The hall scene, pieced together from many second-hand medical instruments, was quite terrifying.
It had the distinct look of a superhero insane asylum.
Especially Ian, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a white coat, after snatching Mjølnir from Thor. The way he rubbed his hands together with an expectant smile truly resembled a psychiatrist.
A sensible pause should perhaps be inserted here.
"I've watched many movies and TV shows about doctors, such as *Grey's Anatomy*, *House*, *Nurse Jackie*, and everyone's favorite, *Midday Night Ward*." Ian knew the first step of diagnosis was testing the patient's knee-jerk reflex. He grabbed Mjølnir and tapped it gently directly on Thor's knee.
He didn't use much force.
But when Thor's knee was struck, he immediately performed a one-knee kneel.
"Round-faced mortal! How dare you strike my knee with Mjølnir?!" Thor clutched his knee, wincing in pain. His condition had slightly improved. Although he didn't immediately sober up, he was no longer talking to the pillar but instead questioning the clock hanging on it.
So.
Ian tapped Thor's other knee.
This time.
Thor directly sank into a two-knee kneel, and a bit of clarity returned to his cloudy eyes. Seeing this, Ian felt like an instant Marvel Divine Doctor.
"..."
Gwen rejected Ian's implied look for her to play along.
Helen Cho also did not respond to the expectations of Lord Ian. Instead, she covered her forehead, "I can't believe that as the future star in the eyes of my teachers and classmates, I'm actually witnessing this here... Damn it, you ignorant Evil God over there, you need to have your patient sit on a chair where his legs can hang down steadily."
As a leading expert in the field of biological sciences, Helen Cho naturally had some medical common sense.
"Oh, oh, okay." Ian nodded his head vigorously, not arguing. He knew he was still practicing medicine without a license, so he needed to embody the excellent virtue of being diligent and eager to learn.
"Come on, let's switch to professional equipment!"
He enthusiastically helped Thor, half-dragging and half-pushing him onto the multi-functional sickbed. Leather straps automatically secured his wrists, and shackles clicked tight around his ankles.
Heart-pounding music automatically began to play.
"Shoot! Didn't I tell the shop to change the music to the [Doctor Hannibal Playlist]? I even listed out the songs I needed. These guys who just take the money and don't do the job are truly unreliable!"
Ian quickly yanked the plug from the sickbed's built-in speaker. He turned to look at the strangely expressioned Gwen and Helen Cho and immediately gave himself away with an overly elaborate denial.
"Don't misunderstand, this really isn't a sickbed I dug up from a second-hand *adult fun* shop... It's brand new, and it has many real medical devices added, which is why it was so expensive."
Ian spoke earnestly to explain.
"But we didn't ask, did we? Isn't Tony the one who should be questioning whether you took kickbacks?" Gwen rubbed her temple and responded with a helpless tone.
"I can read your eyes." As Ian finished speaking, he saw Gwen pull two pairs of sunglasses from a nearby drawer, putting one on herself and handing the other to Helen Cho.
"Are you questioning my Super Vision?"
Ian looked at Gwen suspiciously.
"No, we're hoping you can pretend not to see our eyes."
Gwen replied easily.
"Makes sense."
Ian felt that Gwen had become much smarter. He nodded with satisfaction, then looked again at Thor, who was struggling on the sickbed, clearly about to completely break the device.
"If you struggle any more, I'll tell everyone about you getting beaten by a giant octopus in the kitchen." Ian's threat was highly effective. Thor instantly froze on the sickbed.
"I feel completely cured! You don't need to keep testing my knees!" Thor was now completely sober. His eyes could finally see the correct Ian in the correct location.
However.
Ian, slightly excited about practicing medicine for the first time, turned a deaf ear. He pulled out a pen and paper from his white coat pocket and sat down next to the sickbed, imitating Hannibal.
"I don't believe it unless you prove you're really cured." Ian still liked to pretend. His pen scribbled on the notebook, but he wasn't recording any useful information.
Mainly because Doctor Hannibal had never shown him his case files.
"How am I supposed to prove that?"
Thor was somewhat dumbfounded.
"It's very simple."
Ian pointed to the fifty car batteries in the corner. "Do you think my idea of starting a power company with you and making those outdated power companies owe us a huge electric bill is genius enough?"
