"What?"
Loki was stunned in front of the screen, his eyes widening slightly.
Looking at the fatal wound piercing his chest on the big screen, he was definitely not going to survive. Could this actually be his swan song? No way?
According to the previous discussions of those Midgardians, this event should have happened shortly after the Convergence, which was only a few years away.
Could it be that I'm going to be killed off in a few years?
No way? My life can't be that short, right?
"No!"
On the screen, Thor watched Loki lying on the ground and let out a heart-wrenching, grief-stricken cry.
"See you in hell, monster!"
Loki, lying on the ground, stared fixedly at Kurse and said in a low voice.
Kurse realized something at this moment and looked down sharply, only to see a bomb had somehow appeared on his waist.
It was obvious that Loki had taken the opportunity to plant it there.
Kurse immediately fumbled to try and remove the bomb, but it was too late.
Boom!
The bomb detonated instantly.
A strange energy enveloped and swept over Kurse, a kind of energy similar to a black hole, which sucked him completely inside.
He vanished.
That Kurse, who had utterly crushed Thor, was just… gone. Vanished from existence.
But it was at the cost of Loki's life.
"No! No, no, no!"
Thor rushed to Loki's side, his face etched with grief. "You idiot! Why didn't you listen to me!"
"I know… I was an idiot." Loki's voice was slurred, his face rapidly turning purple, veins bulging like a zombie from a movie.
"Hold on, Loki!" Thor's eyes were welling up with tears.
"I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry!" Loki began apologizing repeatedly to Thor, but his voice became increasingly faint.
It was as if he didn't even have the strength to speak.
"It's alright." Thor forced back his tears, speaking to Loki in his arms. "I will tell Father about your bravery."
"I didn't do this for him," Loki said.
Then, Loki's breath was completely gone, utterly and completely becoming a corpse.
"No!"
Thor held Loki's body, and roared out in a powerless and painful voice.
The scene froze on the image of Thor curled on the ground, holding Loki.
The scene was a little quiet.
Everyone couldn't help but look towards Loki.
No one could have predicted the outcome of this situation.
Loki, the god of trickery and deceit, the cunning and ruthless villain, had met his end.
It truly caught everyone off guard.
"It seems even Loki had a good side," Captain America couldn't help but remark, and the others readily agreed.
In this sequence, Loki's actions were actually quite commendable.
Of course, this wasn't about Loki killing Kurse, whom even Thor couldn't defeat, but rather his several instinctive reactions.
The first time was when Thor destroyed the Aether, and Loki instinctively shielded Jane Foster with his body.
The second time was during the battle when Kurse threw a "Black Hole Bomb" at Thor and the others – the same type that ultimately killed Kurse.
Loki's first reaction wasn't to dodge the attack himself, but to shove Jane Foster away.
This action ensured Jane Foster was clear of the blast radius. Loki, however, was pulled towards the explosion's black hole energy against his will.
If Thor hadn't intervened in time, Loki would have died!
This scene was a complete surprise to everyone. Loki, in a moment of life-or-death crisis, disregarded his own safety to save another human from Earth!
This completely changed everyone's perception of Loki.
And often, a person's true nature is revealed through their instinctive reactions. Loki had twice instinctively chosen to save Jane Foster in dangerous situations.
This spoke volumes.
Considering the reasons behind Loki's actions, which were simply to be on equal footing with Thor, not for any other evil purpose...
People's impression of Loki had changed quite a bit.
"Good side?"
Loki heard Captain America's words and couldn't help but sneer, "Don't think you know me just because you've seen a few clips! You know nothing about me!"
"I am a god! Ants will never understand gods!"
To everyone else, this sounded like a mask had been torn away, revealing his anger.
Next, Loki retracted his gaze, glanced at the image frozen on the big screen, and a meaningful smile curled his lips.
Did I really die in the future?
Even though the images showed it, Loki was skeptical.
He was the God of Mischief and Deceit. Pretending to be dead to fool Thor in that situation was something he was perfectly capable of.
Loki refused to believe his fate was so awful, that he would meet his end in just a few years.
The heavens would never treat him, the great Loki, like that.
Moreover, even if the image of himself was truly dead, so what?
It hadn't happened yet!
He, the great Loki, wouldn't be frightened by something that hadn't happened.
"Let's summarize this image," Nick Fury's voice sounded, and he said seriously to everyone, "This incident likely happened shortly after the Dark Elves invaded Asgard. Thor piloting that Dark Elf ship is a good indication."
No one really disagreed with this; based on the clues they had and Thor's personality, it wasn't hard to guess.
"This matter should have been orchestrated by Thor, without Odin's permission. Thor privately took Loki and Jane Foster to the Dark World," Nick Fury continued.
This much was obvious; otherwise, how could Thor have escaped through the secret passage while being pursued by Asgard?
And this was just what the image showed. From the information they currently had, this fragment of the image could also perfectly fit into the larger puzzle.
After the Dark Elves killed Frigga and successfully escaped Asgard, Thor, given his personality, would definitely be unable to hold himself back and would want to immediately go and seek revenge on Malekith.
