Ian remembered the way to the base.
And he did not need Gwen's beat-up bicycle.
As a millionaire from another world, Ian had bought a book called Things Rich People Should Know, so he understood very well that a boy like him had to stay on guard against everyone else.
"If Gwen dares lend me a bike today, tomorrow she'll dare ask me to become the new Spider-Man. She wishes." Ian was not about to hand someone a chance to claim he owed them one.
He was determined to guard against any situation where someone might try to cash in on a favor later. With the immortal wisdom of Zhang Wuji's mother firmly in mind, Ian kept making his way forward with his "bounce-flying" method until he reached the familiar alley.
He lifted the manhole cover.
Then Ian jumped straight down.
Maybe it was muscle memory, but the moment he landed in the low, wide sewer tunnel, he almost tried to bounce again. He only realized what he was doing halfway through and nearly smashed his head right through the concrete ceiling.
"Stark Industries really does make quality products. This stuff might even survive an explosion better than an Indian airplane." Ian had both hands sunk deep into the concrete overhead.
He noticed a thick metal pipe beside him, stamped with the Stark Industries logo. He wanted to scratch it off and replace it with Happy Doom, but he found that he couldn't.
So,
the Homelander persona came online.
Golden light naturally flared up in the middle of his irritation.
"Heat vision is still the best." When Ian dropped back to the floor, the gold in his eyes slowly faded.
After carving a few letters into the pipe and drawing a stick figure with a perked-up butt, he decided the metal here really was something special.
It would definitely make great anti-missile material.
"Tony definitely knows the formula." Ian ran through the damp sewer tunnels, and with no rats around, the place did not even feel dirty.
Soon enough,
the familiar steel door appeared.
The base recognized Ian's face. A green light flashed with a beep, and the door slowly opened. Inside, not a single living soul could be seen.
To be more accurate, there were no living people.
All the busy researchers were gone.
Apparently they had gone off with the soldiers and printed bodies to study Galactus.
The entire base was eerily quiet.
Only the core remained, still housed within the massive mainframe. Tony Stark's hologram stood with his back to the entrance, as if lost in thought while staring at a display screen.
The screen was not showing surveillance footage.
It was showing nothing but static.
At least, it looked meaningless to Ian. It was the same kind of static anyone would see when their TV service got cut off and the screen dissolved into a field of snow.
"Hey, Tony. Had dinner yet?" Ian waved a hand. The water on his boots left muddy prints across the floor, though the flooring seemed to absorb and clean them almost instantly.
Tony's projection did not turn around.
"Do I look like I'm still capable of eating?" he replied.
It sounded like he had already known Ian would arrive at this exact moment. He might even have calculated the precise second.
There was no surprise in him at all.
"It's fine. I brought you some electronic viruses. They might taste good." Ian knew the importance of bringing a gift when you needed something from someone, so he took out a USB drive copied from his home computer.
There was nothing on it except viruses.
A lot of viruses.
When you needed a favor, you had to bring the right kind of present.
"..."
Tony's holographic body caught the very real gift, then casually turned and threw it into the trash.
Apparently, he was not too fond of Ian's highly customized offering.
Still,
the digital god did not correct Ian's title for him. That convinced Ian Tony definitely liked the gift. Maybe after Ian left, Tony would dig it back out of the garbage.
Teachers who liked to put on airs were always like that.
Ian could already feel the silent understanding between teacher and student. Just as Ian had discovered that demons tasted great, he did not believe for a second that any intelligent life-form could resist a delicious electronic virus.
"What are you looking at, anyway?"
Ian shamelessly sidled closer.
He tried hard to see if the static on the screen could somehow be arranged into a shape fitting for a romance, but whether it was because of a lack of imagination or because digital Tony had hidden his electronic girlfriend too well, he got nowhere.
After straining his eyes until they hurt, he still could not make anything out.
"This is a recording."