His words made Thor, who was already dumbfounded, nearly pop his eyeballs out. Wait, he was Thor, not the God of Electricity, and not a power-saving electric mouse that could work at a charging station!
He was furiously complaining internally.
However, Thor looked at Ian's increasingly suspicious and slightly restless gaze and instinctively shivered. Between cowardice and lying, he chose to save his life.
"This idea... is magnificent, beyond words." Thor swallowed, nervously looking at Ian. His praise made Ian's facial expressions change dramatically.
"Cured! Discharged! I truly am a Divine Doctor!"
Ian happily unbound Thor and, as he helped the Prince of Asgard up, he thoughtfully brushed off the dirt, bricks, and debris from the Prince's body.
At the same time.
He also put away the chainsaw, bone drill, skull clamp, amputation knife, and bone chisel—regular medical instruments—and personally returned Thor's "Mew-Mew Hammer" to him.
The moment the traitorous hammer touched its master's skin, tiny currents crackled between the two, as if protesting the humiliation of being used to smash a knee earlier.
"Ah, why do I have to endure all of this?" Thor looked at the hammer in his hand, his mood very complex. He couldn't understand why Ian was qualified to pick up his hammer. Was the criterion for being worthy to use the hammer not whether one was worthy to be the King of Asgard?
At this moment.
Thor couldn't figure out this philosophical question either.
Ian's incessant chatter kept ringing in his ears.
"Think about it, the power of lightning isn't just for fighting monsters and showing off."
"I provide the idea, you provide the lightning. We split it fifty-fifty. I've even thought of the name: 'Thunder Power—Kent Group.' We'll focus on clean energy, green energy, and future energy!"
"Later, I'll work hard to improve my persuasion skills, super-evolving them, so the company can expand into my world. Then, the electricity supply for my factories will be guaranteed."
"And I won't be choked by the Wayne Group, who are jealous of my cheap labor." Ian's grand vision was truly grand, aiming to transmit electricity across the universe to the DC Universe.
"We can start by developing home lightning charging stations. I've even thought up the slogan—'Thor Brand Power: Better for longevity than collecting some of Odin's beard and putting it under your pillow.'" Ian had somehow pulled out a self-made PPT and projected it onto the wall. Perhaps, the world needed a capitalist with such ambition.
Since his Intelligence doubled.
Ian's thought speed had indeed become much more agile. As for why Intelligence didn't increase wisdom, Ian had figured it out: it must be because his wisdom had peaked when he was born.
No more room for growth!
"Wait, what??? You want to use my Father's beard to defraud old folks in the countryside????" Thor was horrified by the suggestion, looking at Ian with terror.
"If it really works, it's not fraud." Ian solemnly emphasized that he was a conscientious capitalist and would never engage in false advertising when designing products.
"..."
Thor felt like he could already see the tragic life his poor father might face after being targeted by the Evil God. He truly couldn't figure out why Ian had so many wicked ideas today.
"If I agree to your power company, will you spare my Father?" Thor looked pitifully at Lord Evil God, making the latter feel as if he had become a major villain.
This great filial son genuinely harbored deep filial piety.
"That project was just something I said offhand, don't worry. I'm not a greedy person. If your dad doesn't agree, I certainly won't impose."
Ian was touched by the other party.
He made a concession.
Thor, however, dared not imagine what would happen if Ian didn't make a concession. Due to the "Thor's Fall," he was still slightly groggy.
"Why did you bring these batteries in front of me?" Thor looked at the busy Ian. He had a bad feeling, and sure enough, Lord Evil God spoke again.
"Believe in your potential, my dear God of Thunder. Start by charging these little guys. Once your proficiency goes up, we'll have Teacher New Tony go tell the Congressmen that he's discovered a perpetual motion machine." Ian explained his plan while placing the fifty industrial storage batteries in front of Thor.
They surrounded Thor like metal beasts waiting to be fed.
"I believe you will be my most outstanding follower." Ian spouted various PUA phrases, making Thor feel like his brain was running out of processing power again.
"Perhaps this is what they call brainwashing." Doctor Helen Cho's eyes were complex. She quietly tugged on Gwen's sleeve: "Is he a real, genuine Evil God?"
