'Good grief~ that must have been a brutal fight.'
The hotel attendant stole amazed glances at Corin while tidying up the soaking wet bedsheets and blankets, imagining what kind of raging storm could have taken place on this big bed.
Corin himself hadn't expected this talent upgrade to cause such a huge scene. He never wanted to experience that soul-piercing pain again. He didn't even know when the bedding had become completely soaked.
The good news was that after the talent upgrade, the results were obvious.
Corin used a throwing knife to cut a deep, long wound across his arm. Unlike before, when it would slowly heal, this time it healed in the blink of an eye after the upgrade, and he didn't even feel the slightest bit of pain.
Corin guessed that during the upgrade, he had probably already experienced all the pain there was to experience, so now, along with his outstanding recovery ability, he also got a bonus of being painless.
This made Corin quite satisfied. After all, who could really treat pain as some kind of enjoyment.
At the same time, his body gave him a very strong sense of feedback. Regenerating a severed arm would be no problem at all.
After sorting out one talent, Corin thought about whether he should continue improving his talent tree. Suddenly, a figure appeared in his mind again, Alyssa.
'That's right! That woman approached me silently before, and I didn't notice anything at all. That's not because she hid too well. It's because I was too careless.'
'Is there a talent that can sense the surroundings?'
Thinking of this, Corin quickly opened the system shop.
After flipping through just a few pages, he found a suitable talent:
[Spider Sense → Danger Perception Lv1. $1,000,000]
"Damn! It starts at one million?", Even though he was cursing under his breath, Corin's actions did not hesitate at all.
"Redeem!"
[-1,000,000 USD. Talent exchange successful! Account balance: $1,865,000]
It was as if he had been fitted with a radar. Corin's fine perception increased sharply. He could clearly sense even tiny bugs flying past outside the window.
Footsteps outside the door, hushed whispers from the attendants, even clapping from a room three rooms away could be heard clearly.
'Well, it is a hotel after all~'
"Uh… looks like I'll need some time to adapt."
Corin frowned slightly. The cow-slaughtering-level moans of had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever, though he meant no offense. The Manhattan hotel's soundproofing was excellent. If there was anyone to blame, it was only that his perception had become too strong.
Looking at the balance of a little over one million dollars, if this were the old Corin, he might have been celebrating, thinking he was a rich man.
But after blowing fifty million dollars in one go just to upgrade his talent, when he looked at this one million now, there was only one feeling—
'I'm poor as hell!'
Looks like he really had to work hard and take more jobs, and turn himself into a six-sided man in the Marvel world as soon as possible.
By then, when he had nothing to do, going for a stroll on other planets wouldn't that be nice?
Having made up his mind, Corin picked up the landline phone by the bed and was about to call Alyssa.
Suddenly, he put the phone back in its place, because he sensed that Alyssa had already arrived.
He opened the room door, sat down calmly, and waited for Alyssa to come in.
"Huh? Boss~ were you waiting for me?"
Alyssa looked at the open door and at Corin quietly watching her, and asked curiously.
Corin's eyes lit up, 'This sensing ability is indeed useful.'
Just as he was about to say something, a phone suddenly came flying toward him. He casually caught it.
"Here~ I prepared this for you so it'll be convenient to get in touch later. Oh right, I got some news."
Alyssa casually sat down on the sofa, picked up the cup Corin had used, and took a big, satisfied sip.
Looking at the high-end phone in his hand, Corin sighed, 'Having subordinates doesn't feel bad at all.'
Then he noticed Alyssa happily drinking from his cup, as if savoring fine wine.
'Is this her taking advantage of me? I guess it is.'
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Uh, what news?"
"A newly released mission from the exchange. The bounty is six hundred thousand dollars. The target is a Lizardman."
"Oh yeah, it was posted by the Osborn Group."
Alyssa said this without even looking up, admiring the manicure she had just done.
"The Osborn Group… sounds kind of familiar."
