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Chapter 385: An Abnormal Trajectory
Absolutely everything was completely different from what he had calculated!
The things he had meticulously prepared always went wrong, always undergoing some kind of strange mutation. This led him to face astonishing crises and encounter increasingly terrifying enemies.
This was not normal. The more Slim recalled, the more shocked and furious he became.
His codename was One. Hiding it from his other selves, he had secretly placed the Plot Gem in a safe location that only he knew. Then, once fully prepared, he had resolutely jumped into a certain universe.
A very remote universe, one approaching its twilight years. Its rules were collapsing, its gods had vanished, and life was dying out. For others, it was the worst possible place, but for him, it was conversely the safest.
The closer a universe was to its end, the fewer powerhouses there were. The capable ones had long since left, while the incapable were bound by the universe, dying along with it.
The fewer the powerhouses, the safer he would be, and the fewer accidents there would be.
But the damn moment he appeared in that universe, an accident happened.
Appearing along with him were more than ten of him...
More than a dozen of him, completely identical to himself!
Soul, genes, memories, habits, thought patterns... they were essentially more than ten of his doppelgangers! All gathered in one universe in an instant!
To be honest, One was truly stunned at the time. He had thought the other guys had jumped in with him, but upon looking, he realized they were all truly "his own self"...
It wasn't just One who was stunned; the dozen or so other "Ones" were stunned too. They all reacted in the exact same way, as if every single one of them was the real One, gleefully preparing to get the Plot Gem and stir up trouble.
Just as humans cannot accept their own clones, even if the clones have identical memories, habits, appearances, and genes, who would ever consider a group of clones to be themselves?
Who would be willing to share everything they have with a clone?
On what grounds?
Especially clones that just appeared out of nowhere?
This was exactly what One was thinking, even if these guys were his doppelgangers... But, how could there be doppelgangers?! This was completely illogical!
That pile of his "doppelgangers" were still carrying on with their creative work as always, each responsible for different modules in different universes!
How could a group of guys identical to him suddenly appear in the storyline?
One didn't consider the others to be himself. Naturally, the others thought the same way. Every single one of them believed they were the initial individual who first entered this place.
The others were all fakes, all copies of himself.
They were all products of this universe's rules, all trash.
And trash ought to be cleaned up immediately.
And so, as was to be expected, a group of Slims, all with the fighting strength of ordinary humans, exchanged glances before their faces turned vicious and they immediately moved to kill each other.
Imagine it, a group of skinny guys brawling with each other like street punks...
Fists, teeth, every available weapon was used. Groin attacks, eye-gouging—all the effective, dirty tricks were brought out in a life-or-death struggle.
Some were killed, while the others fled in a hurry.
All the contingencies One had arranged before entering became traps for this group to fight and scheme against each other. One by one, they were killed by their own doppelgangers.
It even got to the point where One, in order to kill his final doppelganger, had to make a trip to the perilous Dark Multiverse and was almost captured by that demon, Barbatos!
If he had been caught, it would have been all over!
The more One thought about it, the angrier he became, still feeling a lingering fear.
He had killed more than a dozen of himself and faced near-death situations several times just to obtain the Plot Gem that should have been his with ease!
However, it was all worth it, because he had endured to the very end, killed all the others, and was the only one left!
"You should be grateful to me. If it weren't for me, you might have died long ago! If it weren't for me, you would still just be an ordinary little nobody, a completely unremarkable 'character'!"
One's eyes were red. "Your Allspark solidified all of your special traits. Without the Allspark we arranged for you, you should have died back when Hulk and Abomination were fighting!"
"No different from your doppelgangers in other universes!"
"Why do you think the Ancient One took such good care of you? Because she knew that the yous from other universes were unremarkable! She wanted more information too!"
Tony's expression was calm as he spread his hands. "So what? At least the Ancient One genuinely protected and taught me, single-handedly raising me to the position of Sorcerer Supreme. At the very least, she possesses more sincerity than you."
