Gaia Hypothesis Descends!

The heroes on the technology and mutation sides could only see Oaks’s overwhelming grandeur, but they could not truly comprehend what it represented.

Wanda, the hero from the magic side, and her mentor Agatha understood it very well.

Their eyes lit up with incredulous brilliance at the same time.

"Master… is this President Oaks’s true power?"

In Wanda’s eyes, the magic of the entire world had been mobilized. Above Oaks’s head seemed to be an incredible magical passage, connected to an endless source of magic.

It was Natural Magic completely different from her own.

"Compared to this vast and mighty power, our magic is laughably fragile… Is this the majesty of the Gaia Hypothesis?

Nature Force can actually be this powerful, yet we humans fight upon it like ants…"

"Wanda, you possess limitless potential. Don’t belittle yourself."

Although Agatha was also awed by this immense Natural Magic, she saw Wanda’s potential very clearly:

"Everyone’s abilities have their uses. Your power can help others, and it will certainly surpass most witches and mages. But you are right…"

She could naturally see that incomprehensibly powerful Natural Magic as well, and her expression became somewhat dazed:

"So Black Magic and all that… is truly laughable…"

Rumble—

The might of Nature Force grew greater and greater. Avalon’s natural environment was struck by the immense magic, and the winds and clouds churned.

Before Oaks, in the area where Natural Magic was densest, storms still rose one after another despite his desperate efforts to control them.

Malorne’s Soul Projection lightly swung its enormous antlers, and a faint magical barrier rose before everyone, keeping the storm outside.

Within Oaks’s consciousness, the Gaia Hypothesis, once so immense it could not be directly perceived, had now become extremely close to him.

After all, if reverence counted as being a child of nature, and the peak level meant My Mind Replaces Heaven’s Mind, then admiration at least made him a legitimate emissary of nature—one of its trusted right-hand men.

So when he, this "right-hand man," submitted his advice, the Gaia Hypothesis gave positive feedback to a human’s opinion for the first time in more than three million years of human history.

If the Gaia Hypothesis appeared in Oaks’s consciousness as a radiant mass of light comparable to the sun, then now, part of its light was being transferred through the passage established by Oaks’s magic into the Sacred Oak!

Just as they had planned.

On the Sacred Oak’s trunk, wisps of rich Emerald Light first appeared, then became dense as a net, before pouring downward like rippling water. Through the trunk’s powerful magical conductivity, it continuously flooded into the enormous root system.

Malorne had displayed a Holographic Projection of the Sacred Oak’s roots, which no one could otherwise see, in midair. Everyone watched as the dense green light poured into a huge spherical structure at the center of the roots.

That was the core of the Gaia Hypothesis "mirror," a central Biological Computer center at the Nature Demigod level.

Beside the Holographic Projection, a progress bar had thoughtfully appeared.

Gaia Hypothesis mirror progress: 10%, 30%, 50%...

Everyone held their breath. Once the progress bar exceeded 50%, they noticed changes appearing in the gigantic Earth projection on the nearby pedestal!

The details in the projection became increasingly lifelike and increasingly abundant. Many regions that had originally seemed empty gradually displayed complete terrain and landforms. Even the distribution of vegetation and human structures became clearly visible!

"This is…"

Hank Pym, who had shown no particular emotional reaction even to Nature Magic’s tremendous display, gradually widened his eyes.

He could have said earlier that he did not understand magic and had no idea what Oaks was doing.

But now, he completely understood what the details of this Earth projection represented!

Changes rapidly unfolded in the Holographic Projection. After the surface details were completed, what came next was the underwater world and the underground!

The vast oceans looked as though real water filled the projection model. He could even see marked ocean currents moving forward and schools of fish migrating!

Pym even saw some areas marked with "Temperature Anomaly," "Pollution Alert," and similar notices!

And finally came the atmosphere.

Wind, clouds, rain, snow, temperature, humidity, illumination, air quality…

Using individual grid squares as units, all kinds of data streamed out like waterfalls, then vanished one by one—Malorne had its eyes tightly shut, working hard to process this nearly countless mass of data.

60%, 90%… 100%!

As the Gaia Hypothesis mirror progress reached 100%, Oaks dropped to his knees with a thud.

"Oaks!"

Everyone hurried forward. Steve was the first to help him up.

"Are you okay?"

"I’m fine… whew… that was thrilling!"

Oaks shook his still swollen, throbbing head and forced out a couple of laughs.

"Even as just a magical passage, with Nature Force supporting me, I still nearly couldn’t hold on—

Fortunately, it worked!"

"This… is absolutely the greatest miracle in the history of science—no, perhaps even in the history of magic!"

