Chapter 2103

Nick Fury certainly wouldn't go to this time point that's already on the brink of triggering a third world war, not to mention how difficult it would be to fix things; if he spent a lot of time mediating the life-and-death duel between the two Iron Men, Bruce would probably still cause him some trouble.

So before leaving, he reset the timeline back to when Bruce first arrived in this universe.

As for Shiler's other actions, after learning that this universe's Spider-Man had gone missing, Shiler didn't immediately go searching the universe, but began his own reasoning.

To straighten out the sequence of events once and for all, we still have to start from when Shiler pulled the White Can from the future.

Initially, because the White Can had Tony Stark's wisdom but no moral底线, Shiler pulled him over to create an engine to drive the universe, and due to insufficient computing power, the White Can spread a virus to steal computing power from other universes.

Shiler also didn't pin all his hopes on the White Can, or rather, the White Can's universe-driving engine plan was actually a backup plan; his true goal was the Beyonders.

But it would be a waste to just leave the White Can there staring at the engine being built, so Shiler carried out a series of phishing schemes, getting the White Can to aim his spear at Owen, easily finding the Beyonders' location.

During this, there was an interlude: when the White Can came to Shiler's universe to find him, they had a series of conversations, which could also be called mutual probing, manipulation, and counter-manipulation.

During this process, Shiler received a message in the Spider APP from the Amazing Spider-Man, saying he had killed Captain America.

This "he" actually refers to the Ultimate Iron Man, that is, the White Can.

And according to the White Can himself, he was able to come to Shiler's universe through Spider-Man's channel, and before using this channel, he had a minor disagreement with Spider-Man.

After that, Shiler never heard from Spider-Man again, and after checking the timeline with Spider Silk, Shiler found that during this period, no other Spider-Man had seen the Amazing Spider-Man, meaning that from then on, the Amazing Spider-Man disappeared.

So perhaps there's a possibility: because the message the Amazing Spider-Man sent to Shiler almost ruined the White Can's plans and let the White Can know that Spider-Man had witnessed Captain America's death, likely becoming a witness to the murder, so Spider-Man was silenced by the White Can.

But the most obvious flaw in this is that later, when the White Can built a time machine to go back to the past, he said in that message left behind that because he killed Captain America, Spider-Man regarded him as an enemy, meaning Spider-Man was still alive at that time.

This is strange: Bruce arrived, became Spider-Man, causing Captain America's death, causing the White Can to go back to the past.

But only if the Amazing Spider-Man died could Bruce become Spider-Man, cause the White Can to go back to the past, yet at that time point when the White Can went back to the past, the Amazing Spider-Man was still alive—this is clearly a contradiction.

But Shiler seized on the key point.

Please note: the White Can went back to the past, but that past should still have another White Can.

Because at that time, the Despair Virus had already been released in two phases, which obviously couldn't have been done by the righteous Iron Man; the time point he returned to was when Shiler had already replaced the righteous Iron Man with the White Can.

So in the future that returned to the past, the White Can's first enemy to deal with should be his present self—where did that present White Can go?

The answer is that he was talking with Shiler from that time, engaging in manipulation and counter-manipulation, and came to Shiler's universe through the Spider Totem's channel, not in his own universe.

That's why the future White Can who returned to the past didn't run into his present self—because at that time, the present White Can went to clang with other Iron Cans.

And while the present White Can was finding Shiler and talking with him, Spider-Man sent a message saying he had killed Captain America.

Note: Spider-Man said he killed Captain America, not that he discovered Captain America's corpse—meaning Spider-Man likely witnessed the White Can killing Captain America firsthand.

But when he sent that message, the present White Can was right in front of Shiler, and from Shiler's observation of his demeanor and actions at that moment, the shock was genuine.

Just as he said, at that time the White Can had no motive to kill Captain America—he had just released two phases of the virus and then killed the national hero; isn't that just asking for trouble for himself?

So Captain America was killed by the future White Can.

The most interesting part: the future White Can came back to save Captain America, but after all that fuss, it was he who killed Captain America.

So why would the future White Can kill Captain America?

Because Captain America had set up a death flag, telling the newly become Spider-Man Bruce, "With great power comes great responsibility," so he was almost certainly doomed.

The future White Can might have sought out Captain America to protect him, but because of this death flag, something went wrong, leading to Captain America's death, which the Amazing Spider-Man witnessed.

But then another problem arises: the Amazing Spider-Man died, causing Bruce to become the new Spider-Man, causing Captain America's death, yet the Amazing Spider-Man witnessed Captain America's death—this makes no sense.

But Shiler received that message via the Spider APP, without video-calling Spider-Man or seeing him in person—was the sender really Spider-Man?

The wonder of the Spider APP is that non-Spider-Man users can't use it, because its unlock relies on Spider-Sense, but if the user is another Spider-Man, and specifically one who inherited the Amazing Spider-Man's Spider-Man identity?

