"Holy crap!"
"Holy crap!"
"Holy crap!"
The Hulk's explosion was so sudden that it completely shocked everyone present.
His death was undeniably gruesome, wasn_'t it?
It was as if he had swallowed a bomb, exploding into nothing but a puddle of green, viscous liquid.
The Hulk was supposed to be the strongest creature on Earth, unkillable by any known weapon, yet he died such a horrific death.
"I have to say, that was truly tragic," Thor muttered, shaking his head. "I've killed countless people and seen countless more die, but I've never seen anyone die so horribly."
"Did this really happen in the future?" Dr. Banner's face was as bitter as if he'd eaten a bitter melon, looking utterly distraught.
He simply couldn't accept it.
What had he done for the heavens to be so cruel to him?
The scene on the large screen switched again.
A tombstone appeared before everyone's eyes.
The tombstone read: Hope van Dyne, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent.
"Hope? If I remember correctly, isn't she Hank Pym's daughter?" Black Widow asked, surprised.
Hank Pym being ousted from the company he founded by his daughter and apprentice was big news at the time.
So Black Widow knew Hank Pym's daughter.
"When did she become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?" Hawkeye also looked surprised. He glanced at Black Widow, "Has she been on secret missions all this time?"
Arranging long-term undercover agents certainly fit Nick Fury's style. Both Black Widow and Hawkeye decided they would definitely question Nick Fury about this when they returned.
A figure was reflected on the tombstone, and then a face appeared on the screen—it was Nick Fury.
"Isn't that Hank Pym!" Nick Fury suddenly exclaimed.
Another person in battle armor appeared, glaring menacingly at Nick Fury: "You dare to stand before her grave? You've got some nerve!"
It was indeed Hank Pym.
"Don't worry about her. I don't think she'd mind, since she's already dead," Nick Fury said coldly and indifferently.
"You S.H.I.E.L.D. agents killed her!" Hank Pym said, seething with hatred.
"Agent Hope died during a mission! Outside Odessa, Ukraine!" Nick Fury corrected Hank Pym's statement.
"Agent? She's my daughter, my precious daughter! She missed her mother, and you exploited that!"
"Was her mother an agent?"
"Don't mess with me, Nick Fury! You fed her a bunch of nonsense about protecting the world and saving humanity! You made her do S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dirty work! You made her die just like her mother!"
"So that's why you killed them?"
As Nick Fury spoke, an image flashed on screen.
It was the scene of the Hulk being shot and falling on the overpass. The camera zoomed into the Hulk's wound, eventually entering his body.
Amidst the constant flow of surrounding body cells, a person stood there—it was Hank Pym, the man in the battle armor outside.
Hank Pym was seen suddenly shooting a "disc" into the Hulk's heart, and the Hulk's heart began to swell madly.
The screen froze there.
Everyone present finally understood why the Hulk had exploded earlier.
It must have been Hank Pym continuously projecting those "discs" inside the Hulk's body, causing the Hulk's insides to expand uncontrollably.
That's why he ultimately exploded.
"I must say, I've always underestimated Ant-Man."
Black Widow was the first to break the silence, sighing.
She used to think Ant-Man was nothing special; shrinking to fight was unexpected, but once you got used to his style, it was just okay.
Even when he grew larger, it would be as the Captain said, inconvenient to move. Black Widow hadn't really paid much attention.
But now, seeing this, when Ant-Man shrinks to a certain extent, his destructive power is off the charts, and his threat level directly rises to an extremely terrifying degree.
Iron Man, Captain America—none of them could compare.
Perhaps only Thor's body might be immune to the device that makes organs expand, as it is a "divine body."
But for everyone else, who could stop him?
"Natasha, Betty Ross mentioned miniature missiles in the needle earlier... clearly, that was also Hank Pym! He hid inside the syringe and killed someone."
"You know that person; they must also be an Avenger, which is why you went to Betty Ross for analysis."
Hawkeye Barton said to Black Widow with a serious expression.
"A truly insidious method," Thor said, a hint of arrogance on his face. "However, it's useless against me, because my body is full of lightning! If he dares to enter, he'll never get out!"
"Hank Pym has truly invented something impressive!" Tony Stark couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
For Tony Stark to say "impressive" was an extremely high compliment.
"Shouldn't we be discussing how to prevent this from happening?" Dr. Banner hastily interrupted their "irrelevant" conversation.
He stared intently at Black Widow, "You're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and Hope, who died, was also from S.H.I.E.L.D. So if what you're saying is true, and the answering system really predicts the future, then please make sure Hope doesn't die, don't let her go on that mission to Ukraine."
The question had indeed revealed the entire sequence of events.
Hank Pym sought revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D. precisely because his daughter died.
"Even if you didn't say anything, we would still go back and confirm this with Nick Fury, our director," Black Widow replied to Dr. Banner with a serious nod.
The matter of Hank Pym killing the Hulk was that simple, nothing more to say.
Just prevent Hope from dying, and it's over.
However, a larger question beyond that still baffled Tony Stark and the others.
"You must have noticed it too, this footage has many contradictions," Tony Stark said seriously to everyone at this point.
"In the footage, I'm dead, and Barton is also dead. This is highly unreasonable."
"Even more unreasonable is that Romanoff, you hadn't even joined the Avengers yet! This future is actually a past!"
As Tony Stark spoke, everyone present, except Dr. Banner, frowned deeply.
Especially Black Widow and Hawkeye, they were even more perplexed.
They had both joined the Avengers long ago, yet they had never encountered the events shown in the footage until now.
