At this moment, Su Ming, who was bending down to examine the fragmented corpse, almost lost his balance and fell.
It wasn't because of the insect's struggle; Strangulation had fixed it so securely that it couldn't move, it was just a step away from laying a carpet for the host inside the insect's belly.
It was an unprecedented strange sensation that attacked his entire being.
Coming from an unknown source, like an electric current, or a ripple, as it swept across the entire cosmos, it inevitably affected everyone.
The X Metal inside him emitted a buzz, and this intense resonance almost made Deathstroke unable to maintain balance.
"Did you hear that?"
He immediately questioned Strangulation, the most sensitive to vibrations; if the X Metal had indeed moved, the symbiote connected through the spine and host would surely feel it.
But Strangulation's armor head shook; it felt nothing.
Su Ming didn't think he had hallucinated earlier. Although encountering various Cthulhu System monsters could indeed drive one mad, this wouldn't happen to him.
If the vibration didn't occur on the physical level, could it be on the energy level?
"Monac?"
"Here, what's up?"
"Nothing, continue."
No need to ask, the Mage showed no reaction either; he sat on horseback, looking at the other end of the passage, as if pondering what lay deeper underground.
There were no clues in the insect's belly, so Su Ming could only pick out the relatively intact Demon Horn and throw it to the Mage.
This is an alchemy material, valuable in the Magic Realm, and you can't let the Mage work for nothing every time.
Su Ming returned to the armor, Strangulation covered him once more, and he drew his weapon, killing the insect with ease.
The milky white liquid sprayed all over him, but Strangulation quickly absorbed it, and the armor remained shiny as new.
"I feel something is off; something definitely happened in this world moments ago."
"None of us noticed, boss."
"That's the key."
Only X Metal could feel it... as the source of the DC World and peculiar energy, what X Metal can do, even Su Ming couldn't say for sure.
He is currently at a beginner's stage in utilizing this metal, using it as a battery to charge various tools and repair damaged items.
It's like giving a primitive man a gun, yet using it as a boomerang.
"There are too many things that felt off in the past; we might all be caught in a conspiracy, be vigilant."
The three of them halted, and Su Ming silently pondered while looking at the insect's corpse.
Besides the previously discovered unclear motives of the enemy, there was one thing he kept thinking about while inside the insect's stomach.
That was Odin's behavior at the time.
Very strange, instead of not wanting to talk to him, the attitude seemed more like avoiding something, especially that single tear at the end, which gave Su Ming goosebumps.
He sensed the oddity at the time but didn't voice it out; he wanted to organize all clues cautiously instead of indicating he discovered anything, thereby prematurely attracting attention from everyone.
Zemo's actions were strange too; he really had no need to strangle the Goddess of Destiny's neck; there aren't such frivolous people in Hydra.
The escape plan after the Hell journey was also a test for Heimdall; Odin vanished in Hell, yet Heimdall didn't question the Mage and Gin, the two informed individuals? Instead, he should have directly teleported them back to the Rainbow Bridge to interrogate or question, right?
So many things, on this trip to the Immortal Palace, most characters Su Ming met acted bizarrely, as if possessed by something foul.
Ronan, Malekith, and Mephisto acted as Su Ming expected, as did Thor and Loki, and Gullveig's behavior was also normal enough.
But these were all the normal ones within the entire event.
"Gin?"
"I'm here."
"Has Asgard ever been haunted?"
"Uh... what do you mean by haunted? Restless Spirit phenomenon?"
"For example, when incomprehensible or bizarre things happen, exhibiting very unnatural phenomena, or even things that cannot be explained."
"Well, in my memory, quite a few similar incidents have happened—a string of inexplicable riddles, one incredible rumor after another... But in Asgard, the occurrence of these doesn't relate to those covered in white sheets but often involves Loki or Amora."
"I... see, that's it; well said, Gin."
Su Ming closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, he understood now. He hadn't thought of this aspect before, but the names Gin mentioned reminded him.
Gin didn't understand what her boss had figured out, but seeing that she was still of help to him, she displayed a reserved smile.
"Withdraw, there's no point in looking for Balder anymore, we can't walk down the paths of other people's stories."
Su Ming turned the Godslayer into a drill and began to dig directly upwards. The problem with the Great Serpent was just a phantom; he had been chasing an imaginary task target all along.
The Ancient One hid some things, for unknown reasons, she always hoped Su Ming would become the Supreme Mage.