Tony finally spoke, his voice low. "A radio-wave recording from before the universe collapsed. Do you know what happens as the universe expands? Electromagnetic radiation stretches, its wavelength grows longer, and its energy diminishes."
"They eventually become the radio waves humanity is familiar with. And when human instruments capture those waves, what appears on screen is something like this."
Tony spoke in a calm, measured tone.
"So what? Is there some kind of alien secret hidden in the static?" It had to be said, Ian had been deeply influenced by Unsolved Mysteries of the World.
Tony gave him a look.
"Do I seem that bored to you?"
His tone was helpless.
It sounded like Ian was talking to him as though he were some uneducated fool who had never gone to grad school.
"It isn't static. It's the afterglow of the universe's birth. A kid like you couldn't understand how beautiful it is."
His voice was strangely gentle.
So gentle that almost nobody else would have understood it.
Ian understood, though.
Because he had super wisdom.
"So that's how it is."
Ian mostly understood what Tony meant.
He just did not care about that kind of romance.
All he got from it was further confirmation that digital Tony had really changed in all sorts of ways.
He had even changed in that direction.
Worse than Ian had guessed. Ian had originally thought digital people would fall for digital girls.
But this was even more severe.
No girl at all.
Tony had gone from the kind of playboy who only wanted the hottest women to the kind of guy who apparently wanted to sleep with the most elegant radio waves instead.
Yes.
A transformation tragic enough to make anyone sigh.
Becoming digital really did not seem like a good career move.
"Admit it, the radio waves you've got your eyes on really are beautiful. They might even have personality, the sort that brings out your inner billionaire alpha. But Omni-Man and Sentry's corpses aren't bad either."
Ian started dropping absurdly forced hints. Of course he still remembered exactly why he had come to the base.
As Ian wiggled his brows,
Tony did not pretend not to notice.
He finally looked away from the screen and turned his serious gaze on the boy beside him. The holographic projection of his face sharpened until it looked detailed enough to show pores.
"I can let you touch their bodies. But first, you'll need to agree to one thing."
Clearly, digital Tony wanted to negotiate.
"Equivalent exchange. Fair enough. But don't treat me like I'm Dormammu." Ian nodded, unsurprised, though he made sure to stress that Tony should not push his luck too far.
"For you, it will be simple."
Tony nodded lightly.
"You want me to snap my fingers?" Ian had honestly guessed that a while ago. He was not actually lazy about thinking. The clues he had already gathered were enough for him to figure that much out.
Sure enough,
"Yes. You need to help us restore the order of the universe. This is our last chance. Failure cannot be allowed. Otherwise, we'll fall into the true abyss and be broken apart."
"And in the end, we'll become part of the blight that poisons other universes." Tony's words carried a huge amount of information.
"So much faith in me?"
Ian's eyes flickered.
Death's hints came back to mind. The survival space of collapsing universes, worlds invading and merging, all of it. But these past few days had also given him another suspicion. This place felt less like it wanted a new home and more like it wanted to rebuild its own.
Could that be an act?
Hard to say.
But one thing did seem likely.
If this world really wanted to invade DC, it would never choose the Infinity Stones. Those things only worked inside Marvel's universe.
"Who else can I trust?" Tony answered Ian's question with another question. "What I carry is not only souls, but the remnants of this universe's laws. And every time I use them, there's less left."
"I can no longer afford the cost of empowering stronger individuals. Surely you don't expect a ruined shell like mine to still have the right to fully wield the Infinity Stones."
It sounded like he was trying to sell a sob story, but there was genuine helplessness there too.
"Last chance. Which means you've tried this more than once. How many times?" Ian was still processing one of the things Tony had let slip earlier.
Tony did not answer directly.
"How many times? I'll give you a hint. Try guessing."
He lifted his hand and raised one finger in a gesture that felt strangely out of place.
"Huh? So I'm Iron Man now?" Ian circled behind the hologram for a quick look. Tony did not have a mystical cape or anything.
