Chapter 43: Spider-Man, You're Cheating!

The newcomer was known by the nickname Bullseye; his real name hardly mattered. He was one of Kingpin's men—a master of combat whose physical abilities surpassed those of ordinary men. Most importantly, he was a man with an infallible aim. He could, from dozens of meters away, plant a throwing knife precisely at Harry’s toes, or knock several high-speed pumpkin blades out of the air. Time and again, he demonstrated the truth of the saying: “There are only misnamed people, never misnamed nicknames.”

Unfortunately, Bullseye was insane—a product of his early life, perhaps, but that was irrelevant. What mattered was that he now worked for Kingpin, doing evil for money, a supervillain guilty of every imaginable crime. Tonight’s plan was simple: the Mafia would distract and deplete the Green Armored Hero’s ammunition, Yoshio Yamagata would keep him occupied, and Bullseye, the ultimate assassin, was the final move against Harry.

His appearance meant the Green Armored Hero had reached his last stand. If all went as expected, it was Bullseye’s time to reap the rewards.

But the sun had not yet risen when fate intervened. As Bullseye sauntered toward the Green Armored Hero, his steps feline, his posture flamboyant, a victorious smile on his lips—a figure appeared, unaccounted for in the plan.

“Hey there! Busy, are you? Hope I’m not interrupting?”

A voice rang out, sudden and unannounced. Yoshio and Bullseye turned in astonishment to see, perched atop a rooftop iron frame in the shadows, a figure clad in a red-and-black suit, hunched down in a familiar pose.

“Spider-Man!” Yoshio couldn’t help but shout. This was the legend who had easily defeated the Green Goblin, whose tales were whispered throughout New York’s underworld—made all the more fantastic by their rarity. When the Green Armored Hero first appeared, he’d had the fortune to be compared to Iron Man; had it been Spider-Man, the city’s citizens would have torn him to shreds.

Many fans, in fact, had begun to treat Spider-Man as something more than human.

Faced with such an adversary, Yoshio’s confidence crumbled by half in an instant.

“So you’re Spider-Man?” Bullseye, however, only laughed. Having just returned from abroad, he had heard of Spider-Man but dismissed the stories with scorn. In his mind, Spider-Man thrived in New York only because Bullseye hadn’t been around. Now that he was, Spider-Man, god or not, would be brought low.

For someone as unstable as Bullseye, such arrogance was only natural. After all, even Iron Man had nearly been assassinated; why should Spider-Man be immune?

Meanwhile, Harry furrowed his brow. “Why does this Spider-Man’s voice sound so familiar? That lazy drawl, that cocky tone, that...”

Beneath his mask, Harry’s eyes flashed as if he’d grasped something important, but for the moment, he dared not be certain.

Bullseye, however, had already launched his attack. With a flick of his hand, a handful of miscellaneous items—knives, coins, lighters—shot out like a deadly spray, each following a curved path straight toward Spider-Man. The red-and-black suit looked sleeker than Harry’s own armor; if one of those knives, hidden among the debris, struck him, Spider-Man would be gravely wounded.

To Bullseye, Spider-Man’s webs were mere child’s play. Spider-Man might swing freely through the city, but only because he had never encountered someone who could sever his webs mid-air. Bullseye was convinced he was that man, the one who could end Spider-Man’s greatest asset.

Come on, show me your webs, try to escape. I’ll show you that they mean nothing before me.

In Bullseye’s hands, more knives appeared, ready for a dramatic mid-air display. But Spider-Man did not dodge, nor did he swing away on his webs. Instead, he raised both hands and fired white spheres into the air.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Amid the sharp bursts, every one of Bullseye’s projectiles was shot down mid-air. Before he could showcase his web-cutting prowess, he had already been upstaged.

He hadn’t expected this. But it didn’t matter, he thought. The webs only flew straight—his knives could curve.

Laughing maniacally, Bullseye sent out another volley. This time, the knives twisted through the air like birds with wings, arcing in unpredictable paths, their swirling motion creating chaotic eddies that made it impossible for Spider-Man to track their trajectory.

Let’s see you dodge this Armstrong Multi-Phase Recoiling Jet-Propelled Armstrong Special!

Well, that last phrase was just Su Ye’s imagination. He simply couldn’t fathom anyone wielding throwing knives with such uncanny skill, changing their flight paths in concert—a feat seemingly beyond even a madman.

Indeed, these knives were masterful. To shoot them all down with web-bullets would be nearly impossible; to scatter-fire would be wasteful. Dodging was out of the question—if a hero had to dodge every attack, what sort of hero was he?

A hero should meet his foe head-on.

So, in answer, Su Ye casually conjured a blast.

Bang!

A blue orb, the size of a basketball, shot from his fist, whirling through the air with tremendous force. It struck the knives, sending them flying, and continued its course straight toward Bullseye.

“Fuck!” Bullseye cursed, diving aside. He avoided the attack, but the ground where he had stood was left with a gaping crater.

The blast was as powerful as a grenade.

Spider-Man could throw grenades with one hand?

In that instant, not just Bullseye and Yoshio, but even Harry watching from afar, felt their worldview shatter.

Wasn’t Spider-Man supposed to be a spider? Since when did spiders have such abilities? No one had ever heard of a spider that could do this!

And then Su Ye proved that a hero who couldn’t break the rules was no real protagonist.

He leapt from the iron frame, fist raised. Mid-air, he drove his punch into the ground before him. For a moment, Harry thought he’d missed, but then a red energy wave shot from Spider-Man’s fist, burrowing through the earth like a mole, racing toward the spot where Bullseye was about to land.

In that moment, everyone—Harry included—thought the same thing:

“Spider-Man, you’re cheating!”