"Jameson."
"Tell me, who's been taking photos for Spider-Man? Who knows where Spider-Man is?"
Kraven asked coldly.
Beneath his feet was a cliff dozens of stories high.
Jameson knew very well that if the man in front of him let go, he would die on the spot.
"I don't know. He always mails the photos in anonymously..."
In that instant, Jameson's mind flashed with thoughts of his son, who had become an astronaut, his wife, who reminded him every day to remember his blood pressure pills, his company, his life...
He thought of many, many things, but never once did he think of saying Peter Parker's name.
"You know, maybe he is Spider-Man himself... otherwise, why would he never show his face?"
Jameson had no idea he had accidentally hit the truth. He only wanted to protect Peter Parker, to keep that kid who was still in school from becoming the target of these terrifying villains.
At that moment, one part of his mind was filled with fear, while another part became even more convinced that Spider-Man really was a menace!
If not for him, why would his newspaper have been attacked?
And that good kid Peter Parker would never have been dragged into danger like this.
He remembered that Peter Parker's family circumstances did not seem very good. That much could be seen from the boy's behavior and the way he dressed.
Poor kid.
Just because he knew Spider-Man, danger had now come knocking at his door.
Kraven did not believe a word of his nonsense.
"Don't play games with me, Jameson. I don't have time to waste on you."
At that moment, Robbie rushed in and shouted, "Sir, he's telling the truth. None of us know Spider-Man."
As a Spider-Man fan, Robbie was also a man of justice.
He knew that Peter Parker knew Spider-Man. That was hardly a secret in the newspaper office. But just like Jameson, he had no intention of revealing it.
"Is that so?"
Kraven tilted his head slightly, but his arm extended a few more inches past the edge of the building. At the same time, his fingers tightened, nearly cutting off Jameson's breathing.
His expression remained indifferent.
"I wonder if this might help refresh your memory."
He was not threatening Jameson alone.
He was threatening everyone in the office.
Seeing this, Jameson kept frantically signaling at the others with his eyes. But no matter what, with so many employees in the building, it was impossible for every single one of them to be righteous enough to die for someone else's life.
Under Kraven's beast-like stare, someone quickly broke and blurted out the truth.
"It's Peter Parker, a student at Midtown High!"
"Shut up! You're fired!"
Jameson's face turned red as he cursed furiously, but Kraven backhanded him across the face and knocked him unconscious on the spot.
Then, as casually as tossing away trash, he threw Jameson back into the office. After that, Kraven leaped down from the building himself.
Robbie reacted quickly enough to catch Jameson, then hurried over to the blasted hole in the wall and looked down.
But in the blink of an eye, Kraven had already vanished.
Betty came running over in her heels. One hand supported Jameson while she said anxiously, "Peter's in danger. We need to call the police, or contact him and tell him to hide as fast as possible."
Robbie nodded.
"It'd be even better if he can get in touch with Spider-Man."
Fortunately, because Peter had been in and out of the paper so often recently, the Daily Bugle still had his phone number on file, even though he was not an official employee.
Betty and Robbie split up. One called Peter, while the other dialed 120, preparing to send the unconscious Jameson to the hospital.
But unfortunately, because he was still in class, Peter did not answer Betty's call.
Bant, on the other hand, was contacted by Eunice not long after the Daily Bugle was attacked.
Since the Bugle was always tied to Spider-Man, Bant had placed it on the list of priority surveillance targets.
The moment Eunice reported it to him, Bant understood. Someone could not find Spider-Man, so they had set their sights on Peter.
If this had happened before he acquired Hammer Industries, he might have been a little worried. But now, with all those defense robots on alert, if those idiot villains really followed the trail to Uncle Ben and Aunt May, the Iron Warriors would immediately teach them what life was about.
It was fine.
They could be more careful in their next life.
Of course, if they were after Peter, then Bant could not be bothered to interfere.
At the end of the day, was this not just because those villains were trying another route after realizing they could not beat Spider-Man?
Rather than worrying about Peter, it would make more sense to worry about the school that had only just been repaired not too long ago.
