Chapter 59: Eight O'Clock: Clues

Iron Man, clad in the Mark 33 armor, flew outside the area enveloped by Mysterio. The moment he entered Mysterio's illusion zone, he wouldn't be able to see anything inside and would have to slow down. But slowing down would make him vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles—he was currently locked onto by those missiles.

[Warning: Orion III anti-aircraft missile lock detected. Evasive maneuvers recommended.]

"Damn it, those are my missiles!" Tony Stark gritted his teeth. Now he understood why those missiles could perfectly predict his flight path, and he also understood Mysterio's meaningful remark, "You know better than anyone."

"Hack into the system, J.A.R.V.I.S."

[Hacking failed. Unknown programming language overlay detected.]

"Then don't hack the launch program. Rewrite the booster acceleration program. That section of code is chained to other parts; it can't be independently overwritten!"

The Iron Man suit hovered high in the sky. Meanwhile, bad news came from J.A.R.V.I.S.: Spider-Man's suit communication function had been destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse.

"Cap? Watch out for their drones carrying EMPs. You'll be blind if you get hit." Tony felt a surge of irritation. "Can't you track the signal sources of these projectors, J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

[At current distance, interference sources cannot be excluded.]

On the other side, Captain America, having received the message, put on his goggles and took the elevator to the ground floor. After answering with a "Copy that," he saw the scene as the elevator doors opened and couldn't help but shake his head.

"What's wrong, Steve?"

Before him was a 1945 officers' club. A gramophone played "Moonlight Bay," and Peggy Carter, wearing her familiar wine-red evening gown, turned around. The sonar system's pulse waves outlined the real scene on his goggles: twelve drones forming a fan-shaped encirclement, and three LMD mechanical soldiers changing magazines.

"Nothing, I'll deal with it right away, Peggy."

Mysterio's main focus was on Spider-Man—the Avengers didn't have many people they could send out. As long as they had brains, they knew not to send out the Hulk. Captain America, after all, was just a mortal. As for Iron Man, dealing with him could be left to Otto and his anti-aircraft missiles.

Ant-Man and the Wasp hadn't arrived yet, but Mysterio had already prepared ways to deal with them. Only Spider-Man, and only Spider-Man.

Mysterio waved his hand, and the ground beneath Spider-Man instantly vanished, pulling him back hundreds of meters. Then, an entire building collapsed towards Spider-Man, countless debris splashing towards him. Spider-Man began to dodge, then moved closer to Mysterio.

His fist smashed into his own face. Of course, he hit nothing; Mysterio teleported hundreds of meters away, while Spider-Man passed through the illusory building and threw punches at Mysterio.

"Why aren't you talking, Spider-Man? Where's your mockery, your sarcasm? Are you even unwilling to persuade me not to do bad things?"

Mysterio stood on the outer wall of a tall building. Spider-Man's heavy punch landed beside him. Then, the entire building twisted, accompanied by eerie sounds and the oppressive environment, gradually squeezing the space around Spider-Man. At the same time, Mysterio heard Otto's reply through the communicator.

"He has some kind of... sixth sense. I'm not sure how his senses work, but there's no doubt he can mitigate your illusions to some extent."

Even as the building twisted into a tangled mess, Spider-Man showed no reaction. Mysterio's abilities were mainly focused on vision, using drones to create auditory and olfactory illusions. Peter's senses indeed allowed him to discern mismatches between what he saw and what he heard. Coupled with his Spider-Sense, he could largely avoid danger.

And it had to be said, Mysterio's visual impact was truly excellent—the curling floors enveloped him layer by layer. The simulated wind pressure from the drones likely made him feel as if something was genuinely pressing down on him through his suit. Just as it was about to crush him, the entire twisted building shattered like glass, turning everything around into pure darkness. Then, a gigantic Mysterio slowly emerged from the darkness, his hands cupping the air around him, and a real sense of weightlessness inexplicably appeared.

But Spider-Man remained silent, leaping and swinging, performing all sorts of strange maneuvers to destroy drones or the occasional LMD.

It wasn't until the enormous Mysterio, holding a snow globe containing Spider-Man, smashed it heavily onto the ground that Peter finally rolled on the ground and then stood up as if nothing had happened.

"Why are you silent, Spider-Man?"