"The kind who knows Lucifer? Ugh, why am I, a scientist, discussing such feudal superstitions here?" Helen Cho still hadn't completely digested the truth.
Gwen looked at Ian, who was drawing grand visions for Thor, promising to acknowledge Thor as his favorite follower in front of Hela, and she couldn't help but twitch her lips.
"Ian Kent's lies could fill the Mariana Trench, but the parts about self-aggrandizement..." She made a gesture of a shaking scale, her tone complex.
"That part is often surprisingly true. Yes, when it comes to self-aggrandizement, he is always factual." Gwen replied with a sigh of realization.
"You seem to know him well?"
Helen Cho keenly captured the information revealed in Gwen's words.
Gwen didn't answer immediately. Instead, she looked at Ian, who was instructing Thor on how to be a proper "human charging station," a hint of indescribable emotion in her gaze.
"We were very familiar, once."
She finally said this.
"Did you know him when you were little? I mean, did you know him as a child?" Helen Cho asked in astonishment. She didn't believe Ian's age was the same as he looked.
If there truly were Evil Gods in this world, perhaps Ian was thousands or tens of thousands of years old—Doctor Helen Cho, who hadn't encountered such things, lacked some of the imagination she possessed in the scientific realm.
Hearing this.
Gwen shook her head, her voice slightly lower.
"It was from a time much, much longer ago than that."
Gwen's eyes and tone carried a complexity.
The air instantly fell silent.
"Alright, it seems all you peculiar people in this so-called Evil God Church have your own secrets." Helen Cho was a very, very smart female scientist.
She realized some topics shouldn't be pursued further. It was like working for a major corporation; knowing things you shouldn't know could easily lead to misfortune one day—some truths were like Pandora's Box. Opening it meant never being able to return to the ordinary world, and leaving became impossible.
"In this world, who doesn't have secrets?"
Gwen chuckled softly.
Helen Cho was noncommittal.
"Can I draw some of your blood for research? I want to examine your current genetic structure." She paused for a moment, then changed the subject to ask the question she was curious about.
The smile on Gwen's face faded slightly.
She looked down at her arm, her expression momentarily hesitant.
"Will you run away the day after you know the truth?" Gwen asked half-jokingly, looking at Helen Cho with suspicion.
Helen Cho shrugged.
"If Tony gives me an extra mental compensation fee, I don't think I'll run away immediately. After all, I'm very interested in people like you. And if I leave this environment, I won't find a better research project." Her tone sounded sincere, even a bit helpless, but this very candidness made Gwen drop some of her guard.
She slowly extended her arm, revealing her pale wrist:
"Then draw it."
Helen Cho nodded, took out a blood collection needle, and performed the action skillfully and gently.
The moment the needle pierced her vein, Gwen closed her eyes.
She remembered many things—memories she thought she had forgotten, battles, losses in another era, and her rebirth in the apocalyptic era after death.
"Ian Kent... why do I always feel like I was very, very familiar with his name even before I first saw him during the apocalypse?"
This was something Gwen hadn't figured out even after fusing the memory fragments—after all, they were just fragments. At this moment, Helen Cho, who had carefully sealed Gwen's blood, was already looking at Ian.
The greed of a scientist shone in her eyes.
"May I also request a sample of your blood?" Helen Cho maintained caution and politeness, approaching Ian to make her request, yet she didn't know the correct way to ask for Ian's blood.
So.
"Studying an Evil God's blood is not something a smart person should do." Ian stood with his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to look at her, showing his serious face when he wasn't being flattered.
"Why?"
Helen Cho asked, stunned.
"Because my blood is full of 'Contra-vitamins.' It will only lead your biological research astray. If you were a character in a movie, you would likely trigger an apocalypse because of it."
Ian was not exaggerating.
His blood could even poison a Cthulhu Evil God.
It was clear.
Just how potent that venom was. However, Helen Cho, who didn't know much about Lord Ian, didn't believe him, assuming Ian simply had some taboo regarding this.
"Alright, then forget it. I was just curious about an Evil God's genetic structure." Helen Cho was not a mad scientist and didn't hold a strong obsession for research projects she couldn't obtain.
"Curiosity is good. I suggest you go study those mutants in the dungeon. They are better suited to satisfy your curiosity—I truly hope you can quickly develop a good-tasting strengthening serum."
