“Uncle Ben!
Uncle Ben!” Peter’s voice cracked as he screamed himself hoarse, confusion and terror written across his face.
He could not believe the man lying in front of him was Uncle Ben—the person he respected more than anyone else in the world.
Everything had been fine just a short while ago.
One trembling hand pressed against Ben’s wound, blood soaking through Peter’s fingers almost immediately.
He kept applying pressure anyway, desperately pretending that if he just pressed hard enough, he could somehow stop Ben’s life from slipping away.
But deep down, Peter knew it was useless.
His enhanced senses made that impossible to ignore.
He could hear Ben’s breathing growing weaker by the second.
A horrifying thought forced its way into his mind.
‘Uncle Ben is dying.’ “No…
no, Uncle Ben.
Please…” Tears poured down Peter’s face.
He could not accept it.
“Somebody call an ambulance!” “Please!
Somebody help me!” “Please…
please…” Peter looked around wildly, screaming for anyone nearby to help him, praying that someone—anyone—could save Ben.
But the night wind answered with silence.
The few pedestrians who had witnessed what happened hurried away, unwilling to involve themselves.
Regret swallowed Peter whole.
Why?
Why had he let that robber go?
He had the power to stop him.
He could have stopped all of this.
If Peter had simply acted when he had the chance…
Uncle Ben would never have been shot.
“P-Peter…” Ben Parker’s eyelids trembled.
He barely managed to open them, his pupils already badly unfocused.
Adrenaline gave his dying body one final burst of strength, just enough for him to leave behind a few last words.
“I’m here!
I’m right here!” Peter frantically searched his pockets for his phone, but terror had made his fingers stiff and clumsy.
“Hold on.
I’ll call an ambulance.
You’re going to be okay.” His voice shook violently.
“You’re going to be okay.
Look at me, Uncle Ben.” Ben’s hand twitched.
It seemed as though he wanted to reach up and touch the grieving boy’s face, but his body no longer obeyed him.
His life was almost over.
Ben looked at Peter’s still-young face and gathered every remaining fragment of strength he had.
“Peter…
with great power…
comes great…” The final word never came.
Ben’s pupils began to lose focus completely.
The last strength supporting his body vanished, and his heartbeat suddenly weakened toward nothing.
Everything was about to end.
“NO!” Peter’s scream tore through the street.
It felt as though a giant hand had closed around his heart and squeezed until he could no longer breathe.
Then a calm voice spoke beside him.
“Hey.” Peter froze.
“I’m a doctor.
Want some help?” The stranger’s tone remained remarkably casual.
“Your uncle can still be saved.” Peter snapped his head up.
A tall figure stood beside him.
Calvin looked down at the two of them with a calm expression, and for reasons Peter could not explain, the sight of him felt like hope itself had suddenly appeared in front of him.
“Please!” Peter could barely force the words through his throat.
“Please…
please save him.” His voice collapsed into sobs.
“I’ll do anything.
Just save Uncle Ben!” The system responded immediately.
[Peter Parker has issued you a mission.] [Mission: Change Fate] [Objective: Save Ben Parker.] [Rewards: EXP +1,000, Random Item ×1, Peter Parker Favorability +60, Spider-Totem Favorability +60.] Calvin blinked.
‘Spider-Totem favorability?’ That counted too?
The notification genuinely surprised him.
This was exactly why Calvin kept reminding himself that this universe was only an MCU variant rather than the MCU itself.
The Spider-Totem was here.
Peter’s powers were not necessarily as simple as a genetically altered spider transferring mutations to him.
In Marvel’s mystical side, Spider-Man could also be connected to the Spider-Totem, an ancient supernatural force tied to the Web of Life and Destiny.
In a sense, it was something close to a god.
And Peter Parker’s life had always seemed entangled with that kind of fate.
Across countless worlds, Spider-Man’s story rarely turned out particularly well.
Uncles died.
Loved ones suffered.
The hero was usually left carrying enormous responsibility while losing far more than most people ever should.
The Spider-Totem was only one among many Animal Totems, too.
If one existed here, there was no reason to assume the others did not.
That alone meant this variant universe was far more dangerous than Calvin had originally estimated.
Ancient mystical forces were always the worst kind of trouble.
He vaguely remembered there being some terrifying family out there that specifically hunted and devoured Totems as well.
Calvin suddenly felt even more pressure to get stronger.
‘Yeah.
Definitely need to grind faster.’ But first— Save Ben Parker.
What really intrigued Calvin was the reward.
Changing Peter’s tragic fate would somehow increase the Spider-Totem’s favorability toward him by sixty points.
That implied quite a lot.
Wasn’t Peter’s fate, at least to some degree, connected to the Spider-Totem in the first place?
Why would interfering with that fate make the Totem like him more?
Several possibilities flashed through Calvin’s mind.
He immediately pushed them aside.
No point drowning himself in speculation.
Handle the problem in front of him first.
Calvin crouched beside Ben.
The Horse Talisman appeared in his right hand while his left gently touched Ben’s body.
Peter stopped crying.
His eyes widened.
Because he was watching a miracle happen.
Faint blue light surrounded Ben Parker.
