Ordinary zombies weren't much of a threat—what really blew Stephen's mind was zombie superheroes.
When he saw Zombie Captain America charging at the front of a horde of roaring undead, Stephen had no choice but to flee for his life.
Never mind whether he could fight them off—what if he got bitten and turned into one himself?
Fortunately, Stephen could fly. He managed to shake off Zombie Cap's pursuit. But it wasn't long before he realized he was like a juicy slab of meat thrown into a crocodile pit—except these crocodiles were starving monsters from hell.
Zombies were everywhere—an endless sea of them, surging in from all directions like a tidal wave!
And that was just the ones on the ground. Zombies like Spiderman, Iron Man, and even a zombified version of himself could fly or glide through the air.
Soon enough, Stephen's spells and portals stopped working—especially after he ran into a zombified Scarlet Witch, who was even more terrifying than his undead counterpart…
"If the mission timer hadn't run out, you guys wouldn't be seeing me right now. Those zombies would've eaten me down to the last atom, no bones left. I'm serious!"
Even now, Stephen spoke with lingering fear.
Tony scratched his head. "There's actually a world like that? I can't even imagine myself as a zombie piloting a suit. Okay, Stephen… maybe we should've gone in earlier to pull you out."
Banner stepped forward awkwardly to apologize. When they were drafting the rescue plan, they'd all subconsciously ranked Stephen last.
They'd figured someone like him could handle himself. But compared to Pietro and young Peter, it turned out he had been in the most danger all along.
Stephen didn't hold it against them. He just shrugged. "I didn't get hurt or anything. Still, I think I should get a full medical checkup. You know how contagious zombie viruses are in the movies… What if I accidentally brought it back with me?"
That silenced the room.
To be fair, his tale had been incredibly immersive, and a world full of zombies was bizarre enough that none of them had considered the actual implications until now.
Tony, who was standing closest to Stephen, immediately leapt back two meters, waving his arms frantically. "Get him out of here! Are you insane?! You should've led with that! If you brought a zombie virus back, we're all screwed!"
Peter Three, Pietro, and Banner all backed away in alarm as well, horrified at the idea of turning into zombies themselves.
Stephen burst into laughter. "Look at you guys—absolutely ridiculous! I was just messing with you! Chill out, I already checked myself. The Ancient One checked me too. I'm totally clean. I didn't bring anything back, I promise!"
Tony kept a hand over his mouth, glaring at him suspiciously. "Nope. You're going into isolation. There's a quarantine room in the base. Go lock yourself in. We're giving you another full checkup. Then we'll talk."
Stephen groaned. He'd taken care to avoid close contact with any of the zombified supers during his escape. He hadn't been injured. He was confident he hadn't been infected.
As the debate raged, Bruce Wayne's portal opened, and a group of mutant kids led by Laura walked through, all wide-eyed and curious about their surroundings.
Tony immediately shouted, "Kids, stay away from him! He's contagious! You'll turn into zombies if you get too close!"
The kids panicked and scattered like birds. The meeting room was instantly plunged into chaos.
Charles, Batman, and Peter One came through last, only to be greeted by screeching voices and utter mayhem.
"Quiet. Everyone, quiet," Charles finally said, using his powers to calm the children down.
After hearing about what Stephen had gone through, Batman agreed with Tony's suggestion. "Stephen, you'd better head to the quarantine room. We can't afford to take chances. There are too many kids here."
"…Fine, fine." Stephen raised his eyebrows in defeat. He was starting to regret ever opening his mouth.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped. Everyone else froze too—even Wanda, who had been in full-on 'human radar' mode, snapped out of it.
"The quiz game is starting!"
As players, they all felt the shift in that instant—another round of the mysterious quiz game had begun.
Golden beams of light shot down across multiple worlds. As the game launched, the chosen players were each enveloped by a column of gold.
This time, there were no glitches. All selected players were safely transported to the Eternal Space.
Massive light screens appeared in locations all over the multiverse, showing the six chosen players for this round:
[The Quiz Game has begun. Player Thor Odinson, Player Stephen Strange, Player Wade Wilson, Player Billy Butcher, player Hughie Campbell and Player Annie January have entered the Eternal Space.]
[This round's format is a Free-for-All. Players compete individually for points. When the game ends, the player with the highest score will win a mysterious prize. The bottom two will face punishment]
Tony stared at the screen. "Lot of new faces this time. Besides Thor and Stephen… wait a second. If that Stephen's in the Eternal Space—then who the hell are you?"
He turned wide-eyed toward the Stephen standing beside him.
Stephen frowned. "It's probably another me from a parallel universe. Why are you so surprised? Bruce and Peter have seen this happen before."
Tony waved a hand. "How do we know you're not fake? Maybe Zombie Strange possessed you!"
Clearly, he was teasing, but Stephen just rolled his eyes and ignored him. Instead, he turned to Batman. "Does the quarantine room have a screen? I want to watch the broadcast."
Now that there was another version of himself in the game, he was naturally more curious than ever.
Bruce nodded. "You should be able to see it from the window. Go on."
Then he looked back out the window at the glowing screen and said in a low voice, "Annie January, superhero name Starlight, she is from the Vought world. I'm guessing some of the other new players are too… I had a feeling that world was going to get pulled into the quiz game. Didn't think it'd happen this soon."
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