Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 6054 - 5070: Fighter’s Fate (16)

"What? Write a report on Spider-Man?" Eddie asked with some confusion. "Why do you want me to report on Spider-Man?"

"Because the mainstream media in this universe isn’t very friendly to Spider-Man," Bruce explained patiently, not as sharply as he would be with outsiders. "They don’t have anything good to say."

"Are you trying to encourage Spider-Man?" Eddie asked. "He’s indeed had some trouble recently, and I’ve seen those reports. Most of them exaggerate things. If there could be some positive reports about him, it would be good."

"No, I’m using another method to make him temporarily give up being Spider-Man." Bruce said, sitting in the chair with his arms crossed. "Although this Spider-Man’s abilities aren’t that strong, his will is quite firm. Insults from newspapers and pressure from public opinion won’t necessarily make him give up. There’s only one way to help him rid himself of this identity, and that’s guilt."

"Why don’t you want him to be Spider-Man?" Eddie asked with a frown. "Although he may not be perfect, he’s trying very hard and has saved quite a few people."

"Life has inertia." Bruce said. "He’s caught in a vicious cycle. He’s busy being Spider-Man, so he can’t go to school, learn skills from others, or travel. Even someone as talented as Bruce Wayne couldn’t be a good Batman without the experience of studying and traveling."

Bruce was speaking sincerely. Compared to the Primary Universe Batman, he lacked global experience. He started directly as Batman, which led to major losses against arrogance. Had he been older and had the experience of global travel and study, his early times wouldn’t have been so miserable.

However, if he truly had such experience, he likely wouldn’t have clashed with arrogance, like how the Primary Universe Batman never opposed arrogance from the start—an advantage of rich experience.

And in this universe, Spider-Man also suffers from being too young and inexperienced, trying to make a debut as a superhero fueled solely by passion. In reality, his life experiences make it challenging to even be an excellent ordinary person; he’s simply too immature.

Bruce isn’t entirely sure under what conditions he became Spider-Man, but he figures it’s likely he was forced into it with no choice but to become Spider-Man. Bearing too heavy a responsibility too early traps one in a vicious cycle.

Taking on responsibilities requires energy and time. Being too young and lacking experience requires spending more time. Yet because time is fully occupied by the tasks that responsibility demands, it becomes impossible to improve oneself, resulting in more difficulties in handling matters as one gets deeper into the field, consuming more time and further hindering personal growth.

Previously, Spider-Man handled some dangerous incidents quite competently, at least training well in combating street crimes. But once things escalated, including civil wars, multiverse chaos, and open and hidden struggles between three major groups and countless villainous organizations, he was completely overwhelmed.

He wants to return and study properly to improve himself, but the daily patrol tasks and resolving the troubles he encounters take up all his time. He considers it lucky to attend two classes a week, and he struggles to finish his homework, with learning achievements nearly nonexistent.

But unfortunately, he doesn’t have the ability to break free from this vicious cycle. On one hand, many young people aren’t aware of being trapped in such cycles, as their survival environments are mostly harsh, forcing them to keep moving forward without much chance to reflect on their situation. On the other hand, he bears the expectations of many people; superpowers are his weapon but also his shackle. It’s like owning a Divine Skill Secret Manual; if he can’t master the skills and use them to uphold justice, he feels it’s a waste.

Bruce explained this to Eddie, who nodded after listening and said, "Alright, I get what you’re saying now. Maybe someone needs to lend him a hand. But if you encourage him this way, won’t he become even more motivated?"

"I told you that I’m utilizing guilt." Bruce said, "He won’t give up from others’ criticism and pressure, but if stopping saves more people, he’ll do it."

Eddie showed a thoughtful expression, then said, "Alright, how do you want me to write it?"

"Did you see it? That report." A girl leaned her hands on the table and whispered to her companion, "That little girl is so pitiful, losing her mom at such a young age."

"I just saw it. If it weren’t for that damned mudslide, this wouldn’t have happened. Gotham’s municipal management is still too poor, but at least she was rescued."

"Yeah, she even thanked Spider-Man. Do you think Spider-Man is strong enough to pull the entire car out?"

"Who knows, maybe the situation was more dangerous than we imagined; rescuing even one was already difficult."

"True, but maybe if rescue had arrived earlier, she wouldn’t have lost her mom..."

Listening to the discussion nearby, Spider-Man paused while rummaging through his bag. He set the bag down and reached for his phone in his pocket, opened it, navigated to a news website, and soon found the report they were talking about.