If it got wrecked again, the principal would probably be laughing himself awake in his sleep.
After leaving the Daily Bugle, Kraven immediately synced the information with Kingpin's side.
As the underground emperor of New York, Kingpin naturally had capable people under him. In no time at all, they had dug up all of Peter Parker's surface-level information.
An ordinary boy from Queens.
That poor background instantly reminded Kingpin of himself as a child.
But Peter was nothing like him.
Kingpin let out a cold laugh.
"Grab him. Make him tell us where Spider-Man is!"
He did not even need to say it. That was exactly what Kraven intended to do.
He felt no guilt whatsoever about capturing a powerless student.
When hunting prey, using bait was a common tactic.
He leaped from building to building and quickly found Midtown High. The moment it came into view, the Arc de Triomphe-like entrance scenery made Kraven freeze for a second.
No, seriously.
Was this a school?
For a moment, Kraven thought he had gone to the wrong place.
Fortunately, it did not take long for him to notice that behind the extravagant gate, it was still the same ordinary public school.
So without bothering to hide himself, he charged straight in.
His thug-like entrance immediately drew the attention of the school security guards. But even when they picked up riot shields and catch poles, they were nothing more than praying mantises raising their arms to stop a moving wheel.
Kraven dropped them all in a single exchange.
These ordinary people were not on his list of prey. He did not care whether they lived or died, though he also had no interest in deliberately killing them.
Inside the school building.
Peter was still in class.
He had already long mastered everything the teacher was talking about, so his mind was drifting again as he wondered whether he should make a few small inventions of his own to upgrade his suit.
But after another thought, he realized the suit Bant had built for him was already complete enough in terms of functionality. Even if he wanted to improve it, he had no idea where to start.
Then he thought of Connors's research and wondered what kind of result would be produced if a mutator were used on spider genes.
In the next second, a surge of electricity flashed through his brain.
Peter's whole body went numb.
Then he shot to his feet, instantly attracting the attention of the entire class.
"Peter!"
The teacher looked at him with displeasure.
Normally, because Peter's grades were excellent, the teacher would not bother over something as minor as him zoning out in class. But this time, he had seriously disrupted the lesson.
"Peter?" Mary Jane was in the same class as him. Seeing the dazed look on his face, she softly tried to remind him.
But Peter ignored her.
After being Spider-Man for so long, he had already become used to his spider-sense. The moment his expression changed, he immediately realized that something unusual was about to happen.
His instincts made him turn toward the window.
Crash!
Shattered glass sprayed everywhere.
A powerful figure burst through the window!
In an instant, both the students and the teacher fell into complete chaos from the sudden attack.
But after all, they lived in a country where gunfights could break out at any moment. Faced with a situation like this, they reacted with practiced ease, clutching their heads and crouching beneath their desks.
Unlike Connors's last attack, Kraven's objective was clear, and he was far more rational and decisive.
Those ordinary students could not distract him in the slightest.
From beginning to end, his only target was Peter Parker.
And as it happened, Peter was also the only person still standing in the room.
Half-crouching behind a desk for cover, Mary Jane tried to run over to Peter's side and drag Bant's idiot little brother down to hide.
But she was too far away from Peter.
Before she could even take more than a few steps, Kraven moved first.
"You're Peter Parker?"
Kraven lunged like a tiger and appeared in front of Peter in an instant. His powerful arm seized Peter by the collar and lifted him into the air.
The moment Peter saw Kraven, he recognized him as the villain who had appeared in court before.
He wanted to fight back, but this was not the right moment.
With so many eyes watching, he was Peter Parker, not Spider-Man.
"That's me..."
"Then you know where Spider-Man is?"
Peter immediately replied, "I don't know where he lives, but I can help you contact him. How about this, you give me a time and place, then go back and wait for a message. I'll pass it on to him for you."
Peter's thin frame stood in stark contrast to Kraven's.
"No need to make it that complicated. If I grab you, Spider-Man will come all the same!"
Kraven had intended to act right away, but at that moment, something whistled through the air. He ducked his head, and a chair flew over the top of it.
