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"Oh my god… I hope those people are okay."
Aunt May and Uncle Ben, ever the kind souls, were clearly concerned after hearing the news.
But in the backseat, Peter felt like someone had smacked him in the head with a brick.
He couldn't care less how serious the accident was. All he could hear over and over in his head was:
"A mysterious person saved the day with webs."
While he was still planning how to get his powers…
Someone else had already awakened theirs.
And they'd just pulled off a public rescue, letting the whole city know that Spider-Man had arrived.
There was no doubt. By tomorrow, the whole city—hell, the whole world—would be talking about this new superhero.
And none of it… had anything to do with Peter Parker.
It felt like being the rich heir to a billion-dollar empire, only to find out right before signing the papers that you were adopted.
Not only were the riches gone…
Now you're out on the streets, begging for change.
That kind of emotional whiplash? Almost no one could handle it.
And even when they finally reached their destination, Peter was still reeling from the shock.
"We're here, Peter."
Ben pulled up in front of a farm and called out to the still-dazed boy in the back.
Snapping back to reality, Peter took a deep breath, gathered himself, and got out of the car.
Trying to push aside his disappointment, Peter looked around the farm. It was huge, though a bit rundown—wild grass nearly a meter tall covered the once-smooth ground.
Still, there was something beautiful about it.
When the wind blew, the grass moved like gentle green waves across the field.
"Well… even if I can't be Spider-Man, I guess I could still make a decent farmer."
If given the choice, who wouldn't want to be the cool and charming Spider-Man?
"Parker Farm… looks like the only thing this body's parents left behind."
As memories of the place surfaced in his mind, Peter felt a little weird about it.
He couldn't remember any Spider-Man movies that mentioned a farm like this.
"Haven't been here in a whole year. It's gotten so run-down… looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
Staring at the overgrown farmland in front of him, Uncle Ben couldn't help but rub his sore lower back.
Hearing Ben's grumble, Aunt May rolled her eyes at him, then turned to Peter and said, "Peter, let's head inside first."
Ben chuckled and shook his head before slowly following them into the farm.
"This place is huge. Even for a suburban area, a property this size must be worth a decent chunk of cash. And people say Peter Parker's a broke kid? He's clearly a future farm tycoon."
As they walked in, Peter finally got a real sense of just how big the farm actually was.
It even took them a while just to walk from the gate to the house.
There were a few simple wooden cabins scattered across the property.
It had been a whole year since the last time they came here.
Even though the house had been cleaned up back then, it was now covered in a thick layer of dust again.
Uncle Ben pointed at a smaller wooden cabin on the edge of the property and said, "Peter, your aunt and I will take care of the other rooms. You handle the storage shed over there. That cool with you?"
Peter didn't say anything. He just walked straight toward the cabin.
"Ben, we can handle the rest. Why are you making Peter do this?" May said, watching Peter walk away with a look full of concern.
Ben just smiled and replied, "May, he's growing up. It's time he starts learning to be independent, like a man."
"In my eyes, he's still just a kid. Always will be."
On the other side, Peter had already arrived at the little storage shed.
It was just a shed, after all—nothing to complain about.
But when he stepped inside and saw all the random junk piled up with a thick blanket of dust on top… yeah, a little part of him broke inside.
"Seriously? This is gonna take all afternoon! I haven't even had lunch yet!"
Peter roared in his head, but in the end, he didn't say a word. He just started quietly organizing the mess.
Thankfully, Uncle Ben wasn't some kind of evil taskmaster.
An hour later, he came to call Peter in for lunch—Aunt May had cooked.
Of course, once he finished eating, Peter had to head right back and continue cleaning the shed.
So yeah, he basically spent the entire afternoon in that shed.
Sorting out all kinds of weird materials and equipment, scrubbing things down, organizing, and stacking them properly.
Little by little, the once-chaotic shed began to look neat and orderly.
And as he cleaned, Peter's memories of the farm—and of this shed—started getting clearer, too.
He remembered that his body's original parents had warned him not to play here when he was little.
Thinking back now… maybe they were hiding something in here?
"Wait—don't tell me there's some secret bio-lab down here?"
Considering both his parents had been scientists in genetics and biology, Peter was starting to think the possibility wasn't too crazy.
"Still, even if there is a secret lab, what good is that to me now?"
"What am I gonna do—experiment on myself with gene modification? If I can't be Spider-Man, I should become… Fly-Man? Cockroach-Man?"
He shook his head and laughed, brushing the silly thoughts away before getting back to work.
Peter plopped down on the ground. "Finally almost done… man, I'm beat."
It had taken nearly the whole afternoon, but Peter was finally close to finishing.
All that was left was a pile of weird-looking metal stuff stacked in the corner.
"Jeez, this stuff is heavy!"
As he lifted piece after piece of the metal pile, he could practically feel his back giving out.
"Huh? What's this… a basement?"
Once the heavy metal was out of the way, Peter noticed something strange.
Maybe because of how old the place was—and the weight of all that metal—the wooden floor underneath had cracked open, revealing a hole.
Peter instinctively dropped to the floor and peeked through the opening.
He could just barely make out a staircase leading down into the darkness. It looked like it went somewhere deep underground, but it was pitch black—he couldn't see what was down there.
"A secret basement, huh? Could it be something my parents left behind?"
Peter was definitely getting curious.
After all, his body's parents had been murdered because of their research.
"Well, whatever. Might as well go take a look."
Peter didn't think a random hidden basement could be dangerous.
It's not like he was going tomb-raiding or anything—how many booby traps could there really be?
So, he grabbed a flashlight, used a hammer to widen the hole until he could squeeze through, and then carefully climbed down.
Step by step, Peter descended the stairs.
Before long, his feet touched solid ground.
Walking step by step down the staircase, Peter's feet finally landed on solid ground.
Using the beam from his flashlight, he kept going deeper into the basement, nice and slow.
"What the heck is that? A dinosaur egg?"
The further he went in, the more surprised he got. Instead of finding some kind of hidden lab at the end of the basement, there was this massive, egg-shaped object sitting there.
But as he got closer, Peter finally realized—
"Wait… this isn't an egg. It looks more like… a spaceship!"
"....."