"Since you know so much, can you tell me how you found out my real identity? Little alien girl or boy."
Rimuru's mouth twitched. As for his gender, he had decided to stop struggling. They could think whatever they wanted.
"I think you may have misunderstood, Agent Natasha. I'm not an alien. I'm a genuine Earthling, just not from your Earth."
Natasha and Nick Fury, who was watching the screen, both fell silent. What did he mean, he was an Earthling but not from this Earth? Was he even speaking English? Could his language center be broken?
"I know you're curious, but hold that thought. You know about the theory of parallel universes, right? I'm an Earthling from the Earth in another parallel universe. Even though I count as an alien to you, I'm still a genuine Earthling."
Natasha understood, and so did Nick Fury. Rimuru meant that she was an Earthling who had crossed over from a parallel universe.
Natasha raised a crucial question. "Then how did you get to this universe? Has human technology over there already advanced that far?"
"That's a long story. Our technology is fairly advanced, but it hasn't reached that level. My arrival here was purely an accident."
Natasha said, "You mean you came to this universe by accident."
"That's right. Vallis Knight, show her."
Under Natasha and Nick Fury's incredulous gazes, Vallis Knight slowly transformed into Natasha. The jewelry, the makeup on her face, even the color of her nail polish were identical.
"The sun in our world faced a solar crisis. For some unknown reason, it suddenly began aging rapidly. Within four hundred years, it would undergo a helium flash and expand into a red giant, swallowing the solar system. Humanity faced a life-or-death crisis."
Nick Fury, watching the screen, was already frowning deeply. If what he said was true, the situation might be even more serious than he had imagined. This person was more than just someone with special abilities. There might be an entire civilization behind him, and the robot's technology reminded Fury of the Skrulls.
Natasha stared blankly at her identical self before her and the shocking information. Her voice was a little dry. "So you're planning to escape to other parallel universes?"
"No. Our technology hasn't reached that level. We devised an exile plan, the Wandering Earth Project. It was meant to take one hundred generations and 2,500 years, divided into five phases: the braking era, stopping Earth's rotation; the escape era, accelerating out of the solar system; the wandering era I, accelerating away; the wandering era II, decelerating into a new orbit; and the new sun era, arriving in the Proxima Centauri System. But the conditions in space were far too complex. I encountered some strange events during the process, and then I came to this universe."
By this point, Natasha's CPU was overheating. She could understand him, but not completely. This was already beyond what he was capable of handling as an agent.
"So what does that have to do with you knowing me? This should be our first time meeting, right? How did you recognize me?"
"Because of parallel universes. You exist in our world too, just not quite in the same way," Rimuru continued to spin his nonsense.
"Then can you still go back to your universe? Or are you going to stay on this Earth from now on?"
"Theoretically, I probably can't go back, but nothing's absolute. Maybe I'll find my way back someday."
Natasha's fingertips unconsciously rubbed the concealed communicator at her waist. The wariness in her eyes had not diminished in the slightest, but now there was curiosity as well. Parallel universes, a solar helium flash, wandering through space with Earth in tow... This information overturned everything she knew. Even though she was battle-hardened and had handled countless bizarre incidents, she couldn't fully digest it all at once.
"There's another me in that universe, and Nick Fury, and S.H.I.E.L.D.?" she pressed, a hint of barely perceptible surprise in her voice. "What are we like in that world?"
Rimuru tilted his head, a trace of mischief flashing in his golden eyes. He decided to keep building on his earlier story. "More or less the same. There's an organization protecting the world and exceptionally skilled agents there too. But that world doesn't have so many superheroes. There's no Iron Man, no Thor, and certainly no frequent invasions by alien civilizations. Our only enemy is the sun, which is about to destroy everything."
In front of the screen, Nick Fury pressed his fingers harder against the bridge of his nose, his one eye fixed on the seemingly harmless Rimuru. He had seen countless lies and heard countless stories whose truth was hard to determine, but what this being was saying only made him feel the situation was trickier. S.H.I.E.L.D. had done some research into the possibility of parallel universes, though it had never progressed beyond theory. Now an "Earthling" who had crossed over from a parallel universe had suddenly appeared, a mysterious figure with uncanny abilities who had easily seen through an agent's identity. He had no choice but to be cautious.
"So you know everything about our world?" Natasha pressed, fixing her sharp gaze on Rimuru. "You know about S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers Initiative, and all the secrets hidden beneath the surface?"
"Don't be so nervous." Rimuru spread his hands, speaking lightly. "I only know that you people exist and the general direction this world is heading in. How could I know all the details? Besides, I'm not interested in your secrets, and I've never thought of disrupting this world's order. I just ended up stranded here by accident and wanted to find somewhere to live in peace."
"Live in peace?" Natasha gave a soft laugh, clearly unconvinced. "A visitor from a parallel universe with unknown, powerful abilities says he just wants a peaceful life. If you were in my shoes, would you believe it?"
Rimuru understood her concerns. If he were in her position and someone of unknown origin and unfathomable strength suddenly appeared, he would never let his guard down easily either.
Just then, Nick Fury's deep voice came through Natasha's earpiece, giving an unequivocal order. "Stop pressing for details. Keep him calm for now, and try to recruit him into S.H.I.E.L.D. Remember, don't provoke him."
Rimuru saw through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan in an instant. Because it had Universal Sense, he knew everything Nick Fury whispered to Natasha. They simply wanted to keep him within sight and get to the bottom of his background.
But there was no need to let relations with S.H.I.E.L.D. become too strained. In his current state, there was no need to stand against this world's official protective force. Yet if he obediently went along with them, he would inevitably lose his freedom. He had Gillvalis now, and as long as he held steady, the time would surely come when they would ask him for help.
"All right, Rimuru. We understand your situation now. In that case, I won't stay any longer." Natasha prepared to get up and leave. Today's events had been too much of a shock for her. A small-time agent like him couldn't handle something this big, so she would leave it to the higher-ups to worry about.