The breathing in the hall was heavy.
"Are you alright? Do you need me to call an ambulance?" Ian thought Doctor Strange's physique was poor. Who knew if the guy had been secretly doping when he was a doctor?
Actually, he hadn't added anything too excessive to the contract, he merely removed the perk of learning magic from him for free. Was it really too much to ask for payment in mana to learn magic?
There needed to be a distinction between a new believer and a believer who had previously betrayed him.
Ian hadn't even asked Doctor Strange to help him support his other followers.
He was always very benevolent.
"I just want to hang myself and start over."
Doctor Stephen Strange slumped in the armchair, a thin wisp of magical sparks swirling between his fingers, like a lamp about to go out.
He was mourning his lost mana.
"You've already hit the jackpot with this start. Trust me, if you follow the Old Man Evil God, your future is limitless. You might even become a Dimension Lord yourself one day."
"No, it should be that when you stamp your foot, all the other Dimension Lords will kneel and call you Lord Strange. After all, you are my follower, and you represent me when you are out there." With his mana skyrocketing, Ian was already looking forward to the future, though his joy and Doctor Strange's sorrow were perhaps not shared.
"That promise makes me think of Louis XVI's promises." Doctor Strange looked up, his eyes full of distrust. He even secretly tried to vent his frustration with slang.
However, Ian didn't care about the followers' abuse.
He was the Evil God of the new era.
"A blank check? Don't worry, even if someone chops off the Old Man Evil God's head, the Old Man Evil God can still grow a corpse... No, a body."
Ian corrected his overly immersive statement in time.
He had Madison's acting method to blame for this one.
"Wait, you're an Evil God who just woke up, and you can instantly understand a riddle like that?" Doctor Strange's expression was astonished. He was probing Ian's origin to see if it aligned with his guess.
"Super brain."
Ian didn't deny it.
He just silently tapped his temple.
The air was quiet for a second.
No one applauded him.
Doctor Strange sighed, looking down at his hands, which were starting to tremble again: "No matter how beautifully you describe it, I still think this is the false promise of an Evil God."
"Look at me now, my mana is less than five out of ten, and I'm even struggling to maintain my body's normal functions." The original reason for him to learn magic still seemed to exist, which might also be why, out of the several superheroes Ian had met, Doctor Strange's situation was relatively more normal.
Even though Teacher Tony claimed not to care, it seemed he still liked this man when he was responsible for inputting the information, as he didn't make Doctor Strange lose all his fingers.
"The more you lose, the more I gain. And the more I gain, the stronger your backer becomes. So, rounding it all up, it actually means you haven't gotten weaker."
"We are a whole, adhering to the Law of Conservation of Energy." Ian looked at Doctor Strange's trembling hands. He pulled up his personal panel, ready to give Doctor Strange a taste of Evil God shock.
"The Law of Conservation of Energy can be interpreted like that?"
Doctor Strange was clearly stunned for a moment.
Then, he stared at Ian with a very strange look. "I've heard that kind of rhetoric before. The US Army used to use it to trick people when they were stationed in other countries."
One could only say that maybe the United States had already taken every path.
"So, do I belong to the Old New York Banner of the Righteous American Flag?" Ian's tone was full of emotion. He felt that the US Army was a time assassin, stealing his development ideas from the past timeline.
In a world with the supernatural.
Who could say for sure?
If one couldn't say for sure, then the Old Man Evil God was right.
"I shouldn't have been so smart. Why did I return to Kamar-Taj? If I hadn't returned to Kamar-Taj, I wouldn't have accidentally signed a contract like this with you."
"If I hadn't signed this contract, I wouldn't have lost my mana. If I hadn't lost my mana, I wouldn't be here listening to you draw me a big cake."
Doctor Strange held his forehead with a trembling hand.
His tone was full of melancholy and regret.
"What big cake? Quickly, look at the ability your God is sharing with you." Ian figured out the new skill, so he immediately used the [Share] ability to lend a skill to Doctor Strange.
[Healing Frenzy]
He was even afraid that Doctor Strange wouldn't know how to use it, so he thoughtfully activated the ability for him—any former Evil God knew that controlling a follower's body was a basic operation for an Evil God.
"Hiss~"
Just for a moment of being controlled.
Doctor Strange felt his body begin to change. A green light glowed from his body, wriggling like a living thing, moving through every corner of his physical form.
"This... isn't magic."
Doctor Strange's pupils violently contracted. His mana flowed within him, but it couldn't resist this strange healing power. It acted like a special rule.
"I'm regaining my health?!"
Realizing what was happening, Doctor Strange's eyes widened. He felt his hands, which even magic struggled to heal, were now showing a miracle from an Evil God.
The reconnection of his nerves was so rapid. He instinctively looked down at his hands—those hands that had been nerve-damaged, muscle-atrophied, and almost incapable of any fine movement due to the car accident, now instantly felt as if they were back in their prime state, as if they had never been injured.
"Damn the Ancient One, didn't he say my hands could never be healed, that it was my absolute destiny?" Doctor Strange even felt that his fatty liver was gone.
