A Timeline Off the Rails

The public began to see Kara as a hero of the people.

A vigilante—seeking revenge for the brutal slaughter suffered by those beloved heroes.

Kara seemed invincible. Her vengeance was even more frenzied than the destruction wrought by the villains.

Every time the young girl struck, she killed her target with precision. No one could escape her judgment, and no one could stand against her head-on.

Since her first appearance before the public, she had never been defeated. Any criminal who tried to eliminate her was ultimately smashed into a pile of mangled flesh by her incomparably fierce Iron Fist.

There would be no more mercy.

Perhaps Kara was right. Once the supervillains crossed that red line, things had already slipped beyond the control of those powerful figures.

Some guessed that Kara was the incarnation of some god. Others claimed she was a goddess of vengeance born from the sins committed by those criminals. But no matter what, everyone knew that this brutally ruthless girl was a monster unleashed by the criminals themselves.

"Stay calm, ladies and gentlemen. Stay calm."

At the Hydra base, the formerly dark and deserted office was now as bustling as a marketplace.

Red Skull, exhausted in body and mind, was trying to calm the other supervillains attending the video conference. Kara’s appearance and actions had rattled these villains more than once. That inhumane slaughter had left every criminal fearing for their life.

"Are you kidding me, Skull!?"

"Would you dare say that to the girl’s face? She’s slaughtering us! Slaughtering us!"

"This was all your idea! Now Deadpool has gone missing, and another lawless, no-holds-barred lunatic has appeared! How do you expect us to stay calm!?"

"Yes, yes. It is heartbreaking." Red Skull folded his hands and let out a heavy sigh. "I have to admit that girl’s strength has indeed exceeded our expectations. But I have already arranged for my most trusted ally to deal with her. Rest assured, gentlemen, everything is under control."

"It had better be, Skull. Otherwise, I swear I’ll drag you down with me!"

That night, Kara’s battle with Hydro-Man collapsed three small islands. The towering floods caused irreparable damage to the American west coast. According to post-battle estimates, the impact and economic losses caused by the battle had already reached a historical high.

But unlike Kara, who was having the time of her life fighting outside, Zhang Ye was leisurely enjoying a beautiful, peaceful time in his Brooklyn villa, as if he did not care at all about the dramatic changes in the outside world.

The television was reporting on Kara. Clearly, the deeds of the goddess of vengeance had become the mainstream focus of the news. Nearly everyone in the world was watching the girl named Kara.

"Hydro-Man really was unexpectedly strong. I thought he’d already been buried at the bottom of the sea, but Red Skull had secretly brought him under his wing. If Kara hadn’t stepped in, I never would have guessed Hydra had a trump card like this," Zhang Ye said as he sipped his tea.

Compared with the relaxed Zhang Ye, Moon Knight was clearly becoming impatient. He did not know what Zhang Ye’s goal was. Ever since he had informed the Avengers about Deadpool and the terrifying existence behind him, those heroes had all "hidden."

According to Captain America, they were preparing to conduct an internal investigation. Altering perception was an extremely terrifying matter. Anyone whose mind had been contaminated could become a ticking time bomb. So after receiving the intelligence, the heroes immediately went on high alert and checked whether they themselves might have been contaminated.

You never knew until you checked. Once they did, they were horrified.

Including Captain America, nearly half of the remaining superheroes had been contaminated to varying degrees. Some suffered cognitive impairments, some had inexplicably become colorblind, and some had even lost memories of a certain period of time.

And that was only among the well-known heroes. The results of the self-inspections among S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were even more disastrous. Most terrifying of all, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intelligence stations and mission archives had all suffered reality intrusion, with large portions of mission records maliciously altered or even erased.

This had directly left vast stretches of "historical blank space" in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files. But the most frightening part was that no one had noticed such a massive flaw before this—not even Nick Fury.

After learning these conclusions, fear of the unknown instantly plunged the heroes into unprecedented anxiety. Under these circumstances, they barely knew what to do themselves, much less concern themselves with the villains being slaughtered.

But Moon Knight was different. He also wanted to resolve this crisis as soon as possible, but he did not know what Zhang Ye’s plan was. Sending Kara to directly confront the criminal alliance could easily trigger an even more chaotic situation.

And that was what Moon Knight feared most.

"It’s been nearly half a month already. Are we just going to sit around doing nothing every day? Red Skull isn’t that simple. The force behind him is probably plotting something huge. What Kara is doing may very well make things irreversible."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Moon Knight, you should understand that." Zhang Ye shifted his gaze from the television to Moon Knight’s face, then continued.

"I’m about to learn that thing’s purpose."

"Really!?" Moon Knight’s gaze sharpened.

"Mm. Otherwise, there would have been no need for me to send Kara in to test the waters. Looking back now, everything has fallen into place perfectly." Zhang Ye did not explain further.

At that moment, Zhang Ye’s mind kept returning to his memories of the original work.

In the comic Deadpool Carnage Marvel Universe: Retribution, Deadpool had slaughtered the superheroes with an unstoppable level of power. Likewise, when Gwenpool awakened him and he turned to slaughtering villains instead, he still encountered no resistance whatsoever.

Every powerful villain before him was like a chicken or a dog. Even seasoned fighters like Crossbones and Ra’s al Ghul could not last more than three exchanges against Deadpool. This had clearly surpassed the level of combat power Deadpool could possibly possess.

At the same time, when Deadpool finally cut off Red Skull’s head, Red Skull said something very interesting.

"The age of heroes is over!"

It all seemed to have been Red Skull’s plan. Not only had he sent Deadpool to slaughter those heroes, but even Deadpool’s slaughter of the villains had been within Red Skull’s expectations. He loudly mocked Deadpool for being unable to undo any of this, declaring that he and Deadpool had ended this world together.

From this, Zhang Ye vaguely sensed something, but he still could not be certain.

Until Miss Minutes suddenly appeared. She told Zhang Ye that this timeline was undergoing an unavoidable temporal anomaly. Disordered reality was veering off course, heading toward another timeline that was continuously developing.

And that timeline—

Was Earth-616!