Flash stepped forward.
This school bully, who normally strutted around all day, was now wearing knockoff Spider-Man merch, and in the face of Kraven, he actually showed the bearing of a hero.
"Let Peter go, or I'll beat your teeth all over the floor!"
"Wait, Flash, don't do anything stupid!"
Peter shouted.
He truly had not expected Flash to stand up for him at a moment like this. While shocked, he was also worried about Flash's safety.
At a glance, Kraven and Flash looked about the same size.
But Kraven had superpowers. His strength was probably far greater than Captain America's. Flash was just an ordinary person. If he fought Kraven, he would only get hurt.
"Shut up, Parker. I'm not doing this to save you. I'm just doing what Spider-Man would do."
Flash clenched both fists and brought them up in front of his chest in a boxing stance.
Then he glared at Kraven and said, "Let Peter go. He doesn't know anything about Spider-Man. I'm Spider-Man's real fan!"
"Idiot."
Kraven could not even be bothered with him.
But Flash could not stand being looked down on like that, especially not by someone who actually seemed to think Peter knew Spider-Man better than he did.
So without a second thought, he rushed forward and threw a hard punch.
Then he got flattened...
"That's it?"
Kraven let out a contemptuous laugh and was about to leave when Kingpin's voice came through his earpiece.
"Wait, Kraven."
He stopped in place.
Kingpin continued, "Peter Parker has a brother. Bring him to me too!"
Kingpin understood very well that those so-called superheroes believed in sacrificing themselves for others. Not only were they like that, but the people who spent every day around them would be influenced as well.
Just like the owner of the Daily Bugle and that black man Robbie.
They would rather sacrifice themselves than give up Peter Parker.
Because of that, Kingpin was worried that Peter might be just as stubborn.
But that was fine.
Everyone in the world had a weakness.
Maybe threatening Peter Parker's own life would not work.
But threatening the lives of his family?
That was a completely different matter.
After hearing Kingpin's words, Kraven found it very reasonable.
In fact, just from that brief encounter, he had already seen it.
There was a lion hiding in that kid's eyes.
Lu Mingfei: ???
In any case, he did not look like the sort of soft-boned coward who would fold easily.
So Kraven did not hesitate. He smashed through a wall, shouldered Peter, and charged straight into Bant's classroom.
Originally, the students in Bant's classroom had only heard the huge noise outside and still had no idea what was happening. But now, the entire classroom fell into the same kind of panic.
With Peter slung over his shoulder like a pork leg, Kraven swept his gaze across the room and shouted, "Which one of you is Bant Parker?"
There was no need for anyone to answer.
Kraven had figured it out.
The Parkers all seemed to have quite a lot of nerve.
He looked at Bant, and a smile spread across his face.
"Looks like it's you."
Bant did not respond to him.
His eyes were fixed on Peter, as if silently asking him what in the world he was doing.
Peter gave an awkward laugh.
"Little Bant, run!"
When Mary Jane saw Kraven smash through a wall and charge straight at Bant, she immediately ran out and shouted, "He's here to grab you!"
The moment she heard that, Felicia's face turned pale. She grabbed Bant's arm and tried to drag him away.
Bant reached out to calm Felicia down. At the same time, he gave Mary Jane, who was standing behind Kraven, a look that told her not to act rashly and risk getting hurt.
As for Gwen, who still had not fully grasped what was going on, she reacted quickly and dialed her father's number.
What she did not know was that Captain George was already on his way here.
"Grab me?"
When Bant heard what Mary Jane said, he was completely dumbfounded.
Not even in his dreams would he have imagined that Kraven had actually come to capture him.
Good, good, good.
So after all that, you came for me, huh?
Far from getting angry, Bant was actually amused.
To be honest, when Kraven appeared in front of him, even Bant himself had been stunned.
After all, to prevent those villains from going after Uncle Ben and Aunt May, he had made so many preparations. But who would have thought these people would end up setting their sights on him instead?
Out of all the soft persimmons in the world, you ignored every one of them and came straight for the guy with the biggest fist.
You really must be tired of living.
/-\
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