Web of Life and Destiny

[Peter POV]

As soon as I got the notifications about a new system update being ready and just requiring me to sleep, I swung my way into an isolated location and made a portal to bring me back home and straight to bed. It's been a while since the last one compared to how often they used to be, at least, so my hopes were high for what I would get.

Before I went to sleep, however, I had half a mind to check the news on my phone and see how Felicia was doing with Big Wheel and see if she needed any help, but not surprisingly, she and Human Torch had taken care of the guy with ease.

"Diana, get the CCTV recordings of the fight and leak them online," I command Diana and throw my phone on the nightstand before rolling over and pulling the covers over myself to fall asleep.

"Will do, goodnight!" The recordings of the fight would be up in minutes and would boost people's opinion of Felicia even further when they see how she saved the Human Torch's life and played a big role in taking down the villain.

Hearing that, I closed my eyes and diligently counted sheep, letting sleep claim me. The next time I would open my eyes, I would get to look at all the cool new features of the system and finally pick a new class after weeks of hard work.

Is what I thought…

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"Umm.. where the fuck…" Opening my eyes, I find myself lying on a giant, densely woven spider web with tiny spiders crawling en masse all around, even all over my whole body, yet they did not make me feel uncomfortable at all, quite the opposite, actually.

Slowly getting up, I turn my sight further from the web I awoke on, only to find multiple large figures staring down at me, all positioned in a semi-circle around me. I remain calm, but it's clear that gamer's mind must be working overtime right now to keep me from becoming a panicking mess.

I let my eyes wander over each of the figures briefly. Most are just gigantic spiders and don't have anything distinct about them other than just looking straight-up terrifying, but there are two who look a little different from the others. One is a giant human-shaped mass made up of probably tens of millions of tiny spiders, while the other is… just a normal human female, not even a large one or anything.

"Uh, hello?" I say to the ones currently staring at me, some with curiosity, some with gentleness, and others with indifference. At least there don't seem to be any negative emotions involved against me.

"Silence, mortal!" The giant human-shaped creature yells at me. "You are standing in front of the Great Totems of the Web of Life and Destiny. Only speak when prompted."

I shut my mouth, not speaking another word. Normally, I would speak up here or say something sarcastic, but something tells me that would be a bad idea. The name "Web of Life and Destiny" is something I have heard before, but I can't say I remember anything specific about it.

Out of curiosity, I try to cast observe on each of them to gauge what is happening right now, but absolutely nothing happens. The system window doesn't even pop up.

My attempt is met with a giggle from the only human-sized person here, a woman who is the only one who has been smiling at me the whole time. "If you wanted to know more about me, all you had to do was ask."

Unsure if that was a prompt for me to talk, I remain quiet, staring at her.

"Aww, being shy? Well, ok then, I suppose that is cute too. Let me introduce myself to you. I'm the great totem referred to as The Bride, however, you may call me Cindy Moon if you wish." She ends her introduction with an exaggerated wink.

Cindy Moon? Silk?

Before I am able to think more about this, another figure speaks up. A giant spider whose legs are connected to the ground below it. "Bride, please, we should get to the matter at hand. The boy won't be able to remain in this space for long."

Cindy bows deeply to the figure and immediately becomes more serious than before. "My apologies Great Weaver." Getting back up, though, she immediately shoots another wink at me. Does this girl have an eye twitch?

The one previously identified as Great Weaver turns its head toward me and says in a deep voice that makes the air around me vibrate, "Welcome to the Web of Life and Destiny Peter Parker, one of many. Be at ease, we have only called you here for a chat."

I only nod my head at the giant figure and give a quick glance at the one who previously told me not to speak. It seems pleased with my choice.

"A version of you exists in every version of the universe, yet we have long since noticed that you are special." The Great Weaver says, "Your body may be natural, but the soul inside does not originate from our multiverse, it comes from somewhere outside, and we do not know how."

"We didn't even know there was an outside." A yet unnamed giant spider speaks. "The Peter Parker in your universe was never going to get powers from us as there was nothing special about him, but seeing the sudden change, we had no choice but to grant you these powers."

"And it is still a mistake!" The giant man made out of spiders speaks, "We should just exterminate him now and-"

"Denied," The Great Weaver says before turning his gaze back at me. "Don't worry about the Gatekeeper. He is just very serious about his duties."

The Gatekeeper clicks his tongue in anger. Does he even have a tongue?

"Never mind that. Peter, we have been observing you for a while now, and there is something we have come to realize. Despite granting you powers, it seems you are weaker than anticipated." The Great Weaver says. "Generally, after being bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining abilities through the Life of Web and Destiny, a human would become unimaginably strong, yet for some reason, the blessing did barely anything to you."

Hearing the Great Weaver speak, I fall into thought for a second. From their perspective, every time a Peter Parker of a universe gains their blessing, they immediately become strong enough to lift cars with one hand, yet for me, it wasn't anything like that. In the first few days after having been bitten, my strength or speed had barely even changed in comparison to before.

"We do have a theory about that, so do not worry," Cindy says. "We already told you how your soul originates from somewhere outside our multiverse, right? Well, we believe that possibly because of that, we have been unable to grant you the full blessing we usually give out."

"So he is useless and unworthy. I'm glad we are all in agreement about killing him." The Gatekeeper says but is silenced by the unnamed spider that spoke earlier.

"Or we could empower him." All eyes turn to him.

"The Other? What do you mean by that?" The Great Weaver asks curiously before giving a quick glance back at me. "Be quick. He is already fading."

Fading? I look down at myself, and sure enough, my body is slowly becoming see-through as the spiders that were crawling on me start falling through my body. What a strange feeling.

I look back up at the giant spider that spoke. The Other it was called?

"I have yet to find a worthy host to give my gift to, but this one seems more interesting than the rest." It gives me a giant grin that just looks creepy on his spider face. "Evolve or die."

These are the last words I hear before losing consciousness and falling back into a deep sleep.

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'That was one weird dream,' I think to myself as I lift my head from my pillow and dig some sleep out of my eyes.

I haven't even had dreams since coming to this world, yet that's the first one I get. Giant spiders and Cindy Moon from the comics? The human brain really works in mysterious ways.

[New Perk Obtained - The Other's Blessing]

Uhh…

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[The Other's Blessing]

All stats gained from level-ups are doubled.

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Note: I wrote a chapter that ended up being like 4k words, so I cut it in half. I will upload the other half tomorrow!

Also...

Alot of people earlier on were complaining about how the MC was so weak when getting bit by the spider, so here's some bullshit explanation I came up with.

The powers never come from the spider itself but from the Spider Totems in the Web of Life and Destiny. Unfortunately, it seems it's a bit hard to grant powers to someone who comes from a different multiverse, so they were just unable to grant any powers to him, and the system is the only thing that ever did anything for MC.