"Then what do you want to do? Avenge her? Kill me?" One laughed loudly, pointing at Tony's right hand. "With those shabby, broken Infinity Stones of yours? Without me, you wouldn't have even made it past Trigon! That's equivalent to me saving you again!"
"Or perhaps, you want to use the Allspark against me?"
One's expression was mocking, filled with derision and sarcasm. "What do you think the Allspark is? Just something to help you create planets? Build an entirely new race? Or help you kill your enemies? The Allspark isn't used like that. It's an incredible tool of creation, but it has never been a weapon."
Tony watched him indifferently and said, "Whatever method I use, the one that can kill you is the best one."
"Then give it a try!"
One grinned savagely. As he waved his arm, he let out a low growl, his eyes filled with desire and greed, carrying a deep chill like that of a hyena.
A black light spread out, enveloping the area. It was like a tangible veil of darkness descending from the heavens, obscuring even the shining stars in the distance.
The corrective force surged forward, colliding with five beams of light!
The six powers clashed fiercely, but without a doubt, the side being crushed was certainly Tony's.
Five Infinity Stones, and broken ones at that. Even the one in the best condition was covered in cracks. Compared to the pristine Plot Gem, they were already at an absolute disadvantage.
Tony's face was impassive, betraying no emotion. A continuous cracking sound came from his right hand, and an abnormal halo of light began to bloom from the rifts in the Infinity Stones, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.
Tony said nothing, retreating rapidly while coldly observing the man before him.
The one who claimed to be his creator.
The black light spread, correcting all the power that Tony could comprehend. A strange fault line even appeared, as if a complete story had been crudely cut off and then spliced with a new one.
A new, incongruous story.
Even the level-eight Trigon clone could sense this feeling of dissonance. This was why the Plot Gem wasn't invincible; it merely granted its user temporary Author Authority.
A peculiar glint flashed in Tony's eyes. Among the five stones, four of them suddenly lost their light, leaving only the blue Space Stone.
In the instant he rapidly retreated, a blue light flared. A vortex opened, connecting directly to... the Dark Dimension.
(end of chapter)
Absolutely everything was completely different from what he had calculated!
The things he had meticulously prepared always went wrong, always undergoing some kind of strange mutation. This led him to face astonishing crises and encounter increasingly terrifying enemies.
This was not normal. The more Slim recalled, the more shocked and furious he became.
His codename was One. Hiding it from his other selves, he had secretly placed the Plot Gem in a safe location that only he knew. Then, once fully prepared, he had resolutely jumped into a certain universe.
A very remote universe, one approaching its twilight years. Its rules were collapsing, its gods had vanished, and life was dying out. For others, it was the worst possible place, but for him, it was conversely the safest.
The closer a universe was to its end, the fewer powerhouses there were. The capable ones had long since left, while the incapable were bound by the universe, dying along with it.
The fewer the powerhouses, the safer he would be, and the fewer accidents there would be.
But the damn moment he appeared in that universe, an accident happened.
Appearing along with him were more than ten of him...
More than a dozen of him, completely identical to himself!
Soul, genes, memories, habits, thought patterns... they were essentially more than ten of his doppelgangers! All gathered in one universe in an instant!
To be honest, One was truly stunned at the time. He had thought the other guys had jumped in with him, but upon looking, he realized they were all truly "his own self"...
It wasn't just One who was stunned; the dozen or so other "Ones" were stunned too. They all reacted in the exact same way, as if every single one of them was the real One, gleefully preparing to get the Plot Gem and stir up trouble.
Just as humans cannot accept their own clones, even if the clones have identical memories, habits, appearances, and genes, who would ever consider a group of clones to be themselves?
Who would be willing to share everything they have with a clone?
On what grounds?
Especially clones that just appeared out of nowhere?
This was exactly what One was thinking, even if these guys were his doppelgangers... But, how could there be doppelgangers?! This was completely illogical!
That pile of his "doppelgangers" were still carrying on with their creative work as always, each responsible for different modules in different universes!
How could a group of guys identical to him suddenly appear in the storyline?
