Chapter 102

"You!" Max angrily unleashed a high-voltage electric surge.

Mark furrowed his brows slightly. "Max, hold on, something's not right."

Boom!

Thanks to Mark's timely warning, the office worker wasn't hit by the attack.

"What's going on? That guy dared to shoot at you!" Max turned his head, expressing his indignation.

Mark said, "I feel like something's off about that person, but I can't put my finger on it."

"What's off? He's attacking us; he's definitely an enemy!" Max insisted.

Mark nodded slightly but added, "I think so too, but I lean towards making contact first, see who we're dealing with."

Before he could finish his sentence, a massive explosion echoed from a distance.

Boom!

Flames soared into the sky.

Judging by the power, it was even more powerful than the pumpkin grenades used by the Green Goblin.

And the source of the explosion was the person they just encountered!

But Max's previous attack hadn't hit him at all!

Self-destruction?

Suicide bomber?

No, it's someone being mentally controlled!

A flash of insight brightened Mark's mind.

Among many villains, the one most skilled in mental manipulation was Mysterio.

The Mysterio that Spider-Tom had encountered before excelled in using virtual reality technology, with combat abilities practically equal to zero.

In reality, Mysterio was exceptionally adept at mental manipulation. He could use linguistic suggestions to hypnotize targets, influencing their minds.

For example, in the Far From Home, he used this technique to directly impact the Skrull disguised as Nick Fury and Agent Hill, as well as the naive Peter Parker, creating an image of himself as a hero from a parallel universe, successfully gaining their trust.

Even individuals with superpowers like the Skrull and the superhero Spider-Man could be hypnotized, let alone ordinary people.

Mark felt a bit speechless. He hadn't expected to encounter the last person he wanted to see right away.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several gunshots rang out, all hitting near Mark and Max.

"Max, these are all controlled people. The real culprit is someone else. Let's get out of here!" Mark shouted.

Although Max was somewhat reluctant, he followed Mark as they leaped to a higher floor.

The range of pistol attacks was limited, and when they reached a certain distance, those hypnotized individuals stopped attacking.

"What should we do? It's challenging to find the hypnotizer this way," Max lamented.

Mark, with a furrowed brow, shared his frustration. He disliked those who wouldn't engage in a direct confrontation, hiding behind innocent civilians as human shields.

Not to mention whether it's appropriate to take action against these innocent people, even if they eliminate them, the mastermind behind the scenes might still be untraceable. That's the most troublesome part.

"Max, can you control the electric current to the extent that it just stuns people or temporarily paralyzes them?" Mark asked after considering for a moment.

Max lowered his head in thought and said, "I haven't thought about that. Let me give it a try."

Previously, he mainly focused on increasing the electric current and enhancing his output capabilities, without experimenting with reducing the current.

"You can release the current in an instant instead of continuous output," Mark suggested. "The safe voltage for the human body is below 36V. So, to control it in a way that only stuns people without electrocuting them, you need to control the current size. High voltage with low current should do the trick."

"Alright, I'll give it a try," Max said, extending his palm toward the nearby ground.

Sizzle—

A surge of electric current shot out. However, the current dissipated within less than a meter in front of Max.

After several attempts, he remained unsuccessful.

"I can't do it. If the current is too small, it will disappear quickly once it leaves my body, making it impossible. But if it's too large, it exceeds the safe current," Max said, feeling a bit disheartened.

"Never mind. If it doesn't work, we'll engage in close combat and knock them out directly," Mark suggested.

Max nodded, "That's doable. I can control the voltage output of the current to reach a million volts in an instant, but the current will be only a few milliamperes. It will stun people for about two or three seconds."

"Good. Next, we take the initiative and stun all these mentally controlled individuals," Mark said.

"Alright!" Max transformed into lightning, quickly disappearing from the scene.

Mark also leaped down from the high building, landing among these mentally controlled individuals.

Facing them, Mark didn't waste words. He delivered a precise chop to each person, controlling the force just enough to make them faint.

With his considerable combat experience, accomplishing such a task was a piece of cake.

However, there were an incredibly large number of people under mental control – men, women, old, and young. It seemed that a significant portion of the people in several nearby buildings and on the streets were under control.

It was difficult to imagine how the person in the shadows accomplished this.

Yet, Mark, seemingly tireless, repeated this behavior tirelessly.

In just about ten minutes, he had knocked out hundreds of people, leaving them lying on the ground.

