Even after Ian disappeared from the Marvel Universe, time continued to flow in this world, and the turbulent void within the black hole continued to rage.
The spaceship's disintegrated wreckage drifted in all directions.
Captain America Steve Rogers, and Gwen Stacy are thrown into a void. There is no concept of up, down, left, or right; there is no light, no sound; only endless darkness and the occasional flickering, star-like, floating Xenotype.
"I'm still alive?" When Gwen slowly opened her eyes, she found herself floating in an endless void. There was no horizon, no sky, no light, and no shadow, only endless emptiness and silence.
She blinked, trying to clear her mind, but her body felt weightless, floating in an invisible space. Not far away, Captain America had his eyes closed, as if asleep, but his shield was strangely suspended beside him, as if fixed in place by some invisible force.
"Captain? Wake up!"
Gwen swam over and patted his face.
No response.
She pinched Steve's philtrum, but there was still no response. Gwen frowned, thought for a moment, and suddenly raised her foot, kicking Steve in the groin without hesitation, though she controlled the force very well.
It hurts, but it's not devastating.
It's just the right amount of stimulation for the brain.
"Bang!"
"Awooo--!!!"
This was a medical miracle. Captain America, who had been unconscious, suddenly arched his back, clutching his groin, his face contorted in pain. He rolled around, clutching his groin, his eyes wide, staring incredulously at Gwen not far away.
"You... you're a devil?!" It's only because there was no cold air in the void that Steve was able to absorb it all.
"This place is completely unknown and dangerous. I can't wake you up at all," Gwen said apologetically to Steve.
Steve's face had turned a deep liver color.
"You can't wake me because I'm playing dead. Haven't you learned common sense? If you're in the territory of a dangerous creature, you have to play dead to escape. Most dangerous animals won't eat a carcass that looks dead!"
Steve possesses a Solomon-like wisdom; perhaps due to his excessive experience as a cloud hunter, he genuinely believes in such absurd common sense about life.
"..."
Gwen rolled her eyes, speechless. "Don't go crazy. You have the medicine from that purple sweet potato-spirited guy, don't you?"
She watched as Captain America's expression suddenly changed drastically, and he frantically searched his surroundings for something until he found the suitcase Thanos had given him. Only then did the captain breathe a sigh of relief. The excitement of finding what he had lost was so great that he almost hugged the suitcase and exclaimed that it was his precious treasure.
"Give."
Gwen silently handed Captain America the shield, now devoid of love. Captain America simply wore his signature piece of equipment on his head as a hat, his hands still belonging to Thanos's exquisite medicine case.
"Where are we?" Steve looked around, his brow furrowed, his face filled with extreme tension.
"I wanted to ask that question too." Gwen sighed and looked around. In the void, tiny, glowing "seeds" floated silently, like frozen stars.
Occasionally, blurry images would flash across the surface of the seeds— Gwen leaned closer to one and suddenly saw a horrifying sight: herself, falling from a great height onto a concrete floor.
"What... what is this?"
Gwen abruptly took a step back.
Captain America, was drawn to another seed. He stared at the image inside and suddenly broke into a perverted grin.
"Wow... I have a wife?" The vision Steve saw was only visible to himself. It was like how only Gwen could see herself falling from a city skyscraper and breaking her spine in those floating seeds.
"I'm so romantic! I actually betrayed the whole world for my wife!" Captain America excitedly pointed to the image in the torrent file. In the image was himself, dressed in casual clothes, with a very beautiful short-haired woman standing next to him.
The kind of beauty Steve had only ever seen on those risqué phone advertising cards was something he could never even dream of owning in his daily life.
In the picture, the woman is wearing the same wedding ring as him, and the two are walking on the beach discussing their future.
Her smile was very bright.
Captain America relayed this scene to Gwen, as if Gwen Gwen speechless upon hearing it.
"What do you mean by a love that transcends time and space, betraying the entire universe and your friends for love? You can be proud of that? Do you have a distorted understanding of romance? Ian is right, you really are a lunatic." Gwen suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and gave Steve a speechless evaluation.
Captain America retorted indignantly, "That's why I'm so withdrawn! Look at that scene, how warmly and cheerfully I smile when I have a wife!"
He nodded confidently, "This must be the boundary between parallel universes. The me in that other world must be receiving a huge pension, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford a wife... Damn it, why isn't Hydra trying to recruit me!"
This guy was still thinking about betraying Hydra and getting a huge retirement pension. Gwen couldn't take it anymore and turned around to glare at him.
