Marvel villain backstories were mostly the same, lacking any real novelty.
Until... "These Shock Gauntlets, I invented them myself! They're powered by a specially made high-density battery pack..."
"Wait."
For the first time, Peter's voice changed. He roughly interrupted Herman's whining.
"What did you say? Powered by a battery pack?"
Peter was genuinely shocked.
He had imagined that Shocker's equipment energy source might be very sci-fi and advanced.
But he truly hadn't expected it to be so advanced that it could be described as magical... A battery module capable of instantly releasing an Impact wave that could level an entire building, and it could be reused at least a dozen times?
What kind of god-tier capacity was that!
"Yes! It's a battery!" Seeing Peter's interest, Herman clung to it like a drowning man to a life raft, hurriedly explaining.
"This is a Micro High-Energy Battery Pack I developed myself! I discovered the material ratio by accident!
The charging capacity of this battery is over a hundred times that of common batteries on the market..."
Before Herman could finish, Peter roughly tore open his red-and-yellow bodysuit.
Ripping through the unknown composite padding, a second later, over a hundred crystal-blue batteries, each only the size of a button cell, appeared before Peter.
Hiss~
Peter couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
You're a real madman, kid!
He pointed at the batteries, his voice slightly off-key.
"Aren't you afraid these things will short-circuit while you're fighting, or get punctured by an external force, and then 'boom,' blow you up like a firework?"
"They won't! Absolutely not!"
Herman's tone carried absolute confidence.
"I performed many tests while developing these solid-state batteries. They have absolute stability! Even if you puncture one directly with a nail, it will only fail; it will never catch fire, much less explode..."
Listening to Herman's explanation, Peter felt his World spinning.
Holding such god-tier technology... what can't you do with it?
If you made phone batteries, you could make every phone manufacturer in the World kneel and call you daddy!
If you made electric cars, you could disrupt the entire automotive industry in minutes!
And yet, this guy used such god-tier technology to... rob banks?!
At this moment, he really wanted to channel his inner Li Yunlong and give this guy a big thumbs up.
Heh, you're a damn genius!
...If Peter had previously held a 'give it a shot' attitude, planning to subdue this guy as a mere tool.
Now, his thinking had completely and utterly changed.
Looking at this 'loser' shivering on the ground from pain and fear, Peter felt like he was looking at an inexhaustible super gold mine.
A true talent!
As long as he could firmly control Herman Schultz and his battery technology, the commercial empire he had previously envisioned would instantly have an unshakeable, solid foundation!
"Herman Schultz."
After a long silence, Peter finally spoke.
His voice was low and magnetic, carrying a strange sense of allure.
"Do you think robbing banks is the only path left for your life?"
The moment he heard this, Herman was completely stunned.
He truly hadn't expected that this demon, who had just ferociously snapped his wrist, would suddenly say such a thing.
After a long silence, Herman spoke with a bitter expression.
"I... I'm truly at a dead end. I've been to prison for theft at least five times; no company is willing to hire me.
I told them about the technology I possess, but no one believed me. They just thought I was a madman..."
If there were a choice, if he hadn't completely lost hope in this rotten World, who would want to be a master thief chased all over the World by the cops!
"I believe you!"
Peter suddenly spoke.
"I've seen your talent!
I'm also willing to give you a chance—a chance to truly realize your value, to let your talent no longer be obscured by dust."
At this moment, even the wind in the alley seemed to stop.
Herman stared blankly at Peter, clearly feeling his heart beating violently!
"What... what do you want me to do?" Herman's voice trembled slightly with excitement.
Hearing this question, Peter slowly stood up and looked down at him, like a god looking down at his believer.
"It's simple. Just work for me."
"With your battery technology and some ideas in my head, we can build a commercial empire no less than Oscorp, Hammer Industries, or Stark Industries!
I will make you incredibly wealthy, allowing you to seize wealth that 99.99% of people in this World couldn't achieve in a lifetime.
You will be admired by thousands, and those who once looked down on you will only be able to kneel on the ground and lick your boots!"