Time Stop

Based on its real-world location, it was a city in southern Africa. The game world's gradually increasing resources there spawned a material called "Vibranium," one of the raw materials for Captain America's shield. Ultron planned to use it to rebuild his body, which was the entity known as "Vision."

When the game was first launched and the rules were not yet perfected, Tony Stark fully presented his ideas, and Ultron replicated the design concept known as Vision.

In that battle, although the players defeated Ultron, the boss, with Tony Stark blowing him to smithereens with a missile from his arm, the Vibranium used as material disappeared and was transported elsewhere by Ultron's Sentry, who were just regular enemies.

Back in the real world, a piece of news struck like a bolt from the blue: the city in southern Africa had been devastated, its streets ravaged, a building under construction completely collapsed, and other buildings suffered varying degrees of damage, as if a war had taken place there. But it all happened in an instant, right after the players left the game world.

Fantasy has become reality.

Wei Xiuming explained why this is: after obtaining player data from the real world, the gaming industry will solidify the events that occur in the game into the real world according to the wishes of the winning side, and as the number of players dying in the game world increases, the scope of the impact will become larger and larger.

This put the Avengers' group of players on their toes, unless they could be certain of victory. But this led Ultron discover a way to solve the problem once and for all—to destroy human civilization in the game world, win the game, and replace that fact with the real world.

Ultron's chosen method was to strike the Earth with a meteorite, creating a sufficiently large volcano through the impact. The volcanic eruption would release a large amount of harmful substances from the Earth's crust, and the massive volcanic ash would enter the atmosphere to block the heat from solar radiation. This would plunge the Earth into an ice age, destroying the ecological environment on which humanity depends for survival, and causing complete extinction within a few years.

Even if spaceships were built at any cost, they would only be enough for a very small number of the elite to leave Earth, and they might not even be able to find a new habitat.

By then, all that will be left on Earth is metal, and Ultron.

After killing a large number of players, Ultron gained enough authority to freely choose locations. Even before the game world was fully developed, it could modify the locations to some extent—for example, by building an anti-gravity device under a piece of land, then launching it into the sky, and once it reached a sufficient height, using gravity to accelerate it into a deadly weapon.

Of course, don't expect this land to directly destroy the surface. Just like the space-based kinetic energy weapon "Rod of God" that was hyped up a few years ago, according to the law of conservation of energy, the kinetic energy converted from the potential energy of a tungsten rod when it lands cannot exceed the energy released by the Rocket fuel that sent it into space.

As for the place that was fortunate enough to become a prop of Ultron, it was undoubtedly Sokovia.

It's not that this place is particularly good, like the evergreen leaves in the roadside flower bed, making you unconsciously pluck a couple of leaves when you touch it. Rather, it's that Baron Strucker's base is nearby, and this base stores a large amount of technical data, including anti-gravity devices salvaged from the Chitauri Leviathan transport ship. Applying these devices to the ground would easily achieve Ultron's goals.

In particular, the Avengers' methods cannot fully comprehend everything in the data world, and if they were to carry out large-scale projects in the real world, they would definitely leave Silk.

So when the Avengers and some capable players entered the game, they found that the dummy robots cloned by Ultron had already amassed an army, swarming across the sky like locusts.

Ultron's main body is located inside the church. The Ultron Sentinels removed part of the wall and used molten metal as an adhesive to build a throne. Ultron sat on this huge chair, his right arm resting on the armrest, his fist supporting his face, looking down at the players with disdain.

As a standard villain, Ultron undoubtedly tells the entire player community his plan in its entirety. As an artificial intelligence, it has not yet learned to lie and will not deliberately reveal false information to the players, making them put in a lot of effort only to find that all their efforts were in vain and a great opportunity wasted. Then, it will enjoy watching the players' desperate faces when everything is already set in stone and cannot be reversed.

Similarly, Ultron wouldn't do what happened in the movies: after capturing the protagonist, he wouldn't kill him immediately, but instead set up a trap to imprison him, letting him slowly die in despair, then flipping the screen so the protagonist could use this opportunity to break the trap, escape, and then fight back to win the heart of the beautiful woman.

The switch to destroy the world was at its fingertips. While explaining his plans to the players, Ultron had already activated the switch and used the time in his explanation to delay until it was fully activated.

Furthermore, with thousands of Ultron Sentinels present, it seems impossible for players to break through this first line of defense. As for the plan to directly destroy Sokovia to stop it, the players' combat capabilities are far from sufficient.

As they spoke, the land beneath their feet, named Sokovia, began to rise slowly, propelled by a powerful anti-gravity device towards the blue sky.

No matter how you look at it, it wins.

The players are ready to surge forward, regardless of the cost, to secure victory in this game.

Although they belong to different factions, have different stances, and some even harbor dreams of world domination, that is based on the premise that the entire human world still exists. Now that Ultron is trying to destroy humanity, that's unacceptable.

Brothers may quarrel within the walls, but they unite to protect each other from external humiliation.

Even though some of these players had recently clashed with the Avengers in real life, and Hawkeye even remembered that one of them was among the top names on S.H.I.E.L.D., at this moment they were comrades on the same side.

Although Churchill first proposed the Iron Curtain policy in a public speech, after the CCP repelled the Third Reich's army, he played "The Internationale" and raised the CCP flag in Parliament. In the face of a common enemy, any disputes would be set aside.

"So saving the world is that simple? All you have to do is defeat one less big shot."

Amidst the player group, an untimely voice rang out. Though the tone was calm, the words were incredibly arrogant.

Everyone turned to look, and the players around that person quickly made way, clearing out the area around him in an instant.

