Bante returned to his seat. In a place like America, teachers wouldn’t punish a student for arriving right on time. In fact, the willingness of these students to come to school was something to be grateful for.

At that moment, a blonde girl leaned forward and quietly asked while the teacher had their back turned, “Hey, Bante, why are you late today?”

“Being one second late doesn’t count as being late, Hardy,” Bante replied as he took his homework out of his backpack.

Felicia Hardy was a well-known rich girl at school, and she was quite beautiful. However, what Bante was more concerned about was her other secret identity—Black Cat. Of course, Felicia didn’t yet know that her father was the infamous Spirit Cat, nor had she become a Spirit Cat herself.

“You always have a way to argue,” Felicia straightened up as she noticed Bante’s homework on the desk, which she didn’t find surprising. Bante took his studies seriously at school; Felicia had never seen him skip homework or do it half-heartedly. He worked hard in his studies, but unfortunately, in this world filled with geniuses, just hard work didn’t count for much.

Bante could handle ordinary academic work, but when it came to competitive subjects, his mind just didn’t quite measure up. For many people in this world, being a genius was merely a ticket to entry. Even someone as smart as Peter would be criticized by Connors or Otto for not working hard enough, not to mention ordinary people.

Felicia completely understood this, as she was one of those people herself: she worked hard but didn’t have that much talent. Watching Bante take out his textbook, lost in thought, she felt a sense of camaraderie between them.

‘Maybe I should hold a study group and invite Bante to join,’ she thought. Just as she was about to lean over to tell him, the homeroom teacher turned back, causing Felicia to quickly pull her head back.

As for Bante, he didn’t notice any of this. Since the moment he sat down, he had been thinking about the Iron Armor. It was rare for a guy to refuse a set of Iron Armor, especially when it was the genuine article, taken directly off Tony Stark!

‘I could turn into Little Gadget and take it apart to study!’ Bante thought. Although he had already dismantled it once, taking apart Flash Star could only be called disassembling parts, while Little Gadget could thoroughly study the structure and technology of the armor.

“Too bad the key arc reactor can’t be taken out,” he sighed inwardly. The arc reactor was actually the core technology of Iron Man’s suit, essentially cold fusion. Cold fusion was something that had been almost impossible to achieve in Bante’s previous life, but here, Tony had made it happen. Not to mention, such a massive energy source that Tony managed to shrink down to the size of a heart.

Aside from the energy source, the rest of the armor was also filled with difficult-to-achieve technology. Bante wasn’t particularly interested in science; he only studied hard to avoid disappointing Aunt May and Uncle Ben. However, he was very interested in researching the armor and creating his own suit. If he could fully understand the technology of Iron Man’s suit, he could design his own or create a batch of machine monsters.

Just as Bante was lost in thought, a slight tingling sensation came from his brain. He instinctively reached out and caught a note.

[I'm planning to hold a study group and invite Gwen. Do you want to come to my house?]

Signed, Felicia.

A study group? Bante was taken aback for a moment. He looked over and saw Felicia winking at him, her mouth forming the words, “You can bring your cousin, Peter Parker.”

That sounded pretty good, Bante thought. Gwen and Peter were probably the two best students at school, consistently ranking first or second. More importantly, both Felicia and Gwen were pretty girls. If he brought Peter to the study group, maybe it would help him meet Gwen, which would be better than constantly talking about Liz Toomes.

But… what does that have to do with me? I don’t have time to join any study group; I still need to research the Iron Armor after school! Bante thought.

He could turn into Little Gadget and study it thoroughly, or turn into a shapeshifter and possess the armor to see what changes he could bring. Perhaps he could upgrade the armor using the shapeshifting features of the Gwenstar entity, or create a Spider Suit for Peter.

He couldn’t let Peter run around in baby pajamas while fighting crime, could he? He had so many things to do—none of them were less interesting than attending a study group.

So, Bante crumpled the note into a ball and shook his head at Felicia. “Sorry, Felicia, I have things to do after school. As for Peter, I don’t think he has much time lately either.”

Bante was speaking the truth; Peter had been thinking about spiders, Osborn, Doctor Connors, and his parents almost all the time these days, so he probably didn’t have the mindset to join a study group. Moreover, if Bante remembered correctly, Gwen had a club activity after school. She and Mary Jane, along with a few others, formed a small band.

“Okay, then forget it!” Felicia said, her tone cold and a bit angry. Clearly, she hadn’t expected to be rejected by Bante. She turned her head away, forcing herself not to look at him.

She clearly remembered that Bante hardly participated in club activities, going home right after school every day, saying he didn’t have time, which was obviously an excuse!

If you don’t want to study with me, just say so, hum!

Damn Bante! Once I invite Gwen and form a study group, and our grades shoot up, you’ll have plenty of time to regret it! When you want to join my study group, it won’t be that easy anymore!

She ground her teeth in frustration. ‘Unless he begs me to help him!’

Not only that, Felicia decided she wouldn’t acknowledge Bante until at least after school today, to let him know her strength!

As for Bante, after rejecting Felicia, he didn’t pay her any more attention and focused on the class instead.

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but during class today, he felt like his mind had become a bit clearer. Knowledge that usually took time and practice to understand seemed to click with him almost instantly.

“Am I getting smarter?” he wondered, surprised. “Is it because the spider abilities are stimulating my brain? Or is it because turning into Little Gadget has influenced me?”

Bante suspected it could be both. The spider abilities had nearly enhanced his entire body, so it wasn’t impossible for his mind to become a bit sharper. While turning into Little Gadget hadn’t permanently changed his genes, at least some of the physical knowledge had remained in his mind.

Additionally, Little Gadget’s way of thinking could also influence him.

Of course, either way, it wouldn’t turn Bante into a genius overnight.

For the first time, Bante felt that class time passed so quickly.

This feeling of being fully immersed in learning felt really good to him. For a moment, he even thought he had truly become a genius.

But in reality, if he were really a genius, he wouldn’t need to expend energy to study the class content seriously.

For geniuses, that knowledge wouldn’t even count as foundational. Take Peter, for instance; he could develop spider silk materials in middle school that were impossible to achieve in Bante's original world.

In fact, not just Peter, even Doctor Connors’ intellect was far beyond what an average person could reach. Even though his research failed in any world, sometimes he appeared more like a supporting character to Peter or his parents, but the technology to transform people into lizard men was beyond reality.

Compared to them, Bante’s intellectual level still remained at an ordinary person’s level.

However, he didn’t feel unhappy about this.

After all, he was just an ordinary person. Moreover, he had successfully activated the Omnitrix, which had millions of alien genes, including several extremely intelligent races he could transform into. The Gwenstar species was just one of them, along with others like the Crustacean Genius and the Spirit Monsters, who were all highly skilled in technology.

Of course, the all-powerful X-Man naturally also implied omniscience and unmatched wisdom.

After a whole day of learning, Bante felt completely refreshed. Felicia was also experiencing a mix of pain and joy. On one hand, Bante was sitting right next to her, making it hard for her to ignore him all day. It felt like a cat was scratching her heart with its paws, forcing her to resist the urge to talk to him.

On the other hand—

‘I’ve ignored him all day, he must be really upset!’ Felicia thought triumphantly. Now that school was over, she couldn’t wait to see Bante’s reaction; she guessed he must feel just as miserable as she did.

But when she turned her head, she found Bante’s seat was already empty.

Looking further away, Felicia only saw Bante rushing out of the classroom without looking back.

“Little Bante!” she stamped her foot in anger.