Chapter 73: Good Neighbors in New York
The system reminded Moses: "Pay attention to your expression."
Moses was slightly stunned, and immediately realized his mistake - but this was unavoidable. Scientific research shows that micro-expressions are a kind of emotional expression reaction that occurs spontaneously at the moment of stimulation and is not controlled by the brain. Although it usually lasts no more than 0.5 seconds, Connor is a clone of Superman!
Moreover, humans have a delay in distinguishing their own emotions. For example, a person may not realize that he is happy until he jumps for joy, or feel sad until he cries. The body gives feedback first, and then the mind makes corresponding judgments based on the feedback.
Now, because the emotion just came so suddenly and was interrupted by the system, Moses could not explain it except that he was in a low mood, let alone guess Connor's thoughts.
never mind.
He looked at his right arm, which was broken while blocking the explosion of the combat helicopter's weapons depot, and thought that among so many bad things that happened to him, this one was not the worst.
This is what is meant by "too much debt, no worries".
With an indescribable calmness, Moses took out his key and opened the door. Connor stood behind him, determined to leave a good impression on Ms. Mei and never expose his good friend's scars for the second time, so he also kept his mouth shut.
It wasn't until May turned around and noticed Moses' bandaged arm that she broke the silence: "God! Peter, are you okay? You shouldn't have gone to school today because it's the weekend. What happened?"
She hurried over to check the wounds on his body. But in fact, except for the arm that looked a bit bad, there was no problem with other parts of his body. He could crawl, jump, and even kick down dozens of Osborne bodyguards.
"This is my friend, Aunt May. Connor Kent." Moses introduced them to each other. "He's from the metropolis and will be visiting New York for a few days."
Connor immediately smiled sweetly.
"Then I went to visit Osborne with him today, and I missed my step and fell from the second floor."
“You’re lucky, then. It’s just a broken arm.” Unlike doctors who could directly see the source of the wound, Aunt May believed his explanation without any obstacles. She said to Connor in a friendly manner, “Welcome to New York. You can stay in Peter’s room, but he has a single bed. Do you mind sleeping on the floor? I’ll get you another blanket later.”
"No problem at all."
After saying hello, the two minors ran upstairs. Moses closed the door, took out Spider-Man's uniform from his backpack, rolled it up and stuffed it in the corner of the closet.
"I have to find time to mend my clothes again."
“That’s terrible,” Connor said when he was done. “If you had a uniform like the Kryptonian suit you wouldn’t get hurt.”
Damn it! It makes me angry just talking about this!
"Don't mention it. I've even figured out what materials to put in the right places to reduce vibration, but I don't have the money. I've been researching other things these past two days, and sometimes the spider web launcher alone isn't enough." Moses rummaged through his pile of parts and pulled out a half-finished drone with exposed wires. "Come on, Connor, let me show you something fun."
He turned on the computer and ran the code. Under his control, the drone flew around the room and then landed steadily on the ground.
"I haven't decided what functions to add. Currently, it only has an infrared camera and a simple current emitter, which can cause a micro explosion when a short circuit occurs. If too many parts are added, its size will expand, increasing the chance of being discovered."
"That's cool! Did you make this yourself?" Connor said excitedly, "It's a little crude in appearance, I can help you design it."
He took out a piece of paper and quickly sketched a picture: "How about a red spider with a pattern on the outer circle?"
Moses thought for two seconds and said, "It looks good. But do you know what I originally planned?"
"What?"
"Find a piece of cloth to wrap the wires."
“…”
"Now I think I can find a piece of red cloth with a spider pattern on it."
“…”
Maybe it's time to think about how to attract sponsorship.
The next day when Moses went to school, he kept thinking about this problem. People around him noticed that he was absent-minded. Thompson even came over to laugh at him for breaking his head when he broke his arm.
"Don't bother with him," Ned Leeds, the only boy Moses had ever spoken to in school, consoled him. "That big fool is just jealous of your brains."
"I didn't think about him." Moses shook his pen depressedly, "Do you know how to get sponsorship for your research?"
"What?" Ned looked at him with a look of astonishment. "You really made the Jedi Knight's lightsaber!"
"Yeah, are you willing to join the dark side?"
"Of course not." Ned said solemnly, "The Force is with me."
"...No kidding, I'm serious." Moses licked his lips and said seriously, "Do you know any formal channels?"
Although he didn't know his purpose, Ned still thought about it seriously for a while.
"I feel like I've seen something related to this somewhere. Wait a minute. Oh, by the way! Why don't you check the New York Youth Science and Technology Competition online? I remember the top three winners received tens of thousands of dollars in prize money and had the chance to get sponsorship from Stark Industries... Peter? Why are you covering your face?"
"To see a wonderful opportunity disappear before my eyes."
Now Moses could bring Shakespeare's dramatic voice into his mind.