"Only you can do this."
Tony's voice was serious.
"No, I really don't think I can. And I'm pretty sure you already monitored this." Ian saw his opening and wandered over to a display cabinet full of equipment.
Tony obligingly opened it for him.
Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
Ian aimed one of the guns at his temple and fired at himself dozens of times in a row.
You attempted to learn how to catch bullets with your hands. Although your practical learning failed, you did gain some understanding of suicidal techniques. Student class EXP +1.
You attempted to learn how to catch bullets with your hands. Although your practical learning failed, you did gain some understanding of suicidal techniques. Student class EXP +1.
You attempted to learn how to catch bullets with your hands. Although your practical learning failed, you did gain some understanding of suicidal techniques. Student class EXP +1.
…
He still could not catch energy rounds.
It was way too hard.
What made Ian even sadder was the fact that now that his body had gotten stronger, this clever leveling trick was giving him less experience than before. The flood of rapid progress was gone.
That said,
this time had still yielded something.
Student Lv8 [1/1280]
His Student class had leveled up.
That meant one more universal skill point added to the pile. To be honest, Ian had recently been torn between putting more points into Learning or upgrading Ian Kent Defensive Arts.
Both felt like concept-based skills. One had a higher long-term growth ceiling, while the other had the noble dignity of percentage scaling. Both would clearly become even more valuable if upgraded.
Beginner, Basic, Excellent, Elite. Those were the skill ranks Ian had confirmed so far. Beginner to Basic cost 1 point, Basic to Excellent cost 2, and Excellent to Elite cost 4. Anything beyond Elite required 8 universal skill points.
Because he had gained and leveled Writer, and now Student had just leveled again, Ian had accumulated a full 9 universal skill points.
That was already enough to upgrade Learning again. But because of Writer, Ian now had a different thought. What if that class gained its own special skill after a few more levels?
It was only a guess.
He had never experienced anything like it before.
So he had no solid way to confirm it.
He was just a little conflicted.
Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
Of course, conflicted or not, Ian was not about to stop grinding. He earned another fifty or sixty experience, but just as he prepared to keep milking the equipment, Tony stepped in.
Tony shut down every weapon system, and the gun in Ian's hand immediately turned into a toy-like replica.
"Don't be stingy…"
Ian looked regretful.
"Like I said, our resources are dwindling." Tony let out a sigh. "That also means the physical laws I've preserved are running out."
"Have you not noticed that you can only move around within this city?" His words caught Ian off guard.
"So outside Earth, there's no universe left?"
Ian stared at him.
He realized then that even Earth itself might no longer be intact.
"It is a universe. And also chaotic nothingness. What remains here is the last of my strength. Even so, we're already counting down to the end." Tony's projection flickered. "The only reason we've lasted this long is thanks in part to the friend whose corpse you're so eager to desecrate."
"Otherwise…" He did not finish the sentence, but the meaning was obvious. Without Sentry, this place likely would not have survived to this day.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely thank him. Nine times." Ian did not quite know how to respond, so he made a solemn promise instead.
Three times was respect.
Nine times was triple respect.
The language of flowers for something even more grateful than gratitude itself.
"..."
Tony understood Ian's logic.
Which was exactly why he went so silent.
Just then,
clunk.
The base doors slid open, and Gwen came in pushing a massive crate. She looked exhausted, covered in grime, clearly having gone through a rough recovery operation for the final Stone.
"Gwen! Want some peanuts?"
Ian's attention landed immediately on Gwen's skintight pants that never seemed to change. With a rustling plastic sound, he produced a bag of peanuts branded Queen Foods. The golden-brown nuts gleamed under the cold white lights of the base.
Gwen's nose twitched.
She smelled natural food.
Different from the synthetic snacks and rations in the base.
Her fingers moved before her brain did. By the time she realized what had happened, she had already accepted three peanuts.
