After Loki's analysis, he quickly eliminated options B and D, leaving only A and C.
So, was it surrender, or intentionally setting Thor up?
After a moment of contemplation, Loki made his choice. He said to the big screen, "I choose C!"
Although surrendering was also in line with Loki's style, the question stated that Loki surrendered as soon as Thor brought him to the Dark World. There was a very important adverb there: 'as soon as'.
And what kind of place was the Dark World?
It was a dead star!
It was not a place Loki was familiar with.
So, after arriving in a completely unfamiliar place, the first thing Loki had to do was to figure out the current situation before deciding to surrender or adopt any other strategy.
Schemes and plots—no, it should be said that the formulation of any strategy has a prerequisite: sufficient intelligence.
Deciding to surrender as soon as he arrived in the Dark World seemed a bit illogical.
Therefore, compared to the two, setting Thor up seemed more reasonable.
After answering, Loki's lips curved into a confident, faint smile, waiting for the system's reward.
But the next moment, the smile on Loki's face froze.
"[INCORRECT ANSWER!]"
The system immediately gave its feedback.
"[Answerer Loki Odinson will be punished by having ten years of his lifespan erased, effective immediately!]"
With the system's prompt, Loki immediately felt something missing from his body. Clearly, it was those ten years of his lifespan.
Loki's expression stiffened slightly, becoming a little unsightly. He didn't care about ten years of his lifespan; after all, he was a god, with a long life ahead of him.
But answering incorrectly twice in a row made Loki lose face a bit.
"Thanks, Loki, for helping us eliminate an option," Tony Stark, with his notoriously sharp tongue, added, "And it was a very misleading option."
"Tin Man, that's not fair!" Loki said to Tony Stark, his face drawn. "You clearly know the relevant information, but you didn't tell me anything."
"Fairness? What right does someone who invaded Earth without cause have to talk about fairness?" Tony Stark couldn't help but sneer.
"Alright, Loki has answered. It's our turn for this question. Let's discuss it," Captain America said, sweeping his gaze across everyone, speaking earnestly.
"Now we still have options A, B, and D, but I think A can be ruled out, because I don't think Loki would be that stupid."
Captain America also offered his analysis.
"Stupid?" Loki was taken aback, then looked at Captain America with a serious expression. "It seems you do possess some information I don't."
"When the Dark Elves invaded Asgard, Frigga didn't know Malekith at all, so it's clear that Thor and Loki going to confront Malekith happened after the Dark Elves invaded Asgard."
Captain America ignored Loki and continued to speak eloquently.
Everyone present nodded in agreement; this point was quite obvious.
If Thor and Loki had already clashed with Malekith in the Dark World, how could Frigga not know him?
"We all know that when Malekith invaded Asgard, he killed Thor's mother, Frigga..."
"Soldier, what did you say?" Loki's voice suddenly rose an octave, and a chill erupted from his body. "My mother will be killed in the future? By that Malekith?"
Loki instantly became agitated, unable to remain calm.
"Yes," Captain America stared at Loki for a moment, then nodded. "The answering system has shown similar footage before. The Dark Elves invaded Asgard and killed Frigga."
"Is that so?" Loki responded coldly, his eyes flickering. No one knew what he was thinking.
"We've all seen the footage. Although Malekith left a lot of messes in Asgard, they ultimately escaped. This indicates that the Dark Elves' power at the time was not enough to defeat Asgard."
"So, with Asgard clearly having the advantage, would Malekith possibly believe one of Asgard's princes, traveling thousands of miles to the Dark World, offering allegiance by cutting off another prince's arm?"
"Not to mention, Malekith also killed that prince's mother."
"Captain is right," Nick Fury nodded in agreement. "This is practically screaming 'something's wrong' in capital letters on their faces. Malekith wouldn't believe it if he had even a shred of a brain."
"And our God of Mischief and Lies wouldn't be so foolish as to not realize this and do such a stupid thing."
Option A was unanimously ruled out without much debate.
Now, only options B and D remained. If they could filter it out once more, the answer to this question would be revealed.
However, at this moment, everyone couldn't immediately recall any directly relevant clues to support either of these two options for judgment.
They could only deduce and guess based on some known facts.
"Thor and Loki teaming up to put on an act? I have to say, I can't imagine that scene. It's simply not Thor's style."
Black Widow thought about it carefully, then immediately shook her head.
Thor, that muscle-brained guy who constantly bellows "Father!" to the sky, could he pull off something as subtle as acting?
The others also found the image unimaginable; the styles simply didn't match.
"D seems more reasonable instead," Hawkeye Barton also spoke up. "Didn't Loki send someone to kill Thor last time, only to fail?"
This ironclad fact had already proven to everyone that Loki indeed harbored a murderous intent towards Thor!
As everyone analyzed this far, the answer gradually emerged. Clearly, D's "winning odds" were far higher than B's.
Option B had no direct factual support and didn't fit Thor's style. In contrast, option D was more logical and had supporting facts.
How to choose, everyone naturally knew.
"Wait a minute!"
But just then, Tony Stark suddenly remembered something.
He suddenly stared directly at Loki: "Even if you Asgardians are gods, if your hand is cut off, it won't grow back, will it?"
"Why should I tell you, Tin Man?" Loki sneered.
You won't share any information with me, but you expect to get information from me? What good things are you dreaming of?
"How about this, we make a deal. You answer this one question for me, and I can answer one question for you afterward," Tony Stark said calmly to Loki.
