Ancient One: I'm Tired, I'm Giving Up!

"I'm ready to take on more responsibility."

"No, you should take it step by step, starting with small things, like helping the old lady buy fried dough sticks, being a friendly neighbor Spider-Man."

"You... you even know this!"

"... Yeah, I found out by chance. Anyway, if I encounter this situation again, I'll contact Happy, okay?"

"Hey, speaking of Happy, I just bumped into a flying guy over at Green Shade Cemetery. He said he knows you, and he even called me by name, though I denied it. Did you tell him? I mean, my name."

Who?

"I don't know, but he's Asian..."

"Okay, I understand. Your priority now is getting into a good university. If your grades are good, I can help you write a recommendation letter for Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

"Hey, wait a minute..."

"Bye, Mistel's failure was too slow!"

A sacrificial square in a city on the banks of the Euphrates River.

Tony cut off communication with Spider-Man. In his mind, the flying Asian man must be Lin. But what was he doing at Green Shade Cemetery?

" On F.R.I.D.A.Y., a search was conducted for people buried in Green Shade Cemetery within the last year, with a focus on Asians."

"Sir, we've found him. Lin Xu, born in 1988, ran a Chinese restaurant and was a professional race car driver. He died in a car accident on August 19th last year."

Why didn't you say so yesterday?

"I'm sorry, sir, the deceased are not included in the database."

"... Record all deaths after 2008!"

"Yes, sir!"

Looking at the photo on his phone, Tony suddenly smiled. Lin Xu slightly thinner, was wearing a helmet and leaning against the rally car.

"Ha, knowing that my other self is dead is really not a good feeling. I must make him suffer. Set an alarm for me on F.R.I.D.A.Y., I'm afraid I'll forget."

"Yes, sir."

For the next two days, Lin Xu wandered around New York during the day. Whenever he felt like eating, he would open a portal back to China, since the food here was truly indescribable.

Finally, the day came when he met the person he had been waiting for.

The Ancient One on this timeline!

"Lin Xu, long time no see."

Lin Xu looked at the Ancient One in front of him and didn't know how to speak for a moment. The way the Ancient One looked at him was exactly the same as the way his old man looked at him.

And it's been a long time.

Have we seen it before?

"Greetings, Your Sorcerer Supreme!"

Upon hearing this, Ancient One frowned. This was bad news!

This kid is too respectful to me. This isn't a good thing. I need to make things official as soon as possible.

"Just call me Ancient One or Yao. Xiao Xu, it seems you've agreed to stay? Let's not delay, let's go find Odin."

As he spoke, he opened a portal, this time not to the entrance of the Bifrost Retirement Home, but directly in front of Odin.

Odin: "What's going on?"

Lin Xu quickly blocked the doorway. "Um, could we change the terms?"

Ancient One thought for a moment and said, "That works too. As long as you can solve Strange's problem, and as long as I can retire early, nothing else matters!"

Lin Xu fell silent. In his timeline, the method he used was considered a shortcut.

Someone needs to cross Single Timeline to secretly switch Christine, who has just died, with her body without Strange noticing anything at the time.

This should theoretically be easy to do, but the problem lies here: there are countless points in time where Strange exists at the point of Christine's death.

Just like you never know how many the Flashes were around when the Flash's mother died.

Lin Xu's plan conveniently avoided that exact time. More than ten hours later, he used S.H.I.E.L.D.. to switch Christine's body, and then used S.H.I.E.L.D..'s technology to keep Christine alive.

Strange was kept in the dark at the time.

It's important to understand that crossing Single Timeline has its limitations. The caster will remain within that timeline, only able to forcibly take some things away (such as Christine's body), but unable to send new things back to the past.

In the past, without anyone to cooperate, how could the switch be accomplished?

While Lin Xu was pondering, Ancient One gazed at him with a wistful look.

"How about it?"

"Sorry, the same method can only be used once... and even if it succeeds here, it will create a new timeline, that's what you told me! Don't let the Split Timeline come looking for me..."

"Grass!"

"Ahem, by the way, what... are you guys doing?"

Odin, on the other side of the portal, finally couldn't help but speak.

He was an old man waiting to die, playing with a cat, when suddenly a portal opened in front of him.

On the other side of the door stood the Ancient One, and a young man wielding Gungnir, possessing the Odinforce.

He had noticed this young man a few days ago, mainly because Gungnir sensed him, but at the time Ancient One told him to ignore him.

Why bring him here now? But when he thought of the Odinforce on the other party, he understood. It seemed that the other party had taken a liking to the divine power he possessed.

Well, it's not bad to gain a favor from Ancient One ~

But he waited and waited, and the two of them just lingered at the door, showing no intention of coming in. The young man even blocked the doorway.

What? You don't like it?

I'm going to give it to you today, no matter what!

Sorry~

Not getting the answer she wanted, the Ancient One immediately changed her mind, bowed slightly to Odin, and closed the Mystic Portal.

Odin:???

Lin Xu turned around and saw that the Mystic Portal was closed, and hesitated to speak.

This is an Odinforce; it would be a lie to say he didn't want it, but he really didn't have any way to solve this problem right now.

Is there really no other way?

Seeing Lin Xu Ancient One silent, Gu Yi also fell silent.

Does this mean we really have to split another timeline?

Strange's descent into darkness was inevitable; no matter how many timelines split, one would inevitably follow the same path!

At that time, all branches along the entire timeline will be destroyed because of him.

Suddenly, Ancient One looked up and asked, "Does the other one know how to break this deadlock?"

"They should know..."

At this moment, Ancient One thought about many things.

If... if his other self already knows how to break the deadlock, then his Strange problem should be successfully solved, and with Lin Xu added to the mix, subduing the Dark Strange shouldn't be a problem, right?

Probably...

In that case, instead of forcibly intervening, it's better to just give up completely!

Thinking about it this way, I instantly felt much more relaxed.

Is it really a good idea to simply push all responsibility and pressure onto another version of yourself?

"Good!"

Retire! I'll retire in two days when Dormammu invades!

Ancient One grabbed Lin Xu's hand tightly.

"Xiao Xu, our two universes depend on you, I'm counting on you!"

Lin Xu:???

The Mystic Portal opened again, and Odin's furious curses echoed from the other side.

What exactly do you want?