New York battlefield.
Loki had already raised the Mind Stone Scepter, ready to shut the portal at any moment.
Chitauri troops were still pouring out, putting the Military under heavy pressure.
"Twenty seconds left—why hasn't Fang come out?"
Howard was getting anxious.
He'd rather Fang Yuan's raid on the Chitauri mothership fail, as long as he could come back safely—at least that would guarantee Fang Yuan's safety.
Not only the Avengers, but Vought Television's live feed was also aimed straight at the portal.
Someone had leaked the news; reporters all knew Fang Yuan had gone alone through the spatial gate to assault the Chitauri mothership and wipe out the invaders in one go.
Everyone was stunned by Fang Yuan's feat, watching to see if he would succeed and cheering him on.
The broadcast even showed a countdown, letting viewers know that once the five-minute timer ended, Fang Yuan wouldn't be coming back.
Well, the fact that the details were so precise obviously meant Fang Yuan himself had spilled the beans.
"Final ten seconds of the countdown!"
The reporter's voice was frantic.
"Last five seconds!"
"Four… three… two—wait, look!"
With the reporter's cry, the camera swung around; everyone saw the Chitauri ships ravaging the skies above New York suddenly lose power and plummet en masse. The once-fierce battlefield was left with only the sound of crashing Chitauri.
And, of course, the reporter's jubilant shout: "He did it!"
"Fang Yuan succeeded—he destroyed the Chitauri mothership!"
Thanks to his commentary, many bewildered viewers finally understood Fang Yuan's triumph.
That's the importance of a good announcer.
"We won?"
The soldiers had been fighting for their lives moments ago; the sudden change left them stunned for a beat before they realized what had happened.
"We won!!"
Cheers erupted everywhere. The battle had been brutal; they'd readied themselves for death countless times. Victory came so suddenly it felt like a rebirth.
The camera cut back to the spatial gate.
Fang Yuan's figure finally emerged. A black trench-coat shimmered with arcane runes, its hem fluttering in the air, cutting an imposing sight.
Most importantly, he had a Chitauri clutched in one hand.
Unlike the rest of the Chitauri soldiers, who'd all gone offline, this one was still moving.
He was the supreme Commander of the Chitauri legion.
"Go back and tell your Master: stop eyeing Earth!"
Spotting Fang Yuan speaking, Vought Television patched in a lip-reading expert to relay his words.
Just a professional team, always on standby.
"To every warlike civilization in the Universe: take note—Earthlings have both the confidence and the capability to meet any challenge."
Fang Yuan declared it with passion, the scattered Chitauri corpses across the battlefield lending his words undeniable weight.
"On Earth I may be the Chief Sorcerer, but in the Universe…" Fang Yuan stared at the Chitauri Commander, "you will call me Black King!"
Bang!
magic erupted in Fang Yuan's hand; the Chitauri Commander was blasted back through the portal. Fang Yuan nodded toward Loki, who promptly shut the Tesseract.
This domineering declaration to the entire Universe was broadcast live—and the immediate result was:
[Fang Yuan Reputation: 128…135…142…146…148…150!]
Saving the World under global scrutiny had an incomparable impact, so Fang Yuan's reputation rocketed to 150, unlocking four tiers of rewards in one go!
He hurriedly checked his Personal Panel.
[Name: Fang Yuan]
[Rank: C+]
[Reputation: 152 (World-Renowned)]
[Rewards Unlocked: Tier-4 Reward (claimable)]
[Tier-4 Reward: Obtain World Dominator Halo (S-Rank).]
[World Dominator Halo (S-Rank): 1) Once personal reputation reaches 100, freely decide entry/exit time-points in the current World. 2) Can transfer one employee across Worlds and reset reputation; rewards won't repeat. Current transfer quota: 1; increases by 1 every 10 years.]
Exactly as Fang Yuan had expected—another S-Rank reward, and this halo even had two effects!
"As expected of me—I'm just too awesome!" Fang Yuan preened inwardly.
Both effects were super practical. With reputation at 100 he could choose when to enter or leave a World; he'd never miss key plots again.
And the other—
"Transfer an employee across Worlds?" Fang Yuan's mind spun with mischief. "Drag Homelander to DC for a one-on-one with Superman?"
Homelander: Thanks, bro…
Of course he was joking; with only one quota every ten years, Fang Yuan would have to choose carefully.
After all, this was a transfer, not a copy—once moved, the employee would vanish from the original World, so he had to think it through.
