5 Chapter 5: "Striking a Balance"

[Apologies, noticed something was wrong in the status at the end of the last chap, so I changed some stuff, more details in the Authors note at the end]

The day had finished, and Peter found himself standing in front of the front door of his home. Aunt May's worried eyes met his, questioning how his day had unfolded. Peter, trying his best to not worry his aunt, masked the night's activities and his internal turmoil with a reassuring smile. "School was fine, Aunt May. Just another ordinary day," he said, attempting to deflect her concerns. He then tells her that he's going to have a shower first before he eats. She tries to see through him but relents as she doesn't want to push Peter too much, especially since she is his last living family member, this thought saddens her. As he made his way upstairs, May's gaze lingered on a wedding day photograph with Ben, her departed husband. A single tear traced a path down her cheek as she clutched the precious memory.

Behind the closed door of his room, Peter leaned wearily, exhaling a heavy sigh. The weight of his dual existence pressed down on him, the need to protect May conflicting with the desire to reveal the truth. The lie stung, but for now, it was a necessary shield, he needed to be strong enough to create precautions, anything to secure May's safety. 'Maybe I should delve into some magic, protection wards will be very useful to keep my loved ones safe.'

Peter puts his bag down and heads for the shower. After going through his usual shower routine Peter equips his new suit from his inventory, at first it is the default MCU Spider-Man suit, but after seeing this, Peter decides to make some changes, he wants a visual declaration of his separation from the Tom Holland Spider-Man to signify that he would be his own Spider-Man. Saving his new look as a preset for his suit in its settings, Peter changes it again to something more casual and civilian, allowing him to join his aunt downstairs for dinner inconspicuously. (Final chance to submit your ideas for his Spider Suit)

The halls of Midtown High buzzed with activity the next day. A battleground where ordinary teenage challenges clash with Peter's own challenge of taking extra caution to keep his strength in check, making sure to not cause any accidents, such as accidentally breaking someone's shoulder from bumping into them in the chaos that is a busy school hallway, Peter takes a mental note that he really needs to get some practice in so that this comes completely natural to him instead of the extreme focus he is currently using to not injure anyone.

In the classroom, Peter grappled with conflicting memories. 

A minefield of conflicting experiences and specialties, Peter's memories and experiences more specialized in sciences and theory, and Jake's knowledge of fiction due to spending so much time watching and reading while hospitalized. In classes, he found himself inadvertently combining Jake's affinity for creative writing with Peter's scientific mindset, leading to essays that were a fusion of art and logic. The teachers, perplexed by the sudden shift in his academic approach, could only watch as Peter's dual consciousness wrestled for control.

Navigating social dynamics presented its own set of challenges. While Peter's memory held the key to established friendships, the amalgamation of personalities made each interaction a tightrope walk at first. He struggled to reconcile Jake's preference for solitude with Peter's close-knit friendship with Ned. His attempts at socializing with Ned felt like a dance of uncertainty throughout classes.

During lunch, Peter found solace in the company of Ned Leeds. Laughter became their shared language, a brief escape from the internal turmoil that threatened to engulf Peter. Despite the initial stiffness, amidst the chaos that is in his mind, Ned Leeds emerges as a beacon of friendship, he rediscovered the comfort of being friends with Ned. This new Peter had a newfound appreciation for being friends with Ned. The friendship will not only be a good thing for the usual reasons but also for adjusting to his new life and also just to have that sense of normalcy, he is still just a teenager in high school after all.

In the corner of the room closest to the duo, A young woman observed Peter with a curious eye. This young woman is Michelle Jones-Watson or as she prefers, MJ. This MJ, like her MCU counterpart, likes to sit by herself at a table in the corner. MJ has always been interested in some of the topics of Peter's and Ned's conversations, occasionally slipping into the conversation but too awkward to stick around.

Something was different, she detected a subtle difference in Peter's demeanor, but she couldn't quite figure it out, this being because Peter was trying to mask his physical and mental changes from those around him, making sure his posture didn't give away his new physique. 

