Link was about to tell Harley to end her little "prank." He had even prepared what to say: "See? Chaos only brings suffering. Doesn't this prove my way was right?"
He enjoyed being in control of everything, even the "truth."
But a second before he could speak, something seized him.
It was an absolute cold unlike anything he had ever felt, rising from the depths of his soul.
It was no illusion, no emotion, but a "gaze" from a higher dimension.
Bzzz—
The God-Level Check-In System in his mind, which had fallen completely silent after he gathered the six Infinity Stones and which he had nearly forgotten, activated without warning.
A line of cold, mechanical text devoid of emotion branded itself into his consciousness:
[Warning: The "Reapers" from beyond the Multiverse have locked onto this universe's coordinates.] [Warning: "They" are coming.] [Final check-in mission issued: Become "One."] [Mission location: Beyond the universe, the Primordial Singularity.] [Mission countdown: Unknown.]
The smile froze on Link's face.
Reapers? "They"? What the hell are they?
He immediately opened the system map. What he saw made his pupils contract.
The map that had once marked countless galaxies, planets, and check-in locations was now blank. Every icon and every word had vanished.
In their place lay endless, profound darkness that seemed capable of swallowing all light and hope.
At the very center of that darkness, a single icon flashed.
It was less a location than a concept: a black singularity representing both "the end" and "the beginning," collapsing and expanding without cease.
The final check-in mission...
Link's heart sank. He finally realized that the Check-In System he had always treated as a cheat and a tool might itself conceal the universe's deepest secret—and its greatest trap.
It had not been helping him grow stronger.