After a long time of digestion.
Ian slowly recovered his senses.
"Is that why you collected everyone's souls? The souls of life forms from those collapsing universes?" Ian pondered for a moment before asking again.
To this.
Digital Tony did not give a direct answer. "For those Multiversal-level entities, this is at most a regression in their level of existence. But for ordinary life, it is utter annihilation."
His voice grew deeper.
"What do you mean? Too many people? Are they all crammed together? It's fine, you can go find Thanos. His specialty is perfectly suited for this situation." Ian made a guess, but it was a casual one. His intuition told him things were definitely not that simple.
Since the other party would surely provide an answer, Ian chose to conserve his brain cells. Super intelligence was powerful and resource-intensive, and Ian felt he shouldn't use it lightly under normal circumstances.
"If only it were that simple, then Thanos would indeed be proven right." Digital Tony answered every question, even adding a touch of dark humor.
However.
This humor quickly subsided.
"When the gods are powerless to pity life, the suffering must be borne by us mortals." Tony bowed his head, his voice suddenly becoming somewhat husky.
"What does that mean?"
Ian continued to save brain cells.
Digital Tony glanced at him, still not responding directly. "Can you imagine countless parallel versions of yourself—memories and souls—overlapping onto a single individual?"
This question directly addressed a blind spot in Ian's knowledge.
After all.
He had always firmly believed there wouldn't be a second version of himself in other parallel worlds of the DC Universe.
"I can't imagine that."
Ian shook his head honestly.
"..."
Digital Tony could clearly see that Ian didn't want to use his brain at all. He rubbed his phantom forehead in exasperation and then directly presented Ian with a scene from the past.
The sky was being ripped apart.
The earth was constantly collapsing.
However.
No one cared, no one was saved. On the distorted streets of the city, it wasn't just humans, or even just the superheroes—even the cats and dogs seemed to have fallen into madness.
"I remember... I remember I was a doctor... No, I was a firefighter... or a teacher? Yes! I was a poor woman who starred in adult films and then had her organs harvested!"
A burly, unshaven man ran screaming through the streets.
"Where is my daughter? Alice! Alice! I'm your mother! Stop hiding! I'm taking you home!" A wild boar frantically searched for something that didn't exist.
"I remember I was an eagle... No, I was the cat chasing the mouse... I'm Voldemort?" Another person laughed hysterically while brandishing a tree branch, shouting, "*Avada Kedavra! Give me a good Avada Kedavra!"
Seeing this scene of widespread madness where people were obsessed with shouting *Avada Kedavra* over and over.
"I'm Captain Ultimate! I'm Black and White Duo! I'm Captain Universe! Sorcerer Supreme Captain! Damn it! Why do I have so many identities? Forget it, Hail Hydra!"
Captain America was machine-gunning the street with a blue-flame-spitting Gatling gun. No one tried to stop him, as the other superheroes were also in a state of chaotic madness.
A mortal body.
How could it bear the memories of billions of individuals? Dark souls would inevitably pollute pure ones. To be honest, Ian was utterly dumbfounded by this scene of chaos, his mouth wide open.
"Oh, my gosh, what is that Hulk doing to Black Widow!" Ian genuinely exclaimed. He hadn't seen such an explosive scene even in his brother Jordan's prized collection of discs.
It was utterly despicable.
It was shameful.
But Ian's eyes were glued to the scene, unwilling to blink even once.
As if missing a second would be a profound regret.
"My apologies, I forgot you are still a child." Digital Tony, who was enjoying the scene, suddenly switched the surrounding visuals, causing Ian profound regret as he felt many images still lingered in his mind.
"This is truly the poisonous influence of a residual shadow from the past! My eyes and brain have been genuinely polluted!" Ian shook his head, but the images remained.
The Hulk was truly formidable, and Black Widow was truly... capable of enduring.
At the same time.
"What's wrong with these people!? And those ridiculous volunteers are crazy too?" In the switched scene, a bewildered Homelander stood in the street, shocked by everything around him.
The twisted man seemed unable to adapt to such a twisted world.
He felt entirely out of place.
"We need to stop these superheroes from going mad." A person in a red and white suit slowly descended from the sky. Like Homelander, he was a being who shouldn't have been in the Marvel Universe.