The final class of the day found Peter in his seat, reflective of the week that had passed since his being reincarnated, taking over, and then assimilating into his new life with his new memories. In the days leading up to this moment, Peter had devoted himself to honing not just his spider-like abilities but also the art of combat. A local dojo became his clandestine training ground, the sensei unaware of the dual life being cultivated within his humble establishment. This dojo was where Peter gained proficiency in Basic CQC through light sparring. Thinking back on how easy it was to pick up the basics and remembering the surprised face of the dojo's sensei caused a small chuckle to leave his lips. 

After some consideration, a realization dawned on him that diving headfirst into crime-fighting would be a huge mistake. This is real life, he can't just jump straight into fighting criminals, because all it takes is making one small mistake such as punching and kicking a little too hard, and accidentally killing someone who didn't deserve it such as people committing petty theft. Also contemplating something related to that, he asked himself, is he ready to kill someone? Because he knows that, in real life, especially in Marvel, true scum exists, such as The Purple Man aka Zebediah Killgrave. People like him are undeserving of life, and he knew that when it came to people like him, holding back would more than likely come back to bite him on the ass. Peter shakes his head clearing those thoughts. 

Even after this past week, his level is still level 1, and his attribute points are still empty much to his disappointment. He noticed that since he didn't have the quest feature in his system, the only way to gain XP for his level would be to fight.

Swinging through the city at night in an ID, Peter reflected on his training. Levels in martial arts gained at the dojo and some levels gained in his spider powers trained inside an instant dimension, even gaining a new skill "Parkour", he made sure to get at least 5 levels in this as it was very useful when avoiding things while Web swinging. Yet, the absence of challenges began to slow his skill progression.

After a week of training, Peter's skill levels were as follows:

{Wall-Crawling LVL 8 47/600 XP}

{Spider-Sense LVL 3 2/25 XP}

{Enhanced Physique (Passive)}

{Organic Web-Shooting LVL 9 24/800 XP}

{Web-slinging LVL 9 2/50 XP}

{Basic CQC LVL 7, 3/400 XP}

{Parkour LVL 5, 1/100 XP}

{ID Create/Destroy LVL 3, 14/25 XP}

Decision time arrived. Peter left the safety of his Instant Dimension to embark on his first patrol as Spider-Man, venturing into the night to introduce a new hero into the city's narrative.

Swinging through the city, Spider-Man's acute senses picked up on a commotion. A group of 5 thugs covering their faces with different types of clothing and holding different types of blunt weapons are collected in front of a door leading inside a building connected to the alley. One of them says to the guy huddled in front of the door "Hurry it up, Jimmy! We ain't got all night." The now-named Jimmy replies frustrated "I'm going as fast as I can, Tony! This lock's a tricky one." A more skittish thug said with impatience "Come on man, We need to get in there before someone sees us." Another adds to the conversation "Yeah Jimmy, what if the cops show up because of you taking your sweet ass time?" The last of them says getting angry, growls at them "Shut it, let Jimmy focus. We can't afford any screw-ups tonight, not after last time." After hearing what the guys were talking about and confirming that they were there to break into the building he entered the alley and approached the thugs. 

One of the thugs, Tony, notices a man wearing some weird costume walking in their direction, with his weapon pointed in the man's direction he barks at him "Why don't you mind your own business and turn around freak, unless you want some real trouble!" Tony was already nervous with the whole gig, and noticing that the freak was still walking in their direction, he had a bad feeling, but the more skittish thug couldn't take it and rushed the costumed man once he got too close for his comfort.

