Peter wanted to know whether the Ancient One used shampoo

Reality was the exact opposite of what Strange had imagined.

Spider-Man ducked his head. "Calm down, Doctor Strange! Mr. Stark sent me!"

Strange looked skeptical, clearly not buying Spider-Man's story. "Tony? What did he send you here for? You'd better have a reasonable explanation!"

Peter looked helplessly at Lin Yi. "Mr. Stark sent me to find Mr. Lin Yi."

Lin Yi pointed at his own nose. "I'm involved in this too?"

"He said Lin Yi would understand when he saw this. He also told me to remind you, Mr. Lin—do you remember what you two talked about in the car...?"

As he spoke, Peter rolled up his sleeve, revealing his unblemished arm.

There were no markings. The Black-purple veins that had infected Peter were gone.

Lin Yi's pupils instantly contracted. He grabbed Peter's arm and examined it closely.

Strange even got up and leaned in.

"What happened? When did they disappear? How did they disappear?"

The black markings that Tony had been unable to analyze despite trying everything, and that even Lin Yi's Super Vision couldn't detect as anything tangible, had simply vanished? Both men felt a surge of disbelief.

"Uh..." Peter awkwardly tugged at his arm, but couldn't pull it free.

"Mr. Stark told me to enter the Quantum Realm after you. He said that if the markings didn't disappear, I should leave the Quantum Realm immediately."

"If they disappeared, I was supposed to follow preset one and come find you. He said you'd understand..."

I'd understand?

Lin Yi let go and sat back down. Strange immediately asked him, "What did Tony say to you?"

What did he say? Lin Yi recalled Tony's words in the car.

Because of Morgan Stark, the two hadn't talked much. Tony had only discussed whether they could flee to another universe if the situation became impossible to salvage...

Parallel Universe. The Black-purple veins that disappeared after entering the Quantum Realm.

Could it be...?

Lin Yi's heart sank. Tony seemed to have another plan, but it was an extremely drastic one...

Lin Yi held nothing back and shared his suspicions.

By sending Peter here, Tony had made it clear he had no intention of concealing his plan.

Was he asking me to support his plan and cooperate with him?

After hearing him out, Strange pinched the bridge of his nose, looking thoroughly exasperated.

"That's absurd. It's completely impossible."

"This thing almost certainly has something to do with the Dark Dimension, and the Dark Dimension has its own set of rules."

"The Quantum Realm can remove these markings only because its rules differ from those of our physical universe."

"But if I'm right, their disappearance is only temporary. It's only a matter of time before the Dark Dimension finds you. Perhaps a month, perhaps a day, perhaps the very next second—the markings will reappear."

Strange rejected Tony's plan in an instant.

Putting together what Lin Yi had told him, he could easily deduce what Tony was planning.

If the situation became impossible to salvage, he would take all of humanity, perhaps even every species in the universe, through the Quantum Realm and escape to a Parallel Universe on another timeline.

In an extreme scenario, he might take only humanity, or even just the people close to him.

After all, finding a habitable planet in the universe wasn't difficult. Carol acted as a vigilante out in space, and she knew the coordinates of plenty of sparsely populated planets, some with no intelligent life at all.

With their combined strength, establishing themselves on one of those life-bearing planets would be no trouble whatsoever.

But Tony didn't understand the rules of the Dark Dimension. This wasn't something you could simply shake off, unless you stayed in the Quantum Realm forever.

Lin Yi didn't understand the Dark Dimension either, but he knew how far Tony would go for Morgan.

Still, he had no objection to Tony's approach. He knew he was no saint himself. In Tony's shoes, he would most likely make the same choice and save only those he could.

Peter had initially been delighted that they seemed to have found a way to deal with the Black-purple veins, but Strange's words instantly deflated him.

"So there's really nothing we can do?" He looked at his unblemished arm and recalled how the markings had clouded his mind, even making him want to bite people. He really didn't want to experience that again.

Strange glanced at the Ancient One, who was still bobbing up and down, and gestured toward her. "We're looking for a solution right now, aren't we?"

"Who's she?" Peter studied the Ancient One curiously.

The Ancient One's current state was somewhat similar to Strange's when he had used the Time Stone on Titan to view visions of the future.

Her bald head wasn't whipping around, though. She looked far more elegant than Strange had.

"She's the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange is her..." Lin Yi rubbed his chin, considering his words. "Disciple? Or would successor be more accurate?"

"She's the Ancient One?" Peter studied her curiously. He had heard the name, but she had died before his time, so he had never met her.

"Yeah. What's up?" Seeing Peter stare motionlessly and curiously at the Ancient One as she worked her magic, Lin Yi couldn't resist asking, "What is it? Did you notice something?"

Peter nodded solemnly. "I'm thinking."

"About what?" Lin Yi's interest was piqued.

"Do you think she... uses shampoo when she washes her head?"

Huh?

Lin Yi froze, thrown for a loop. Even his heavy mood lifted a little at Peter's ridiculous question.

Wait, what was he talking about?

This kid was completely out of sync. One second they were discussing Tony's plan, and the next he was wondering whether the Ancient One used shampoo?

Looking at the Ancient One's gleaming bald head, Lin Yi hesitated briefly. "Probably not..."

Seriously, she didn't have a single hair. What would she need shampoo for? Wouldn't soap do the trick?

Strange was utterly speechless at the two of them. All he could do was lift his teacup and sigh helplessly.

Sometimes I really envy people with that kind of mindset...

Peter hadn't been pondering the question for long before the Ancient One finished her spell.

She gave Lin Yi and Peter a resigned look. Judging by her expression, she had clearly heard their conversation.

Peter scratched the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly.

Lin Yi, meanwhile, sipped his tea without batting an eye. "How did it go? Did you find anything?"

The Ancient One leaned back slightly, closed her eyes, and tilted her head up in silence for a moment before sweeping her gaze over the three of them again.

Her eyes held wisdom, scrutiny, and a trace of gravity.

"It's bad. Worse than I imagined."

"Everything is in chaos..."

Lin Yi set down his teacup. Great. Back to playing the Riddler, are we?

"Does this thing come from the Dark Dimension?" Strange pressed.

The Ancient One nodded, then shook her head, leaving Strange speechless. But knowing her as he did, he was certain there was a deeper meaning behind it, and immediately began pondering it. He really was something else.

"So what exactly did you see, Sorcerer? Can we please stop being cryptic?" Lin Yi was getting impatient.

The Ancient One gazed quietly at Lin Yi without saying a word.

Blunt as ever, Peter blurted out, "Don't tell me you didn't see anything?"

"Peter!"

"Pfft..."

Strange's warning and Lin Yi's stifled laugh rang out together.

Lin Yi's shoulders shook. If he hadn't been trying to spare her dignity, he would have laughed out loud.

Wait, was Spider-Man like this in the movies? Sure, he was young and lively, but was he really this bad at reading the room?