Even the way Gwen cracked the shells looked pitifully unfamiliar.
"Thanks."
The moment the peanut crunched between her teeth, Gwen thought she saw cornfields under sunlight.
She immediately crushed that weak association.
Then she thanked the boy who had shared actual natural food with her.
It was necessary.
Their last encounter had already taught Gwen what would happen if she did not say thank you.
"It's nothing. Here, eat more."
Ian shoved the entire bag into Gwen's hands. Gwen was so stunned by his enthusiasm that she did not know how to react.
"The final Infinity Stone is being received. Betty is ready." Gwen finally managed to report the outside situation to digital Tony.
"There won't be any issues. I've already arranged everything."
Tony gave a slight nod and turned back to the static. "Whether this is success or failure depends entirely on whether our original assumptions were built on the correct path."
His words felt strangely loaded.
Gwen headed toward the testing lab in the back.
"So if everything sounds this urgent, why are only Gwen and Betty here? I'm not looking down on them, but based on my theory, for something like this you should need people with more weight behind them."
"I mean, aside from you, the other heavy hitters in this world?" Ian felt like if it were him, even if he had to pick from ordinary people, he'd still pick a normal Captain America over Gwen or Betty. To him, they were plot-tier NPCs at best. Not even as prestigious as an independent NPC like him.
"During the multiversal fusion, most heroes' consciousness turned into soup. But those two girls…"
Tony paused.
"Their souls remained the cleanest in my records. They were much easier to separate."
That finally answered something Ian had been wondering for a long time.
Ian suddenly understood.
"Oh. So that's why in one of the universes I remember, you liked Peter Parker so much. Wow. So that's what was going on."
"Guess being your adopted son wasn't that comfy after all. By the way, does Pepper know you've got this type?"
Ian clearly believed he had reached some brilliant realization.
"????"
For once, Tony genuinely looked emotional.
"I only meant their souls had not fully fused with their alternate selves, so they were easier to extract. You little demon, what exactly is wrong with your brain?!"
Tony's projection rippled as he started wildly gesturing at Ian. That did not feel like simulated emotion in the least.
"My brain is filled with super wisdom, obviously."
Ian gave him a puzzled look. How could Tony fail to see something that obvious? He was beginning to suspect Tony was not actually as smart as everyone claimed.
"Please shut up. Don't insult wisdom."
Digital Tony looked toward the ceiling and sighed.
"Heh… Tony, you seem to have developed more emotions."
Ian did not care about convincing Tony of anything. He had instead picked up on another change in him.
"The hour is near, that's all."
Tony went quiet again.
"The bodies you wanted are over there."
Clearly, he did not want to continue this line of conversation. He raised a hand toward the room on the left side of the base hall.
The sealed doors there slowly opened.
Cold mist spilled out like dry ice.
Ian walked in.
It felt like he had entered a morgue. In the center of the room, two bodies lay on anti-gravity platforms, white frost dusting their eyelashes, their chests perfectly still.
Omni-Man and Sentry.
Both looked perfectly preserved, as if they had just died.
Or maybe had not died at all.
Ian pinched both of their noses and waited several minutes.
"Looks like no happy holiday."
Ian still remembered seeing the date on the electronic calendar earlier.
He was always careful.
So he checked for heartbeats too.
Nothing.
"Now let's see how to approach this."
Ian was about to start looking for tools to open them up when he noticed thoughtful Tony had already made a tiny cut in the center of each forehead.
Really tiny.
About the size of a mosquito bite.
Still, a little blood had gathered on the surface of Omni-Man and Sentry's foreheads.
As if it had been carefully drawn out.
"Praise to Tony, the divine machine god."
Ian glanced at the nearest monitor. A setup like this only further confirmed that Tony had already worked out a lot about how Ian operated.
He might even have calculated the exact amount of blood Ian needed to trigger his system.