*Gulp*
Suddenly, he felt that believing in an Evil God wasn't so bad. After all, he used to be a doctor with no emotion who only knew how to make money, so the profession might even be considered a perfect fit.
"Is this the Evil God's grace?"
Doctor Strange felt he was completely corrupted. He couldn't help it, after all, his original intention for learning magic was merely to heal his hands.
If he had known that believing in an Evil God could cure him.
He would have dug up the sleeping Evil God in an instant.
"It is not just that, I can also make you fly." Ian was also experimenting with his [Share] skill. In the next moment, Doctor Strange was flying up to the ceiling.
"I have a Cloak! I don't need to fly myself!"
Doctor Strange was startled, flailing his arms in mid-air. Of course, after he adapted, Doctor Strange started moving up and down, playing with great delight.
The Law of the Inescapable True Scent was perhaps the eternal melody of all the heavens and dimensions.
"Does your Cloak have a bio-field? No!"
Ian answered his own question.
He didn't care if Doctor Strange understood what a bio-field was. While observing Doctor Strange, he was also organizing the information and found that although he had shared the flying ability with Doctor Strange.
However.
He did not lose or weaken the effect of this skill as a result. The so-called borrowing only made Ian bear double the stamina consumption when using the skill.
This meant Ian could not share the ability with every follower long-term.
"It just means I am too weak right now. If I had six or even seven-figure panel stats, this small price would be negligible."
Ian pondered.
Feeling even hungrier in his stomach.
He quickly revoked the sharing of all abilities.
"Splat~"
Doctor Strange fell straight from the ceiling, landing on the ground in a spread-eagle position. He didn't cry out in pain or yell. He just lay there, feeling his reborn hands.
After a long while.
"My mana... why did I lose a little more?" Doctor Strange slowly raised his head, his tone and expression very strange. His eyes fixed on the Evil God not far away.
"Read the contract carefully, Doctor, read it carefully! This is an ability rental fee, charged by usage time, fair and honest. I am different from those demons who lend power for free." Ian stressed his good conscience. Anyone who has played games knows the difference between pay-to-win games and free-to-play games.
"..."
Doctor Strange felt he was about to be drained.
He had a vague feeling.
Was he really a sorcerer?
He was clearly an Evil God's mana production machine!
"Drained, I'm drained, I barely have any mana left." Doctor Strange's voice was full of melancholy. It wasn't until Ian kicked him a few times that he remembered he should get up off the floor.
"Actually, I also offer mana loans, calculated annually, nine out, thirteen back." Ian was so consumed by thoughts of mana, with nowhere to apply it, that he decided to exert his capitalist spirit.
The Old Man Evil God had now added most of his skills to the [Share List]. Doctor Strange was aware of it, but he didn't dare to borrow any of those abilities.
"Do you think I can afford this kind of loan? Cultivating mana is much harder than making money." Doctor Strange threw himself onto the comfortable rocking chair again.
Hearing this.
Ian smiled softly.
He was prepared.
"Don't worry! When I grow the [Devour] ability and share it with you, you can go out and eat monsters!" Ian was not a traditional demonic usurer.
He would provide his followers with a win-win opportunity.
Everyone winning together was the true win.
"You even know what abilities you can grow? Or do you grow whatever ability you want?" Doctor Strange couldn't help but gulp upon hearing this.
This was far more terrifying than the fake Evil Gods mentioned in fairy tales and movies.
"It's complicated, it has to do with self-awareness, you wouldn't understand even if I told you." Ian used the opportunity to knock on his system. He only hoped that the system clutching his thigh wouldn't let him down.
Some boys, when they got desperate, would even take a bite out of the system—after silently threatening the system in his heart, Ian found he was getting better and better at threatening others.
The countdown didn't speed up because of this.
But he figured the system had gotten the hint.
"You just said... 'contribute abilities to you'... meaning, besides me, do you have other followers on Earth?" Doctor Strange suddenly realized this with a delayed reaction.
Ian smiled.
"Actually, another God is also my follower. Now you know how lucky you are to be sitting at the same table as a God." Ian used an honorific to elevate Thor.
Wasn't this also a way to elevate himself?
"So, I'm not your top boss?" Doctor Strange was quick to adapt to his new role. He was already starting to consider his own interests.
Seeing this.
"It's alright, you have a chance to become the top boss."
Ian quickly spoke to encourage him and displayed true democracy and freedom: "Whoever contributes the most automatically becomes the top boss. There is no class solidification in the Old Man Evil God's church."
It was clear.
The young Evil God genuinely valued his path to becoming a Dimension Lord.
"..."
Doctor Strange had no idea how to comment. He felt this was more legitimate than many of the serious churches he knew about, even giving him a burst of motivation to strive and work hard.
"Second-in-command is actually not bad."
Doctor Strange muttered quietly, giving himself a bit of self-consolation.
Just at that moment.
*Ding-dong.*
The doorbell rang.
Doctor Strange was startled.
"I didn't order takeout."
He looked blankly at the door.
"Liar! You just didn't want to share with your God." Ian got up to open the door. He might have really misjudged Doctor Strange; the guest outside wasn't holding a takeout pizza—it was a tall woman, with dark hair like a waterfall, wearing a pair of rimless gold-wire glasses. Her face was cold, and her eyes were sharp.
