Although Otto Parker felt a trace of fear toward Peter's violent behavior, what he felt even more was appreciation.
This was a kind of violent beauty. After becoming Spider-Man, he had also found himself deeply drawn to that violent beauty. As for whether others understood it or not, that did not matter.
Of course, it would be even better if someone did understand.
"I'll give you more time to think it over. I hope we'll have a chance to work together."
After Peter finished speaking, he took the opportunity to look around the inside of the Sanctum Sanctorum. It was not quite like the scenes described in the comics. In fact, it could even be called completely ordinary.
He had originally thought that since this was the basement of the Sanctum Sanctorum, there would at least be some magical items hidden down here.
But after looking around, he was disappointed to discover something.
This was literally just a storage room.
The place was filled with things that clearly had not been used in years.
However, one scalpel among them caught his interest. It looked exactly like the scalpel the system had given him. There was even an English signature on it. It seemed to be the same one.
"I can't believe I actually got to come to the Sanctum Sanctorum one day! Peter, did you know? My grandma said our family has magic. Hey, is that guy with the cloak the Sorcerer Supreme?"
The voice from upstairs reached Peter's ears. Although he was not familiar with it, Peter had already guessed that it was probably the younger Peter's chubby friend.
Ned.
Ned Leeds.
If they were going by the comic universe, he should be the fourth Hobgoblin.
Peter remembered that it should have been from The Amazing Spider-Man issue 18. Ned was a colleague of Spider-Man at the newspaper, and J. Jonah Jameson had assigned him to investigate a new criminal known as the Hobgoblin.
One night, after a confrontation with Spider-Man, Ned followed the mysterious Hobgoblin, only to be captured and brainwashed by Hobgoblin, who forced him to commit crimes.
The brainwashing intermittently made Ned believe that he was actually the Hobgoblin, causing him to act in Roderick Kingsley's place several times.
Kingsley used Ned's connections to form an alliance with Kingpin under the name of "the Rose."
Kingpin believed that Ned was the Hobgoblin and his friend. He came to New York, took Hobgoblin as his partner, and launched a criminal operation that eventually succeeded in capturing his father, Kingpin.
Of course, comics were comics, and movies were movies. As for whether Ned in this world would become the Hobgoblin or not, everything was still unknown. After all, many villains in this universe had never appeared in Spider-Man's life. Maybe they simply did not exist in this universe. Or, more likely, he had not encountered them yet.
"Peter, that chubby friend of yours seems pretty rude. As for this whole thing about him having magic, I suggest he go to a hospital and get his head checked."
When Peter heard Doctor Strange's voice, he almost burst out laughing in the basement. He had not expected this guy to have such a funny side.
Then Peter walked out of the basement, intending to meet the younger Peter's friends.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw a boy and a girl hugging each other. The boy was the younger Peter, and the girl was Michelle Jones.
Really. No sense of time or place. Society was going downhill.
"Hey, now's not the time for hugging."
Peter could not help teasing the two of them.
Startled by his teasing, the two instantly separated and looked at Peter with some embarrassment.
"Hey, you're the Spider-Man Peter from another universe that Peter mentioned, right? That's so cool! You look a little more reliable than him!"
Ned did not care at all that Doctor Strange had just shut him down. Instead, he came over to Peter's side and curiously examined this Spider-Man from another universe, trying to see what made him different.
"That's right. Peter Parker. Although, to be honest, I might actually be even less reliable than him."
Without hesitation, Peter reached out and pinched Ned's chubby face.
The texture was honestly amazing.
Michelle Jones looked at Peter with suspicion and scrutiny. Only after a moment did she slowly say, "If you're Peter from another universe, do you have any proof? Wearing a skintight suit doesn't automatically make you Spider-Man."
During their European trip not long ago, she had seen through Mysterio's lies and confirmed that his so-called parallel universe story was fake.
But now, someone claiming to be from a parallel universe had appeared again.
It was really hard for her not to be suspicious.
Also, whenever the younger Peter got nervous, he started rambling incoherently. He had only explained a rough version of many things, which made her very curious.
"Let me think."
Peter pretended to ponder for a moment, then shot a strand of webbing at the ceiling lamp.
That one shot of webbing completely covered the lamp, making the chandelier sway dangerously.
"Hey, that's really hard to clean!"
Doctor Strange looked at the expensive chandelier he had bought and saw how badly it had been messed up. He spoke with some heartache.
"But I still don't understand why people from the multiverse are coming into this world. Did some weird guy use some kind of device to open a passage between universes or something?"
As a nerd, Ned naturally loved reading comics.
Because of that, his imagination was extremely active. At this moment, he made a bold guess.
"He messed up a spell so you two could get into college."
Doctor Strange did not turn around. He continued using magic to maintain the current state of the universe.
"What?! Didn't you say you saved the admissions officer? How is magic involved in this too?!"
"Looks like you caused a huge mess."
"That happened afterward…"
Michelle Jones and Ned's words made the younger Peter very embarrassed. Although the whole accident had indeed started because of him, could they please stop rubbing salt into his wound?
At that moment, Peter removed the webbing from the chandelier, rolled it into a ball, and tossed it into the trash can. Then he said, "Anyway, the situation looks pretty bad. Since magic brought me here, I believe there won't be just a few people from other universes coming into this world. If this causes chaos, how are you going to solve it? Have you thought about that?"
"We just have to capture them."
"With just you and me?"
"Don't you still have your team?"
"I'm not going to casually let them come to this universe. This is the problem you messed up. Don't make other people suffer the consequences. You need to learn how to grow up."
Peter was very disdainful of the younger Peter's matter-of-fact attitude. Why should other people clean up the mess he had made?
Besides, even if this world was destroyed, it had little to do with Peter.
At worst, he could just use the multiverse pass card to return to his own universe.
He was only curious about what would happen in this universe, and how this Peter in front of him, another version of himself in a certain sense, would handle it.
Spider-Man could not always rely on others.
Relying on himself was the key to solving the problem.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]