"Can you focus? We need to find a way out!" Gwen was probably the most mentally healthy person in Ian's social circle.
Hearing this, Captain America calmed down a bit, but quickly asked worriedly, "Are we going to be trapped here? Where's Thor? Where's Ian? They promised to provide employee welfare!"
He thought of the contract he had signed.
"You believe in a second-generation god and an Evil God god? You've really stole my life." Gwen's tone was somewhat amused.
Captain America lowered his head in frustration.
"I just hope they keep their promise and give me a grand funeral... but they might end up like us, stuck here forever." He was still muttering things like pensions, retirement pay, and " S.H.I.E.L.D.."
Gwen just wanted to find a way out.
She drifted and drifted in nothingness.
Captain America quickly followed.
The two wandered among the seeds, occasionally witnessing scenes that chilled them to the bone. Sometimes it was Steve standing in the center of a battlefield, with countless fallen enemies behind him; other times it was Gwen and Thor drinking together in Asgard palace.
On another occasion, Steve saw himself dressed in the Boys, standing next to Thanos with a strange smile on his face.
"... This is very strange," Steve muttered.
"Yes," Gwen nodded, her expression thoughtful. "These seeds... seem like fragments of Destiny."
"No matter what, we have to find a way out. I've only been receiving my pension for a few years; it would be a real waste to die now."
Steve started thinking about his meager earnings again.
"The problem is, how do we find it?" Gwen sighed helplessly. "There's no direction here, and we can't find the exit."
The atmosphere became somewhat somber for a moment.
Just as the two fell silent.
A deep, mysterious male voice suddenly echoed from the void.
There's always a way out.
Captain America was taken aback, then looked at Gwen with surprise.
Are you using a falsetto?
His words made Gwen's eye twitch.
"Use your brain, Captain! I didn't say anything!" Gwen looked around warily, as if trying to find the source of the sound, but even though she had regained her superhuman powers, she couldn't find anything within sight.
"Hiss! I knew there was something terrifying in this kind of lair!" Captain America was stunned for a while before realizing something was wrong.
He immediately raised his shield and assumed a fighting stance.
"There's nothing here! Damn it, what kind of place is this...?"
Gwen attempts to explore the world using a quantum spider web, but the interwoven threads of illusion and reality seem to stretch endlessly.
Her spiderweb couldn't reach the suspended seeds either. Just then, a green indicator arrow suddenly appeared in front of the two of them.
The arrow points in one direction, as if guiding them forward.
Steve stared at the arrow, his mind racing again, and said, "This might be leading us directly into the mouth of some kind of creature."
He's much braver than Thor, but his paranoia is clearly very severe.
"Let's go, we don't have any other way anyway." Gwen thought for a moment and then immediately made a decision.
With no other option, Gwen and Steve had no better choice but to follow the seemingly friendly arrow. The two moved forward following the arrow's guidance, and every so often a new arrow would appear ahead.
It was as if it were guiding them. The two walked in this void, feeling as if they had walked for a long time, yet also as if it had only been a short while. Their perception of time was becoming increasingly faint, which was not a good sign.
Fortunately, they finally saw the end of the tunnel ahead—a dazzling light, as if a crack had torn open this void.
"Exit!" Steve shouted excitedly, quickening his pace as he rushed towards it.
Gwen stood still, looking back in the direction she had come from, the mysterious male voice echoing in her mind.
"Is that you, Tony?" she asked softly.
There was no response.
Steve stopped in front of the light and turned back to urge her, "Hurry up! Tony's already buried on Titan. Did you break your brain? Or is some mysterious creature in the darkness altering your memories?"
I wonder how many novels this guy has read at home; he keeps coming up with these ideas about encountering monsters.
"I'm not talking about Tony, I'm Ian about... hey, where's Ian? We're totally on different wavelengths."
Gwen took a deep breath and stepped forward.
The moment she stepped into the light, it suddenly expanded, completely engulfing her and Steve.
A blinding white light enveloped the two of them, and when they opened their eyes again, they found themselves in a desolate city. The sky was gray, and the air was filled with the smell of dust and metal.
This is a desolate, post-apocalyptic city.
The city was in a state of disrepair.
The streets were filled with collapsed buildings and wrecked vehicles, and in the distance, there were rows of destroyed skyscrapers.
The world seemed to have experienced an apocalyptic catastrophe.
"Something terrible has happened!"
Steve Rogers stood on the edge of the broken highway, gazing at the desolate city ruins before him.
