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This made Peter realize one fact.
That no matter how strong he became, in this house, he was still just a younger brother!
And his cousin was the towering mountain he could never surpass!
However, Peter didn't hate the feeling of having an insurmountable mountain ahead of him; on the contrary, he quite enjoyed it.
Since he couldn't cross over it, he might as well turn around and lean against the mountain to rest!
After all, what was bad about having a great mountain to help shield you from the wind and rain?
Besides, if you did cross over, who's to say the other side of the mountain wouldn't be a bottomless abyss?
Having regained his composure, Peter now became curious about the source of his abilities.
Because of Ryan's similarly superhuman performance earlier, a flash of inspiration struck Peter's mind, and he guessed:
"I know, Ryan! This is the awakening of our ancestral bloodline, right? Our family actually has a hidden talent from ancient ancestors, and we just happened to awaken it. Am I right?"
"Right... right as your uncle's smelly leather shoes!"
Ryan reached out again, flicking two fingers against Peter's forehead. "I told you not to watch so much anime. 'Bloodline awakening'? We're in America, not Japan. What kind of ancestral bloodline could we possibly awaken?"
"The ancestral bloodline of a professional cotton gin repairman?"
After lecturing the chuunibyou Peter, Ryan walked to a wall and pressed his hand against it.
With a beep, the wall parted in the middle, revealing yet another downward entrance.
Peter was stunned by the sight.
A basement within the Underground Room?
How did he not know his house had such a place?
When did Ryan dig this?
But Ryan obviously had no intention of explaining this trivial question to Peter and had already started walking down on his own.
Peter could only suppress the doubts in his heart and follow him down.
The area below was even more of a hidden paradise.
Unlike the gym above, the lower level was a laboratory that was not at all inferior to Dr. Connors' lab, filled with all sorts of precious research equipment.
But Peter's gaze didn't land on the expensive research equipment first; instead, he stared straight at a glass display wall showcasing several suits!
Peter unconsciously walked up to the display wall, reaching out to touch the glass, moving from left to right across each suit.
In order:
The first was a 'Thug Set' consisting of a simple black robber's mask, black sunglasses, a dark red hoodie, black cargo pants, and black boots.
This was the set Ryan put together randomly when he 'debuted' to hide his identity, preventing exposure and retaliation from the outlaws in Hells Kitchen.
The second was a major upgrade; not only did it change from a mismatched outfit to a pure black one-piece skin-tight suit, but the material also received a massive boost, changing from ordinary fabric to elastic spandex fiber.
This was the first truly functional suit Ryan made himself using the money Kingpin laundered for him after he officially became an underground Hired Assassin.
The third was the suit Ryan was currently using, which was the black and red suit he wore when he wiped out the Rath Gang last time.
This one wasn't self-made; he had it custom-made by someone in the underground World.
This suit was not only more professional in its craftsmanship than his self-made one,
But the material had also undergone a major upgrade based on the second version, using Composite Bulletproof Nylon Material that could resist the penetration of small-caliber firearms.
In terms of color, it changed from the solid black of the second version to scarlet for most parts—except for the head, shoulders, and gloves, which remained black—and it featured a black spider icon on the chest representing his identity!
The suit's functions also saw a massive upgrade; besides the bulletproof material, it was waterproof, heat-retaining, self-drying, somatosensory-enhancing, temperature-adjusting, and featured thermal imaging in the eyes.
Though it wasn't as advanced as the Nano Spider Suit Tony Stark would create later, it could still be called a piece of pure black technology!
And this single suit alone had cost Ryan nearly ten million dollars!
If these functions hadn't actually been worth the price, Ryan would have wanted to crush the underground designer's head the moment he heard the quote!
Making money this way was faster than him robbing other criminals!
Furthermore, it was a seller's market with no supply!
Because that designer only made custom suits for assassins who had made a name for themselves; ordinary assassins didn't even have the right to meet him, let alone commission a suit!
If Ryan hadn't already carved out the title of 'venom' in the assassin World and had Kingpin as a middleman, they wouldn't have made it for him even if he had ten million!
This was also why Ryan worked hard to take missions for money and maintained a decent relationship with Kingpin despite knowing he wasn't a good person.
Because sometimes, not having money or connections really won't do... And when Peter turned his gaze to the fourth suit on the display wall, the final one, he could no longer look away.
It was a red and blue suit, largely similar in design to the third suit, yet with subtle differences.
For instance, the third suit had no extra patterns other than the spider logo on the chest.
But this red and blue suit, in addition to the spider logo, had many web-like patterns added to the upper body design!
And in terms of color, unlike the morally ambiguous black and scarlet combination of the third suit, this one—while still having red—was a comfortable bright red, paired with a blue that villains rarely used.
It looked very heroic at a glance!
Aside from that, the biggest difference was that this suit was clearly more than one size smaller than the previous three!
This didn't look like a suit that Ryan's two-meter-tall muscular frame could fit into; instead, it looked more like...
Peter suddenly turned to look at Ryan, his breathing quickening as he asked, "Ryan, could this be..."
Ryan had been leaning against the wall, quietly watching Peter inspect each suit. It wasn't until Peter reached the fourth suit and asked him that Ryan reached out and used his palm print to open the glass display for the fourth suit, smiling:
"What are you standing there for? You don't think I can fit into this suit, do you? My size isn't as small as yours~"
Hearing this, amidst his touched emotions, a layer of black lines appeared on Peter's forehead.
Jokes are jokes, but don't mess around with size!
His size wasn't small, okay!
But immediately, Peter remembered when he and his cousin had a contest as kids to see who could pee the furthest; his cousin's 'high-pressure water gun' made him fall silent again.
Oh no, it seems I've encountered an irrefutable problem!