Matthew's face was filled with pain. He pointed at Pharaoh Akhenaten on the ground. "You mean I never existed from beginning to end? My life, my wife, all those happy and painful memories never existed? I'm this guy's descendant? More mistakes caused by one enormous mistake? I'm not even a person—I'm just a mistake?"
For a moment, he could not accept that answer. He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath.
The Good Old Man knew that every second counted now, and his gentle, refined demeanor vanished.
He gripped Matthew's arm tightly. "To me, you exist, but that doesn't matter. My opinion carries no weight at all. You have two choices now. Follow your mission, end all this, and put everything back on track. Or kill me, go over there and seize your new destiny, embarking on a new path. Both choices benefit humanity and the universe. Stop hesitating and do it!"
Matthew panicked completely. He did not want to hurt anyone, and his body began trembling uncontrollably. He looked at Pharaoh Akhenaten, who had fallen into a deep slumber on the ground. "You want me to erase him? He's my direct ancestor. Without him, there would be no me. How cruel is that? Could it be that all my ancestors never existed either..."
Before he could finish, Coulson, recklessly courting death, interrupted him. "If you think you're a person who doesn't exist, then did your ancestors ever exist?"
"If you think you once existed, then now is the time to fulfill your mission. Every one of us has a mission, some great and some small. If your mission is real, then you are real too!"
Coulson had prepared countless plans for today's conversation. Honestly, he had never expected something like saving the universe to fall on his shoulders one