Ian's tone was filled with a sense of craving and anticipation.
"Huh? A good-tasting strengthening serum? Can those two words even be linked?"
Helen Cho was stunned.
She completely failed to grasp why the other person suddenly looked so expectant. She stared at Ian's face for a few seconds, trying to discern any trace of a joke in his expression.
However.
Ian was genuinely expectant.
"Go for it!"
He even encouraged Helen Cho.
"I will go look at those mutants." Helen Cho gave Ian a strange look, but eventually nodded in compromise. Failing to obtain what she requested, she could only take Gwen's blood and retreat into the underground passage.
Gwen watched the scientist leave.
She turned to Ian.
"You captured quite a few mutants?"
Her tone carried some surprise. She was unaware of what had happened during her coma. The girl's memory was still stuck on the scarcity of mutants just a few days ago.
"Yes, both to save you and for myself." Ian only took credit where he deserved it. He didn't go to great lengths to bring mutants back to the Justice League for some non-lethal principle.
It was because he hoped Helen Cho's research team could develop some strengthening serums that would be useful for his leveling up. In the end, Ian was performing a meticulously self-serving operation.
As for the non-lethal principle, it might only apply to normal people, or ordinary people, or perhaps only to the DC Universe. In any case, before Ian finished building his prison in Hell.
That particular boundary could be very, very flexible.
"I remember you do seem to like drinking all sorts of strange things. Don't tell me..." Gwen wanted to press further, but the holographic projection in the room suddenly flickered.
Teacher New Tony had returned to the New Justice League after finishing his campaign activities. Dressed in a suit and tie, he glanced around, his gaze finally settling on Gwen.
"Gwen, congratulations on waking up."
He nodded slightly.
After Gwen responded, the highly anthropomorphic Artificial Intelligence looked at Thor, who was squatting on the ground, studying how to charge the car batteries.
"Thor, what are you doing?"
His tone held a surprise that couldn't compute the logic of Thor's actions based on data. Thor didn't even look up, focusing intently on experimenting with the batteries in front of him.
"The Evil God beside me told me this is a kind of training. When I can charge a button battery, I will become the truly invincible God of Thunder."
He had clearly been successfully brainwashed and believed Ian's words. Of course, this might not have been a deception, but simply a delicious, hard-to-achieve grand vision.
Teacher New Tony was silent for two seconds upon hearing this.
"Have you found your Father? Where is Stephen Strange?" His tone became increasingly strange. All the information deduced suggested that Thor should not be this calm.
The facts proved that Teacher New Tony's deduction was correct.
He just overlooked some special influencing information.
Sure enough.
Thor's hands suddenly froze upon hearing the question.
"Oh! My goodness! How could I forget the reason I returned to Earth! Damn it! It's all the fault of that spaceship!" He suddenly stood up, looking vexed.
A car battery clanged onto the ground.
"I was hit by a speeding spaceship and knocked into memory confusion! I came here for help! Doctor Strange is in trouble too!" He finally revealed why he was so disheveled.
"Yes, I came to ask for your help." Thor slapped his forehead, instantly becoming anxious. His mood shift was extremely abrupt, leaving Teacher New Tony silent for a long time.
"..."
He felt he might have overestimated Thor's brain.
"Only remembering to talk about the main issue now, you really do seem mentally ill." Gwen couldn't help but hold her forehead, her tone full of emotion. She agreed with Ian's previous assessment for the second time.
"I was hit by a spaceship! Haven't you watched Korean dramas? Getting hit means getting amnesia!" Thor tried to use the knowledge he gained while working as a chef on Earth to argue.
"Makes sense."
Ian first approved.
"Was that spaceship cool?"
Then he asked the question he cared about most.
Full of interest.
After all, few boys can resist a spaceship, just as few priests can resist a little boy. This was an eternal truth in the universe.
"Perhaps you should be worried about Doctor Strange."
Gwen reminded him, speechless.
Ian, however, calmly waved his hand: "Don't forget I'm Lord Evil God. I can sense that Odin, who betrayed me, and Doctor Strange are both alive and well."
His words made Thor's eyelid twitch uncontrollably.
The word "betrayed" sent a chill through the Asgardian God-Chef.