"Sounds fair," Loki mused briefly, then agreed.
Anyway, what Tony Stark was asking wasn't too important of information.
"Even if an Asgardian god's hand is cut off, it won't grow back," Loki then told Tony Stark.
"Just as I thought!" Tony Stark nodded. "Thor once said that Odin lost an eye in the war with the Frost Giants, and even now, Odin still only has one eye. Everyone, have you thought of something?"
"Stark, what have you thought of?" Nick Fury asked, eyeing Tony Stark with his single eye.
"I've given such obvious hints, and you still haven't figured it out?" Tony Stark shook his head slightly. "Thor's hand!"
"Thor appeared in Endgame, and his hand was perfectly intact!"
With Tony Stark's words, everyone present suddenly understood.
"Thor said that the Convergence of the Nine Realms is still two or three years away, which means Malekith's invasion of Asgard is also two or three years away," Captain America continued, building on Tony Stark's words.
"In that battle, Thor lost his mother. With his temperament, he wouldn't wait too long."
"Which means Thor will go to the Dark World soon to settle scores with Malekith!"
"And Endgame will only happen more than ten years later!"
"So Thor never lost his hand!"
The question clearly stated that Thor's hand was cut off, so why didn't Thor lose his hand?
The answer had surfaced.
"This is Loki and Thor putting on an act to deceive Malekith!" Hawkeye Barton's eyes lit up as he blurted out the answer.
"Well," Black Widow couldn't help but chuckle teasingly, "It seems Thor has matured in the future."
Saying that, Black Widow scanned everyone present and asked, "Next, who wants to answer this question?"
"I'm out!" Tony Stark was the first to shake his head, indicating his refusal. "I don't quite understand what the 'Sunflower Acupoint Tapping Hand' skill is, but it's clearly not technology-based. I'm more interested in tech-related rewards."
"'Acupoint Tapping Hand,' 'Lingbo Weibu'—from the style of the names, these should be Chinese Kung Fu-type skills, which should be excellent skills!"
Nick Fury glanced at the big screen, discerning some clues from the naming. "Stark, are you sure you're not interested?"
"I'll pass. Whoever's interested can answer," Tony Stark continued to shake his head.
Although skill rewards were good, it also depended on suitability. Based on the experience of so many questions so far, whether skill rewards were good or not actually varied from person to person.
For those with abnormal physiques like Captain America and Thor, any skill could be mastered with flair.
But for someone with an ordinary physique like himself, it was better to forget it.
It was far less effective than high-tech or some rare materials.
After Tony Stark withdrew, only Captain America, Black Widow, and the Egghead remained among those who hadn't answered the question.
Everyone discussed briefly and finally decided that Captain America would answer this question.
Their considerations were actually similar to Tony Stark's. This type of Chinese Kung Fu reward, similar to Lingbo Weibu, would naturally unleash its greatest value in Captain America's hands.
After all, Tony Stark had already told everyone that this thing required physical exertion.
Whose physical strength at the scene could compare to Captain America's?
"I choose B!" Captain America didn't waste any words and immediately stated his answer to the big screen.
"[CORRECT ANSWER!]"
"[Congratulations to answerer Steve Rogers for receiving the skill reward: Sunflower Acupoint Tapping Hand!]"
A corresponding piece of information immediately appeared in Captain America's mind, and a look of great surprise instantly appeared on his face.
"It seems this is a very good skill," Loki immediately said from the side.
"It's indeed not bad," Captain America nodded. "It's just a pity, it's useless against you."
"Is that so?" Loki raised an eyebrow, a hint of smugness on his face. "Don't be disheartened, after all, I am a god!"
"Captain, what is this skill for?"
Hearing that it was useless against Loki, Black Widow couldn't help but ask curiously from the side.
"Simply put, if I tap you twice on the corresponding acupoints, I can immobilize you," Captain America thought for a moment and briefly explained to Black Widow.
Because the underlying principles were too complex, involving a profound knowledge system of acupoints, qi and blood, internal energy, and so on, unless directly instilled like the system, Black Widow and the others would not be able to understand it.
"Acupoints? What are those?" Nick Fury couldn't help but glance at Captain America with his single eye and ask.
"They are something that exists in the human body, found only in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, not in Western medicine theory."
Captain America told Nick Fury.
"Immobilize people? This is practically magic!" Black Widow couldn't help but exclaim in wonder. Was this not a little too incredible?
"Let me guess, is this skill like my Lingbo Weibu, requiring the consumption of internal energy, but since you don't have that, it requires the consumption of physical strength instead?"
Although Tony Stark's words were a question, his tone was very certain, after all, he himself was a living example.
"That's right!" Captain America nodded. "And precisely because of that, this skill is basically only effective against ordinary people, not very useful against enhanced individuals, and not very effective against people with strong physical qualities."
But even so, this skill was still very useful for Captain America.
For example, when he was being ambushed by a group of Hydra agents in the Triskelion, if he had this Sunflower Acupoint Tapping Hand, why would he have to exert so much effort?
A few taps on each person would solve the problem.
Of course, Captain America's statement that it wasn't very useful against enhanced individuals was just a general remark; the specifics would still depend on the actual situation.
Because some enhanced individuals have abnormal physiques, the physical energy Captain America would need to expend would be relatively large. When it reached a certain level, the cost-effectiveness would be somewhat low.
For example, against true gods like Loki and Thor, Captain America would exhaust all his physical strength to no avail.
In short, it couldn't be generalized.
But overall, this skill was indeed a very good one.