It was Omniman.
Simply put, another counterfeit Superman, but one whose power was comparable to a conventionally developed Superman, yet lacked the Kryptonite weakness—a truly super counterfeit Superman.
He was much stronger than Homelander.
Which made Homelander look slightly intimidated.
"I just want to find a quiet place to relax. The insane asylum hasn't reached out to me for a collaboration, so I have no obligation to capture this group of lunatics for them."
"Besides... I don't think an insane asylum could hold this many people. Even the psychiatrists are probably crazy." Homelander shrugged and prepared to fly away.
However.
He saw Omniman sneering at him. "Look around you! Everyone is insane! You'll die even if you escape into space! Do you want to slowly grow old and die in a lonely universe?"
With that, he immediately rushed out, first encountering Captain America. The deranged Captain America actually took two punches from Omniman with his head before his skull fractured, signaling his death.
"Now that's a true Captain America. He can unscientifically last a round against anyone he meets."
Ian sincerely exclaimed.
He watched Omniman grab the Rune King Thor, who was giving electric shock therapy to everyone on the street like an Electrocution King, and zoom straight toward the cosmos above the sky.
Meanwhile.
In the holographic image, Homelander paced back and forth on the street, kicking away a teddy bear that was shouting for help, and then flew away cursing.
"After this is over, I should run for President of the United States. Everyone should be grateful to me and have to thank me once every day!" Homelander burst into flight at dozens of times the speed of sound, heading toward a distant target.
"Every American world deserves its own Thank-You Man." Ian watched Homelander fly high into the sky.
This man originally chose a weaker target, Spider-Man, who was frantically shooting webs between tall buildings, seemingly trying to weave a giant web to settle down in.
However.
Sometimes reality and ideals have that tiny bit of difference.
"Roar!"
The Hulk accidentally crushed Black Widow into a fleshy pulp. It let out an angry roar, leaped up, and immediately grabbed Homelander in mid-air.
"Let go..."
Homelander hadn't even finished his sentence.
"Crack~"
He became the state Ian first saw him in.
Head separated from body.
The raging Hulk then fell back to the ground.
"What a surreal world. Homelander actually died as a superhero... My brain feels like it needs a stay in the ICU." Honestly, this truth was truly beyond Ian's imagination. His jaw was almost dislocated.
"When the good people completely turn bad, the original bad guys might not seem so bad anymore." Tony's projection looked at the Hulk. His slightly philosophical summary had just finished.
*Boom*
The Hulk, who was figuring out how to take off Homelander's pants, was suddenly attacked from behind. He collapsed dead before he could even react.
The large hole in his chest.
It was the one Ian had seen before.
"Whose heat vision is that fierce, to be comparable to my Father God's power?" Ian was startled. Following the direction of the heat vision, a figure in a yellow uniform silently hovered.
Golden energy, like flames, enveloped the man.
It was Sentry, Robert Reynolds. He was once called Marvel's counterfeit Superman, possessing the power of a million exploding suns, but in reality, he was Marvel's true cheat with infinite power.
"It seems Stark was right."
Sentry's face was stern. His gaze swept over the devastated world and finally settled on the Hulk's corpse. "Stark isn't crazy, this world is."
Sentry's voice was deep and calm. He slowly looked up at the sky. In an instant, dark clouds churned, and darkness spread like a tide, swallowing light, buildings, and even the air.
Everything seemed to be sealed away.
Where the terrifying shadow passed, everything sank into dark nothingness. Even Sentry himself was affected, but the man showed no emotion.
"I hope you continue to be right."
Before being completely swallowed.
Sentry's slowly disappearing face whispered softly.
Perhaps it was a coincidence.
The last direction he looked was precisely where Digital Tony's virtual projection was standing—Ian waved his hand and found that the other party's eyes did not turn toward him.
But this did not deter his performance.
"He agreed! I asked if I could touch his corpse just now! He agreed! Quick! Bring his body out!" Ian immediately looked at Digital Tony beside him.
"?????"
Digital Tony was utterly bewildered.
"I said it in my mind, and he agreed in his mind. You have to believe Sentry. He has that kind of ability to transcend time and space. He is the true sun in my heart."
The boy's voice was firm and resolute.
Absolutely certain.
***
Read 20 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666