As his words fell, Heisenberg wore his usual cold smirk, but after the smile faded, his brows quickly drew together.
He finally understood why he'd gone out of his way to see Spider-Man even though the kid was only eight, and why he'd given that watch to little Spidey.
Why he'd come back to the rooftop and made plans for his future.
Whether it was saying goodbye to the past, or looking ahead to the future.
All of it was because he didn't want to become that ordinary, plain version of himself ever again.
So it turned out he was the truly greedy one. Once he'd obtained this power, he never wanted to be ordinary again…
Then stop being human, then.
Heisenberg nodded to himself and issued an order to the system.
"Going back to the Origin Universe costs a little over six thousand Origin Matter, right?"
"Yes.
"And coming back? What's the fare to return to the Marvel Universe?"
"The round-trip cost is the same."
"When I go home, will the Marvel Universe keep running, or will it pause?"
"As an Orderkeeper, if you want it to run, it runs!"
"Heh. I don't even know what this system is really making me do. My authority is way too big, and my responsibilities look like nothing."
"But fine. Send me home, and pause Marvel for now!"
As Heisenberg spoke, the Ancient One, far away in Kamar-Taj, broke into a radiant smile.
Feeling spacetime around her gradually freezing, a time-stop even she couldn't control, she felt no fear at all.
Because she had long since seen it. Every time Heisenberg brought a pause like this, the universe became better.
And Heisenberg quietly turned to dust, to a black hole, rewinding himself back into the Origin Universe.
…
Pop…!
Like dropping a stone into choppy water, Heisenberg surfaced silently at the foot of Phoenix City's most famous mountain, without drawing any attention.
That had once been his home.
The place where, before he crossed over, he'd run a mahjong parlor.
But now…
Heisenberg looked left and right.
His mahjong parlor had been sealed shut?!!
Rage surged up instantly.
Had he just walked into some "war god returns" storyline?
Someone took advantage of his disappearance to bully his elderly parents, wreck his mahjong parlor, and even go around aggressively rubbing his orange cat's head?!!
"How long has passed in the Origin Universe while I've been gone?"
"All chronology is based on the Orderkeeper. Eleven days have passed in the Origin Universe."
"How much Origin Matter to project everything that happened in Phoenix City these days into memory fragments and stuff it into my head?"
"That's simple. 186 cubic units."
"Do it!"
Heisenberg gave the order. Everything that had happened in Phoenix City over the last eleven days unfolded inside his mind.
Only a Kryptonian brain could handle an information flood this massive. Heisenberg sifted through it, picking and choosing, until he found what he needed.
And the moment he did, he was hit with a storm of emotions.
…
"Why? What gives you the right? Weren't you all friends? Friends don't just make someone vanish! A living person! Why is it only my son who's gone!"
"I told him long ago, stop causing trouble, cause less trouble. How did he just vanish? Was he kidnapped? Come ask us for money then, we'll pay, we will!!!"
"Seal it. Keeping it will just hurt."
"Sell it? Why sell it? That place is my son's. I'd rather rebuild him a memorial hall!"
"Where did he go? Husband, you have to look! Go ask his friends again!"
"We're calling the police. Yes, yes, yes, I'm Hai Dayou, my son is missing!"
"You can't find him? Not even a clue? Aren't you f*cking police? Where is he? If you can't find him, keep looking! A living person, please, I'm begging you!!!"
"Wife, I… I really can't find our son. Where else am I supposed to look!!!"
"Honey, our son came back, he came back! His watch is gone, he must have taken it!!!"
"What watch?"
"The clothes he left in the mahjong parlor. There was a watch inside. He loved that one, it was worth tens of thousands. I kept it on me the whole time. It's gone. He must've come back and taken it!"
"Why would he disappear like that? Did he owe money? We're not short on money. Every year he gives us plenty!"
"Did he go bankrupt? Offend someone?"
"Stop it. When he comes back, he must've run into trouble. He'll come back sooner or later!"
"Yeah. Our son will come back!"
…
For a moment, Heisenberg felt tears streaming…
Well, no.
Heisenberg, drowning in melancholy, suddenly realized that even under this kind of emotional shock, he still couldn't squeeze out a single tear.
His parents still loved him as fiercely as they always had.
But he had changed.
Changed into something… unbelievable.
He could feel the sorrow clearly, and at the same time, he could just as clearly hear his truest thoughts inside.
No matter how much his parents loved him, no matter how much they needed him.
He couldn't bear to throw away everything he'd gained.
His heart had gone wild. He wanted to experience the brilliance of every civilization in every universe.
He didn't want to sit in the Origin Universe with a body full of power and go back to being the ordinary him.
Or become some "Superman of the Origin Universe."
And besides…
Heisenberg thought about it, then shook his head helplessly.
What his parents needed now wasn't this version of him anyway. A him who no longer valued life the same way, a him full of ambition and a desire to control.
"System, reshape a me. A past me. Give him all my memories from before I crossed over!"
"Received. 226 cubic units of Origin Matter required."
"Do it. Send that me to my parents. They need me."
As his words fell, Heisenberg shot into the sky.
He controlled his force field to refract the surrounding light, making it impossible for any cameras to capture him clearly.