A reporter interviewed a little girl at the orphanage. Many charitable organizations do this to promote their charity work. They periodically select some children from the orphanage, inquire about their living conditions, and then have the reporter write a report so the orphanage receives more public donations.

This kind of report is pretty routine and wouldn’t normally attract much attention, but the headline read, "Gratitude from a Mudslide Survivor—7-Year-Old Orphanage Girl Loudly Thanks Spider-Man."

No matter which universe’s Spider-Man, he’s always at the forefront of public opinion. As soon as people see Spider-Man mentioned, they willingly click in. This report quickly went viral.

But unlike previous questioning, slander, and defamation, this report was very positive. A little girl who survived the mudslide loudly thanked Spider-Man for saving her and hoped that Spider-Man would live happily, and the comments section was relatively friendly, all talking about how Spider-Man is always eager to help others.

As the content of the report unfolds before him, Spider-Man also recalls that day. It was a high school study trip, a camping trip in the suburbs. He and his classmates were on a bus heading out, but the weather was unfavorable, resulting in heavy rain, leading to a landslide that developed into a mudslide trapping many people.

Worried about potential danger, Spider-Man made an excuse about needing the bathroom to leave the bus. He changed into his suit and went ahead to patrol, actually hearing someone calling for help. When he approached, he found a little girl leaning halfway out of a window, and the bus was already buried.

Spider-Man hurried over. He discovered that inside an overturned vehicle, the daughter was being lifted by her mother. Spider-Man pulled the daughter out, but due to the severity of the accident, the father in the driver’s seat died on the spot, and the mother was seriously injured.

At the time, he didn’t think about anything else, just wanted to save people quickly, so he forcibly tore open the entire car door. But because the mother was stuck very firmly, even after dismantling half of the car, he still couldn’t get her out.

Just then, a new wave of mudslides arrived. Unlike floods or tsunamis, mudslides were something Spider-Man couldn’t cope with; there was too little he could do alone to stop it. In the critical moment, he chose to hold the girl tightly, using his body to withstand the mudslide’s impact, and then slowly crawl out after it passed.

However, the parents died immediately due to secondary injuries, and Spider-Man was haunted by nightmares for a long time. His greatest regret was dismantling the car, leaving the severely injured mother without any shelter, directly exposed to the mudslide, ultimately leading to the inability to find a complete body.

Spider-Man doesn’t know much about this kind of natural disaster, can’t assess the mountain’s condition, and doesn’t have much medical knowledge to know if the seriously injured mother had a chance to survive. So to this day, he doesn’t know if he did something wrong, but he feels he did.

If he could understand mudslides, knew that there would be a second attack, he might have chosen to tow the car directly. If he had sufficient medical knowledge, he might have been able to rescue the mother more quickly, or decide whether it was time to give up. But he had none of that, so he could only blame himself for being too ignorant.

Spider-Man never imagined seeing such a report. He knew the little girl went to the orphanage, but he never expected her gratitude, since he wasn’t able to save her parents. He thought that at this age, she might already understand that he made some mistakes during the rescue. He was just relieved that she didn’t hate him.

Spider-Man’s hand trembled holding the phone, and the scenes of that day started to surface in his mind. He stood in the torrential rain, looking at the distorted car and the woman’s bloody chest, surrounded by the sounds of the little girl crying for her parents. When the mudslide tumbled over him, he didn’t even feel pain, just shivered in the cold.

Spider-Man wanted to suppress these emotions, but he couldn’t. He clenched his fists, feeling somewhat short of breath. People around him noticed his anomaly, but no one dared ask. Because to them, this reclusive university student was hard to deal with, and no one wanted to invite trouble.

At that moment, Spider-Man heard a familiar voice.

"Bruce Wayne, come to my office."

It was Peter. Spider-Man looked up suddenly, having a ton of things to say, he grabbed his backpack and staggered towards the office.

He pushed the door open to find only Peter inside. He was about to speak but saw Peter’s slightly serious expression.

Peter is a kind person, without any professor’s arrogance, but when he becomes serious, it means things have gotten very grave, so Spider-Man dared not speak.

"Bruce, I must remind you, your attendance rate and completion of assignments won’t allow you to graduate smoothly," Peter sighed, "Actually, if you weren’t Bruce Wayne, you should have already been expelled from school. Although you might not need a college degree that much, but..."

"I need it!" Spider-Man said, somewhat collapsing, "I need to study here, I need to get a bachelor’s degree. Don’t expel me, I’m begging you!"