Chapter 41 - I am Spider Tobey

Hey! I’m Peter Parker.
And today, I’m more Peter Parker than ever… more broke than ever.

“How much money do we have?” I asked.

“Uhmm,” Emily murmured while counting the crumpled bills. “About 492 dollars,” she said with a shrug.

“Let’s try to find a motel. We also need more money to buy a laptop for MJ. But for today, we’ll go with this,” I said.

We started asking around for information and eventually found a motel that didn’t ask for documents. Unfortunately, without an ID, the price was higher… damn opportunists.

Luckily, it didn’t seem too bad, and there was a room with two double beds.

Watching 150 dollars vanish hurt in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time… the pain of poverty.

But it’s only the first day, and we already made 400 dollars, so it’s not too bad.

The next day, we went to a public library where the girls started studying so their skills could appear and they could allocate points.

Fortunately, there was a section on martial arts with some basic books on the subject.

I also skimmed through the books so I could add points in the future.

[Player: Peter Parker]
Level: 3 (65 / 80 exp)
Skill Points: 4
Skills:

• Street Fighting – Apprentice (Upgradeable – 5 points)

• Krav Maga – Not Initiated (Upgradeable – 1 point)

• Aikido – Not Initiated (Upgradeable – 1 point)

• …

Several combat skills appeared in my menu, but I don’t intend to level up anything other than street fighting.

Maybe you think it would be better to train other skills, that they’re superior to street fighting. And you’d be wrong.

Street fighting is a bit of a bastardized skill, Jack of all trades, master of none. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad—on the contrary. In my original world (Tobey’s), I took it to its peak, and it suited me the best.

Street fighting might start off as Jack of all trades, master of none, but when it reaches its peak, it’s simply master of everything.

Street fighting is unpredictable—at one moment, it looks like boxing; at another, it resembles Krav Maga. A little bit of everything.

A few hours later, we left the library and went to eat a cheeseburger.

“Well, time to rob the bad guys and give to the poor?” Emily asked, finishing her burger.

“Yes, let’s go!” I said with a smile.

A week passed like this.

As we leveled up and improved our skills, it became easier to defeat criminals… the problem was that they started getting smarter.

Stories of a guy with four girls beating up gang members began to spread. After all, we didn’t kill in public—we didn’t want that kind of reputation—so they recognized us.

We started wearing disguises, but a guy walking around with four striking women stands out whether we wore masks or not.

[Player: Peter Parker]
Level: 7 (840 / 1280 exp)
Skill Points: 14
Skills:

• Street Fighting – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

[Skill Levels:]

• Beginner (1 point)

• Apprentice (2 points)

• Intermediate (4 points)

• Advanced (8 points)

• Master (16 points)

• Grandmaster (32 points)

[Player: Mary Jane Watson Parker]
Level: 7 (840 / 1280 exp)
Skill Points: 8
Skills:

• Krav Maga – Intermediate (Upgradeable – 8 points)

• Programming & Hacking – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

[Player: Emily Osborn Parker]
Level: 7 (840 / 1280 exp)
Skill Points: 0
Skills:

• Krav Maga – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

• Biological Science – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

[Player: Gwen Stacy Parker]
Level: 7 (840 / 1280 exp)
Skill Points: 0
Skills:

• Ballet – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

• Technological Engineering – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

[Player: Ursula Ditkovich Parker]
Level: 7 (840 / 1280 exp)
Skill Points: 0
Skills:

• Aikido – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

• Medicine – Advanced (Upgradeable – 16 points)

We made great progress during this time. With our combat levels, we can take down most small-time armed gangsters.

But if we run into a fighter as skilled as Daredevil or Kingpin, we’re screwed.

Ursula and Gwen spent all their points, while I’m saving mine to upgrade street fighting.

MJ is also saving hers to max out hacking and get us fake identities.

We could find someone to create fake IDs, but those are usually pretty weak, and we don’t want that.

Well, things are both getting better and worse for the Parker family in this new world.

We’ve earned a lot of money by taking down criminals, but as our level rises, it’s going to get harder to grind experience.

Peter Parker out.