The Ancient One smiled faintly and shook her head: "If I could truly leave sooner, I would be much more relaxed. Furthermore, it's not that I don't want to speak plainly, but the current future is inherently blurry. I, who possesses the Time Stone, cannot see it clearly, and neither can His Majesty the All-Father, who possesses the Eye of Premonition..."
"The only thing we know is that the rules of time are vastly different from before. This is also why, since your appearance—a person who shouldn't exist in this Universe—I, as the Guardian of the Time Stone, have not intervened at all, and why you have never been purged by other forces maintaining the temporal order."
Upon hearing this, Ryan's heart sank. As expected, the Ancient One, the Village Chief of Earth's Novice Village, knew of his existence from the very beginning.
And the reason she hadn't purged him was surprisingly not due to the Ancient One's great mercy, but because the rules of time in the Marvel Universe had changed, meaning she no longer needed to eliminate existences detrimental to the timeline!
Ryan wasn't stupid. From the Ancient One's words, he had already guessed why the rules of time had changed.
Clearly, when he transmigrated, Kang the Defeated at the End of Time had already stepped down, and the newly ascended ruler was Loki, the God of Stories, who had fallen in love with his own story!
He vaguely remembered that after Loki took power, he changed the rules set by Kang, choosing to allow the Multiverse to develop on its own, and the TVA (Time Variance Authority) stopped intervening to prune erroneous timelines.
For Ryan, this was both good news and bad news.
The good news was, just as the Ancient One said, he no longer had to worry about those entities maintaining temporal order attempting to purge him.
But the bad news was that the future would no longer be immutable, and Ryan lost the advantage of knowing the plot in advance, meaning no one could predict what would happen next!
After figuring this out, Ryan fell silent.
He had only just become slightly stronger—just strong enough to punch gods and kick Thanos—and now he was being elevated to the truly High-End Game?
What the hell is this!
Just as Ryan's mind was in turmoil, the Ancient One took a few steps toward him, suddenly stretched out her hands, and grasped Ryan's hand holding the eye of agamotto. Her eyes, which seemed capable of seeing through everything, focused intently on Ryan's eyes:
"Ryan, today was originally supposed to be the Absolute Nexus Point determining the fate of our Universe, but now that the rules have changed, you are that point. You are the sole hope of our Universe, and a variable for the entire Multiverse. You must agree to one request of mine."
Looking at the Ancient One's serious gaze, which didn't seem like a joke, Ryan didn't immediately refuse this time: "Tell me first..."
The Ancient One slowly said: "The four people who came from the neighboring reality—their Universe was once a chosen Universe, and it is also the original Universe of the person who changed the current rules of time. Therefore, you must make a trip to their Universe. This is very important for our Universe, and even more important for you!"
Upon hearing this, Ryan's pupils sharply contracted: "Are you saying they came from..."
Before he could finish speaking, the Ancient One covered his mouth and nodded at him, confirming his suspicion.
Ryan suppressed the shock in his heart and couldn't help but look at Odin, who had been lowering his head and remaining silent since just now, feeling somewhat fortunate that this Wretched Old Man, Odin, had come today to stop him from killing Loki.
Otherwise... although it wasn't the same Loki from the same Universe.
But Ryan wasn't sure if the other Mummy Kid, who was watching the Multiverse, would feel empathy and hold a grudge against him after he killed Loki...
That's right, the four people who crossed over from the neighboring reality were exactly from the 2012 Universe that the sacred timeline's Avengers traveled to in Avengers 4.
Tony Stark from the sacred timeline was knocked unconscious in that Universe due to an accident—an Open-Door Kill by the Hulk—which allowed that Universe's Loki to escape using the Tesseract, leading to his arrest by the TVA (Time Variance Authority), and eventually, after enduring countless hardships, becoming the God of Stories seated upon the Temporal Throne!
So, the Quartet from the neighboring reality actually came from the God of Stories' Universe, and after reaching the Avengers 4 time point in that Universe, they came to his Universe to borrow the Stones!
Isn't that utterly ridiculous?
Ryan also guessed why the Ancient One and Odin would team up to put on such a performance and implore him to travel to that Universe.
Because these two Old Geezers, who have more tricks up their sleeves than a lotus root has holes, wanted him to go to the other Universe—the God of Stories' old home—to ingratiate himself!
After all, although Loki, as the God of Stories, ordered the TVA to stop interfering with the development of various Parallel Universes, it would certainly be false to say that He didn't care at all about the God of Stories' old home!
Loki became a truly omniscient 'God,' not an emotionless machine sitting on a Golden Toilet.
And helping the God of Stories' home Universe once might bring enormous rewards for both his own future and the future of his Universe!
So... returning to the present...
Nano Tony looked at the three Infinity Stone Carriers in Ryan's hand and, with an uneasy heart, requested of Ryan: "Mr. Parker, although this is very presumptuous, I still wish to borrow these three Infinity Stones you are holding..."
Ryan nodded: "Mm, fine."
"I swear I will guard them with my life and return them safely after use, I... Wait a minute!" Tony subconsciously swore, attempting to increase his credibility, but halfway through, he suddenly froze: "You... you agreed?"
Ryan nodded again: "That's right, you wanted to borrow the Stones, and I agreed. However..."
Nano Tony's momentary joy immediately choked in his throat because of Ryan's 'however': "However what? I can agree to anything!"
Ryan glanced at Nano Tony and said indifferently: "However, I don't trust you to properly guard our Universe's Infinity Stones, so I need to go to your Universe with you. After everything is done, I will personally bring back the three Infinity Stones of my Universe."
When Nano Tony heard this, his face wasn't just happy—it was ecstatic!
Is there really such a good thing?
Not only did they easily borrow the Infinity Stones, but they could also bring back a powerful helper. This was like borrowing a fishing rod from a tackle shop, and the owner not only lent them the rod for free but also offered to go fishing with them!
"That's great! Should we leave now?" Nano Tony immediately couldn't wait to return to his Universe.
Ryan glanced at the impatient Nano Tony but shook his head:
"Don't rush. Don't forget, you came to our Universe by traversing the Quantum Realm. Even if I go with you, I still need to manufacture another Quantum Jumpsuit and acquire our Universe's Pym Particles."
Upon hearing this, Nano Tony pointed with a relaxed expression to Ant-Man Scott, who was standing beside them, completely failing to understand the conversation about time they just had, pretending to understand like an Idiot, and merely nodding along:
"That's easy. Just take this guy's Nano Jumpsuit and Pym Particles. He's useless coming back with us anyway. We can just come back for him after we're done."
Ant-Man:.....