Chapter 1336: Interstellar Grand Stage (43)_2

Peter glanced at Aunt May with some worry, intending to accompany her, but Aunt May pushed his arm away and said, "Go on, Peter, stay with your friends. I'll be fine."

Watching Aunt May leave with the receptionist, Peter let out a sigh. Almost instantly, he felt a wave of exhaustion, and a plethora of fantasies flickered in his mind, causing his thoughts to swirl.

However, Peter didn't have the luxury of letting his mind wander aimlessly. He needed to figure out where he was and what he should do to save his world.

Peter hurried to catch up with Nick Fury and followed him into an office. Nick returned to the filing cabinets to source some data. Standing behind him, Peter peered and asked, "Director, where are we? What are you doing? How can I help?"

"This isn't something you're cut out for. Go back to the Central Universe and continue your experiments," Nick replied without turning his head.

Peter understood what he meant. Among the Spider-Men, the universe where Shiller resided was referred to as the "Central Universe." Some also called it the Universe Headquarters, where the Spider Legion relocated.

This arrangement had its pros and cons. Shiller's universe hung outside the barrier of the Marvel Universe, and the Spider-Men had to traverse the barrier to move between universes in the Multiverse, which expended more energy and required time to decipher maps.

However, the advantage was that anyone pursuing you would have no means to catch you once you dived into that passageway, as it led to the Temple of Eternity. No one apart from those on Eternity's whitelist could leave the temple. This was how Conqueror Kang was trapped, with the pursuit effectively ceased.

If he had stayed in the sanatorium, Peter might have had the patience to wait it out. But having returned to his universe once and witnessed the chaotic state, he could no longer sit still. He stepped forward, holding his hand out to Nick, saying, "But Director, I need to save my universe. People are dying! I can't move my hands doing nothing!"

"As I said, you can't handle this, because you don't kill," Nick, holding a document, sat back down before adding, "You may think that my coldness towards you implies I don't like you, but that's not it. This is how agents work. If you can't even adapt to this, how are you supposed to carry forward intelligence operations between galaxies and universes?"

Peter's mouth fell open in surprise. "So this is... the headquarters for spies?"

"This is the Time Management Bureau base in the Central Universe, and also the extraterritorial intelligence headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Nick said as he went through the documents.

"...so the two Spider-Men we encountered earlier are spies?" Peter, sitting down opposite Nick, clasped one hand with the other and asked, "They're actually interstellar spies?"

Watching Peter's expression of curiosity, surprise, and dilemma, Nick laid down the materials at hand and turned to Peter. "In a way, yes. Their job is to ensure that children like you can live within your ivory towers without dealing with such matters."

"But they are also Spider-Men…" Peter said with some hesitation.

"There are all kinds of Spider-Men in the multiverse," responded Nick, almost patiently. He stood and poured himself a cup of water before continuing, "Not every Spider-Man is as innocent, noble, and non-killing as you."

Recalling the decisive way Scarlet Spider-Man Cain murdered, Peter swallowed hard, saying uneasily, "I probably can't be of much help in that regard. I've never killed anyone, don't really know how to, and don't have the will to."

"That's why I've been saying you should return to the lab. Focus on your experiments and produce some results. There's no need to worry about what happens here; different Spider-Men have different missions."

This was the work that Nick had been carrying out. While Spider-Men were almost endless in the infinite multiverse, not every Spider-Man was Peter Parker, and not every Spider-Man belonged to the pure good faction. There are bound to be outliers among the numerous universes.

The Shadow Spider-Man, for instance, was one of the few Spider-Men who had killed before. He usually used a revolver to get the job done. Scarlet Spider-Man Cain was one of the clone bodies from a universe's Peter Parker, but due to instabilities, he was always portrayed as a villain. It wasn't until the assembly against the Morlun family that his mental state improved slightly. He was also capable of killing.

Though such Spider-Men were not many, because of the vast number of universes, Nick Fury managed to gather a significant number of Spider-Men and selected about a dozen chaos-aligned Spider-Men to join the Time Management Bureau.

Nick then struck a secret deal with one of the Ancient Ones who managed the bureau and established an overseas branch of S.H.I.E.L.D.

However, since Supreme Kang was working at the Holy Sanctuary, and Mobius and B15 were grateful to Loki for taking on Conqueror Kang alone and saving them, they considered Loki one of them. Thus, in reality, the controller of the Time Management Bureau of this universe was Nick Fury.

Moreover, due to the chaos stirred up by Conqueror Kang, the abstract entities from various universes in the multiverse carried out an eradication operation against Kang. Many Kangs from other universes were exterminated, leaving the Time Management Bureau ownerless. Nick seized this opportunity, inherited the equipment and personnel of the Bureau, and established branches of S.H.I.E.L.D. in several universes.

Nick let out another sigh, sat back down at his desk to read through the documents, and muttered to himself, "It seems Shiller is almost ready on his end, or else he wouldn't have cared about my progress here. Now there's only one problem left... where on earth is Tony Stark..."

Still somewhat dazed, Peter instinctively asked, "What happened to Mr. Stark?"

"Nothing... Why are you still standing there? If you don't get back soon, be careful, Doctor Shiller might dock your score."

A chill ran down Peter's spine. He immediately stood up to leave, but he soon turned back to Nick looking distressed, saying, "But I'm in a hurry! My universe is about to be destroyed!"

"Every universe is bound to be destroyed, just not now." Nick looked up at Peter, who wore a devastated expression on his face. Even the serious and ruthless King of Special Agents sighed in exasperation and said begrudgingly, "Alright. For Shiller's sake, go out, turn right, then left. The second office is Loki's. He might be able to help."