9: Chapter 9 The Scene of the Incident

He started to put himself in Colleen Wing's perspective. Her goal was to train the students, so she wouldn't run too far. She needed an open area that was easy to monitor, which would prevent students from hiding and launching surprise attacks.

So it had to be a park, most likely Central Park. It wasn't far from Chinatown, and she had plenty of time to get there. But where in Central Park? She needed a space where she could both hide and fight, while also avoiding interference from unsuspecting passersby.

Peter took out his phone, opened the map, and searched continuously, eventually locking onto a perfect location.

He waved to his teammates: "Let's go, I know where Colleen Wing is."

Aji's eyes widened on the spot: "How do you know?"

Peter just smiled and dropped two words: "Guessed it."

Coaxing and dragging them along, he led the group toward the southwest gate of Central Park. This area had the fewest people and an open field, which perfectly matched his prediction.

Within a few minutes, he indeed spotted Colleen Wing by the fountain. This woman was leisurely eating ice cream, completely unaware that a nest of students was hiding behind the trees.

Marcus immediately began setting up tactics: Aji and Brandon would go up front to attract attention, while he and Peter would flank from behind to seize the katana. Once successful, he would take the katana and rush to the dojo first.

As soon as he finished speaking, Peter scoffed, not giving him any face at all: "This plan is incredibly stupid."

Marcus frowned, wanting to use his seniority to pressure him. Peter sneered inwardly, 'Putting on airs in front of Peter Parker? Do you even deserve to?'

He raised his hand and pointed to the open field: "There isn't even any cover here. Colleen Wing chose this spot precisely to prevent surprise attacks. As soon as you show your heads, she'll be able to see you from half a mile away. You're just going up there to hand over your lives."

He proposed his own idea: either wait for her to change locations, or actively create some commotion to draw away both her attention and that of the passersby, and then make a move—that would be stable.

Brandon shook his head repeatedly, thinking this method was too unreliable, and insisted on following Marcus's plan. Aji also nodded in agreement.

Peter's eyes turned cold, and he directly quit: "Fine, good luck to you all. I'm going solo."

Marcus hissed urgently: "This is a team training exercise!"

"If the plan is stupid, even the best team will lose," Peter didn't budge an inch, "We must distract her first."

Marcus sighed, looking like he couldn't be bothered to argue with him: "If you don't want to come, then don't." The other two didn't waste any breath either and went to find their own positions.

Watching the three of them looking so confident, Peter silently began a countdown in his heart.

Six minutes later.

Colleen Wing walked away from the fountain with a smile, followed by the three limping, unlucky guys. She lectured them as she walked: "You really just charged straight in? Use your brains! Distract me first, then make your move, understand?"

Marcus rubbed his aching shoulder and said dejectedly: "Actually... Peter said this plan wouldn't work earlier. If only we had listened to him."

Colleen Wing paused, a bit surprised: "Peter? He didn't go with you guys?"

Aji sighed: "He said the plan was too stupid and refused to get involved... Now it seems he was right."

Colleen Wing was thoughtful, muttering as she crossed the small bridge, thinking she should have a good talk with this kid later.

Just as she thought of this, a black shadow suddenly swooped down from under the bridge.

Peter landed in front of Colleen Wing like a phantom. Before she could react, his left hand grabbed the strap of her katana, and his right foot kicked her squarely in the abdomen.

Colleen Wing flew backward, and Peter took the opportunity to pull, snatching the sword right off her.

He turned his head to look at the three stunned kids and blinked: "Thanks, you three were perfect bait." After saying that, he turned and ran, without a trace of hesitation.

Marcus's mouth was wide open in an 'O' shape, and it took him a long time to squeeze out two words: "So cool..."

Colleen Wing clambered up from the ground, clutching her stomach and grimacing in pain. Seeing Peter running away with the sword, she let out a roar: "Stop right there!" and took off in pursuit.

Marcus and the others reacted as well, rushing forward to try and stop Colleen Wing, but how could their level of skill stop her? Colleen Wing shook them off in a few moves and stayed hot on Peter's heels. Peter grinned and looked back as he ran—this was what training should be; everything before that was just child's play.

He rushed out of the park, not even waiting for the traffic lights, and cut straight across the traffic. The curses of the pedestrians behind him were all swept away by the wind. Turning into an alley, he spotted the fire escape on the wall, kicked off the ground, and scrambled straight onto the roof.

