[On a busy Manhattan street, a robber was running desperately while clutching a stolen purse, "Hey! Get out of my way!!!"]
[The store owner chased after him frantically, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Stop! Thief! Somebody stop that guy!"]
[The robber was running so fast that he nearly tripped over his own feet. He stumbled but managed to stand up and continue his escape, "Get out of my way! Move it! Move it!"]
[When pedestrians spotted him approaching, they all tried to avoid the commotion. One pedestrian who had his back turned didn't notice the approaching criminal and was struck from behind, causing him to stumble forward and spill his Coca-Cola all over the sidewalk.]
[The thief reached the entrance of a beauty salon when a web-line suddenly descended from above, stuck to both his feet, and suspended him upside down in mid-air.]
["Oh! My God!" The robber was so terrified that he swung helplessly in the air, completely unsure of what to do next.]
[Spider-Man dropped down from the rooftop while pulling on the web-line, and calmly retrieved the stolen bag from the criminal's grasp.]
[At that moment, a woman emerged from the beauty salon and immediately began berating him, "Oh! What do you think you're doing? You can't catch criminals anymore! You're just a child!"]
[Spider-Man pointed at the guy hanging suspended in the air and explained clearly, "He's a thief who just robbed this man!"]
[A different woman on the other side immediately contradicted him: "Come on! He's not even a child! He's at least 14 years old!"]
[Spider-Man attempted to correct this misconception: "I'm actually not..."]
["I had a full-time job when I was 14!" another random passerby interrupted him dismissively.]
[The store owner who had been pursuing the thief also joined the conversation, "My own son is 14 years old!"]
[Several bystanders completely ignored Spider-Man's attempts to explain and began chatting among themselves about teenagers and responsibility.]
["He's not yet mature enough to make such important decisions about law enforcement!"]
[A woman who was parking her car nearby rolled down her window and added her opinion: "I completely agree! Teenagers simply aren't mentally mature enough for this kind of responsibility!"]
["He can't even legally rent a car!"]
["He doesn't need a car! He's been to outer space and fought aliens!"]
[Someone finally spoke up in Spider-Man's defense, which made the woman from the beauty salon extremely unhappy. She pointed accusingly at both the thief and Spider-Man and asked suspiciously, "How do you know these two aren't working together in some kind of scam?"]
[The man who had defended Spider-Man was stunned by this accusation. He hadn't expected this woman to be so incredibly foolish as to connect two things that anyone with basic common sense could clearly see were unrelated.]
["Me and him? I don't even know this criminal!" Spider-Man felt completely speechless at this absurd suggestion.]
[The woman continued her mindless conspiracy theory: "We have no idea what's actually in that stolen bag!"]
[The suspended robber seized this opportunity and followed the woman's lead by saying, "Yeah! We're obviously criminal accomplices working together!"]
[Just when Spider-Man was feeling overwhelmed by these unreasonable people, an angry man grabbed a bottle of green paint and hurled it directly at him while shouting, "Murderer! Long live Mysterio!"]
"This woman... I always say that there will inevitably be unreasonable and completely brainless people who believe in the most inexplicable conspiracy theories!" James Rhodes spread his hands in exasperation, not knowing how to properly respond to what the woman in the sky curtain had said.
"Is this really something that a person with a normally developed brain would actually suggest? Doesn't she realize how many thieves and criminals Peter has successfully apprehended in the past? Could it be that she thinks he orchestrated the entire robbery himself?" Tony felt equally speechless at this display of willful ignorance.
Captain America responded with characteristic calm wisdom: "Unfortunately, some people are exactly like this. They'll believe whatever the last person told them! Only when they personally encounter serious difficulties will they regret the foolish things they said and did today. I've witnessed many such individuals throughout my long life!"
The genuine Mysterio covered his head in shame, feeling too embarrassed to face anyone. Every single time those fanatical supporters of Quentin Beck shouted "Long live Mysterio," he wanted to disappear into the ground. The more he thought about this stolen valor, the angrier he became. He genuinely wanted to beat up that pathological liar again to vent his righteous fury!
The woman from the beauty salon also began to realize that she had said something seriously wrong, but before she could retreat and close her shop door, several people who recognized the location approached and blocked her escape route...