Of course.
Now was not the time to discuss these issues.
"But my Father and Strange have vanished, along with the homeland of the Frost Giants!" Thor, whose mind was no longer muddled, spoke with great tension.
"While we are all very intelligent, you need to clearly explain the sequence of events." This was Teacher New Tony's reminder. Even his calculation power needed basic background information.
Thor took a deep breath.
And began his story.
"Strange and I went to look for my Father. However, when we arrived at Jötunheim, the place where the great Odin and his royal guard vanished, we found no clues at all."
"The area was empty, as if it had suffered a great battle, with not even dust remaining, only a black hole." He clenched his fist, speaking in a low voice.
"Strange thought he could analyze the secrets of the black hole, but as soon as he got close to it, he was sucked in. He didn't even have time to call out to me for help."
Thor made a "swoosh" gesture.
To convey how quickly it happened.
"And then you ran away?"
Gwen raised an eyebrow curiously.
"What else could I do but run? Get sucked in with Strange? I have a much clearer self-awareness than he does!" Thor wore a look of self-justification.
"Did it ever occur to you that your old man was also sucked in?" Ian's question made Thor's expression freeze again. His reaction said it all.
"So that's what happened."
Thor was both worried and suddenly enlightened.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Not only was Ian speechless, but even Teacher New Tony, the Artificial Intelligence, felt choked up.
"It must be all those things you usually cram into my brain, taking up too much of my mental capacity." Seeing their reaction, Thor was somewhat ashamed. He quickly shifted the blame, attempting to hold Ian responsible for his delayed realization.
"The movies and TV shows I put in there haven't even used one percent of your brainpower, and if I don't use it, you might never use them in your life!" Ian, who disliked taking the blame and preferred others to take the blame for him, was speechless. He naturally refuted Thor's slander with facts.
"Then I must have been struck stupid by that damned spaceship." Seeing that shifting the blame failed, Thor immediately launched his second round of defense.
"Are you saying you were hit by a spaceship and were sent tumbling through nine star systems before landing on Earth?" Ian didn't believe Thor's nonsense.
But that didn't stop Thor from stubbornly insisting.
"Yes, that's right, that's exactly what happened. You've never been hit by a spaceship; you don't know how powerful a spaceship is." Thor insisted the problem was definitely not his own.
"I have never met a person more shameless than me! Indeed! You truly have the talent to be my number one fanatical follower!" Ian couldn't help but give Thor a thumbs-up.
"Can both of you stop being stubborn? Aren't we supposed to be saving people?" Gwen rubbed her temples, trying hard to keep up with the group's pace.
"What exactly is in that black hole?"
She looked at Ian.
Trying to get a useful answer from the Dimensional Evil God.
"I don't know. Maybe it leads to the Happy Planet?" Ian spoke the truth. He didn't like to be mysterious, and he occasionally admitted things he didn't know.
"Happy Planet?!"
Thor suddenly slapped his thigh, realizing. "No wonder my invincible Father hasn't come out! He must be very happy in there, which is why he hasn't returned!"
As a son who had always revered his father.
He clearly wasn't willing to accept the fact that his father was trapped.
"..."
Gwen found it hard to understand such contradictory emotions. She took a deep breath and slapped her forehead. "Thor, can't you tell he was just talking nonsense?"
Hearing this.
Thor froze in place.
His expression slowly transitioned from excitement to confusion.
"Ian's guess might not be entirely unreasonable." Teacher New Tony suddenly spoke up at this moment. He seemed to have been mobilizing his computing power to perform some kind of calculation.
Gwen whirled around, her eyes strange.
"Have you been contaminated by the Evil God too?"
The young girl looked at Ian beside her again.
Teacher New Tony did not comment on this, merely chuckling softly. His projected finger traced the air, bringing up a set of holographic data: "Ever since Ian revealed information about Dimensional Demon Gods and the existence of universes beyond our own, Strange has been attempting to use his soul for dimensional travel."
His voice was serious.
A spark of interest flashed in Ian's eyes.
"What's the anomaly?"
The Sorcerer Supreme had indeed embarked on the right path.
This greatly encouraged Ian.
He would eventually unlock the Mage Profession from the Sorcerer Supreme.