One didn't consider the others to be himself. Naturally, the others thought the same way. Every single one of them believed they were the initial individual who first entered this place.
The others were all fakes, all copies of himself.
They were all products of this universe's rules, all trash.
And trash ought to be cleaned up immediately.
And so, as was to be expected, a group of Slims, all with the fighting strength of ordinary humans, exchanged glances before their faces turned vicious and they immediately moved to kill each other.
Imagine it, a group of skinny guys brawling with each other like street punks...
Fists, teeth, every available weapon was used. Groin attacks, eye-gouging—all the effective, dirty tricks were brought out in a life-or-death struggle.
Some were killed, while the others fled in a hurry.
All the contingencies One had arranged before entering became traps for this group to fight and scheme against each other. One by one, they were killed by their own doppelgangers.
It even got to the point where One, in order to kill his final doppelganger, had to make a trip to the perilous Dark Multiverse and was almost captured by that demon, Barbatos!
If he had been caught, it would have been all over!
The more One thought about it, the angrier he became, still feeling a lingering fear.
He had killed more than a dozen of himself and faced near-death situations several times just to obtain the Plot Gem that should have been his with ease!
However, it was all worth it, because he had endured to the very end, killed all the others, and was the only one left!
"You should be grateful to me. If it weren't for me, you might have died long ago! If it weren't for me, you would still just be an ordinary little nobody, a completely unremarkable 'character'!"
One's eyes were red. "Your Allspark solidified all of your special traits. Without the Allspark we arranged for you, you should have died back when Hulk and Abomination were fighting!"
"No different from your doppelgangers in other universes!"
"Why do you think the Ancient One took such good care of you? Because she knew that the yous from other universes were unremarkable! She wanted more information too!"
Tony's expression was calm as he spread his hands. "So what? At least the Ancient One genuinely protected and taught me, single-handedly raising me to the position of Sorcerer Supreme. At the very least, she possesses more sincerity than you."
"Then what do you want to do? Avenge her? Kill me?" One laughed loudly, pointing at Tony's right hand. "With those shabby, broken Infinity Stones of yours? Without me, you wouldn't have even made it past Trigon! That's equivalent to me saving you again!"
"Or perhaps, you want to use the Allspark against me?"
One's expression was mocking, filled with derision and sarcasm. "What do you think the Allspark is? Just something to help you create planets? Build an entirely new race? Or help you kill your enemies? The Allspark isn't used like that. It's an incredible tool of creation, but it has never been a weapon."
Tony watched him indifferently and said, "Whatever method I use, the one that can kill you is the best one."
"Then give it a try!"
One grinned savagely. As he waved his arm, he let out a low growl, his eyes filled with desire and greed, carrying a deep chill like that of a hyena.
A black light spread out, enveloping the area. It was like a tangible veil of darkness descending from the heavens, obscuring even the shining stars in the distance.
The corrective force surged forward, colliding with five beams of light!
The six powers clashed fiercely, but without a doubt, the side being crushed was certainly Tony's.
Five Infinity Stones, and broken ones at that. Even the one in the best condition was covered in cracks. Compared to the pristine Plot Gem, they were already at an absolute disadvantage.
Tony's face was impassive, betraying no emotion. A continuous cracking sound came from his right hand, and an abnormal halo of light began to bloom from the rifts in the Infinity Stones, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.
Tony said nothing, retreating rapidly while coldly observing the man before him.
The one who claimed to be his creator.
The black light spread, correcting all the power that Tony could comprehend. A strange fault line even appeared, as if a complete story had been crudely cut off and then spliced with a new one.
A new, incongruous story.
Even the level-eight Trigon clone could sense this feeling of dissonance. This was why the Plot Gem wasn't invincible; it merely granted its user temporary Author Authority.
A peculiar glint flashed in Tony's eyes. Among the five stones, four of them suddenly lost their light, leaving only the blue Space Stone.
In the instant he rapidly retreated, a blue light flared. A vortex opened, connecting directly to... the Dark Dimension.
(end of chapter)
