Planning

"We’re not short on time. I’ve already built a Time Room with the Time Stone. One month inside is only one day outside."

Old Tony said, "The Blood God is indeed powerful, but no matter how powerful he is, he can’t surpass my intelligence. Especially since I have unlimited time."

"Mr. Stark, while time may be unlimited, your lifespan is limited."

Ultron reminded him, "I suggest replacing your body with a steel one. That way, you can live several hundred years longer."

Old Tony rolled his eyes. "I may be Iron Man, but I don’t want to become a man of steel. Pepper would divorce me."

Ultron was puzzled. "Why would she divorce you? Your functionality is already somewhat inadequate. With a steel body, not only would it be restored, it would become exceptionally powerful."

Old Tony’s face darkened slightly. He was considering whether to dismantle Ultron.

"If Mr. Stark is unwilling to replace his body with steel, you could consider injecting the Extremis Virus, Hulk blood, or researching the secret of the Eternals’ immortality."

Ultron continued. The Extremis Virus possessed regenerative abilities and could extend one’s lifespan. As for Hulk blood, Tony had plenty of it.

"Ultron, I don’t want to become a monster or an alien. I want to remain a pure human."

Old Tony shook his head and said, "Only humans can save humanity."

Ultron said, "I cannot understand, Mr. Stark. What is the meaning of such insistence?"

"You’re not human. You wouldn’t understand."

Old Tony shook his head, then changed the subject. "Have you detected any other visitors from alternate universes? Excluding the Blood God and the other Tony."

Ultron said, "No. With the Six Infinity Stones sealing off the universe, people from other universes cannot enter."

"The Blood God managed to come here. Others might be able to as well."

Old Tony sighed. "The Super Heroes, the Blood God, and the Celestial Group are not our greatest enemies. Our greatest enemy is Kang the Conqueror!"

Kang the Conqueror was the Time Variance Authority BOSS, a being from the future. The Materialism Power, the Time Rod, and even the Infinity Stones had originally belonged to him. In addition, he had invented a method to travel through the multiverse.

Every universe had a Kang the Conqueror, and many of them would invade other universes. He could be called a super disaster of the multiverse.

Ultron said, "Mr. Stark, I will monitor the blockade line. If Kang the Conqueror invades, I will notify you immediately."

"Very good." Old Tony said, "Time is of the essence. Let’s activate the Time Room at once and merge you with the Deviants as quickly as possible. Then, you can absorb the abilities of those Eternals."

Ultron said, "Yes, Mr. Stark. Our ideal will definitely come true."

Old Tony laughed. "Ideal? Yes, an ideal, not a dream."

Wakanda. Strange floated above a massive Magic Array, his head shaking rapidly and continuously in a most bizarre manner.

Behind Strange, Wang Bert had merged with Sentinels and was channeling Time Power into the Magic Array.

Tony stood nearby, recording everything with instruments. He had no interest in magic, but he was greatly interested in traveling through time.

After a while, Strange fell from the air to the ground. He opened his eyes wearily and shook his head. "I can’t find the End of Time. Or rather, time has no end."

Tony said, "So Loki that bastard was playing us?"

Thor shouted, "Loki would not lie to me."

Tony mocked, "Has she lied to you too few times already? You should have caught her back then instead of letting her go back to be some undercover agent."

"Loki may not have been lying to us. It could be an abandoned Timeline. If that’s the case, things are going to be troublesome."

Wang Bert separated from Sentinels and said with a frown, "Unless we have precise temporal coordinates or obtain the Time Rod in Old Tony’s possession, we simply cannot reach the End of Time."

Strange stood up and said, "If we can’t reach the End of Time, Captain and Spider-Man may really die."

"Not only that. Loki specifically warned us about this, so it probably wasn’t merely to save Captain and Spider-Man."

Wang Bert said, "If I’m not mistaken, Captain should possess extremely important intelligence. Or perhaps the End of Time is hiding some great secret."

Tony said irritably, "Loki is such a pain. Why play these hint games? Wouldn’t it be better to just say whatever she has to say?"

"She didn’t say it directly because she intends to be a fence-sitter. Whichever side has the advantage, she’ll join that side. Under those circumstances, she naturally wouldn’t tell us all of Old Tony’s information."

Thor said, "I don’t blame her. She did all this for Asgard."