But the time in the footage was when they hadn't joined yet.
This made no sense whatsoever.
"And Agent Hope, that's also unreasonable!" Black Widow said, joining in after a moment of thought. "As far as I know, Hope is still alive and well! Are they two different people?"
"They are both Hank Pym's daughters and have the same name, so it's clearly the same person," Captain America said with certainty. "Unless Hank Pym had two daughters and gave them the same name."
That was obviously impossible.
Everyone fell silent. This was another huge, inexplicable contradiction.
"In the previous round of questions, we encountered an option about Hank Pym. Judging by Director Fury's reaction, he isn't actually very familiar with Hank Pym."
"But if Hank Pym's daughter truly were a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Director Fury should be very familiar with Hank Pym."
"Every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent undergoes a thorough background check!"
Black Widow spoke again.
This made everyone's brows furrow like blooming chrysanthemums in late autumn.
Nothing made sense.
"Yes! It must be! If it's like this, then everything can be explained!"
It wasn't until a moment later that Tony Stark's eyes suddenly lit up, and he slapped his thigh hard.
His tone was also very certain.
"Stark, what did you think of? Tell us quickly!" Thor immediately asked with great curiosity.
The others also looked at Tony Stark, eager to know the answer to the problem.
"Romanoff, do you remember what I said during the last round of questions? The future predicted by the answering system is the future of a parallel world!"
Tony Stark said, his eyes sparkling.
"Stark, do you mean that in that other parallel timeline, Hope was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and she died during a mission!"
Captain America immediately realized.
The others present also came to a sudden realization.
Stark was right; this footage actually had a crucial premise: that Hope was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
This was the catalyst for all events.
It was also the origin of all contradictions.
It was this point that caused the logical inconsistency:
If you say this footage is the past, Hope is still alive and well. If you say it's the future, Black Widow and others weren't S.H.I.E.L.D. agents when the event happened!
But what if, in another parallel world, Hope really was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and died during a past mission?
All contradictions, all unreasonableness, would then be logically explained.
Sometimes it's like this: when the veil is lifted, everyone realizes that the truth is actually that simple.
"A simple hypothesis that immediately resolves all contradictions—that hypothesis is often the correct one," Hawkeye Barton nodded. "Stark, once we confirm Hope's situation with Director Fury when we get back, we'll be able to determine the correctness of your theory."
"Barton, remember to tell me once you've confirmed," Tony Stark immediately said to Hawkeye with a serious expression. "This is very important!"
Yes, this was indeed very important.
Even if Tony Stark's "parallel universe theory" was reasonable and logical, it would still lack some persuasiveness if it was purely theoretical and lacked factual support.
However, previously, there was no opportunity to verify such a theory, so Tony Stark naturally had no way to do so.
It just had to be that way.
But now, that opportunity had finally arrived!
"If we can truly verify the existence of parallel universes, this would be a major breakthrough in science! A groundbreaking achievement! Enough to win a Nobel Prize!"
Dr. Banner also said with some excitement.
[Please answer the question: For which of the following reasons did Iron Man Tony Stark detonate his entire suit of Iron Man armor?]
[A. Battling the Ten Rings, to kill their empowered members.]
[B. The Iron Man armor was controlled by Ultron, forcing him to self-destruct.]
[C. To put on a fireworks display for Pepper Potts.]
[D. His mind was controlled by Loki, and he was forced to self-destruct the armor.]
[Friendly reminder: The correct answer will receive the Lingbo Weibu (Gale Steps) skill as a reward; the incorrect answer will result in a random deduction of one personal attribute, including but not limited to knowledge, experience, skills, possessions, etc...]
While everyone was discussing, a new question appeared, quickly drawing everyone's attention.
Everyone glanced at the question, and all showed very surprised expressions.
The Iron Man armor was Iron Man's greatest reliance; would he actually self-destruct his armor in the future?
Tony Stark himself was even more surprised than the others.
No one knew better than him how much he cared about the Iron Man armor. He had been plagued by the life-threatening crisis of palladium poisoning, and wearing the Iron Man armor was a death sentence.
Yet, even in that situation, he was unwilling to give up the Iron Man armor.
This shows how much he valued the Iron Man armor, to the point of it becoming a belief.
But now the answering system told him that he would self-destruct his armor in the future?
"Self-destruct the armor? Stark, I have to say, that's a very crazy and extravagant act," Black Widow couldn't help but glance at Tony Stark.
"Isn't it? Stark, that suit of yours must cost tens of millions, right?" Hawkeye Barton also glanced at Tony Stark.
"Tens of millions? You're underestimating my status as a super-rich man, aren't you? You can't get it for anything less than hundreds of millions!" Tony Stark said to Hawkeye with a matter-of-fact expression.
Aside from Thor, who wasn't too familiar with Earth's currency system, everyone else present secretly gasped.
They knew the Iron Man armor was expensive, but they never imagined it was this expensive.
One suit cost hundreds of millions!
So Iron Man was currently wearing a super luxury item worth hundreds of millions?
"Alright, everyone, let's get back to the question," Captain America said, pulling everyone back with a serious expression. "Let's look at option A first, Stark battling the Ten Rings?"
"The empowered members of the Ten Rings?" Thor immediately recalled, "Is that the guy on Air Force One whose body could heat up?"
That person had left a very deep impression on Thor.
"Erik Savin, a former Army Lieutenant Colonel, who was later crippled by a landmine during a mission, and then, he transformed into an empowered individual who could fight Iron Man armor in hand-to-hand combat," Tony Stark added from the side.