Chapter 106: Persuading Dr. Lizard

In the dark underground sewers, Dr. Lizard held a camcorder, reading the name engraved on it.

This was the very camcorder Garfield had carefully set up earlier to capture footage of himself apprehending Dr. Lizard. Unfortunately, he'd left it behind after failing to defeat him.

This camcorder was Garfield's prized possession—not just for its sentimental value, but because it was his source of income. In his early days, he'd staged photos of himself as Spider-Man to sell for profit.

Sadly, in Dr. Lizard's eyes, it was nothing more than trash.

Gripping the camcorder tightly, Dr. Lizard crushed it effortlessly into a mangled heap.

"Peter Parker!" he hissed.

"Oh no!" a startled voice echoed from a nearby sewer tunnel.

Garfield shot out from the shadows, his heart sinking as he saw his precious camcorder destroyed. His masked eyes seemed to flare with rage.

Without a second thought, he charged forward, completely forgetting his earlier defeat at Dr. Lizard's hands.

Behind him, Peter and Gwen exchanged silent looks of disbelief.

They had agreed on their way here to wait until Dr. Lizard's serum wore off before confronting him. The lizard gene serum wasn't permanent; it required periodic injections. Maybe after enough doses, his genes would fully mutate, turning him into a true lizard monster.

But for now, the serum's effects only lasted a while. Once it wore off, Dr. Lizard would revert to his human form—a one-armed, powerless scientist.

At that point, he'd be easy to subdue without even needing to fight.

"Ah, the impatience of youth," Peter sighed, shaking his head.

Gwen smirked, "So, Peter, you're officially an old man now?"

"Yup. An old bull chasing young grass," Peter teased.

"Pfft!" Gwen blushed slightly, muttering under her breath, "Not like you're doing any chasing…"

Whoosh!

Peter had already leaped forward, either not hearing her or pretending not to.

Garfield was struggling. He'd been slashed across the chest earlier, and the wound hadn't fully healed. Fighting injured weakened him significantly.

In mere moments, he found himself in a perilous situation.

Peter intervened with a swift flying kick, sending Dr. Lizard crashing into the sewer ceiling before slamming down into the sludge below, splashing dirty water everywhere.

Peter quickly shot a web, yanking Garfield out of harm's way and sparing him from being drenched in filth.

"Thanks," Garfield panted, relieved.

Even from a distance, the stench of the sewage was unbearable. If it had soaked his suit… he'd probably consider burning it.

Peter ignored Garfield's gratitude, turning his attention to Dr. Lizard.

"Dr. Connors, can we talk this out?" he asked calmly.

"Roar!"

Dr. Lizard let out an enraged roar, slamming his hand into the sludge as he charged straight at Peter.

The sudden move made Peter's eyelid twitch instinctively.

For some inexplicable reason, a bizarre phrase flashed through his mind: "A mop dipped in filth is invincible!"

Granted, Dr. Lizard wasn't covered in literal filth, but honestly, the sludge in this city's sewers—accumulated over who-knows-how-many years—was arguably more disgusting and intimidating than that.

It was only because of Dr. Lizard's mutated lizard traits that he could even tolerate such an environment.

"Please, stay away from me. Do you even know what you look like right now?" Peter shot out dozens of quantum web strands with rapid-fire precision.

The strands stuck to the surrounding walls, converging in the center to form a massive web that tightly ensnared Dr. Lizard.

Dr. Lizard was incredibly strong—strong enough to break free from the webs of Garfield Spider.

But Peter was well aware of this, which is why every strand of quantum web here was reinforced, thickened, and heavily fortified.

Despite Dr. Lizard thrashing and roaring, even causing the concrete walls of the sewer to creak and tremble, he still couldn't break free.

Peter estimated that this enhanced quantum web could hold Dr. Lizard for at least three to four minutes.

If he wanted to kill Dr. Lizard, that would be more than enough time to do it several hundred times over.

"Now can we have a proper conversation?"

Peter hung upside down, his feet planted firmly on the sewer's ceiling, arms crossed over his chest. His head hovered about two meters above Dr. Lizard.

"Who are you?" Dr. Lizard's voice was strange—a bizarre blend of deep growls and sharp hisses, like a mix between a dinosaur and a snake.

"You don't need to know who I am," Peter replied. "I just have one question: if there was a way to help you regenerate your lost limb without turning you into a monster, would you want it?"

Dr. Lizard's eyes suddenly widened. Even after his mutation, which had transformed them into cold, reptilian slits, a flicker of excitement managed to shine through.

"Are you serious?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Peter shot back.

"Impossible," Dr. Lizard muttered after a brief pause. "Oscorp has the highest investment in biotechnology in the world. My research represents the cutting edge of this field. How could there possibly be a technology out there that allows for limb regeneration without causing mutations?"

Mid-sentence, Dr. Lizard abruptly stopped.

He turned sharply, staring at Garfield Spider.

"Peter? Peter! You're the one with a beneficial mutation, aren't you?!" Dr. Lizard's voice was filled with excitement.

Garfield Spider glanced at Peter, looking utterly bewildered—as if silently asking, "Wait… is your plan to slice me up for research and apply it to this guy?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "What are you thinking? Just because this world doesn't have it doesn't mean other worlds don't."

"Other worlds?" Dr. Lizard's eyes widened in disbelief.

Peter nodded. "In another world, there's a machine called the 'Regeneration Cradle.' It uses bio-nanotechnology to create intelligent scaffolding directly inside the body, guiding cells to repair themselves. Organ regeneration, limb regrowth—things like that are easily achievable."

"Regeneration Cradle? Bio-nanotechnology?" Dr. Lizard was even more stunned.

He was familiar with biotechnology—that was his specialty. As one of the top biologists in his field, he specialized in cross-species genetic research.

But nanotechnology… yeah, that was outside his wheelhouse.

In this world, 'nano' was just a unit of measurement. No one had even thought to explore it as a technological frontier.

Let alone combining it with biotechnology.

To Dr. Lizard, whose mind was still confined by the scientific limits of this era, it sounded like pure science fiction.

(End of Chapter)

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