"Uh, I wasn't silent. I was just thinking about how well I wrote those words just now." Peter finally spoke. He ignored why he had suddenly appeared at the edge of a shattered building and looked at the Mysterio floating before him, which was probably not his real body. "What do you think of my handwriting just now?"

"What words—"

He didn't finish his sentence, because the Spider-Man in front of him seemed to be abruptly dragged away by something, rapidly disappearing from his sight with a wave of his hand, leaving Mysterio confused and looking around: What happened?

Peter, who had been yanked away, crashed into what was probably a wall, and his back naturally began to ache again. But what he heard was a not-so-familiar, yet at this moment, much-desired voice.

"How were you sure I'd understand that your movements were writing words?" Cindy asked as she dragged him higher. Peter didn't know where she was going, but he answered Cindy's question casually: "Because you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I trust you at least have that much capability, and I believe you'd be willing to do me this small favor."

"...Why?"

"Well, after all, it's just a small favor."

He was dragged into a room by Cindy. She closed the window and drew the curtains, and all illusions instantly vanished. This was an apartment bedroom of an unknown location, with a computer set up inside. Peter looked at Cindy; she hadn't changed into her web-slinging suit, and she had a web attached to her waist—this was probably how she avoided getting lost in Mysterio's environment.

"Good idea."

Peter took off his mask, connected a data cable to the computer, and began to restart his suit. At the same time, he connected to the Avengers' communication channel. Tony seemed quite happy to see him reconnect: "Hey, onesie-baby, how's it going?"

"We have to find Quentin Beck's real location, otherwise there's no way other than hitting all of Manhattan with an EMP. Cap is trapped in the Avengers Tower lobby." Tony reported some bad news: "I'm dealing with Mysterio's anti-aircraft missiles. Give me two more minutes. No, one minute. Hank, what about you?"

"J.A.R.V.I.S. can't analyze the information source, at least not in a short time. Mysterio's signal comes from almost all of Manhattan; it's impossible to track." Ant-Man conveyed his conclusion from the data Tony had scanned: "But the range of a single projector is only 500 meters, so there must be a signal source."

"Perhaps Mysterio isn't controlling the projectors with a signal source." Peter suddenly thought of something and realized: "If he wants to create illusions anywhere in Manhattan at any time, it means he not only needs to constantly process all sorts of information from Manhattan, but also requires precise modeling, direct viewing of all visuals, and real-time feedback. This means he must simultaneously see every corner of Manhattan—or his perspective must cover every corner of Manhattan. Guys, have you heard of a cerebro?"

"Professor Xavier's Cerebro—that thing is damaged and archived. His academy isn't in Manhattan either, and it's not for ordinary humans—"

Tony Stark stopped mid-sentence, realizing something.

For ordinary humans, bio-enhancement devices... there was only one company in all of Manhattan that might research such a thing: Osborn Technologies.

Peter grabbed his mask, confirmed the restart, unplugged the data cable, and prepared to leave. But Tony interrupted him: "Even if you know, kid, how will you get to the Osborn Building? Mysterio's drones will hit you with an EMP, and you'll be lost."

"I'm your friendly neighborhood New Yorker, Mr. Stark. I know every building in New York. At a time like this, I don't need to trust what I see, just my movements."

Cindy listened to their discussion and then asked Peter a question.

"You don't look very happy."

"?"

"I know how much time you spend as Spider-Man. It's pretty much destroyed the balance between the person under the mask and your life as Spider-Man. But looking at you just now, it seems you're not Spider-Man because you like it. You're not like Tony Stark, burdened by some past. Why are you so invested?"

Peter was about to say something, but he suddenly realized something, smiled, and sized up Cindy.

"...What are you looking at?"

"You just told me how to defeat Mysterio, Cindy," Peter explained with a smile. "You said both ways. Oh, and your question, the answer is, I'm not Batman."

"?"

"There's no such thing as balancing the identities of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Peter Parker is Spider-Man. There was never a Spider-Man putting on a Peter Parker mask, or vice versa, Peter Parker putting on a Spider-Man mask."

Peter said as he put on his mask, opened the window, and looked at the pitch-black world outside, finally confirming the location information he had just gotten from the computer.

Trust your movements, not your eyes.

"See you in a bit."

Waving to Cindy by his ear, Peter leapt out. Cindy then realized Peter had answered her question in a roundabout way.

But he had already answered it.

After all, for someone with his abilities, these were just small favors.