dkrc Chapter 2031: The Root of All Stories in the Marvel Multiverse - The Concept of [Rules-Level Items]
Chapter 2031: The Root of All Stories in the Marvel Multiverse - The Concept of [Rules-Level Items]
Chapter 2031: The Root of All Stories in the Marvel Multiverse - The Concept of [Rule-Level Items]
This is something Thanos cannot understand.
He has fulfilled his destiny, destroying half of all life in the universe, and achieving the balance and redemption he believed in.
But why has the world's favor not left? Why does the afterglow of destiny still shine upon him?
His mission has ended, his path has come to a close.
He laid down his weapons, disarmed himself, and was willing to spend the rest of his life there.
Logically, the moment he snapped his fingers, his contract with "destiny" was completed.
The universe has been "saved," and he, the instrument that carried out the necessary evil, should be discarded, forgotten, or even rejected by the universe's own corrective force, as a way of giving some kind of explanation to the "half" of the dead souls, or as a "cleaning up" for the universe to move towards a new balance.
But the reality is that the favor remains, and the protection has not disappeared.
Even though he offered no resistance and was left to be executed, the world seemed to still "protect" him, resisting the external end.
This makes no sense.
Was his understanding flawed? Or did this "destiny" itself contain an intention that even he, the executor, had not yet deciphered?
Or perhaps his mission has not truly ended?
These turbulent thoughts stirred deep within his mind, which he thought had seen through everything. He didn't voice them, but they made his eyes even more confused than before.
Ultimately, he turned his confusion to Tony in another world, hoping he could find the answer.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark, who was being stared at with such "sincere" eyes by Thanos and waiting for an answer, twitched violently at the corner of his mouth beneath his mask.
You're asking him this question?! Are you destiny or is he destiny?
How could he possibly know what kind of "plot inertia" or "world-suppressing force" had gone mad in this universe, insisting on protecting you, the final boss who had completed the main quest, and preventing anyone from finishing the game early?!
"Tsk, you really should ask a professional about this kind of thing."
Tony sighed, and then, to everyone's astonishment, including Thanos's, he turned to the empty space beside him and spoke:
"Bai Xuan, are you aware of this situation?"
"Could Thanos in this world really be favored by the 'world will' of this universe, like a son?"
Would the world itself care whether the universe is half life or half life?
Tony's tone was half-joking and half-serious, but what he said made everyone present except Thor's heart skip a beat!
Bai Xuan? Who is that? The mysterious being Thor mentioned before who could resurrect half of life?
Could he be here? Has he always been here?
Everyone instinctively followed Tony's gaze to that empty space.
In an instant, a figure appeared naturally half a step away from Tony.
He stood there quietly, without making any movement or deliberately exuding any aura.
But the moment he appeared, the whole world seemed to fall silent.
The wind stopped flowing, the clouds froze in shape, and even the light falling on him seemed to become softer and purer.
As the crowd's consciousness began to recover slightly from the silent shock and they instinctively tried to see the suddenly appearing presence clearly, a throbbing impulse from their very life force restrained them.
Steve instinctively lowered his head, his gaze fixed on the soil beneath his feet, and a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
It wasn't that he felt hostility or pressure, but rather a sense of humility and shame that naturally arises from the depths of his soul, like an ant gazing at the sky or a mayfly peering into eternity.
He felt he was not qualified to look directly at it, as if even glancing at it would be a desecration of some supreme being.
Natasha was the same.
She caught only a glimpse of an outline seemingly bathed in holy light before her mind went blank. Then came a dizzying sense of weightlessness that forced her to abruptly look away, gasping for breath as if she had just escaped from suffocation in the deep sea.
Strange tried to maintain his sorcerer's composure, but an almost instinctive sense of submission from the soul level made him lower his head as well.
Even Thanos, who was just moments ago so imposing and seemed to resonate with the universe, is now in the same predicament.
His eyes trembled suddenly just before they met the figure's gaze.
An unprecedented sense of disparity stemming from the very essence of life froze all his will.
His massive body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment, and then, this Titan overlord who had fulfilled his "destiny," like everyone else, lowered his head with a submissiveness that even surprised himself.
It is not about yielding to power, but about a more fundamental difference in "status" that a planet naturally understands when facing a star, or a stream when facing the ocean.
He even felt that the feeling of being subtly "favored" by the "world" just moments before had become insignificant in front of this person, as if that "favor" itself was merely a thread that this being could manipulate at will.
Bai Xuan seemed oblivious to all of this, or rather, he simply didn't care.
His gaze calmly fell on Thanos, who was bowing his head slightly. His gaze was serene and distant, as if it had penetrated Thanos's body and seen something more essential.
Then, a smile appeared on Bai Xuan's lips.
Because he actually saw traces of "world's favor" in Thanos.
interesting.
That's interesting.
Because of his past status as the "Son of Heaven" and his present status as the "Son of All Gods," he has a connection with the will of the world that is unimaginable to ordinary people.
He has traveled to many worlds and witnessed many forms of the world's will.
Some worlds have a will like a loving mother, caring for all living beings; some are like a strict father, with clear rewards and punishments; some are like an ignorant child, acting on impulse; and many more are like a collection of predetermined programs, operating mechanically.
The "world will" of the Marvel universe felt more like the latter to him, even more "mechanical" and "passive".
It is more like a huge and complex "program" that operates according to certain established rules, but it does not have any subjective "favor" or "hatred".
This situation is less a matter of the world's favor and more a result of the actions of a stronger power.
There are not many things in the Marvel Universe that can do this.
But the people who can do that aren't in this universe.