The front door of the New York Sanctum swung open, and a gust of cold wind swept a few dead leaves into the hall.
"Who are you looking for?"
Ian asked first.
The woman frowned.
"Cosmic Ultimate Invincible, Final Arbiter, Emperor of All Laws, God Ian?" Her voice was also cold, like the winter wind, and she kept looking Ian up and down.
"That's me."
Ian stood at the door.
He blinked.
His mind worked quickly.
"My father delivered his divine oracle, asking me to come and be your disciple." The woman seemed very distrustful of Ian's apparent age of just over ten years old. She pulled out a stack of manuscripts from her arms and handed them to Ian.
Divine oracle.
Disciple.
Those were the two key phrases.
They instantly helped Ian sort everything out.
"Is your dad Odin?" Ian's expression held a hint of surprise, but he still took the manuscript. He immediately became highly energized when the conversation turned to creative work.
"Yes."
The woman nodded.
She was a person of few words.
She was Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death.
"But your brother, Thor, said he was Odin's only child." Ian flipped through the manuscripts that still had a bit of warmth. He was greatly shocked, the woman was actually creating a super-R-rated comic book.
On the manuscript.
The content that immediately greeted him.
Was all about the surging of the sea.
"My comics are bestsellers across the Nine Realms. It's not hard to understand why that old fool wouldn't want to acknowledge me as his child, afraid I'd corrupt his new heir."
Hela's tone carried a hint of mockery for her family.
A familiar story.
A different core.
Ian once again felt the shock from the new Marvel. Of course, other people's business had nothing to do with him. He just quietly flipped through Hela's manuscript.
"You two are just as bad as each other, don't try to call out your younger brother, Big Sister."
Ian gave his sharp critique.
Hearing this.
Hela was not angered. She only frowned, her eyes filled with distrust towards Ian: "Can someone your age understand my art?"
Her words were practically a challenge to Ian.
"You can question my power, you can even question that I haven't fully developed—though that is not a fact. But you cannot question my all-round talent in literary creation."
Ian's passion for literary creation was this devoted. He was even willing to sacrifice his reputation in other areas, showing that he was definitely a truly passionate writer.
"Your foundational skill is good. The lines are smooth, the details are rich; it's clear you have some ability. But the art style, which starts right off by drawing large buns, is too straightforward."
"Also, it's too realistic." Ian had roughly finished reading the entire manuscript. He already had his judgment: "This is the reason your imagination is being restrained."
"You need to get out and explore more. Then you will discover that a large bun doesn't have to just be a large bun; it can also be a large basketball, or even several large basketballs."
"The universe is vast, and full of wonders."
"And you need to remember that art isn't just about displaying power and violence, it also needs elements of emotion, growth, and self-discovery."
"Don't always just directly throw the ball at the reader. Too many balls will make the reader dizzy. You should only throw the ball when you need to, and sometimes a little bit of subtlety can evoke more resonance."
"The best R-rated comic should be like the uniform you are wearing now—even though it looks perfectly buttoned up, every audience member will imagine what it looks like when it is torn."
Ian didn't care if he offended Hela. He was genuinely just using Hela as a casual analogy: "Playing hard to get is the most seductive state."
"Of course, we don't have to limit ourselves to people. I heard that Thor's Hammer used to be your toy? You should add that in. That is what can truly shock the readers."
Ian seriously explained to Hela how to draw an R-rated comic. Especially the last piece of advice, which made the eyes of the cold-faced Hela flicker violently.
It was evident.
She had indeed felt the shock from the master of creation.
"You, as a teacher, are acceptable."
Hela was silent for a long time before she gave her approval to Ian, with a hint of respect in her tone. As her voice fell, Ian's system immediately gave a new round of feedback.
[You have gained a massive amount of [Leader] experience.]
[The Leader class has leveled up]
[The Leader class has leveled up]
...
[Leader LV7 [43/640]]
A new round of leveling up.
Naturally, it meant the addition of another follower. Hela also seemed to sense something. She closed her eyes, feeling the contents of the contract, and her expression changed slightly.
However.
"So that's how it is."
The eldest daughter of Asgard did not scream like her brother.
Her emotional control was very impressive.
"You will see my new work soon." Hela seemed to understand something. She looked up at the sky, then gave Ian a deep look.
"Just pray to me directly when the time comes."
Ian seemed afraid that people wouldn't know he had his own prayer words, so he reminded Hela. Hela nodded, turned, and disappeared into the flow of people on the street.
"I haven't seen the 'Goddess of Fertility,' but the 'Odin of Fertility'... well, I haven't seen him either." Ian had gained a lot, and his expression was happy as he turned and walked back into the Sanctum Sanctorum hall.
He shook his head.
Since he hadn't promptly added the contract fee item, Ian's total mana was still the same as the dozens of wells, but the natural growth rate was much faster than before.
"In this Asgardian race, the older the women are, the more appealing they get." Ian commented briefly and caught Doctor Strange, who had been hiding behind a pillar, eavesdropping the whole time.
