The week was coming to an end, which meant the ball was getting closer.
I can’t say I was particularly excited about attending a party for the upper class, but there might be something interesting to gain from it.
Information was never useless.
Maybe I’d recognize someone, or learn something that could prove valuable later.
As for the notable events of the past few days, Antonia Stark had finally escaped captivity and returned to America.
There were no surprises there.
Events unfolded exactly as I remembered them.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I wasn’t sure.
She returned, held a press conference, sat right down on the floor, and announced while eating a burger that Stark Industries was ending the development and production of weapons.
The news hit like a bomb.
The media frenzy was absolutely insane.
The company’s stock price plunged at the speed of a race car.
Hammer Industries and Oscorp, on the other hand, strengthened their positions slightly.
Hopefully, that would delay the birth of the Green Goblin for a while.
Still, it would be stupid to rely on that too much.
For one thing, only a couple of days had passed.
For another, rumors were becoming louder and more frequent that almost the entire Oscorp board of directors had turned against Norma Osborn.
A short-term boost caused purely by the departure of a major competitor, rather than by the company’s own achievements, was unlikely to change the situation significantly.
I didn’t miss the opportunity to make a little money for the family.
I convinced Mom to buy Stark Industries stock while its price was dropping so rapidly that it was practically becoming worth as much as toilet paper.
I’m exaggerating, obviously.
But knowing that Antonia would eventually restore the company’s position, it would’ve been foolish not to take advantage of the situation.
Amanda was quite surprised by my suggestion.
Little Sammy had never shown the slightest interest in business, and now he was suddenly giving his mother investment advice.
Still, my idea wasn’t completely insane.
Yes, there was currently mass hysteria surrounding Henrietta Stark’s company, but her daughter wasn’t called a genius for nothing.
The assumption that she could pull her company out of the hole she’d thrown it into herself wasn’t exactly unreasonable.
In the end, Amanda reacted the same way she did to many of her son’s other whims.
She agreed.
We didn’t buy enough stock to gain any kind of controlling stake, nor did we invest some ridiculous percentage of our savings.
Our family wasn’t that wealthy, and Mom would never spend so much money that we’d have to worry about putting food on the table.
Even so, we were looking at some pretty nice dividends.
Of course, I didn’t want to leave the girls out either, so I suggested that their families do the same thing.
Unfortunately, neither Gwen’s mother nor Aunt Benny wanted to get involved.
It was frustrating.
We could really use the money.
I’d spent quite a bit of time thinking about additional ways to make money.
One idea had been writing.
I could have simply cheated and rewritten one of the books that had been popular in my old world.
Unfortunately, that plan failed too.
Everything I remembered well enough to reproduce already existed in this world, albeit in slightly different forms.
I abandoned the idea of writing something original fairly quickly.
First, I’d never written anything longer than a school essay in my life, so there was no guarantee I’d produce anything worthwhile.
Second, my idea of what made a good story, or even something as basic as how characters should behave, differed quite a bit from the locals’ expectations.
The point wasn’t simply to write a good story.
The point was to write something readers actually wanted to read.
The second argument applied just as much to stealing a book from my old world.
There was no guarantee that something like Harry Potter would appeal to the people here in the form I remembered it.
Still, I had one idea.
“What are you thinking about?”
Penny handed me a cup of tea.
We were alone in the living room of her house. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
Dr. Connors had finally managed to pull herself together and return to work.
Gwen was with her.
I thought about how I should answer Parker’s question.
Telling her outright that I was thinking about money probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
I’d only rub salt into the poor girl’s wounds.
“Video games,” I finally answered.
“Video games?”
Penny raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“If you want to play something, then…”
Her gaze shifted toward the old console sitting in front of the television.
My heart actually warmed at the sight of the PlayStation.
So many childhood memories came rushing back.
Parker, however, was clearly embarrassed that she couldn’t afford something newer.
She had a computer too, but it wasn’t particularly impressive either.
In fact, the only genuinely expensive thing she owned was the camera Aunt Benny had given her.
“I do,” I nodded.
“But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about developing games.”
“You want to make your own game?”
Penny looked even more surprised.
“I want us to make one. The three of us.”
I paused to take a sip of tea.
“We need something simple. Almost primitive, really, but addictive enough to keep people’s attention. Sit down. I’ll explain everything.”
After my idea about books fell through, I switched to simple mobile games.
