Countless worlds.
Many years ago, in the Marvel Universe.
During this era, an event occurred that affected the entire multiverse—an event unknown to many.
This was the era of infinite spiders.
A Spider-Verse!
Countless Spider-Men from different times and universes gathered here.
And what they faced was a common enemy—an incredibly powerful adversary, a family that lived to hunt Spider-Men!
Their name: The Inheritors!
The scythe of death loomed across infinite parallel universes, silently raised behind the Spider-Men. One brutal massacre after another played out in different realities.
One by one, Spider-Men across various universes fell, their corpses littering the streets.
To the Inheritors, every Spider-Man was nothing more than a delicacy laid out on their grand feast table.
Until two Spider-Men from different universes each began to notice the signs.
One of them was the Ultimate Spider-Man of Earth-616—Parker Octavius.
However, this "Parker Octavius" was not truly "Parker," but rather, a Peter Parker whose body had been taken over by Doctor Octopus.
To understand how this came to be, we must start from the beginning.
Sometime earlier in Universe 616, perhaps as retribution for his years of villainy, Dr. Otto Octavius, known as Doctor Octopus, found his body gradually failing.
If nothing changed, he would be completely dead within months!
But as an ambitious genius, how could Doctor Octopus allow his life to end like this?
Thus, he devised a plan.
Through years of battling the main-universe Spider-Man, he had gathered vast amounts of critical data. Using this knowledge and his brilliant intellect, he invented a golden mini-octopus—a consciousness transfer device.
As its name suggests, this was a device capable of swapping the consciousness of two individuals.
And so, with careful planning and precise execution, the Spider-Man of Earth-616 (hereafter referred to as the "Main Universe Spider-Man") fell into his trap.
His body was stolen by Doctor Octopus, while his own consciousness was transferred into Otto's dying body.
However, as a battle-hardened warrior, the Main Universe Spider-Man was never one to sit back and accept defeat.
When their consciousnesses were swapped, he naturally gained access to all of Doctor Octopus' memories—after all, memory is stored in the cerebral cortex.
Using these memories, he uncovered a plan hidden within Doctor Octopus' mind.
Following this plan, he reached out to several supervillains—former underlings of Doctor Octopus and members of the Sinister Six (a group that had changed members several times).
Together, they broke out of prison and went to confront "Spider-Man"—who was, in reality, now Doctor Octopus, or Parker Octavius.
The Main Universe Spider-Man intended to subdue Parker Octavius and use the consciousness transfer device to swap their minds back.
However, as the original creator of the device and a cunning, seasoned villain, Parker Octavius had already foreseen this attempt.
He modified the Spider-Suit using a carbon-plated fiber layer, blocking the consciousness transfer device's effects. In the ensuing battle, he successfully defeated the Main Universe Spider-Man, who was still trapped in Otto's failing body.
However, although the main universe's Spider-Man ultimately found himself trapped in Doctor Octopus's body and was unable to reclaim his own, he still managed to accomplish one final act before his demise.
In his last moments, he awakened the instinctive consciousness of his own body, forcing "Zhang Parker" to passively experience his entire life. Through this, Zhang Parker came to understand the true meaning of the phrase: "With great power comes great responsibility."
As a result, following the death of the main universe's Spider-Man, Zhang Parker assumed the mantle of Spider-Man and vowed to become an even better Spider-Man than before—The Ultimate Spider-Man!
He defeated the new Sinister Six, blinded the Vulture, severely injured Boomerang, and even executed Carnage. Surprisingly, his actions were widely praised by many.
—Perhaps a large number of citizens believed that Spider-Man's old way of merely capturing criminals without killing them, allowing them to escape repeatedly, was too soft.
Later, Zhang Parker went even further by creating mechanical spiders capable of monitoring the entire city of New York, ensuring he could better fulfill his responsibilities as the Ultimate Spider-Man.
It may sound absurd, but the truth is that under Zhang Parker's aggressive approach, the messy life of the original universe's Peter Parker quickly took a turn for the better. In a short period, he had not only gained stability but had even risen to a life of prestige and success.
Following his heart, he broke up with Mary Jane and started a relationship with another woman.
He founded Parker Industries, becoming a highly successful entrepreneur responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of employees.
Everything was going smoothly—until a sudden space-time distortion occurred.
In the year 2099, within the Earth-928 universe, Tyler Stone, the president of Alchemax, faced a life-threatening crisis. In an effort to uncover the root cause, Spider-Man 2099 traveled back in time to the Earth-616 universe, hoping to make changes at Horizon Labs before it could evolve into Alchemax, thereby preventing the catastrophe.
Thus, Zhang Parker and the time-traveling Spider-Man 2099 clashed in battle.
However, during their fight, an internal explosion occurred at Horizon Labs, completely destroying the facility.
And in that very explosion, the Ultimate Spider-Man, Zhang Parker, vanished without a trace.
Of course, he didn't die. Instead, he found himself inside a bizarre, kaleidoscopic tunnel.
Due to the differences in timelines between worlds, knowledge varied as well. Zhang Parker was unaware that he had accidentally fallen into a quantum tunnel connecting different universes.
This quantum tunnel had been left behind when Spider-Man 2099 traveled through time, and the explosion at Horizon Labs had temporarily reopened it.
As a result, Zhang Parker had only one destination—
The Earth-928 universe, the future of Earth-616 in the year 2099.
Pffft—
With a strange sound, Zhang Parker felt his body being ejected from that peculiar tunnel, as if he had been... spat out—similar to an unpleasant yet inevitable bodily function.
"Tsk, why would I even think of something like that? It must be the remnants of that damn Parker's consciousness messing with me!"
After landing on the ground, Zhang Parker took a moment to observe his surroundings while mentally shifting the blame.
Although the experience was disorienting, he had regained control of his body. That, at least, was something to be happy about.
He carefully examined his surroundings and quickly reached a conclusion after witnessing the technology that far exceeded his understanding.
"Ah, I should have guessed. Since 2099 lost its Spider-Man, it naturally needed a new one. And clearly, that new Spider-Man… is me."
Zhang Parker, seemingly inheriting Peter Parker's optimistic nature, chuckled at his own predicament.
(End of Chapter)
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