The moment Ian touched the blood, the system prompt rang out again. But what happened next was not what he had expected.
Neither Omni-Man nor Sentry unlocked a new class.
His only currently unlockable class remained Entropy Lord.
What they unlocked instead was a new system function.
Mid-level correction data acquired.
High-level correction data acquired.
Base information for Wild Tyrant has been updated.
Class trait input in progress…
There was no pain.
No chill.
No tremor.
It just felt like unlocking a new class or leveling up.
His body changed all at once, his physical stats skyrocketing.
Strength: 26 → 44
Constitution: 44.3 → 60
Intelligence: 3.5 → 4.2
Spirit: 21 → 31
…
Ian had no idea what correction data meant.
All he knew was that his body had just received an absurd increase, as if he had somehow learned some sort of impossible passive skill.
Only after he came back from his stunned state did he realize what was happening.
Mainly because the system helpfully followed up a moment later.
New data successfully recorded. Iron Body has been corrected into Perfect Divine Physique. Please check and confirm.
That was the real reason for the huge jump in stats.
Iron Body: Your body's outer layer becomes greatly strengthened, significantly improving Strength and Constitution.
Wild Tyrant's original exclusive skill had changed completely.
Perfect Divine Physique: This skill will grow automatically with level progression. How could mortal flesh possibly bear divine radiance? This perfect body is the ultimate weapon with which you will crush all beings.
Your physical body undergoes a qualitative leap, granting powerful resistance against all forms of physical damage, while also significantly increasing resistance to magic, poison, and mental attacks.
When you fully activate Perfect Divine Physique, your body will undergo a complete transformation and enter an entirely new state, doubling all current values at the pinnacle of your power.
There was no denying it.
Perfect Divine Physique was leagues beyond Iron Body.
And yet, even staring at this absurdly powerful skill, Ian did not know whether he should feel happy or devastated.
"All my carefully hoarded negative statuses!"
The nightmare of the hoarder had arrived again. Ian watched with his own eyes as all his grinding buffs disappeared.
Slow Poisoning. Nerve Damage…
All gone.
Only higher-tier debuffs such as Fel Corruption and Slow Erosion remained.
"So how am I supposed to grind now?"
Of course Ian was happy to gain such a powerful skill.
But losing a whole pile of leveling methods felt like a huge loss too.
Just as he was sinking into despair over the possibility that future leveling might now require putting his body through even more extreme punishment, his eyes suddenly began to itch.
The system had not even displayed the next prompt yet.
But Ian had already realized what had happened.
Name: Ian Kent
Normal Classes: Student Lv8 [56/1280], Writer Lv2 [1/20]
Transcendent Classes: Berserker Lv4 [75/80], Wild Tyrant Lv3 [9/40]
World Recognition: Independent NPC
Talent Skills: Reverse Blood Furnace, Perfect Divinity
Class Skills: Regenerative Surge, Perfect Divine Physique, Eternal Noon Eyes
…
There were no other major changes.
But Wild Tyrant's eye skill had transformed.
Sunflare Eyes had become Eternal Noon Eyes.
That clearly had something to do with the correction data.
New data successfully recorded. Sunflare Eyes has been corrected into Eternal Noon Eyes. Please check and confirm.
"I feel ants crawling inside my eyes."
Ian covered them with his hands. He had no desire to make the world know pain like the Uchiha clan, but his eyes were absolutely undergoing a drastic transformation.
Eternal Noon Eyes: The effect of this skill is influenced by both Spirit and Constitution. When your eyes become miniature suns, all things will submit before the eternal light and heat they unleash.
Your eyes have fused with the law of a solar core. Your pupils become twin micro-stars capable of freely manipulating cosmic-tier forces such as light, heat, and plasma.
The description was not overly detailed, but even so, it stunned Ian.
Was he really turning his eyes into miniature stellar reactors?
This had gone beyond whether he could still get a normal job.
