["Why would you think I'm Spider-Man?!"]
[MJ tilted her head with a knowing look, "Peter! Remember what happened in Washington!"]
["Yeah?" Spider-Man was growing increasingly panicked, but he still tried his best to maintain a calm exterior.]
["That time when you suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason and absolutely no one knew where you had gone!"]
[Spider-Man immediately fabricated another desperate lie.]
["NO! I wasn't feeling well that time! Remember? I had a terrible stomachache and had to find a bathroom!"]
[MJ narrowed her eyes skeptically: "Susan Yang thinks you're working as a male escort!"]
["What?! Of course I'm not a call boy!"]
["Then you must be Spider-Man!"]
["NO! I'm absolutely not Spider-Man!"]
["What about tonight? I literally saw you sneak out of the hotel and then witnessed you fighting that fire monster!"]
[Spider-Man felt a splitting headache coming on. "You couldn't have seen me because I'm not Spider-Man! Besides! The news reports clearly stated that the hero was Night Monkey!"]
[Speaking of the ridiculous alias, MJ couldn't help but burst into laughter, "Night Monkey? Seriously?"]
[Spider-Man knew this excuse was incredibly far-fetched, but he desperately continued, "Yeah! That's exactly what the news said! And the news never lies, right?"]
[MJ set her bag down on the bridge, "Night Monkey! Okay, sure!"]
[Spider-Man looked at her deliberate actions and asked with growing confusion: "What exactly are you planning to do?"]
["Do Night Monkey and Spider-Man happen to use the exact same type of webbing?" She carefully pulled out the strange projector device she had picked up earlier from the alley.]
[Spider-Man swallowed nervously and said with false bravado: "Maybe! Maybe he's some kind of spider monkey hybrid! Who really knows?"]
[MJ stared at him with piercing, analytical eyes, and Spider-Man instinctively lowered his head, unable to meet her intense gaze. Then he suddenly realized something important and raised his head back up.]
["You've been watching me all this time just because you suspected I was Spider-Man?"]
[MJ was caught off guard by his direct question, "Yeah! Otherwise why would I always be looking at you?"]
[Spider-Man shook his head with visible disappointment, "Nothing, I just thought... never mind..."]
[Suddenly, an unexpected beam of light emerged from the projector in MJ's hands, and she dropped it to the ground in shock. Both of them instinctively took several steps backward simultaneously.]
[The fallen projector immediately began displaying an incredibly realistic holographic image.]
[A massive monster composed of swirling smoke and crackling lightning materialized above their heads, waving enormous hands and sweeping menacingly past them. The next second, the terrifying scene completely disappeared.]
["What the hell just happened?!!"]
["I honestly don't know!" MJ also looked genuinely frightened, and finally focused her attention on the projector lying on the ground.]
[Spider-Man carefully picked up the device and began examining it with growing concern.]
["Is this some kind of advanced projector or holographic device?"]
["Yeah! But this technology is incredibly sophisticated and intelligent!"]
[MJ recalled the vivid scene they had just witnessed, "It was so realistic! It felt completely real..."]
["Yeah! Disturbingly realistic!!!" Spider-Man felt a terrible suspicion forming in his mind.]
["Wait! Could it possibly be that...?"]
["The Elementals are all fake?!!" Spider-Man closed his eyes, feeling the revelation was almost unbelievable. He had clearly engaged in physical combat with both the Water Giant and the Lava Giant, but now he was beginning to seriously doubt his own experiences and judgment.]
["But this doesn't make any logical sense! We saw everything with our own eyes! Didn't we? Real fire and actual falling debris! Besides, who would orchestrate such an elaborate deception?"]
[Just as Spider-Man was struggling with these troubling questions, the damaged and malfunctioning projector in his hands activated again without warning.]
[A enormous Wind Elemental appeared in the projection, and the mastermind behind the entire scheme, Mysterio himself, also materialized! An intense battle sequence played out between the two opposing forces.]
[MJ's eyes widened with sudden understanding, "Mysterio!!!"]
[Spider-Man immediately realized the catastrophic magnitude of his mistake and turned to look at MJ with genuine panic.]
["I am Spider-Man! And I'm in huge trouble!!!"]
[MJ looked somewhat skeptical about his sudden confession, "Wait! Are you being serious right now? Are you somehow pranking me? This is 100% real? This isn't some elaborate joke!"]
["NO! I'm absolutely not kidding about any of this!"]
["Because I was only about 67% certain before this! But then why are you here on a school trip? Why are you pretending to be a normal student?" MJ was genuinely shocked when she learned the truth, and countless questions immediately flooded her mind.]
[Spider-Man had to interrupt her loudly before she could continue, "MJ! I know you have approximately a million questions! But we absolutely have to get out of here right now! Okay?"]
["Okay! Okay! I can't believe I actually guessed correctly!" MJ couldn't help but laugh with a mixture of excitement and terror, and then both of them started running at full speed back toward the hotel.]
"It's too late!" Tony rubbed his temples with frustration. He understood all too well the comprehensive capabilities of E.D.I.T.H.'s strategic surveillance system.
Maybe the current version of E.D.I.T.H. wasn't as powerful and omnipresent as the one shown in the screen footage, but she was still more than capable of overwhelming Spider-Man, and could even prevent him from making crucial phone calls or communications.
Combined with Beck's incredibly sophisticated holographic projection technology, it definitely wouldn't be easy for Spider-Man to handle this crisis effectively.
"We should have faith that he has the ability to solve this problem!" Captain America offered a different perspective from Tony's pessimism.
Tony glanced at him skeptically and said nothing in response. He genuinely wanted to see how Spider-Man would handle this dangerous situation. If nothing unexpected occurred, Tony suspected Peter would choose to approach Nick Fury directly with the evidence.
However, he was genuinely impressed that MJ had been able to deduce that Peter Parker was Spider-Man through careful observation.
But when you analyzed it carefully, it really wasn't that surprising, because although Spider-Man had tried his absolute best to conceal his identity, there were still quite a few obvious flaws in his cover story!
The most glaring inconsistency was that wherever their school group traveled, Elemental monsters mysteriously appeared! And Spider-Man always disappeared right before each attack, only to suddenly reappear when everything was completely over.
The Water Giant's rampage in Venice could potentially be dismissed as an unexpected coincidence, but their route to Prague had been changed at the very last minute, and Prague definitely wasn't included in their original European itinerary.
There were also those incriminating photos that Brad had taken. As a normal teenager, Brad would never deliberately try to discredit Peter without some solid basis. He had shown the photos to MJ with complete confidence, but then discovered that the images had been mysteriously deleted from his phone.
There were many people in the world capable of advanced hacking, but the person who knew about these specific photos and deleted them in such a remarkably short timeframe was Spider-Man, who had previously interned at Stark Industries. He was by far the most logical suspect.
After all, Tony Stark possessed thousands of cutting-edge technologies, and Spider-Man might very well carry some of them with him at all times!
Moreover, the accommodations they had received in Prague were so luxurious that they felt completely unrealistic.
After all, their hotel in Venice had been shabby and disappointing, but in Prague, they were suddenly staying at a magnificent luxury hotel with individual suites, and most suspiciously, there were free tickets to an expensive opera house.
Mr. Harrington had explicitly mentioned that the premium tickets had been provided completely free of charge, and that same night a major supernatural battle had erupted outside, so if they had stayed quietly in the theater, they wouldn't have been affected by the danger at all.
When you put all these pieces of evidence together, Spider-Man's secret identity really wasn't that difficult to deduce. However, MJ was definitely an exceptionally intelligent girl to be able to connect all these seemingly unrelated dots.
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