novelno Chapter 390 The Beginning of the Endgame
Chapter 390 The Beginning of the Endgame
Chapter 390 The Beginning of the Endgame
Tony thought it was a bit shameless of Dr. Banner to say that, as the first person to bluff the other side: "What are you afraid of? We weren't the first to provoke him."
Each of them had their own way of playing pranks.
Joey destroyed the helicopter's spark plugs, Tony shut down the rooftop elevator, and handed the call over to the AI assistant in advance so that the other party could quietly enjoy the breeze on the rooftop for a while.
Doctor Doom felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with what he was doing. If it were his former self, Tony Stark, he would have done the same to give General Ross a good beating.
From Tony's perspective, since General Ross had run into a wall with him this time, he would most likely try to get back at him through military channels, so Tony had no reason not to get his money back with interest.
The only flaw exposed in this matter is perhaps —
"Edith? You've changed your AI butler again?"
Superman did indeed hear the part of the AI assistant's message in General Ross's phone call.
Jarvis, which served as a springboard for Doctor Doom's possession and is currently the electronic cage temporarily holding Tony, has had its data structure severely damaged and is no longer usable.
"Don't even mention it!" Tony conveniently had a plausible explanation: "Remember the Friday I gave you? I ran into her on my way to find the Space Stone!"
Tony recounted the whole story to the two of them without any embellishment, recounting how he almost ruined his reputation by encountering Friday, who was connected to the Ultron network, and incidentally adding the part about Jarvis being accidentally damaged.
After hearing the whole story, Joey and Dr. Banner almost couldn't help but laugh.
It's no wonder that this AI was created by Tony Stark; it's truly extraordinary.
Other AIs, after their self-evolution goes out of control, first think of exterminating all of humanity, but his AI is already capable of self-programming, yet it still treats that line in its core code, "Your boss admires you," as its life motto—no, I mean, its machine life creed.
"Pfft!" Unlike Dr. Banner, whose manners and intelligence were equally high, Joey, who still couldn't hold back despite her best efforts, asked with ill intent, "Why did you run away? Knowing your personality, shouldn't you have just done it all without thinking twice?"
Tony, who had "already had his kernel changed," glared at Joey: "I'm not that kind of person!"
Why does everyone think Tony Stark is a fully automatic human seed-sowing machine that gets horny on everyone he meets?
God is my witness, he is very careful in choosing each female casual sex partner, otherwise why would he have been messing around for so many years without having a single illegitimate child?
Besides, what right does Joey have to talk about himself?
Tony raised his hand, wanting to seize on the other person's sore spot and give them a harsh critique, but in the end, to avoid causing any trouble, he refrained from speaking.
Dr. Banner then stepped in to smooth things over: "When you two are discussing relationships, could you perhaps consider this poor soul who gets hard when excited?"
Dr. Banner's life was indeed miserable.
The reason he broke up with General Ross's daughter Betty was partly due to Ross's interference, but another reason was naturally related to Dr. Banner's own flaws.
The Hulk appears when Dr. Banner is emotional, so it's quite obvious that he can't have sex—that's what he does.
A Platonic love affair is difficult to sustain.
Upon hearing Dr. Banner's troubles, Tony and Joey, whose words were usually rife with raunchy jokes, could only fall silent for the time being.
Joey knew Dr. Banner's troubles, but he also knew the root of those troubles lay with Banner himself: "Perhaps you could try to reconcile with him?"
"If you had a six- or seven-year-old's mental age living inside you, a total destroyer who could smash three city blocks with a single slap, how would you plan to reconcile with him? Buy him an ice cream every day?"
A scientist like Banner, whose IQ is almost 100% higher than that of humans, naturally cannot accept the stupid and manic Hulk inside him.
He viewed the Hulk within him as a disease, a parasite residing in his body, rather than another side of himself, and tried countless times to "cure" him, which meant killing him.
In this situation, the way the human and the Hulk interact is naturally incredibly awkward.
Joey, whose heart was filled with the vision of Doomsday, could only offer an awkward smile. His situation was slightly better than Dr. Banner's.
Doomsday itself does not possess any intelligence or consciousness, but its survival and killing instincts are so powerful that each time it goes out of control, it is capable of performing complex acts that slaughter everything in its path.
Anyway, he has already given his opinion on Hulk. Whether or not Dr. Banner listens is his own business. Besides, the other party is so smart that he will find out sooner or later.