Meanwhile, Director Nick Fury no longer had time to concern himself with what would happen to Spider-Man in the future timeline. He was urgently instructing Talos to gather all the Skrulls on Earth to ensure that none of them had successfully infiltrated the upper echelons of human government.
Many conspiracy theorists firmly believed that numerous current global conflicts were being deliberately caused by Skrulls attempting to weaken and consume humanity's resources, so Nick Fury had to clarify this dangerous misconception as quickly as possible.
The White House situation was relatively manageable, since some high-ranking officials were already aware of the Skrulls' existence, but other nations had no knowledge of this and were applying tremendous diplomatic pressure on him. Because of the sky curtain's revelations, all the international pressure was now focused directly on Nick Fury personally.
Therefore, he absolutely had to resolve the Skrull situation immediately, or his career would be completely destroyed, because as Tony had predicted, many world leaders had begun questioning whether he was actually the real Nick Fury.
Although Nick Fury had successfully proven his authenticity to Tony and the other Avengers and resolved their crisis of trust in his leadership, he couldn't possibly do the same thing for the top government officials of every country on Earth!
Consequently, gathering and accounting for all the Skrulls had become his most urgent priority. Fortunately, after this crisis, Talos had provided Nick Fury with the approximate population count of Skrulls currently on Earth, so Fury now possessed comprehensive data, including information about newborns.
A simple verification of this data would roughly confirm whether all the Skrulls had been accounted for, and this process wouldn't interfere with Gravik's separate plans.
Unfortunately for any potential Skrull infiltrators, after learning about their existence, Tony had immediately collaborated with Banner, Dr. Pym, and other brilliant scientists to develop sophisticated detection technology that could identify Skrulls within just a few days.
Their machine could determine whether an individual was human or Skrull through blood analysis, which completely undermined Gravik's strategic plan to infiltrate top government positions and attempt to control Earth's political systems.
Tony was also working intensively on researching more advanced instruments that could identify Skrulls even more easily and efficiently. Except for the time he spent watching sky curtain broadcasts, he focused on this critical project constantly.
[In Happy's secure residence, Spider-Man frantically scrubbed at the oil paint staining his Spider-suit, but no matter how vigorously he tried, the green paint simply wouldn't come off the fabric.]
["Ahhh!!!" Spider-Man threw away the cleaning sponge in frustration, looked at his hands covered in soap foam, and pulled a piece of cloth from a large storage box to wipe his hands clean.]
[He then glanced at the large container and accidentally discovered that underneath the protective cloth was a sophisticated Stark Industries 3D printing workbench.]
[Spider-Man approached the advanced machine and examined it carefully. He couldn't believe that Happy possessed such expensive equipment in his personal residence. "Oh! Happy must have really trusted me to let me stay here!"]
[The scene transitions to show Spider-Man lying comfortably on the sofa while video chatting with MJ through his laptop. She asked with obvious concern: "Have you submitted your college application yet?"]
["I just submitted my application to MIT! What about you?"]
[MJ, who was lying on her bed on the other side of the video call, nodded with satisfaction, "Me too!"]
["Have you ever thought about the possibility of both of us being admitted at the same time? Plus Ned getting in too!"]
["Yeah, that would be amazing! But... we're all going to need substantial scholarships to actually afford attending!"]
[Spider-Man understood that MJ's family's financial situation wasn't particularly optimistic, so he attempted to reassure her: "You have exceptional grades! All your teachers give you the highest recommendations!"]
[MJ interrupted him with characteristic self-awareness and asked, "Are you diplomatically saying that I'm too pragmatic and realistic?"]
["NO! NO! NO! Well... maybe just a little bit! But it doesn't have any negative impact on how I feel about you! This practical mindset is actually one of the things I like most about you!" Spider-Man raised his eyes and admitted honestly.]
["Really? You genuinely like that about me?"]
["Yeah, absolutely!"]
["Then what else do you like about me specifically?"]
["I really love the way you always manage to stay optimistic even in difficult situations!"]
[MJ looked up at the ceiling with obvious irony and said, "Oh yeah, I'm definitely one of those people who thinks, 'That's wonderful, the glass is half full!' instead of worrying that it's half empty!"]