"That Odin you mentioned... is he the Odin I know?" Doctor Strange was truly shocked. He hadn't expected Ian's claim about having a divine follower to be true.
And it wasn't just one.
The All-Father even sent another one over!
What was this?
A hostage?
In an instant, Doctor Strange's "Sherlock Holmes" brain had run through many deductions. He had to suspect that this was proof that the All-Father Odin couldn't defeat the Evil God in front of him.
"Yes, it's him, and I think I know why." Ian was the truly clear-headed one, but he didn't tell Doctor Strange the truth. that most Asgardians don't die of old age but are killed by excessive godly power. He was afraid that Doctor Strange, whose mana had dropped to a very low level, would feel inferior.
Old Man Ian cared about his followers' mental health that much.
He had his own tenderness.
But Doctor Strange didn't seem to feel it much.
"So, I'm the third-in-command now? Me, the Supreme Sorcerer, reduced to being an Evil God's third-in-command?" Doctor Strange was surprisingly quick to adapt to his current identity.
He even had a premonition that he might soon fall to the fourth-in-command.
"If you don't improve your emotional intelligence, you'll be the one sweeping the toilets—I'll build ten thousand toilets for you to sweep." Ian, who hadn't received any praise, was quite upset.
"Can I extract mana from an Evil God's toilet?" Goodness, Doctor Strange's train of thought was truly peculiar. It was obvious he deeply cared about his lost mana.
"..."
Ian was rarely left speechless by anyone. He suspected that if he nodded, Doctor Strange would genuinely go and sweep his toilets, attempting to extract the mana he had expelled.
"Go out and explore a bit. I suspect you have a deeper level of repression than my Second Brother's arrogance." Ian kindly advised, but it only earned him a suspicious look from Doctor Strange, who seemed to have remembered something.
"Speaking of the outside world, what exactly did you do?" Doctor Strange's sudden question caught Ian off guard. Had this guy discovered the fact that Ian had briefly played the role of "Creator"?
"I haven't even started doing anything yet."
Ian answered honestly, trying to probe a little.
"Heh."
Doctor Strange gave an expression that showed he saw through everything.
"You can't believe a single punctuation mark from an Evil God—that's what you taught me." Saying this, he rushed to a cabinet and pulled out a pile of newspapers under Ian's confused gaze.
"According to my investigation, the crime rate in New York has seen an abnormal increase in the last two days. Not just New York, but major cities globally are seeing extremely heinous crimes."
"Robbery, theft, even murder... does this have nothing to do with your revival? I don't believe it!" Doctor Strange shoved a pile of newspapers in front of Ian.
He made a confident self-assertion.
"No? I'm the scapegoat now? Any sin that happens is blamed on me? This has nothing to do with me. Don't pin every crime on me."
Ian suddenly felt a sense of shared experience with DC's Lucifer.
Doctor Strange still looked completely unconvinced.
"Your words must be listened to in reverse—so, it is indeed related to you." He had his own fixed opinion of Ian and had not yet figured out the pattern that Ian sometimes told the truth about twenty percent of the time.
"That's slander."
Ian rolled a newbie version of his eyes that couldn't see his pupils.
"You say it's slander, so listening in reverse means im praising you..." Doctor Strange's confident words were cut short when Ian kicked him right under the table.
"You're rebelling against the heavens! How dare you speak to your God like that?" Ian felt Doctor Strange needed to be sent to the bull-headed demons for advanced studies. One kick wasn't enough, so he immediately followed up with two more, three more... fifty or sixty kicks. Doctor Strange, covered in shoe prints and clumsily dodging, ran wildly around the room under the Evil God's pursuit.
"I surrender!"
He was still so quick to surrender.
Lacking the fortitude a Supreme Sorcerer should possess.
"Where did you get all this data? With your messed-up brain, you shouldn't be able to notice these details, right?" Ian wiped his shoes while looking at Doctor Strange with a suspicious expression.
Doctor Strange, who even had a shoe print on his face, immediately puffed out his chest when he heard this: "Do you think I bought all these detective novels for nothing?"
"Don't underestimate my talent. I've always had the potential to be a detective." He tried to correct Ian's wrong impression of him, but his pride didn't last for long.
"Whoosh~"
The sound of something being activated. Before Doctor Strange could rush over, a blue light flashed, and the holographic image of the artificial intelligence Tony Stark appeared on the desk.
"Doctor, another bank robbery has occurred in the city. You may need to go and help." Holographic Teacher Tony looked at Doctor Strange, who had just rushed over to him.
At that moment.
Doctor Strange was embarrassed.
And Ian naturally understood where Doctor Strange had gotten his data from.
"Looks like you learned this skill from me." Ian expressed his sincere sentiment. Sure enough, this was an era where everyone sought an external brain.
"I also offered help!"
Doctor Strange turned back, attempting to argue.
However.
The only response he got was Ian's constant 'heh-heh' sound—the young boy pulled out his half-broken phone and played the three-hour recording of his previous 'heh-heh' coaching session with Madison.
"..."
Doctor Strange was extremely mortified.