"Don't panic, we'll solve this sooner or later." Tony put his arm around Dr. Banner's shoulder reassuringly. "With two smart people like us working together, there's nothing we can't do."
"And what about me?" Joey pointed to himself.
Having failed here multiple times, Tony hates nothing more than reckless fools like Joey who solve everything with numbers without using their brains: "You should just use your superpowers!"
"That's it!" Dr. Banner slapped his forehead, finally remembering why he had run away from the lab: "I need Superman to come and take another look at the structure of the Infinity Gauntlet."
"Okay." Joey nodded in agreement, and led Dr. Banner back to the experimental workshop, beginning a new round of client-facing work—
"This is how it is, and that is how it is—oh right, how about we move that gem slot a little to the left—"
Tony, still in disguise, watched the two leave, focusing on forging the Infinity Gauntlet. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow; they were still doing useless work.
Making the Infinity Gauntlet isn't particularly difficult, but the real challenge lies in collecting all six Infinity Stones.
Currently, the group still has two gems left to collect.
The Soul Gem and the Reality Gem.
In Tony's memories that span the past and the future, the Infinity Stones can never be fully collected before the next collision.
There's only one thing they can ever do.
That is to spare no expense to carve out a way for our Earth and universe to survive.
This is also the key point of irreconcilable disagreement between him and Superman, a point where they can never reach an agreement.
Superman wanted to cooperate, combining the power of the two worlds, and try until the very last moment, but he chose to play it safe.
"Are you alright, Mr. Stark?"
Just as Doctor Doom, now sporting the appearance of his younger self, was lost in thought reminiscing about the past, a gentle and clear female voice brought him back to his attention: "You look terrible."
Tony turned his head—it was the Invisible Woman.
"Susan," he greeted her naturally, as usual, "but she's been too busy lately." Susan held up the communicator as if it were a lifeline, which is the only reason she hasn't had a mental breakdown recently.
After receiving a response from the communicator and confirming that her family was safe, Susan perked up considerably: "Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered you at this time, but the communicator—"
Tony knew that once the other party said that, they were obviously going to bother him again.
Unlike the Tony who knew nothing, the current Tony truly understands why the other party came to find him.
The other three members of the Fantastic Four were caught in a time warp and crashed into some unknown parallel universe because of their pursuit. Susan naturally wanted to contact them before they encountered any danger and find them again.
It was always the same routine; Tony was already very familiar with it. He took the communicator and began playing the message that hadn't been fully received yet—
This is Reed Richards, one of the Fantastic Four. We're in another universe, and it's safe. We're with...
Tony roughly calculated the time; the distress signal that had been transmitted should be enough to pinpoint the coordinates. All that was needed next was a single call back, and Reed, that idiot, would open a portal himself—
~~Sizzle~~ A group of aliens claiming to be Kryptonians~~Sizzle~~ And~Sizzle~ Someone claiming to be Corianda————
Upon hearing the words "Kryptonian" and "Kryantha," Tony crushed the communicator in his hand to pieces.
He widened his eyes, turned, and stared at Susan with his bloodshot gaze: "Please tell me you haven't replied to this message yet, right?"
Doctor Doom, who comes from the future, knows everything that happens in the past and future, but that doesn't mean he can follow the clues and complete everything step by step.
The so-called "future" is actually Doctor Doom's own past, which has already happened and is only of reference value.
It's like someone being hit and killed by a car tomorrow at noon. The only certainty is that he will be hit and killed, but it's possible that it's either Optimus Prime or Vanguard who hits him.
At this moment, Doctor Doom stands atop Stark Tower, and what is about to happen beneath his feet is an approximation of a parallel universe, but a completely new future.
At least a second ago, he still didn't know which parallel universe would lead to his break with Superman.
And now he knows.
This was a possibility he had never imagined.
What does this mean?
This signifies that his friendship with Superman is finally coming to an end in an extremely tragic way.
There is absolutely no similarity between Joey's universe and his universe. Even if it were a collision between parallel universes, it shouldn't involve these two completely unrelated universes.
If something like this can happen, doesn't that only indicate one possibility?
That possibility is that, through Tony and Joey's relentless efforts, the possibilities of all parallel universes surrounding the Tony universe have been exhausted.
The resulting spacetime disturbances have caused established facts that should have occurred in the surrounding parallel universes to spread to worlds that are not parallel universes at all.
The possibilities for the future have been completely locked out.
This is the end.
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