The moment that possibility entered Gwen's mind, her entire understanding of the world was shaken.
But she had no time to think it through.
Her father was still standing outside her bedroom, worrying about her.
"Are you hurt? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?"
George desperately wanted to rush inside and see what was happening to his daughter.
However, Gwen was already growing up. Out of respect for her privacy, he restrained himself.
"I-I'm fine! I just need a minute."
Gwen tried to sound as calm as possible while struggling to work out how to detach herself from the ceiling.
"All right, then. Call me if you need anything."
Only after hearing her father's footsteps retreat did Gwen finally release a long breath of relief.
She carefully experimented with controlling her body, trying several times before she finally managed to overcome the strange adhesive force holding her to the ceiling.
Unfortunately, that immediately sent her dropping to the floor with a heavy thud.
Despite falling from such a height, she didn't feel even the slightest pain.
Gwen climbed awkwardly to her feet and stared at her hands.
Inside her body, she could sense an unfamiliar, seemingly inexhaustible reserve of power.
Her expression became incredibly complicated.
Shock. Confusion. Fear.
And somewhere beneath it all, an excitement she could barely suppress.
It seemed her life had taken a turn toward something entirely unknown.
...
At the same time Gwen was engaged in her awkward battle of wits with her father, another old house elsewhere in Queens was witnessing a very different struggle.
Peter had locked himself inside his bedroom and was currently fighting a desperate battle against his own physical limitations.
"One... two... three..."
Lying facedown on the floor, he gritted his teeth and struggled through a series of push-ups.
His skinny arms trembled so violently that they resembled a pair of hummingbird wings. If he hadn't possessed the Horse Talisman, he might have worried about generating enough wind to give himself a cold.
"...Fourteen... fif... teen..."
After barely managing a dozen or so extremely sloppy push-ups, Peter ran out of strength.
He collapsed onto the floor with his arms and legs spread wide, gasping desperately for air.
Looking down at his thin chest, where the outlines of his ribs were painfully obvious, he felt utterly hopeless.
'Weak!'
'I'm way too damn weak!'
His current physique was almost offensively pathetic.
The Horse Talisman could instantly heal injuries and eliminate the soreness that followed strenuous exercise, sparing him the physical damage and lactic acid buildup that normally accompanied training.
Unfortunately, it couldn't compensate for his terrible physical condition.
Peter was essentially like the protagonist of a Souls game who had unlocked unlimited health regeneration but still possessed a pitifully small stamina bar.
He might be difficult to kill, but after running a few steps or swinging a weapon twice, he'd already be exhausted.
Of course, if he kept training and found a way to acquire some of the advanced technology used in muscle development, he could eventually transform himself from a scrawny high schooler into a muscular powerhouse far faster than an ordinary person.
And thanks to the Horse Talisman, he wouldn't even have to worry about pushing his body so far that he ended up looking like a pointy-headed freak.
But who knew how long that would take?
One month?
Three months?
Half a year?
He couldn't afford to wait!
Now that Gwen had begun her transformation into Ghost-Spider, the gears of this universe's story had already started turning.
Supervillains lurking in the shadows, each possessing dangerous and unpredictable abilities, would soon begin emerging one after another, like sharks drawn to the scent of blood.
Green Goblin.
Doctor Octopus.
Sandman.
Electro.
Just thinking about those names made Peter's scalp prickle.
With his current physique, he could easily be killed by getting caught in the aftermath of a superpowered battle.
Even the noble Horse Talisman would probably throw up its hands helplessly if its owner had already been reduced to a puddle of minced meat.
'Training alone is far too slow!'
'I need to find a way to obtain overwhelming strength as quickly as possible.'
Only then could he make full use of the Sacrifice System and establish a positive cycle in which greater power allowed him to acquire even more valuable sacrifices.
With that goal in mind, Peter put his brilliant intellect to work.
It was a mind that could impress even Tony Stark himself.
Before long, an idea struck him.
Peter struggled into a sitting position, his eyes shining with sudden inspiration.
He'd remembered the Lizard Serum!
It was the same substance his counterpart was destined to inject in Spider-Gwen's universe, and the same serum that other versions of Peter Parker had helped Dr. Curt Connors develop in more conventional Spider-Man timelines.
Once injected, the serum could grant its user tremendous physical strength comparable to Spider-Man's, extraordinary durability, and almost absurd regenerative abilities.
Of course, those benefits came with a horrifying price.
The subject could lose their sanity, suffer catastrophic genetic instability, and ultimately transform into a cold-blooded monster driven by nothing but destruction and the urge to kill.
Under normal circumstances, Peter would never, ever, ever consider injecting himself with something so dangerous.
But things were different now.
After all...
'The noble horse drives away all harmful external influences!'
The Horse Talisman could eliminate and repair abnormal conditions that adversely affected its wielder.
Whether it was genetic collapse or being overwhelmed by animal instincts, those were precisely the kinds of problems its magic was supposed to solve!
If Peter activated the Horse Talisman's power at the same time he injected himself with the Lizard Serum...
The talisman would automatically remove the harmful elements of the transformation while preserving the purest, most beneficial enhancements!
In other words, the deadly Lizard Serum could effectively become a version of Captain America's Super Soldier Serum.
No.
It would be an even better version!
The Super Soldier Serum Pro Max!
Peter's heart began pounding uncontrollably.
This was undoubtedly the best method currently available to him for acquiring substantial power in a short amount of time.
"If I want to get my hands on the Lizard Serum, I'll have to help Dr. Connors solve the decay-rate algorithm, just like Peter did in the movies!"
"And the key to solving that algorithm should still be inside the briefcase my parents left behind!"
Having reached that conclusion, Peter immediately opened his bedroom door.
He hurried downstairs, feeling rather weak, and devoured the remaining dinner with astonishing enthusiasm.
After saying a quick word to Uncle Ben, he headed up to the old attic, which smelled strongly of damp wood, dust, and mildew.
Following a lengthy search through the clutter, he finally discovered an old briefcase.
Inside were countless pages covered in mathematical formulas and biological research, dense enough to make an ordinary person's head spin.
If Peter had found these documents before recovering his memories and becoming this universe's brilliant young scientist, they would have been little more than unusually rough toilet paper to him.
But the situation was different now.
He possessed an extraordinary intellect, and understanding the information contained in those documents presented no serious difficulty.
Taking the briefcase back to his bedroom, Peter settled in for a long night of studying.
He examined his parents' research page by page, gradually working through material that would have looked like an incomprehensible foreign language to most people.
Then, as he turned to a particular page, a system notification suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Dark-Blue-Rarity Sacrificial Item Detected: Original Decay-Rate Algorithm Manuscript]
[Item Description: A treasured keepsake left behind by Peter Parker's parents. This manuscript also contains the key to helping Curt Connors develop the Lizard Serum, ultimately leading Norman Osborn and Harry Osborn down the path of becoming the Green Goblin. It possesses considerable sentimental value and major significance to the progression of the storyline.]
[Sacrifice Reward: 3,000 Points]
[Would you like to sacrifice this item?]
'Holy shit... It's worth that much?!'
If Peter hadn't recovered the memories of his previous life, he would never have considered sacrificing this manuscript, no matter how valuable it was.
But the current Peter was different from the original.
He felt no particular attachment to the biological parents he'd never personally known, so the manuscript's supposed sentimental value meant very little to him.
Naturally, he made his decision without hesitation.
First, he carefully copied the manuscript's contents onto fresh paper.
After repeatedly checking his copy to ensure that he hadn't missed a single detail, he issued the command to sacrifice the original.