Chapter 56: The Kingpin

On the rooftop platform of Oxcorp Laboratories. 

A massively muscular man, built like a giant double-door refrigerator, was gazing at the forest. He held a ballpoint pen in his hand, unconsciously pressing it in and out repeatedly.

He was waiting for the results.

And he was the main investor of Oxcorp Laboratories and the underground emperor of New York City: The Kingpin!

His real name was Wilson Fisk. Although he looked extremely large, he wasn't fat, but incredibly strong! Over 90% of his body was pure muscle, possessing peak human strength that a man of his age, height, and weight could achieve. He could effortlessly toss a full-grown man into the air, break their wrist mid-air, and decapitate them with a car door. In a fit of rage, he could overturn a massive marble table and knock someone unconscious with just a few punches, even strangling adults to death.

As a practitioner of violence, his immense power was evident in his accomplishments.

Moreover, his physical durability positively correlated with his strength. When fighting Daredevil, he could punch shallow pits into brick walls with a tensile strength of 14MPa/2030.53psi using just his bare hands, demonstrating not only his might but his incredible fortitude.

Furthermore, he was a master of hand-to-hand combat. Even Daredevil, highly skilled in martial arts, was at a disadvantage when first battling the Kingpin.

However, this underground dark emperor's eyes were full of gloom at the moment.

The reason he spent vast sums to have Doctor Octopus research and build a particle collider was because he wanted to find his deceased wife Vanessa and son Richard Fisk from a parallel universe.

They had witnessed him fighting Spider-Man and fled home, unable to accept what they saw, but tragically died in a car accident, leaving him forever.

He simply wanted to find his wife and son. What was so wrong about that?

But why did that damn Spider-Man insist on stopping him?

No, more than one!

It turned out that the blond Spider-Man named Peter Parker had been killed by him a few days ago!

But why did two more appear in the laboratory just now? 

One big and one small, the larger one was nearly identical to the Spider-Man he had killed, except for the large belly!

The Kingpin looked calm now, but he was a volcano about to erupt.

He was furious.

Snap.

At that moment, two white fluid mechanical tentacles were placed on the platform glass, and Doctor Octopus's figure slowly rose up from below, standing in front of the Kingpin.

Tombstone, standing beside the Kingpin, took out a pair of Desert Eagle handguns and pointed them at Doctor Octopus.

This was the first time Doctor Octopus had shown such an offensive weapon in front of them. As the Kingpin's loyal henchman, he naturally had to make a show of force.

But before he could raise his gun's muzzle, one of Doctor Octopus's mechanical tentacles had already constricted his neck.

Doctor Octopus simply ignored the minor threat of Tombstone, using her mechanical tentacles to lift herself up parallel to the Kingpin's height.

The Kingpin chose to ignore Doctor Octopus's menacing appearance. In fact, he didn't care about it.

Because he knew what Doctor Octopus wanted.

Research funding, among many other conveniences.

This was the greatest temptation for a mad scientist.

And he happened to have it in abundance.

He never trusted his subordinates, only believing in self-interest.

The Kingpin said solemnly, "I clearly killed Spider-Man, why are there two more now?"

Doctor Octopus smiled and held up three fingers, "To be precise, three."

"Huh?" The Kingpin's face darkened.

Doctor Octopus explained, "No, this is a good thing, a very, very good thing. It means your goal has been achieved, and my collider has worked. What we need to do now is kill those spiders, and then your family will be able to return to you. You can have as many as you want."

The Kingpin silently stared at Doctor Octopus for a while, then uttered two words, "Very good."

He motioned for Tombstone to put away his pistols, then turned to leave. "Start up my collider tomorrow." 

"It's our collider," Doctor Octopus corrected.

---

Back on the bus in Queens.

Seeing the young Gwen reminded Amazing Spider-Man B of some unpleasant memories, leaving him feeling a bit depressed for the moment. 

At this time, Miles noticed the young and beautiful Spider-Gwen and started getting interested.

So, under his guidance, the two began conversing.

During the chat, Spider-Gwen learned about their purpose for coming here, as well as about the reboot key and Peter's plan to meet up at Aunt May's house.

Spider-Gwen was still a bit surprised, "Didn't the news say this world's Spider-Man was dead?"

"Yes, he is Peter, but not the Peter of this world. Probably just like you guys, it's all because of that collider that he came over. It's just that you came with your physical body, while he manifested in Peter's body as a consciousness," Miles carefully explained, portraying Peter in the best light to get on Spider-Gwen's good side.

Spider-Gwen pondered this thoughtfully.

---

Oxcorp was a considerable distance from Queens. Although Peter had arranged to meet up at Aunt May's house, he never said he would wait for them to come together.

In fact, as he neared Aunt May's home, he regained some new memory fragments.

Afterward, he determined that this blond Peter's private base was located underneath Aunt May's house!

Moreover, it was bigger than he had imagined!

Aunt May wasn't home, and Peter could also sense through his spider-sense that someone was watching nearby.

However, Peter ignored it. These people were either Spider-Man's past enemies or news media - the exposure of the blond Peter's identity and the heat surrounding this incident caused them to swarm like sharks smelling blood.

With time and energy intake, this body had gradually recovered to about 80% of its peak condition.

It was stronger than the body in Peter's own world.

This was normal. The blond Spider-Man was already 26 years old this year, almost reaching the prime of an adult male body, while Peter's own body was only 15 and hadn't even fully developed yet.

Clinical medicine shows that male physiological development is relatively sound only when they are 18 to 20 years old, but there is still some room for improvement after that.

But Peter wasn't worried.

His future ceiling was definitely higher than that of the blond Spider-Man.

Because not only did he still have more than ten years of physical development ahead, but he could also acquire their abilities by merging with Spider-Men from other worlds and constantly evolve himself.

Relying on his excellent stealth skills and his heightened awareness of the surrounding environment when his spider-sense was fully activated, Peter successfully avoided all prying eyes and ears, arriving at a small wooden house in Aunt May's backyard.

(End of chapter)