There was nothing unusual during the first meeting; in the New York sewers, it was just an ordinary meeting between the Guardian of a dimension and an uninvited guest.
But afterwards, the Ancient One's attitude seemed to turn one hundred and eighty degrees. When Su Ming brought Dr. Holloway to Kama Taiji, the Ancient One directly appointed Su Ming as the inheritor.
Shouldn't it have been Holloway? He was the one Su Ming could think of who was most like Doctor Strange.
The best surgeon in New York, without conservative moral views, believed in protecting and helping others as a life mission, and even looked somewhat similar, especially with that little mustache.
But the Ancient One did not choose him; she didn't even speak with the doctor.
So the question arises, if according to the original history, Strange went to Kama Taiji and was accepted by the Ancient One as a disciple to become an inheritor.
Then why was someone like Holloway, who had almost identical qualifications, completely unwelcome?
In Su Ming's view, Holloway was even stronger than Strange in many aspects, especially in terms of courage and conviction. Strange often tends to give up on himself or do irresponsible things.
Holloway had a magic talent; Su Ming later asked Monac and Hamill, and they both gave a definite answer — if Dr. Holloway switched to studying magic, his achievements would far exceed what he obtained in the medical field.
But the Ancient One seemed fixated on Deathstroke, even if someone similar to Doctor Strange was brought before her.
The only explanation is that the Ancient One observed the future timeline and detected something through the Time Gem.
She had said before that she could not see Su Ming's destiny in the Time Gem, but if she could observe everyone around Su Ming, she could naturally guess what role Deathstroke played.
The Ancient One had kept things from Su Ming before, and this had nothing to do with the usual mysterious style of mages; she wouldn't do anything without purpose.
Due to the existence of the Time Gem, her actions were more purposeful than anyone else's.
But now, Su Ming still didn't understand why she did so. Would his becoming the Supreme Mage benefit the world?
He knew he couldn't say he was completely without a sense of responsibility, but most of the time, he was a self-interested person. Could such a person protect the main dimension, protect Earth?
He recalled the situation on the DC side... Well, yes, he actually could... Even though the starting point and motives were for personal gain, in the end, he protected Earth.
Realizing this situation didn't make him happy, because it seemed like Deadpool going out to the supermarket only to accidentally save the world.
Filled with drama and narrative, but now Su Ming most detested the word 'story,' and it seems like in every world, someone is arranging a script for him...
"...What on Earth is Loki thinking?"
Climbing out from the hole he dug, the symbiote flicked off the debris stuck to his body. Su Ming couldn't help but sigh. If in the past Loki had a hand in his experiences, then everything happening around Su Ming was the result of Loki and Kang's joint influence, an utterly entangled dead knot.
Loki was different from Kang; Kang incarnated into billions of individuals at myriad points in time, fearing no death.
Whereas Loki, even if killed, could be resurrected infinitely like a piece of stubborn gum, continuing the plans of his "past life."
Sometimes, killing doesn't solve problems but makes matters worse.
Su Ming knew of the God of Story; the tales of this Loki spread widely in the circle of American comics, though suddenly encountering him was a bit of a shock.
Because the timeline didn't seem right.
But on second thought, wasn't he himself an external influence? This world was different a long time ago.
An existence that dies and resurrects, messes around with the timeline, and arranges stories for others really is a tough adversary.
Attempting to deal with the God of Story is like a dog trying to bite a turtle; you don't know if your past has been influenced by him and how deep that influence runs.
Erasing the present God of Story might prevent 'future him from writing about past Su Ming's experiences,' thereby affecting past occurrences?
But if the God of Story uses 'story' as the chessboard, then the plan should be aimed at the story itself.
The word 'story' in Chinese, as the name implies, means past events, while in English, the word 'story' is very similar to another word, 'history.'
The composition of a story requires time, place, people, and experience, which are its four basic elements.
By interfering with one of the four elements of a story, the story will change.
Take little cousin and Cable, for example; they like to alter timelines, the difference being one does so with a carefree smile, while the other does it with a stern expression.
But what they do is similar; Cable even killed dozens of himself from different timelines, while Deadpool would travel through time and fight himself, hoping to kill his past self, but alas, he couldn't.
Besides them, the X-Men are also fond of tampering with timelines, purely an educational issue from Professor X.
He doesn't want to harm anyone, believing that changing things before they happen is a great move, but facts have shown, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
Even though Su Ming doesn't like interfering with timelines because it's too interconnected, now that things have reached his doorstep, he won't shrink back; he doesn't want to follow Loki's script anymore.