Strange's expression shifted slightly.
Even after confirming the Diary's authenticity, he had already anticipated this outcome.
Yet hearing the Ancient One personally confirm it still struck him deeply.
"So... one day, Dormammu will truly descend upon Earth and devour it?"
After a stunned silence of several seconds, Strange asked the Ancient One, his voice tinged with disbelief.
At this point, Strange was merely a student at Kamar-Taj.
Aside from the dazzling magic he had learned there, he had never encountered any supernatural events.
The sudden revelation of an earth-devouring threat was a lot for him to process.
"That is Earth's original future," the Ancient One explained to Strange.
"Original?"
Strange keenly caught the crucial word in her response.
"Yes, original."
The Ancient One began explaining to Strange, "In the original future, I could see what was to come. In that future, Kaecilius indeed summoned Dormammu, and Earth faced the danger of being devoured."
At this point, the Ancient One turned her gaze to Strange. "But it was all a close call. In the end, it was you who defeated Dormammu."
"I used the Time Stone to play a trick, dying countless times to ultimately defeat Dormammu?" Strange couldn't help but interject. The diary had mentioned his battle with Dormammu, and its author, Zhou Cheng, had even given the battle extremely high praise.
"It seems that 'mysterious object' did indeed reveal quite a bit of the future," the Ancient One replied with absolute certainty.
"No, no, no." Strange immediately began shaking his head vigorously. "This can't be right. How could it be this way? I came to Kamar-Taj to heal my hands, not to fight some demon god."
At this point, Strange asked the Ancient One in a weak voice, "If I were to leave Kamar-Taj now, would you take back all my magic or erase my memories? You wouldn't do that, would you?"
The Ancient One smiled. "Your imagination is quite vivid."
"So... you're planning to let me go?" Strange asked cautiously, surprised.
*If that's the case,* he thought, *the Ancient One is truly a good person! She's been teaching me magic for so long without asking for anything in return.*
"If that's what you truly want," the Ancient One nodded gravely. "Didn't Pangborn leave Kamar-Taj to return to his own life?"
"In fact, everyone who comes to Kamar-Taj faces two choices: remain here, or return to their own lives. Kamar-Taj will not interfere."
After all, there was no need to interfere. The Ancient One had long known what choice they would make.
"But the question is, do you really want to do this?"
The Ancient One's voice continued, her question piercing straight to the soul.
"Of course not! I'd be insane to join those insane secret wars."
"I just came to heal my hands!" Strange replied without hesitation.
"Healing your hands is simple. You just need to infuse your body with the power of space."
The Ancient One made no move to detain Strange.
For this world had already been irrevocably altered.
The futures she had once foreseen, the grand events she had witnessed—all had been changed.
So what of the future where only Strange could defeat Dormammu?
Like those many altered events, it was now ancient history, a thing of the past.
The Ancient One no longer knew what the new future looked like.
Nor did she know who, in this new future, would be able to defeat Dormammu.
In such circumstances, all she could do was let events unfold naturally.
After all, any intervention on her part could cause the new future to deviate, couldn't it?
There was another point to consider.
The Battle of New York, the Age of Ultron, the Sokovia Crisis—all of it.
Various crises that had once been part of the future had been almost entirely averted in advance.
At the very least, their impact had been minimized.
What did this imply?
Whatever higher-level force was at play was intervening in this world to some extent, and it was a positive intervention.
This meant the Ancient One had even less reason to worry. In fact, excessive worry might even interfere with the intervention behind the scenes.
In truth, ever since she lost the ability to foresee the future, the Ancient One's interventions had become meaningless.
She had simply "checked out."
Apart from using her methods to prevent Kamar-Taj from being exposed, the Ancient One had long since let go of everything else.
Now, she was merely an observer.
She genuinely wanted to see how this world would unfold under the influence of that higher-level force.
"Are you saying Pangborn's body wasn't healed—he's just using magic to walk?"
The highly intelligent Strange understood in an instant.
"Exactly."
The Ancient One nodded. "With your talent, achieving this shouldn't be difficult. So, what is your choice, Strange?"
"I of course..."
Strange had been about to say that he of course chose to leave.
But as the words formed on his lips, spoilers from the Diary surfaced in his mind.
This was a world where demons ran rampant!
A world of superheroes!
This world was nothing like he had initially imagined.
Even without having read the Diary in detail, the tip of the iceberg—the cruel future it described—had deeply shaken Strange.
He couldn't shake it off.
If this world was inherently like this, with extraordinary beings emerging endlessly and supernatural crises looming at any moment, wouldn't it be too tragic to be an ordinary person?
What would he do if those crises actually descended upon him?
Strange had subconsciously wanted to leave Kamar-Taj precisely because he didn't want to get involved in such supernatural chaos.
But if staying or leaving made no difference, what was the point of leaving?
Moreover...
The Diary had already revealed...
In another parallel universe, Strange was using Dreamwalking Magic to traverse the Multiverse, specifically to hunt down his own alternate self!
Even setting aside everything else, how was he supposed to deal with that other version of himself?
At this critical juncture, Strange hesitated.
"Can I have some time?"
"These events are rather sudden and my mind is in a state of disarray. I need time to sort my thoughts."
Strange changed his approach, saying this to the Ancient One.
"Of course, no problem."
The Ancient One readily agreed, as she had no objections.
Strange hurried back to his room, closed the door, and immediately buried himself in the diary.
Having confirmed that the diary wasn't a prank but genuine,
Strange dared not treat its contents lightly.
He began meticulously studying the revelations, word by word.
Since the diary had been accumulating for many years, its contents were extensive.