It was imaginable that Odin, the Allfather, would definitely not allow it.
Odin, as the ruler of Asgard and the lord of the Nine Realms, was naturally much more mature than Thor.
And so…
What the image showed then happened: Thor secretly took Jane Foster and Loki with him on a journey to the Dark World to conquer Malekith.
However, that Loki would die on this journey was something no one had anticipated.
The cause and effect of this were not complicated, and everyone could guess it. There was no need for much discussion, so everyone quickly shifted their attention to another, more important matter.
"The Aether cannot be destroyed with Thor's power alone!" Captain America said seriously to everyone. "We need to tell Thor this information as soon as possible."
This was very important.
After all, Thor's original plan was to destroy the Aether directly when the Nine Realms converged and the Aether appeared!
This plan originally seemed to be flawless, but it needed to be changed at this moment.
Both Thor and everyone else had underestimated the Aether.
[Question: Ultron once caused great trouble for the Avengers, why did Ultron want to eliminate all of humanity?] [A. The program was corrupted, and he regarded all of humanity as enemies.] [B. To implement the ultimate goal of bringing peace to the world.]
[C. Programmed to destroy the world]
[D. Made a deal with Thanos to eliminate all of humanity]
[Friendly Reminder: Those who answer correctly will receive a set of Mark 42 Armor blueprints; Those who answer incorrectly will have a random attribute deducted, including but not limited to knowledge, experience, skills, possessions, etc…]
The appearance of a new question caused everyone present to temporarily stop their discussions, shifting their attention to the big screen.
Their expressions turned serious, their faces becoming somewhat grave.
This question was about Ultron, and it immediately conveyed a very important and heavy piece of information: Ultron wanted to eliminate all of humanity!
Everyone had always known that Ultron was a typical "villain," one of the important opponents of the superheroes.
But they only knew that this guy had waged war against the superheroes; they never knew what Ultron's ultimate goal was.
Now, the question system had finally revealed this, leaving everyone present unable to remain calm, even feeling a bit uneasy.
"Eliminate all of humanity?"
That was a terrifying thought.
Just the idea of it made his scalp prickle.
"Eliminate all of humanity?"
Even Loki couldn't help but exclaim in shock, clearly rattled. "Even I think that's insane! You all call me a freak, but he is the real freak!"
No one contradicted Loki.
Because Loki was right. Compared to Ultron, Loki was practically a saint. All he wanted was to play king for a while.
"Everyone, let's focus and analyze this question," Captain America said gravely, scanning the four options.
He finally focused on option C. "Can we rule out C? We've already concluded that there's a high probability that Ultron was created by Stark."
"We haven't looked into this deeply before; now, let's discuss it carefully," Nick Fury nodded, taking over from Captain America.
"First, Ultron has an inexplicable loathing for Tony Stark, so much so that he chopped off someone's arm for being compared to Stark."
"This indicates an extremely unusual relationship between him and Stark."
"Second, when Stark met Ultron, they had a 'father-son' conversation, with Stark calling himself Ultron's father, and Ultron didn't object."
"What does 'father-son' symbolize? The creator and the created! That makes a lot of sense!"
"Finally, Ultron unconsciously repeated Stark's words, even using jokes that only Stark would make, clearly heavily influenced by Stark."
"Plus, in the field of intelligent robots, currently, the most brilliant scientist we know is only Stark."
"His Iron Man Armor is ahead of its time!"
"And Ultron is also a smart robot no weaker than the Iron Man Armor. Looking globally, I don't see anyone else besides Stark who possesses such technology."
"So, to sum it up, Ultron was basically created by Stark, right? What does everyone think?"
"Agreed!" Black Widow nodded in agreement first.
No one else raised any objections either; Nick Fury's words were indeed very reasonable.
After all, only Tony Stark had the ability to create a robot of Ultron's level.
Plus, Tony Stark claimed to be Ultron's father, and Ultron acknowledged it. What else was there to say?
So, option C could indeed be ruled out without any dispute.
Of course, Ultron was created in the future. Whether other scientists comparable to Stark would appear by then was something no one could guarantee.
But science is something that requires a gradual process. If you fall behind at the beginning, you fall behind. Overtaking on a curve is only for a few.
Moreover, the technology Stark possesses is ahead of the entire current era.
This possibility can't be said to be absolutely impossible, but it's really not that likely.
"Option B, it seems a bit weird."
Hawkeye Barton turned his gaze to Option B, frowning as he spoke, "Obviously, eliminating all of humanity and maintaining peace are two completely different things. Why would the answering system set up such an option?"
This option is quite similar to the previous question where Captain America fought himself.
They are both options that, at first glance, seem completely impossible, even completely contradictory to the description in the question.
How could a person who upholds world peace eliminate all of humanity? These two are completely contradictory.
"No, Barton, that's not strange at all."
Stark glanced at option B, but remained completely calm. "You're looking at this from a normal person's perspective, but this question is about Ultron!"
"In a normal person's eyes, eliminating humanity and peace are naturally two different things, but in the eyes of a madman like Ultron, they might be the same, wouldn't you say?"
...
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