Something that a small group of talented teenagers without significant development resources could reproduce relatively easily.
Of course, most mobile games could technically fit into that category.
But we needed to save time too, and I’d found the perfect option.
Flappy Bird didn’t exist in this world yet.
I remembered perfectly well how much noise that game had caused in my old world, and how much money its developer had made from it.
Theoretically, I could probably handle the entire project myself.
There wasn’t anything particularly complicated about it.
However, the girls needed money just as badly as I did.
And considering the local mentality, if I handled the entire development process myself, the girls wouldn’t take a single cent from me.
So I intended to put two brilliant minds and my perfectly average one to work on a game about a bird.
There was no guarantee we’d reproduce the same success the game had enjoyed in my original world.
Still, it wouldn’t require much effort from us.
It was worth trying.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
Penny sounded skeptical.
I couldn’t blame her.
If I hadn’t known how successful the game had been in my old world, I probably wouldn’t have believed in its potential either.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. Worst case, we spend one evening working on it, then see what happens.”
“If it works, great. If it doesn’t, it’s not exactly a disaster.”
“Either way, we should discuss it with Gwen too. We’ll see what she thinks.”
That was the end of the subject for the moment.
Afterward, we talked about all sorts of trivial things.
However, our conversation didn’t remain purely conversational.
Let’s just say the tea eventually ran out, and both of us decided we wanted dessert.
It started with kisses and wandering hands.
My fingers slid along Penny’s back before quickly finding their way to her ass.
She wasn’t exactly idle either.
A month of regular exercise hadn’t been wasted.
I certainly hadn’t turned into some muscle-bound bodybuilder, but there were already hints of the abs women seemed to find so attractive.
Things didn’t stop there.
I stood up, dropped to my knees in front of the girl sitting on the couch, and slowly pulled down her shorts along with her panties.
The moment Penny realized what I intended to do, she froze like a timid little rabbit.
Her expression was a mixture of surprise, arousal, and anticipation.
I hadn’t specifically studied the subject, but judging by the behavior of the local guys, convincing them to use their tongues was probably an art form in itself.
Personally, I didn’t see anything wrong with it.
During sex, Penny always put my pleasure above her own.
Not returning the favor would have been downright selfish.
“Oh…”
A moan escaped her the moment my tongue touched her.
I listened carefully to her reactions and adjusted my movements accordingly, trying to give her as much pleasure as possible.
I focused on her most sensitive areas, changing my rhythm whenever her moans told me I’d found something she liked.
Penny reacted to everything I did.
Some things made her moan louder, while others earned quieter responses.
It wasn’t difficult to figure out what she enjoyed most.
I sped up and slowed down, stretching out her pleasure.
It couldn’t last forever.
Eventually, she came, leaving me covered in her release.
The timing was perfect.
I was already painfully aroused myself.
My erection was straining against my clothes, so I quickly freed it.
Once we were both completely naked, I lifted Penny’s legs and pressed them against her shoulders, practically folding her in half.
Spider-Woman’s flexibility was incredibly useful in moments like this.
Before entering her, I kissed her.
Our tongues met, but there was no struggle for dominance.
They simply moved together, enjoying the moment.
When I entered her, Penny greeted me with another moan.
Nothing had changed since last time.
She was still unbelievably tight.
Every instinct told me to start thrusting into her as hard and fast as possible, but I resisted the urge.
I started slowly instead, savoring every second and gradually increasing the pace.
I didn’t limit myself to penetration.
My hands and lips explored every part of her body I could reach in that position.
I even kissed her feet a couple of times.
I’d never noticed any particular attraction to feet before, but the foot swaying directly in front of my face, with its delicate toes, suddenly looked incredibly appealing.
Maybe it was just a temporary reaction caused by arousal.
Or maybe I’d discovered something new about myself.
I’d have to explore that possibility more thoroughly in the future.
I doubted Penny would object.
Between moans, Penny tried to return my affection.
She reached toward my face with her lips and murmured all sorts of sweet nonsense.
As was often the case, Penny came before I did.
I understood that it was simply a difference in the sexual physiology of men and women in this world, but moments like that still did wonders for my ego.
That said, I didn’t last much longer.
Only a few more thrusts after her orgasm were enough for me to lose control and finish inside her.
“Wow, that was something,” I whispered once I’d caught my breath.
“And that’s only the beginning,” Parker replied with a smile.
She knew perfectly well that we weren’t going to stop there.