Unease Became Reality

The moment Zhang Ye saw the girl, he was drawn in by her beauty. She had long golden hair and delicate features, and lying on the bed, she looked like a sleeping beauty.

However, Zhang Ye merely gave her a brief look before withdrawing his gaze and turning to Kara in confusion. "Who is she?"

"I don’t know. She suddenly appeared between the stratosphere and mesosphere. She was in very bad shape, so I rescued her. Don’t worry, no one saw her, and she wasn’t being tracked," Kara said calmly.

Zhang Ye nodded, then immediately went to the girl’s side and began examining her injuries. He had not realized it at first, but her life force was already extremely faint. She was practically at death’s door and could lose her life at any moment.

"John, stop throwing up and get over here. Save her." Zhang Ye knew nothing about medicine, especially when it came to injuries this severe. After using magic to freeze the flow of time around her body, he hurriedly called John over.

"O-Okay." Hearing Zhang Ye call him, John hastily set down the trash can. Fighting down his discomfort, he approached the girl. When he saw that Zhang Ye could actually freeze time itself, he could not help shooting him a terrified glance.

"Don’t look at me. Save her." Zhang Ye frowned.

There were many forms of magic capable of controlling time, but all of them required terrifying amounts of energy or Divine Relics. For instance, the primordial gods of old could control the flow of time with their immense magical power, while the Time Stone, one of the Infinity Stones, could also briefly manipulate the speed at which time flowed.

Naturally, Zhang Ye did not possess such formidable magical power at present. However, with the Time Twister, he could exploit a loophole and cast this kind of magic that "resembled" time control.

"As you wish." John shuddered before turning his attention to the girl’s horrific wounds. "She’s still alive after suffering injuries this serious? Her vitality is terrifying. Do we have emergency medical equipment?"

"It was prepared long ago." Pietro hurriedly brought the supplies in. Seeing that all the bags and equipment were highly professional, Zhang Ye suspected Pietro had simply robbed a major hospital.

"Can you save her?" Zhang Ye asked as he looked at John’s grave expression.

"Honestly, I’m not sure. This girl isn’t from Earth. The only reason she has barely survived until now is because of her unusual constitution. I can stitch up her wounds, but she has lost too much blood. Even if I treat her injuries, I’m afraid…" John sighed.

"I understand. Treat her first." Zhang Ye nodded, then gestured to Kara and Pietro, signaling for them to step outside and not disturb John’s emergency treatment.

Just as John had said, her injuries were not the most critical issue. The real problem was that this alien girl had lost a tremendous amount of blood. If she could not receive a transfusion in time, death still awaited her.

On Earth, finding alien blood compatible with hers was almost impossible. And that was not even considering that they knew absolutely nothing about the girl’s origins.

"She suddenly appeared in the sky?" Zhang Ye led the two of them into the living room and asked Kara again.

"Yes. I was about to observe those superheroes when she entered my field of vision. Oh, right. When I saw her, her entire body was glowing pink," Kara answered after thinking for a moment.

"Pink light?" Zhang Ye froze. He carefully searched his memories of the superheroes in Marvel, trying to identify the girl. After thinking for a long time, he could not help asking again, "Was it only pink light?"

"There were a lot of colors, like a rainbow—bright and multicolored. But pink was the most prominent," Kara replied after some thought.

"A rainbow…" Zhang Ye suspected she might be Crystal of the Inhumans, but quickly ruled out the possibility. Crystal and this girl shared some similarities, but they were not exactly alike.

Besides, this girl was unquestionably an alien. Though it was still impossible to determine which planet she came from, her constitution was completely different from that of Earthlings. She was not like those genetically modified humans; there were no Earth-origin genetic sequences in her body.

That made the girl’s origins highly suspicious. This was the Marvel Universe, after all, where all sorts of superheroes existed. Since this girl possessed superpowers and was an alien, she was most likely a superhero or supervillain as well. If so, Zhang Ye should not have been unfamiliar with her.

Moreover, the girl’s appearance had been extremely sudden. Whoever had inflicted such severe injuries on her had clearly been exceptionally cruel. By all rights, nothing like this should have happened in the All-New, All-Different Universe. Even if it had, there was no way he would have had no recollection of it whatsoever.

Zhang Ye stroked his chin as an ominous suspicion slowly surfaced in his mind.

"Kara, can you determine the direction she came from based on where she appeared and her flight path?" Zhang Ye asked.

"It’s difficult. Her flight path was complicated. She looked like a headless fly, flying around at random." Kara shook her head, then recalled the situation. "But she was terrified when she saw me. I think she was being hunted, which was why she fled in a panic."

"Then she most likely didn’t come from beyond Earth. If she had been chased through space, S.W.O.R.D. and the Fantastic Four’s satellites would have spotted her when she entered Earth." Zhang Ye rubbed his temples, his bad premonition growing stronger.

"Oh, there’s one more thing." Seeing Zhang Ye’s serious expression, Kara spoke again.

"What is it?" Zhang Ye raised his head.

"I’ve been observing the superheroes in this world lately. At first, I was just curious about their lives and wanted to watch what they did. But over the past few days, the superheroes I can observe seem to be getting fewer and fewer," Kara said uncertainly.

The moment he heard this, Zhang Ye’s eyelid twitched. He abruptly stood up and stared at Kara intently. "What do you mean by ‘fewer and fewer’?"

"I used to be able to observe superheroes throughout America, but gradually, many of them disappeared. I thought they were taking vacations or resting for a while, but recently, I heard some bad news…"

Zhang Ye did not answer, merely signaling for her to continue.

Kara’s brow furrowed tightly. "I heard that many superheroes have died. There’s a bloodthirsty Butcher out there, using extremely brutal methods to slaughter superheroes who operate alone."

At those words, Zhang Ye’s eyes narrowed. The unease in his heart had finally become reality.

"…"