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After dealing with that annoying neighbor girl, Jasper opened his door and stepped inside. Just before going in, he caught her still watching him with a suspicious look on her face.
Jasper could only sigh at that. Honestly, he didn't care what that neighbor girl thought of him. Whether she was spiraling down the wrong path or just trying to make a little money to help her family—it had nothing to do with him. Everyone should just focus on living their own life.
He shut the door behind him and dropped onto the living room couch. His Shadow Slip ability was seriously broken—basically, he could use shadows to travel anywhere on Earth. Yeah, no exaggeration. He could teleport to any shadow on the planet. Totally busted.
And it wasn't just for travel—it was super useful in battle too.
For example, he could shoot webs into the shadow beneath his feet, and then make the webs pop out from any other shadow. Talk about perfect for sneak attacks.
Too bad Peter Parker didn't awaken a power like this. If he had, fighting bad guys would be way easier for him.
So, what now?Jasper tilted his head, thought for a second, and decided to keep playing video games. He had nothing better to do anyway.
The Next Day—Around Noon
Peter Parker stopped Jasper in the hallway. He wanted to work on his fighting skills and asked if Link would spar with him.
At first, Jasper didn't want to bother—it sounded like a hassle. But the moment Peter offered to take over all the future science lab work, Link agreed without hesitation.
He hated lab class. It was such a pain. And now that Peter was volunteering to handle it? No way Jasper was letting that offer go to waste.
Once Jasper agreed, Peter immediately led him out of school. About ten minutes later...
They arrived at an abandoned factory. Peter had been scoping it out for days—it was always empty, so it was perfect for a training match.
Lately, fighting criminals had made Peter realize his hand-to-hand combat skills weren't great. Sure, he could rely on strength and agility to cover that up for now, but against tough opponents, it just wasn't enough. That's why he wanted to train with Jasper—to sharpen his skills through real combat.
Jasper glanced at Peter and said with a sly smile, "Just warning you—my fighting style might be a little dirty~."
Peter nodded seriously. "Bring it on. I'm ready."
"Alright then, here I come," Jasper said.
As soon as he spoke, Peter braced himself.
But the very next second, Jasper vanished into the shadow beneath his feet.
Peter knew this was Jasper's special power, but as long as he stayed focused and trusted his Spider-Sense, he'd be able to detect the direction of the attacks and counter.
But then—bam!—a ton of webs shot out from the shadows. These weren't ordinary webs either. The moment they hit something, they turned into full-blown sticky webs. Since Peter had made them himself, he knew exactly how dangerous they were.
Even though he was confident he could break free if he got caught, getting stuck would leave him wide open to Jasper's follow-up attacks. Way too risky. Better to dodge them all if he could.
Come on, Spider-Sense, don't fail me now!
Peter dodged most of the webs. It wasn't exactly easy, but he managed.
Just then, Jasper burst out of the shadows, heading straight for him.
He was fast—so fast that even though Peter's Spider-Sense warned him of danger, his body couldn't react in time.
Peter barely had enough time to shield his head before Jasper's fist slammed into his forearm.
The force of the punch sent Peter skidding backward several steps.
His arm throbbed a little, but it was still manageable.
Still on high alert, Peter remembered how strong that punch was and didn't let his guard down.
But then Jasper grinned and said, "You lost~."
Peter instantly got more cautious, only to realize he'd been pushed into a spot surrounded by shadows. He understood what was about to happen and tried to get out of there, but it was too late—a wave of webs erupted from the shadows and completely locked down his movement.
Peter dodged two webs, but then four more came at him from different directions. No matter how he moved, he was bound to get hit.
Sure enough, one of them got him.
Jasper dashed up to him and said, "This round's mine."
WHAM!! Jasper sent Peter flying with a solid hit, hoping the pain would remind him to take the fight more seriously.
Peter rolled across the ground a few times before coming to a stop. His clothes were a bit scuffed up, too.
Lying there catching his breath, Peter finally said, "Damn, you're way stronger than I thought."
Jasper gave a small smile. "Not bad, huh? That's the power of Shadow Slip."
Peter laughed and said, "A loss is a loss. But next time, I won't go down that easy."
After that, they kept sparring for a while longer before finally heading home.
Jasper offered to use his Shadow Slip ability to get Peter back faster, but Peter declined—there might be someone on the way home who needed help.
Jasper didn't argue. In fact, he respected Peter's attitude a lot.
So, Jasper used his own Shadow Slip to head home.
Since his food supply was running low, he went back out to buy groceries.
And that's when he ran into that neighbor girl again—Xiao Lin's daughter.
She was smiling sweetly, waving goodbye to a young man, looking like a couple saying goodbye after a date.
But then things took a turn.
A big, burly white guy suddenly grabbed her wrist and said, "You dating that guy just now? Why can't it be me instead?"
The girl yanked her arm back and snapped, "Move."
This guy had tried to hit on her before, but the very next day, she saw him walking out of a hotel with a Black woman. Not that she cared, but she instantly put him in the "trash" category after that.
She had no interest in dealing with him.
But the guy got pissed. "Bitch! Did that guy just now make you feel real good or something?"
Her face darkened. That guy earlier? He was just a friend. She'd been pretending to be his girlfriend for the day to help him out while they went shopping. He'd been a total gentleman—respectful, polite, not even a hint of creepiness. But this jerk in front of her? Disgusting.
Her eyes drifted toward Jasper, who was standing nearby with shopping bags. He probably thought she was just some trashy girl too.
He probably found her disgusting too.
The guy noticed her looking at Jasper and got even angrier. He raised his hand, clearly about to slap her.
She flinched and closed her eyes, terrified.
But a few seconds later, she heard a scream.
When she opened her eyes in confusion, Jasper was standing in front of her. The man was clutching his wrist and stumbling away, groaning in pain.
The girl bit her lip and muttered, "I didn't need your help."
Jasper couldn't be bothered to reply.
"....."