He flew out into space, stopped on the Moon, and looked down at Earth, which was not far away to him.
After watching for a long time, he finally shook his head.
"When you're away from home, you always feel like the people back home are prettier, the water sweeter."
"But once you come back, you realize it's not that different."
"Even for me, this world called 'Origin' but actually ordinary is nowhere near as exciting as other universes!"
Heisenberg took one last look at Origin Earth, then turned and spoke softly.
"System, come out. Let's talk."
"I have always been here."
"Yeah. Always here. Even before there was a me, you still existed."
"So what about the 'me' before me? Your other hosts, I mean. Did they transcend, or did they die?"
"They left unfinished work."
"Mmhmm. So they're all dead, then. Living people have goals, not 'unfinished work.'"
Heisenberg nodded as if it all made sense, then continued.
"I'm an Orderkeeper, but honestly, my work doesn't look orderly at all."
"So tell me. What kind of change will my work bring to the universe? What's the meaning?"
"Whether order or chaos, the universe does not need the endless extension of a single ideology. Only the balance between order and chaos can ensure the universe never approaches an endpoint."
"Whether good or evil, a universe that loses diversity will approach entropy's limit faster than a normal universe. Therefore, the host's work is to bring change to the universe. Every sliver of change adds weight to the balance and continuation of the universe."
"As an Orderkeeper chosen by the greater cosmic will, you are among the lifeforms most suited to complete this work. You will bring order to chaotic worlds, bring evil to righteous worlds, reignite hot blood in fallen worlds, and bring peace to warlike worlds."
"This is your work."
"Hah? Hahahahaha!"
Heisenberg burst out laughing.
So that was the true meaning of an Orderkeeper.
His "orderkeeping" wasn't about guarding order. It was about forcing balance.
A lifeform couldn't be too kind, couldn't be too evil. He had to maintain a balance between justice and evil within a universe.
That meant being the villain in a world that was too righteous, and being the good guy in a world that was too evil.
A civilization couldn't develop too fast, and it couldn't develop too slowly. Heisenberg had to interfere with the universe's development and bring the overall environment to the state the universe truly needed.
"But system, I can't see the universe's balance. I can't see this so-called entropy growth."
"So how do I judge whether my actions are working?"
"You do not need to judge those things. An unchanging multiverse has always advanced along the fate it was meant to follow."
"But once an Orderkeeper breaks into an unchanging multiverse, you have already injected the factor of change."
"You do not need to deliberately pursue balance. What you do, every push you give to the trajectory of fate, every thread of Origin Matter you gain, will all extend the road toward destruction."
"You are beyond righteousness and wickedness, beyond good and evil, but you are certainly among the most special and meaningful lifeforms across the greater cosmos. Without question."
"Haha. Who knows if what you said is true."
Heisenberg smiled, then shook his head.
"Instead of saying I'm the most meaningful lifeform, I should thank you for giving me a life this meaningful."
"Let's go back to Marvel."
As his words fell, he turned to dust again and vanished from the Origin Universe.
In the Marvel world, Heisenberg opened his eyes.
He was still on the rooftop.
Good. Looks like his departure truly caused no impact on Marvel at all.
Heisenberg knew Marvel had all kinds of supreme existences, but the facts proved the system's authority was even higher than theirs.
OAA, "The One Above All," right?
Heisenberg looked forward to the day he cut him down.
But that was for later. For now, he needed to continue his plan.
Make S.H.I.E.L.D. accelerate its research into the Tesseract.
But that required a suitable leader.
Right now, with the UN and various nations in chaos and unable to influence S.H.I.E.L.D., the New York branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. was practically run by Captain America alone.
And his personality would never touch the Tesseract.
So Heisenberg had to make the Skrulls return Nick Fury and Hill early.
Nick Fury…
Heisenberg shook his head. Fury had to die. That habit of hiding everything and controlling everything was destined to become a problem.
So let Hill take over as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director early.
…
Origin Earth, Phoenix Mountain Police Station…
Heisenberg stared at the police questioning him, completely baffled.
"Me, streaking?!!
Streaking my ass, I was playing cards! Playing cards, you know? The kind where you don't gamble money, and then I'm suddenly on the street!!!"
"What? You say I lost 230,000 in one hand?"
"That was a joke, we were winning Happy Beans!!!"
"What the hell are you talking about, my friends all admitted it? To avoid the trouble from me going missing, they voluntarily reported themselves for gambling and hid in jail?!!"
"When did I go missing!"
"How did I go miss… what day is it today?"
"Oh my god… right, what's wrong with me? How did I just vanish in the middle of playing cards?"
"This counts as special circumstances, right? Besides, even though I lost a lot, I didn't pay them a cent. Can't you treat it as me talking big? Why are you arresting me? Why are you arresting me!!!"
"Arresting me for streaking…"
"Is that what I wanted? Fine, I'm done pretending, I'm coming clean. I got abducted by aliens!!!"
"Where are the reporters? Where's the science show crew? Isn't this crazier than a sow screaming at midnight!"
"Let go of me, I'm not crazy! Let go, let go, I'll bite, I'll bite!!!"
/-\
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