Ruins

Ruins

Yes, the silver-haired man before him was Quicksilver, the famous mutant from Zhang Ye's memories.

But at this moment, he looked indescribably miserable. His hair had gone unkempt for so long that it was starting to knot, and his face was covered in a beard. No one would have guessed that he was only nineteen.

Most shocking of all was the empty right sleeve. His right arm had been cut off, and the wound had not even been properly dressed afterward. It had merely been hastily stopped from bleeding. As a result, even though the wound had healed with his super speed, it remained horrifyingly grotesque.

Zhang Ye had met Pietro a week ago. At the time, he had been fighting a dog for food. He had been starving for a long time. Great speed came with a rapid metabolism; if he had not met Zhang Ye, he would have starved to death. The other scavengers would not have cared whether he lived or died.

Pietro had been wary of Zhang Ye at first, but after getting to know him, he gradually let his guard down. He told Zhang Ye about some of his experiences, such as how President X had thrown him into a mutant prison and how he had escaped.

The last time he escaped from prison, they cut off his arm after catching him again.

Zhang Ye took a bag of bread and two bottles of beer from his bag. He kept one bottle for himself, handed the rest to Pietro, and continued.

"Listen, Pietro. I don't know how powerful President X is without Cerebro, but I do know that whenever mutants use their abilities, he might notice them. I don't want to open my eyes and find myself surrounded by a crowd of people. You didn't go through all that trouble to escape just so you could get caught again, did you?"

Hearing that, Pietro recalled what had happened before. He said nothing, merely sat down, opened the beer one-handed, and took a long gulp.

Zhang Ye sighed at the sight. What a damned world. It gave neither superpowered people nor ordinary people any way to live. With the economic crisis erupting, every country had been severely impacted, and America was no exception. That was why President X wanted to destroy the Avengers as quickly as possible.

Prices had skyrocketed, countless people had been displaced, and every state had descended into chaos. Before long, another world war would probably break out. This world was already dragging out its last breaths, merely waiting for someone to fire the first shot and nail the coffin shut.

Rumors outside said that the world was ending, that doomsday was coming, and that only those mutant lunatics would survive.

Indeed, in this world, the vast majority of so-called superpowered people did not actually possess superpowers. Take the old man who claimed to be Thor reincarnated, for instance. Wakanda had never been struck by Vibranium either, and Black Panther was merely the name of a gang.

As for magic, Zhang Ye had searched New York for three days and three nights without finding the legendary 177A Bleecker Street, the place known as the New York Sanctum. In this world, 177A was a nightclub on the verge of bankruptcy.

Nor could Zhang Ye find any information on Iron Fist, the superhero who had inherited "chi." Perhaps he had long since died in that accident, just like Daredevil, Matt Murdock, who had been run over by a car.

Perhaps this world had never possessed any so-called supernatural powers. There were only ordinary people who died in countless accidents, and those genetically mutated "Mutant Monsters."

Yet even after gaining superpowers, this world's mutants were not particularly powerful. On the contrary, genetic mutation did not grant them gifts, but uncontrollable calamities.

Magneto's superpower had become a passive ability. He constantly emitted magnetism, forcing him to wear a Demagnetizer. But more than ten years ago, an accident occurred at an airport. An agent accidentally damaged his Demagnetizer, causing several planes to be drawn in by his magnetism. Magneto died on the spot.

Mystique was another example. She could transform into anyone, but at the same time, she would be influenced by that person's personality. It gave her multiple personality disorder, and one careless mistake could get her killed in the streets.

Thinking of that, Zhang Ye turned his gaze toward Pietro across from him. Perhaps this guy was one of the lucky ones. Quicksilver's abilities were superhuman thought and super speed.

In the comics, Quicksilver's powers were difficult to define. He could even slow the flow of time around him and increase his own speed. Like that scene in the movie where Quicksilver saved people, he could slow everything around him and rescue people while listening to music.

But Pietro was nowhere near that capable here. He was merely a mutant who ran very fast. Zhang Ye even doubted that he could outrun bullets.

"How are things outside?" After a moment of silence, Pietro spoke.

"War is coming soon. Quite a few people have already started jumping off buildings in groups. President X's side has been quiet too. He's probably planning something big. Right now, gang forces all over the country are eager to make a move."

"What about the Avengers?"

"They're all dead. Even that old man who claimed to be Thor reincarnated was killed. Even if the rest aren't dead, they're in hiding. I don't have the ability to find them, and if I keep gathering information on them, someone will start watching me."

"Do you think we can really succeed?" Pietro sounded worried. At his age, he should have been in school, but now he was a wanted criminal.

"We can," Zhang Ye said firmly. "If we don't believe in ourselves, then nothing we do will succeed."

"I heard Texas has erupted in riots, and the Mexico border has been in constant turmoil. Maybe this is our chance. If we succeed, we can leave this damned world. But only if what you said is true."

"Everything I said is true. I wouldn't lie to you," Pietro immediately retorted, seemingly angered by Zhang Ye's distrust.

Zhang Ye said nothing more. He knew the odds of Pietro deceiving him were practically zero, because this was something he had discovered by accident. Pietro from this world could not possibly know what that thing was.

Quicksilver had been arrested for theft. He had not merely stolen from shops and wealthy people. Perhaps because he was young and fearless, or perhaps because he believed he could not fail, he had actually dared to break into President X's secret chamber to steal its "treasures."

That secret chamber had been built by President X himself. It contained countless secret treasures and trophies taken from the Avengers. But perhaps because this world had no supernatural energy, most of those treasures merely had grand names without any actual use.

For instance, the Darkhold seized during the purge of heretics, and the Book of Vishanti taken from Strange. But they were basically all for show, with no real use. They were like incoherent ramblings written by lunatics; no one could learn any spells from them.

But as Quicksilver described the chamber, one item inside caught Zhang Ye's attention.

It was a small yellow box, about the size of a phone. It was exquisitely made and definitely not an Earthly creation. More interestingly, inside it was a round orange cookie with arms and legs that did nothing but laugh.

No one knew what it was, but Zhang Ye did.

That was no orange cookie at all. It was Miss Minutes, a creation of the TVA, the Time Variance Authority. And that phone-like device was most likely the Time Twister.

In the Loki television series, the TVA was an organization created by Kang. It maintained the Sacred Timeline to prevent a Multiverse war. It possessed tremendous power, able to travel through different universes and prune parallel worlds to prevent time paradoxes. The drawer full of Infinity Stones in Loki's first season proved as much.

But this organization had only appeared a few times in the comics. It had barely shown up in major events, occasionally making a token appearance. It was essentially an empty-shell creation.

But to Zhang Ye, this was incredible news.

He did not know why this world had undergone such a mutation, but as long as he could obtain that Time Twister, he could leave this apocalyptic wasteland. Zhang Ye did not believe he could survive the coming nuclear war.

After finishing his beer, Zhang Ye looked at Pietro, who had already finished the bread, and spoke.

"Get ready. We leave tonight."