Chapter 571: The Iron Man: Steel Body

Blue Star Blue Star →:: xbiqugu

"The immediate danger has been neutralized. The captain just sent word that he was attacked this morning and only woke up in the suburbs an hour ago."

"The agents originally assigned to secure Loki-related evidence, including Rumlow, were also attacked by unidentified individuals, but they are not in life danger."

Tony Stark took a deep breath, then nodded, looking at the wreckage around him—he roughly understood what had happened.

If the universe he was in was the one from *Avengers: Endgame*, where the Avengers traveled back in time to borrow the Infinity Stones, creating a timeline branch.

Then from the very beginning, he had messed up the normal spacetime progression.

"From that disgusting barbecue restaurant, they had already arrived by then."

Tony, Ant-Man, Captain America, and the Hulk, who had come from the future to the present, had already arrived in New York when the Avengers assembled to fight the Chitauri army.

They had been watching in secret all along.

Without the chat group, I should have started cleaning up the mess with the Avengers five days ago, right after eating that barbecue.

According to the normal timeline, I should have handed over the Mind Stone scepter that same day, and the future Avengers would have secretly come to Stark Tower.

Then, I would have faced Tony from the future ordering Ant-Man to pull the reactor plug, and by sheer accident, the Tesseract would have been picked up by Loki.

But all of this went wrong from the very start.

The moment I gained the chat group, I returned to Stark Tower first, then found an excuse to delay all subsequent steps.

From that moment on, this group of Avengers from the future had already noticed that the timeline differed from normal history!

Although I don't know what they did these past few days, by the time of the Infinity Stones handover today, they had enough time to prepare and changed their plan.

"Steve replaced Steve."

The lone Captain America was knocked out and kidnapped by these people, allowing the future Steve to openly join the operation and walk boldly into Stark Industries.

"They also killed Rumlow."

That way, both the Mind Stone and the Space Stone would be carried on my person, and Captain America wouldn't have to run into the elevator shouting 'Hail Hydra.'

Okay, Tony could understand up to here.

But the problem was this.

"Who the hell are these people?" Tony covered his mouth with one hand and crossed his arms with the other.

Zombie universe?

Sorcerer from the Dark Dimension?

Tony stared at the destruction left by the unknown attackers in the lobby, thought for a moment, and decided to ask his friends from other worlds for help investigating.

Maybe it's from some new comic—damn, this plot won't be connecting to Earth-2149, the zombie universe, will it?

Hawkeye, who had just arrived to assist, said: "The fake Captain America has vanished, and the Loki-related evidence has been taken."

"Are you certain no one was bitten by that zombie monster?" Tony Stark nodded and said:

"We must disinfect every place with blood, corpses, or hair—eliminate any possibility of zombie virus spread. I don't want Stark Tower turning into Umbrella Corporation."

"We've set up a perimeter, but one member of the Asian tour group had close contact with the monster," Hawkeye pointed to a bus parked by the roadside.

Tony looked out the floor-to-ceiling window and saw the revolting sludge of brain matter and congealed blood still beneath the tire.

"They've already contacted the embassy, so this incident involves diplomatic issues," Hawkeye suggested:

"They're tourists who came specifically to visit Stark Tower—the bus even has a Iron Man model on display."

"Maybe you could step in and calm them down, get them to voluntarily cooperate with our physical checks and quarantine—it'd save a lot of trouble."

Tony nodded, sidestepped Hulk, who was licking chocolate sauce off his fingers, and walked with Hawkeye toward the tour bus.

Tony: "If they don't cooperate, you'll make them cooperate by force, right?"

Hawkeye: "This is the necessary procedure to demonstrate democracy."

The two arrived at the bus; armed guards with heavy weapons had already surrounded the area.

"I hope I didn't scare my Asian fans."

Tony's lips curled upward into a practiced smile: "Hello, hi, kou ji wa, I'm Tang Ni… Tony."

After slightly adjusting his tone, worried Tony climbed the bus steps.

As steam spread, a pungent spicy odor filled his nose, mixed with the scents of various foods.

He could identify them: hot pot, instant noodles, hamburgers, barbecue, fried rice.

"Wow, hey friends, can I join?" Tony greeted with a joking opening line.

