Chapter 3699: Doomsday (Part 3)

"That's possible." Shiler touched his chin and said, "Although the space there is relatively large, it is, after all, at the edge of their territory. And since they can hollow out a mountain range, maybe they can hollow out an entire plateau..."

Seeing Strange about to faint, Shiler waved his hand and said, "Enough. When the magical deities were running rampant on Earth, which one wasn't a walking bomb? Didn't Earth survive just fine? You can't control what China does on its own territory. And in terms of safety, they still have a good reputation."

"I'm a bit curious." Steve said, "Building these things underground should be very difficult, right? Just digging out a 2,000-meter-deep cavity and ensuring it doesn't collapse is already very hard. Although they are a bit short on land, there should be many uninhabited areas on the surface; why go to such lengths?"

"I think it might be because those demons from back then ran out from underground." Shiler shrugged and said, "They have always been vengeful. If we follow this line of thinking, it's not just Mount Ximalaya that has become an empty box; the entire underground of Asia is probably..."

Strange really couldn't catch his breath. Shiler could only help him calm down and then said, "I know that in your eyes, the magical defense network is safe enough, and you, as the Sorcerer Supreme, are reliable. But they have always planned far ahead. If they cannot guarantee that the magical defense network will always be safe and the Sorcerer Supreme will always be reliable, they will definitely find a way to make their own insurance measures. I'm afraid what you've seen is just the tip of the iceberg."

"I suddenly thought of something." Steve leaned against the side railing and said, "When I was touring the starship, the chief engineer who built the starship once took me to see the jump engine. That thing is huge, the structure is very strange, but it's not the kind of engine commonly seen by humans. If I had to describe it, it's more like a spider web."

"A spider web?"

"Yes, it's not a single structure, but many energy nodes and energy transmission pipes, together forming a complex shape, a bit like the magic circles seen in movies. I don't know if my description is accurate, but that's indeed what I saw."

Steve thought for a moment and then said, "If, as you said, the thing inside Mount Ximalaya might just be one of them, and there are many such things under the surface, and they have also built many transmission pipes, then they have turned the area under their territory into one complete magic circle. Would the structure of this magic circle be similar to a jump engine?"

"So they don't want to push Earth to run, but want to directly make Earth jump to a certain place?" Shiler thought for a moment and said, "That's also possible. After all, installing an engine and using physical thrust to push Earth is an imagination from when technology wasn't advanced. Now that we even have starships, we can completely use a simpler method, such as directly performing faster-than-light jumping."

"Does the Kree Empire have planetary warships?" Steve said again, "Could the jump technology used on their planetary warships be a massive magic circle buried under the surface?"

"Very likely." Shiler nodded and said, "But their planetary warship jump technology is imperfect; if it's not a critical moment, they won't perform a jump. If China is confident in using that thing they designed to take the entire Earth to jump, doesn't that mean Earth's performance is now higher than the Kree Empire's planetary warships?"

"My god, that's the Kree Empire's signature weapon." Steve said with great excitement, "They've used planetary warships to bully countless surface civilizations; is it our turn now?"

"I'm afraid it's more than that. Think about it, is the planetary shield used by their planetary warships as sturdy as our magical defense network? Even if it is, the instantaneous output and durability are definitely not as good as ours, because our energy is more abundant than theirs. And planetary warships are the Kree Empire's signature weapon; the planetary shields of those other advanced civilizations are definitely even worse. In this way, couldn't we drive Earth directly to ram others? Not many planets could out-ram us!"

Steve and Shiler's eyes grew brighter and brighter. Strange's soul was also drifting further and further away from his physical body. Shiler quickly shook him awake and said, "Go ask them if that's the case!"

Strange left in a daze. Shiler thought for a moment and said, "If Earth really becomes a planetary warship and can perform dimensional jumping, we don't need Asgard to station troops at all. We can just move next to Asgard, right? Where could be safer than the back garden of the Immortal Palace?"

Shiler and Steve looked at each other, everything understood without words.

Ring-a-ling—Steve's phone rang. He answered the phone and said, "Hello? Nick? Okay, I got it. Send a shuttle to pick me up, but you have to come over yourself; Shiler and I have something to discuss with you. Also, bring a secure phone; we might need to communicate with the leaders in advance."

Soon, Nick arrived in a rush. As soon as he entered, he cursed and said, "You damn well better have something serious! I've been busy as hell lately, and I don't have time to accompany you..."

Shiler and Steve each grabbed one of his arms and dragged him to the sofa. Shiler poured him a glass of water, Steve sat opposite him, and the two stared at Nick with glowing eyes.

"The situation is this, Strange discovered..." Shiler described the current situation to Nick in the briefest language and said, "Our speculation has a high probability of being true; now we are just waiting for Strange to make the final confirmation. If it is indeed so, we can consider the moving plan."

