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After calculating the time on Earth and going through a period of thought and agonizing, Hawkeye finally gave his answer: "Ten years."
Marvel Universe: Chapter 879 Timeline: The Past (Part 2)
"Thank God, we're back."
Looking around at the familiar scene—skyscrapers, shops, streets, cars, pedestrians—Hawkeye had never felt such joy at these commonplace things before.
In contrast, Tony Stark, who is using his Iron Man suit to hack into his own satellites, is not so optimistic.
"Jarvis, did I change the backend password for Stark satellites ten years ago?"
No, sir.
"Then why can't I log in?"
There are no Stark Industries satellites here, sir.
At the same time, Doctor Strange, with a furrowed brow, spoke up: "Something's strange here. I don't know how to describe it, but something that should be here isn't."
Captain America was also observing this unfamiliar "Earth," and finding the information he was looking for from another angle: "This looks like Japan?"
"Ten years ago, in the early 21st century, Japan was shrouded in a sense of taboo and depression... if this is the Japan I know."
Relying on the AI "Jarvis" on his Iron Man suit, Tony Stark browsed the various information he found after hacking into the nearby network: "But it's obvious that this is not the Japan we know, or Earth? Stark Industries is gone, the Avengers—which should have been gone anyway, after all, this is 'ten years ago,' and then there's S.H.I.E.L.D."
Hawkeye pointed out, "It's now called the Strategic Homeland Defense, Attack and Logistics Agency."
"...the same, nothing at all."
He removed the armor from his face, revealing Tony Stark's grim expression: "This is indeed Earth, but not the Earth we live on."
The superheroes looked at each other in bewilderment.
It must be said that everything they encountered after starting their "time travel" was beyond their imagination.
What was initially thought to be just a movie turned into a "field trip," and not only that, the locations were also changed haphazardly—a world destroyed "one year ago," a world that wasn't Earth "three years ago," and now an Earth that wasn't Earth "ten years ago"...
"Perhaps we could go and take a look at what America is like now?"
As it turns out, when there are no other options, people tend to subconsciously follow the first choice presented to them, even though they don't understand the meaning of such an action, but they still do it anyway: moving from Japan "ten years ago" to the United States "ten years ago".
Because the actions of "time travelers" could have various impacts on the "future," the group consciously reduced their interference with Earth "ten years ago." Fortunately, with the addition of Doctor Strange, a sorcerer with non-scientific abilities, they no longer needed to go through the complicated process again. After all, if they were to travel by plane, even proving themselves would be a problem.
Under Tony Stark's skeptical gaze, Doctor Strange used various materials he carried to draw something resembling a "magic circle" in an open area.
"This thing can't take us to a specific city or house, but it can definitely take us to America."
"Does every 'mage' possess this ability?"
"No, at least in my knowledge, apart from my master, the Ancient One, only I, who inherited my master's skills, possess this ability."
After confirming that everyone was ready, Doctor Strange activated the magic circle beneath his feet.
With a blinding flash, the Avengers, prepared for the unknown, arrived on the other side of the ocean, on the territory of the world's most powerful nation, and there they saw—
"boom------------------!!!"
The moment half of America vanished before my eyes.
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Flames and explosions swept across the land, crushing and rife with everything taller than a meter. The sharp howling overhead lasted for more than ten minutes before subsiding to a tolerable level.
Enduring the terrifying heat lingering around him, when Iron Man pushed aside the rubble pressing down on his suit and stood up, he saw a "vast" world—dust, ash, and a world formed by evaporated water vapor.
"...Jarvis, my head's a bit of a mess, I need to sort it out. Where am I right now?"
[Florida, Mr.]
Florida?
Looking around at the endless expanse of scorched black earth, Tony Stark repeated, "Are you sure?"
[The geographic coordinates are showing everything is normal, sir.]
"What was that I just saw?"
[An explosion, sir.]
"Oh, you want to tell me that the United States was wiped out by nuclear bombs 'ten years ago'?"
[I'm sorry, sir, there is no residual nuclear radiation in the area. The explosion just now was not caused by a nuclear bomb.]