His pupils trembled slightly.
Under a gray sky, collapsed skyscrapers lay like the skeletons of giants across the landscape, their shattered glass and exposed steel bars gleaming coldly. In the distance, wisps of black smoke rose slowly, as if the city were still struggling to survive.
"We might have been stuck in a black hole for thousands of years..." His voice was a little hoarse, with a tone full of wild imagination.
"The Earth... has it become like this? Damn it! I missed out after all! Those evil politicians and capitalists got away with it!"
There's no need to ask what Steve is upset about.
Everyone knows this.
"Hmm?" Gwen didn't answer immediately. Her gaze passed over the ruins and landed on the wandering shadows in the distance—those hunched-back, staggering creatures with festering skin, sunken eyes, and unconscious growls emanating from their throats.
These creatures are zombies.
The zombies Gwen knew very well.
"No, this isn't thousands of years in the future. I remember this place." Gwen's voice was soft but exceptionally clear.
Steve turned sharply to look at her. "What?"
Before Gwen could explain, the roar of an engine suddenly came from afar.
" Friday! Kill them all!"
A young yet vibrant female voice broke the silence of the ruins.
The two looked in the direction of the sound and saw a modified heavy tank rolling over a pile of rubble, its cannon barrels spinning and sparks flying!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The shockwave from the explosion sent over a dozen zombies flying, their severed limbs tracing parabolic arcs through the air. The hatch on top of the vehicle opened, and a little girl with pigtails poked half her body out. Wearing exaggerated goggles, she held up an energy cannon taller than herself and shouted excitedly:
"Yeah! A home run!"
Steve stared in disbelief. "That's... a child?"
Gwen's breathing quickened slightly as memories flooded back—she finally realized where she was.
She and Ian had "witnessed" this place before.
"This is the Reality Gap World..." She swallowed hard, realizing that this was the little world Tony Stark had created for his daughter.
perhaps.
The fact that the two of them came to this place can be seen as some kind of divine intervention, a response to Gwen's earlier question.
In nothingness.
When Thor awoke in the void, he found himself floating in a chaotic void. Mjolnir was nowhere to be seen, his golden hair drifting like seaweed in the weightless environment.
" Father God?! Gwen?! Ian?!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was swallowed up by the eerie space, without even an echo.
With no other option, Thor could only reach out and summon back Mjolnir, then wander aimlessly through the void, searching for something.
He was like a hamster thrown into Fish Tank, utterly timid. He didn't know how much time had passed when two blurry figures suddenly appeared in the distance—a tall figure wearing golden armor and a giant with ice-blue skin.
They were floating motionless.
Upon seeing this, Thor's eyes instantly welled up with tears.
" Father God!!!"
He lunged forward, throwing himself at Odin, his face streaked with tears and snot. "I've finally found you! Are you alright?!"
As Thor hysterically called out, Odin remained unresponsive with his eyes closed. The Frost Giants beside him was also unconscious. Thor panicked, grabbed Mjolnir, and began to pound it repeatedly into Odin's chest.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Wake up! Father God! I'm going to perform CPR on you!"
Lightning raged.
Odin convulsed continuously from the electric shock.
But the person still didn't wake up.
Just then, the entire void space trembled violently! Countless dazzling beams of light burst forth from the distance, shooting out in all directions like fireworks. Thor was blinded by the intense light, but he could vaguely see various terrifying beings enveloped within those beams— Mephisto's grinning face.
The Dark Dimension Fragment of Dormammu.
There were even beings like Kang the Conqueror, Shuma-Gorath Shuma Golas, Chthon, and Cyttorak who once struck fear into the hearts of the Multiverse —when the seal on the Void shattered, countless imprisoned high-ranking beings scattered like meteors.
They fled to all corners of the universe. Each of these ancient and dangerous beings once made the entire Marvel Universe tremble.
Of course, Thor didn't recognize any of these figures. He only felt his soul tremble and shudder involuntarily in front of those lights and shadows, as if simply looking directly at them was too much for him.
Oh, no!
Thor wasn't stupid; he realized the problem was probably beyond his imagination. Just then, Odin and the Frost Giants opened their eyes simultaneously! Odin's expression quickly changed from bewilderment to ecstasy, while the Frost Giants's face turned ashen.
It felt like swallowing a hedgehog whole.
" Father God! You're awake!" Thor excitedly rushed forward, wanting to give Odin a bear hug. "Thank goodness you're not..."
He hadn't finished speaking.
