Chapter 1543: The Sun Chaser (Part 20)

Strange frowned slightly. He had only cast the magic as a casual gesture and hadn't paid attention to the operational details, so he didn't know if his magic had malfunctioned.

Vortex, the poor scapegoat called over for crisis management, saw Shiler's statement and his eyes lit up. He reached out, cleared his throat, and said.

"I already told you all, the timeline and latitude lines are currently unstable, and Oblivion is urgently repairing them. You'd best not count on magic functioning normally, especially magic that requires energy transmission—who knows which universe it might end up in."

Strange looked at him with some suspicion. He had actually long discovered that Vortex's life level was also very high, at least much higher than that of a human. And among the Five Great Entities, Oblivion was the most mysterious; his sudden appearance to inform the two of them could not be a trivial matter.

More importantly, Strange felt that Shiler was currently notorious throughout the universe, and few deities were willing to get involved with him, or even appear before him. It could be said that it had reached the point of "Where Shiler is, deities are forbidden."

For Oblivion to be willing to risk being noticed by Shiler one day and woven into his "Super Yarn Ball" plan, just to appear before him, it meant the situation was likely very serious. Perhaps magic usage across the entire universe had been affected.

Strange's original intention wasn't actually to use the severed hand to provoke Shiler. His true purpose for this move was similar to Stark's initial line of thought: the point was to drag Shiler here and force him into withdrawal.

Stark could at most force a few months of withdrawal; Shiler's threshold would indeed drop because of it, but because the time was too short, it wouldn't actually drop by much. Strange, however, could keep dragging it out here with Shiler until Shiler's threshold dropped to a safe range.

If magic couldn't be used, even better, Strange thought. If portals couldn't be used, he would be trapped here, and if Shiler didn't give up on finding a way to treat his severed hand, then Shiler would also be trapped here. Naturally, the longer they were trapped, the better.

Thus, Strange didn't pursue the details of the magical projection, but instead nodded along with Shiler's words and said: "Yes, let you see the excitement of a universe without you; you can reminisce about the past."

Shiler rolled his eyes, fiddling with the teacup in his hand out of boredom, glancing at the content on the screen from time to time. The magic screen's camera had been filming Hulk's face the whole time, and since the place where the two of them were fighting was in the not-so-developed Bronx, looking at the street view, it was no different from New York a few years ago.

But soon, Shiler discovered something wrong. Was Spider-Man appearing a bit too frequently in this battle? How come one moment the camera panned and it was a Spider-Man, and the next moment it panned and it was another Spider-Man? Was there really only one Spider-Man here?

Shiler narrowed his eyes and stared closely at the screen. He soon discovered that the Spider-Men's attire and combat styles were somewhat different. Seeing his expression suddenly turn serious, Vortex felt a tightness in his heart.

Just as Vortex was urgently thinking about how to explain, Shiler said as if suddenly enlightened: "Has Nick's cosmic intelligence organization already taken effect so quickly? Has the Spider-Army already begun to interfere with the timelines of other universes?"

Strange blew on the tea in his hand and said: "If I remember correctly, Nick left S. H. I. E. L. D. for a period of time precisely because of his cosmic intelligence work. He wasn't just plotting for our universe?"

"Of course." Shiler nodded and said, withdrawing his gaze from the screen to explain: "At the very beginning, Nick treated the Time Variance Authority base as a branch of S. H. I. E. L. D., with the goal of conducting intelligence work throughout the entire universe to prepare humanity for stepping into the cosmos."

"But in reality, this was just a cover." Shiler spun the teacup in his hand and said: "Nick's ambition didn't stop at our universe, especially after dealing with more and more Spider-Men from different universes. He particularly lamented the combat power lost due to civil wars in those universes, such as Hulk."

"In some universes, Hulk was exiled into space due to certain events, and one tragedy triggered a series of tragedies. Nick would stomp his feet in frustration when he heard Spider-Man tell these stories—if every universe exiled their Hulk to this universe, wouldn't we have hundreds or thousands of Dr. Bruce Banners to work for us?"

Vortex beside him gasped, Strange sighed helplessly, and Shiler curled his lips and said: "Loki evaluated Nick's plan as 'picking up trash,' and Loki is obviously the kind of person who lies to others, telling them something is trash, and then when that idiot really throws the trash out, he happily picks it back up."

"Nick thought Loki was too radical, and Loki thought Nick was too conservative. The two of them compromised and formulated a Multiversal Talent Recruitment and Cultivation Plan."

"Simply put, it's using the Time Variance Authority and Spider-Totems to shuttle through the various universes of the Great World, sending Spider-Men or Time Variance Authority employees to mediate the conflicts within those universes, and incidentally, recruiting those talented people who caused the conflicts to our side."

"Some superheroes in many universes aren't unsuitable to be superheroes; they're just unsuitable to be superheroes in that universe. The reason they were persecuted was just that the universe wasn't inclusive enough. Taking them away is good for everyone—that's Loki's take."

"And Nick insists that these universes should pay for it, because we helped them solve a big problem."

"We helped them solve a big problem!" In the secret base of the S. W. O. R. D., the real Nick Fury narrowed his eyes and said in a firm tone: "And now, it's time for them to help us."

Steve looked down at the list in his hand and said: "For some time now, I have been using the time machine with the help of Kang the Conqueror to travel to various universes, helping the superheroes there, and convincing quite a few people to come here for visits and exchanges."