Tony muttered as he looked at the Earth projection, now exquisite as a work of art. The feeling it gave him…

It was as though it was watching them!

"This is… the Gaia Hypothesis mirror?"

"I feel like… it’s alive!"

"I feel like something is staring at me…"

"The data displayed on it is real-time? It keeps changing!"

"My God! There are so many places around the world marked as polluted!"

"This cloud is drifting toward my home… is it going to rain?"

"Look! There’s an alert here. The rainforest is being logged…"

"There’s an alert here too! A ship is in distress… We may have to set out for a rescue!"

"There’s a flash flood and mudslide warning here!"

"Storm and tsunami warnings… Were there really so many threats we never knew about?"

The Avengers instantly spotted several alerts marked "High Risk." Tony cursed with a complicated expression and immediately put on the armor he had brought in earlier.

On the one hand, he was delighted that the global warning system was functioning as expected.

On the other hand…

"Jarvis, the Iron Legion needs to keep expanding. We are severely understaffed—

Set the production plan. For the first phase, increase troop production by 50%!"

"Yes, sir."

Jarvis’s signal was available here as well. Tony could command it even without wearing his armor, but now that he was wearing it…

"Captain, assign the missions. Other than Bruce staying behind to look after Oaks, the rest of the Avengers need to return to their posts!"

"Indeed. It seems that our usual information channels have been far too limited."

Steve immediately began assigning missions based on the high-risk alerts Malorne had marked. Then everyone quickly returned to the Avengers base, equipped themselves, and set off separately.

"Sorry, Oaks. You’ll have to explain the details after this busy period is over. Get some rest first…"

Tony was the last to step through the Portal. After that, only Oaks, Banner, and the Pym family remained at the scene.

"Don’t worry, brother. I’ll promptly send them updates on the alerts."

Malorne shook its head, and a large communications interface unfolded before it, displaying all the Avengers.

"Everyone can stay in touch here. We prepared thoroughly, and aside from relaying the Gaia Hypothesis’s data, I still have plenty of processing capacity left."

"That’s good…"

Oaks took a breath and stood up. Taking the Big Acorn Banner handed him, he took a deep pull from it.

"Dr. Pym, sorry we haven’t been able to properly host you… The Avengers are even busier now."

"…"

Pym was silent for a moment. He pulled his gaze away from the Earth model and sighed.

"Give Hope and Scott two missions as well. They are quite capable too."

Oaks and Banner exchanged surprised glances, then slowly nodded.

"…Then thank you."

Hope in the Wasp Suit and Scott in the Ant-Man Suit were indeed two powerful combatants. Pym allowing them to take missions clearly meant he tacitly approved of the Avengers’ work.

"Malorne will send your identity information to Jarvis. It will arrange transportation for you."

Oaks handed two leaves to the oddly expressioned Hope and Scott.

"These are leaves for direct communication with Malorne. Just keep them on you. If you want to speak to Malorne, simply think about it."

"…That’s really environmentally friendly."

Scott thought about his new phone. At the company’s latest launch event, it had said that it spent three years developing a robot that could automatically dismantle phones for environmental protection.

He had just complained that they might stop including headphones and chargers in the name of environmental protection someday, only to witness something even more extreme.

If these leaves were no longer needed, they could probably just be eaten!

So, despite Hope’s helpless expression, he asked.

"Of course. They’re all-natural. If you suffer life-threatening injuries, eating one can save your life."

Hope: "…"

After Ant-Man and Wasp left, Banner also took an Acorn and gestured to the oddly expressioned Dr. Pym.

"Want a drink?"

"…Let’s discuss business instead."

Dr. Pym pushed up his glasses. Facing Banner and Oaks, he was not about to keep acting aloof—

With Tony around, Howard’s history had made things awkward. But with only the three of them here, he could put aside his pride and freely discuss topics that interested him.

"I heard from Carter that you plan to build a Quantum Computer… But your Biological Computer already seems extraordinarily powerful.

World consciousness… That thing actually exists, and you really managed to replicate it here!"

"Mm, calling it replication is an exaggeration. The Biological Computer is nowhere near that powerful, and two identical world consciousnesses cannot exist at the same time."

Oaks waved his hand, correcting Pym’s wording.

"To be precise, this is a ‘mirror.’ It only provides real-time feedback of the global environmental monitoring and warning data that the world consciousness—the Gaia Hypothesis—is willing to disclose to us."

He scratched his head regretfully.

"I wanted some special permissions, but it wasn’t willing to give them to me."

"What permissions?"

"For example, mineral exploration. That way, I could buy up undiscovered mines, oil fields, and things like that…"

"…"