The chase on the ground had escalated into a rooftop parkour battle.

Just as he landed on a rooftop, Colleen Wing and her group rushed into the alley. The group craned their necks, watching helplessly as Peter leaped and maneuvered between the buildings, all of them stunned.

Colleen Wing shouted from below for him to come back, and Peter laughed and retorted: "If you've got the skills, come up and get it yourself!"

This chase lasted for a full hour. Peter finally landed on the rooftop of the building where the dojo was located, climbed down the wall, sat on the curb, and gasped for air. Even with his spider physiology, running and jumping for an hour was pushing his limits.

Ten minutes later, Colleen Wing arrived with the main group, panting heavily. Peter stood up, raised the sword in his hand, and smiled with a cheeky expression: "I accept your concession; I won."

Colleen Wing was left speechless and waved her hand: "Fine, you win... Let me catch my breath first." The others were slumped on the steps, not even having the strength to lift a finger at him.

Marcus panted heavily and said: "Next time... next time, we'll do whatever you arrange." Peter nodded with a smile; the matter was settled.

Colleen Wing rubbed her stomach and complained: "You kid really have strong legs. It felt like being kicked by a mule; you almost kicked my lunch out of me." Peter scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed: "Sorry, sorry, I didn't hold back enough, maybe went a bit too far."

After all the students arrived, Colleen Wing announced to everyone that Peter's group had won, and even asked him to explain his reasoning to the group.

Brandon confessed on the spot that it was all Peter's credit; Aji added that not only did he find the right place, but he had also predicted that their plan would fail.

Peter shrugged and explained in a few words how he reverse-engineered the location based on Colleen Wing's objectives. The group of students listened with bright eyes, full of admiration.

As a reward, Colleen Wing treated everyone to cola. Everyone sat on the curb, drinking and chatting.

Peter quickly got to know Marcus, Aji, and Brandon. It seemed making friends wasn't that hard; it was just that the original owner's reputation at school was so bad, leading everyone to always view him with prejudice.

Marcus talked to Peter about chemistry, complaining that his grades were too poor. Peter offered to tutor him, and Marcus was extremely grateful. They discovered that both lived in Queens, although Marcus lived in a poorer area.

After school, the two took the train home together. Marcus took Peter through his neighborhood. The streets here were dilapidated, exuding an air of decay. Peter didn't comment, just listened quietly to Marcus complaining about his studies.

Suddenly, there was a shout from ahead, followed by a gunshot.

Marcus grabbed Peter and dragged him into a nearby alley. He told Peter to hide well, while he poked his head out to observe.

Five gangsters dressed in green were waving guns, chasing another man down the street. They were firing as they ran, but the bullets were clearly meant for intimidation; they didn't intend to kill him outright.

Peter lowered his voice and asked what was going on. Marcus told him to be quiet, pointing at those people and saying that was the Grass Stain Gang, the neighborhood's street overlords. They bullied everyone, the Police couldn't manage them at all, and half the students in school had become addicted to drugs because of these people.

Peter narrowed his eyes. It looked like he had found his first target.

Once the street returned to calm, Marcus took Peter back to his home. It was a dilapidated, dirty little apartment, but Peter didn't care at all.

They spent the day reviewing chemistry. During a break, Peter subtly asked around for intelligence on the Grass Stain Gang. This gang was entrenched in a strip club, dealing drugs, loan sharking, extortion, and even participating in gang warfare.

Peter knew he was going to be busy.

After returning home, he started investigating that club. The original owner wasn't a hacker, but understood some computer basics. Peter thought to himself that he needed to learn hacking skills in the future; this skill was essential.

The Grass Stain Gang's boss was named Razor, a tall and vicious bastard. He was the prime suspect in four murders over the past year, with cruel methods. But he had a fatal weakness: he was lecherous, and a complete piece of trash.

Peter had to take down this gang. Too many people had been victimized because of them. To destroy a gang, one had to not only defeat them but also destroy their reputation, so they could never recover.

He spent the rest of the weekend improving his Web-shooters and designing a new suit. He really didn't want to wear spandex; while it looked cool, the feeling of it sticking to his skin was absolutely disgusting.

