A Hard-Won Vacation

Zhang Ye had originally planned to head to a slightly more peaceful universe to rest and recuperate.

His requirements were not high. He did not need that universe’s Earth to be completely safe, but it should at least not be like the previous two universes, constantly on the verge of timeline collapse.

To be honest, Zhang Ye’s experiences in the Ruined Universe and Earth-One had been nothing but nonstop flight. Other than getting a proper night’s sleep at Wayne Castle near the end, he had been in an almost constant state of high alert, never daring to relax for even a moment.

Now that he had fortunately arrived in a relatively peaceful Marvel Universe, Zhang Ye finally felt that he could rest properly for a while.

There were no world-ending disasters, nor were there alien invasions capable of threatening the entire Earth. The only thing to worry about was the civil war among the superheroes. To Zhang Ye, this practically counted as a vacation.

The sense of crisis that had constantly weighed on his mind finally eased. As Zhang Ye let out a sigh of relief, he began wondering whether he could take advantage of this universe and pick up a few benefits.

No matter what, Zhang Ye had fought quite a few superpowered individuals. Judging by his record, he could easily defeat many second- or third-tier superheroes, but he was far from satisfied with that.

In these perilous Multiverses, world-ending incidents were commonplace. Zhang Ye believed that his current strength was nowhere near enough to protect himself, much less handle the accidents that could arise at any moment.

As for the Kryptonian Kara, no one knew better than Zhang Ye how formidable she was in battle. But the same issue remained: Kara’s combat power came from Yellow Sun radiation. Zhang Ye could not guarantee that she would remain at peak strength when fighting in other universes, which made him desperately want to improve his own combat ability.

In this universe, Iron Man’s armor was a good way to rapidly increase his combat power. Besides that, if he could find a way to learn some magic, he might be able to keep a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Stretching, Zhang Ye stood up from in front of the computer. Since he had already decided on his next goals, there was nothing left for him to hesitate over. These were not things that could be accomplished overnight.

Whether it was Iron Man’s armor or those miraculous spells, obtaining them would require contact with superheroes or supervillains. Zhang Ye had not yet figured out how he should interact with the people of this world.

After all, there were too many heroes here, and people’s hearts were impossible to predict. No one could say whether the people here would be as easy to talk to as Old Batman.

Leaving the room, Zhang Ye made himself a cup of tea. It had been a long time since he had enjoyed tea so leisurely. He had loved drinking tea in his original world, but after crossing over, he had never had the chance. Later, after drinking it a few times with Old Bruce Wayne, Zhang Ye fell in love with tea all over again.

"Miss Minutes, is this really Marvel’s Earth-616 Prime Universe?" Zhang Ye slowly asked as he entered the living room and looked at the setting sun outside the window.

At Zhang Ye’s words, Miss Minutes appeared from nowhere and jumped straight onto his shoulder, watching the slowly sinking sun in the distance with him.

Zhang Ye had not told anyone about Miss Minutes. Even Pietro and Kara knew nothing. They only knew that Zhang Ye possessed a machine capable of opening portals; beyond that, they knew nothing at all.

It was not that Zhang Ye deliberately wanted to hide it from them. The secret behind the Time Twister was simply too great. Even Zhang Ye himself only understood bits and pieces of it, much less the two of them.

"I don’t know. There isn’t any record of it in the files, and I can’t determine how this timeline will develop. But I can record this universe. That way, anything that happens throughout the entire timeline will be documented."

Zhang Ye frowned. He had always wanted to record a timeline. At present, the Time Twister only contained the timeline of one universe: the Ruined Universe where Pietro had been born.

Recording an entire universe’s timeline from birth to extinction would bring Zhang Ye enormous benefits. The matter of sniping General Zod had made that perfectly clear.

Moreover, Zhang Ye could travel freely to any point in time within that universe. Such power meant that the universe was practically a private garden to him, where he could do whatever he wanted.

He could even descend before the people of that universe during the early days of civilization on Earth and unify the entire planet.

However, the consequences of doing so were impossible to predict. The Time Variance Authority could freely damage timelines because it possessed time pruners, allowing it to destroy any branching timeline at any time. Zhang Ye could not do that.

If he truly did something that disrupted the universe’s development, Zhang Ye had no doubt that several parallel universes would instantly split off, develop and perish beyond Miss Minutes’s observation range. In serious cases, they might even affect other universes and produce catastrophic consequences.

That was the fundamental reason Zhang Ye possessed an enormous treasure trove yet did not dare act recklessly. But after arriving here, his old idea resurfaced.

If he could truly record the timeline of this Prime Universe, could he travel at any time to a point before Secret Wars? That would carry the risk of damaging the timeline, but it would also give him the chance to gain considerable benefits.

Seemingly noticing Zhang Ye’s interest, Miss Minutes spoke again. "Recording this universe will likely require 86% power and 211 days. If you want to record this timeline, it would be best to fully charge the device first."

"That much?" Zhang Ye was somewhat surprised. Recording the Flashpoint-1 Universe had not required nearly so much power or time. Could there be something unusual about this timeline?

"The Flashpoint-1 Universe in the archives was an artificially created timeline branch. It also contained few powerful beings and faced the threat of destruction, so it required very little power and time. The only reason it required any at all was because that universe was simply too vast."

Hearing Miss Minutes’s explanation, Zhang Ye nodded thoughtfully. He truly did not know much about the differences between universes.

"In that case, I won’t think about it for now. For the moment, I should start by making contact with those superheroes. After all, finding an energy source capable of charging you won’t be easy either."

As he spoke, the sound of keys jingling came from outside the door. Zhang Ye turned toward it, while Miss Minutes immediately vanished into the air.

The door opened, and Pietro and Kara entered one after the other.