Just as Corin was thinking about whether to accept this mission, Alyssa suddenly seemed to remember something. She looked up at him obediently.
"Boss, I already accepted the mission for you. I used the codename Cockroach."
"You have to do the job properly and pay my salary, okay~"
After saying that, she even gave Corin a flirtatious wink.
Corin's face was expressionless—
'Who exactly is the boss here?'
Immediately after, he put on a boss-like air and deliberately said seriously,b"Alyssa, I want to know exactly who issued this mission. Now."
Alyssa smiled sweetly at Corin, completely unimpressed by his act. Along with a flying kiss, she said, "The boss of the Osborn Group is, of course, Norman Osborn. These capitalists wouldn't bother lying to the lower-level exchanges."
Muttering Norman Osborn's name, Corin suddenly remembered—
'Isn't this the Green Goblin himself?'
After asking Alyssa a bit more and learning that Osborn Industries was a multinational corporation focused on high-tech and bioengineering, Corin couldn't help but look at Alyssa with respect.
Corin said that in the future, missions from companies like Stark Industries and the Osborn Group could be given priority. They weren't short on money.
After basically understanding the mission details, and after Alyssa insisted on giving him another hug, Corin walked out of the Manhattan Hotel.
———
When passing a sewer entrance, Corin noticed many small lizards crawling inside through the vents.
He immediately recalled that in a city like New York, Lizardmen really had nowhere else to go but the sewers.
So he went to a deserted corner, took off his trench coat, and revealed the crimson suit he was already wearing underneath, the improved version.
After putting on his mask, he transformed into a noble of the night. Enduring the stench, he jumped down into the manhole.
Expanding his Spider Sense to the limit, Corin faintly identified a direction and sprinted forward at full speed.
When he reached a place where multiple pipes converged, Corin was surprised to find that it was already covered with spider web formations.
"Oh? Looks like I'm about to meet an old friend again."
When Corin recalled that the head of the Osborn Group was the Green Goblin, he had already had a feeling that he might run into Spider-Man.
He didn't expect it to happen so soon, 'Little Spider should still be in his growth phase at this time.'
Corin walked steadily across the spider silk. From the shadows came a young boy's voice, "Don't come any closer, it's dangerous here!"
It was Spider-Man.
Hearing the well-meaning warning from Little Spider, Corin smiled. His Spider Sense told him that the Lizardman was right above Little Spider's head. How was it that Peter Parker, as Spider-Man, hadn't noticed anything at all?
'Still too young,' Thinking this to himself, he spoke out loud to remind him, "Above you! Little Spider!"
———
Peter Parker suspected that Dr. Connors had used a gene serum, and that this serum had been developed using the decay-rate algorithm he himself had provided.
This was also a research result his father had deliberately hidden back then. As for why it had been hidden, the answer was already obvious, it wasn't suitable for humans.
Following the small lizards into the underground pipes, he had set up a large web formation to enhance his Spider Sense and search for the Lizardman's trail.
He hadn't waited for the Lizardman, but instead a man dressed in magnificent crimson clothes appeared. This person wore a mask and was extremely mysterious, yet his noble and elegant presence was completely unaffected even in the filth-filled sewers, as if he were radiating light.
'He already warned me that it is dangerous here. Why is this man still moving forward?'
'And he even turned around and warned me instead?'
'Huh?'
'Warned… me?'
Peter Parker's Spider Sense seemed to switch on only at that moment. A sense of danger surged up as a dark shadow struck, slamming him down onto the web array. The Lizardman completely overpowered Little Spider in raw strength, and sharp claws carved several long wounds across his chest.
Corin frowned slightly as he watched the fierce battle between... two animals.
A lizard, and a spider.
He sighed softly in his heart, 'I was planning to finish it in one strike. Who knew you, Little Spider, would be here.'
Whoosh!
A flash of cold light and the arm pinning Peter Parker was severed at the root.
The Lizardman hurriedly glanced in Corin's direction, a trace of fear flashing in his eyes.
The Lizardman dove away and escaped.
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