Chapter 698: U: The Infinite Event (14)

What is the world like after death?

Many people cannot see its true face; death is death, and death ultimately returns to nothingness—but if, after death, all people truly arrive at the same place, what would it be like?

Shiler had also pondered this question, but a deeply ingrained impression was etched into his mind: his concept of death was a plummeting aircraft and fleeting fragments of his life flashing through his mind before unconsciousness.

This was not a very painful way to die; he nearly collapsed in an instant, but at that moment, time had slowed, and every place he had ever been and every experience he had ever had played out in full within a single second.

This was Shiler's second death; he had assumed it would be no different from the first, but for some reason, as the slideshow played, his life experiences seemed to glitch.

In the sequence of scenes—from his first arrival in the Marvel universe, meeting Strange, giving Stark psychological therapy, then meeting Steve and Peter—something was missing, entirely inconsistent with Shiler's memory.

After a moment of confusion, Shiler realized the answer: these slides contained only his experiences in the Marvel universe; everything that had occurred in the other universe was absent.

But this was not surprising—death in the Marvel universe could only govern events within this world—but even the Marvel experiences were only shown halfway, then stopped.

The scene before Shiler turned pitch black; this darkness lasted an extraordinarily long time, so prolonged that Shiler felt a century had passed, then a single point of light appeared before him, and as it slowly expanded, he found himself in a garden.

This was the back garden of a Gothic castle; the surrounding plants were lush and green, showing not a trace of death's aura.

At the center of the garden stood a fountain, and beneath a flower pavilion beside it was a long table; seated across from him was a woman dressed in a black gown, a thin black veil hanging from her head, obscuring her face.

Shiler exhaled, walked without ceremony to the opposite side of the table, pulled out a chair, sat down, adjusted his scarf, and picked up knife and fork, preparing to eat.

The woman across from him watched him silently; Shiler first cut into the steak, saw the faintly red meat inside, then reached beside him for the salt shaker, and poured himself a glass of red wine.

After finishing all the food, Shiler began to stroll through the garden, now observing the fountain, now the trees; once he had seen every sight within the garden, he began walking toward the castle ahead.

Just as he grasped the handle of the castle's main door and was about to knock, a voice finally came from behind him:

"How did you even get in?"

Shiler lowered his head, turned to face Death, and said: "I imagine you're confused now—Death's Realm is entirely under your control; the moment I approached, you could have kicked me out immediately. You've done this many times before."

"But you found that I am still here, and I arrived earlier than you realized—you rendered me unconscious during that time, then hurriedly searched for loopholes."

"You searched everywhere and found nothing. Every corner of Death's Realm is under your control. This house is solid—no doors pried open, no windows shattered—and yet here I am, dead in a way you never anticipated."

The woman across from him seemed shrouded in a thin mist; not only was her face indistinct, her form also flickered unpredictably.

"An unwelcome intruder," Death said.

Shiler smiled and said: "An intruder? Do you still remember you are Death? You are meant to accept every death equally, yet now you scold a dead man as an intruder."

"It has nothing to do with you," Death replied, clearly referring to her refusal of death and her manipulation of others to create more death.

"Indeed, it has nothing to do with me, Madam—but whether I die has nothing to do with you either. Why do you interfere with my death?" Shiler took two steps closer to Death and said: "Death is inevitable—that is the source of your power. When you mock many who resist death in futile struggle, you should also consider that someone might one day mock you..."

"Mock you—for being Death, yet resisting death for some reason."

The figure across from him began to violently ripple; Death seemed provoked by Shiler's words, and countless shrieks echoed around his ears, yet he remained unmoved.

Shiler smiled again and said: "You must have many questions now. How about we exchange answers? You answer one of mine, and I'll answer one of yours."

Death's form slowly stabilized; her chest rose slightly, as if sighing. She asked: "What question do you wish to ask?"

"Why won't you let me enter Death's Realm?" Shiler asked.

"Because you cannot die," Death replied. The answer sounded like nonsense, but Shiler keenly caught a subtle clue within it and said: "Cannot die? Why?"

