The alarm system of S.H.I.E.L.D. detected a brand-new abnormal phenomenon. Many remote areas around the world reported the occurrence of short-lived "Reality Overlap" - the reappearance of ancient battlefields, the brief appearance of extinct animals, and even the superposition of shadows of buildings from different eras. These phenomena were fleeting and left no physical traces, but they caused widespread psychological impact and shock in the space-time theory community.
"It's not time travel, it's not holographic projection," Bruce·Banner analyzed the sporadic sensor data, frowning, "More like... the macroscopic superposition phenomenon of quantum states. The 'probability cloud' of certain past events was forcibly excited and briefly collapsed."
Nick Fury's one eye scanned the bizarre reports. "Source? Purpose?"
"The source cannot be traced," Maria·Hill replied. "The energy signature is extremely weak and discrete, as if it is part of the background noise. However, the frequency and intensity of occurrence are slowly increasing."
Tony·Stark's holographic image access. "I discussed with Reed·Richards that this is like some kind of...'Quantum Backtracking' effect. Someone or something is trying to 'salvage' past information fragments from the quantum foam, but the technology is rough, causing the macroscopic reality to be leaked."
Strange and Wang monitored the dimensional fluctuations. "There is no abnormality on the magic level. This is not dimensional penetration. It is more like a... side effect of pure technology, a violent 'fishing' on the space-time continuum."
Avengers investigated several places where the phenomenon occurred, but found nothing except recording some residual quantum fluctuation anomalies. These "Quantum Ghosts" events may seem harmless, but they make everyone feel uneasy - an invisible tampering and teasing of historical authenticity.
Until an incident occurred in the suburbs of New York. A 19th-century farm shadow overlapped with a modern residential area for a full ten seconds, causing three citizens to have a traffic accident due to visual confusion.
"This kind of thing must be stopped!" Steve said seriously.
However, the enemy is invisible and insubstantial, how to stop it?
Malibu Beach.
Xiao Han was enjoying the afternoon sun. Suddenly, the beach scene he was on fluctuated slightly for a moment. The sea in front of him seemed to have turned into an ancient forest, and the sound of the waves in his ears was mixed with a few unfamiliar birdsong and the low roar of ancient Beast. Although he returned to normal in less than half a second, this brief "sense of dislocation" interrupted the immersive tranquility he felt while absorbing the sunshine.
Just like when watching a movie, a few wrong frames suddenly appear. Although it is short-lived, it is unpleasant enough.
"Signal interference." He whispered unhappily. Super-Senses - especially the perception of space-time continuity and quantum level stability - instantly locked onto the weak "disturbance field" that permeated the space and caused the abnormal collapse of the quantum state.
To him, it was like tiny pebbles being thrown into the clear water, causing unpleasant ripples.
He didn't even look for the "slinger", but impatiently "solidified" the surrounding reality structure with Biological Force Field, which absolutely existed in the "now" and whose time and space coordinates were extremely stable.
It's like instantly covering the undulating water surface with a layer of solid ice, forcibly stopping all ripples.
Globally, all "Quantum Ghosts" phenomena came to an abrupt end. The probability cloud returned to calm, and the boundary between the past and the present became clear and insurmountable again. Those attempts to "salvage" the past from the quantum foam were like hitting an invisible wall of time and were completely blocked.
The world has regained its temporal "tidyness".
Avengers soon noticed the sudden disappearance of the anomaly.
"It's... over again?" Clint looked up from an archaeological site where the shadow of a Roman legion had just appeared, with a confused look on his face.
"Monitoring shows that all quantum fluctuation anomalies subsided at the same time," Banner looked at the data with a complicated tone, "It seems like... someone forcibly 'frozen' the quantum state, preventing any possibility of macroscopic superposition."
Tony looked in the direction of Malibu: "Other than him, who else can do this? Use an absolute sense of existence to nail the 'present' so that the 'past' cannot come forward?"
Strange thoughtfully said, "For him, time may not be a river that can be traced back, but an unshakable 'now'. Any attempt to disrupt this 'now' will be regarded by him as a 'distraction' that needs to be cleared."
In a hidden laboratory beyond conventional time and space, an ancient Watchers race trying to pry into the secrets of Earth's history was surprised to find that their "Quantum Fishing" device suddenly failed. All attempts to salvage the information probability cloud returned an error code of "The target space-time node is locked and cannot be accessed."
"Experiment log update: The collection of historical information on the 'Solar System third planet' encountered incomprehensible barriers. The stability of the planet's 'present tense' is unusually high, and there is a powerful 'Present Anchor' at its core. Any attempt to pry into its past or future is prohibited. Access rights are permanently denied. Recommendation: Terminate all related research plans."
Xiao Han feels that the surroundings have returned to the "clean" and "stable" present tense, and the "image confusion" at that moment seems to have never happened.
The world finally stopped "flashbacking".
This is good.
As for who wants to peek into the past? Why?
He has no interest.