"It's you! You must be deliberately undermining me! Just because I'm a sorcerer and you're a piece of technology, you can't stand me." He attempted to accuse the holographic Tony.
"This place is full of your surveillance cameras! Damn it, why did I agree to you installing surveillance!" Doctor Strange's expression was regretful. His accusation didn't seem entirely unreasonable either.
Holographic Tony didn't refute him.
"Good afternoon, Ian."
The artificial intelligence that had never truly been alive looked at the boy in the hall.
"Good afternoon, New Teacher Tony. See, I brought you a gift." Ian held up the box of charcoal-grilled octopus and moved it toward the holographic Tony's device.
Holographic Tony had not yet responded.
Doctor Strange was already having none of it.
"Didn't you say that was a gift for me?" His stomach was actually quite hungry, as Ian's "Evil God Power" had consumed quite a bit of his stored fat while repairing his body.
"Tsk tsk, you need to find somewhere to get your brain replaced."
Ian saw this.
He immediately pulled Doctor Strange aside.
"My foolish follower, New Teacher Tony is clearly a robot. He can't actually eat. Once he refuses, won't this box of octopus still be yours in the end?"
Ian kept his voice as low as possible.
He was trying to teach Doctor Strange how to maximize the use of resources.
"Huh? You can do that?"
Doctor Strange was once again shocked by the Evil God and humbly sought instruction.
Not far away.
New Teacher Tony's expression was very speechless.
"Kid, a friendly reminder: there are thirty-four listening devices in this house. Each one is worth fifty thousand." He waved his hand, reminding Ian and Doctor Strange.
And, at the same time, showing off that his broadcasting equipment was also quite valuable.
Ian pretended not to hear.
He continued to teach his follower.
They were just thirty-four listening devices.
It was still slightly inferior to his Uncle Bruce's.
He didn't know why New Teacher Tony was bragging.
"I'm not rushing you, but if you continue to discuss pulling my power plug over there, the bank robbers will already be depositing the money in another bank."
New Teacher Tony's shout finally caught Ian's attention.
"Do these robbers have some kind of serious problem?" Ian had heard of many ways to launder money after robbing a bank, but at this moment, he still felt a sense of wide-eyed astonishment.
In the Sanctum Sanctorum hall.
The air was filled with a faint scent of sandalwood and the lingering warmth of magic.
New Teacher Tony turned to look at Ian.
"Yes, it seems these robbers don't know how to plan a crime at all. In fact, until two days ago, there had never been such heinous criminal behavior in all of New York."
"It's the same worldwide."
His absolutely rational voice spoke softly, "I detected some cause-and-effect contradictions regarding sin. Looking at human history, you should have a very rich experience with crime."
"However, all crimes seem to have stopped a few days ago. After that, it was as if people suffered from some kind of cognitive modification. Most people act as if they have gone many years without committing a crime."
"No one knows how to commit a crime, and no one wants to commit a crime, as if a machine has been restored to its factory settings." New Teacher Tony's eyes were fixed on Ian.
He could calculate that all of this was related to Ian.
"That's because this world has only existed for a few days. The past is merely its background, the present is its reality." Ian had no intention or plan to hide this fact.
"What does that mean?"
Doctor Strange was immediately bewildered upon hearing this.
"You're saying my decades of life were fake? What kind of joke is that!" He clearly didn't believe Ian's statement. After all, the memories in his mind seemed so real to him.
In response.
Ian pondered slightly.
And quickly clarified the matter.
"Your memories are not false. I'm starting to understand now: there was never any starting over. That snap probably just created a new future."
"You are still you, but at a certain moment, your souls were actually sealed away for a long time, and now they have been placed into new bodies."
Ian had already figured out what was wrong from New Teacher Tony's information. He realized that his snap had probably only rebooted the rules and operation of this world.
As for time.
Although it had indeed regressed to a much earlier era.
However.
The people living in this era had not truly experienced the development of this world's age. Their memories came from another past that had not suffered a cataclysm.
Of course.
That past.
Actually coincided perfectly with the current timeline, so everyone could not find any flaws in their memories, because Teacher Tony had replicated an identical world for them.
It was like taking a group of puppets out of the original sandbox and putting them into another one. The puppets, whose power had been disconnected in the middle, naturally wouldn't notice anything amiss.
A seamless plan.
However.
Now, there was clearly a problem that led to the contradiction and rift that New Teacher Tony perceived—the problem was that when Teacher Tony unsealed those "entangled souls" from different parallel universes, the separated souls were too pure. Even if the memories hadn't changed, the people's souls were exceptionally clean.
The good and evil they had witnessed, the good and bad they had experienced, the pain and joy they had endured—all of this should have left a mark in a person's heart and shaped their choices, beliefs, and moral boundaries.
However.
In this new world.
All such traces on the newly relocated souls had been completely erased. This was why so many people in the new world seemed like naive do-gooders, and even the superheroes had lost their way—there was no lingering warmth of sin in their souls, nor were there scars from struggle.
They had been "cleansed" too thoroughly!
In other words.
They had lost the most crucial "source of pollution" during their growth process!
"As expected of me!"
