When Peter returned, he tried his best to hide his absentmindedness, but Gwen still noticed. Before he could even sit down and say anything, Gwen preemptively asked, "Did something happen?"
"No, why?"
"You're telling me nothing happened while wearing a 'don't let others worry' expression?" Gwen's single sentence stopped Peter's planned explanation dead in its tracks. He scratched his head awkwardly before offering a new explanation: "Alright, actually, someone found me. It was Cindy's superior."
Gwen thought for a while before realizing he was referring to S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization that was publicly known but generally ignored. Unlike the FBI or CIA, S.H.I.E.L.D. was very uncommon for the average person, primarily because they rarely had any daily interaction with it.
S.H.I.E.L.D. perfectly demonstrated what a truly mysterious organization looks like—it has its own official website, its duties and missions are publicly listed, and it even publicly releases its annual financial budget and year-end report. But because it lacks media coverage and is inaccessible to normal people, most citizens have no idea what S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually doing.
As the saying goes, the best mysterious organization isn't one that's secretive, but one that's open and aboveboard, yet people aren't interested in it and don't know how to reach it.
"Hmm… did he give you a mission?"
"Theoretically, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. are independent, but considering the things he asked me to do are quite important, I decided it was best to help out as much as possible."
Peter still wasn't telling the whole truth. He was still thinking about what Nick Fury had told him about his parents.
On one hand, this seemed like a completely different storyline. He remembered that in the Marvel setting, the Parker parents were CIA agents who were framed for treason. But Fury had told him early on that the Parkers were recruited not by the CIA, but by S.H.I.E.L.D. Furthermore, it seemed to be related to the supernatural; Richard Parker was an expert in genetic editing technology.
On the other hand, although he had been reborn into this universe, he actually hadn't spent much time with his parents. Peter often didn't know what they were doing; they always sent him to Uncle Ben's house whenever something came up, and they never told him anything about their work.
"Hey, Peter?"
Gwen's call brought Peter back to reality. Peter looked at Gwen, who shrugged helplessly: "You've been staring into space for two minutes and haven't eaten a bite of food."
"Oh, sorry. Blame Nick Fury."
The three-day trip quickly came to an end. Peter remembered again what it was like to be an ordinary person instead of Spider-Man. Here, there was no need for Spider-Man to fight super-crime, and occasionally, when ordinary crimes occurred, Peter could secretly stop them without changing into his suit.
Of course, this didn't mean Peter did nothing. On the very first night after Nick Fury spoke to him, he used the Sling Ring to open a portal, went home, and retrieved the notebook his father left behind. This was what Peter had found while cleaning the basement, and the formula for the original web-fluid was inside.
He suspected that other secrets left by his father were hidden inside, but he had flipped through the notebook countless times without finding anything else. Richard Parker's notebook was essentially work-related content, recording the synthesis method of the web-fluid, how to create the web-wings, the characteristics of web-swinging, and the various structures of the silk.
"If I really had to describe it, this book is like a guide from a spider's perspective on how to be a Spider-Man," Peter lay on the hotel bed, reviewing the notebook once more and trying to find any hidden codes.
He knew that the book was unlikely to be a code, as the Parkers left it before heading to Europe for their mission. It was improbable they would leave clues for something that hadn't happened yet.
But what if?
Peter finished reading the entire notebook once more; he was already intimately familiar with nearly every page. Richard Parker had chosen the perfect starting material for his genetically-edited spider: the Taranto tarantula (or bird-eating spider).
Taranto tarantulas are the general term for bird-eating spiders. When colonists arrived on the American and African continents, they found that these hairy spiders were similar to the Lycosa tarantula (wolf spider) of the European continent, so they used the same name. Before the 17th century, people generally believed that being bitten by a Taranto wolf spider would cause a condition called tarantism, where the patient would cry and jump before eventually breaking into a frantic dance. The bird-eating spiders collectively referred to as Taranto tarantulas are massive, growing up to about twenty centimeters in size.
"A sufficiently large body size can support adequate genetic modification. The venom of the Taranto tarantula is not very potent, and modifications can be attempted to use its venom injection as a method of DNA transcription."
The notebook recorded this.
"…"
Peter looked at the passage and considered it for a moment. He thought of something: Was that spider really that big?
Peter had never actually seen the spider, as Kaine placed it on his neck. After being bitten, he immediately slapped it away. Then the spider went straight to bite Cindy, but judging by the feel in his hand, it didn't seem that big?
Thinking of this, Peter got up, opened a portal, and returned directly to the Web Base. Dr. Jonathan, who was busy cultivating spiders, saw Peter arrive but wasn't surprised: "Oh, Peter, you're here."
"Dr. Jonathan, I want to ask a question. These you're cultivating should be Taranto tarantulas?"
"Strictly speaking, the Taranto tarantula is a generic term for the tarantula family. They are huge, which makes them more convenient from a genetic modification standpoint…"
"I want to ask something: was the genetically modified spider my father researched, the one displayed at the Oscorp tech exhibit, this kind of spider?"
"No, that was a Taranto wolf spider. I mean, a true Lycosa tarantula. Unlike bird-eating spiders, they actually aren't venomous and don't spin webs; they prefer to chase and ambush their prey."
Dr. Jonathan shrugged: "I don't know why your father chose the hard way, because the real Taranto wolf spider is smaller, about ten centimeters, non-venomous, and doesn't spin webs; it opts to chase prey. To make it capable of venom injection, he even had to perform extra gene editing."
"Where did he acquire the experimental material?"
"He didn't buy the experimental material."
Dr. Jonathan continued: "He specifically took a trip to Taranto in Southern Italy to get the original sample locally."