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Chapter 18 - Chapter 18: Peter's Terrifying Realization

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Obtaining Peter's spider abilities also made Ryan's mind race with possibilities.

That is, since he could obtain Peter's abilities, could he also obtain the abilities of other Spider-Men?

Although normally, every Universe only has one Spider-Man.

But as said, that's just "normally."

From the moment he intruded into this Universe, the Universe itself was no longer so normal; he was destined to change many things about it.

Since Peter could become Spider-Man under his intervention, could others do the same?

For example, Ben Parker, who is also Spider-Man in a certain Universe.

And Gwen Stacy, who is Ghost-Spider in a certain Universe.

If Ben and Gwen also gained spider powers under his intervention, could he then continue to acquire other Spider-Men's abilities by defeating them?

Anyway, he still has over a dozen Super Spiders left; why not give it a try?

Ryan was a bit tempted.

But he wasn't impulsive.

Ben and Richard are biological brothers, so perhaps they could obtain Spider-Man's abilities.

But the Gwen of this Universe cannot.

The Super Spiders of this Universe had been genetically encrypted for the parker family by Peter's father.

Gwen doesn't have the parker family genes; if she were bitten rashly, not only would she not become Spider-Man, but she would likely die from genetic collapse.

Furthermore, Ryan wasn't sure if a Universe could support two or more Spider-Men simultaneously, besides himself—the anomaly who wasn't bitten by a spider in this life.

In the Spider-Verse, it was because the Super Spider from Earth-42 accidentally bit Miles that the original Spider-Man of that Universe died.

If he turned Ben into a second Spider-Man, Peter wouldn't die because of it, would he? Considering this possibility, Ryan ultimately suppressed the idea for now.

There's risk involved, so caution is necessary.

Besides, his stats had suddenly surged by a third in all aspects, so he needed some time to let things settle.

While Ryan was thinking, Peter regained some strength thanks to Spider-Man's incredible recovery ability and scrambled up from the ground.

Ryan obtaining the spider abilities from Peter wasn't a direct absorption of Peter's own power; it was more like copying a set of data from Peter and adding it to himself.

So Peter still retained his spider abilities.

However, even if Peter still had his powers, the pain was very real!

Peter stood up while clutching his waist, ripped off his mask, and complained to Ryan:

"Good grief, Ryan, do you have some kind of grudge against my kidneys? Why were eight out of ten hits aimed at my lower back?!"

Ryan also pulled off his mask and said calmly, "The more you get hurt now, the less you'll bleed later."

"According to my investigation, at least fifty percent of death cases in New York involving attacks are due to sneak attacks from behind."

"And among those, besides the head and heart, the waist is the area with the highest mortality rate when attacked."

"This is because people generally subconsciously protect their heads and hearts—the two most vital spots—but often neglect the equally fragile and lethal waist area."

"The reason I kept attacking your waist was to make you adapt in advance and learn to protect this third vital weakness."

Ryan wasn't just making this up.

Even without counting death cases of ordinary people from waist attacks, looking across Superhero history, there are many Superheroes who lost their ability to fight due to severe waist injuries.

For instance, the two giants of DC next door, Batman and Superman.

Batman once had his back broken by Bane.

And Superman had his back broken by Batman.

Even Marvel's Spider-Man himself has had his back injured more than once.

For example, the original Tobey-version Spider-Man of the same name once fell from a height and landed on his back while losing his powers during a crisis of self-confidence, resulting in permanent back problems.

Eventually, it was under Garfield-Spider's 'man-handling' that Tobey-Spider's back was finally realigned.

But that alignment didn't last long; during the crossover with Holland Spider-Man, while Tobey-Spider was trying to stop Holland Spider-Man from killing the Green Goblin, his healed back was stabbed by the Green Goblin.

So, Ryan teaching Peter to protect his back really wasn't without reason.

After all, he didn't want Peter to be clutching his waist one day shouting, "My back, my back!"...

Peter thought about it and felt that Ryan's words made sense.

Thus, he accepted the reason and noted the key point of always remembering to protect his waist during combat.

Afterward, Ryan took Peter back to the second basement level and arrived in front of an ecological tank.

When Peter saw those familiar-looking spiders in the tank, he was struck as if by lightning, and a bolt of realization flashed through his mind.

Without Ryan needing to explain, Peter connected all the dots himself!

Because the appearance of these spiders was identical to the photos of the radioactive Super Spiders in the briefcase his father left behind!

Coupled with Ryan's earlier statement that their abilities came from spiders.

And yesterday, while evacuating with the crowd during the fire at Osborn Enterprises, he did feel something bite his neck.

Combining these two things, Peter reached an even more terrifying conclusion!

That is, all of this was actually man-made!

Whether it was the appearance of the radioactive Super Spiders or him being bitten by one, it was all orchestrated!

The person who specifically bred these Super Spiders was his father, Richard Parker!

And the one who let the Super Spider bite him was none other than his cousin, Ryan Parker!

The Super Spiders were bred by his father while working at Osborn Enterprises, so they should be at Osborn Enterprises right now!

But now that they were here, it meant... even yesterday's fire at Osborn Enterprises was caused by his cousin!

After taking the Super Spiders from Osborn Enterprises, his cousin set fire to the breeding room to cause a distraction, and then, amidst the chaos, placed a Super Spider on him!

Given the terrifying strength he had personally experienced from Ryan today, Ryan was entirely capable of doing all this silently!

And perhaps his meeting with Dr. Connors yesterday was also arranged by Ryan!

Maybe Gwen was also Ryan's 'accomplice'?

After all, it was Gwen who invited him to Osborn Enterprises!

When Peter voiced his suspicions to Ryan in the tone of Shinichi Kudo from canon, unsurprisingly, his head received another sharp smack from Ryan.

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