After saying goodbye to Harry Osborn, Julian and Peter followed the rest of the Midtown High students as Mr.
Jackson led them onto the Columbia University campus.
Peter hung at the very back of the group, looking around with boundless enthusiasm.
The shutter of his camera clicked almost non-stop.
Pointing at a Neoclassical building in the distance, he eagerly explained to Julian, “That’s Butler Library!
They have over two million books in there!
Rumor has it there’s a rare book vault underground that even holds copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls!”
Julian nodded, having absolutely zero clue what the Dead Sea Scrolls even were.
He cast a completely unappreciative glance over the sprawling mix of Gothic architecture and modern research facilities.
‘Honestly… it doesn’t even look half as impressive as a luxury casino in Vegas,’ he thought.
Sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees, dappling the cobblestone pathways.
On the nearby lawns, small clusters of students sat discussing their research projects, completely immersed in the quiet, deeply academic atmosphere.
Mr.
Jackson led them past several historic lecture halls before finally stopping in front of a sleek, silver-gray modern building: the Columbia University Biological Science Research Center.
“This is the main stop on today’s tour,” Mr.
Jackson said, swiping his access card to unlock the glass doors.
He shot a deadly serious glare at the horde of hormonal teenagers behind him.
“Keep your voices down, and absolutely do not touch any of the equipment.”
Click…
The glass doors slid open, and the students filed inside.
The moment Julian stepped into the lab, the faint, sterile scent of disinfectant washed over him.
Transparent observation windows lined both sides of the corridor, allowing them to watch the researchers inside working diligently at their stations.
The main laboratory was a massive, open space divided into several functional zones.
On the left was the cell culture area, lined with dozens of neatly arranged incubators.
On the right were the molecular biology benches, fully equipped with PCR machines, electrophoresis tanks, and various other high-tech tools.
But the most eye-catching piece of equipment sat right in the center of the room—an FEI Titan Krios electron microscope, its streamlined casing gleaming coldly under the fluorescent lights.
Peter eagerly pointed at it, geeking out as he explained it to Julian.
“That electron microscope is one of the highest-resolution scopes on the entire East Coast!
It’s capable of imaging with an accuracy of 0.14 nanometers!”
A familiar female voice perfectly overlapped with his.
The group turned around to see Gwen Stacy standing in the doorway.
She wore a pristine white lab coat, her blonde hair tied neatly into a ponytail, and held a tablet in her hands.
Seeing Gwen, Peter’s eyes instantly lit up.
“Gwen?!
What are you doing here?”
Gwen offered Julian and Peter a warm smile.
“I applied for Columbia’s pre-college program last semester.
I’m currently working as an intern for Dr.
Connors.”
Quickly realizing she was on the clock, she cleared her throat and motioned for the group to follow her.
“Today, I’ll be showing you our lab’s latest project—genetically edited spiders!”
She led the students deep into the lab, arriving at the arthropod research division.
Fifteen climate-controlled incubators were lined up across a specialized workbench.
Inside each one sat a vibrantly colored spider.
“These are Araneus diadematus—Cross Spiders—that have been modified using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology,” Gwen explained, pointing to a specimen with bright red markings on its back.
“By using gene editing, we’ve successfully enhanced the expression of their silk proteins.
The tensile strength of their webbing is now over three times stronger than standard Kevlar.”
She tapped her tablet, projecting a stream of data onto a nearby screen.
“Theoretically, this silk could be used to manufacture ultra-lightweight body armor, or even applied as surgical sutures.
It degrades naturally inside the human body without triggering any immune rejection.”
Peter practically had his face pressed against the glass.
He stared in absolute fascination at a different spider, this one sporting blue and black markings.
“What about this blue and black one?
Does it have any special traits?”
“That’s a variant modified with fluorescent protein tags, mainly used to track the conductive pathways of neurotoxins,” Gwen warned.
“However, it is highly venomous, so you really shouldn’t get too close.”
Hearing that, Peter instantly leaped five meters backward, staring at the spider with sheer revulsion.
Peter immediately glued himself to her side, firing off questions like a Gatling gun.
“How are you guys planning to solve the mass-production issue with the silk?
Do the spiders exhibit any behavioral anomalies from the gene editing?
What happens if you introduce these modified genes into mammalian cells?”
Gwen raised an eyebrow, a look of profound appreciation crossing her face as if she had finally found a kindred spirit.
“Wow… you really know your stuff.” She walked over and turned on a nearby monitor.
“Right now, we’re actually experimenting with expressing the silk proteins in the mammary glands of transgenic goats, but the yield is still far too low.
But regarding the other applications…”
Watching the two nerds hit it off, Julian quietly slipped to the very back of the group, his eyes locking onto the incubator sitting in the furthest corner.
The spider inside was pitch black with eerie, blue-purple markings across its abdomen.
Its eight eyes caught the light with a cold, metallic sheen.
But unlike the other docile specimens, this one was violently vibrating against its web, twitching like it was having a full-blown stroke.
“So… you must be the singularity where this entire story begins,” Julian muttered, his eyes burning with intense fascination.
If he hadn’t awakened that mysterious glowing orb in his mind when he transmigrated, he would have instantly chosen to stick his hand in there and let that spider bite him!
Sure, because of the whole ‘Spider-Totem’ lore, there was a massively high probability that an ordinary person would just drop dead from the bite.
But this was the Marvel Universe—ordinary people died from literally everything anyway!
Rather than getting wiped out as collateral damage in some random alien invasion, he would have gladly taken the gamble.
“Excuse me!” A girl with glasses suddenly called out, pointing at the incubator right in front of her.
“Why isn’t there a spider in this box?”
Gwen hurried over and peered into the completely empty glass case.
“Um… one of the other researchers must have moved it.
I’ll go ask about it right now.
Feel free to keep looking at the others in the meantime.”
With that, she turned and hurried toward the lab director’s office.
Julian looked at the empty incubator, and then looked back at the wildly twitching spider in front of him.
He let out a scoff of pure disdain.
‘Look at the other guy out there changing the course of history, while you’re just in here having a full-blown seizure,’ he thought.
“Look at what you’ve done.
You made things awkward for everyone,” he whispered mockingly.
“Are you happy now?”