Peter, now being charged by one of the thugs with a bat, gets into a simple stance to redirect the weapon, then proceeds to try and take him down. After a brief exchange, the first thug is out cold, confirming he is knocked out, Peter goes back to walking towards the rest of the thugs "The freak got Jack, surround him!" Peter's Basic CQC skill being level 7 allowed him to engage in this fight without getting completely overwhelmed, but this didn't stop him from stumbling now and then over his very beginner skills. After knocking down another 2 of the thugs Peter's spider senses went haywire. Instinctively moving, Peter caught the glare of something shiny before feeling a sharp sting on his forearm. Unknown to Peter, there was a sixth thug, the leader of these deadbeats, who just so happened to be relieving himself further down the alley while his boys worked, after hearing the commotion, he decided to take advantage of Pete being distracted with the other thugs and try and ambush him from behind using his switchblade.

Barely avoiding the ambush from the larger thug wielding a knife, Peter pulls back wincing and grabbing his arm, seeing the cut on his arm, Peter freaks out and freezes at the sight of the blood leaking from the fresh wound, this makes him truly realize that mistakes in this job have very real consequences. Still shocked and frozen by the surprise wound the system initiates one of its most op skills, {Calm Under Pressure}, forcefully calming him as the man with a knife was now charging in his direction with the intent to kill.

Despite the initial hurdles, a now calmed-down Peter can listen to his instincts and move out of harm's way allowing the system to deactivate {Calm under Pressure}. With the initial shock out of the way Peter takes the fight more seriously, Spider-Man's movements become more fluid, more purposeful throughout the fight knocking them out one by one. Leaving the leader armed with a knife for last, Peter charges him, grabbing his knife hand and snapping it to the side in a way a human wrist just shouldn't, after breaking the man's wrist as payback for the cut on his arm, before the man can even scream, he moved behind him, covering his mouth while putting him in a headlock, slowly suffocating the man till unconsciousness. 

As the last thug crumpled to the ground, an XP counter appeared:

{You have gained 15 XP for defeating 'Common thugs'} x5

{You have gained 20 XP for defeating 'Common thug leader'}

{2 basic bandages, an empty beer bottle, and $150 have been added to your inventory as loot for your victory}

Peter collects and webs up all 6 thugs against a wall then proceeds to exit the alley swinging. Swinging through the city after the encounter, an annoyed expression under his mask.

Although thankful for the loot the thugs dropped as he now has some more money to his name, he can't help but be frustrated for two reasons, the first being that his level XP count settles at 95/100, just shy 5 XP of a level-up leaving him with 0 AP still. Secondly, he is frustrated with the mistakes made during that fight, looking again at the cut on his arm. After calming down some more, he proceeded to freak out again for a different reason, something Peter remembered that occurs a lot in comic books is cloning, realizing that he probably dropped some blood at the scene with the thugs. About to turn back after this realization to clean it up, Peter is stopped by a familiar sound.

*Ding*

{"Congratulations on discovering a hidden feature of 'Gamer's Constitution.'"}

{Immunity to Mental Intrusions}

{Calm Under Pressure}

{Continuous Growth}

{Rapid Recovery}

{Healing Through Items}

*New* {Obscure DNA}

(Any attempt to use your DNA will be met with failure, no matter what your DNA can never be deciphered, therefore you are unclonable, and your powers forever only yours to wield.)

After seeing this Peter, after sighing in relief, comes to appreciate his system more. Exhausted mentally after that whole ordeal. He creates an ID to destroy the chance of somehow being followed; he disappears from the world and makes his way home. The frustration temporarily transformed into curiosity, realizing that possibly more hidden features in his system awaited discovery.

Now lying on his bed, thoughts completely occupied with what occurred this eventful night, eyes fixed on the scabbed cut on his arm. Running the fight through his head once more, mentally picking at and noting what he could have done better. The night, however eventful, concluded with a quiet resolve to train harder.

While Peter has these thoughts, the night carries on, the webbed-up thugs wake up huddled together stuck to a wall in utter confusion.

In the depths of Oscorp, a one-armed man toiled late into the night. Frustration etched on his face, he muttered to himself after another failed attempt to harness lizard DNA for a regeneration formula to regrow his missing arm. The stage was set for future developments as the city that