Peter's finger moved through the air. He touched "Yes" even though nothing physical was there.
The world changed.
One moment he was lying in his bed in the dark. The next moment he was standing in his bedroom. But it felt different. Wrong somehow.
Peter walked to the door. He opened it. The hallway looked exactly right. Same worn carpet. Same family photos on the walls. He walked downstairs. The living room was perfect. Kitchen too. Everything was there.
But it was empty. Completely empty. No Uncle Ben. No Aunt May. No sounds from outside. No cars. No wind. Nothing.
'So this is the dimension,' Peter thought. 'A copy of my house. But I'm alone here.'
He walked to the front door and opened it. Beyond the door was just white space. Endless and empty. The house existed but nothing else did.
'The system said 50 square meters based on my Spirit stat,' Peter remembered. 'So right now, only my house fits inside this space.'
He closed the door. He looked around the silent house. 'Okay. I have 24 hours here. What should I do?'
Peter walked to Uncle Ben's small office. Books lined the shelves. Mostly old novels and some history books. Peter picked one up. It was too advanced for a three-year-old. But Peter wasn't really three, was he? His mind was older. Much older.
'Let's test something,' he thought.
He opened the book and started reading. The words were hard at first. His three-year-old eyes struggled with the small print. But he pushed through. He read slowly. Carefully. Making sure he understood each sentence.
Hours passed. Peter didn't feel tired. The system was right about that. No fatigue. No hunger. No need to sleep. He just kept reading.
One book became two. Two became three. Peter moved from novels to textbooks. History. Science. Math. Everything he could find.
His reading got faster. Smoother. The words stopped being difficult. They started making sense naturally.
[Skill Gained: Reading - Level 1]
[Progress: 1/10 to Next Level]
Peter smiled. 'So that's how it works. The more I practice, the better I get. And the system tracks it all.'
He kept reading. Book after book. His small hands turned pages. His eyes moved across lines of text. Information poured into his brain.
Sometime around hour fifteen, something clicked. Peter was reading a science textbook when he realized something. He could remember everything. Not just the general ideas. Everything. Every word. Every diagram. Every single detail.
He closed the book. He opened it to a random page. He looked at it for ten seconds. Then he closed the book again.
In his mind, he could see the page perfectly. Every word was clear. The diagram was exact. Nothing was missing.
'Holy shit,' Peter thought. 'Did I just unlock photographic memory?'
New words appeared.
[Trait Unlocked: Enhanced Memory]
[Effect: User can recall 35% of all information after a single viewing. Perfect recall of information studied intensely. Memory capacity greatly increased.]
[Note: This trait will evolve as Mind stat increases]
Peter sat down hard. This was real. The system was actually making him better. Stronger. Smarter.
He looked at his hands. They were still small. Still weak. He was still just a three-year-old kid. But inside this dimension, he could learn. He could grow. He could prepare.
'Uncle Ben and Aunt May won't die because of me,' Peter promised himself. 'Not this time. Never again.'
He picked up another book. He kept reading. The hours passed. Time meant nothing here. Only progress mattered.
When the 24 hours finally ended, Peter found himself back in bed. The room was dark. Everything was exactly as it had been. Only one second had passed in the real world.
But Peter was different now. He opened his eyes. He felt the same physically. But mentally? Everything had changed.
'Status,' Peter thought.
Words appeared.
[STATUS]
[Name: Peter Parker]
[Age: 3]
[STATS]
[Physique: 0.12]
[Mind: 1.0]
[Spirit: 1.0]
[TRAITS]
[Enhanced Memory: Recall 35% of information after single viewing. Perfect recall of intensely studied material.]
[SKILLS]
[Reading: 1/10]
Peter closed his eyes again. He smiled in the dark.
'This is just the beginning,' he thought. 'I have an extra 24 hours every single day. No limits. No shortcuts. Just hard work and time.'
'And I have plenty of both.'
Outside his window, Queens slept peacefully. Somewhere out there, the Marvel Universe was moving forward. Heroes and villains. Cosmic threats and street-level crime. A whole world of danger.
But Peter Parker had time. He had a system. And he had a plan.
'Let's see how far I can go,' he thought. 'Let's see what happens when Spider-Man actually gets to prepare.'
'Hehe...with this I'll always have prep time.'
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