33: Chapter 33 Superhumans

Inside the package was a cutting-edge smartphone with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo printed on it.

Peter smiled.

It seemed Fury was willing to trust him on this matter.

He took the phone into the Underground Room and began to examine it carefully.

Peter was well aware that there must be tracking chips installed inside.

After finding three tracking chips in total, he finally started dealing with the real problem.

He needed to find a hiding spot for this phone.

It needed to be hidden when not in use, and portable when he put on his suit.

Finally, Peter decided to make an electromagnetic clip that drew power directly from the black, web-like "Parker Blood" energy-conducting lines spread across his suit.

Those lines were essentially a conductive network covering the suit; as long as he connected the device, it could directly power the clip.

After solving the carrying issue, Peter quickly opened a Twitter account and other social media accounts.

However, he had to put some thought into the account name.

There were already hundreds of fake Spider-Man accounts created by fans on the internet, and most of the names he could think of were already taken.

Eventually, he chose the ID "Amazing Spider-Man."

Fortunately, no one was using this name yet.

Peter logged into the phone and quickly posted his first tweet:

"Hello everyone! Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is here! The other social media accounts use the same name, go follow them!"

However, the message was not sent immediately.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. logo popped up on the screen, with three words displayed below:

"Under Review."

It seemed the technicians at S.H.I.E.L.D. really would review every piece of content he posted.

A minute later, the tweet officially went live.

Peter grinned.

With that, he was officially online!

He posted another one:

"I just realized, not only can I swing around on my Webbing, but I can also surf the internet now!"

Soon, the first batch of replies refreshed:

"Holy crap, is this account real?"

"A fake account is a fake account."

"Doesn't even have a profile picture!"

Peter clicked his tongue.

Of course.

Why should these people believe him?

He quickly put on his suit and swung out of his house.

Spider-Man flew past the buildings and headed straight for the Brooklyn Bridge, where he wove a hammock out of Webbing between the bridge's suspension cables.

He rolled into the hammock and took a selfie with the traffic shuttling back and forth under the bridge as the background.

Twitter:

"Ah, new year, new me. Do you guys like this new suit? This thing cost a fortune!"

Peter set that selfie as his profile picture and posted it to his other social media accounts, then leaned back and waited quietly.

"Holy crap, it's really him!"

"Spider-Man is on Twitter?! What the hell?!"

"Quick, quick! Someone hack his phone!"

"Bro, a masked superhero is online, how come Iron Man doesn't have an official account yet? What is this!"

"Mr. Spider-Man, I'm your biggest fan! Thank you for always protecting this city!"

Peter replied to everything he could.

He thanked everyone for their support, accepted their gratitude, and occasionally cracked a few jokes.

By the end of the day, his Twitter and other social media accounts had all surpassed one million followers.

Peter smiled brightly.

That's right.

Life is good.

He still couldn't understand why, among this group of superheroes, not a single one used social media.

...

Peter stared at the screen in front of him, rubbing his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

"This makes absolutely no sense."

"Tell me about it."

Reed also stood by, muttering.

"When you asked me for help, I didn't expect it to be... This is simply not scientific, Peter."

"No kidding, didn't I just say that?"

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Have you tried UV irradiation?"

Sue was sitting at the computer typing an email and asked casually.

"Tried it, no change at all."

Reed scratched his hair in frustration.

"This is impossible! How could this happen? It completely defies common biological knowledge!"

"But I'm standing right here in front of you."

Peter raised an eyebrow.

"Peter, your blood is a bug. Aside from that, I really can't find any other word to describe it."

Reed zoomed in on the microscope image.

The screen showed a single blood cell of Peter's, with the double-helix structure of DNA slowly rotating on its axis.

This equipment was used to test his blood at the cellular level.

"It looks like... it assimilated the spider's characteristics on its own, and only selected the beneficial parts to absorb."

Sue mused:

"It's like it has the ability to filter autonomously, keeping only the parts that are advantageous to itself."

"Impossible! DNA isn't a living thing, how could it actively make choices?!"

Reed completely blew up.

"Damn it, Peter, what the hell is this thing?!"

He roared, threw the notes in his hand into the air, and stormed out of the laboratory with a dark cloud over his head.

"Don't mind him. He just can't accept that there are things in this World he can't understand."

Sue sighed.

"To put it bluntly, it's his pride. But it's normal, he's a physicist, not a geneticist."

Peter nodded.

"Got it. Then... could you take a look for me?"

"I'll try."

Sue got up, walked to the screen, and carefully examined Peter's DNA strands.

"Have you performed a genomic analysis?"

"Yes, the data is all here, but I can't read it anyway."

Peter handed her a smart terminal.

Sue took the terminal and began browsing quickly, checking the data while taking notes on the side.

After fussing with it for a while, once she finished looking through the entire sequence, she finally put the terminal aside and let out a long sigh.

"Reed is right, this is indeed not scientific."

"Your DNA is like... it can actively adapt to foreign substances. It assimilated and absorbed the spider's genes, which is why you were able to gain those abilities."

"You mean... before I was bitten by the spider, my blood already had this characteristic?"

Peter pressed.

"It seems so."

Sue pointed to one of the gene strands.

"Look here. This part of the gene itself would make you possess agility and strength similar to a spider; it has no direct relation to the mutation induced by foreign substances."