Had he become a walking radiation source?
"And my beautiful blue eyes are gone too! Damn it! Is it too late to respec?" Ian hurriedly turned to a nearby reflective surface.
What he saw staring back was a striking change.
His once-blue eyes had been flooded with gold. His pupils were now molten and bright, like liquid sunlight.
Tiny flecks of starlike light shimmered inside them.
"Huh. Actually kind of handsome?"
Ian calmed down immediately.
Radiation or not, he could live with it.
As long as it did not ruin his face.
That, after all, was still his final capital.
Madison had taught him that much.
"Even so, the system owes me an apology. It upgraded my skills without even asking first."
Ian gave his system attachment a stern internal lecture.
Still, that did not stop him from eagerly opening Wild Tyrant's skill tree.
The class name itself had not changed.
But the skill tree beneath it had been completely transformed.
First,
two dividing lines had appeared, splitting the tree into three tiers.
The background art for the first tier showed a shadowy figure with glowing eyes laughing wildly.
Its title was Wild Tyrant.
The second tier showed a cold, expressionless silhouette slaughtering everything in its path.
It was called Merciless Conqueror.
It required level 45 to unlock, and the description promised a major increase in attributes.
As for the third tier, which only opened at level 90, the topmost section of the tree displayed a lone dark figure standing with its back to the world.
Its title was Void God.
That was the final advancement of the class, and its description stated only that it would grant unfathomable authority.
"How unfathomable are we talking?"
Ian blinked.
"Did this really turn my life into a game?"
He could not help but marvel.
Then he looked back down at the first tier, the Wild Tyrant skills.
Even though the title remained the same, all the old skills had been replaced.
Terror Vision: Actively releases mental pressure, causing enemies within range to fall into panic. Targets with extremely strong willpower experience reduced effects. Enemies who completely lose the will to resist will die.
Battle Instinct: Forged through endless slaughter, this instinct instantly identifies an enemy's weak points and chooses the most efficient way to kill them. Your body may react before your mind does.
Absolute Flight: You gain a biological force field specifically for flight. In the sky, you are the tyrant who rules all. Looking down on all beings is your natural privilege.
…
Bad news.
Super Flight was gone.
Good news.
Absolute Flight seemed to come with at least a discounted biological force field.
"This is definitely a bargain-bin biological force field…"
Ian felt like he should be happy.
But his mood was honestly pretty complicated.
And just as he was thanking the two corpses nine times, a voice came from the doorway.
"Brother, you stood in here for twenty whole minutes. Watching the security feed, you kept smiling to yourself. That last smile even reminded me of Stephen Hawking."
Gwen's voice was full of confusion.
"It's because things went against my expectations, but in a good way. That kind of twist deserves a bitter smile."
Ian sighed as he tucked his magic book back into the front of his pants.
"Bitter smile…"
Gwen was still unable to comprehend a lot of Ian's phrases. Aside from seeing that kind of smile on Hawking's face once, she had never heard of such a thing.
"Mm. Closely related to that are the evil smirk and the faint smile."
Ian walked over and pulled a still-warm bag of soy milk from his oversized pocket.
Natural food again.
The packaging made that irresistible rustling sound.
How was Gwen supposed to resist?
She accepted it this time too.
But the moment she took a sip, she noticed something strange.
Not sinister strange.
Just… odd.
Like multiple kinds of beans mixed together, with a faint hint of senna leaves.
Her taste buds in this body were not what they used to be, but they still worked enough to detect it.
At that instant, Gwen felt the urge to stop drinking.
But the scent of real, natural food made her hesitate.
"Are you trying to ask me for something?"
Gwen held the soy milk in one hand, not daring to swallow again.
"I'm just satisfying a little curiosity."
Ian answered honestly.
Then he pulled out a few roasted sweet potatoes too.
This time,
Gwen didn't dare take them.
She was beginning to sense something deeply wrong.
