A Failed Teleportation, a Failed Man

"Cough, cough, cough! What the hell? Wasn't it supposed to be the Bifrost? Why was it a blast of wind?"

The forest was pitch-dark, and the air was damp. A crackling sound came from not far away as Lin Xu climbed out of a pile of dead leaves, his folding fan in hand.

"It's still dark. I distinctly remember I was supposed to travel to New York. It should be morning there right now."

The crackling grew louder, accompanied by an intense electronic beat. Well, first he could rule out Thor. That brute didn't have a musical bone in his body.

As Lin Xu drew closer, a powerful sense of unreality washed over him!

Electrical facilities sprawled across dozens of acres, with Osborn Electric Company written on every base.

A blue figure and a red one darted around among them. The blue one discharged electricity, while the red one shot webs!

"There's an Electro in this What If...? universe too? No, that's not right. Osborn has almost been eaten up by Stark Industries in New York. Where would it get a power project this big? Fuck, did I cross into another universe again?"

He still needed to check first, though, to avoid making a mistake.

Of course, he wasn't going to verify it by asking the two people fighting. He took the Sling Ring out of his pocket and began drawing a circle.

A portal appeared, but Kamar-Taj wasn't on the other side as he had expected.

There was a dim room, several armed men carrying weapons, more than ten ragged and malnourished people, and a tangle of network cables and telephone wires.

Lin Xu: "..."

At the same time, the people on the other side noticed the portal too.

The armed men stared at the obviously unscientific portal, then all panicked at once, babbling things he couldn't understand.

Just then, Miles seemed to unleash a big move not far away, and lightning lit up the entire sky on this side of the portal.

To the people on the other side, it looked as though the man before them had brought it all.

In an instant, they dropped to their knees, along with the malnourished people!

"Great Indra, save your people!"

"Oh! My god, has God sent a divine messenger to save us?"

"Tasugudai mas..."

Lin Xu looked at the scene before him in silence.

The coordinates for Kamar-Taj had led to a telecom scam operation in this universe. He really couldn't keep a straight face.

In keeping with Kamar-Taj's policy of not interfering in worldly affairs, Lin Xu chose to turn a blind eye and closed the portal.

Of course, he would never admit that he had noticed there were only five white people, five South Asians, and three short people among the dozen or so people.

"Anzayama... what was it again?"

Then something even more upsetting happened: he had forgotten the incantation for the spatial medium spell!

His genius persona had crumbled just like that!

A fierce internal struggle broke out in Lin Xu's mind!

I'm screwed. Can I fucking not get back?

This world isn't bad either. There aren't so many supervillains, and I can just avoid eating beef here!

No! I haven't even properly enjoyed the hundred billion I worked so hard to earn.

With this kind of power, why care about money? The whole world is your property!

It's not the same. Is a car you scrimped and saved to buy the same as one your dad bought you?

Of course not. One's a broke loser, and the other's a rich kid. Which would you choose?

Get lost! How dare you, brat, undermine my Dao heart!

Lin Xu slapped himself across the face, and his gaze instantly grew firm. He had to go back.

Money didn't matter. The time loop had to be completed, or that universe would definitely collapse. And by crossing over here just now, he might inadvertently open a passage between the two universes. If it affected this one, it wouldn't escape either!

Yeah, that was it!

The priority now was to find the secret method for activating Gungnir! If it wasn't on Earth, he would search the universe, though he wasn't sure whether Asgard even existed in this world.

As for the battle nearby, Failure-Man could handle it without him. It was just that Gwen's death was hard to accept!

He had just said Kamar-Taj didn't interfere in worldly affairs. Wouldn't saving her make him look like a hypocrite?

Speak of the devil. Just then, a police car approached from the distance, and a blond, blue-eyed head leaned out. "Hey, it's dangerous here! Get away!"

With that, the police car sped toward the center of the battle!

She was a top student, brave, didn't cause trouble, and could help the protagonist. Whether it was the Lizard or Electro, Gwen Stacy had played a decisive role. In all of Marvel's film history, she could be considered a perfect heroine!

Yeah, damn Sony!

Lin Xu walked slowly forward, gazing toward Manhattan as he thought for a moment. The Harry Osborn of this universe was different from the first one: one acted out of hatred, the other for his own benefit. Lin Xu couldn't judge the matter itself, but the latter didn't give the impression of being a good person. After all, he wasn't as handsome as the first Little Green Goblin.

"So, sorry!"

The folding fan turned into a spear and flew toward Manhattan!

Gungnir, also known as the Eternal Spear and the Spear of Destiny, had a tip forged from uru metal and engraved with Runes. Its shaft was made from a branch of the World Tree.

Properties: once thrown, it would strike the target according to the wielder's intent, regardless of distance or any physical defense, then automatically return to the wielder's hand after hitting its target!

In short, it was the bane of any physical fighter!

A few dozen seconds later, Gungnir returned. What Lin Xu hadn't expected was that it didn't come back alone. Harry Osborn's corpse was hanging from its shaft, his eyes still open in death...

The sight of the corpse didn't make Lin Xu uncomfortable. As an American capitalist, he was afraid of dying, but that didn't mean he was softhearted.

Not far away, Failure-Man fired strand after strand of webbing. Gwen's plan had succeeded: Max was temporarily restrained by the powerful electrical and magnetic field. All he had to do was crank it up to maximum and overload Electro until he burst!

But suddenly, his Spider-Sense seemed to detect something, and he whipped around. His exceptional eyesight gave him a clear view of a man and a corpse not far away: an Asian man in a yellow robe, a spear thrust through a chest, Harry with his eyes still open in death, and the indifferent look in Lin Xu's eyes!

"No!!! Harry!"

At the same time, a dark red, threadlike rune streaked across the sky. Everything fell silent in its wake, and even the flickering arcs of electricity stopped in midair, as though time had been frozen!

In the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. Max vanished from within the electrical arcs as though he had evaporated.

As far as Failure-Man could tell, Electro was probably dead. With no time to worry about that, he immediately rushed to where Harry was.

But by the time he arrived, the other man was gone. Only Harry's corpse remained, lying motionless where it was!

"No!!"

A minute later, Gwen rushed over. "Peter, something's wrong. There's no sign of Max's body. With a current like that, he should have... Oh my god, Harry?"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the power plant, Max appeared out of thin air, wearing a green firefighter's suit. He was no longer a blue being of energy, but had a human body of flesh and blood!