Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Luckiest Spider-Man
In Harlem, New York, the once-bustling streets had been reduced to ruins.
Just last night, the battle between the Hulk and the Abomination had completely destroyed 125th Street.
An elderly cleaner with graying hair was working amid the rubble.
He swung his tools, trying to clear a clean patch of street, completely unaware that his right foot was about to come down on a broken piece of wood pierced by a rusty nail.
Suddenly, a strand of white webbing shot toward him like an arrow. It struck the side of the wood with perfect accuracy, then yanked it away with a whoosh.
Not far away, atop a mostly collapsed apartment building, a man in a red-and-blue suit caught the piece of wood. Only after carefully pulling out the rusty nail did he toss the wood aside.
“Mr. Cleaner, could you watch your step next time? I won’t always happen to be around to help.”
“Then again, those special work shoes cleaners wear look puncture-resistant. Did I just do all that for nothing?”
“Whatever. I’m Spider-Man. I can’t just stand by and watch something bad happen.”
Peter shrugged and tossed the rusty nail into a trash can in the corner of the rooftop.
His name was Peter Parker. He was a transmigrator, and three months ago, after being bitten by a Mutated Spider, he gained another identity: Spider-Man.
Super Strength, Superhuman Reflexes, Superhuman Stamina, Spider-Sense, and Wall-Crawling Ability.
He had every superpower a Spider-Man was supposed to have.
A true Spider-Man, not a failure of a man.
Buzz! Buzz!
Peter pulled his cell phone out from the front of his suit.
Spider-Man’s suit did not have pockets.
That was common knowledge. Anyone who had ever been Spider-Man should know that.
An alarm was flashing across the vibrating phone screen.
“Oh, it’s time for dinner. Aunt May made Buffalo-style spicy chicken wings. Looks like my friendly neighborhood duties will have to take a break.”
Peter raised his right hand and pressed the button on the Web-Shooter at his wrist.
Whoosh!
A strand of white webbing shot out at incredible speed and stuck to the side of a skyscraper.
Against the fading sunlight, Spider-Man became a red-and-blue blur, swinging gracefully through the concrete jungle of towering buildings.
Along the way, Peter skillfully dealt with problems both big and small.
These included rescuing a kitten that had climbed a tree and was too afraid to come down, pulling a severely overweight police officer out of a skidding patrol car, and taking a picture with a little boy wearing an Iron Man mask by the roadside...
Three months as Spider-Man had already allowed Peter to advance from a rookie Superhero to a seasoned one.
Were it not for the need to keep his identity secret, Peter would have loved to write a [Superhero Beginner’s Guide].
He was sure it would be a bestseller.
Well... probably.
When Peter had first become Spider-Man, he had also gone through a period of uncertainty and self-doubt.
As someone who had undergone Transmigration and read plenty of American comics, he might not have been an expert, but he knew that Spider-Man was a tragic hero.
Spider-Man’s entire life was bound by a single phrase.
[With great power comes great responsibility.]
But the greater the responsibility Spider-Man carried, the greater the price he had to pay.
Family, lovers, and friends would all suffer misfortune because of his identity as Spider-Man.
Loneliness was something every Spider-Man had to learn to endure.
But Peter absolutely refused to accept such a shitty fate!
Fortunately, his efforts seemed to have paid off.
On the night Uncle Ben was destined to die, Peter, acting as Spider-Man, left the robber hanging outside the police station. He even bought Uncle Ben his favorite Margherita pizza as a late-night snack.
Unfortunately...
Actually, Peter had yet to notice anything unfortunate happening around him.
Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn...
Everything was perfectly normal.
The classic rule that Spider-Man’s loved ones were doomed seemed to have completely failed in this Parallel Universe.
Could Peter become the luckiest Spider-Man in the entire Multiverse?
Peter was skeptical, but he could not help looking forward to the possibility.
After all, no one wanted to see their family or the person they loved die because of them.
“As long as I keep making the right choices, nothing bad will happen.”
Peter Parker, who possessed the soul of someone who had undergone Transmigration, became increasingly convinced of this belief.
Half an hour later, Peter made it back to his home at 20 Ingram Street just before dinner began.
After enjoying a warm and hearty meal with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, Peter returned to his room under the pretext of reviewing his lessons before school started the next day.
In reality, the moment his door closed, Peter put on his Spider-Man suit and began swinging through the skies above New York.
He continued until three in the morning.
The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s busy day had finally come to an end.
Peter stuffed his suit into his already overflowing closet, lay back on his soft mattress, and munched on a cold tuna sandwich. For the moment, he could put all his worries aside.
He soon fell into a deep sleep, his breathing gradually becoming slow and steady.
Then Peter had a very strange dream.
In The Void of space, there was a colossal golden spider as large as a planet.
The golden spider appeared to be fast asleep, lying silently at the center of an even larger golden web.
Countless golden threads radiated from the web, extending deep into the endless reaches of the cosmos.
They seemed to pierce through the barriers of the universe.
They connected countless Parallel Universes.
In his dream, Peter instinctively focused on those Parallel Universes.
Within the gaps where the golden threads connected to the Parallel Universes, he saw countless Spider-Men who shared similar traits but differed wildly in appearance and style.
There were men, women, and even non-human races.
There were teenagers, middle-aged and elderly Spider-Men, and even Spider-Men who were still children.
Everything was so strange and fantastical that it seemed as unreal as a fleeting dream.
...
Ring-ring!
A shrill alarm suddenly rang out, dragging Peter from his dream back into reality.
Startled awake, Peter instinctively raised his hand and fired a strand of webbing.
The alarm clock was instantly wrapped in a ball of webbing, silencing its irritating ringing.
“Phew... What a strange dream... Does getting bitten by a spider mean I have to start dreaming about spiders too? I didn’t develop some weird psychological trauma, did I? Being Spider-Man really isn’t easy...”
Peter raised both hands and vigorously rubbed his face, driving away the last traces of sleepiness.
Then his movements abruptly froze, his hands stopping unnaturally in midair.
“What is this?”
Peter saw something strange in the palm of his right hand.
It was a golden spiderweb pattern!
What was more, it looked almost identical to the golden web connecting countless universes in his dream!
“I have a bad feeling about this...”
Peter gently ran his fingers over the golden spiderweb pattern in his right palm. He could not feel even the slightest bump, only the warmth of his skin and the sensation of the bones and muscles beneath it.
It felt as though it had been there since birth.
As though it had fused with his flesh and blood.
It was completely one with him.
“Could this... be the Web of Destiny?”