Death did not answer, but asked him instead: "How exactly did you get here?"

"Because I died, so I came to Death's Realm," Shiler countered with the same nonsense, then added: "When you say I cannot die, do you mean you cannot receive me—or you refuse to receive me?"

"Both," Death replied again, then asked once more: "How exactly did you die?"

"That would take a long time to explain," Shiler said, pushing the castle door with his hand. "You've always refused to let me visit your home, but I was curious—so I contacted your superior and had him throw me in."

Death said nothing, but clearly did not believe him; Shiler offered no further explanation, only said: "I imagine a being like you possesses the ability to observe and alter timelines. If so, why not try throwing me out again?"

"You're setting a trap for me," Death replied again, but Shiler fell silent, leaving Death to think.

She detected the subtle manipulation in Shiler's tone—he seemed to be tempting her to investigate how this happened—but Death herself was genuinely curious: how had Shiler arrived here?

Just as the Dimensional Demons have absolute control over their dimensions, or rather, the Dimensional Demons are not lords over their domains—they are the dimensions themselves.

And because Death's power is greater and higher in hierarchy, nothing can enter Death's Realm without her consent.

She governs all death; therefore, if she refuses, nothing can die. If she rejects someone's access to Death's Realm, that person will remain alive—like High Evolutionary.

High Evolutionary is not particularly strong, yet few dare oppose him—even Odin avoids him—because they all know High Evolutionary cannot die.

Even if Odin nearly kills him, the instant he gasps his last breath, he revives—because Death refuses to allow High Evolutionary into Death's Realm.

Reasons for being blacklisted by Death vary: some are kept alive so they may create more death; others leave a bad impression upon entering Death's Realm; some are simply disliked by Death.

Logically, if one can offend Death enough to be blacklisted, one gains a kind of immortality—but it is not a pleasant state. Death can be avoided, but the pain of death cannot.

If High Evolutionary is killed by Odin, the suffering he endures during the process remains real—he merely revives afterward.

For ordinary people, death can be avoided, but aging cannot. If an ordinary person is rejected by Death, their fate is likely to endlessly cycle: dying of old age, revived, dying again from old age, revived again—unable to die, trapped in endless torment.

Those who seem to benefit from being blacklisted by Death are inherently exceptional: High Evolutionary's race is long-lived; Deadpool possesses near-infinite lifespan due to genetic modification and possesses extreme regenerative abilities, so he recovers quickly after being killed and revived.

Without these two traits, being blacklisted by Death would more likely result in endless cycling between death and severe injury.

Being blacklisted by Death is an automatic process: Death's Realm rejects a soul's entry and automatically expels it upon detection—Shiler had been expelled this way before.

But Shiler is the first being to enter Death's Realm after being blacklisted—this is theoretically impossible.

Death is the concept of death itself. If Death does not allow you to die, how can you die?

After thoroughly investigating Death's Realm and confirming her own state, Death realized the problem was not with her.

Thus, even though she knew it might be a trap, Death followed Shiler's logic: she traced the timeline backward to see how Shiler had died.

For a being of Death's level, observing timelines is effortless—but when Death saw the scene of Shiler's death, she froze.

From an ordinary person's perspective, Shiler's death was profoundly shocking: he faced the symbiotic god N'Kala head-on, was ambushed, defeated, captured by a star's gravity, and died in the boundless fire of the sun.

But to Death, this was not an unusual death at all. She governs all deaths across all universes—strange deaths abound; countless lives have perished in stellar explosions during interstellar wars.

Death reviewed every moment of that timeline repeatedly, yet found no anomaly—so she had no choice but to continue tracing the timeline further backward.

Simultaneously, she no longer focused solely on Shiler, but examined the stories of every person who had appeared in that world.

Until, she heard a phrase from Peter Parker's mouth:

"It's a curse... the curse of Spider-Man..."

"Everyone who taught us this truth, who ever said those words to us... are destined to die."

Death was bewildered.

A curse of inevitable death? How could I not know this???