Ian didn't know if this was a deliberate action by Teacher Tony or an inevitable result of separating those entangled souls. He only knew that his super-intelligence had helped him understand everything.
And some people clearly did not possess super-intelligence.
"I still don't understand what you're saying. Isn't the emergence of so much evil in this world because of your revival? That you are sin itself, or something?"
Doctor Strange was completely confused.
He was still persistently sticking to his view of the Evil God.
"Here, eat this, and go spray your nonsense over there." Ian stuffed the grilled octopus into Doctor Strange's hands. He looked at Holographic Tony. Sure enough, New Teacher Tony could understand what he meant.
"A very interesting hypothesis. If it is true, it proves that my discovery was not wrong. Now, perhaps it is just the genes of sin hidden in the human soul starting to breed again."
Teacher Tony was deep in thought.
"Or is it possible that the things that brought sin to humanity were not erased by the Teacher Tony I am familiar with, so their gradual awakening is once again starting to influence humanity?"
Ian made a bold guess.
This was also a clue provided by Doctor Strange's random nonsense just now.
He wasn't that kind of Evil God.
But that didn't mean Marvel didn't have that kind of Evil God.
"My data on the mystical side is still incomplete. Perhaps I can give you an answer later." New Teacher Tony gave a relatively conservative answer.
"Also, help me analyze how I should bring those superhumans back to their righteous path. After all, if my guess is correct, they still possess the souls of heroes."
Ian looked back at Doctor Strange. The Doctor Strange who was eating looked like an animal rooting for food. This was already considered a relatively normal character among the current superheroes.
"Full and satiated! I should go save people... and then charge them protection fees! If I save their lives, they will definitely come to me for divination every month for the rest of their lives!"
"I need to work hard for my luxury coffin!"
Doctor Strange dropped the food box and stood up.
He, with his greedy look, might not be so normal either.
However.
At least he seemed to have more hope than the other superheroes. Just as Ian was strongly justifying his follower, Doctor Strange suddenly put his hand into his pants pocket.
He fumbled in his pocket, then pulled out something limp and soft.
"?????"
Ian stared at the bloody appendix in Doctor Strange's hand, his eyes wide. "I know you're a doctor, but you didn't have to cut out your appendix, did you?"
He had truly witnessed the hypocrisy of adults. Doctor Strange loudly claimed to be irreconcilably opposed to demons, yet he turned out to be a hypocrite who said one thing and did another.
"You can't expect me to cut open my own stomach every time I need to store something, can you?" Doctor Strange thought the demon in front of him probably liked to watch his followers suffer.
However.
"Is there any possibility that my magic is not meant to be used like that?" Ian's expression was very strange. He gestured with his hand, as if to draw an anatomical diagram for Doctor Strange out of thin air.
"The appendix is connected to the intestines, the intestines are connected to the stomach, the stomach is connected to the esophagus, and the esophagus is connected to the mouth." Ian explained patiently. He suspected that Doctor Strange's medical doctorate was heavily watered down.
Of course.
Doctor Strange also suspected that Ian had a problem with his brain.
"You're telling me to eat something and then spit it out when I need to store it?" Doctor Strange felt that was even worse than cutting out his appendix. He really was not well-suited to accompanying an Evil God.
"It's obvious you've studied too little magic."
Ian let out a heavy sigh.
He really didn't want to deal with a lunatic waving an appendix around.
"The lack of magic study doesn't prevent me from going out and saving the suffering masses. I am going to be a hero now." Saying this, Doctor Strange turned to Holographic Tony.
"Coordinates of the criminals?"
He put on a very professional demeanor.
"I haven't rushed you because a group of rookie police officers has already dealt with the trouble." Tony snapped his fingers, and the old-fashioned television in the Sanctum Sanctorum lit up with an image.
On the screen.
Five robbers wearing stocking masks were huddled in front of the bank counter.
They wanted to deposit money.
Each of them was carrying several large bags of cash. However, because they forgot to take off their masks, these clumsy robbers were discovered, and the police quickly surrounded them.
"Not wearing flesh-colored stockings, that's what happens."
Ian gave his sharp critique.
The screen continued.
"Don't move! NYPD!"
The sound of twenty guns simultaneously cocking silenced the entire bank lobby. A group of poorly trained police officers rushed in, some through the front door, others through the windows.
They all looked incredibly tense, pointing their guns at the robbers.
The robbers were even more nervous.
Looking left and right.
The excellent matchmaking system did not provide enough hostages for these rookie robbers. Four robbers managed to grab hostages, but the police didn't think about shooting them during the three-minute chase to grab the hostages.
Both sides were a bit flustered.
In the end.
Four robbers secured hostages, and the remaining unlucky robber could only point the gun at his own temple, attempting to use himself as a hostage to intimidate the police.
"Bang~"
At that moment.
A police officer suddenly fired.
The robber fell to the ground.
Seeing the other robbers stunned and giving up their struggle to beg for mercy, the police officer who fired seemed to realize what he had done, as if he didn't quite understand why he had shot.
Of course.
The police officer didn't understand.
"So, it's over?"
