But whether Tony accepted it or not, the fact was that as the 'Marvel Savior' in both senses of the word, he had indeed played a complete supporting role this time under Ryan's protagonist halo.
And a supporting role who didn't even get a camera shot during the final decisive battle...
Even Captain America got a highlight moment while holding Mjolnir.
However, for Tony, wasn't this actually a kind of luck?
At least this time he didn't have to die by snapping his fingers to save the Universe, Pepper wouldn't lose her husband, Morgan wouldn't lose her father, and Stark Industries wouldn't have most of its resources seized by the government with Tony around.
This time, with Ryan's intervention, a living Tony could truly protect everything he owned in person.
It wasn't like the useless assurance Captain America gave Tony before the time travel in the sacred timeline.
After all, as the Ancient One said, the Avengers simply didn't have the ability to guarantee any 'assurances' they made.
Whether it was protecting the Infinity Stones or protecting everything Tony owned...
As for the Avengers who had returned to life, Ryan didn't have much interest in befriending them.
He had already maxed out his favorability with the three core figures of this Universe's Avengers—the Big Three: Tony, Captain America, and Thor. Among the others, only Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch could make Ryan take a second look.
But it was just a couple of looks; he had no intention of going up to strike up a conversation.
After all, the Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch of this Universe were already very mature and wouldn't be easily controlled by him.
Instead of wasting effort on them, Ryan would rather think about how to trick the predecessors of the Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch from his own Universe—Strange and Wanda—into joining his Spider Family.
However, even though he didn't take the initiative to talk to them, Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch actively approached Ryan.
Doctor Strange approached because he wanted to understand something Captain America said while explaining things to them—something about Ryan saying the rules of time were different now, making the future he observed with the Time Stone inaccurate, which left him completely baffled.
Doctor Strange saw that Captain America also seemed to only half-understand what he was explaining, so he simply asked Ryan, who was standing nearby.
To this, Ryan simply replied indifferently that it was said by the Ancient One of his Universe, and part of the reason he came here was because the Ancient One had requested it.
Just those two sentences immediately made Doctor Strange shut his mouth with a complex look in his eyes.
'Saying that I am the best among us, but in the end, aren't you still one step ahead of me...'
Finally, Doctor Strange made a request that caught Ryan a bit by surprise.
He requested that Ryan help the version of himself in the other Universe embark on the path of a sorcerer early, until that other version of himself took over the Ancient One's responsibilities.
Ryan was naturally puzzled by this request.
One must know that the prerequisite for becoming a sorcerer was to first discard one's former materialist beliefs once, which was undoubtedly painful.
Doctor Strange, however, had a faint smile on his lips and simply said, "I just want her to see the beauty of this World for a few more years as a free person, rather than a bird in a cage..."
You silently protected the Earth for thousands of years, even at the cost of using the dark powers you loathed, but you never had a life of your own...
In my Universe, you didn't get to have one, but in another Universe, you deserve it...
"When it comes to screwing over yourselves, you sorcerers are truly ruthless..."
Ryan gave Doctor Strange a thumbs up and agreed to his request.
See, he agreed to this himself; it's not that I want to play dirty.
When he got back, he would have Kingpin arrange for someone to crash into the Strange of his Universe and leave him crippled, then send him to Kamar-Taj for further studies.
After he finished his studies, he'd pull him into the Spider Family as a Strange Spider-Man.
Hehe, a perfect plan!
After all, although Doctor Strange was sometimes unreliable, his strength was unquestionable; he could at least rank in the top three of the Avengers.
By making him one of his own, he would be more at ease when he left Earth in the future.
Uh, probably...
After Doctor Strange, the second person to approach him was the Scarlet Witch, Wanda.
For this newly resurrected Wanda, time was still stuck at the moment when the Vision of this Universe had just died from Thanos squeezing the 'pimple' off his head, so the sadness in her eyes and on her body had not yet faded.
Moreover, Ryan's Spider-Sense felt a hidden sense of threat from Wanda. It wasn't the kind of threat Thanos posed—which was threatening but not overwhelmingly so—but the kind of life-and-death danger that could truly threaten his life if it fully erupted.
This point made Ryan instantly take Wanda seriously and he began to secretly scheme in his heart.
But he wasn't scheming against the Wanda of this Universe, but rather the Wanda of his own Universe.
How about... playing a nurturing game?
Nurturing a second female member for the Spider Family?
Chaos Spider?
The Wanda of this Universe approached Ryan naturally to ask if Ryan, who possessed the six infinity stones, could resurrect the deceased Vision.
To this, Ryan shook his head regretfully.
Because Vision, as a combined creation of Tony, Dr. Banner, Jarvis, and the Mind Stone, simply had no soul. He was a completely new existence, so how could he be resurrected?
Although Wanda had expected this, her eyes couldn't help but dim. After saying thank you to Ryan, she turned and prepared to leave alone in desolation.
Everyone has returned, except for my lover...
Looking at Wanda's lonely back, Ryan suddenly remembered that later, Wanda would be driven to complete corruption by those idiots from S.W.O.R.D. created by Nick Fury, becoming an even more terrifying 'relative-seeking' version of the Scarlet Witch who would traverse the Multiverse.
Ryan finally understood that more than half of the major crises in the Marvel Universe were related to that piece of work, Nick Fury.
In Avengers 1, it was because Nick Fury insisted on studying the Tesseract that Loki was able to descend via the Tesseract, thereby bypassing Earth's sanctum protection and starting the Battle of New York.
In Captain America 2, it was also because of Nick Fury's incompetence that the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. was infiltrated by HYDRA like a sieve. The HYDRA hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D. launched the Insight Project, nearly eliminating all targets worldwide that posed a threat to HYDRA in one fell swoop.
In Secret Invasion, it was again because of Nick Fury's indulgence of the Skrullss that millions of Skrulls refugees were hidden on Earth, nearly causing Earth to change hands from humans.
In WandaVision, it was similarly because of the S.W.O.R.D. created by Nick Fury, which dissected and studied Vision's body. That idiot white pig Director he appointed also deliberately provoked Wanda, who only wanted to bury Vision's body, leading to the Westview incident and the subsequent Multiverse relative-seeking journey.
Especially the fully corrupted Wanda at the end; if she hadn't been awakened by her conscience and chosen to bury herself, Ryan really didn't know who could have stopped her at that time.
Since Ryan already intended to develop a deep relationship with this Universe, even if it was just to prevent this Wanda from attacking his Universe after turning evil, he couldn't let this Wanda walk the path of self-destruction.
When Wanda had only walked a short distance and hadn't completely disappeared, Ryan suddenly called out to her back, "Hey, Ms. Maximoff, do you want to go to another Universe to see your brother?"
Wanda's figure paused, and she slowly turned back toward Ryan, a hint of light returning to her eyes: "My... brother?"