"All that drama wasn't for nothing." Fang Yuan was very pleased with the results of Phase One of his plan.
Yes—Phase One.
Time to move into Phase Two.
Fang Yuan returned to the ground, and at that moment the live-feed camera, well aware of the mood, stopped filming him.
All four reward tiers had been claimed; beyond 150, reputation growth slows to a crawl, so Fang Yuan wasn't about to waste resources.
Not even on himself.
The reporter boarded the helicopter and switched to an aerial sweep of New York's streets; the once-booming city was now total rubble, with victims of the battle everywhere.
Many had died in the Chitauri's indiscriminate attacks; others were crushed when buildings fell, and the final mass Chitauri shutdown—bodies raining from the sky—claimed still more lives.
"Preliminary estimates place the death toll from the alien invasion at four hundred thousand in New York alone," the Vought Television reporter said, voice heavy with grief.
The planet's brief joy evaporated; the horrific scenes on-screen left viewers everywhere shaken.
On the battlefield, grief hung even thicker—countless voices calling lost loved ones through tears. They had won the war, yet felt like the biggest losers.
"Wars really should be fought on someone else's soil," Fang Yuan mused, stroking his chin.
The multiverse had long since banned the existence of his homeland, so no number of deaths here could wound him.
But a proper Vought leader seizes every chance to create opportunities for his employees.
Having foreseen this scene, Fang Yuan had no intention of wasting it.
In his eyes, not just enemies but even the dead were valuable resources!
"Zzzzt!"
A circle of sparks blossomed beside him; the Ancient One stepped through the portal to his side.
"Took you long enough; the rescue teams are already at work," Fang Yuan complained.
The Ancient One's faint smile never wavered: "You know the Sorcerer Supreme has many visitors."
Fang Yuan shrugged—he knew it well.
Kamar-Taj's reach spanned the multiverse; obscure on Earth, it was famed among magical orders of other dimensions.
Dimensional sorcerers visited constantly; in just the past two years Fang Yuan had studied magic beside the Ancient One and met Lizard-Men, Minotaurs, Horse-Faced Beings, and more.
Fang Yuan didn't dwell on it. "You sure you can hold this?" he asked again.
The Ancient One smiled and nodded.
Fang Yuan decided his worry was pointless—what could trouble the Sorcerer Supreme?
"Then go for it."
The live-feed suddenly cut, drawing every viewer's eye: a woman in Yellow Hooded Robes now hovered in mid-air.
"Sorcerer Supreme!"
Thanks to Fang Yuan's relentless promotion—anyone wanting cosmetic treatments now had to recruit ten friends to the Ancient One's fan club—everyone recognized her.
All knew the Sorcerer Supreme had been recovering since the Frost Giant war, so her absence from the fight was understood.
But with the battle over, what brought her here?
On-screen, the Ancient One opened the eye of agamotto, and emerald glyph-rings blossomed around her wrists—an image viewers knew well.
"That's… the same spell she used to resurrect the Chief Sorcerer—could she…?"
"Is the Sorcerer Supreme about to bring someone else back?"
Besides single-handedly wiping out the Frost Giants, her other headline feat had been reviving Fang Yuan.
So naturally, the World assumed she meant to resurrect another VIP.
What followed shattered their expectations.
From the aerial view, the green light radiating from the Ancient One surged outward, blanketing all of New York.
With a solemn expression she twisted both hands counter-clockwise; instantly the city's ruins began moving, retracing their path of destruction and restoring themselves.
And the crucial point—along with the buildings, the people themselves were reversing in time.
Every victim on the New York battlefield returned to life; even soldiers and aircraft that had been smashed to dust reappeared intact.
"The Sorcerer Supreme is reversing time!"
"My God—she's bringing everyone back!"
"She's a true goddess!"
Earth erupted in awe; no one had imagined the Ancient One capable of such a feat—this wasn't one man like Fang Yuan before, but four hundred thousand lives.
In that moment, every Earthling was utterly awestruck by the Sorcerer Supreme.
On Fang Yuan's company panel, the Ancient One's reputation skyrocketed, about to break the 150 mark.
He smiled in satisfaction: "Hold every soul in hand; life and death create value for me. I call the shots—fitting title for a World Controller."
"Now that's a proper Black King—take notes, Good Big Brother."
The next company-panel notification flashed, and Fang Yuan's grin widened.
[Ancient One Reputation 150—Tier-4 Reward Unlocked!]
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