A Long-Term Plan

Zhang Ye knew very well what consequences an unknown crossing between worlds could bring.

Like the chrysalis that had tried to drag the Multiverse into the abyss, any unspeakable thing from beyond the sandbox would cause massive contamination after entering it.

This contamination did not only affect future timelines. The countless complex pieces of information carried by outsiders could also place this world in an extremely dangerous state.

The effects of information could neither be seen nor touched. Likewise, this contamination was not impossible to predict.

Interestingly, however, every universal branch possessed its own unique circulatory system. After being affected by information from other universes, the universe would activate a form of "self-cleansing" mechanism, much like the human immune system, expelling harmful information and contamination.

But that method only worked for normal universes in the Multiverse. A universe like this one, which had gradually reached its end and was just waiting for the coffin lid to be nailed shut, no longer had the ability to power its own immune system.

In other words, this universe’s will had been dead for a long time. The lives that remained upon this wasteland within the universe were merely cells living on a corpse.

One day, perhaps in a year, perhaps in a hundred years, the corpse of the cosmic starry sky would inevitably rot away, and their future would lead down a road filled with endless night.

No one knew what lay at the end of that road. It was like a small boat sailing across a planet covered entirely by ocean, without a single patch of land, while that planet’s will had long since perished and the remaining wind and waves were merely echoes after its death.

"Can this universe really be saved? Or rather, are they truly worth saving?"

At the top of the valley, Kara watched the tragedy below from afar. This was not the first time she had seen the darkness of this world, but each time, her heart grew heavier.

Below lay a plundered caravan. The merchants who had barely survived in this world had no choice but to become traveling peddlers in order to support their families. They had spent their savings on camels and wagons, crossing the wasteland in the hope of making a small fortune in the next town.

Perhaps only these merchants could truly see through the misery and despair of this world. People like them, who traveled everywhere with large quantities of goods to sell, were undoubtedly walking gold in the eyes of gangs and bandits.

These merchants carried their lives on the line. They never knew whether tomorrow or disaster would arrive first, nor did they know whether the next town held wealth or blades for them. But they knew that if they did not do this work, their entire families would starve in the streets or become someone else’s slaves.

Sometimes, to ensure their safety as much as possible, merchants would try to travel together. They would pool their money to hire capable mercenaries for protection. Old Hawkeye had done that sort of work before.

But that was no guarantee of safety. Having guards did not mean a journey would be free of danger. Gang attacks were often far more vicious than they imagined.

Because to gang members, if they failed to pull off a major robbery this time, the entire gang would fall apart. Their relationship was like that between wolves and sheep.

If the wolves succeeded, the sheep died.

If the sheep succeeded, the wolves died.

The laws of nature could not be changed.

In the past, if she had encountered something like this, Kara would have charged in without a second thought. She could not bear to watch those gangsters kill people and leave just like that, much less accept doing nothing at such a moment.

She wanted to avenge those dead merchants.

But now, she held herself back.

For the first time in her life, she stopped moving her body and began using her mind instead. She wanted to think. She wanted to find a real solution to all of this, rather than treating the symptoms while leaving the root untouched.

"It is good that you have learned to think about the meaning behind all this."

Zhang Ye and Pietro stood behind Kara. Seeing her like this, Zhang Ye nodded slightly and continued.

"Kara, I have never considered myself a hero. The meaning of the title ‘hero’ is far too vast to explain in just a few words. But I know one saying: heroes are born of the times. In a world where moral order has collapsed, the appearance of heroes will only make everything worse."

Zhang Ye was not talking nonsense. In the comics, after Hawkeye died, Wolverine extended his claws again because of the deaths of his wife and daughter. He decided to use his old way of thinking, to solve everything in the way a hero would.

He took Banner’s most promising baby Hulk out of the desert wasteland. Riding a white horse, he announced Wolverine’s return to every criminal in the world. Dragging along his aged and exhausted body, wielding a Healing Factor that had long since failed him and adamantium claws, he even slaughtered his way across the entire wasteland.

But what was the result?

Wolverine personally destroyed the Hulk Gang, leaving behind a complete mess that ordinary people had no way of taking over. Later, the Punisher Gang occupied the place. They were even more vicious than the Hulk Gang, and the casualty rate among ordinary people was even higher than during the Hulk Gang’s rule.

Evil men could never be killed off completely. Kill one man-eating shark, and new sharks would always follow the scent of blood.

If they wanted to change all this, they absolutely could not use the "old methods."

"I could not change the world Pietro lived in before. At that time, I had neither power nor ability. I could barely protect myself. My only goal was to fulfill my promise to Pietro.

"But now, I want to try to do something—not only for the ordinary people surviving here, but for ourselves as well."

Even if it was not for some slogan like "saving the masses," Zhang Ye still had deeper concerns.

The chrysalis that contaminated time and twisted reality had always hung over Zhang Ye’s heart like a nightmare.

Zhang Ye knew full well that he was not powerful enough. There were more secrets within him waiting to be explored. He had never believed that tearing reality apart meant he would gain unprecedented power. He knew that before that unknown existence, he was still far too insignificant.

Whether it was the canopy of eternal night or the past of the Time Twister, these were secrets he could not touch yet.

Zhang Ye could not tell anyone about these anxieties. He only knew that he needed to keep his feet on the ground.

After losing the energy supply of the Ruined Universe, Zhang Ye urgently needed a new universe to become his power station. And this place—the Wasteland Universe beneath his feet—would be a very good starting point.

This time, Zhang Ye did not want to repeat the mistakes of the Ruined Universe. What he needed was an absolutely safe universe, one that was not constantly on the verge of collapse.

And to accomplish that, there could only be one voice in a universe like this.

"How should we act?" Kara blinked.

Hearing that, Zhang Ye said calmly.

"We need more people."