"What curiosity?"
She held the soy milk in her mouth, absolutely refusing to swallow.
"You wear skin-tight leather pants every single day like Black Widow. I wanted to know if they puff up when you fart."
Ian was still extremely honest. He even made sure his eyes did not linger on Gwen's backside for more than three seconds.
Very gentlemanly.
Pffft.
Gwen sprayed soy milk everywhere.
Ian dodged in time.
"Looks like they do. Bad quality. Yours are synthetic. I looked it up. Good real leather doesn't puff."
He had successfully gathered the data he wanted.
"Could you care about something important for once?" Gwen looked about ready to explode. She glanced around as if searching for something.
"What are you looking for?"
Ian was still curious.
"A needle. And thread."
Gwen very badly wanted to sew Ian's mouth shut.
At that moment,
rumble.
The base suddenly shook violently.
Ian managed to steady himself.
The unlucky Gwen, however, dropped to the floor.
And because she was indeed in a puffed-up state, her cheap synthetic pants finally gave out in a long, drawn-out sound.
They split.
Right at the seat.
"…"
Gwen could hardly believe the universe she lived in anymore. She stayed seated, not daring to get up, simply staring dead ahead with her eyes locked on Ian.
"This one really isn't on me anymore. I'll buy you a real leather pair tomorrow, okay? Ian Kent is rich."
Ian took a cautious half-step back and protectively covered the front of his pants.
It looked like he was worried Gwen might just rob him of his current pair.
The shaking continued.
Dust sifted down from the ceiling in soft gray streams.
"So the time has finally come."
Gwen did not seem interested in demanding compensation anymore. She looked up toward the ceiling. The structure was splitting open directly above her.
Which only made her less willing to stand up.
Offing herself for a replacement body was no longer an option.
"What time?"
Ian's question went unanswered.
"Tony said you would be the one to snap your fingers for us."
Gwen's eyes stayed fixed on Ian. Her voice trembled slightly, the fear in her obvious.
There was something in her gaze that Ian had never seen before.
"I told him already. I might not be able to transmit my will into the Infinity Stones."
Ian did not forget his own situation. He could interact with this world, but this world had trouble interacting with him.
"No. You can."
The voice that answered did not belong to Gwen.
It belonged to digital Tony.
"Tony, where are you?"
Ian turned.
The alloy walls peeled apart like eggshells.
The answer was a flood of heavenly light.
As the blinding sunlight poured in, Ian realized the entire base had risen to the surface.
The researchers, soldiers, and engineers who had been working on Galactus stood assembled outside.
Galactus's corpse loomed in the distance behind them.
These people stood packed shoulder to shoulder across the ruined streets. Looking out over them, Ian could not even see the end of the crowd.
Sunlight poured through shattered buildings, and every one of them stared at him with the exact same expression Gwen had worn earlier.
Hope?
Expectation?
Ian could not quite name it.
"You don't need to transmit your will. The objective has already been programmed into the Gauntlet."
"So all you need to do is snap."
Digital Tony stood at the very front of the crowd.
Floating above the ground.
He had even dressed himself in a silver suit of armor.
It was only a data body,
but perhaps it was his way of showing how seriously he took this moment.
A metallic pedestal rose from the broken ground, carrying the Infinity Gauntlet. Every Stone was already set into place, each one shining with its own mysterious light.
"So… I just give it a try?"
Ian walked toward it.
He had touched the bodies Tony prepared.
People had to honor agreements.
"But don't put too much hope in me."
Ian's voice was calmer than he expected. He reached out and took hold of the Gauntlet as it floated above the pedestal.
The moment the metal fit against his skin, he felt a completely foreign torrent of power.
It actually worked.
The Infinity Stones were interacting with him.
Their power made his whole body feel warm.
"So I'm Thanos now."
Ian clicked his tongue in fascination.
"No. You are our savior."
