Stepping out of the climate-controlled Dormitory Block, they were immediately hit by the harsh, unique wind of the Northwest. The cold wind carried sand and grit from the Gobi Desert, striking their faces like a knife.
Peter and Lu Lin instinctively pulled up their hood flaps. The two walked in silence until they reached the Living Quarters, another enclosed structure.
Peter swiped his researcher ID card, and they rushed inside.
"Phew, what kind of monster is causing this demonic wind, day and night?" Lu Lin cursed dramatically. Peter scoffed: "Go stand outside and curse it and see if it doesn't fill your mouth with sand." "If you go, I'll go," Lu Lin retorted stubbornly. "No thanks, I'm not strong enough to subdue that monster," Peter shook the sand off his clothes. "You claim to be the rising star of Soil Science and a future Academician. The task of conquering that yellow sand is yours."
Lu Lin patted his chest: "I certainly am. Just wait till I clean up all the deserts on Earth and turn every inch of this planet into a habitable oasis!" "What should we call you then? Green Goblin or Sandman?" Peter joked.
"Get out of here! That sounds awful!" Lu Lin pushed Peter.
The two walked toward the cafeteria, the center of the Living Quarters. The Living Quarters simulated a small marketplace, offering a slight sense of normal life, but few researchers visited it as they were all consumed by their work.
The two quickly ordered their food and swiped their cards. Although Peter's body had been enhanced, his appetite, strangely, had not changed.
It was likely that this "low-grade" energy intake was insufficient to satisfy his genetically enhanced needs, providing only a physiological feeling of fullness.
Eating the nutritious and decent-tasting food, Peter found it tasted like ash.
At this moment, Peter started to miss Kingpin's Particle Collider. The energy in the particle stream was truly "delicious." The sensation of consuming that energy made every cell and genetic code in his body cheer with delight.
"Strange, I didn't have this feeling over there," Peter mused, confused. He recalled that the cookies at Aunt May's and the lunch at Miles's house tasted perfectly fine.
Peter's mind began to race with possibilities. "Is it because I'm not hungry?" That was the first guess. Based on the timeline, he had indeed just eaten lunch at Miles's house, barely two hours ago. He was only eating here now to appease his friend. But even if he wasn't hungry, he shouldn't have completely lost his basic sense of taste.
"There must be another reason." Peter mentally crossed out that guess.
"What's the biggest difference between there and here?" A thought surfaced in Peter's mind. It was the Energy! The energy inside his body! His dimensional travel relied on the mysterious power stored in his genes, or the power of Space-Time.
"Could it be that the journey back consumed the energy in my body, and my body now requires 'Temporal Energy'—not the calories from this food—to replenish itself? Is that why this is happening?"
Peter felt he had stumbled upon the key to the problem. He looked at the food on his tray, a wry smile crossing his face: "So, have I developed a form of Anorexia Nervosa... but only for Multiversal energy?"
"What's wrong?" Lu Lin looked at Peter's barely touched food, puzzled. "Lost your appetite?"
Peter neither nodded nor shook his head.
Lu Lin sighed, offering comfort: "I know you feel guilty, but who could have known there was a spider in the lab? It was just an accident. Dr. Otto said himself it was unforeseen, and the primary fault isn't yours. You'll be back to work soon."
"A spider? Yes, the spider!" Lu Lin's words didn't offer the intended comfort, but they pointed Peter in a crucial direction.
The spider that bit him!
This spider granted him the powers of a Temporal Spider-Man, giving him superhuman abilities combined with control over Space-Time. What kind of spider was it?
He was certain this was only an astronomical research institute focused on Mars. There were no secret underground biological labs here. Why was he so certain? The base was extremely isolated. All supplies were brought in by a known convoy, and everything was accounted for. Furthermore, there were absolutely no biologists among the researchers. Why would there be? No life was believed to exist on Mars.
But now, a radical idea was growing in Peter's mind, threatening to consume all his thoughts.
Was there a possibility... That spider. The spider that bit him!
It hadn't inadvertently entered the highly sealed lab through negligence. It was already inside! Inside that Martian soil sample, which had traveled painstakingly from Mars! When the soil sample was taken out by Peter and prepared for observation, it simply woke up!