Chapter 1545: The Sun Chaser (Six)_1

In the pitch-black night, a bright moon hung high in the sky, its light cast on the wooden window lattices reflecting a cold gleam. A middle-aged man wearing glasses sat in front of the window reading a news draft. With one hand, he held a telephone, speaking to the person on the other end.

"Don't worry, The New York Times isn't some unheard news outlet. Our online media has tremendous influence. Since going online, we've gathered over two million subscribers, the most for any conventional media official account, covering more than twenty states."

"In the next issue of our e-newsletter, we've arranged two political commentators to have a debate. The topic is 'How ordinary people can protect themselves in an environment filled with superheroes'."

"One commentator will launch a ferocious attack on the anti-gun faction, while arguing that guns are used against ordinary people. People must hold more powerful firearms to possibly escape from superheroes, and he will criticize that candidate as being irresponsible for people's safety by limiting weapons..."

"But I think the antagonism between ordinary people and superheroes could be further intensified. After all, if everyone starts shooting at superheroes on sight, bullets would sell better."

"Oh right, and those food preservatives salesmen preaching the Doomsday theory. If we could contact them, we could arrange an issue on 'How ordinary people can establish strongholds in case superheroes seize the world'."

Just then, the middle-aged man noticed a burst of red light flashing off the draft paper on his desk.

He was startled, his hand shaking and the phone dropped to the floor. Turning around, he saw a teleportation portal glowing red.

A dark figure emerged from the portal. He raised his gun, fired, and killed with a single headshot. He then turned and walked back into the portal. The whole process was swift and left no trace.

On the other side of the portal lay the spacious and bright Spider Army Hall, alongside a Spider-Man standing dumbfounded at the scene.

"You just killed him like that?! Shadow Spider-man, this is too... too..." Spider-Man's hand flailed in the air, seemingly lost for words.

"Go find your Mr. Stark. Stop following me." Shadow Spider-man nonchalantly waved his hand and said. "Or you could go watch airplanes take off at the airport, you should enjoy that."

"How do you know... I mean, Mr. Stark left with Eddie. They said they had to make some documentary, and I saw you keep summoning these portals, so I came to see, you... you..."

"Don't obstruct my mission." Shadow Spiderman walked past him, glanced at the list in his hand, and again opened a portal and walked through. In a short while, he returned, covered in the stench of blood.

That same night, George rushed to the police station only to find eight murder cases, all with nearly identical modus operandi, laid in front of him, each victim more significant than the last.

The first three cases were media workers. Although they held some social prestige, they were not of great importance. The next three were military personnel, and the last two were heavyweight figures. One was a congressperson, and the other was the president of the New York division of the energy giant, Roxon Corporation.

Now, all hell had broken loose. The New York Police Department received at least a thousand calls in six hours, everyone asking who is responsible. But George couldn't tell them it was the spirit of Spider-Man.

George honestly didn't despise Spider-Man. His attitude was shaped by the immature 'Little Spider' causing some chaos when he first emerged. However, the Spider-Man of this universe didn't do street heroics for long. Without finishing his street crime fighting, he was brought into a lab to work.

So, his disagreement with George never escalated to irreconcilable hostility. The reason George had a worse attitude towards Spider-Man than other superheroes was because Spider-Man seemed younger. George believed he was setting a bad example for other young people, including his daughter.

In his heart of hearts, George felt some regret for the passing of the first generation Spider-Man. The thought of a young man around his daughter's age, with family waiting for him at home, unable to return, surrounded by this tragic event, caused George, like others, to sigh in sorrow.

However, the Spider-Man in death did not get the hero's treatment that he deserved. Going in and out of public favor, his successors had an even worse reputation. For a long time, Spider-Man became synonymous with hypocrisy, exaggeration, and affectation, almost becoming a public nuisance.

Sometimes George wonders whether Spider-Man never stepped forward to clear his name or argue because he felt guilty, but it could also be possible that he was gathering strength to execute the final verdict.

Based on George's experience solving crimes, it is possible for one or two identical murder cases to leave no trace. But now they had a total of ten identical murders, each similar to the last, without leaving any evidence behind. How could this not lead him to think of mystic reasons?

As the chief of the New York Police Department, George had some knowledge of the mystic world, as he had previously dealt with some mages who caused chaos due to their lack of understanding of societal rules. He had experienced the magic's wonder whilst resolving these issues.