Reality Invasion

It all made sense.

Everything made sense!

Why had that indescribable insect chrysalis parasitized this timeline without directly destroying and devouring this parallel universe? The answer was now obvious: that thing was never targeting this universe. What it truly wanted to contaminate was the main world of the Marvel Universe!

Unlike other Multiverses, the connection between the All-New, All-Different Universe of Earth-616 and its parallel branches was extremely close. The barrier of reality between the two worlds was incredibly fragile. One misstep could result in creatures from a parallel universe crossing into the Prime Universe.

And it was precisely because of that fragile barrier that the terrifying existence from infinite darkness had been drawn here.

The insect chrysalis had no ability to directly contaminate the Prime Universe. It could not even approach it. So it had changed its approach and set its sights on the Prime Universe’s branch parallel universes.

Before long, it had locked onto a timeline from before Civil War II. Through projections into the spiritual world, it spread unparalleled Cognitive Contamination. Under that distorted way of thinking, the more intelligent someone was, the more easily they were contaminated.

And its purpose in contaminating this universe was clearly not merely to destroy it. It sought far more—for instance, using Cognitive Contamination to influence the main world.

Among the accessible records catalogued by Miss Minutes, the distinction between dimensional invasion and reality invasion was thoroughly documented.

A dimensional invasion referred to a battle between different dimensions. Once one side lost, its dimension would be devoured by the stronger side. That was how dimensional wars came about.

But reality invasion was different. It could be called a battle without smoke or fire. Simply put, reality invasion meant laying a new reality over the existing one in order to replace "reality."

Imagine what would happen to the Prime Universe if this "Superhero Termination" reality were overlaid upon it.

This was not a contest of combat power, nor a clash of schemes and intellect. This was a war that could not be described, proven, or countered.

No one would discover the enemy’s traces, and no one could participate in the war, because the war would already have ended behind another veil of reality. Who could extinguish the flames of war beyond reality?

When someone who had not died was believed by everyone—including himself—to be dead, what would that person become?

Would he still remember how to breathe?

(For example, if Green Lantern believed he was blind, then he truly became blind.)

And when this reality invasion gradually expanded, its influence slowly solidified, and it eventually reached the point where it could no longer be repaired, then the Marvel Universe would likely become a hollow shell in name only.

The system archives mentioned this event only in passing and contained no detailed records. Perhaps the previous user had merely heard about it and had not experienced it personally. Or perhaps the system archives had been damaged, leaving the records incomplete.

But regardless, it gave Zhang Ye a new insight.

Perhaps the insect chrysalis’s target had been the Marvel Prime Universe from the very beginning. That was why it had reached into the surrounding parallel universes. Though Zhang Ye did not know exactly how terrifying its power was, based on the intelligence currently available, it was undoubtedly an existence above the Multiverse level.

It was like a virus within the Multiverse, endlessly infecting and ravaging various universes. Its contamination could cover reality, twist consciousness, alter cognition, and inflict horrific, irreparable effects upon a universe’s timeline.

At the same time, its origins were exceptionally mysterious. According to Zhang Ye’s speculation, it might have been born from the "upper narrator," or it might have originated from the Dark Multiverse corresponding to the Light Multiverse. But no matter where it came from, the harm it posed was unimaginably terrifying.

Therefore, that thing absolutely could not be allowed to affect other worlds.

And it certainly could not be allowed to contaminate the Prime Universe!

At that thought, Zhang Ye closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out.

An invisible yet immense pressure settled over Zhang Ye. He had not expected that after just saving one universe on the verge of destruction, he would immediately have to save another—one involving a horrifying Multiversal crisis.

Under the insect chrysalis’s influence, this parallel universe had clearly reached a state of utter isolation. Taking advantage of the moment when many dimensions and reality worlds had shifted apart, it had affected an entire timeline, causing all those dimensions to vanish beyond the world.

If the real world and its many dimensions were a flock of geese in flight, then the real world at this moment was the one shot down by a hunter. It would sink into endless darkness, veer away from its prescribed course, and then crash directly into Marvel’s Earth-616 Prime Universe—

Becoming the source of all destruction!

And that was why the gods had severed their connection to reality, and why Mephisto’s contract could no longer remain active. Those dimensions could no longer communicate with the real world. In the end, it came down to—

"There are no reinforcements." Moon Knight sighed. "We can only rely on ourselves in this battle. If we win, no one will know how much we paid. If we lose, many universes will be affected."

"What, are you scared?" Zhang Ye asked with a smile.

At that, Moon Knight gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "How could I be scared? I’ve long been a dead man. I just want to know: since you already understand their purpose, why have Kara slaughter those supervillains? They should be able to help in this war too, shouldn’t they?"

Zhang Ye took a sip of tea, staring blankly at Kara’s figure on the television. On the screen, Kara was floating in midair, gazing at Hydro-Man’s corpse.

After a pause, Zhang Ye spoke.

"They can alter cognition and rewrite reality, but there is one thing they cannot control: logic. I confirmed that earlier in Carolina’s spiritual world. That thing exists on too high a level. It obviously cannot understand the logical thinking of humans, beings as insignificant as ‘ants.’

"But it can’t be helped. The world is formed by the logic of intelligent beings. If a tree falls deep in the mountains, does it make a sound? It does, but if no one hears it, there is no way to prove that it made a sound. Therefore, when that tree falls, it makes no sound.

"Since the reality it wants to impose is one where Deadpool, after being ‘brainwashed’ by a group of supervillains, slaughtered every superhero, then killed every villain for revenge in order to weaken the main world’s defenses—

"Fine. Then I’ll have Kara, a Kryptonian who does not exist in the Prime Universe at all, do all of it.

"I’d like to see how it plans to explain that!"