Chapter 1365: The Call of the Stars (Part 8)

Before the circular Zen window, Stark and Strange both frowned as they looked at the black notebook on the table. Stark pinched it with his index finger and thumb, pressed it against his chin, and frowned, saying, "So, the owner of this notebook found several partners during his adventurous journey?"

"Yes, he calls them 'Witch, Strongman, Robot, Martial Artist, and Little Animal.' They sound a bit like card names."

"Each has its own characteristics," Stark evaluated, and then he added, "The capabilities are so comprehensive that it's as if they were deliberately arranged."

"There is no doubt that the team members, each with their own unique skills, provided greater security for the team's survival, but next, they will face even greater challenges."

Strange showed a smile. After he finished speaking, he lightly snapped his fingers, and the opened black notebook floated up, hovering to the right of the coffee table, while a map was spread out on the coffee table.

Strange opened his five fingers, and five points of light flew toward the pages of the black notebook. Immediately after, five vivid origami figures jumped out from between the pages.

The first one was wearing a long black robe, a pointed wizard's hat, and the tip of the staff in its hand was emitting brilliant light.

The second one was burly and strong, holding a shield, and landed on the table with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The third one's body was composed of several blocks connected by wires, its lower body was a sizzling track, and the antenna on its head was swaying left and right.

The fourth one had a lithe figure, wore an oriental-style kung fu robe, and had the Chinese character "Wu" (Martial) written on its back. It landed with a beautiful roundhouse kick.

The fifth one was a slender mustelid animal with a big, furry tail, nimbly weaving between the feet of the other members.

The last matchstick man carrying a travel bag landed in the center of the map.

Stark's eyes scanned the small paper figures and read their names in order: "Witch, Strongman, Robot, Martial Artist, Little Animal, and the owner of the notebook—let's call him the 'Protagonist'."

Strange nodded. His fingers lightly pressed on the tabletop, and magical radiance shot out from his fingertips like an electric current, connecting to the feet of each paper figure like leaf veins.

When the magical radiance wrapped around the bodies of all the paper figures, they seemed to have been given life. They moved vividly, looking at their bodies in surprise, and then turned to look at their companions.

Strange lifted the other end of the magical light, opened and closed his fingers, and threw it into the void toward the black notebook.

When the notebook and the several paper figures were connected by magical energy, they regained their sanity from their ignorance, scanned each other, then tightened their grip on the weapons in their hands, and looked toward the unknown journey ahead on the map.

Stark and Strange both leaned forward, bringing their heads close to the map, staring at the movements of the small paper figures. The small paper figures on the map seemed completely unaware of the two people observing them from mid-air, but instead started a chattering discussion.

"I think you are completely overthinking it. It looks like the point of light in front is what we need to investigate. We only need to walk a few more steps to get a result that is good enough to report back. In the time you've spent hesitating here, I would have already returned."

Wanda crossed her arms, and some anger seemed to have accumulated between her brows. The part of the young witch's personality inherited from her father was displayed vividly at this moment. Compared to acting cautiously, she preferred to cut the Gordian knot.

"I know, Wanda, I know you are strong, but my spider-sense has never been wrong. The thing in front must be very dangerous, even dangerous enough that we might not be able to handle it."

Riley's brows were furrowed deeper than Wanda's. He stepped forward and said in a somewhat tough posture, "I'm the one who dragged you here to do the mission, so I must be responsible for your safety. I cannot accept anyone getting hurt here, not even a little bit."

"But we've already walked this far." Wanda paced on the spot, very puzzled, and said, "As long as we walk a few more steps, the mission will be completed. You are overestimating its difficulty. We shouldn't waste any more time."

"Alright, alright, Wanda." Riley stretched out his two hands, wanting to appease Wanda, and said, "I called you here to complete my mission, but now I intend to give up this mission and the points, so we can leave now. There is no need to stay here at all."

"You are wasting our time!"

"I am not a prophet. I couldn't have predicted the situation here. I am considering your safety!"

As the argument between the two became more intense, the others had to join the fray. Xu Shangqi stood on Riley's side because he really felt uncomfortable.

Not just physically, his rich imagination made him see the surrounding darkness as too complex. He knew he was scaring himself, but he couldn't avoid feeling fear, just like when getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he would see everything in the house as near-human.

Jarvis stood on Wanda's side, and it wasn't entirely because of their private relationship. He was the one in the best condition here, especially his mental state. He had only recently acquired his emotion module and couldn't really understand what the others were panicking about. He had absolutely no similar feelings.

Both sides held their own opinions, and finally, all eyes fell on Star-Lord and the Rocket Raccoon on his shoulder. Quill sighed, looked at Wanda, then at Riley, and said:

"Seriously, for me, whether I can produce an investigation report to go back and report is not important, but I think we must figure out what happened here."

"If there isn't a detailed report, do you think S. H. I. E. L. D. or NASA will give up continuing to send people here? And if they don't have the same powerful strength as you, how many investigative agents or scientists can walk out of here alive?"

Quill's words happened to hit Riley's weak spot. His expression began to waver because he knew Quill's words made sense. If they returned in defeat, those who coveted the treasure wouldn't stop their investigative actions.

