Peter quickly brought over the notebook as soon as he heard Bren's words.
The pages were filled with dense, complicated formulas that made Bren's head spin.
Truthfully, if it weren't for the small watch that could turn Bren into a Grey Matter, giving him another ten years might not have been enough to understand the contents. But Peter never doubted this; to him, Bren was all-knowing!
"Well then…"
"You go find Connors," Bren said, already moving into action.
Without a laboratory or equipment, even if he could decipher the formula, he wouldn't be able to make the serum.
"Isn't anyone at the Oscorp Tower today?"
Peter shook his head. "Not a soul."
It struck him as strange, too. Even if Dr. Connors had gotten into trouble, why was the entire Oscorp enterprise empty? Not to mention, Connors's identity hadn't been revealed yet.
Bren, however, began to connect some dots.
Considering the troubles Norman Osborn had been facing recently, it wasn't so strange after all.
"In that case, I'll just borrow some equipment from Oscorp Tower," he said, parting ways with Peter and heading toward the tower.
Just as Peter had mentioned, Oscorp Tower was eerily empty.
Normally bustling with people, now the building seemed almost deserted.
However, Bren didn't rush in right away. Even though the building appeared empty, the equipment and systems were still operational, especially the surveillance cameras. Bren didn't want his secrets to be recorded and exposed.
He first went to a nearby mall, bought a high-end laptop, then made his way to the rooftop of a neighboring building to set it up.
The watch's core popped out, locking onto his transformation into Grey Matter.
"First, let me start by hacking into Oscorp Tower's network."
Connecting directly to Oscorp's internal network and disabling the security cameras, or even fabricating fake footage, was the best course of action. And for Grey Matter, this was easy.
"Oscorp's software system isn't that hard to crack."
Now in his Grey Matter form, Bren crouched in front of the laptop, his frog-like eyes focused as lines of code flashed before him. The quickly changing characters seemed as clear as if they were frozen in time.
His eyelids shut momentarily.
Gavinsians blink in two ways: the usual up-and-down motion, but sometimes both sides of their eyelids can close at the same time.
"I can't believe Oscorp, such a huge company, has such a weak firewall," Bren said, surprised.
However, he overlooked Earth's technological level.
It wasn't that Oscorp's firewall was weak, it was that Bren's tech was just on another level!
"This laptop's way better than the Ancient One I have at home." He knocked on the computer and nodded in satisfaction.
The computers Peter and he used before were outdated second-hand models Uncle Ben had salvaged, and even in this era, they were terribly behind. Every time they powered up, the machine sounded like a racing car engine.
Now, the laptop's screen flashed with row after row of prompt boxes.
The system was hacked successfully in under three minutes, this was still limited by the laptop's performance.
If he had used a more advanced one, it would've taken mere seconds.
But for now, he didn't plan to rush into Oscorp Tower just yet.
Using Grey Matter's body for action had some limitations, so he planned to wait until his transformation wore off before heading in.
"I really need to figure out how to break the watch's lock and get full access. Otherwise, waiting every time is such a hassle," he muttered, glancing back. The wide-open view allowed him to only see part of the back of the watch.
With plenty of time left, Bren decided to work on Peter's father's notebook and crack it open.
"No wonder Peter and Connors' experiments failed," he realized instantly.
He identified the reason for Connors' mutation right away.
Peter's parents had worked on spider genetics to create a mutated super spider, but they hadn't fully achieved cross-species genetic inheritance.
In reality, to make the serum stable, gene adaptation needed to be done beforehand.
Peter and Connors had overlooked this point, or perhaps it wasn't mentioned in the notebook. Bren was able to spot this flaw with his current intelligence, but neither Peter nor Connors had realized it.
The more critical issue was that even with gene adaptation, stability wasn't guaranteed.
Richard Parker had left this formula with an inherent flaw, and he had known this. That's why, even after adapting Peter's genes with the mutated spider's, he hadn't immediately experimented on him.
In other words, Peter, just like Connors, was at risk of mutating into a spider-like monster.
However, Peter's spider genes were more stable, and unless something unexpected happened, there wasn't an immediate cause for concern.
But as Peter's spider powers grew stronger, this balance would inevitably break one day.
"You should be grateful for having a good cousin," Bren thought, pinching his chin as he recalculated the formula.
The antidote for the Lizard serum was easy enough to create. All he had to do was reverse-engineer the formula, but stabilizing Peter's genes would take a little more time.
It was just a little bit of time, though...
Minutes later, Bren stretched lazily.
Before him, the notebook was filled with formulas.
Not only had he come up with a formula to stabilize Peter's genes, but he had also derived a perfect version of the Lizard serum.
Of course, he had removed the superpowers from the Lizard serum, retaining only its medical benefits. He didn't want the world flooded with superhumans.
Although the serum hadn't been tested, Bren was confident in its efficacy.
"Now, the medical project for Primus is complete," Bren thought happily. "But this formula is too perfect. If it were released to the Mattet immediately, it would be problematic."
A single dose could regenerate severed limbs. Bren didn't even want to imagine how many medical companies would despise him if this were to hit the Mattet.
He planned to dilute the serum significantly before releasing it.
With the last bit of time left, Bren didn't waste it. Using the Grey Matter's mind, he started studying.
Ten minutes later, having returned to his original form, Bren packed up the notebook and looked toward Oscorp Tower.
The sky had darkened.
"It's time to move."
The steps to adjust the serum were already written in his notebook.
Bren closed the notebook, and under the cover of night, he leaped from the rooftop.
At that very moment, inside Oscorp Enterprises, a thin, pale old man with white hair was playfully toying with his pet parrot.
"The Lizard serum, truly a magnificent invention!" he exclaimed, holding a small vial of the serum, admiring its crystalline clarity.
**********
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