Although most of it consisted of trivial daily entries that Strange could skim over,
it still took him several days to finish reading.
When he was done, he felt utterly overwhelmed.
The Battle of New York, the Age of Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame, Infinity Ultron, Celestial Tiamut...
Was this world truly this dangerous?
Strange felt as if he owed his safe upbringing to divine protection.
Yet, as he pondered this, he realized something was amiss.
Why had he never heard of these monumental events?
Surely, any single one of them would have dominated the news worldwide.
"It's them!"
Strange quickly understood.
This must be the work of the other Diary holders.
From their earlier communications, he knew they were all "seniors" who had possessed the Diaries for a long time.
Having foreseen these futures, they had naturally taken preemptive measures to alter them.
His suspicion was soon confirmed.
After immediately contacting Tony and the other Diary holders, they verified this fact.
The events recorded in the Diaries had indeed occurred, but they had been prevented in advance. That was all!
"So, this is the truth of this world!" Strange murmured to himself, feeling as if he had wasted his entire life.
Now, should he leave Kamar-Taj?
Strange fell into deep thought.
***
In the neighboring DC World,
A tall woman, whose long legs would make anyone envious, was strolling along a country path with Clark.
"So, Kal-El, the Kryptonian son of the Man of Steel, is actually just a farm boy from Smallville?" she remarked, her steps unhurried and her demeanor exuding a cool, spirited grace.
She let out a rather surprised sigh.
"Anyone else could wear that expression, but you, Diana? You shouldn't be the one."
Clark chuckled.
*You're a demigod from Paradise Island, yet you're just an ordinary office worker. Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house.*
Indeed, the woman walking with Clark was none other than Wonder Woman Diana.
Though the Mother Boxes in the movie universe differed significantly from their comic book counterparts, and the information they left on Earth was scarce, Clark and Cyborg Victor's joint investigation had finally yielded substantial progress.
They discovered evidence of an ancient battle on Earth seemingly linked to the Mother Boxes, a conflict in which the Amazonian warriors were participants.
This was why Clark was by Diana's side.
"So, Clark," Diana smiled, chatted casually with him for a while, then got to the point. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I want to know about the Mother Boxes and the ancient war."
Clark told her the truth.
Diana, standing beside him, instinctively paused, her expression turning serious.
This was no trivial matter.
"Why?" Diana asked immediately.
"Diana, Earth faces a threat that no one knows about."
"Out there in the vast universe..."
Clark then shared the relevant information he had obtained from the Diary.
Diana was still quite surprised.
Without hesitation, she told him about the time Darkseid invaded Earth and was jointly defeated by the Earth Alliance.
Clark fell into deep thought.
So, this was the reason Darkseid had been watching Earth all along?
It seemed the Diary had been right—Darkseid would eventually invade.
Even without the Mother Box sending a signal to summon Steppenwolf, the outcome would likely have been the same.
Given this, some matters needed to be put on the agenda immediately.
"Diana, I plan to form an alliance to counter this potential threat."
Clark shared his thoughts with Diana.
***
Zhou Cheng naturally had no idea what was happening with Strange and Clark.
But at that moment, in his luxurious villa, he had just made a very pleasant decision.
What decision?
To visit another dimension.
Interdimensional travel was just too much fun, a truly addictive pastime.
If he couldn't do it, it would be one thing. But the fact that he had the dimension-hopping cheat built right into him made it irresistible.
He'd been a bit bored staying in the Marvel world for the past year anyway.
So why hesitate?
Zhou Cheng cheerfully made his decision.
But this time, which dimension should he visit?
"This one!"
After a brief moment of contemplation, Zhou Cheng made his choice.
*Whoosh!*
With a thought, another Zhou Cheng materialized before him—the very clone ability he'd obtained from the Diary.
Leaving a clone behind to watch over the Marvel side while his main body traveled to other dimensions? It was just too convenient.
On a side note, Zhou Cheng had also tested this: both his main body and his clones could connect to the Diary.
"I'll leave this to you," Zhou Cheng said to his clone. Without wasting another moment, he activated his dimensional-hopping ability.
He vanished instantly.
The next moment, a completely new world materialized before his eyes.
*Nostalgia!*
His gaze swept across the surroundings, and this was the first thought that crossed his mind.
It was unavoidable. The world Zhou Cheng had dimension-hopped to was a perfect replica of the 1960s and 70s.
*The "Old Era."* Of course, it was nostalgic.
Yet Zhou Cheng found the retro-styled cars he'd only seen in movies and TV shows, the old-fashioned phone booths, and the vintage televisions in the roadside shops quite interesting.
"Smart Body," he muttered, instinctively trying to summon his AI companion for a basic intelligence scan.
But then he realized the Smart Body was completely unresponsive.
He pulled out his electronic devices—no signal, no network.
*Right, I'm such an idiot,* he thought. *This is the last century.*
"Alright then, we'll stick to the traditional way."
Zhou Cheng began to wander through the street, brimming with a sense of nostalgia, and found himself thoroughly enjoying the experience.
When he stumbled upon a newsstand, he didn't hesitate to buy several newspapers.
Flipping through them, he quickly noticed articles about the Vietnam War and Trask Industries, which immediately caught his attention.
Of course, there were also articles about Mutants.
*Hmm, I've come to the right place. This is definitely the X-Men world.*
Zhou Cheng also checked the date and was surprised to find it was indeed 1973.
"This is a crucial turning point!"
"For this world!"
He couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
At the same moment, a thought flashed through his mind, and he subconsciously recorded his thoughts in his diary.
And at that very instant...
A young man at Xavier's Mansion suddenly noticed.
How did a diary appear on the table before him?
-----------------------
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