Peter raised his eyebrows.

"So I'm a Mutant?"

Sue shook her head.

"No. Mutant genes have very distinct markers that can be identified at a glance. If you were really a Mutant, Reed wouldn't be hiding in the kitchen eating ice cream."

Peter was stunned for a moment.

Sue added:

"Yes, that's exactly how he acts when he encounters a problem he can't solve."

Peter laughed.

"That's amazing."

"In short, your blood, your DNA... are more special than a Mutant's."

Sue explained:

"Let's put it this way, your situation is a bit similar to ours. Your genes mutated into something else entirely. It doesn't count as a Mutant, but it's definitely no longer a normal human."

"Then... Superhuman?"

Peter tried using a term from DC comics.

"Hmm... using that word to describe it is actually quite accurate."

Sue nodded, then fell into deep thought.

"But it's really too strange. Why does your blood work in this way..."

She almost fell into a meditative state.

Peter tactfully didn't disturb her, letting her study it slowly on her own.

Peter returned to his workstation.

On the table sat the doom bots he had "confiscated," now dismantled into pieces.

Studying more of Doctor Doom's technology never hurts.

To be honest, these things are quite interesting.

While Peter was studying, the smartphone S.H.I.E.L.D. gave him suddenly buzzed and vibrated.

He tapped it open and saw that thousands of messages had accumulated on the social media app.

With so many messages, he couldn't possibly reply to them all, so he chose to ignore them directly.

While scanning the blueprints of the doom bots and saving the data to his computer, Peter thought that these technologies might come in handy one day.

After saving the data, he turned his attention to another small problem.

City Councilman Nick Davis.

It was this guy who "lost" the relief funds for the homeless in New York, causing those people to have to sleep on the streets in cold weather.

This guy looked respectable on the surface, with an impossibly clean resume.

But after Peter investigated a little, he found that he owned two beachside Villas in the Hamptons and a vacation home in Greece.

With the help of the half-baked hacking skills left by the original owner, Peter hacked into Davis's private laptop.

Every time this guy went to work, he would use the public network to log into his accounts.

Peter rummaged through the files inside.

There were indeed a lot of pornographic videos on Davis's computer, at least 400 GB worth.

But Peter didn't find any substantial evidence that could actually convict him.

Peter stared at the screen and sighed.

It seemed he would have to use the old method.

Follow him and catch him in the act.

Or install a tracking chip on him?

Just like his future self would do?

Hmm.

That's what he'd do.

"Peter, you'll never guess what I found!"

Sue suddenly spoke, pulling Peter's attention back.

"What?"

Peter stood up, temporarily putting the Davis matter behind him.

"Your blood... is evolving."

Sue said while operating the data pad:

"No, the word 'evolving' might not be accurate... I should say, it is metamorphosing."

"What do you mean?"

"Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But it doesn't spin a cocoon; instead, it uses scattered DNA fragments or foreign substances to transform itself."

Sue pulled up a segment of footage.

"Look, I injected a common cold virus into the blood sample. Watch what happens next."

Peter stared at the monitor.

As soon as the virus was injected into the blood sample, it began to be rapidly absorbed by his blood.

The blood cells directly dismantled the virus, leaving only a small amount of genetic fragments, and the rest was completely "digested."

"Holy crap... is my blood vaccinating itself?"

Peter was full of disbelief.

At the same time, he felt faintly in his mind that this scene was somewhat familiar.

Where had he seen this before?

"It certainly seems so."

Sue nodded.

"Following the line of thought of 'auto-vaccination,' you can understand why radiation toxins couldn't kill you."

"Your blood absorbed the spider venom, first making itself immune, and then converting the spider's characteristics into your abilities."

"Peter, you've ever been sick before?"

Peter blinked, trying hard to search through the memories left by the original owner.

"It seems... there was one time?"

"Since then, you haven't been sick again, right?"

Peter opened his eyes wide in shock.

"Holy cow... that's true! Since then, I haven't even had a cold!"

"Judging by the current situation, you shouldn't get sick in the future either."

Sue pulled up a few more screens.

"Peter, I really don't know what your blood is, but I want to find out."

"This stuff is very likely the key to curing all human diseases!"

Peter swallowed his saliva.

"Girl, that's a pretty bold statement."

"Of course! This is amazing, Peter!"

Sue's eyes brightened, her tone even sounding a bit like she was acting spoiled.

"This stuff in your body can theoretically save the whole World! Let me continue to study it in depth, okay? Please!"

"Fine... fine."

Peter shrugged.

"But please don't clone me. I really don't want to go through that kind of crap."

Sue was stunned.

"Why are you worried about that?"

"Nothing, just saying."

Of course, Peter wouldn't tell her.

Fighting his own clone, just thinking about it gave him a headache!

Don't think he hadn't thought about what he should do if the "Clone Saga" plotline started.

He had even thought of the countermeasure in advance!

That damn plotline was truly stupid.

He couldn't understand the point of that thing at all!

Damn it, Marvel is brain-dead!

Peter left a few more blood samples for Sue, which made her extremely happy.

Subsequently, he started packing up, preparing to get off work.

It was 2:00 PM.

Usually he could work until the evening, but today he had other plans.

In the afternoon, Peter put on his Spider-Man suit and swung toward Felicia's apartment.