Everyone at the scene knew exactly who Heimdall was — the all-seeing, all-hearing sentry of Asgard, its irreplaceable "human radar."
After all, aside from Heimdall, there wasn't a second person in all the realms with abilities like his.
So how could someone like that just casually leave Asgard?
That clearly didn't make any sense.
And when they thought back to the fact that several Asgardian families had also boarded that ship and left Asgard together, a natural conclusion surfaced.
That Asgardian ship... was very likely an escape vessel!
Which meant — before that, Asgard must have suffered an invasion from a terrifying enemy!
Realizing this, Thor's expression immediately grew grim.
Based on the information they had so far, with Odin already dead, both Hela and Thanos had the strength to do such a thing.
But which of those two had actually invaded Asgard — that, they couldn't determine.
However, they could at least roughly estimate when it happened.
After a brief discussion, the group soon reached a conclusion.
"On Sakaar, Loki, Thor, and Hulk were all there. Is it possible that the three of them escaped Sakaar together, and then returned to Asgard?"
"That would also explain why Hulk appeared on the Asgardian ship."
Captain America made a reasonable deduction.
The facts were pretty clear: Thor had lost his hammer on Sakaar, and had been implanted with a control chip — just one button press could knock him out cold.
Under those circumstances, it would've been extremely difficult for Thor to escape on his own.
So if he'd met Hulk, his old powerhouse friend, it wasn't strange for the two to team up and escape together.
"Thor's hair!"
Tony Stark suddenly pointed out a crucial detail. "When Thor was forced into that gladiator match, his long hair was cut off — and on the Asgardian ship, he still had short hair!"
That sequence of events was a strong piece of evidence.
"My hair! Right, my hair!" Thor's eyes lit up at Tony's words. "By Odin's beard, I'd never let anyone touch my hair willingly!"
"Thanos destroyed the Asgardian ship and killed Loki not long after we escaped Sakaar — my hair hadn't even grown back yet!"
This time frame made things even more precise.
Thor knew very well he would never voluntarily keep short hair — meaning it couldn't have grown long again and been re-cut.
So that short hair could only have been from that one time on Sakaar!
Which meant there was only one "hair growth cycle" between the two events.
That timeframe was very tight.
[Please listen to the question:]Doctor Strange used the Time Stone to observe all possible outcomes of the battle with Thanos — a total of 14,605,000. In how many of those outcomes did the Avengers win?
[A] 0[B] 1[C] 2[D] 3
[Friendly reminder:]Those who answer correctly will receive the ability Jia Family Object Manipulation Technique.Those who answer incorrectly will randomly lose one personal attribute — including but not limited to knowledge, experience, skills, possessions, etc.
After a brief discussion, the latest question appeared.
Everyone glanced at the screen — and immediately froze in shock.
Doctor Strange seeing the future was one thing, but seeing over fourteen million possible outcomes? That was ridiculous!
"Fourteen… million?"
Star-Lord couldn't stop himself from blurting out in shock, nearly biting his own tongue — this was seriously mind-blowing.
"Doctor Strange can really see that many possible futures?" Thor was stunned as well.
"Why could he only see possibilities instead of a definite result?" Tony Stark wondered aloud, his analytical mind kicking in despite his surprise.
The Sorcerer Supreme could indeed peer into the future — there was no doubt about that.
The Ancient One had clearly known exactly when Doctor Strange would become the Sorcerer Supreme, and even recognized him as the best among them.
When the Ancient One was dying, she had asked Strange whether he wanted to know his own future.
That alone proved it was possible for such people to see what lies ahead.
However, the Ancient One had also said that she couldn't see Strange's future — only his possibilities.
Which implied she could see others' futures, just not his.
As for why she couldn't see Strange's future, she never explained.
And now, the same thing seemed to be happening with Doctor Strange himself — the new Sorcerer Supreme could also only see possibilities, not certainties.
Tony Stark really wanted to know why that was.
Unfortunately, no one had the answer for him right now.
"In the given options, the highest number is three," Stephen Strange said calmly. "Which means, out of more than fourteen million possible futures he saw, we only won at most three times. Every other time — we lost."
The air in the room grew heavier instantly.
No one could deny it — this result was brutally cruel. The chances of winning were so low they might as well have been zero.
In terms of probability… the difference between that and nothing was almost negligible.
"Yet in the end, we did win," Captain America spoke up, then glanced around and began analyzing.
"The only relevant clue I can think of is when Doctor Strange held up a single finger toward Stark."
"That one finger — what did it mean? Could it have represented the one and only winning outcome?"
"That's possible."
Bruce Banner nodded seriously, but then his tone shifted: "Or maybe he was just pointing upward — maybe he wanted Stark to fly into the sky after grabbing the stones, since, you know, Thanos can't fly."