Su Lin, drinking cola; Xiao Yan, grilling skewers; Xing, eating instant noodles; Hiyari, reading Marvel comics; Huai Shi, watching Weigong Shilang cook—and Weigong Shilang himself, cooking—all turned their attention to Tony.

"How did you know it was us?" Su Lin was surprised.

Tony kept smiling, while behind him came Hawkeye's urgent voice.

"Stark, don't block the entrance—let me in too."

Hawkeye tried to squeeze through the gap beside Tony Stark, matching Tony's smile with a scowl:

"Listen, I don't care where you're from—pfft!"

*Swoosh—Thud—*

Tony maintained his stiff smile, retracted his left foot, and patted his pant leg; behind him came the sound of Hawkeye flying backward and smashing through a police car's front windshield.

He glanced at the unknown man asleep in the driver's seat, tape over his mouth, hands still resting on the steering wheel, then pressed the door release button on the dashboard.

Hawkeye clutched his chest with one hand, raised the other toward the tour bus, then let it drop helplessly.

Screeching sirens echoed through the street; a fat white officer, coffee spilled all over him, bit into a donut.

"Anyone who says Iron Man is just metal—I'll shove my gun up their ass."

Inside the tour bus, which could hold about twenty-two people.

The moment the door closed, the interior space unfolded from its folded form into a spacious hall, complete with a stove, TV, coffee table, and sofa.

On the TV, *Avengers: Endgame* was playing; Madoka Kaname, Teacher Yan Sen, and Shi Hao were watching, eating popcorn.

"Does anyone want a maple walnut pie or a maple waffle?"

Wei Gong Shilang pulled a baking tray out of the oven; everyone except Su Tuoni raised their hands.

"Mr. Stark?"

"One waffle, no Marvel, thank you."

Tony Stark nodded, keeping his earlier smile.

Wei Gong Shilang, having never heard of Marvel as an ingredient, gave him a strange look, then placed a waffle drizzled with chocolate sauce before him.

"Would you be interested in visiting 1700 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City?" Tony Stark said with sincere earnestness.

"What's that place?" Su Lin, scrolling on his phone without looking up, asked: "A famous tourist attraction in New York?"

Tony Stark said seriously: "It's the DC editorial office. I swear it's more interesting than Marvel Stark Tower."

Su Lin was in the middle of an online argument with a user whose avatar was a six-pointed star flag; hearing this, he put down his phone and shook his head with a look of mild disgust.

"Too dark."

"That's exactly why we need light."

Tony Stark interlaced his fingers, raised his fists above his head, and assumed a pleading posture.

"You must have misunderstood something," Su Lin's lip twitched. "We're here by pure coincidence."

"Everything is coincidence—yet fate is destined to produce such coincidences," said Tony Stark.

One coincidence? Every single one is a coincidence?

Even a three-year-old Tony Stark had an IQ higher than an average adult—he wouldn't be fooled like a child.

Everyone said they came to the Cycle Space to complete missions, yet this group rode a tour bus all the way from another universe to the base of Stark Industries Tower?!

Su Lin: "Maybe you should check the group messages."

Tony: "I could take out that bat kid."

"I should give you a specialist appointment."

With his extensive medical experience, Su Lin immediately issued a diagnosis of hysteria to Tony Stark—this was already a level beyond rational hearing.

"I just helped you kill a zombie ant-man, friend. Your world is on the brink," said Su Lin.

Tony Stark nodded in agreement, picked up a fork, speared a piece of waffle, bit into it—the rich chocolate and fragrant baked wheat spread through his mouth.

Yes, soon to be devoured as food.

"At least give me time to do it myself."

Tony Stark tried to stall with negotiation.

"Oh God," Su Lin rolled his eyes. "You really want to be the Multiversal Devourer?"

On TV, Captain America was lifting Mjolnir, rallying his spirits.

Avengers, assemble!

Star, watching the movie, slowly raised his baseball bat: "Multiversal Devourer, assemble!"

Tony Stark turned his gaze to Su Lin, raised both hands: "No god please no."

"The kid's just playing a meme—what's the harm?" Su Lin tossed him a Cycle Wristwatch—the leftover from before Tony Stark's departure from the Cycle Space.

