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Arthur stepped out of the room and stood beside the Ancient One, lifting his head to gaze at the starry sky above.
But after staring for quite a while, he saw nothing except the vast spread of constellations…
"What are you looking at?" Arthur finally asked when he realized he wasn't getting anything out of it.
The Ancient One smiled faintly. "The future."
"The future?" Arthur sighed. "You still dare to look?"
Seeing it doesn't necessarily mean you can change it. And if what you see is something cruel, it might be worse than death; better not to look at all.
The Ancient One turned to him. "Would you stop moving forward simply because you knew there would be difficulties?"
"That depends on the kind of difficulty," Arthur replied. "If it's a kind of deep despair that cannot be reversed no matter what… perhaps I would…"
"You wouldn't." The Ancient One's lips curved in a gentle smile as she looked at him. "You absolutely wouldn't."
"I feel like every one of you has more confidence in me than I do," Arthur sighed. "But I don't even know where that confidence comes from."
"From you." The Ancient One extended a hand and tapped a finger lightly against Arthur's chest. "Many things will eventually reach their final chapter. The ending may come very soon, or it may take far longer than you imagine. Your waiting, your hesitation, your confusion, they will all one day be resolved. You don't need to ask anyone. You will have your own answer."
"And what will that answer mean to me?" Arthur asked.
"If the answer is revealed too early, everything may turn into a dead knot." The Ancient One looked at him. "Do you want to know?"
Arthur gazed at her deeply, then let out a soft sigh. "It seems I shouldn't have come tonight."
"I'm still very happy to see you," the Ancient One said gently. "Thank you for thinking of me when you face difficulties. Unfortunately, at this point, even I cannot help you with yours."
She turned away. "Expectation and fear. An ending and a beginning. Everything is in your hands."
After those words, her figure vanished from Arthur's sight.
Arthur stood there in silence for a moment, then suddenly frowned. "It feels like… something's missing?"
…
…
Early the next morning, Arthur, as usual, dropped Lily off at her company before heading straight to Hank's villa.
Seeing the Ancient One the previous night and hearing her ambiguous words had left his mind restless. But in the end, he figured it out.
If his intuition was telling him that he shouldn't forge some kind of Infinity Gauntlet and snap his fingers at Thanos just yet, then he would wait.
Even if Thanos were to suddenly appear in front of him right now, he might not necessarily fear him.
In fact, who should be afraid of whom was still up for debate.
Among his people, who was a pushover?
Even Thanos would have to weigh carefully whether he could afford the price of trying to take something from him.
Lost in thought, Arthur stepped out of the car,
, and suddenly his footing gave way. One of his legs sank straight into the ground out of nowhere. At the same time, Scott abruptly appeared behind him, holding a frying pan, and swung it hard at Arthur's head!
But in the next second, Arthur vanished from the spot. As Scott stood there in confusion, he heard Arthur's voice come from behind him:
"Too crude."
"But you were successfully trapped… hmm, at least for one second." Scott checked the time.
Arthur smiled. "And how do you know that one second wasn't deliberately left for you, just so I could see what you'd come up with? Hmm? A frying pan?"
"Before this, I was frying eggs." Scott casually hid the pan behind his back, clearly not believing such a weapon would actually do much.
"Well then, let's consider this a pleasant start to the day. I hope you can stay that cheerful. We've got a whole day to play. By the way, do you have any other lessons?"
"Uh… a few." Scott blinked. "They want me to control ants. But that's really hard, you know."
"No. I absolutely don't," Arthur said, stepping past Scott and walking inside.
Scott followed him. "By the way, what exactly was that thing you gave me before? Why did all the injuries on my face heal after one night's sleep? I thought I'd have to spend the whole day looking bruised and swollen."
"A recovery drug," Arthur replied. "A clinical trial version, not officially released yet. Supposedly it has certain defects. I heard it might lower intelligence to some extent… Of course, for people who are already low in intelligence, it has no side effects. So you don't need to worry."
Scott froze. "What does that mean? And something that miraculous, don't tell me it's military-exclusive?"
"No. It's only for internal use," Arthur said with a faint smile as he pushed open the door.
"Internal? Your internal? Who are you people? And who exactly is in your 'internal'? Why would something internal be used on me?" Scott asked as he followed Arthur inside.
Arthur was left slightly dazed by the barrage of missionions. For a moment, he wondered if this guy's personality had gotten mixed up with Spider-Man's.
Why was he so talkative?
Turning around, Arthur patted Scott on the shoulder. "If I were you, I'd spend the next bit of time focusing on frying those eggs properly. After completing that great mission, you'll still need to keep working on your ambush plan. I'll give you thirty minutes per round. If you fail to ambush me within half an hour, then it'll be my turn to ambush you."
Scott thought for a moment and asked, "Should I make a portion for you too?"
"I have my girlfriend's loving breakfast," Arthur replied, adopting an oddly superior tone as he looked down at Scott.
Scott carried the pan toward the kitchen, muttering to himself, "What's so great about having a girlfriend? I used to have a wife. I still have a daughter. Do you?"
Of course, he didn't dare say that part out loud.
Arthur didn't see Hank or Hope, nor did he intend to. He casually found a seat, activated his wristband, connected to Natasha's channel, and switched to voice mode.
"I'm sending you a set of coordinates," Arthur said. "We'll need some engineers. We probably have a small mission to handle."
"Of course, no problem. But what are we doing?" Natasha asked casually.
"Building a Teleportation Array. The destination… Vormir."
Arthur's gaze drifted out the window.
(End of Chapter)