Uh…
Everyone went speechless for a moment — but damn, Banner actually had a point!
If Thanos couldn't fly, then why snap at all? Just take the Stones and fly off! What's he going to do, jump after you?
"It could also mean one stone," Thor shrugged. "Maybe Strange was hinting for Stark to pry out just one of the Infinity Stones. After all, Thanos needs all six to snap."
Uh…
That actually made sense too.
"What one finger? What are you guys even talking about?" Star-Lord asked, thoroughly confused by their discussion.
Captain America briefly explained how, during the final battle, Doctor Strange had silently raised one finger to Tony Stark as a signal.
"What?!" Star-Lord nearly shouted, incredulous. "Were you guys standing that far apart? Why couldn't he just say it instead of playing charades? What if Stark misunderstood him? Wouldn't that mean he died for nothing?"
"One finger raised — in what world does that mean 'snap your fingers'?!"
"How did Stark even get that from that gesture?"
Damn.
Tony Stark was left speechless.
Yeah… when you thought about it, that was kind of insane.
Star-Lord's words actually made too much sense — even Tony couldn't refute it.
What if Doctor Strange really didn't mean that?
What if he just wanted Tony to fly?
Or something else entirely?
Then he really had died over a total misunderstanding.
"So you're saying Iron Man didn't die from snapping his fingers — he died from… a game of charades?" Thor muttered, stunned.
If that were true, that would be unbelievably stupid. Unthinkable.
"Strange," Tony turned to him seriously. "If you ever need to warn me in the future, please use words. Clearly. OK?"
Strange nodded just as seriously. "And if you're ever unsure of something, confirm it with me first. Don't overthink it — if you die because of that, it's not on me."
"OK."
"OK."
The two nodded in solemn agreement.
And not just them — everyone else took that as a valuable lesson, engraving it in their hearts.
Even though no one could prove it, they all suspected Tony Stark might really have died because of a giant misunderstanding.
I mean — once all six Stones were in their hands, what was there to be afraid of?
Come on, Captain Marvel alone could've smashed Thanos to bits!
And Scarlet Witch — she could destroy an Infinity Stone with one hand and hold off Thanos with five Stones using the other!
Without the Stones, what could Thanos possibly do against such powerhouses?
There was no way Tony should've had to die!
Star-Lord was right — a single raised finger and a snap? Those had zero connection!
Tony Stark had clearly overinterpreted it.
"Alright, everyone, let's get back to the question," Captain America cut in, pulling them back on track.
"Captain, without more clues about Doctor Strange's finger gesture, there's no way to draw a solid conclusion," Bruce Banner said earnestly.
Everyone looked around at each other — no one had figured out any clearer explanation.
As Banner said, without enough context, they couldn't determine what Strange's gesture had truly meant.
"So… other than the finger thing, can anyone think of any other related clues?"
Star-Lord scanned the group as he asked.
Everyone fell silent, mentally searching for anything that might fit.
A moment later, Thor broke the silence.
"Regardless of any other clues, we can definitely rule out option A," he said firmly. "We did defeat Thanos in the end — so it can't be zero."
That was beyond question — nothing to debate there.
"If it were me," Tony finally spoke after a moment's thought, "I'd pick one."
Everyone immediately turned toward him.
"First, we need to confirm one thing."
"Earlier, we analyzed two possible reasons why Doctor Strange handed over the Time Stone. One — he did it out of emotion, to save my life."
"The other — he did it because he saw the future."
"Now, this question tells us clearly that before the battle on Titan, Doctor Strange had looked into the future — and saw at most three winning outcomes."
"So, we can now confirm his real motive, can't we?"
"Yes, that makes sense," Captain America nodded, agreeing with Tony's reasoning.
Doctor Strange had seen no more than three possible victories — and over fourteen million defeats. And those defeats meant half of all life on Earth being wiped out.
Compared to that, what was one Tony Stark?
Given that, Doctor Strange's decision to hand over the Time Stone was obviously based on what he saw in the future.
Because if one of the winning futures depended on keeping the Time Stone, yet Strange gave it up to save Tony — that would've meant dooming half the universe just to save one man.
That was impossible.
Tony Stark simply wasn't that important to him.
So, Strange giving up the Time Stone meant that in every possible winning scenario, handing it over was a necessary step.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"I see what you mean, Stark," said Strange, following his line of reasoning.
"Stark's point is that giving up the Time Stone was part of the winning path Doctor Strange saw."
"And if he saw multiple winning paths, that means every one of them required giving up the Time Stone."
Everyone suddenly began to realize where this was going.
"Exactly," Tony said with a firm nod. "But why?"
"Why is giving up the Time Stone such a critical step — one that appears in every winning scenario?"
"Even just statistically — what are the odds that in over fourteen million futures, the two or three winning ones all include that same step?"
...
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