"This mysterious magical language has existed since the birth of civilization."
The sunlight melted a bit of snow on the Himalayas, reflecting off the gilded rooftops of Kamar-Taj.
...And also off a certain bald head.
The Ancient One was explaining the essence of magic to a few newly initiated sorcerers.
"Long ago, the enlightened ones referred to this language as incantations. If the term sounds too fantastical to you, think of it as 'programming'—constructing the source code of reality...."
"Oh~"
Tony nodded thoughtfully. "Now that makes sense."
Strange whispered a reminder, "Tony, don't interrupt the Ancient One's lecture."
"It's fine."
The Ancient One smiled at Stark, "What are your thoughts?"
Tony started drawing analogies: "It's like how I create all kinds of devices—recite a spell, forge a shield...a weapon...you get it, it's a metaphor... uh... and then perform magic. But with the law of conservation of mass, I don't quite understand where the energy comes from."
"We gather energy..."
The Ancient One gestured, forming a golden-orange glowing sigil with a wave of her hand, "...from other dimensions in the multiverse."
Tony stared at the sigil, mesmerized. "Whoa~ the multiverse..."
BZZT—!
A ringing interrupted him.
"Oh, sorry, I need to take this call."
He got up and walked to the corner, answering the call, [Happy? What's up? I'm learning magic right now. You might not believe it, but magic is real—and surprisingly scientific.]
Happy: [Alright, Tony, magic is real, but so are exploding firemen.]
[What firemen?]
…..
A few minutes later.
Tony walked over to Ye Li, speaking in a serious tone, "I think I need to head back first. Let Strange and the others keep learning here."
Ye Li nodded.
He had already heard about the Extremis virus from his sister—Tony was probably leaving because of it.
Despite his usual carefree attitude, Iron Man still had a stronger sense of responsibility than most.
This time, Tony didn't arrogantly declare war on terrorists in front of the media, so maybe his house wouldn't get blown up...
...right?
…..
Two days later.
Ye Li casually opened the system's Morning News Channel—
[Yesterday's News Segment]
[Superhero 'Black Cat' successfully eradicated New York's notorious Markill Gang.]
[The gang leader—vicious 'Hammerhead' Joseph Harrow—was killed in resistance...]
[Black Cat publicly claimed it was an accidental killing, stating she didn't expect the opponent to be so weak.]
[However, online netizens seemed more interested in the new pet by Black Cat's side.]
[Experts analyzed that this pet is a mutated white cat, while others claimed it was a mutated white rat.]
Here are some online comments with external links:
"YourFavoriteWade": 'That's 100% a rat! Looks just like the one I caught in my trap yesterday. Speaking of which—it ate my favorite burrito! I'm gonna stab it from the butt all the way through with my knife.....'
"LianaIsBack": 'Nonsense! How could that be a rat? It's clearly a cute kitty.'
".": 'Hehe… Black Cat… my Black Cat… I wanna be her pet too…'
"SummonFistInAttackMode": 'Stop being horny upstairs—this is our club's Black Cat goddess.'
'Why haven't we seen Black Spider in a while! I wanna be his pet too!'
'That's not allowed, y'know.'
[Today's News Segment]
[Tony Stark declared war on the Mandarin in front of multiple media outlets, calling him a coward and vowing to take him down... then publicly revealed his home address...]
Ye Li saw this and shook his head—Iron Man was still as reckless as ever.
...Classic Tony.
As a mischievous friend, he sent Stark a text—reminding him to prepare multiple Iron Man suits this time, instead of stubbornly clinging to the unfinished Mark 42 like in the original timeline.
After that, he didn't do much else and continued watching the news:
[Tomorrow's News Segment]
[The Dark Elves make their return, as Malekith leads his army to descend upon Greenwich... The cosmic convergence aligns the Nine Realms in a single line...]
[...]
'Dark Elves? The Aether is about to appear soon...'
Ye Li remembered that large-scale events like this always came with fixed extraordinary rewards for defeating the main villain—perhaps it was worth joining in on the action...