Put plainly, could the person sending Shiler that message be Spider-Man Bruce Wayne?

Let's go back to the beginning: Bruce came to this universe, the Amazing Spider-Man died, Bruce became the new Spider-Man, Bruce made Captain America set up a death flag.

The future White Can killed Captain America, the new Spider-Man Bruce witnessed all this, and via the Spider APP sent Shiler the message: "He killed Captain America."

This makes sense: the Amazing Spider-Man didn't die and come back to life; the sender of the message and the one who opposed the White Can after Captain America's death were actually the new Spider-Man, Bruce Wayne.

It's not strange that Bruce would do this—Captain America was his mentor, his position like Uncle Ben to Peter Parker; even if we go ten thousand steps back, Bruce also knows Captain America is a hero, while the White Can might be the mastermind behind the scenes, possibly targeting him—this would be normal.

Another piece of evidence is that Shiler received the message sent by Spider-Man.

At first glance, there seems to be no problem, but upon closer thought, it's off: if the sender was the Amazing Spider-Man, and the purpose was to seek rescue or help, he should have messaged Nick Fury, not Shiler.

To most Spider-Men, Shiler is just a psychologist; their real comrades are other Spider-Men, and the one who's always helped Spider-Men is Nick.

But if we switch to Bruce Wayne, it makes sense: it's not that he wanted to message Shiler, but that he only knows Shiler, or rather, in this list, he thinks only Shiler has the ability to solve the current trouble.

After all, Bruce previously told Shiler he'd heard of him, and what he heard was obviously not a good reputation—basically, rumors ranging from Shiler destroying the universe to kicking over trash cans at his doorstep.

Getting back on track, since the timeline is now clear, there's a time point that becomes very important: what happened after the Amazing Spider-Man opened the door for the present White Can?

Using the Spider Totem to open the channel, letting the present White Can come to Shiler's universe—this was definitely done by the Amazing Spider-Man, because Bruce Wayne doesn't know what the Spider Totem is, nor could he use its channel, so it could only have been the Amazing Spider-Man.

So at that time, the Amazing Spider-Man was still alive; the question is, until when did he live before dying?

We need to see when the Amazing Spider-Man opened the channel.

Besides Nick being able to query the Spider Totem, there's another person who can investigate the Spider Totem channel opening records: that's Spider Silk of the Spider Legion.

Or rather, originally opening the Spider Totem channel was Spider Silk's privilege, but later, as the Spider Legion grew stronger and Spider-Men traveled between universes more frequently, Nick used part of the Spider Totem permissions to let all Spider-Men do this.

But later, the reasons for Spider-Men crossing universes became too varied—sometimes forgetting things and needing to cross five or six times—Nick found this severely reduced universe stability, so he began gradually tightening crossing permissions, and the one responsible for monitoring is exactly Spider Silk.

So Shiler came to the Spider Legion and found Spider Silk, and explained the current situation to her.

The most efficient way to find Spider-Men is to go find Spider Silk, who can sense every Spider-Man's position and status via Spider-Sense.

Unlike the Spider Totem, Spider Silk is after all an emotional being, and Shiler has always been good at dealing with emotional intelligent beings; before finding Spider-Men, he needs to first query Spider Silk about their status.

Suicide is too suspicious to be impulsive; even if Shiler could return to a time when Spider-Men were still alive and immediately seek him out, it's not a good choice—he needs to first know what Spider-Men encountered, what exactly led them to make this choice.

Shiler doesn't often go to the Spider Legion's base, but many Spider-Men know him, because they were all pressed by Nick to go to Shiler for psychological checkups.

Soon Shiler met Spider Silk in the Spider Legion's lounge, and Shiler took Spider Silk to a private room nearby—this action made Spider Silk realize Shiler probably had serious business.

"……The situation is just like this." Shiler gave a simple explanation of what's currently happening.

Spider Silk then extended a hand and said: "You wait a moment, I'm a bit confused, so what time point is it now? Has the Spider-Man of that universe already died?"

"Yes, Nick queried via the Spider Totem and found he's dead, and it was suicide."

"That's impossible." Silk frowned deeply. "If he really died, I should have sensed it. Almost every time a Spider-Man I can contact through the spider-sense is critically injured or dies, I should feel it."

"That's why I said this is suspicious, but we can't investigate rashly." Shiler tapped the table lightly with his fingertips. "The situation in that universe is extremely complex. I need to know enough information before I can truly delve into it."

"What do you want to know?"

"The Spider-Man from that universe should have applied to invoke the Spider-Totem's traversal permission, with the starting point being the universe he's in and the endpoint being the universe I'm in. Can you query the relevant records?"

Silk's expression turned grave at once. She motioned for Shiler to follow her and said as they walked, "Doctor, we are extremely cautious about all traversal permissions concerning the universe you're in. So if he applied, we would definitely know."