"This is not an Infinity Stone."
The Ancient One gently placed the blue-glowing cube on the table in front of her. Her expression was calm, but it was clear she considered the object in front of her to be of utmost importance.
Su Ming was currently in Kama Taiji.
The Red Skull was temporarily no longer a problem, so he had some time before Howard finished building the atomic bomb.
His first move was to seek out The Ancient One, asking for her help to examine the Cosmic Rubik's Cube and, if possible, extract the Space Gemstone from it.
But The Ancient One's answer was not what he expected.
If this blue cube wasn't the magic cube…
Su Ming had long known that his world wasn't the movie universe. After all, encountering Conqueror Kang during World War II was enough of a hint.
Even though the plot had some similarities to the MCU, it always took strange turns in unexpected places.
Su Ming had a rough idea of what this might be. If it really matched his new guesses, then this item was indeed significant.
"Is this the Cosmic Cube?"
The Ancient One nodded first, then shook her head: "I don't quite understand what you mean by the Cosmic Rubik's Cube (the Tesseract); perhaps it's a shell created by the Space Gemstone itself. But what we're looking at now is an incomplete Cosmic Cube."
The confusion between the cube and the tesseract is mostly an influence of the movie universe.
Because in the comic universe, the Space Gemstone is actually purple and has nothing to do with the blue cube.
Now it seems that Su Ming's Earth-40K includes factors from both the movies and comics, and there are many things that are ambiguous.
The origin of the Cosmic Cube is the Transcendent Divine Race.
Since they couldn't leave this Marvel Universe themselves, they felt that every life should possess infinite possibilities, maybe someone could go out and see.
So they opened a back door for all life with the authority of the world.
The powers of the cube are extremely strong, transcending all human imagination. It can create new Multiverses or reshape the current universe.
With a complete Cosmic Cube, the possessor can turn their inner desires into reality.
Controlling elements, manipulating space-time, altering logic, erasing existence—any irrational conception can be realized through it.
For example, if Su Ming wanted to turn Marvel into a fantasy world, it was doable, and everyone could channel qi into the horse with no problem.
The Cosmic Cube possesses self-awareness; they have their own personalities and thoughts.
The known Cosmic Cubes to Su Ming consist of four: the 'World Shaper' from the Skrull World, 'Kebik' born on Earth, the 'Transcender' born from the fusion of the Transcendent Domain and Earth, and the 'Kosmos,' formed by the union of the Transcender and the Molecule Man.
The current question is whether this Cosmic Cube before them is one of these four or an unknown fifth piece.
"It's currently just a rudimentary form or fragment; in any case, it's extremely incomplete. It lacks self-awareness and has little energy, only animalistic instincts."
The Ancient One gently touched the Cosmic Cube, but Su Ming noticed she was still very cautious, with magical protection on her hand, as if she were petting a hedgehog.
"How long does it need to grow?" Su Ming asked solemnly.
"Perhaps a day, perhaps ten thousand years. They are almost extra world rules, and the types of energy they contain are unknown to me, making it impossible to judge."
The Ancient One replied, the cube in her hand glowing in and out intermittently.
"I originally wanted the Space Gemstone to enhance my own abilities, but ended up with a hot potato that's unusable at the current stage."
Su Ming shook his head.
"You want the Infinity Stones? Although collecting them is very dangerous, you have the qualification to keep one. How about the Time Gem?"
The Ancient One hinted.
"...I have to go, I have some school matters to attend to."
Su Ming turned his head to leave, trying to delay as much as possible, and he had already begun to think of ways to prolong the life of Master Ancient.
It's better for her to remain the Supreme Mage.
The Ancient One watched as Su Ming slipped out of the room and then soared into the sky. She silently pondered for a moment.
Moments later, she picked up the Cosmic Cube and began communicating with Emperor Vishanti, seeking some answers about how such a thing appeared on Earth.
Typically, to manufacture a Cosmic Cube, a special and sufficiently stable energy field must be created, and a rift opened between dimensions where the Transcendent Divine Race resides.
Then, energies from the Other Dimension would enter this field through the rift. Once the field was filled with energies from the Other Dimension, it would transform into a perfect cube, and the energy within would provide infinite energy to the cube.
This is the essence of the Cosmic Cube, a higher-dimensional concept formed from the convergence of dimensions.
The key question is whether this cube formed on Earth itself, or if someone is orchestrating some conspiracy. The Ancient One must be prepared.
...........
The subsequent events unfolded much as Su Ming had anticipated; Howard indeed quickly created the atomic bomb.
But he encountered an unexpected problem: the results from his reaction equation indicated that the power of this atomic bomb was too great...