Bai Xuan's gaze pierced through Thanos's current existence, following the "lingering influence" that resonated with the origin of the universe, going upstream to trace its roots.
His gaze seemed to transform into invisible tentacles, easily piercing through the layers of dimensional barriers of the material universe, transcending the linear constraints of time, and ignoring the entangled network of cause and effect.
The macroscopic structure of this universe rapidly faded in his "eyes," like a reflection on the surface of water.
Then, he "looked" towards a higher place.
That's not about spatial height, but a leap in the level of existence.
Countless similar "Marvel Universes," yet differing in certain key "parameters," are like soap bubbles floating in a boundless "ocean," each shimmering with its own brilliance and telling similar yet different "stories."
In some universes, Thanos perished early; in others, the Avengers failed in their mission; and in still others, the story took completely different paths.
This is Marvel's multiverse, a magnificent tapestry woven from possibilities.
But Bai Xuan's gaze did not linger on these "soap bubbles"; his gaze continued to rise, as if leaping from an infinitely vast plane to a higher place overlooking that plane.
Here, the "ocean" itself seems to possess a vague form and will.
That is not life, but a concept, a law, the very rules that constitute all the stories and all the possibilities of the Marvel multiverse.
Time is no longer a flowing river, but a tangible string; space is no longer an extended dimension, but a foldable scroll; the boundaries between reality and illusion are blurred, and the definitions of life and death are intertwined.
In this realm that transcends the concept of a single universe, Bai Xuan "saw" several enormous "beings" that were difficult to describe accurately in terms of form.
One of them, seemingly composed of the boundless Milky Way, the birth and death of stars, and the entire process of all things in the universe from birth to extinction, is "eternity," the embodiment and entity of time itself in the Marvel multiverse.
The other is like the boundless space itself, which is dimension, extension, and the "infinity" that contains everything.
There is another one, carrying an aura of tranquility, ending, and the final destination of all things: "death".
Of course, it wasn't just them; there were other blurry figures as well.
Representing more abstract concepts such as annihilation, order, and chaos, their "gaze" also converges here.
When Bai Xuan's gaze fell upon this area, these conceptual entities also "sensed" his gaze.
There was no communication, no hostility, and not even any clear emotional fluctuations; there was only pure, extreme "observation" and "confirmation," as if guided by the laws of the universe.
In an instant, countless pieces of information, fragments of cause and effect, and flows of possibilities were exchanged like streams of light in this silent "gaze".
No words are needed. At their level, a single thought or a glance is enough to convey a vast amount of information.
Sure enough, it was their doing.
Bai Xuan understood that the "favor" bestowed upon Thanos did not originate from the "world will" of Thanos's own universe, but from a higher level.
These constitute the conceptual entities of the Marvel multiverse.
He instantly understood the reason.
Because of the merging of Loki's and Tony's worlds last time, another Marvel Universe traveler, "Thanos," descended, causing a slight ripple throughout the Marvel multiverse.
Such disturbances are difficult for life forms within a single universe, even beings at the level of a Godfather, to detect. However, they are bound to attract the attention of supreme beings who embody the concept of the multiverse and maintain countless universes, such as eternity, infinity, and death.
They sensed the merging of the two Marvel universes, the unusual changes that shouldn't exist in the Marvel multiverse, and the existence of unknown and unobservable things like "rule-level items."
Undoubtedly, this is something that deserves great attention from them.
So they cast their gazes down, with an almost instinctive curiosity and a desire to verify.
They searched and sifted through countless parallel universes for those universes where the "original world line" had deviated significantly, especially those related to key "narrative points" such as "Thanos," "Infinity Stones," and "Snap."
In those universes under their watchful eye where the plot has "devied itself," they may exert some imperceptible "influence," just like Thanos in this universe, who bestowed upon it a "destiny" mark from the conceptual level.
They wanted to see if any beings from outside the universe, similar to those who appeared when Tony and Loki's universes merged, would appear.
The moment they saw Bai Xuan, the "thing" they had been waiting for appeared.
For beings like eternity, infinity, and death, they are the embodiment of their respective concepts, the pillars and manifestations of the Marvel multiverse.
Their "power" is beyond doubt, and they can almost be called the pinnacle of multiple levels.
But this power, this "identity" deeply bound to the fundamental laws of the Marvel Universe, is also like an invisible shackle, firmly anchoring them within this "world".
They are part of the world, the enforcers and embodiers of the rules, but they are also limited by the world itself, making it difficult for them to truly "transcend" the Marvel multiverse system and go "outside".
For them, Bai Xuan's existence was a living "exception".
An entity that was not born from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet is able to penetrate so deeply into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to "look at" and "communicate" with them so naturally on a conceptual level.
This was undoubtedly an unprecedented "interesting thing" for them who were trapped in this world.
Therefore, in that indescribable "gaze" that transcends time, space, and causality, what the concepts of eternity, infinity, and death convey to Bai Xuan is not hostility, but a pure and extreme "curiosity".
How did you get here? In what way were you able to avoid, or rather, shield yourself from our observation and perception?
For them, understanding this "method" is more important than understanding Bai Xuan as a person.
Bai Xuan did not hide this from them. At their level, many things no longer needed to be done in a roundabout way.
He conveyed the corresponding "concepts" and "information".
The concept of "rule-level item," or rather, this "information," was "passed over" by Bai Xuan.
It contains not only the word itself, but also a general description of its nature.
A creation that transcends a single world rule system, inherently containing some kind of "absolute rule" or "super-high authority".
They can break conventional logic, distort or even override the rules of the universe, and achieve all sorts of incredible effects, including but not limited to crossing world barriers and, to some extent, circumventing the monitoring of the target world's "administrator," namely the world's will or similar entities.