Even if the super-powered individuals present repeatedly emphasized to them how dangerous this place was, there would still be forces sending people here to die one after another. This was something no Spider-Man would want to see.

Seeing Riley waver, Wanda also slowed her tone. She said, "We don't have to rush over all at once. We can use magic or mechanical detection means to test it first. If there is danger, we can request support on the spot."

"If the danger is so great that we cannot solve it, then naturally there will be people who can solve it to handle it." Jarvis also chimed in, "Whether it's ordinary people or mutants, no one wants to see any uncontrollable danger appear on Earth. We are not fighting alone."

Riley sighed deeply. The rhythm of his spider-sense ringing didn't slow down, but he could only compromise. He lowered his head and said, "Alright, but we must conduct at least two rounds of checks before moving forward."

Quill stepped forward, patted Riley on the shoulder, and took out a set of equipment from his travel bag, which were a small flying saucer that could hover and a monitoring screen.

Quill snapped his fingers and said, "This is military equipment phased out by the Skrull Empire, bought by Yondu from the black market. Even if it's bathed in the energy of a stellar explosion, it can last for a while, enough to transmit the data back."

After speaking, he remotely controlled the small flying saucer to fly toward where the ball of light was. Everyone leaned forward to watch the image on the monitoring screen. The screen was pitch black, with nothing. After flying for a while, the small flying saucer approached the ball of light, and then it could no longer move forward.

【The problem of slow updates for new chapters finally has a solution on apps that can change sources. Download the source-changing app here to view the latest chapters of this book on multiple sites.】

"It looks like this is just a lamp?" Quill said, somewhat puzzled, "Apart from emitting light, no strange energy was detected. There is nothing behind it either, just an ordinary passage. Maybe we were a bit over-sensitive."

Seeing this, Wanda stepped forward, took a few deep breaths, and tried hard to concentrate. Red energy like ribbons spread toward the front. The faint red light illuminated the passage, but they still didn't find the monsters they had imagined in the passage.

After approaching the light, the red power ribbons wrapped around it, but it didn't trigger any strange reaction. The point of light just hovered there like a large light bulb.

"Hi, I thought it could make a big scene." Rocket Raccoon reached out his claws to touch his nose and said, "This might be a light bulb used by aliens for lighting. It's our own imagination that's too rich, insisting on thinking there's some monster behind it."

"The passage behind it looks very long. Maybe there are some rooms or something behind it. I think we need to hurry up."

No monster rushed out from the darkness, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Riley also shrugged and said, "Alright, I was nervous and over-sensitive. Let's go."

"Is your kind of superstitious sense okay?" Rocket Raccoon asked.

"That's not superstitious." Riley frowned, seemingly not knowing how to explain it, but he was already used to this feeling. Most people didn't trust things like sensing, thinking it might be a hallucination that appeared when mentally nervous.

To be honest, even Riley himself wasn't so sure that his spider-sense was definitely right, or rather, the genuine spider-sense might be right, but he was a clone after all, so it was hard to say if his program had errors.

With multiple verifications that there was no danger ahead, Riley tried hard to block out the buzzing in his mind and followed the team forward.

And as the slender passage gradually became smaller in their field of vision, two huge heads disappeared into the darkness. Strange withdrew his gaze, looked at Stark, and said, "They made a stupid decision."

Stark, however, said thoughtfully, "Have you heard of a type of fish in the deep sea called an 'anglerfish'?"

"Of course."

"People always say that the light bulb on the anglerfish's head is not a very clever trap, and those who fall for it are just some stupid fish."

"But from another perspective, the visual evolution of humans on land must be higher than that of fish in the deep sea. So from our perspective, we can't understand why some fish would only see the light bulb and not the terrifying giant mouth behind it."

Stark's eyes flickered, and he said in a low tone, "Perhaps sometimes, humans are also that group of stupid fish. Some aspects of us haven't evolved to the point where we can see the trap behind the light bulb."

Then, the two cast their eyes on the small figures on the map again. At this time, the Scarlet Witch walking at the very front had already approached the glowing light bulb.

"No, wait a minute! Wanda, don't go over there!"

Suddenly, a roar sounded in the passage. Riley clutched his head and shook it like a madman. The violent alarm of his spider-sense could no longer be ignored in any way, but it was too late.

The entire passage shook violently. Bright light swallowed all the darkness, but the light didn't arrive; there was only endless falling.

The originally bright ball of light suddenly turned into an extremely small dark hole, and the storm of power, like a deep-sea vortex, spun and rushed all the dregs into the lightless abyss.

The pattern formed by the vortex and the small black hole in the very center formed a pupil-like pattern. The gray eyes blinked, and Schiller, sitting in front of the desk, rubbed his tense wrists.

And at this time, another small figure jumped onto the desk. Spider-Ham sat on the edge of the desk, looking at Schiller, and said, "What is so special about the universe that the Spider-Totem portal you let me open leads to?"

"Special? Nothing special." Schiller shook his head, showed a smile, and then added, "... it's just especially dangerous." ===== CHAPTER 1366 =====

"Anything special? Nothing special at all." Shiler shook his head and revealed a smile, then added: "... It's just particularly dangerous."