Doctor Strange put down his appendix. Just now, the sight of him pulling several guns out of his appendix truly made it impossible to tell if he was a sorcerer or not.
"It's not over. The rate of sin breeding is far exceeding my expectations—the first superhuman crime has occurred." Holographic Tony switched the camera feed again.
The TV screen showed a street monitor's view.
A police car in front of the camera was flipped over by some huge impact force. The piercing shriek of twisting metal cut through the air. In the thick smoke, a distorted figure slowly straightened up—it had the iconic inverted triangular mask of Spider-Man, but the mask was largely torn, revealing half of a twisted and deformed human face underneath.
"Spider-Man?"
Ian was stunned at first.
"No! It's a Spider-Monster! No wonder he went to be a stripper!"
Then he suddenly woke up.
*Gulp*
Doctor Strange had never seen such a terrifying creature in his life.
He furiously swallowed his saliva.
The Spider-Monster was hunched over.
Eight shimmering, cold spider legs burst out from its spine. The tip of each leg dripped with viscous fluid, making it look truly terrifying.
Its movements were a sickening blend of spider and human. Suddenly, it pounced on a fallen woman, and its black, oily spider legs stabbed through the woman's shoulder like a fork, lifting her into the air.
"Help! Someone save me!"
The woman's voice cut off abruptly.
"Give birth to my children, give birth to many, many children for me, ha ha ha." The monster's torn jaw suddenly expanded to an incredible width, revealing layers of serrated, sharp teeth inside. It lowered its head and bit the woman's head. The sound of a skull crushing, mixed with the chewing, was broadcast through the monitoring speaker.
"Where did this monster come from?"
"What should we do! I don't want to attack it! A handgun definitely won't kill it!"
Behind the wreckage of a burning taxi, several police officers were slumped on the ground. One young officer's sidearm dropped onto his leg, and a dark, wet stain spread on his police pants.
It wasn't just the civilians who were trembling.
These New York police officers were also trembling.
Just as everyone was at a loss.
A figure in black and white suddenly swung into the frame from the edge of the screen.
"What is that?"
A civilian gasped in surprise.
"A superhuman who isn't afraid of death? Is he... is she trying to be a hero?"
The police officers also looked up.
Under everyone's gaze.
The black and white Spider-Man performed a beautiful mid-air spin. She tried to attack, hoping to stop the disaster, and her web-shooters accurately fired at the monster's face during the swing.
However, the attack caused very little damage. Instead, it completely enraged the Spider-Monster.
"Human! How dare you profane the great Celestial God?" The Spider-Monster let out a sharp shriek, and its metal-textured spider legs shot out with a speed invisible to the naked eye.
"Boom~"
Unable to dodge, the black and white Spider-Man was batted away like a baseball, crashing into the corner convenience store. Amidst the roar of collapsing shelves, a lock of long hair emerged from beneath the cracked white mask.
"The takeout girl?"
Doctor Strange's eyes were about to pop out of his head.
"I knew it! I knew Gwen had a problem from the start!" Ian also slapped Doctor Strange's thigh hard. After thinking for a moment, he turned and ran toward the Sanctum Sanctorum door.
"Are you going to save people?"
Doctor Strange didn't dare to follow.
"I'm going to save all of you."
Ian's reply quickly vanished.
He soared into the sky on the street under the wide-eyed gaze of countless people.
...
The streets of Queens were burning.
On the cracked asphalt, car wrecks twisted into scorched skeletons. Gasoline leaking from the fuel tanks flowed in cracks, like burning red vipers.
Thick smoke billowed, licking the sky.
Filtering the afternoon sun into a sickly, hazy yellow. Shards of glass made tiny popping sounds in the high heat, as if the whole street was in agony.
"Damn it! Why is my skill so bad? I was so good in my dreams." Gwen Stacy lay sprawled in the wreckage of the convenience store. Her white suit was stained a dirty gray-pink with blood and dust. She tried to push herself up, but a stabbing pain shot through her left arm—it was a very serious fracture.
"Huh?"
Gwen was surprised that she could accurately determine this.
But she had no time to be stunned. Not far away, the monster that called itself a "God" was slowly approaching, its eight spider legs inserting into the ground in alternation, making a spine-chilling grinding sound.
"No one can save you." The monster's voice sounded like fingernails scraping a chalkboard, with a neurotic tremor. "Look at those people, they have nothing but reverence, only fear for me!"
The Spider-Monster seemed to enjoy the feeling.
Hearing this, Gwen desperately scrambled backward. She struggled to turn her head. The fire escapes on both sides of the street were packed with onlookers. Their phone cameras flickered in the smoke, but not a single person had called the police. Closer still, several police officers huddled behind a overturned patrol car, burying their heads in their arms like startled ostriches.
"You should be like them, too." The monster leaned down, and half of Peter Parker's face showed beneath the torn mask. "Subjugate yourself to me, your great God!"
He spoke to Gwen.
"Never!"
Gwen was terrified in her heart, but her attitude was firm.