Nick was also left speechless, first surprised, then laughing. He walked out of the room and started making frantic phone calls.

Just at this moment, Strange returned. He was clearly still a bit dizzy, but much better. He said, "The reply I got from them is that they will never use it first..."

"Good, I know." Shiler said, "Mr. Navigator, prepare to send a diplomatic note to Asgard. Just say that human civilization has chosen a day to visit. There's a good saying, 'Choosing a day is not as good as bumping into the day'; we will arrive tomorrow."

This was, of course, an exaggeration. The preparation and activation of such large equipment would take at least a month, but Asgard's side would also take about that long from deciding to station troops to setting off. Strange just went to notify Loki to delay it; Loki thought humanity's reaction was relatively strong and Strange hadn't handled it, and didn't want to make things difficult for him, so he adjusted the departure time of the Earth garrison.

Shiler was actually also very curious; the equipment hadn't been tested, how did the Eastern power dare to ensure it worked? Later, he learned that it wasn't that they didn't believe in the magical defense network; it was that they believed in the magical defense network too much.

With the magical defense network as a safety net, even if this thing didn't work well, as long as it didn't explode on the spot, whether it didn't jump out or hit something after jumping, with the protection of the magical defense network, Earth wouldn't disintegrate.

They not only believed in the magical defense network but also especially believed in Shiler. Ever since they knew Shiler could fish people out of the underworld, they didn't even worry about the explosion problem—even if it exploded, they could fish them back; at worst, it would just be the loss of some buildings.

And Shiler heard that there seemed to be mutants there who could travel through time. It wasn't clear exactly what was going on, but even if they weren't as strong as Franklin, as long as they could return to the present from the future, they could reveal some information. They didn't use this information for family trivialities; as long as someone had this ability, they would inevitably concentrate all their strength to research it and then maximize the benefits.

The thing they were researching sounded very crazy and unreliable, but the theory that Earth revolved around the Sun sounded just as crazy back then. How would you know without trying?

Shiler also felt a bit excited for the first time in a long time. Nothing else, just wanted to see Thor and Loki's expressions when Earth and Asgard had a close encounter.

Of course, not everyone agreed with this matter. But since both China and the US agreed, even if other countries had opinions, there was nothing they could do. Now it was whoever had the stronger technological strength who had the final say.

The reason the United States agreed was also very simple. They didn't want Asgard to station troops, because this was very unfamiliar to them; but if they were the ones running to station troops next to Asgard, then it would return to a field they were familiar with and good at.

Actually, leaders of various countries had their own practical considerations in this regard, and the top priority they had to consider was not safety. This was similar to the thoughts of tourists and the official side of an amusement park when riding certain dangerous amusement facilities: tourists thought that since they dared to open the door, they must be confident; the amusement park thought that since they dared to get on, there must be no problem. Perhaps humanity was just like this, focusing on scheming in the order domain and trusting each other in the chaos domain.

That said, safety still had to be guaranteed. It just so happened that Magneto was staying on Earth, and Scarlet Witch had just finished her internship and was quite free lately. China also had Omega and Alpha-level mutants to escort them, and everyone was surprisingly united.

Why else would people not feel tired when doing bad things? Shiler didn't believe that this group of people acted so quickly without any intention of watching Asgard's fun. Although Asgard hadn't done anything to wrong them, good buddies were just like this.

Finally, on the day before Earth was about to set sail, Steve sent a diplomatic note to Asgard on behalf of Earth, the general content of which was that the matter of stationing troops was relatively important, and they decided to send a delegation for a face-to-face talk, asking them to prepare to receive them.

The wording of this letter was very ordinary. In the past, when Steve and the others visited Asgard, they had said the same thing, and Loki didn't suspect anything. However, since they said they were going to receive them, maybe Earth was going to drive a starship over—this was the first time a human starship had officially visited Asgard, so they should indeed receive them grandly. So Loki went to arrange it.

Asgard sent three main warships, the God King and Queen attended in person, and all the generals and ministers were present, everyone in armor and formal attire, the specifications were quite high.

Even so, when they stood on the deck of the starship and saw that blue planet appearing not far away after a flash of jumping light, they were all stunned.

"This..." Thor's mouth couldn't close; ever since he became the God King, he hadn't been so uncomposed for a long time. He even cursed in front of so many ministers and generals: "This damn... it couldn't be Earth, right?!!!"

And Loki, who almost never cursed, couldn't help it either: "Are humans fucking crazy?!!!"

Just at this moment, the golden shield on the surface of the blue planet flickered, and a line of large characters appeared on the surface of the shield—"Good evening, Asgard. You have a moon now too ^_^".

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3700 =====