"Get out of here!"
Odin then kicked him away.
Thor spun away like a bowling ball that had been hit, finally crashing into something soft with a "thud".
Someone had pinned him down with their foot.
Thor looked up.
He met a pair of emerald green eyes. The king of the Frost Giants was staring at him with a look of utter disappointment.
Thor's back instantly broke out in a cold sweat. He knew that look all too well— Odin would look at him like that every time he messed things up.
"No, no way? Father God, you and that guy..." Thor's voice trembled. He looked at Odin in the distance, then at Loki in front of him, completely confused. He didn't know who he should call "father."
Before the poor Asgard crown prince could even sort out the situation, a deafening roar suddenly echoed throughout the entire space.
Odin was still ecstatic.
Loki was already on high alert. However, due to some mysterious reasons, the anticipated turn of events did not occur.
"My face! My hands! How did I become like this!" Darkness surged in like a tide, and a twisted figure coalesced in the void—it was the God of Darkness, Knull, but his current appearance was utterly gruesome.
His once majestic face now resembled crumpled clay, and when the God of Darkness Knull roared, rainbow-colored bubbles would even spill from his mouth—judging from this Ancient God's behavior, this was definitely not the reality he desired.
It's not just about appearance.
What truly broke the God of Darkness Knull's resolve was that upon returning to reality, he immediately discovered something utterly unacceptable: his once boundless and surging power seemed to have been tainted by some unknown defilement.
There are many unknowns in this world.
On the other side.
DC Universe.
For some unknown reason, after returning to the DC Universe, before Ian could even tinker with the newly acquired Sorrow of Black All-Black the Necrosword, he was immediately bombarded with a series of system notifications. The system's voices were incessant, as if he had accidentally stumbled upon some kind of experience boost.
Perhaps it's related to the original manuscripts Ian drew, because they are constantly being turned and glowing; this wave of writers has not only reached level ten.
[Author Experience Points +177]
[Author Experience Points +130]
[Author Experience Points +144]
[Writer profession reached level 11!]
[Writer profession reached level 12!]
[Writer profession reached level 13!]
It even jumped to a level of thirteen, instantly becoming Ian's highest-level skill.
Moreover, Ian noticed that while there were no notifications on his system panel, there were some subtle changes.
[Name: Ian Kent ]
[Common Occupations: Student LV8 [441/1280], Writer LV13 [7215/40960], Leader LV7 [112/640]]
[Extraordinary Classes: Berserker LV9 [78/2560], Savage Tyrant LV11 [1457/10240], Mutation Overlord LV2 [1/20], [ Entropy Annihilation Lord LV11 [3357/10240]]
[World Recognition: Key NPC (Active Period)]
[Talent Skills: Blood-Reversal Furnace, Perfect Divinity, Life Feeding of All Beings, Eternal Gift ]
[General Skills: Pen Draws the World, Mimicry Armor, Ian Kent Defense Technique [Elite], Sharing, Learning [Elite]...]
[Professional Skills: Reverse Evolution Ray, Wrath of the Undead, Elegy of Profanity, World-Burning Pulse, Perfect Divine Body, Eyes of Eternal Day Level 3, Absolute Flight, Contemptuous Leap, Ultimate Hunger Level 3...]
Ian gained a new, versatile skill—[ Pen Draws the World ]—not just because of his advancement in his [writer] career.
Regarding his global recognition, there's also a somewhat puzzling addition of a glowing "[Active Period]" indicator.
It twinkled and sparkled, yet it seemed to bring no change. Ian could only wonder if it meant he was getting more screen time, or perhaps it was a matter of popularity, though he never doubted that his popularity would ever have a low point.
"My drawing this sword must have caused some kind of change." Although Ian didn't see what happened afterward because he returned too quickly, he still possessed Super Intelligence and could easily deduce a highly probable conclusion with a little reasoning.
Of course, whatever happens in the Marvel Universe, Ian can't go back now; he can only wait until another day passes before he can return to Marvel to test his skills. Now, the problem facing Ian is the new skill he's acquired.
He was quite shocked when he saw it. He had always known that the general skills of his ordinary profession were rather unreasonable, but he never expected that the [Writer] profession, which originally did not have any skills, would give birth to a new skill at the level 10 threshold, and it was even more unreasonable than unreasonable.
[ Pen Draws the World: What is reality? What is illusion? All of this can be defined. You can "materialize" abstract concepts, fantasy settings, and fictional things into reality through writing, influencing the real world or target individuals.]
