Doctor Strange

Tony and Lu Mingyu had never expected to spend an entire night camping out in the wilderness! They did not even have anything to eat, though Lu Mingyu did not particularly mind. Tony, on the other hand, kept acting crazy, reaching out his hand and muttering, "Come on, come on."

Lu Mingyu knew Tony was summoning his Iron Man armor, but it apparently would not work here. Whenever Lu Mingyu ran at high speed, or when time seemed to stop from his perspective, black grit filled the air around him. He recognized the grit—it was from that Dark Blade. Lu Mingyu suspected they had been enveloped by the Dark Blade, with all signals blocked.

Tony looked at Lu Mingyu and said, "Hey, Lu, go find us something to eat. We still need food. Saving the world as superheroes might look glamorous, but we still have to eat. Especially you—you're a speedster, so you probably need even more food, right? That's what I think. We'll have to take you in for a physical sometime and see whether you can surpass Quicksilver. You know, you're one of the few speedsters I've ever seen. And you're the speedster I approve of most."

"Uh, we should get moving. Take my advice. Your Iron Man armor isn't coming. We've been cut off by that blade on Quicksilver. In other words, even if a satellite were right in front of you, it... No, it should be said that even if you were right in front of a satellite, it wouldn't notice you!" Lu Mingyu spread his hands. He did not want to go looking for food. What if Tony got attacked while he was gone? A speedster's attacks often happened in an instant. So Lu Mingyu chose not to go.

Of course, one reason was also that Lu Mingyu could not be bothered to move.

Doctor Strange stood inside a magic circle, surrounded by mages. The Time Stone at his neck emitted a faint green glow. Behind him, the Cloak of Levitation gently stroked his cheek. Doctor Strange shuddered. It felt like an ice-cold girl was touching his face. It made him very uncomfortable. Doctor Strange secretly opened his eyes and saw that the surrounding mages were all channeling magic into the circle. None of them noticed what the Cloak of Levitation was doing.

He sighed, then pushed the Cloak of Levitation away with one hand and glared at it in warning. "Touch me again, and you'll regret it!"

The Cloak of Levitation stopped moving, but the next second, it viciously slapped Doctor Strange across the face, as if saying, "Let's see how you'll make me regret it!"

Doctor Strange was knocked over by the sudden force. The sound of his fall was so loud that all the other mages opened their eyes at once.

What they saw was Doctor Strange floating in midair in the posture of casting a spell. He opened his eyes with a devout expression and said to the mages, "What's wrong? You opened your eyes and stopped casting just because of a little noise? Where is your resolve? Where are your spells?"

The magic circle's glow dimmed. Just as all the mages were feeling that they had done something wrong, the Cloak of Levitation sent Doctor Strange flying with a slap, as if saying, "Serves you right for putting on an act. I'll make a fool of you!"

Doctor Strange was sent flying again. He miserably got to his feet and dusted himself off. Facing the gazes of the mages, he lowered his head, too embarrassed to meet their eyes, and continued, "What? I opened my eyes because of you and was punishing myself. What? You find that surprising? You should know that I'm very strict with myself, whether in medicine or magic, right?"

Those mages were merely magic apprentices, learning how to activate the magic circle with spells. They had not expected to witness such a strange scene from Doctor Strange. At the entrance to the hall, a round, chubby man stood there snickering. At first, no one heard him, but as Doctor Strange made a fool of himself again and again, his laughter grew louder.

The mage apprentices looked doubtfully at their other instructor—Wong.

"What are you looking at? That's enough practice for today. Leave first." Doctor Strange awkwardly dismissed everyone. After watching them leave, he said to Wong, "Jarvis, what are you laughing for?"

Wong replied with a serious expression, "First, I wasn't laughing. Second, when are you going to stop randomly giving me names?"

Doctor Strange shook his head and gently stroked the Cloak of Levitation as if apologizing. Wong watched with great interest from the side and said, "See? I told you before, after the Cloak chose its master, your status was equal to its own. You're both masters, and you're also each other's friends. You need to respect one another, or there'll be plenty more chances for you to embarrass yourself."

"Fine, let's not talk about that for now. Why did you come looking for me? At a normal time, shouldn't you be... shouldn't you be... eating?"

Seeing Wong's expression about to explode, Doctor Strange quickly changed his words. "Sleeping?"

Wong stared directly at Doctor Strange, his eyes seeming capable of killing someone!

"Fine, you must have been chasing girls, right?"

"..."

"Oh, not that either?"

"I'll get straight to the point. I came to tell you that a rift has appeared in our world, and many strange things have already emerged."

Doctor Strange gave a puzzled "Oh?" before asking, "Such as?"

Wong kept turning his hands, forming one strange pattern after another. Gradually, an image appeared within the pattern—it showed a decaying Quicksilver fighting Iron Man! Then another speedster appeared, followed by a fierce battle between them.

"Where is the rift you mentioned?"

"Don't you know Quicksilver looks like a zombie now?"

Doctor Strange helplessly raised his hands and rolled his eyes upward, as though searching his memories. "Uh, if I remember correctly, resurrection is possible too. But what does that have to do with the rift you mentioned?"

Wong enlarged the image and pointed at the ring on Quicksilver's hand. "You've read so many books. Tell me, have you ever seen a ring like this? And Quicksilver was resurrected because of this ring!"

As he spoke, Doctor Strange's soul left his body. It passed through wall after wall before drifting into the library, where he kept flipping through books. Yet he found nothing. Even books about other worlds contained no record of this black ring.

Wong supported Doctor Strange's body. He knew Doctor Strange had gone to the library in search of an answer. Still, he shook his head helplessly. If he had been able to find the answer himself, he would not have come to tell Doctor Strange about this now.

Doctor Strange's body moved, signaling that his soul had returned. He opened his eyes and said to Wong with utmost seriousness, "You were right. That rift has indeed brought many strange things into our world."