The military just wanted to eliminate some enemies, not to gnaw a chunk off Earth like eating an apple.
So he started considering nuclear fusion methods, but still couldn't control these energies.
Recently, he began trying to find a new element to replace uranium and plutonium, preferably something non-polluting and easy to control.
Anyway, Su Ming visited the Stark Mahjong House a few times, yet Howard still hadn't shown up.
This place isn't open to outsiders, with only Su Ming and a few servants inside, making it feel like a haunted house. Su Ming decided to return to school to continue playing with the girls.
Moreover, there's another question.
If it's the Cosmic Rubik's Cube that's on Earth, then where is the Space Gemstone?
How did Dr. Zola extract energy from the cube and use it to create weapons?
...........
The little devils finally got hit with two new atomic bombs, but these mushroom clouds were pale blue and incredibly powerful.
At that moment, Wolverine, who was in Japan, suffered through a disaster, forced to huddle with a devil officer, shivering in a dry well converted into a cell.
Japan announced its surrender, and the World War ended.
Howard finally started playing mahjong. Now that the war was over, he sat at the mahjong table with Su Ming, Steve, and Baki.
It seemed like he didn't care about any confidentiality rules, candidly talking about everything.
The new element doesn't exist in nature; he created it using a particle collider, thanks to assistance from some other scientists.
Like a young scientist couple named Xavier, who provided Howard with a lot of help.
To indirectly thank them, Howard spent a large sum to buy a foam fire extinguishing technique from them.
That technology had some value, but it wasn't worth that much money.
Howard has a quirky personality; his ways of thanking others are often roundabout.
This couple used the money to buy an estate in Westchester County on the outskirts of New York, where they had a child named Charles.
It's just unclear if it was due to exposure to Howard's experiments during pregnancy; their son stood out as rather peculiar from a young age.....
Steve has been in a good mood recently, not just because the war ended, but he also got a girlfriend.
Old Luo from the White House even met him, presenting him with a grand medal as Captain America under the flashing lights of countless journalists.
But Peggy's face was rather unremarkable since, with the war ending, those wealthy young masters who never dared face the battlefield were now entering the SSR through various connections to accrue credentials.
Perhaps as a stepping stone to the CIA, or a way into the military and political circles, the SSR, after defeating Hydra, has become hotly sought after, hardly resembling a secret department anymore.
Philip might have been overstimulated, as he already retired, and a new director was brought in.
She sensed that she was being sidelined; it might not be long before she would be reduced to serving tea and water since the men were returning from the battlefield, and women were expected to step aside.
This era was like that; traditional social values believed that women could only be nannies or do housework. Even being a secretary was often regarded as disreputable.
Although Su Ming could help her, there was no need to.
What's worth holding on to in the broken SSR, better to retire and live quietly with Steve and Baki.
However, Baki really did retire, planning to travel the world, claiming he wanted to enhance his abilities.
He said it was because he almost lost Steve and felt his powerlessness, so he wanted to learn more skills.
But Su Ming thought it was because he couldn't bear watching Steve and Peggy display their affection every day, prompting him to wander the world.
After thinking it over, Su Ming used The Ancient One's connections, planning to slide Baki into Kunlun through the back door.
After all, Baki should originally have an 'Iron Fist,' although he's suffered less now, his mechanical arm is gone, and his future combat power might indeed be an issue.
Just relying on quipping might not suffice, especially with no one pretending to be dumb around.
Therefore, Su Ming intended for Baki to directly become 'Iron Fist,' saving the Leech Potion, and training Qi energy properly could lead to longevity similarly.
In short, it's November of 1945, another winter, and today their plan is to play mahjong, have dinner, and then send Baki off.
They drank, partied, and had fun until late, with Gin eventually picking up the booze-and-smoke-reeking Su Ming to take him back to company headquarters.
Go to school tomorrow, then, not knowing if Ciri has gone off on another jaunt.
She's having her Hunter's relapse, now scouring the world looking to find monsters to fight, but in New York, there isn't just Su Ming, there's also Mikhail and the Holy of Holies.
Even though there are quite a few monsters in the Marvel World, they don't seem interested in New York right now.
Ciri made a couple of trips back to the Wizard World and even went looking for Geralt, who also, for some reason, went to an Otherworld, now hunting dragons every day.
Su Ming doesn't intend to change her nature. If Ciri wasn't hunting monsters, she wouldn't be Ciri. Her current purpose for traveling across different worlds is to hunt demons, and that's what she personally wants to do.
Su Ming planned to lead a peaceful life, but the following morning, his routine was disrupted by the sudden appearance of Master Ancient.