"Put it on."

An alley beside the Flushing Post Office in Queens, New York.

Three Black men pushed open a rusted iron gate and entered this second-largest alleyway of Tang Renjie.

"That Tony Stark just punched me seventy-two times, elbowed me thirty-six times, and slapped me eighteen times—in one second!"

Three cloaked Black men moved through alleys in the slums, their physical forms gradually fading into flickering, ethereal states.

They began passing through walls, moving through Chinese restaurants, massage parlors, barbershops, and homes—but the people they passed ignored them completely.

As if these three did not exist in this world.

"The zombie ant-man I possessed still had the Ten Rings spell protecting him—even a nuclear explosion wouldn't touch him, yet something erased the magic outright!?"

The Black man previously wearing the Ant-Man suit was emotionally agitated:

"The Hydra dagger I used to extract the zombie virus shattered before it even pierced him—that was my companion since my first dungeon run!"

"Am I really assassinating Iron Man? Wait—isn't it reasonable that Iron Man has an iron body?!"

"Fukc! What the hell is going on with this timeline?!"

As the chattering Black man grew more agitated, their forms trembled violently; one Black woman with a flattened nose slammed directly into a rosewood table.

The table shook, incense ash scattered, and the three statues on the altar rang out.

Voices in Chinese came from outside the door—someone had noticed the disturbance and was coming to investigate.

"Shut your mouth and maintain the Astral Resonance!" the Black woman snapped, losing patience.

"It's pointless—the zombie ant-man is dead, and the zombie virus didn't spread," a human-shaped mass of black smoke rasped.

"Woli, we must leave this timeline for now!"

Silence fell. The Black woman with the flattened nose clenched her teeth, twisted her mouth into a grimace, then pulled from her chest a device bearing the TVA logo.

Woli pressed a few buttons on it—a golden portal opened, and the three were about to vanish from this world.

At that exact moment, an Asian elder with a topknot and withered white hair walked in, shouting:

"Who are you?!"

Woli glanced at the elder, then walked straight into the golden portal without looking back; the black smoke figure shot a tendril of dark energy toward the old man.

In an instant.

The three statues on the altar seemed to come alive—their ink-painted eyes flickered with a faint white light.

From void to substance, faster than thought, a violet lightning bolt—gathering all the thunder between heaven and earth—cleared yin and purged corruption, opening a new age!

The blade's radiance swept through—the black smoke figure vanished, the Black man's spirit and form were utterly obliterated.

The black woman Woli transformed into a dense swarm of tadpole-like symbols that drilled into the golden portal and the air.

Yet chaos grew worse, the Five Elements inverted; she gathered herself again, staring dumbfounded at her restored body and the figure floating before her.

A statue, solemn and remote, its age indiscernible.

Before her appeared a heavenly abyss; the void, like a curtain, was violently torn open, growing larger and larger.

Boom—

The statue flew back onto the altar; the incense chamber returned to stillness.

Smoke from a blend of resin and incense wood drifted from an antique-style censer; the old man raised his arms, glancing left and right, then gazed at the three statues upon the altar, his feet forming a "eight" stance, his hands clasping Zi-Wu internally and forming Taiji externally as he bowed.

"Ancestors have manifested!"

The spirit plaques bore the inscriptions: "Shangqing, Yusheng, Taiqing."

Only when he raised his head did he realize that the Yusheng Yuan Shi Tianzun among the Three Pure Ones no longer bore the folk image, but had instead changed.

Become somewhat younger?

"Yuan Shi Tianzun"

A woman's voice sounded behind the old man; before he could rise, he turned in shock and saw a bald woman clad in a monk's robe standing precisely where the three "black intruders" had been.

"I'm here only to investigate some matters."

The bald woman knelt down, and a gem pendant on her chest, antique in appearance, emitted a deep green glow.

Amidst the blurred lights and shadows, she instantly extended her hand forward, then retracted it—between her two fingers now rested two dim, irregular shards of light.

The bald woman stared at the two shards in surprise for a moment, then gave the old man a slight nod: "Apologies for the disturbance."

A circular portal to a snowy mountain opened; after she stepped into it and vanished, the old man looked around, bewildered.

"How did I get here?"