The blood covering the pavement began moving.
Under the pull of an invisible force, it flowed backward toward Ben’s wound, returning to where it belonged.
The bullet lodged inside his body was forced out as well.
Then Peter heard it.
A heartbeat.
Strong.
Getting stronger.
Ben’s breathing began stabilizing at the same time.
His condition improved at an impossible rate.
Warmth returned to skin that had already begun growing cold, and every sign of fatal trauma simply disappeared.
SMACK!
Peter slapped himself hard across the face.
It hurt.
This was not a hallucination.
It was real.
Uncle Ben was alive.
“Hah!” Ben sucked in a deep breath and abruptly opened his eyes.
A trace of fear still lingered within them.
He remembered darkness.
He remembered clearly feeling his life slipping away and realizing there was nothing he could do to stop it.
At the very end, Ben had been afraid.
Not for himself.
He had been afraid Peter might lose his way without him.
Afraid May would never recover from his death.
Then, just as everything was about to end, a light had appeared inside that endless darkness.
It had swept through with overwhelming force and driven everything else away.
And then Ben woke up.
He was not merely alive.
Every injury was gone.
In fact, Ben felt better than he had before being shot.
Even the lingering aches and physical problems accumulated over years of work seemed to have vanished.
There was only one word for it.
A miracle.
“Uncle Ben!
You’re okay!” Peter almost laughed through his tears as he frantically checked Ben over.
Then he noticed something even stranger.
The gunshot wound was gone.
So was the bullet hole in Ben’s clothing.
Even the damaged fabric had been restored.
Peter stared.
‘What kind of doctor does that?’ Ben and Peter looked toward Calvin at the same time.
Only then did they realize neither of them could properly make out his face.
The upper half simply refused to resolve in their perception.
Both suddenly understood that whoever had saved Ben was anything but ordinary.
“Thank you for saving my life,” Ben said carefully.
“Thank you,” Peter added, his voice breaking again.
“Seriously…
thank you.” Only after experiencing the agony of losing someone did Peter truly understand how precious it was simply to have them beside him.
Calvin smiled.
“No need.” He turned to Peter.
“Just one piece of advice.” His tone became strangely meaningful.
“If you ever try to save someone from a fall, don’t catch them with a web at the last second.” Before Peter could ask what that meant, Calvin lightly pushed off the ground.
He landed on the rooftop above in a single leap.
Then, under the stunned gazes of both Parkers…
He flew away.
Actually flew away.
Peter and Ben slowly turned toward each other.
The same disbelief was visible on both their faces.
Apparently, the world was much stranger than either of them had realized.
Peter swallowed.
“Uncle Ben…
what do you think he was?” Ben rose smoothly to his feet.
His body felt so healthy that even the effort surprised him.
He rested one hand gently on Peter’s shoulder, his eyes filled with warmth.
“Listen to me, Peter.” “Maybe he was an angel.
Maybe he was something else entirely.” Ben smiled.
“But that isn’t what matters.” “What matters is that when we desperately needed someone’s help, he chose to help us.” His expression became serious.
“Just like I was trying to tell you before.” “With great power comes great responsibility.” Peter fell silent.
“If you ever have the power to help someone,” Ben continued, “don’t stand by and do nothing.” Peter finally understood the words in a way he never could have before.
His expression became firm.
“I won’t.” He nodded heavily.
“I promise.” There was only one thing still bothering him.
What had that mysterious man meant about not using webbing to save someone from a fall?
…
Elsewhere, Calvin sat on the edge of a nearby rooftop and watched Ben and Peter walk away together.
He rubbed his chin.
“So this Peter is the Amazing Spider-Man version?” That was strange.
Based on everything Calvin had encountered so far, he would have expected this universe’s Peter Parker to resemble either Tobey Maguire’s version or Tom Holland’s.
Instead, he had somehow gotten Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man.
Another reminder that this universe apparently had no intention of following one continuity cleanly.
That was also why Calvin had given Peter that final piece of advice.
Consider it his way of correcting one particularly painful mistake before it ever had the chance to happen.
The system notification finally arrived.
[Mission: Change Fate — Complete.] [Rewards Obtained: EXP +1,000.] [Peter Parker Favorability +60.] [Spider-Totem Favorability +60.] [Item Obtained: Paralysis Ring.] [Paralysis Ring: Whenever an attack successfully hits a target, there is a 1-in-15 chance of paralyzing the target for three seconds.
While paralyzed, the target cannot move or attack.] [Evaluation: Nothing says “fair fight” like making sure the other guy can’t fight back.] “Paralysis Ring?” Calvin stared at the description.
“Where’s my legendary dragon-slaying sword while you’re at it?” Right then, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
Calvin checked the caller ID.
Tony.
He answered.
“Hey, Tony.
What happened?
Running low on horsepower again?” A somewhat drained Tony Stark answered from the other end.
“Not…
entirely.” He sighed.
“There are a few other problems now.
If you’re free, could you come by tomorrow?” “Sure.” Calvin ended the call.
Then his eyebrows slowly rose.
“Other problems?” He rubbed his chin.
‘Is the palladium poisoning finally catching up with him?’