"Whatever it was—Florida was just wiped out like that?"
"Sir, based on the impact just now, the epicenter of the explosion was not in Florida."
Iron Man paused for a moment: "What about the blast radius?"
[Twenty-five states, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, were within the blast radius.]
"Today isn't April 1st, Jarvis! Or are you trying to tell me I'm living in these ruins ten years in the future?"
The AI on the Iron Man suit fell silent. Just as Tony Stark was frantically searching for the other Avengers who had been blown away by the explosion after the teleportation, Jarvis's reminder sounded again.
Sir, you should be looking at the top of your head.
"Top of the head?"
……
"Either I'm dreaming, or the world is dreaming."
Looking at the slowly shattering planet in the sky, Captain America glanced at Doctor Strange, who was pale-faced. The sorcerer had expended a lot of power to stop the explosion, but he had also regained Captain America's trust because of it.
“This place is definitely not America, because the land where I awoke is not a ruin.”
A slightly trembling finger pointed to the slowly breaking planet in the sky: "The moon I see is whole, not a broken asteroid."
"Yes, Captain, we made a mistake."
Holding the still faintly glowing Eye of Almotho before him, Doctor Strange said weakly, "We are not heading towards Earth's past, but towards the past of the 'enemy' we are facing."
P.S.: Fourth update
Marvel Universe: Chapter 880 Timeline: The Future (Part 1)
Time: Seven months after "Qionghua" appeared
Location: Top floor of Stark Industries Building, USA
Amidst a flash of dazzling light, several disheveled figures landed on the ground. They were none other than the Avengers, who had just undergone "time travel" and returned from the distant "past" to the "present."
Realizing the situation was spiraling out of control, Doctor Strange, wielding the Eye of Almotho, did not continue his journey into the "past," even though it might hold the weakness of that evil enemy. After all, they had already encountered far too many anomalies during those brief "ten years" of rewinding.
Destruction, disaster, ruin, death... Without exception, almost every world that "he" set foot in met such an end. They could not guarantee that they could retain such luck if they continued to look back to the "past," after all, they were not sitting in a movie theater watching a movie, but actually going to that era and that place, experiencing the "apocalypse" faced by different worlds.
However, the Avengers' operation was not without its gains.
"At least we now know that 'he' is not a human from our world, but comes from another world."
Captain America seemed to be encouraging his teammates, or perhaps explaining things to himself—after realizing that the past he was rewinding to wasn't his own, the biggest conflict between Captain America and Black Widow naturally disappeared. However, the estrangement between them couldn't be resolved in just a few words.
Right now, we can only focus our attention on more important things.
Doctor Strange, having caught his breath, added: "We've got one thing wrong. The 'past' that the Eye of Almotho travels to is neither ours nor Earth's, but the 'past' of the evil beings we're exploring. And our understanding of the 'past' is based on what we already know... For example, we know what happened on Earth seven months ago, what Earth was like a year ago, and what the situation was like on Earth three years ago."
"Clearly, the world where that evil existed in the 'past' is very different from what we know. It is dangerous to use our understanding of the 'past' to measure the 'past' of an unknown world, just like..."
After a moment's hesitation, Doctor Strange finished speaking: "What happened in America... none of us know if it will happen again, or if we will once again stumble into it unknowingly, or if we will be able to escape such a disaster again..."
To summarize all the speeches, it all boils down to one (two) Lin@8wu〇jiusanliu』jiulingmeng〇 meaning.
"The past is too dangerous; we cannot go any further."
Although they acknowledged Doctor Strange's assessment, the problems facing the Avengers' superheroes remained unchanged.
"If we can't go back in time, how can we find that monster's weakness?"
Tony Stark, having returned to his familiar space, slumped onto the soft sofa: "Or are you planning to face an opponent capable of destroying the moon without knowing anything about it?"
"It's not that bad yet."
After gathering his thoughts, Captain America spoke again: "We know nothing about the 'past' because it is not the 'past' we are familiar with, but as for the future... as long as that evil continues to exist in our world, on this earth, then we can know the 'future'."