It was challenging to understand the purpose of this seemingly meaningless act.

At the same time, in an office of a nearby building, a guy wearing a green uniform and a cape was watching this scene through the building's surveillance cameras.

He burst into laughter, "This guy seems to be in a hurry, not coming to find me but engaging in this meaningless activity!"

"Tsk, I thought this Spider from another world had some abilities, but it's just this." Standing beside that person was a middle-aged, muscular man wearing a black leather jacket. He held a wine glass filled with crimson wine.

"Let me play with him," the guy in the green uniform laughed heartily.

He opened a device beside him, projecting his image onto a large screen in the nearby building.

On the street below, Mark once again knocked down a person under mental control with a swift strike and immediately noticed the change in the screen of the nearby building.

On the enormous screen, a person wearing an upside-down goldfish bowl on his head appeared. He wore a green uniform, a red cape behind him, and the fishbowl on his head was emitting green gas, looking quite bizarre.

Mark quickly recognized the person's identity with a single glance.

Mysterio.

Mysterio on the screen was also looking at Mark and suddenly made a very frightened gesture.

"Wow! Who's this? Isn't this our city's hero, Spider-Man? Why are you harming those innocent people? Is it because they only love me and not you? Did they speak ill of you?" Mysterio's tone was urgent but carried a seductive undertone.

At the same time, several spotlights were directed towards Mark's location.

Snap!

Another large screen on another building lit up, displaying Mark illuminated by spotlights!

For a moment, this place seemed like a stage, and he was the protagonist standing on the stage under the spotlight.

On the street, some unaffected people quickly noticed the scene.

"Oh! Goodness, it's really Spider-Man!"

"I knew it; Spider-Man is a super villain!"

"Spider-Man, get out of our city!"

"That's Mysterio; he's not dead? Our hero is not dead!"

Under the combined effects of the "facts nailed down" on the forum and Mysterio's mental suggestions, the public opinion on the scene almost showed a completely one-sided view.

Mark suddenly found himself the target of universal blame.

Zi—

Max descended from the sky and arrived next to Mark. "What should we do? Take action?"

Mark nodded and said, "Let's go!"

Afterward, he gestured a thumbs-up to a nearby camera and then slowly fell backward.

On the screen, Mysterio was about to say something.

In the next moment, suddenly, the entire building lit up.

The lights went out in an instant and then, in the next moment, all came back on together.

However, when people focused their gaze back on the "stage," Spider-Man and the strange man had already disappeared.

So, where were Mark and Max at this moment?

Inside the building.

Mysterio stared blankly at the disappearing figure on the screen, swallowed a mouthful of spit, and his voice trembled, "What... what are you?!"

Mark imitated the movement of Sadako, slowly crawled out of the screen, stood in front of Mysterio, and said in a sinister tone, "Quentin Beck, I am Spider-Man from hell."

"Damn it, what just happened?" The jacketed man, who was drinking wine, was directly scared, and his wine glass fell to the ground.

He stared at Mark dumbfoundedly, then mechanically turned his head to look at Mysterio and asked, "What did you just do?"

Mysterio took a step back nervously, "I-I don't know what I did. I just wanted to tease our opponent, Spider-Man, that's all."

"Oh..." Mark pulled a long tone, turned his head with a swaying motion towards the jacketed man, "So, we have Adrian Toomes here too, right? You go by Vulture, don't you?"

"I-I-I..." Vulture was quite frightened by this eerie atmosphere.

Zi—

On the other side of the room, there was a sudden burst of light outside the window. Immediately after, another golden figure broke through the window.

"Max, you're a bit slow to arrive, huh?" Seeing that the encirclement was formed, Mark didn't bother to keep up the act, resumed a lazy posture, and said.

Max grinned, "I took a detour~"

"Electro! I heard 'him' talk about you. You're also an enemy of Spider-Man, right? Why are you helping Spider-Man?" Mysterio, seeing Max, immediately gathered his spirits, intending to use his hypnotic techniques.

However, Mark was well-prepared.

He knew that Max had some mental deficiencies and wouldn't be able to overcome them in the short term.

So, when their suits was upgraded by Spider-Tom, he also equipped Max with a small device. It allowed him to stimulate himself with an electric current at any time, keeping himself alert and immune to mental manipulation attacks.

"Spider-Man might be my enemy, but Mark is my friend!" Max shouted loudly and sent a lightning bolt toward Mysterio.

°°°

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