When he crossed over to Miles Morales' world, it was around nine o'clock in the morning. At that time, he didn't find it strange that it was nighttime on the other side since there's a time difference of approximately twelve hours from his where he was to Us. So he initially thought he had just arrived on the other side of the world, not in a different world.
Subsequently, he met the Spider-Man Noir and went to Aunt May's house. The next day, he underwent training. On the second night, Gwen, Miles, and Middle-Aged Peter Spider-Man arrived. On the third night, they reciprocated the favor, fighting to return to their own world, dealing a blow to Kingpin's forces, and then Gwen and the others returned one by one.
Mark decided to stay for one more day, visiting Miles' house until around one or two in the afternoon before coming back. In total, he spent about four days in that world.
Originally, he was prepared to face inquiries and had even concocted a lengthy excuse, claiming he spent the four days in his room pondering and reflecting on himself, which could probably be enough to fool others. At worst, he could work harder and write a lengthy self-critique.
Regarding food, luckily, he had the characteristics of a hamster, and he usually kept snacks in his room. After returning, he diligently finished all the snacks to give the impression that he survived on them during those days.
But who would have thought that all of that might not be necessary? Mark hurriedly leaned over his desk.
His notebook computer was still placed on the desk, and the screen displayed a clear and smooth picture with no lag whatsoever. And what was playing on it was precisely the movie he had prepared to watch before he crossed over!
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" The movie with a nearly two-hour runtime was now precisely at the credits stage after the movie finished, and it hadn't ended yet!
One hour and fifty minutes! Mark looked at the progress bar below, feeling both shocked and delighted.
He had experienced almost four days in the other world, but here, only one hour and fifty minutes had passed.
The current time was 10:43 in the morning, and it hadn't even reached eleven o'clock!
The time flow between the two worlds differed so much!
But why did it precisely align with the completion of this movie? Was it a coincidence, or was there some special connection between them?
Mark frowned slightly.
"Mark, boy!" Just then, the person outside the door didn't hear Mark's reaction. Instead, they started calling, while also banging on the door, "Mark, is it because they put you in solitary that you won't come out to eat? Are you really that desperate, Mark? Mark? Mark!"
Mark casually pressed the spacebar on his computer, and the movie immediately stopped playing. He then closed the laptop and looked at his hands. He was still wearing the nanometal battle suit, and on his wrists, he had the web shooters.
Next, he pressed a button on his chest. It was a controller that came with the nanomachines. With a press, the nanometal flowed back from his limbs like water and stored itself completely in the chest controller.
Click. Two items fell from the air. These were the spider silk cartridges loaded in the web shooters. They were consumables and couldn't be nanomaterialized. However, each cartridge was about the size of a coin, so Mark took them off and tucked one in each pocket. They were inconspicuous.
Putting on a shirt and a jacket, he concealed everything inside. From the outside, there was no indication of anything unusual.
"Alright, alright, stop calling already, you sound like a hurt dog!"
After quickly finishing everything, Mark grumbled and walked toward the door.
As he opened the door, he saw a rather handsome young man standing outside, about the same age as Mark. His name was Landry, and he was Mark's closest friend.
They had met in the same high school and both got accepted to the same university. However, their majors were different. Mark chose astrophysics in the astronomy department, while Landry specialized in soil science, focusing on soil chemistry.
Originally, they thought they would go their separate ways after graduation and only meet during holidays. However, for some reason, Landry ended up joining the same research institute as Mark and became an intern researcher with him.
Somehow, Mark wondered how he had managed to get in here.
According to his friend, it was because Mars had plenty of soil, and they needed a talented soil expert like him. Mark, however, didn't believe this explanation.
Regardless, Landry didn't elaborate further, and Mark didn't bother digging deeper. He didn't have many friends, so having a good friend like Landry by his side was quite nice.
"Hey, you finally came out?" Landry grinned, putting his arm around Mark's shoulder and peering at him, "Strange, after being locked up for a day, you seem to have gotten stronger?"
"Really?" Mark blinked, amazed at Landry's keen observation.
The spider genes did have an effect on him, making his body noticeably stronger. While he used to do some skipping, his physical fitness was only average. But after the spider gene enhancement, his muscles were more defined, and he even had an eight-pack!
"I got it! You must belong to the pig zodiac sign. Lock you up for a day, and you gain weight. What kind of feed are you eating? Let me taste it too!" Landry continued jokingly.
"Oh, come on," Mark finally realized he had been tricked by Landry, "You eat pig feed too? Fine, I'll take you to the canteen then."
"Sure thing! Since you claimed they sell pig feed there, I'm going to report you, haha." Landry laughed.
Mark closed the door, and the two of them headed towards the canteen while chatting.
As they walked from the accommodation area to the living area, they abandoned their teasing banter. Although they had been here for half a year and saw the same scene every day, it always evoked a strange feeling within them.
This Mars research base was located in a desolate and uninhabited wilderness of the northwestern region of some random country. The unique landforms here closely resembled those found on Mars, which was one of the reasons for establishing the research base.
The base covered nearly 200 acres and was divided into three main sections: the research institute, accommodation area, and living area.
The accommodation area had a hundred sleeping pod-style lodgings, but there were only around thirty researchers, along with twenty or so logistic support personnel. The rest were security guards.
The researchers spent most of their time in the research institute on the other side of the base, while the security guards mainly handled perimeter security.
As for the logistic support personnel, they occupied fixed positions within the living area.
During the day, the base seemed rather quiet, following a "tight on the outside, loose on the inside" management approach. Besides the procedures required for entering and exiting the base, no one would impose restrictions on their movements within the base.
°°°
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