As he said this, Captain America looked at Doctor Strange to the side, who nodded slightly: "That's right. Although we can't understand the 'future' as clearly as we understand the present, as long as that evil entity is still on Earth, we can use the Eye of Almotho to go to our world in the 'future'."
What can you do if you go to the 'future'?
"I don't know... Maybe we'll find a way to defeat the evil, maybe it'll be a new superhero, but of course, the best way is that we didn't go to Earth in the 'future'."
Hawkeye nodded as if he understood: "So that means that evil being has left our world?"
“That’s right. The time travel of the Eye of Almoto is based on that evil being. If the ‘future’ we go to is not the world we are familiar with, it means that he has already left.”
"Therefore, the 'future' we are heading towards cannot be too far away."
Slapping his slightly numb cheek, Captain America took a breath: "Let's begin, let's find our own victorious future!"
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Time: Ten months after "Qionghua" appeared
Location: Top floor of Stark Industries Building, USA
Compared to the last time when they were transported back to another world ten years ago, this time it was only three months, and the time travel within their original world did not put too much of a burden on the five superheroes. They simply arrived in this "future" world after a brief moment of light and darkness.
"Hey, Stark Industries."
Holding the sign on the table, Tony Stark whistled, "Looks like there won't be any problems this time."
Captain America walked to the window and observed the scene below the building: "We're still in this world, which means our enemies are still on Earth."
"It's a mixed bag of news, but at least we're not as confused as before, are we?"
This situation, which was in line with expectations, put the superheroes at ease. The series of events that occurred when they went to the "past" had really made them nervous, but this time, thankfully, nothing went wrong.
Just then, the loud shouting of the chairman of Stark Industries rang out.
"Bruce Wayne? Who's that? Playboy? Why is he grabbing the headlines? And this Wayne Enterprises—when did Stark Industries start doing business with a company like that? Gotham City? Does that place even exist in America?"
The last question was directed at Black Widow. As a Level 10 agent, being familiar with the basic intelligence within her mission is a must. Her response to Tony Stark's question was quite direct: "At least to my knowledge, there is no place called 'Gotham City'."
Captain America, clinging to a last hope, suggested a hypothetical possibility: "Perhaps it's a city that was newly built during these three months?"
"Hey, do you really think a corporation could grow to the point where it can trade on a large scale with Stark Industries in just three months? Even if they robbed the U.S. Treasury, it wouldn't be possible!"
Once again, the superheroes looked at each other in bewilderment.
Marvel Universe: Chapter 881 Timeline: The Future (Part 2)
"Perhaps we traveled through time in the wrong way."
Trying to change the subject, Captain America walked to the window and gazed into the distance when he suddenly felt something strange above him. Not only that, the crowd below also stopped and looked up. He subconsciously looked up, and what he saw made him instinctively hold his breath.
"How can it be……"
"team leader?"
"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't see that wrong, did I—"
Tony Stark walked a few steps to the window and, upon seeing what was above him, also wore an expression of disbelief: "Isn't this the Tesseract—something that should have appeared three months ago?!"
In response to Iron Man's words, the slowly seeping "crack" in the sky instantly tore open, but instead of Chitauri piloting flying vehicles, what emerged were streaks of sword light and shouts—
Slay demons and monsters!
The scene that happened three months ago is repeating itself, except that the invaders have changed from a foreign civilization to an enemy from across the ocean. But this "change" does not give anyone any sense of security; all that remains is endless confusion and chaos.
Unlike the superheroes who were completely unable to comprehend the situation, the Swordholders, who were already prepared with their own goals, found their objectives the moment they stepped into this world...
Or rather, there's no need to actively seek out the "target"; it simply appears on its own.
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Clark Kent
His original name was Kal'El. Unlike the humans living on this planet, he was not a traditional Earthling, but an alien born on Krypton.
Long ago, when Krypton was facing destruction, his parents sent the infant Karl to Earth in a spaceship.
The spaceship crashed in Smallville, Kansas, where Clark was found by the Kent family, farmers, and raised as Clark Kent. As an adult, Clark moved to Metropolis and became a reporter for the Daily Planet. However, besides being a reporter, he also had another identity: a superhero.
MM Racing