After the "Universe Search" program activated, invisible search energy swept through hundreds upon thousands of universes.
Most beings could not detect the scan. After all, its target was limited to the Earth in each universe, rather than the entire universe.
Characters could change, settings could change, factions could change, but Earth's role would not change. It was still the planet humanity depended on for survival, and that needed little alteration.
Among the vast majority of superpowered beings swept by the search energy, only a handful with exceptional perception sensed an inexplicable energy passing over them.
By the time they tried to trace its source, the search energy had already vanished without a trace.
The search energy swept over the Earth in one particular universe.
This Earth lacked the bustle and prosperity of an ordinary Earth. Instead, it was filled with a suffocating sense of oppression.
The Sun was visibly blazing overhead, yet the sky was blood-red. The sight below was horrifying.
The once-glorious, brightly lit city no longer had a single intact building. Its buildings and streets were all shattered, reduced to ruins.
More horrifying still were the chunks covered in congealed blood scattered everywhere. They looked like severed limbs, like... severed human limbs.
Figures wandered aimlessly through the streets. They seemed to have neither destination nor direction, merely drifting along in groups of two or three.
A closer look revealed that all their clothes were in tatters. Each had one or two hideous wounds from which the blood had long since drained.
Looking farther up, any normal person present would have immediately thought of a single word.
Zombies!
Those hideous faces and erratic movements were the unmistakable traits of zombies!
In ruined New York, inside the equally ruined Avengers Tower, a group of "people" sat in the hall, apparently