Stark! Why are you Stark!
"Remember last time I said that the game in the Super Hero Forum was available on PS4?" Unable to sense the frustration of the people around him, Ned changed the subject, "After the exams it will be Christmas holiday, we can play online. If you want to play, I'll bring it to your house."
"I'm afraid not. My friend is staying with me these two days."
"How old is your friend? The three of us can take turns playing, and I can bring UNO cards and discount coupons for the burger shop. The game console is also borrowed from someone else, so if I don't play it, I can only return it after the holiday."
However, Moses' shameful heart was moved.
What's wrong with minors playing games during holidays! Life is hard enough, and we need to relax after work.
"No problem." He quickly changed the subject, "I'll ask him. If he has no objection, I'll come tomorrow afternoon after the exam."
Connor certainly wouldn't object.
"The last time I played this game was in the Batcave," he whispered to Moses, "after Nightwing and Damian had a fight. Damian had provoked Robin, and Nightwing had hung him from the ceiling, and Robin and I were sitting next to him playing the game, and even Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) didn't say anything for him."
"Where's Batman?"
"Batman said Damian was unwise to provoke two people who were stronger than him at the same time."
Good guy, you are worthy of it.
On Tuesday, Moses finally wrote with his right hand for the history test. Although the injury has not healed yet, the result is acceptable. In the afternoon, Ned Leeds went home to get the game console, and then they squeezed into Peter Parker's small bedroom and connected the PS4 console to the computer.
Little did Ned realize that there were two people in the room who could cheat using super powers.
But Moses and Connor were very well behaved. Even when the latest version of the game added the characters of Superboy and Spider-Man—which was understandably done efficiently, considering that the Wayne Group was one of the sponsors—Connor used Superboy to fight Moses' Spider-Man, and they both frowned to prevent one of them from laughing out loud.
Ned is a hardcore gamer who will summarize the data and recite the move list to compare the strengths of the characters. After watching the game, he commented: "Neither of these two characters is very strong. They suffered the loss of their recent landing."
After all, it is a fan-made game, and the character abilities cannot be exactly the same as the original ones. The gaps can only be filled by well-known information. Therefore, the newly released characters always have stiff and awkward movements, and are pinned to the ground by the old characters.
Even Batman had a period when he was just a pretty face with nothing to offer except being handsome.
Connor's face flushed red, and he really wanted to say that he could use more convenient skills in certain situations, which were much more powerful than in the game.
But he couldn't say it, he was hurt inside.
Then they continued to play UNO for a while. When each of them got a 4 stack, it was Moses' turn. He looked at his hand, stood up silently and said, "The takeaway we ordered just now is almost here. I'll go get it."
Ned took the lightsaber from the Jedi Knight's second-hand figure next to him, swung it and shouted at his back: "May the force be with you!"
Moses closed the door of his room, jumped down the stairs thinking that no one was watching, opened the door and turned on the live news while waiting for the takeaway.
New York at night is as lively as ever today, and the villains seem to never prepare for Christmas.
The reporter was sitting in a helicopter, holding a microphone and facing the cold wind to introduce the scene. Below her was a group of armed police forces fighting a huge spider-shaped robot killer.
"...It is equipped with various weapons targeted at Spider-Man. As you can see, this may be a terrorist attack against superheroes..."
Inside the room, Connor's ears moved.
He quietly stood up and opened the window, and saw Peter climbing out of the first-floor window. When he noticed his gaze, he waved his hand and mouthed: Uniform!
Connor looked back at Ned who was studying the game character's combo moves, and while Ned wasn't paying attention, he threw the backpack containing all of Spider-Man's equipment down.
Then he closed the window tightly, and in the spirit of brotherly assistance, he offered to Ned, "Let's have another plate, both of us."
It turns out that this was indeed revenge from Oscorp. They called the machine Spider-Killer and gave it a nickname, the Black Widow. The Avengers agent lady would probably be very dissatisfied with this name collision.
Osborne's plan went smoothly, but he didn't know that Moses' equipment had been upgraded long ago. Although they looked simple, they were really useful. Ten minutes later, the spider killers that were rampaging on the bridge were destroyed by the electromagnetic interference of the spider drone.
Just when Moses was wondering why the authorities had taken so long to deal with this enemy, which was so easy to deal with, the leader of the armed forces, a man in a black suit, called out to him, "Wait a minute, Spider-Man!"
"What's the matter? I'm very busy and I'm keeping a low profile recently. If it's not important, let's talk about it next time we meet. Thank you."
"It's very important." The man insisted, looking up at Spider-Man squatting on the beam at the end of the bridge. "Did you know that your opponent is working with Hydra?"
Moses turned around and looked at the other person carefully.
This time he noticed the inconspicuous logo: "So that's it, you are from S.H.I.E.L.D."
——So the Avengers know about this?