I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 644 An Ordinary Day in New York

"According to the NYPD report, New York's crime rate has dropped significantly in the first half of this year, and I can tell you all for sure that this has absolutely nothing to do with Spider-Man!"

Jonah Jameson, as always, expressed his dissatisfaction with Spider-Man on the Daily Bugle's program: "That Spider-Man is jumping around in New York every day, but he's not the one who's really saving us. The reason New York's crime rate has been declining is because of the NYPD's consistent efforts! Especially since June, after the NYPD underwent a round of downsizing and purged a large number of corrupt officers..."

A young Black man was driving, listening irritably to this guy's rambling. He closed the car door, listened to the Black rap, and realized he was in a hurry to buy some power-up boosters and wasn't in the mood to listen to this guy's noise.

Arriving at the overpass where the transaction was taking place, the guy opened the car door, looked around at the empty space, and said to the buyer with great dissatisfaction, "How did we end up meeting in such a godforsaken place?"

"The places we used to frequent are being targeted by those damn Defenders again. These so-called superheroes aren't very capable, but they're more than capable of making us miserable."

The Black man picking up the goods was also swearing and cursing. Then, the two sides exchanged food stamps for goods. These food stamps are distributed by the government to people in need. The reason for issuing food stamps instead of direct financial subsidies is to prevent some people from spending them on medicine or other things.

However, people are adaptable. Food stamps are not money, but they can be exchanged for food. Naturally, a large number of gangs would use drugs or other things to buy and hoard these food stamps. Having these things is equivalent to having food to a certain extent.

Even when those so-called superheroes come to investigate, they are not afraid at all. Those guys certainly won't burn all the food stamps; they're waiting to show off their kindness.

Then, once the food stamps are distributed, the gangsters can use the same methods to collect them again and claim that they have hoarded both food and guns.

But so what? This is America, where fortifiers are sometimes cheaper than food. If you're frugal, you have plenty of money to live a good life. As for fortifiers, there's definitely no shortage of them.

"The Defenders are alright. Although they're a bunch of weirdos, they're not all that great. At least we can escape. And they prefer to target the big shots. Before it was Kingpin, Hammerhead, Tombstone, Silvermane, and now it's the Hand. As long as we sneak around a little, they won't bother us."

Another gang member couldn't help but complain: "But it's not necessarily the same for others, especially that damn Spider-Man! Why does an Avenger always have to pick on us ordinary folks? All we do is sell some medicine."

The other gang members then agreed, unanimously concluding that Spider-Man was just wasting his time, and that Venom agent who liked to imitate Spider-Man and caused a mess was much the same.

In addition, a legend about a white ghost spider has recently become popular in New York. In the end, some people even started arguing about how many Spider-Women there are. Most people agreed that there is one, while a few people thought there are two.

Even more outrageous are those who believe there are three.

"In short, we'll be doing business here from now on—until we get taken down." The gang leader sighed helplessly and continued to linger there. These gangsters, dressed in nice sneakers, sweatpants, and hooded sweatshirts, could hang around this place all day like unemployed people.

And these kinds of teams are everywhere in New York; nobody can tell who's selling drugs and who's just hanging out doing them. "Unless they have advanced nanobots—and are using them for this kind of thing."

Peter stood right above their heads, faithfully recording everyone who came to trade, and began recording the names of their so-called suppliers, bosses, and others. At least for now, the NYPD still considered this a criminal activity and believed they could all be arrested.

After all, as these guys said, they have a lot of free time.

"It's a pity that this 'leisurely' life is about to end; tomorrow is the first day of the new semester. Come to think of it, I feel like I'm busier during summer vacation than during school. Ah, perhaps this is the fate brought by the name Peter Parker, except for the issue of the enhancer..."

Like many problems, this is one that Peter cannot solve for the time being. The police, and even the government, are not capable of solving it, at least not in New York.

Unless a mayor who is decisive, tough, and can keep all the gangs in check, and can also prevent White House interference, can the problem here be solved only superficially...

For some reason, the image of a muscular, fat man popped into Peter's mind.

"I must be crazy to think Kingpin is a good candidate—no, maybe he does have the ability, but the problem is, he doesn't have the will or the idea. Alright, Spider-Man should get back to his own business."

Ever since Malekith got beaten up, he and Loki have kept quiet. Now the Avengers are discussing with countries around the world, as well as the Security Council, which is infiltrated by Hydra like a sieve, how to deal with the invasion from the Wild Hunt. Peter, on the other hand, has nothing to do.

So he decided to find something to do.

Watching the group of thugs leave the overpass where they had been occupying for a day, Peter quickly followed them, eavesdropping on their phone calls to find out who their boss was. At the same time, he was also very concerned about what the gangsters were saying.

It sounds like the Hand invaded New York and quickly took over the niche that Kingpin and his crew had vacated.

But then again, the Hand... Peter didn't remember much about that organization. Aside from knowing they had a seemingly powerful but actually useless evil god called "Beast," and that they controlled Daredevil and created the Shadow Realm, there wasn't much else worth mentioning. He couldn't recall the Hand ever pulling off anything significant.

"It would be best to contact the Defenders, especially Matt, and remind them to join forces to take down this Hand."

"Oh right, if I remember correctly, there are several versions of the Hand that are also closely related to Logan. Logan seems to have regained his memories after the Kang Dynasty. Should we ask him about the Hand?"

(End of this chapter)