Disaster strikes without warning.
It is not an explosion or invasion, but a change in light. The sun is still high at noon, but its light has become dim and dim at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if it has been covered with a thick filter. It is not a solar eclipse or cloud cover, but the light itself is "fading".
The output power of Solar Panel dropped sharply worldwide. The photosynthesis of plants almost stopped. The temperature began to drop abnormally.
S.H.I.E.L.D. fell into unprecedented chaos.
"It's not an atmospheric problem! It's not an astronomical phenomenon!" Bruce·Banner's voice was almost hoarse amid the sirens, "It's the speed of light! The local speed of light is being reduced in an incomprehensible way! The energy carried by photons is attenuating!"
Nick Fury's one eye stared at the ever-decreasing curve representing global light intensity on the main screen, his face livid. "Scope? Reason?"
"Globally synchronized! The reason is unknown! The energy signature... cannot be identified! It's like the physical laws themselves have been modified!" Maria·Hill's voice was filled with a hint of despair.
A holographic image of Tony·Stark appears, with his laboratory in the background, and the data stream scrolls wildly. "Friday has calculated all possibilities! The only close model is... the cosmological constant is artificially interfered with! But this is simply impossible!"
Strange's portal suddenly opened, and he and Wang stumbled out, their faces as pale as paper. "It's not magic," Strange gasped, "It's something at a lower level... The structure of reality is being 'frozen'! Something is extracting the kinetic energy of all particle movements, and light is only the first to show it!"
Thor sent a message back from Asgard: "Asgard's Eternal Flame is also dimming! Father said that this is the harbinger of 'Eternal Night', the cold deathly silence that is said to be able to swallow even the divine realm!"
Avengers is helpless. They can fight against physical enemies and crack energy weapons, but they cannot fight against changes in the basic constants of the universe.
The city fell into panic. The power system collapsed due to solar failure, and backup energy sources were quickly exhausted. Cold and darkness began to spread. This was not an attack, but a silent suffocation.
Tony suddenly thought of something and turned to the screen monitoring Malibu.
Stark Villa Beach.
Xiao Han put down the drink in his hand. He felt..."hungry".
The sunlight shining on his body no longer brought warmth and strength. Instead, it was like a layer of cold frosted glass. The efficiency of energy absorption became extremely low and almost stagnant. This feeling made him extremely uncomfortable and even... irritable.
He sat up, unfolded Super-Senses, and instantly understood the problem - it was not the sun itself that had a problem, but the space around the earth, where the spread of light and other energy was severely inhibited by some invisible field.
Like someone put a lid on his dinner plate.
His eyes became cold, Super Vision penetrated the void, and instantly locked onto the source of the anomaly - not a specific location, but a very small, self-replicating "nanomechanical cloud" that permeated the entire low-Earth orbit. They were executing some kind of program, changing local physical constants.
"Insects." He whispered with extreme boredom.
The next moment, he appeared above the geosynchronous orbit, suspended in the cold vacuum of space.
Without needing to breathe, his very existence was like a human-shaped star. He looked at the almost invisible mechanical cloud that was slowly strangling the entire world.
There is no angry roar, no charged ultimate move.
He simply took a deep breath.
The vacuum of the universe had no reaction to this, but the space around his body was slightly distorted.
Then, he breathed out.
It was not an icy breath, but the indescribably hot Super Breath that contained the majestic solar energy in his body. This breath was not directed at the mechanical cloud, but centered on him, like a perfect spherical shock wave, silently sweeping through the entire low-Earth orbit space in an instant!
There was no sound, just the ultimate light and heat that flashed away.
The carefully constructed nanomechanical cloud that was capable of modifying physical constants was not even instantly vaporized in the face of this extremely pure light and heat storm. Instead, it was completely wiped out from the atomic level, as if it had never existed.
After doing all this, Xiao Han didn't even look at it for a second, turned around and turned into golden light and returned to the earth.
In the orbit after he left, the physical constants returned to normal, and the suppressed speed of light returned instantly.
Earth.
The midday sun suddenly returned to its due intensity and brightness! The dim filter disappeared instantly!
The global Solar Panel readings soared instantly! The leaves of the plants began to work efficiently again! The falling temperature began to rise sharply!
People froze in place, staring blankly at the sun that suddenly returned to normal, feeling the warmth coming again, as if the horrific experience just now was just a nightmare.
S.H.I.E.L.D. command center, all alarms are lifted and readings return to normal.
Deathly silence.
"What... did he?" Steve·Rogers looked at the dazzling sunshine outside the window and muttered to himself.
Tony·Stark looked at the data sent back by the satellite, which showed that the abnormal area in low-Earth orbit had been completely cleaned. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Doctor Banner slumped in the chair, looking at the vertical peak of the energy curve, and said in a daze, "He... he lifted the 'lid'..."
Strange felt the restored stable reality structure, his eyes filled with disbelief. "It's not destruction, it's not cancellation... it's coverage. He used his energy field, which was so huge that it distorted the rules, to forcefully cover and reset the physical constants of that space..."
In the depths of the distant star sea, an ancient consciousness observing all this let out a silent exclamation. Its creation, the "Eternal Night" system that could freeze stars, was actually cracked in such a crude and direct way.
Xiao Han, on the other hand, has returned to his beach chair. Feeling the sunshine that has become "delicious" again, he lies back with satisfaction and picks up the unfinished drink with ice that has just barely melted.
It was as if he just got up and shooed away an annoying fly.
The global crisis was quietly lifted, but the shock and questions it brought were more profound than any high-profile invasion by the enemy.
Fury's voice finally broke the silence in the communication channel, with a hint of imperceptible dryness:
"On the record. Incident name: Eternal Night. Threat level: Omega. Solution:... bask in the sun."