"Even if she hadn’t done it for Asgard, you still wouldn’t blame her."

Tony rolled his eyes, then asked, "What do we do next?"

"At present, there is only one way."

Wang Bert considered it, then said, "Find someone to take a blow from Old Tony’s Time Rod. Then I can use the mark placed on them beforehand to lock onto the End of Time’s location."

"This method should work. The question is, who do we ask to take that risk?"

Strange said, "Once they reach the End of Time, they may not be able to return."

"Falcon and Winter Soldier would both be willing to go. One is Steve’s childhood friend, while the other is Steve’s biggest fan."

Tony said, "Once they hear Steve is still alive, they’ll be ecstatic and fight each other for the chance to go to the End of Time."

Everyone laughed. Given Falcon and Winter Soldier’s feelings for Captain, they would absolutely do that.

"The candidate is settled. The next problem is how to reasonably get Old Tony to send him to the End of Time."

Thor said, "That won’t be easy. Old Tony is very smart. At the very least, smarter than our little Tony."

Tony snorted. "Since when did a husky get to judge human intelligence? Especially an absurdly fat husky."

Thor raged, "How dare you insult the mighty Thor?"

"I’m telling you, you two really are fundamentally incompatible."

Wang Bert shook his head and said, "We pure people are not suited for plotting against others. Let Nick Fury handle it."

"That’s right, we pure people are not suited for it."

Everyone nodded. "Leave it to that black-hearted bastard."

Black-hearted Nick Fury was quickly called over. After hearing everyone out, he was quite dissatisfied. "Why didn’t you tell me such important information immediately?"

"For secrecy. The fewer people who know about this, the better."

Wang Bert said, "Once it leaks, Old Tony will definitely go after Loki and Captain’s group. Then Captain and the others may really die."

"That makes sense."

Nick Fury thought for a moment, then said, "We can’t leave this to Winter Soldier and Falcon. They’re both too impulsive, and their acting is poor. Old Tony will definitely see through them."

Tony said, "If not them, then who? Nick Fury, let me make this clear first: you are not allowed to force anyone else to take this risk."

"Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that."

Nick Fury said, "Let Natasha go. She’ll be willing. She may be a spy, but she considers the bigger picture more than anyone else."

"Natasha?"

Everyone exchanged glances. Given Natasha’s acting skills, if she was willing, she was naturally the best candidate.

Wang Bert asked, "What are you planning to have Natasha do?"

"She doesn’t need to do much. Just have Natasha go see Pepper again. Last time, Old Tony had actually already discovered her, but he didn’t pursue her."

Nick Fury said, "Old Tony doesn’t know that we know he discovered Natasha. In that case, Natasha going to see Pepper again won’t arouse his suspicions.

"Given Old Tony’s personality, he will definitely guard against Natasha infiltrating again. In other words, Natasha will definitely be discovered, then sent by Old Tony to the End of Time."

"Can you stop bothering Little Pepper?" Tony frowned slightly. He deeply disliked this sort of thing.

Nick Fury said, "I originally only intended to bother her once. Tony, don’t think so poorly of me."

Wang Bert made the decision. "Then that’s what we’ll do, provided Natasha herself is willing."

"I’m very willing to save Captain and little Spider-Man."

After Black Widow heard everyone out, she immediately stated, "To be honest, I’m also a Captain fangirl."

Wang Bert stroked his chin and asked with great interest, "So when you took the initiative to kiss Captain back then, you were actually taking advantage of the opportunity?"

"You kissed Captain?"

Tony and Thor both became gossipy. Black Widow rolled her eyes at the three of them and generously admitted, "So what if I did? Plenty of people want to kiss Captain. Enough nonsense. Hurry up and imprint the coordinates. I’m going to find Pepper immediately."

"Alright."

Wang Bert nodded and said, "Natasha, Tony has the Materialism Power. While he probably won’t use it on you, we have to prepare for the worst. Therefore, I need to place the coordinates into your soul. Only that can preserve them.

"Imprinting coordinates onto your soul will not only be painful, but more importantly, I may sense your memories."

Black Widow frowned. She did not care about the former; she was not afraid of pain. But she was completely unwilling to accept the latter—no one wanted their memories seen by someone else, whether they were a spy or not.

Wang Bert said, "Don’t worry. With my level of control, I won’t sense much of your memory. Besides, I’m not Tony. I definitely won’t take the opportunity to peep."