"Some anomalies that we hadn't realized before." Teacher New Tony replied. He paused before continuing: "Because you mentioned the Multiverse no longer exists, Strange did not successfully find other universes, but he did discover another very peculiar phenomenon."
"Our universe contains many 'pockets' that exist outside of reality." Teacher New Tony brought up the data stream, organizing the information while explaining.
Ian certainly couldn't understand the data.
But he understood plain language.
"Pockets of reality? The kind of place where Knull, the God of Darkness, stays?" Ian stroked his chin, recalling his experience fighting the little Battle Carnage previously.
He was almost fed by Knull, the God of Darkness, but unfortunately, the other party was too stingy, only feeding him a tiny bit of pure energy before acting like a coward tucking tail and running.
"Perhaps something similar." Teacher New Tony wasn't entirely certain, but his projection had drifted to the center of the room, remotely controlling a robot covered in magical symbols to activate a hidden magic circle.
The runes on the floor lit up one by one.
A low humming sound started, and the air began to distort. Blue energy lines intertwined into complex geometric shapes. A faint, illusory image gradually appeared in the air.
It was like a painting soaked in water, blurry yet vaguely recognizable in outline.
"This is the nearest 'pocket of reality' to us. It's very special, and it exists within our cosmic structure, but it cannot be detected by conventional means."
Teacher New Tony's voice lowered.
"How special is it?"
Ian's curiosity was successfully piqued.
"You'll see when you watch."
Teacher New Tony didn't rush to answer but looked at the ascending magic circle. The space in the image continued to shift, and the lines in the air slowly outlined a clear image.
In the illusory image projected by the magic circle, light gradually condensed, outlining a bedroom filled with childlike wonder yet a sense of advanced technology. The pink walls were covered with Iron Man graffiti, and the corners were stacked with various mechanical parts and unfinished suit models.
"Friday, I'm awake!"
A little girl, about seven or eight years old, jumped off the oversized round bed, her bare feet landing on the soft carpet. She had a fluffy brown curl of hair, sleepy but full of energy.
"Good morning, Miss Morgan." The gentle electronic female voice sounded in the room. "Today's outdoor temperature is 23 degrees. Zombie activity is moderate. The MK-42 Mini Armor and the 'Pepper' Chariot are ready for you."
Morgan raised her small fist excitedly.
"I'm definitely going to take down more zombies today! Maybe I can break the record!"
She was full of confidence.
Ten minutes later, a stream of gold and red light streaked across the sky above the ruins of New York.
"Full thrusters!" Morgan sat inside the mini armor, which was only two meters tall, her small hands nimbly operating the controls. Blue flames erupted from the thrusters on the armor's back, instantly breaking the sound barrier, and the glass storefronts on the street below shattered in response.
Crowds of zombies raised their rotting faces. Before they could react, they were blasted into pieces by miniature missiles descending from the sky.
"Thirty degrees left, saturation strike!"
The armor's shoulder armor slid open, revealing a honeycomb-style miniature missile bay.
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh*—!
Dozens of palm-sized missiles poured out with trailing flames, exploding into a series of fireballs on the street. Burning corpse parts rained down like drops.
Morgan's eyes were firm in the cockpit.
"Kill all the zombies, and Mom and Dad can come back!"
The armor suddenly made a sharp turn.
A mechanical arm deployed a high-frequency cutting blade, slicing a mutated giant zombie in half at the waist. Putrid internal organs splashed against the bulletproof glass, instantly being washed away by the automatic cleaning system.
"Area B residual rate detected below 5%," Friday reported. "Recommend switching to ground mode."
"Yay! To the Chariot!"
The mini armor landed in the center of Times Square.
With a series of mechanical transformation sounds, it reconfigured itself into a pink armored vehicle equipped with a Gatling gun. Morgan slammed the accelerator, the tires rolling over crushed zombie heads.
The car stereo played the *Frozen* theme song.
"*Let it go~ Let it go~*"
The Gatling gun spun up to warm, and the next second, a storm of metal swept across the entire Broadway street. Shell casings poured down like a golden waterfall, and the zombie horde fell in rows like harvested wheat. A small zombie wearing a tattered Star Wars T-shirt tried to climb onto the roof. Morgan immediately pressed the red button—
*Bang!*
An electromagnetic net popped out of the roof, frying it into charcoal.
