The aftermath of the time anomaly has not yet completely subsided, and a new, more eerie silence has begun to envelope the earth.
It's not that there is no sound, but that sound is "attenuating" during the propagation process. The noise of distant streets becomes blurred when it reaches the ears, the music loses the crispness of high frequencies, and even the sound of explosions becomes dull and lacks impact. Acoustic monitoring equipment around the world records that sound wave energy is continuing to be lost in a way that violates the laws of physics.
"It's not a failure of the hearing organ or equipment," Bruce·Banner stared at the sound wave energy attenuation model, frowning, "It's a problem with the medium itself. When sound waves propagate in the air, their energy is being continuously absorbed by a certain field, just like... the sound is trapped in an invisible sponge."
Nick Fury's one-eyed eye scans global reporting, "Scope? Impact?"
"It happens globally, and the attenuation rate increases by 0.5% every hour," Maria·Hill said with a hint of uneasiness in his voice, "Following this trend, after seventy-two hours, the effective sound propagation distance will be shortened to within ten meters. Long-distance communications will be completely disabled, and military command, air traffic control, and even daily communication will be paralyzed."
Tony·Stark tried to use sound waves of various frequencies to counterattack or interfere, but all were absorbed. "This is not a targeted attack, but more like... environmental modification. Some people want to turn the earth into a 'silent planet'."
Strange and Wang monitored the fluctuations in the magic level. "It is not a magic effect. This 'Sound-Absorbing Field' is more like some extremely advanced technological creation, and its principle... we cannot understand."
Avengers is out again. Tony and Banner attempt to locate the source of the field; Natasha and Clint investigate organizations that may benefit from global silence; Steve coordinates emergency response Communication plan; Thor tries to sense whether there are similar weapons known to Asgard; even Carol·Dan Vers also sent information back from the universe, indicating that no abnormalities were found around Solar System.
However, nothing was found. Sound-Absorbing Field is evenly distributed and has no source, as if this is the new physical law of the earth.
Panic began to spread. The world gradually fell into a suffocating dullness. People had to shout loudly to barely communicate, birds behaved abnormally because they could not effectively call for mating, and marine creatures that relied on sonar began to lose their way.
Until Peter Parker--Spider-Man--while patrolling the streets of New York, relied on his enhanced hearing and Spider-Sense to capture an unusual pattern. Sound-Absorbing Field is not completely uniform. At an extremely subtle level, its attenuation efficiency has an imperceptible, breathing-like periodic fluctuation.
"It's like... debugging!" Peter excitedly reported the discovery to Mr. Stark.
Tony and Banner immediately focused on analyzing this fluctuation, and finally locked on an extremely concealed modulation signal. The signal did not come from the earth, nor from low-Earth orbit, but from... Far Side of the Moon.
A long-forgotten seismic monitor left over from the Apollo era was modified by someone unknown and became the "tuner" of the Sound-Absorbing Field that envelopes the world.
"It's just a tuner!" Tony suddenly realized, "The real field source is not here! It is just fine-tuning the entire field to ensure its stable operation!"
"Where is the source of that field?" Steve asked eagerly.
"Everywhere!" Banner pointed at the global energy map, "The source of the field is the earth's own magnetic field! Someone has used a method that we cannot understand to convert the earth's magnetic field into a huge 'Sound-Absorbing Field' generator! Far Side of the Moon's equipment is only finely controlling this field!"
How to shut down a device based on the entire planet's magnetic field? Avengers is at a loss. Attacking Far Side of the Moon's tuner may temporarily interrupt control, but it cannot eradicate the source of the field itself.
The global sound attenuation rate has reached an alarming level. People almost seem to be shouting in deep water, and the auditory world has become blurred and suppressed.
Malibu Beach.
Xiao Han put down the book in his hand. He noticed that the sound of the waves became extremely dull, the sound of traffic on the distant highway almost disappeared, and even the sound of the wind rustling through the palm leaves was so weak that it was almost inaudible.
This absolute "silence" did not make him feel peaceful, but instead produced a strange "sense of emptiness" and "a sense of imbalance." The lack of sound seemed to make the world lack an important layer of texture, making him feel a little "off" when absorbing sunlight, like a meal lacking seasonings.
He frowned, Super-Senses carefully perceived this unusual silence, and instantly understood the principle - the earth's magnetic field was cleverly distorted, forming a giant network that absorbed sound wave energy.
"A clumsy trick." He commented in a low voice with obvious displeasure.
He didn't even get up, but concentrated his attention slightly, adjusted his vibration frequency of Biological Force Field, and sent out an extremely low-frequency pulse that could not be captured by the human ear, but could perfectly resonate with the earth's magnetic field.
The pulse swept across the globe in an instant.
"Sound-Absorbing Field" enveloping the earth is like a struck tuning fork, its inherent frequency being forcibly interfered with, overwritten, and reset by this external, more powerful, and more precise pulse.
The earth's magnetic field has returned to normal.
In an instant, the voice of the world returned!
The roar of the waves, the howling of the wind, the hustle and bustle of the city, the chirping of birds... all the suppressed sounds burst out with greater intensity and poured into everyone's ears. People were frightened by this sudden "loud noise", and then fell into the ecstasy of having lost and recovered.
The communication channel of S.H.I.E.L.D. was instantly filled with various normal sound reports, and the alarm was cleared.
Avengers froze in place, feeling the familiar and vibrant sounds of the world, speechless for a moment.
"He... solved it casually again?" Clint dug his ears in disbelief.
"He didn't even move this time..." Natasha looked at the calm surveillance screen in the direction of Malibu.
Doctor Banner looked at the sound wave energy diagram that instantly returned to normal and even rebounded slightly due to short-term suppression, and murmured, "He... he 'calibrated' the earth's magnetic field? Used himself as a tuning fork?"
Strange felt the natural flow of energy that restored "health" and sighed, "For him, this may just be because he felt that the previous 'background sound' was too unpleasant, and he changed the channel casually."
Far away Far Side of the Moon, that abandoned tuner quietly self-destructed, leaving no clues.
And deep in the sea of stars, an ancient Watchers civilization that tried to transform the earth into a "silent garden" recorded this failure.
"Experiment log: Codename 'Silent Garden'. The target planet has a 'basic constant maintenance mechanism' that cannot be analyzed. Any attempt to modify the planet's basic fields (magnetic field, gravity field, etc.) will trigger automatic calibration. Calibration source: Suspected stellar-level life forms. Threat level: High. Recommendation: Permanent observation, no interference."
Xiao Han Listening to the background sound of the world that became "pleasant" again, I picked up the book again with satisfaction.
That's right. The world should have such "white noise".