On Monday night, after finishing Colleen Wing's class and returning home, Peter finished dinner at seven and pretended to go to bed. At eleven, after confirming Uncle Ben and Aunt May were fast asleep, he put on dark clothes, wore a ski mask, and snuck out of the house.

He put on his newly made Web-shooters and headed to the slums of Queens. Marcus's house was just a few blocks away.

Peter climbed onto the roof of the Grass Stain Gang's club and found a ventilation duct to crawl into. Crawling in the narrow, dirty duct was completely different from what was shown in the movies. The music downstairs was deafening, and the names of the strippers were so tacky it left him speechless.

He crawled to a position above a windowless room in the club's core area and looked down through the blinds. A few people wearing only underwear were packing cocaine, surrounded by guards holding submachine guns. This was indeed their drug distribution center.

He continued crawling and arrived at a lounge. A few thugs in green were smoking marijuana, and a tall man with a gun resting on his lap sat on the sofa.

It was Razor.

Peter held his breath and eavesdropped on their conversation.

Razor was cursing, saying Cottonmouth had been getting more and more restless lately, and that those two cousins should take a look at themselves in the mirror—did they really deserve to be doing reconstruction in Harlem? His underlings all chimed in.

One underling suddenly brought up the big battle in Harlem, saying he had seen the Hulk with his own eyes. Another added that there was also a gray-skinned tough guy, and the two of them had teamed up to take down a military helicopter before starting to fight each other.

A third underling was even more excited, saying that a short guy had suddenly appeared, took down the big guy in five seconds, and saved everyone.

Razor immediately became interested. The underlings described it vividly, saying that kid used sticky ropes to choke the other guy's neck and then stood on the corpse laughing manically, like a lunatic.

Peter rolled his eyes in the duct.

Who laughed manically? Who was a pervert? At most, he just felt a little smug inside; these people were spreading such ridiculous rumors.

After chatting for a bit, Razor stood up and urged his men to hurry up and pack, saying the buyer from Mexico would arrive tonight.

After they turned off the lights and left, Peter quickly retreated, following them to the packing room. Razor was shouting and urging progress there; when the last box was sealed, the whole group headed downstairs.

Peter climbed back to the roof and took a deep breath of the cold night air. He ran to the edge of the building and looked down to see a large van parked in the back alley. Razor and his men loaded the goods onto the van, and with a stomp on the gas, they plunged into the night.

Peter took two steps to gain momentum and leaped off the high building. His fingertips triggered the Web-shooters, and the Webbing securely stuck to the opposite building, his body tracing an arc in the air using momentum.

The wind whistled in his ears, and his thin clothes couldn't block the chill, making him shiver. He really couldn't understand how the original owner managed to swing around at night wearing spandex—was he really not afraid of the cold? He definitely needed to get some long johns to wear later.

He chased along the rooftops, following the van to the harbor. The car stopped at the entrance of Warehouse 153, the door rose, and the car drove straight in. Peter pried open the skylight, climbed in, and crept forward along the wall in the shadows.

Inside the warehouse, a man from Mexico in a custom suit was waiting, with a briefcase by his feet and a row of bodyguards standing behind him.

Razor got out of the car, and his men began unloading the goods. The man from Mexico handed over a case: "Your money."

Razor opened it, glanced at it, and nodded with satisfaction.

The man from Mexico spoke up, saying Mr. Kingpin appreciated their cooperation, and that with Manhattan full of military forces recently, it really wasn't easy to get the "goods" in.

Peter, hiding in the shadows, felt a jolt in his heart.

Kingpin??

He was just chasing a street gang; how did he end up crashing into a Kingpin deal??

He quickly pulled out his camera, aimed it steadily downward, and started recording. This was good stuff; if he ever really had to go head-to-head with Kingpin, this would be solid, hard evidence. If that blind lawyer were willing to take the case, the effect would be maximized.

At this moment, Razor suddenly raised the price on the spot, saying he wanted double next time, or he would sell the goods to Cottonmouth.

The man from Mexico sighed, saying they had already paid three times the market price. Razor's attitude was arrogant—take it or leave it.

The man's eyes turned cold, and he snapped his fingers.

The bodyguards behind him instantly raised their guns, and a burst of gunfire rang out. Within seconds, Razor and his cronies were shot to pieces.

Peter held the camera steady, ensuring the footage wouldn't shake, but his heart was still deeply shocked. They were just killed like that? Without even a chance to resist?