**Chapter 29: The Missed Impulse**

The scene before her was brutally grotesque! 

A person's limbs, ripped off with sheer brute force.

The sound of tendons snapping pierced Gwen's ears violently, making her feel like she was going to vomit.

She held it in. There were so many things she wanted to ask Peter—was it her fault he had ended up like this?

"Wait!" Her shout managed to stop the brute in front of her.

As if discarding trash, he tossed the still-twitching, rotting limbs aside and stomped on the writhing body.

"Hurry up! Just looking at this thing makes me sick."

Peter's once-handsome face was now an unbearable sight, scraped raw from being dragged across the concrete floor of the abandoned building. Large patches of decaying flesh had been torn away, making him look even more horrifying.

"Parker! Did I do this to you?"

The only response Gwen got was a garbled, inhuman growl.

Instead, the giant man provided the answer, pulling out a flashlight. "Impossible, this thing's been rotting for at least a few months."

Gwen didn't even need the light to see Peter's condition; she had just been too scared to notice earlier.

This version of Peter was wearing a filthy Spider-Man suit, the rotting flesh fused with the torn fabric, creating a nauseating stench. Gwen even noticed a beast-like bite on his abdomen.

"This…"

"This is Peter Parker from the zombie universe," Atreus explained.

"Zombie universe? Wait! You know who he is?" Gwen suddenly realized.

"In that universe, a terrible virus swept across the Earth, corrupting all the superheroes and turning them into terrifying zombies. Then they devoured all the remaining humans. Zombie Spider-Man, Peter Parker, was quite famous there." Atreus's voice grew somber. "Originally, all of these guys should have been sealed off, unable to leave the zombie universe."

Gwen clenched her fists tightly, her knuckles turning white under her gloves. "What…what should I do?"

Atreus reached to his waist and pulled out a slip of paper, on which a confidential phone number was printed. "If you find any zombie heroes, call me immediately."

"Got it!" Gwen took the paper, then suddenly remembered another question. "Wait, you said he's Peter from another world."

"Yes."

"So what about this world's Peter…"

"He should still be alive."

"Phew!" Gwen took a deep breath, exhaling a sigh of relief. "That's the best news I've heard since running into him."

At Atreus's feet, the zombie Peter, despite losing all his limbs, thrashed around like a vicious insect, even trying to bite at Atreus's boot.

Unfortunately for Peter, Atreus wasn't wearing Kratos' Greek sandals but boots made from the same material as space suits.

"Do you have anything else you want to ask him?"

Gwen took one last look at the grotesque face and recoiled as if shocked. "No."

In the next second, Atreus's combined strength of 33 points erupted, and with a single stomp, he crushed zombie Peter's head like a watermelon.

As a large cloud of red energy rose from the corpse and entered Atreus's chest, a light screen flashed before his eyes.

**[Congratulations to the host for successfully killing Zombie Spider-Man Peter Parker.]**

**[The host has gained the following attribute bonuses: Physique +1, Agility +18, Intelligence +2, Perception +7, Willpower +3!]**

**[Congratulations to the host for temporarily acquiring the following skills: Wall Crawling Lv3, Radiation Resistance Lv4, Vampire Virus Resistance Lv3, Clairvoyance Lv1.]**

**[The host's peak physique skill duration has been upgraded to 60 minutes.]**

**[The host has acquired the agility-based skill (Rope Control): A variant of Spider-Man's web manipulation, this greatly enhances the host's control over rope-based weapons.]**

It was a huge gain!

Even as a zombie, Spider-Man was still a symbol of high agility, and Atreus wasn't an exception to gaining a large agility boost.

If he had killed a normal Spider-Man, he might've received a more balanced attribute boost, but Atreus was more than satisfied with this outcome.

Without wearing Kratos' battle gear, Atreus's overall stats were now **[Physique 19, Agility 41, Strength 21, Intelligence 17, Perception 24, Willpower 27.]**

With the Kratos gear adding **[Physique +5, Strength +12],** Atreus now had no real weaknesses.

Atreus quickly reviewed his upgrades and looked away, casually tossing zombie Peter's remains into a pile and throwing one last incendiary grenade.

"Whoosh!"

The blazing fire consumed the last traces of another zombie hero who had invaded this world.

As they left the decrepit building, Gwen remained silent.

"Get some good sleep tonight. Tomorrow, the sun will rise over New York like always," Atreus's voice called out from behind her.

Gwen's body trembled violently, her voice breaking with sobs. "I just helped destroy my childhood friend, and tomorrow I'm supposed to act like nothing happened, greeting this world's Peter with a 'Hi'?"

Atreus shrugged.

It seemed that no matter the parallel universe, whether Gwen lost Peter or Peter failed to save Gwen, the two of them were cursed. One of them was always doomed to suffer.

"Maybe this is fate."

Gwen tried to smile but realized she was still wearing her Spider-Woman mask. "Right. Whatever your motives were, you saved my life. I don't even know your name…or your code name."

"Kratos."

"Alright then, Mr. Kratos, let me show you how a New York girl expresses her gratitude."

As she spoke, Gwen moved closer.

Atreus sensed something was off, his rational mind warning him that the girl in front of him was clearly not thinking straight.

Gwen slowly lifted her mask, stopping halfway at her nose, revealing only her pale, delicate chin.

Atreus noticed the clear, glistening droplets sliding down her cheeks. They were Gwen's tears.

"Whatever you're planning, if you go through with it now, you'll regret it tomorrow," Atreus warned in a deep voice.

Yet, her soft arms still wrapped around his shoulders.

Their lips met.

It tasted salty.

That was the taste of Gwen's tears.

But the moment was ruined.

Even Gwen, in her shock, could tell that she wasn't kissing a man—she was kissing a suit. She gave a bitter smile. "I see. Wearing this mask lets me drop my good-girl act and free myself. But you, even with your mask, are still a gentleman."

She was wrong. Atreus's claws proved just how wrong she was.

"You've misunderstood something. When it comes to killing enemies, I'll do whatever is easiest. But with women, I prefer to take everything at once—her body and her heart. I don't leave her with an excuse to say it was just an impulse."

Gwen jumped back, realizing for the first time that her values and the mysterious Kratos' were worlds apart.

After a brief moment of shock, she regained her composure.

"Phew! You gave up your prize, so don't blame me."

"Heh."

With a sharp flick of her right arm, the webbing shot out from her wrist, yanking her body backward at high speed.

In the distance, Gwen's voice echoed back, "Until we meet again, Mr. Kratos. Hopefully, next time, it'll be as you wish."

**(End of Chapter)**