"Why won't you!" The Spider-Monster was enraged again. A spider leg suddenly struck out, and Gwen was sent flying like a ragdoll, crashing heavily next to the patrol car wreckage. The young police officer hiding behind the car screamed and crawled away, his badge falling right next to Gwen's hand—it was stained with fresh blood.
"Shoot!"
Gwen coughed up blood and grabbed the badge, throwing it toward the Spider-Monster.
Twenty meters away.
The monster was using a spider leg to pierce the chest of another police officer, as easily as a child tearing open a candy wrapper. But the other police officers, due to fear and terror, hesitated to take action.
They only dared to hide in a different place.
"Their reaction is the rational one. After all, the Law of Nature is like this." The monster sucked the blood from its spider leg, and its voice suddenly became unusually clear. "Food should know its place. Facing a God at the top of the food chain like me, you should just clean your necks and wait to be eaten!"
The Spider-Monster approached Gwen again.
And at that moment.
Bang!
A gunshot tore through the smoke.
The monster staggered.
Its enraged compound eyes turned toward the source of the bullet.
Gwen's pupils contracted violently.
"Dad?!"
She cried out in surprise.
She saw.
Not far away.
Captain George Stacy stood by a burning newsstand, the smoke rising from his police revolver.
The right shoulder of his police uniform was soaked with blood, but he held the gun steady with his injured arm. However, no matter how much he called for backup from his colleagues, neither the passersby nor the police dared to attack the monster.
Their souls.
After the snap.
Were not only missing sin.
They were missing something else, too.
"This is truly tragic."
The monster let out a laugh like a baby's cry. It shrieked as it crawled toward Gwen, its eyes full of greed. "Superhuman genes are quite good. You and your daughter can give birth to my children together!"
"The Law of Nature, survival of the fittest. My race is destined to be the future of Earth..." Before he could finish his grand words, as his mutated forelimb reached for Gwen.
The sky suddenly darkened.
It wasn't a cloud—it was a human-shaped shadow rapidly growing larger.
"I know the Law of Nature. Little bugs eat grass, little chickens eat bugs, little people eat chickens—but no spiders eat people." Ian smashed into the top of the monster's head like a meteor.
The Spider-Monster was caught completely off guard.
He was smashed into the ground by Ian's legs—it was an attack from the heavens. The massive shockwave exploded in a ring, causing the asphalt pavement within a ten-meter radius to crack and sink.
"Damn it! Let go of me!"
The Spider-Monster's fractured skull emitted a painful groan.
And a roar of raging fury.
Its vocal cords were already completely different from a human's.
"You are weak, but they dare not attack you. Why is that?"
Ian stepped on the Spider-Monster's head and looked around. The burning street was like a piece of casually discarded draft paper. The scorched edges curled up, and sparks flickered intermittently in the cracks.
The boy's gaze swept over every onlooker.
Captain America, with his model-like physique, stood on a billboard. His flawless uniform was spotless, yet at this moment, he was as motionless as a plastic model that he seemed to have been for a long time.
Very rigid.
Full of confusion and hesitation. Thor was also not far away, holding his Mjolnir. Lightning flashed and died between his knuckles, as if he was completely lacking in confidence in his own strength. He was the Asgardian God of Thunder, yet now he seemed as if he had never truly wielded his war hammer, only standing on the edge of the storm, hesitant and trembling.
Further away.
Countless faces were pressed against shattered shop windows.
They hid their bodies, their pupils flickering with fear, terror, shock, and tension. Every single one of them seemed to be missing something—that something was not a weapon, not power, nor a miracle, but the most precious thing accumulated by humanity over countless years of development.
It was ancient gold.
"It should not be erased."
Clearly perceiving this point.
So.
Ian bent down.
And grabbed the constantly roaring Spider-Monster.
The monster's roar sounded like it came from the depths of hell, full of wildness and ferocity. But Ian's eyes were as calm as still water, as if he had already seen through the essence of the chaos.
"What are you doing?"
Gwen tried to push herself up but failed. Her white hood had slipped off, and her golden hair was matted with blood and ash, making her look battered.
"If sin can be reawakened, then other things can too—I am showing them what courage is." Ian threw the Spider-Monster directly into the air.
As if the darkness itself was being thrown onto the judgment seat of light.
"If you can't find your own meaning, then now... watch me. I will set an example for you." He turned to speak to the silent heroes among the onlookers.
The monster spiraled upward.
At the highest point, its eight compound eyes simultaneously reflected the misery of the street below—burning patrol cars, kneeling crowds, and the superhumans hiding behind perfect uniforms.
"No!"
Golden light suddenly swallowed his world.
Dyeing the street.
It was the brilliance of the sun.
Shattering the arrogant evil.
At the same time.
It ignited something in people's hearts that was even hotter and more ancient than the sun.
No one knew how the main theme of the superhero genre would revive in this new, absurd world. Perhaps it would require the arrival of a disaster, an alien invasion.
Or perhaps the threat of annihilation would have to happen again.
Things that have not yet occurred can never have a conclusion.
However.
From another perspective.
The real answer.
Could very well be a child clenching his fist and turning the sigh in his heart into thunder—the sound was so loud that the entire universe had to bow down and listen.
***
Read 30 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666