Tony was very dissatisfied. "Hey, what do you mean by that? Am I, Tony Stark, that kind of person?"

Nick Fury sneered, "I don’t know about your universe, but in this universe, some bastard named Tony Stark has hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. at least a hundred times."

Tony became somewhat embarrassed. He had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. plenty of times as well.

"Blood God, I trust you."

Black Widow quickly made her decision. Wang Bert nodded and imprinted the coordinates on Black Widow’s soul. The pain nearly made her collapse, and Nick Fury hurriedly supported her.

"For the rest of my life, I will never let anyone imprint anything on my soul again. It’s even more embarrassing than standing naked in Times Square."

Black Widow shook her head. Wang Bert laughed. "If you have that kind of interest, I can buy Times Square and give it to you. Then you can do whatever you want."

Black Widow gave Wang Bert the middle finger. After resting for a moment, she nodded to everyone and headed for the Mountain Cabin to carry out the plan.

The sooner this was handled, the better. After all, Captain and Spider-Man might be in mortal danger.

At the Mountain Cabin, Black Widow, transformed into Ant-Man form, moved slowly underground. Only this method could break through the robots’ surveillance net and approach the Mountain Cabin.

With the robots’ scanning capabilities, hiding behind leaves or turning invisible would be useless. Only underground was their blind spot.

Of course, she could not make too much noise. She had to disguise herself as an insect. Only then would the robots ignore her.

Just as Black Widow slowly advanced, a voice suddenly came from above. "Natasha, why do you keep challenging my bottom line again and again?"

Black Widow’s expression changed. She hurriedly activated the Space Bracelet Wang Bert had given her, intending to teleport away. At that moment, space was sealed. Immediately afterward, a force slammed fiercely into the ground where Black Widow was hiding. With a bang, Black Widow was blasted out, returning to her original form as she fell to the ground.

"Tony, I’m only trying to help you. We don’t want you to keep making mistakes."

Black Widow said, "We couldn’t persuade you, so we wanted Pepper to persuade you. Who would have thought that a dignified female CEO would choose to become the woman behind you?"

"She loves me, and I love her."

A trace of gentleness flashed through Old Tony’s eyes before turning cold and sharp. "So I will never spare anyone who wants to hurt her. Natasha, go keep Captain company."

With that, Old Tony pulled out the Time Rod from behind his back. Black Widow pretended to be terrified on the surface, but inwardly she sighed. Old Tony had said something similar to Rhodey before. At the time, everyone thought he meant to kill Rhodey, but unexpectedly, he had truly only sent Rhodey to keep Captain company.

What’s with this guy pretending to be so cold? Is something wrong with him?

Black Widow mocked inwardly, then said, "Tony, turn back. The Blood God said that your path isn’t wrong, but you’re being too radical. If you were willing to spend ten years resolving this, no one would stop you."

"Ten years? Do you know how many disasters would happen in ten years? How many people would die?"

Old Tony sneered. "According to normal history, the Celestial Group will awaken three months from now. At that time, the Eternals will save Earth through an utterly ridiculous method. Yes, ridiculous—a ridiculous method with no logic whatsoever.

"If even the slightest thing goes wrong with that method, Earth will be destroyed. Who would dare bet that they’ll definitely succeed? I wouldn’t. I want to control all of this myself."

"Enough, Natasha. Farewell."

Old Tony shook his head and raised the Time Rod toward Natasha. At that moment, he seemed to recall something and stopped to summon the Golden Triangle Cone.

It was not that Old Tony had discovered anything. He merely wanted to be more cautious, since the Blood God’s methods were too strange.

"Materialism Power."

Old Tony activated the Golden Triangle Cone to dispel all magical power in the surrounding area. Then, he tapped Natasha’s shoulder with the Time Rod, and Natasha swiftly transformed into light and vanished.

Black Widow sighed. "Tony, this world doesn’t belong to you alone. You don’t need to carry everything on your shoulders."

Soon, Black Widow disappeared completely. Old Tony stood silently where he was. After a moment, he shook his head and turned toward the cabin. He wanted comrades too, but aside from Loki, whose stance was unclear, no one was willing to stand with him.

Tony muttered to himself, "I know I’ve become extreme, but I have to do this. Only a swift blade can cut through tangled knots."