Free Web NovelChapter 17: Ch 17: The Gwen Happened
Gwen swung through the city, her body moving on autopilot while her mind churned.
A random villain—some clown-faced freak she’d never even heard of—knew her real identity. Her most closely guarded secret. The one thing that kept her father safe. That kept her friends safe. And he’d just... said it. Casually. Like it was nothing.
Zip-Thwak! Zip-Thwak!
Building to building. Web line to web line. She wasn’t heading anywhere specific at first, just moving.
But eventually, her body guided her home.
She reached her apartment building in Queens and slipped in through the window of her room, silent as a ghost. The moment her feet touched the floor, she yanked off her mask.
Her short blonde hair fell messily across her forehead. Sweaty. Tangled. Still absolutely photogenic.
"Ugh," she said to her slightly messy room.
Gwen stripped off her tight spider-suit, tossing it into the bottom of her closet, and stepped into the warm shower, letting the hot water cascade down her toned body.
Steam filled the bathroom as she ran her soapy hands over her gorgeous curves, her softest handful breasts, and her plump, supple ass that jiggled slightly with every movement.
After a quick, relaxing wash, she dried herself and stood in front of her closet. She changed into an oversized, comfortable band tee and loose sweatpants. She wore her headphones and put on her favorite heavy rock playlist
Then she collapsed onto her bed.
Face first. Starfish style.
Thump.
This was her coping mechanism. Since middle school, whenever she felt overwhelmed, she would just blast her favorite music, close her eyes, and let the noise drown out her thoughts, fall asleep, and then wake up fresh.
It had always worked.
One hour passed.
And still. Couldn’t. Sleep.
Every time she relaxed, she heard his voice.
"I know everything about you, darling."
"See you next time, nerd."
Gwen sat up abruptly, her hair a complete disaster.
"Fuck it," she muttered, grabbing her laptop from the nightstand.
She typed faster than she meant to, fingers almost angry on the keyboard.
#DailyBugleIncident was trending in New York. Number one.
[Thread: Daily Bugle Terror Incident]
Roxy: Does anyone know what streaming platform Veritas used? Lol #DailyBugleIncident
Dolan: It’s insane how he claimed to know everything about everyone. His stalking skills must be next level.
Lois: The fight was actually insane. I’ve never seen a real super-fight with this clarity. Usually it’s just shaky phone footage and screaming.
Maxine: @Lois True. All the other clips are always so damn shaky and low quality. This guy literally streamed in 4K while getting punched.
adorable_filter: Did y’all see Spider-Woman’s reaction when he mentioned her father?? He must know her real identity. Veritas for some reason seemed to care about her, but I still pray she and her family are safe.
steward: But was Veritas right tho? The Daily Bugle has always spread hate about Spider-Woman even though she’s saved so many people. Always antagonizing her like she’s some villain.
ron: @steward I was once saved by her. Agreed! #BoycottBugle
Bottle: @steward Agreed!
cha-ching: @adorable_filter True. You really can’t trust a lunatic who plays with people’s lives like that. Fortunately, no casualties in both attacks, but who knows about the third time?
Miller: @Dolan, I don’t think he stalks his victims. I was a victim of his convenience store attack. My wife and I live in a completely different city. We came to visit a friend in that neighborhood. There was NO way he could have known we’d show up. It was just a random midnight craving that made us go. And yet he knew every life detail as if he’d been living with us for years.
Andrew: @Miller, if that’s the case, maybe he has two supernatural powers. Palm explosion blasts he showed very flashily, but he might also have a memory-reading power or something.
Marley: If he’s a mutant, the X-Men might be able to find and apprehend him soon. I heard a rumor that Charles Xavier can locate any mutant on the planet.
...
"Veritas, huh..." Gwen gritted her teeth, the screen’s blue light reflecting in her eyes.
That’s the name people have been calling him with.
"I have to catch him," Gwen whispered into the quiet room.
Later that night, when Gwen’s mother returned from her job and her father from his duty. She enjoyed some wholesome family time.
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The next morning, Luke woke up feeling like he had been run over by a truck.
"Right," he croaked. "The Gwen happened."
He checked his phone. No new messages from Mom or Dad, which was good. He had updated her a few times yesterday anyway.
He quickly went through a makeshift morning routine: a splash of cold water to the face from a water bottle, brushing his shiny white teeth, eating an apple and a couple of bananas.
Once his stomach stopped growling, he sat cross-legged on the mattress and tapped the T-Stream on his phone.
It was time for the main event.
"Alright, let’s do this," Luke said, rubbing his hands together. He navigated straight to his Gacha voucher. It had a Rare Guarantee. That was big.
As the animation of a bright, glowing shooting star played across the phone screen, Luke closed his eyes, clapped his hands together, and began to aggressively pray to every deity he could think of.
"Oh dear God, Allah, Bhagwan, Buddha, and The One Above All... please, teleportation or healing factor. Teleportation or healing factor. Teleportationhealingfactor!"
He opened his eyes, and raised his brows.
That wasn’t a shooting star, it was a meteorite, and it destroyed Earth.
’Not surprising, its name is Terror Stream after all.’
Anyway, after the animation was over, his reward was revealed.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a Legendary Grade Skill: Mind and Soul Shield]
[Description: A passive, always-active skill. It perfectly protects the user’s mind and soul from any psychic attacks, mental manipulations, mind reading, illusions, brainwashing, or soul-targeting abilities from any and all kinds of beings, attacks, items, or skills up to the Omega-versal power level.]
"Legendary..." he whispered.
’Omega-versal...’
"Okay," Luke admitted, touching his bruised jaw. "This is actually huge. I just didn’t know I needed it."
But a healing skill was still needed though...
He clicked over to the main shop tab. He had 255 TP to spend.
Ban’s Immortality (Seven Deadly Sins): 17,000 TP
Keyaru’s Healing (Redo of Healer): 22,000 TP
Titan Healing (Attack on Titan): 2,000 TP
100 Healings Technique (Naruto): 2,500 TP ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Kimiko’s Regeneration (The Boys): 4,000 TP
Deadpool’s Healing Factor (Marvel): 9,000 TP
He quickly tapped the screen and sorted the list by [Price: Low to High].
The results were a bit more realistic. There were some single-use health potions and healing vials starting at around 50 TP, but Luke didn’t want a consumable. He wanted a permanent skill.
Scrolling further down, he finally found a couple of affordable, permanent skills. But of course, they came with some massive conditions.
Titan Healing (Attack on Titan) [ 3 day Cooldown + Day usage only]: 150 TP
Nomu Regeneration (My Hero Academia) [ 4 Week Cooldown]: 250 TP
Luke tapped his chin, thinking it over.
’Well, the Nomu regeneration is fast and doesn’t have a specific physical weakness like the neck thing... but a 4 week cooldown is brutal. I also need points to upgrade my Quirk Mastery and buy other things.’
After scrolling a bit more and finding no other better options...
...Yeah.
"Titan healing it is," he said. "I’ll just... have to protect my nape better though."
Next up, Luke pushed his Quirk mastery to 79% using 27 TP. Why stop there when he still had points left?
[Please experience a near-death situation to unlock mastery beyond 79%. Alternative: Spend 100 TP to bypass the condition. ]
He was not "almost killing" himself for sure, but right now, he only had 78 TP left.
The phone, of course, offered no sympathy.
No point crying over missing TP. The next stream would fix his broke condition anyway.
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Thanks for reading!
Ik not much happened this Chapter but it was important. And no, neither this nor last Chapter are short. They are over 1300 words.
Next chap tomorrow, same time.
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