"To be honest, your performance isn't even as good as my two students. If you gave them your abilities, they could do much more."
This stung Peter a bit, and he really couldn't argue with it. His fighting skills were genuinely terrible. If he hadn't learned some basic boxing when he first got his spider abilities, his performance might be even worse than it was now.
However, he quickly picked up on something from Marcus's words.
"You said you have two students? You're a teacher?"
Peter looked at Marcus in surprise. He hadn't expected Marcus to be teaching anyone. As for what Marcus might be teaching, he probably had a good guess...
"Is there a problem with that? They're both very smart. Bruce and Selena have already mastered proper fighting stances. Combined with the battle suits I provided them, their performance is much better than yours."
As for Clark—he wasn't Marcus's student, but his godson, which was an even closer relationship.
"Um... no problem!"
Peter felt a bit helpless. He could tell from Marcus's expression that guiding students came naturally to him.
Fortunately, Peter had already understood how to train, so Marcus didn't need to worry too much. Peter just needed to swing around New York each day, maintaining the city's stability while learning various fighting skills from real combat situations.
Over the past few weeks, New York's gangsters had been having a rough time. They'd noticed that Spider-Man had changed—now when he fought them, regardless of how strong or weak they were, they'd be systematically defeated by the spider. It was humiliating.
That said, a strange person had appeared recently. Word was he was some kind of super mercenary who'd come down from the battlefield. That Wild Dog guy had nearly been killed by the mercenary, and these days he was planning revenge.
Other gangsters, even though they hated the spider, would think about that weird man who'd beaten Wild Dog so badly and decide that Spider-Man wasn't so bad after all. At least Spider-Man just fought them without causing permanent damage to their bodies. That made them breathe a little easier.
The two people they were talking about were now standing in Dr. Otto's laboratory, waiting for his demonstration.
With the pass Peter had given him, Marcus and Dr. Otto had become quite acquainted. The two had discussed thermonuclear development prospects and possible future cold fusion equipment. Dr. Otto was especially excited about cold fusion technology. After he completed his artificial sun thermonuclear experiment, he planned to immediately shift his research toward cold fusion.
Because of this shared interest, they'd gotten along very well, and Marcus was regarded as a kindred spirit by Dr. Otto.
Looking at Dr. Otto preparing on stage, Marcus couldn't help sighing internally.
"Soon, we'll witness the most classic scene."
This was what he'd been expecting—watching the birth of a supervillain with his own eyes.
Marcus saw Dr. Otto standing in the center of the stage with a metal harness wrapped around his waist and a metal apparatus fitted to his spine. This was the crucial component that would help him control what came next—four purely mechanical tentacles. Once these mechanical arms were installed, his experiment would be foolproof.
The tentacles were inserted into his back, and several mechanical appendages gradually began to move. They could move freely according to Dr. Otto's thoughts.
"It's working!"
Seeing the flexible mechanical tentacles on Dr. Otto's back, Marcus knew the moment had arrived.
At the venue, many people were amazed by the mechanical tentacles Dr. Otto was displaying. Such flexible mechanical appendages seemed like science fiction to most people—they'd never seen technology like this before.
The whole venue became noisy as everyone wanted to know the function and capabilities of these mechanical tentacles.
But Dr. Otto didn't explain the tentacles in detail. In his mind, they were just tools. No matter how many functions the mechanical arms had, they were all in service of his next experiment—the artificial sun. That was his real masterpiece.
Once his artificial sun research was complete, Earth would enter a new era. He'd win the Nobel Prize, maybe even establish an Otto Prize in his own name.
His excitement affected the four mechanical tentacles behind him, making them sway slightly like real tentacles.
"Everyone get ready—the artificial sun research is about to begin."
As he spoke, a large number of scientists went to work. Today was the test of their research project's results.
The machine in the laboratory's center began to open slowly. Otto controlled his mechanical arms and started his work. One tentacle retrieved something like a test tube from a device, containing a spherical substance.
"This is the most critical component in our fusion system—rare elements. There are only twenty of these on Earth, so I have to thank Harold Osborn and the Osborn Group for their support."
Otto explained while operating. When he finished speaking, Harry, standing in the crowd, smiled at Peter before responding seriously.
"I'm very happy to support you in completing this major project. Hopefully the research won't disappoint me."
"No, this will be groundbreaking research that shakes the world."
Dr. Otto was full of confidence. He'd done countless calculations—there was absolutely no possibility of problems.
During his speech, Dr. Otto placed the rare elements on a huge platform—a device specially made for nuclear fusion experiments. The mechanical tentacles positioned the extremely precious Earth element so it was suspended in mid-air under the influence of a powerful magnetic field, beginning to rotate at incredible speed.
As the elements in the device stabilized, Dr. Otto took protective goggles from his wife and smiled.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please protect your eyes!"
The device activated, and laser beams fired from all around, completely covering the elements from every direction. As the energy output by the lasers continued to increase, the elements floating and constantly rotating in the air gradually began to change.
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