Nightmare Truth

After thinking it over carefully, Tony decided to have a frank talk with that alien.

As long as the other party wanted something, the problem could be resolved through negotiation.

If words failed, he would show the alien exactly what Stark Industries' main business was.

He immediately drove back to the martial arts academy with Happy and the translator.

Zhan Liu was in the middle of his usual lesson when he suddenly saw Tony storming over. He was rather surprised.

He had originally planned to wait until he had trained a disciple who had achieved Current Drive, then send that disciple to Stark Tower to mock Tony's scientific knowledge to his face and whet his appetite for unknown knowledge.

As someone who had once been cursed by knowledge, he would never reject unknown knowledge. That was why, on a certain timeline, he had replaced Doctor Strange and become the Sorcerer Supreme. Magic knowledge was knowledge too, and there was no knowledge Tony wanted to learn that he could not master.

But Tony had suddenly come running back again, which made him extremely curious. This did not fit the personality of the Tony Stark he knew.

"What did you do to me? What do you want?" Tony demanded the moment he arrived.

"You're talking nonsense. What are you even saying?"

After waiting for the translator to finish relaying Tony's words, Zhan Liu waved a hand and sent Tony and the others flying.

"Please learn some manners next time. Thank you."

There were fewer people with him this time. Tony did not land on Happy's large belly, nor did the head of security reach out to catch him. He hit the ground hard and took a solid tumble.

He scrambled to his feet. When the translator relayed Zhan Liu's final words, he angrily roared at the entrance, "You're saying I have no manners? Aha! Are you very well-mannered? You've been disturbing my sleep and making me have nightmares every night. Is that your aliens' idea of etiquette?"

These past few days, the nightmares had become more and more frequent. He was nearly driven insane, and his emotions were already on the verge of spiraling out of control.

After cursing him out, he once again stormed toward the martial arts academy. But when he reached the entrance, he suddenly stopped, pointed at the translator, and said, "You, go in and translate what I just said to him, then come back and translate his reply for me."

The last time he had been thrown out twice without suffering a fall, so he could say he had not really lost anything. That was why he had barged in without a care. But this time, he had hit the ground directly. Now that he knew it hurt, he would not do something so foolish again.

The translator only cared about getting paid. Why would he care about taking a tumble? He immediately jogged into the martial arts academy and told Zhan Liu what Tony had said.

Zhan Liu had heard him clearly, but he had no idea what Tony was talking about. He was unwilling to search Tony's memories either. That man was still a playboy—who knew whether his mind was full of semen?

"I am the War God. I disdain such despicable tricks and have never tampered with him. Perhaps he offended someone else, who deliberately framed me. That is also possible."

The translator jogged back out and relayed his words to Tony.

After hearing this, Tony furrowed his brows deeply. He actually knew very well how many people he had offended. If he really investigated them, even Jarvis would not be able to get through them all.

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I understand the existing technology more or less. There can't be any technology capable of bypassing my defenses and affecting me—unless it's alien technology I've never seen before."

The translator ran inside again.

Zhan Liu thought about it. There was no telling how much alien technology existed on Earth, but that did not necessarily mean it was more advanced than Tony's.

The only likely candidate capable of doing this was S.H.I.E.L.D.

But that scene had never appeared in the movies. Could it be a butterfly effect caused by the battle that destroyed Earth?

S.H.I.E.L.D. might have received some intelligence from Nick Fury and then framed Tony Stark. That explanation made sense too.

But Tony was only an ordinary playboy right now, not Iron Man. Why would S.H.I.E.L.D. think of driving a wedge between the two of them?

"Tell him to come in and explain the situation to me in detail."

The translator went outside and brought Tony in.

"I started having the same dream over and over six months ago. It was an incredibly absurd dream."

"I actually dreamed that New York had been flooded! Not the kind of flooding caused by heavy rain, but a vast, overwhelming flood that came crashing in and swept away many skyscrapers..."

Tony had only said a few words when he noticed the strange expression on Zhan Liu's face. His heart stirred, and instead of continuing, he asked directly, "Do you know something?"

Zhan Liu slowly nodded. "I know what happened... Come inside, and we'll talk."

He turned and entered the living room. Tony immediately followed him inside.

The group sat down according to their respective positions. Before Zhan Liu could tell his disciples to serve tea, Tony impatiently pressed him, "You just said you know what happened?"

"That's right. You weren't dreaming. That really happened."

"What? Are you kidding me? Look at New York now. Where is there even a trace of water? A disaster that huge couldn't be covered up even by news censorship."

"Because someone used Time Reversal magic to turn back the entire flow of time to before any of it had happened."

"Time Reversal?" This was not Tony questioning him, but the translator expressing his confusion. He seriously suspected that he had misheard.

"That's right, Time Reversal. Under normal circumstances, no ordinary person should retain any memory of what happened then. But clearly, you, Tony Stark, recovered the memories of that lost period. Translate it for him."

The translator, still dazed, stammered through the translation. Then he saw that Tony did not look surprised in the slightest and accepted the explanation with remarkable ease.

"Magic really exists?" Tony asked curiously.

"It does. However, in the current universe, the age of magic has come to an end. The age of technology is now the mainstream."

Zhan Liu made no attempt to hide anything and truthfully told Tony all of this.

The War God disdained lying unless it was required by strategy.

"How did that disaster happen?"

"I fought Carol Danvers. The enormous shock wave caused a tsunami to surge onto the shore."

"Carol Danvers? Is she an alien too?"

"No. She is a human from Earth. You call her Captain Marvel."

"Did you use some kind of powerful weapon? How else could you have caused such a huge disturbance? Didn't the federal government come after you?"

"We fought with our bodies. Our bodies were the most powerful weapons. As for the so-called federal government? A pathetic, powerless thing."

Zhan Liu's contempt was obvious. But Tony clearly did not believe him, assuming only that the federal government had not deployed its military.

"Fine, none of that has anything to do with me. What I want to know is, how can I stop having this nightmare?"