You can also influence how a target exists by changing its "definition" or "state" through writing.
The more detailed the description, the stronger the effect, but the greater the energy consumption—spiritual attributes will be the key factor affecting the thickness of your writing.
It must be said that this skill is indeed somewhat overpowered; it's like a great force and authority that can anchor the course of Destiny.
Aside from requiring Divine Power, it is truly powerful in every aspect, even capable of altering details when writing about "what has already happened." It can even bring imagined things to life briefly through writing.
If his Divine Power is sufficient to pay the price of writing, it could even allow Ian to write logical Paradox to create real-world bugs.
"I understand! I understand perfectly! I am Sequence 1 of the Dreamer's Path, the Writer! Once this skill evolves further, I will be the Dreamer, gaining true power of words, the Ork Logic!"
Ian was incredibly excited. The fact that the general skills were all conceptual skills was now confirmed. He wanted to know if other ordinary professions and the writer profession could awaken or evolve their existing skills if they leveled up further.
"As expected of my system accessory! I'm very satisfied with this skill!" Ian excitedly flipped himself up from the " Living Massage Bed " woven from 365 Demons arms.
The arms on the bed immediately and eagerly offered slippers—a pair of Screaming Leather Shoes that would bite your heels.
It has a remarkable effect on removing dead skin.
"Thanks, guys~" Ian casually stepped in, but the shoes couldn't bite through his dead skin, and he immediately protested with a "woof woof".
But Ian mistook it for a joyful shout. He searched around and found the room furnished with a "cozy" style unique to Hell.
The walls here are made of wailing souls, and every three seconds a painful face will bulge out, groaning "Save me." The chandeliers are three still-rotating Demon Head hanging from the ceiling.
Their eye sockets burned with eerie blue flames, serving as illumination. When Ian pinched them, the veins hanging out automatically lit up.
The room became dimly lit. Ian hummed a tuneless tune as he walked to the desk carved from human bones.
"I'm going to try out a new skill— 'Pen Draws the World '!" Ian excitedly pulled a quill pen from the drawer.
The pen tip gleamed with an ominous black light. He unfolded a piece of Human Skin Parchment he had taken from a drawer, intending to change the sinister blood moon in the sky above Hell into his own smiling face, so that all Hell beings could bask in the "benevolent light of Lord Ian."
However.
Lord Ian's pen tip had just touched the paper.
"I don't think you can do that yet." A languid and elegant mature woman's voice suddenly rang out from behind.
"Even if it's just to match your interesting Magic Book." The woman's voice was very close, as if she were speaking right next to Ian's ear.
Ian turned around abruptly.
In the corner of the guest room stood a woman of noble bearing. She wore a dark black dress with a hem like flowing lava, her skin was so pale it was almost transparent, but her lips were as red as blood.
Her eyes were the purest black, and stars seemed to dance deep within her pupils.
"Um?"
Ian blinked.
"Are you a maid in this Hell kingdom? Perfect timing, I'm a little hungry, could you find me something to eat?"
He politely reached into his pocket, intending to give the other person a tip—however, the other person didn't seem interested in preparing food for him.
"It seems you don't just share God's love for being a writer," the woman chuckled, her voice as gentle as poison coated in honey, "And like him, you're both handless and limbless, and enjoy bossing others around."
"I think I know why he likes you so much; you're the younger version of him."
These words were spoken.
Ian's hand froze in mid-air. The woman's voice was gentle, but the contempt in her words was chilling upon closer inspection.
"Hiss~" The boy's Super Intelligence was passively triggered, his brain racing. The next moment, he gasped, realizing that there weren't many people in the DC Universe who dared to insult God like that. "You, no, you wouldn't happen to be... Lucifer's mother, would you?!"
This is a reasonable guess. After all, as far as Ian knows, Lucifer's mother, who is also God's wife, is now imprisoned in Hell by God.
"Who would be so stupid as to marry God?"
The woman maintained her perfect smile, her fingertips lightly tracing the pages of " The Hell Cookbook " on the bookshelf. Suddenly, the pages flipped automatically, finally stopping at a recipe titled "How to Cook God," the book's pages filled with blasphemy.
"As for Lucifer?"
The woman tilted her head, as if recalling a distant relative, "Let me think... perhaps he should call me aunt."
Her voice wasn't loud.
But it struck Ian like a heavy hammer, making Ian heart tremble, and he finally realized what he had gone through.
A moment later.
"Actually, I've always wanted an aunt since I was little..."