Digital Tony's voice was, for once, almost warm. Sunlight broke through the clouds and spilled around Ian's feet like a path of gold.
"Omnipotent power rests in your hand. Only you can open heaven and earth for us again. And with it, you can achieve your own wish. You will become the source of a new force."
Tony was clearly pouring on every bit of emotional leverage he could. He had even deduced Ian's true intention in coming to this universe tonight.
"You're saying I can use this to become a source of magic?"
Now Ian was genuinely interested.
"Something greater than that."
Tony answered softly.
"That sounds like manipulation."
Ian slowly looked around.
One face after another entered his field of view.
Betty.
Gwen.
Dr. Helen Cho, the researcher who had once refused to share her snacks.
The look in their eyes…
Ian knew that look.
He had seen it before.
After disasters, when victims looked up at Superman the moment he arrived in time to save them, they wore that same expression.
When Superman descended from the sky, cape whipping through smoke and dust, and the trapped, injured, desperate looked up at that red-and-blue figure,
their eyes burned with this exact kind of faith.
Like parched earth longing for rain.
Like someone searching for a star in the dark.
That trembling, burning, desperate hope.
Ian had never expected to find himself standing at the center of it.
"I usually don't trust flattery. But tonight, I'll be your hero."
His fingers unconsciously ran along the cool metal of the Infinity Gauntlet.
Light from the Stones trickled through the gaps between them.
"I choose to trust my own judgment. You are not scraps of a dead world coveting someone else's. You are people who struggled to save your home until the very last moment."
"When a group like that asks me for help, I'm willing to give them one chance. Maybe that's the influence my old man had on me. I can't let him down too badly."
For once, Ian was being completely serious.
Then he raised the hand wearing the Gauntlet.
"Please."
Digital Tony bowed.
Tens of thousands of people held their breath in the ruins.
"This time, I'm a saint."
Ian could feel every gaze fixed on him, including Gwen's, who still dared not stand up.
A feeling rose inside him.
A complicated one.
One he had never experienced before.
"Being the center of everyone's attention…"
"Maybe it's not so bad."
His fingers moved slightly.
"Remember to build me a solid gold toilet…"
"Actually, never mind. You people probably won't remember. A mature little boy knows he can always break into Stark's place later and steal the gold himself."
Just like that, Ian slipped right back into his usual self.
The next instant,
he snapped.
The sound rang out sharp and clear, like glass shattering in perfect stillness.
"Believe in yourself. You are the final hero. In this moment, the Creator stands with you."
Digital Tony's prayer echoed around Ian as the world began to vanish.
Ian saw everything dissolve.
The crowds in the streets became motes of light.
Their expressions did not even have time to change. They remained frozen in that final moment of trust and hope.
Everything withered into drifting particles in the backlight. The world itself was being erased like pencil sketch under an eraser.
Buildings.
Galactus.
Even the sunlight.
All of it crumbled into dust.
Then,
the world fell silent.
There was only deathly stillness.
Blankness.
Blackness.
It lasted perhaps three heartbeats.
Then the first car horn shattered the silence.
Color exploded back into existence from every direction.
Neon lights buzzed alive in pink.
A coffee machine hissed white steam from a corner café.
A yellow-and-blue taxi sprayed rainbow-colored water as it screeched to a stop.
Pedestrians appeared like cards from a magician's hand.
A housewife with a grocery basket brushed past a skater.
A bucket of popcorn overturned, while a street musician strummed a guitar nearby.
Shop window jingles, children laughing, voices all poured back into the streets like a flood.
The frozen world had truly been rebuilt by a single snap.
"Hey, Creator. If you're there, make a sound."
Ian stood in the middle of a crosswalk while a ginkgo leaf drifted down onto his shoulder.
Honk honk.
A horn blared.
"Damn it. Great Transport Deity."
Ian had been feeling strangely wistful while staring at the sky.
That mood vanished instantly.
(End of Chapter)
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