"Perfect ten!"
She gave a V-sign in the rearview mirror.
At dusk, Morgan piloted the armor back to the safe house located on the top floor of Stark Tower. She took off her helmet, her small face flushed, the stray hairs on her forehead stuck with sweat.
"I took down 322,317 today!"
She plopped onto the soft sofa, hugging an Iron Man doll. "Friday, you said that after I clear the world of all zombies, Mom and Dad will come back, right?"
"Of course, Miss Morgan."
The Artificial Intelligence's voice was gentle and firm.
"The protocol set by Mr. Stark is very clear."
Hearing this, Morgan's eyes lit up. She kicked off her shoes and curled up on the sofa, counting on her fingers: "I haven't seen them for 367 days... Dad promised to take me to Disney, and Mom said she'd teach me to bake apple pie..."
A holographic fireplace automatically ignited, and a steaming bowl of cream of mushroom soup and a cheeseburger rose from the dining table. Morgan devoured the lavish meal.
However.
In the slightly quiet restaurant.
She suddenly looked up.
"Friday, how many zombies are left now?"
The girl asked.
"Based on the latest scan, just a few left."
The Artificial Intelligence replied.
"You will see them very soon."
Its voice had a comforting quality, and the girl's eyes were full of expectation. She turned on the television and watched some videos her father had recorded for her.
On a holographic projector.
She pressed the play button.
The figure of Tony Stark appeared in the air—he was wearing a casual T-shirt, and the background was a sunny villa garden, completely different from the zombie-infested world she was in now.
"Hey, Pepper Jr." The projected Tony squatted down, level with the camera lens, a familiar, slightly mischievous smile on his lips. "If you're watching this, Dad's late again—sorry, you know, saving the world always picks the worst timing."
Morgan reached out her small hand, her fingers passing through the illusion, unable to feel any warmth.
Tony's projection continued, his tone relaxed, but his eyes were heartbreakingly gentle: "But don't worry, Dad left you a present—Friday will take care of you, and the armor and chariot are set to 'Morgan Exclusive Mode.' Just remember not to use the thrusters above level three. You scared it almost into a shutdown last time..."
Tony Stark's raised eyebrow looked a bit flippant.
But in Morgan's eyes, it was incredibly heartwarming.
"Mom and I are just temporarily held up." The projected Tony suddenly leaned closer to the camera, lowering his voice. "So you need to do a favor—clean up those 'dirty things' outside. Once the progress bar hits 100%, we can..." The image suddenly froze, Tony's mouth stopped at the word "home."
But the audio had already turned into electromagnetic static.
He still didn't dare to make that promise. Outside the window, the zombie corpses scorched by the laser were gradually turning transparent. And three blocks away in Times Square, new hordes of corpses appeared out of thin air, as if generated by a 3D printer. They twisted as they stood up, varying in levels of decomposition, but all turning neatly toward Stark Tower.
As if endless. On the distant horizon, the location that should have been the Avengers Compound was now just a distorted, constantly flickering black, pixelated area.
In front of the magic circle.
Watching all of this.
Gwen's eyes widened.
"Those zombies... they're respawning?! That's not the real world at all!" She turned sharply to Teacher New Tony, but the Artificial Intelligence offered no comment.
"Who is that?"
Thor asked in confusion.
"Morgan Stark... Tony's daughter." Ian's eyes flickered. "It looks like he wove an absolutely safe but deceitful paradise for his daughter."
At this moment.
Ian didn't know how to evaluate Tony Stark's act of "personal baggage." It was quite moving; some people didn't forget they were a father even while being a superhero.
"Teacher Tony's actions are always so unexpected." Ian looked at the little girl in the image and mostly understood that Odin and Doctor Strange might have fallen into a similar situation.
Trapped in a pocket of reality.
"I think I understand what's going on—a dimensional pocket... We can definitely go find Odin and Doctor Strange, but unfortunately, I don't have much time left." Ian clearly remembered how long he could stay in the Marvel Universe.
He checked the time on his wrist and sighed.
"Then what do we do now?"
Thor looked at Ian anxiously.
"Rely on yourselves, or wait for me to return."
With those words.
Ian vanished from the Marvel Universe.
***
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