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"The entire Universe, that's an exaggeration!"
Lionel exclaimed.
The Ancient One calmly sipped her tea, as if it were a minor matter, and said:
"Don't worry, that's only a possibility. The actual probability of it happening is zero. From the looks of it, this reset will completely end after at most a dozen more times. After all, the current carrier of the Sands of Time inside the hourglass is just an ordinary person. Without a super physique and divine power, he can only reset about ten more times, no more than twenty."
The Ancient One actually didn't have memories from before the resets, but she had a good habit of observing the timeline with the Time Stone from time to time. Through the timeline, she discovered an anomaly in the past, and by following the source of the anomaly, she uncovered the truth of the resets.
"A dozen times is still a lot of trouble."
Lionel glanced at the time; it had already reached the time of the previous loop—no, the previous reset. This troublesome loop prevented him from even receiving the gift package of shares from Tony Stark.
However, he now understood why he could continuously loop. The hourglass recorded the state of the World, and the carrier of that hourglass had encountered something unknown, triggering a fate reset that caused the World to revert to the state recorded by the hourglass. Because of the special nature of his [Outsider] Entry, he was not affected by this fate reset's recording and overwrite, causing each reset to create an effect similar to a time loop.
Lionel asked the Ancient One: "Master, can you tell me about the situation of the person currently possessed by the Sands of Time? Perhaps I can try to resolve it."
He didn't want to do nothing and just wait for things to end, and perhaps that person might have an Entry that could cause a similar reset.
"Situation?" The Ancient One again waved her hand in the air. This time, it wasn't an online short video, but a holographic projection-like image.
The image showed a huge Greek-style altar, with several archeologists and several people in combat uniforms searching for something inside the altar.
"Are these S.H.I.E.L.D. agents? Are they causing trouble again?"
The sharp-eyed Lionel noticed the eagle emblem on their clothes. From what he understood, this was the S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem.
S.H.I.E.L.D. truly lived up to its reputation as the troublemaker of Earth.
The scene continued. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team searched inside the huge altar, collecting many items, including the hourglass, the megalith, and a bronze armor that the Ancient One mentioned.
The special forces members directed the archeologists to wrap up the collected items and load them onto a uniquely shaped fighter jet. If Lionel wasn't mistaken, that should be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet.
The scene changed rapidly. The Quinjet arrived at a special airport. A stern-faced man directed his subordinates to move the items collected from the altar to a hidden laboratory, seemingly to research the items.
The stern man seemed a bit impatient. He took out a very sci-fi energy gun and walked into the laboratory where tests were being conducted. Lionel guessed he must have wanted to leave work early.
After driving the test personnel out of the laboratory, the stern man aimed the energy gun directly at the hourglass on the experimental table. Lionel's eyes widened; he seemed to understand what this person was about to do.
A blue energy beam instantly struck the hourglass on the experimental table. A few seconds later, the hourglass shattered with a bang, and the Sands of Time inside diffused into the laboratory.
In the image presented by the Ancient One, Lionel could clearly see the peculiar substance within the Sands of Time surge towards the stern man, then disappear into his body.
Finally, the stern man, accompanied by several armed personnel, boarded a black Chevrolet. The scene ended there.
Lionel put down his phone. To remember the appearance of the guy who caused the reset, he had specifically taken a photo of him with his phone, to facilitate finding him later.
"That energy gun fired the energy of the Space Stone, right? That's why the hourglass could establish a connection with the Space Stone."
Lionel asked. He had studied the Space Stone energy that hit Zero and was quite familiar with that blue energy, so he recognized what was being fired in the image.
"That's right, the energy source of that gun is the Space Stone.
The hourglass requires a reset condition to be set when used, but due to an accident, the Sands of Time inside the hourglass attached itself to a human. He didn't realize it and wouldn't set this condition at all. Under normal circumstances, the Sands of Time's ability wouldn't be triggered, but this person unluckily died, causing the Sands of Time's trigger condition to be fixed as 'triggered upon host's death.'
He has already died twice, and the third time is coming soon. You'd best prepare yourself."
"What? How soon is 'soon,' Master?"
"Four."
"Oh, four minutes then."
"Three."
"Huh!"
Lionel was startled. The unit was seconds, after all.
"Two."
There was no time to think too much. Lionel directly grabbed Makima, who was sitting beside him casually sipping tea.
"One."
The World once again froze, then instantly returned to normal.
"Ouch!" A vigorous, elderly voice sounded from behind Lionel. Lionel quickly stood up and looked behind him. He had just felt like he'd sat on something.
It was the white-bearded Wizard whose appearance resembled Gandalf. He was now rubbing his thigh and complaining.
"I say, young man, where did you pop out from? So rude!"
Master Daniel had been sitting in the exact spot Lionel had just occupied. Now that fate had reset, Lionel and his position overlapped, which resulted in Lionel directly sitting on him.
Lionel's mouth twitched. His first reaction was that the Ancient One must have done it on purpose; she must have known this would happen.
"Old Wizard, I apologize, but I still have to say this isn't my fault."
The Ancient One, sitting opposite, first paused, then quickly realized what had happened. After a flash of green in her eyes, she spoke:
"Master Daniel, this isn't his fault either. It was my oversight."
She waved her hand, and another meditation cushion appeared opposite, clearly prepared for Lionel.
Lionel sat back on the meditation cushion, and another teacup appeared before him. He didn't drink the tea but instead asked:
"Master, do you still remember what happened before the reset?"
"I don't remember." The Ancient One shook her head.
But your current actions don't seem like you don't remember.
As if seeing Lionel's confusion, the Ancient One explained:
"I truly don't have memories from before the reset, but I can observe the timeline and understand what just happened."
Lionel understood and felt that the Time Stone was truly useful.
"Master, let's continue our previous topic. Do you know where this person is now?"
Lionel took out his phone and showed the Ancient One the photo from before the reset.
The Ancient One once again took a sip of tea. Lionel truly felt that the Ancient One loved drinking tea.
"He's in New York right now, probably heading towards Broadway."
After speaking about Crossbones Rumlow's location, the Ancient One looked at Makima, who had been silent, and said:
"Miss Makima, would you like to sign a contract with me?"