I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 403 Next Stop, Taranto

When Peter returned, he tried his best to hide his absent-mindedness, but Gwen noticed. Before he could even sit down and say anything, Gwen asked, "What happened?"

"No."

"You mean you were saying everything was fine with that 'don't worry others' look on your face?" Gwen's words left Peter speechless. He awkwardly scratched his head and offered a new explanation: "Well, actually someone contacted me. It was Cindy's boss."

Gwen thought for a while before realizing that she was referring to S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization that actually exists publicly but is largely ignored by the public. Unlike the FBI or CIA, S.H.I.E.L.D. is a very rare organization for the general public, mainly because it is not something they come into contact with on a daily basis.

S.H.I.E.L.D. perfectly demonstrates what a truly mysterious organization looks like—it has its own official website, its own responsibilities and missions are all publicly available on the website, and it even publishes its financial budget and year-end report every year. However, because there is no media coverage and normal people cannot access it, most people have no idea what S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually doing.

The best secret organizations are not those that are secretive and covert, but those that are open and aboveboard, yet you are not interested in them and cannot find their origins.

"Hmm...he assigned you a task?"

"Theoretically speaking, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. are not subordinate to each other, but considering that the things he arranged are quite important, we should help him as much as possible."

Peter still wasn't telling the truth; he was thinking about what Nick Fury had said about his parents.

On one hand, this seems to be a completely different storyline. He remembered that in the Marvel universe, the Parker couple were CIA agents who were then framed for treason. But Fury had told him long ago that it wasn't the CIA that recruited the Parker couple, but S.H.I.E.L.D. And it also seemed somewhat similar to The Amazing Race, with Richard Parker being an expert in gene editing technology.

On the other hand, although he was reborn in this universe, he didn't really have much contact with his parents. Peter often didn't know what his parents were doing. They would always send him to Uncle Ben's house whenever something happened, without telling him anything.

"Hey, Peter?"

Gwen's shout brought Peter back to reality. Peter looked at Gwen, who shrugged helplessly: "You were spacing out for two minutes and didn't eat a single bite."

"Oh, sorry, it's all Nick Fury's fault."
-
The three-day journey was drawing to a close, and Peter once again remembered what it was like to be an ordinary person, not Spider-Man. Here, Spider-Man didn't need to fight supervillains; there were occasional ordinary criminal activities that Peter could secretly stop without even needing to change his costume.

Of course, this doesn't mean Peter did nothing. On the first night he communicated with Nick Fury, he used his slingshot to open a portal, returned home, and took the notebook his father had left behind—which Peter found while cleaning the basement, containing the synthesis instructions for the first generation of spider web fluid.

He suspected that this notebook contained other secrets left by his father, but he had already flipped through it countless times without finding anything else. Richard Parker's notebook was basically his work, recording the synthesis of spider web fluid, how to make spider web wings, the characteristics of spider swinging, and the various structures of spider silk.

"If I had to put it in perspective, this book is more like a guide on how to be Spider-Man from Spider-Man's point of view." Peter lay on the hotel bed and flipped through the notebook again, trying to find any hidden clues in the book.

He knew, in truth, that the book was most likely not a code; after all, it was left behind by the Parkers before their mission to Europe, and they were unlikely to leave clues for things that hadn't even happened yet. But what if it was?
Peter read through the entire notebook again; he already knew almost everything in it by heart. Richard Parker had chosen excellent material for the genetically modified spider from the very beginning: the Taranto spider.

Taranto tarantulas are a general term for bird-eating spiders. When colonists arrived in the Americas and Africa, they found these hairy spiders to resemble the Taranto wolf spider of Europe and named them accordingly. Before the 17th century, it was widely believed that a bite from a Taranto tarantula would cause a condition called Tarantoiasis, which would cause the patient to cry and jump, eventually developing into a frenzied dance. The bird-eating spiders collectively known as Taranto tarantulas are large, growing to about twenty centimeters in length.

"A sufficiently large body size can support sufficient genetic modification. The venom of the Taranto spider is not very potent, and through modification, its venom injection can be used as a method of DNA transcription."

This is what is recorded in the notes.

"..."

Peter looked at the passage and thought about it for a moment. He realized that the spider was really that big.

Peter hadn't actually seen the spider before; after all, it was Kalkin who placed it on his neck, and he swatted it off after being bitten. Then the spider went to bite Cindy, but judging from its feel, it didn't seem that big?

Thinking of this, Peter got up, opened a portal, and returned directly to the Spiderweb Base. Dr. Jonathan, who was breeding spiders, saw Peter arrive but wasn't surprised: "Oh, Peter, you're here."

"Dr. Jonathan, I have a question. Are all of these Taranto spiders that you've bred?"

"Strictly speaking, the Taranto tarantula is a general term for a type of tarantula in the family Tarantidae. They are large in size, making them easier to genetically modify..."

"I have a question. Was the genetically modified spider that my father researched, which was exhibited at the Osborne Science Show, this the same type of spider?"

"No, that's a Taranto tarantula. I mean, a real Taranto tarantula, unlike a tarantula, doesn't actually have venom, doesn't weave webs, and instead chooses to chase and ambush its prey."

Dr. Jonathan shrugged: "I don't know why your father went to such lengths, because real Tarantulas are much smaller, about ten centimeters long, and they are not venomous. They don't weave webs, but instead choose to chase their prey. In order to enable them to inject venom, they even need to undergo additional gene editing."

"Where did he purchase the experimental materials?"

"He did not purchase any experimental materials."

Dr. Jonathan said, "He made a special trip to Taranto in southern Italy to obtain the original samples there."

　There was originally a plan to have Nick Fury transform into Zemo after his conversation with Spider-Man, but then I thought better of it.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)