"Thanks to Spider-Man's endorsement, his good reputation has made many superheroes lower their guard. The reputation of the Central Universe has gradually spread throughout the major universes, and many superheroes who heard about our universe from Spider-Man are also full of curiosity about us."

"After the emergency plan was activated, I contacted all the universes I could reach. The number of superhero groups willing to come collectively exceeds three hundred, including individual heroes, there are thousands of superheroes with combat capabilities..."

A cold glint flashed in Nick's eyes, and he said in a low voice: "No matter who wants my life, I don't believe that with thousands of superheroes scattered into New York, we can't find a mastermind?"

"Notify them to depart immediately. No matter who is causing trouble behind the scenes, find him and kill him!"

Adam was currently running away, but not to hide from Shiler, but because he had been discovered by Jarvis.

Adam was immune to all human detectors, and the humans he controlled were also completely immune to all detection devices. However, he was not immune to a super artificial intelligence forcibly calculating his possible locations through the incident site and behavioral logic after he caused trouble, and he was especially not immune to the traps set by the Scarlet Witch.

After discovering that Nick might be in mortal danger, Jarvis hadn't been idle either. His way of finding the mastermind was different from other superheroes. He directly collected surveillance data from all over New York, carefully observed the changes in the limbs and expressions of all controlled people, compared their background information, timing of appearance, transition time, and other factors, and then through an endless exhaustive method, ranked the mastermind's next possible locations by probability.

Theoretically speaking, as long as the opponent was not a complete chaos creature and possessed a certain behavioral logic, they would inevitably fall for this trick. Building models and big data analysis were the strengths of intelligent life.

Coupled with the Scarlet Witch, whose mental stability had been greatly improved after returning from the Cancerverse and whose power control had reached a new level, the New Warriors team became the first hero team to see the true face of the mastermind.

"I have collected facial data left by humans all over the world for nearly a thousand years and compared it with the culprit. I haven't found any matching human."

In front of the huge projection screen with Adam's photo, information light streams flashed in Jarvis's eyes. While analyzing, he said: "Behavioral pattern analysis shows that the opponent is most likely an ancient human, a human creation, or an extreme humanoid alien civilization."

And the Scarlet Witch was still a bit annoyed. She reached out and hammered the table, saying: "Just one step too slow, and he ran away. I really should have acted sooner!"

"If even you can't catch him, then I really can't think of anyone else who can subdue him." Ben Reilly said with a frown.

"Let's first submit his photo to S. H. I. E. L. D. and have S. H. I. E. L. D. issue a wanted notice, then continue to head to the locations where he might appear. I believe that as we have more contact with him, we will definitely be able to find more ways to track him."

"It seems that's all we can do for now." Wanda said with some annoyance.

Just then, Ben Reilly's phone rang. He looked down at the Spider-APP, then widened his eyes and used his finger to zoom in on the notification he had just received.

"The Multiversal Superhero Team will arrive to support us. Nick Fury demands that we collect more characteristics about the mastermind in the shortest possible time, and the heroes from other universes will help us hunt him down!"

The few people in the room looked at each other in shock. Wanda gritted her teeth and stomped her foot, saying: "I don't want to be looked down upon by people from other universes. Jarvis, tell me the location where he is most likely to appear. I'll find a way to leave a permanent mark on him!"

Adam, who had escaped the Scarlet Witch's sight, had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the host on the building's screen, who had been broadcasting entertainment news, being driven away. Another host broadcasting emergency news rushed to the front of the stage and said with rapid speech.

"Breaking news: S. H. I. E. L. D. has issued a wanted notice for a highly dangerous supernatural criminal, 'Nameless,' within New York City, and is issuing a global warrant. If any citizens find any clues, please call the S. H. I. E. L. D. contact number. The suspect's photo is being released below..."

Adam widened his eyes, watching his own face appear on the screen, while on the other side, the red and green giants were rushing toward this side.

Adam knew that Shiler was watching these two giants fight. If his face appeared in the background of the shot, wouldn't that be self-incrimination? He immediately scrambled to use magic to interfere with the screen's operation, causing the screen in front of him to go black temporarily.

But the next second, Jarvis in the New Warriors base pressed his temple and narrowed his eyes, saying: "He moved the electronic equipment. Caught him."

Instantly, the rich Scarlet Power descended. Seeing the situation was bad, Adam turned and ran. He was not bound by time, so no matter how fast the Scarlet Witch's movements were, it was useless. He directly paused his own time and teleported out of the encirclement of the Scarlet Power.

But perhaps he was too confident in his own abilities. When he teleported out, he didn't notice that when his power passed through the Scarlet Power, a wisp of Scarlet Power had wrapped around him. Instantly, a mark that only the Scarlet Witch could see lit up on top of Adam's head.

Time resumed. The Scarlet Witch, who had slowly landed on the road, looked at the empty street and revealed a mysterious smile.

Running wildly all the way, Adam, who had moved away from the Scarlet Witch and Shiler's field of vision, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He once again checked the situation of various heroes along the timeline.

Just as he was watching intently, with a "swish," a shiny shield with the Stars and Stripes cut through the air and flew straight toward his head.

Adam teleported to dodge the surprise attack. Turning his head, he saw Captain America standing on the edge of the building looking at him.

"Don't waste your effort, Captain. You can't possibly hurt me."

As soon as the words fell, more than sixty Stars and Stripes shields hit his skull at a rate of one per second.

Only hearing "bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang," there was a traffic jam on the ground when taking off, and a penguin jam on the ice when landing.