It was a person wearing a full set of Exoskeleton Armor. Compared to Iron Man's sci-fi realism, this all-green armor looked like a character from a side-scrolling game. A pair of cute big eyes took up half of his face. In particular, he also had a skirt that was more decorative than practical, and when he took a step, you could see that the lining was actually red.

Only game characters prioritize aesthetics over practicality, and only a dazzling appearance can entice players to spend money on in-game purchases.

It's obvious that this is definitely not a master, but an ordinary person who accidentally obtained the game driver. In the gaming world, these people are basically just freeloaders for Ultron.

Tony Stark scanned the player with his Iron Man suit and found that he was not among the previously recorded player group, clearly a newcomer—only a newcomer would say such a thing after witnessing Ultron's brutality.

Ultron disdainfully raised a finger, activating the thermal particle ray generator integrated into his fingertip. Like a villain in Dragon Ball, he casually flicked out an energy beam, ready to annihilate the player who was acting like a clown on the spot.

The energy beam, powerful enough to penetrate Tony Stark's Iron Man suit, possessed both high heat and high impact. Few in the entire player group could withstand it. Captain America sensed something was wrong when Ultron raised his hand and threw his shield to block between Ultron and the player. However, how could an object thrown by manpower compare to the speed of an energy beam?

But the player reacted incredibly quickly, contorting himself into a peculiar pose that caused the heat particle beam to miss its target. Then, without changing his posture, he raised a finger and pointed it at Ultron.

"Smash! Valudo!"

The power of time seemed to stand still, as if someone had pressed the pause button, and everything in the game world came to a standstill.

"I really don't understand what the teacher was thinking, making me shout 'The World' when using the Eye of Agamotto, and in that weird Japanese pronunciation at that."

Strange somewhat helpless. It was probably only the Japanese themselves who could understand their English. If he hadn't had conversations with a medical professor from Japan during his studies, he wouldn't have been able to pronounce it with such a perfect accent.

Let's rewind to a few days ago.

At that time, Strange had some inappropriate thoughts due to the surge in power, such as seeking revenge for his girlfriend, and then consulted the Great Leader about this issue.

"You're 20,000 years too early to seek revenge!"

The Great Leader expressed his utter contempt, saying, "Don't be fooled by your success in resolving a global crisis; you're actually quite weak."

Then the Great Leader handed a player driver to Strange, saying, "The world is in crisis again. The Avengers alone will only make things worse. We need you, the Sorcerer Supreme, to step in and solve this."

Using his ability to rearrange atoms, the Great Leader transformed Strange's training task for the day—a rock he carried down from the Maya —into a suit of armor. The magic Cloak, in a playful mood, wrapped around the waist of the armor, changing his appearance to the same green base with black stripes resembling circuit boards, while the lining remained its original red.

Then, when the game unfolded again, Strange snuck in and, after learning the general situation from others, discovered that the suffering humanity was about to endure was still quite manageable.

Kaecilius attempted to destroy the magic circle enveloping the Earth's surface by destroying the Sanctum Sanctorum, thereby attracting Dormammu's attention. However, the problem could be solved once the fanatics who had come into contact with the energy of the Dark Dimension were dealt with.

Ultron attempted to destroy human civilization, then annihilating it completely would solve all problems.

Because whether they use magic or science, in essence they are merely leveraging existing rules, and these power-wielders are much easier to deal with than the disasters they cause.

After much practice, Strange had become quite proficient in using the Eye of Agamotto. He used the power of the Time Stone to reverse time back to Sanctum Sanctorum in London and New York were destroyed, and then solidified them.

From the moment Kaecilius destroyed the London Sanctum Sanctorum to the final resolution of the problem, less than two hours had passed. The illusion of a much longer timeframe was simply due to the drawn-out battle.

Just like in JoJo Part 3, when Joseph Joestar tells Jotaro Kujo about the power of Dio's Stand "The World," and then the Plastic World is blown up by Star Platinum's punch, less than five minutes have passed. It's only because the different reactions of the two sides are depicted and the characters' inner dialogue is fully presented, plus the unique time-stop commentary in the JoJo world, that illusion is created.

From the Joseph Joestar to the moment he received the Star Platinum pacemaker, it was only a few minutes. Otherwise, what value would there be in saving someone who had been brain dead for half an hour?

He pointed at Tony Stark, dispelling the effects of the time magic on him.

"What happened!?"

Tony Stark looked at the still things around him, somewhat puzzled.

Strange shrugged. "I stopped time."

"That's impossible. If time stopped, it would mean that the motion between molecules would also become zero, and the temperature would drop to absolute zero..." Tony Stark began to refute the idea that time could not be stopped from a scientific point of view.

"I use magic. You don't need to understand magic so clearly." In Tony Stark, Strange seemed to see his past self. The two were so similar, both arrogant and disdainful of others, always using their professional knowledge to criticize people at inappropriate times.

Although he was right, patients who were initially misdiagnosed as brain dead by their colleagues could actually be saved, and he saved many families from being together.

Tony Stark didn't waste any time talking to Strange and immediately began dismantling the anti-gravity device left behind by Ultron.

"Ultron is an artificial intelligence program that is almost impossible to completely destroy because there will always be a backup. However, as a program, it can make logical errors. During the pause, its death belongs only to this moment."

"The Sacred Sword of Vishanti!"

The upgraded Ultron was enormous; ordinary-sized swords looked like children's toys in its presence. Strange sculpted a giant sword from his right leg, then swung his leg like a wheel, slicing Ultron in two.

The final boss, Ultron, was successfully defeated, and the game was completed.