The latest question immediately captured everyone's attention.
The terms "doppelganger" and "absolute time point" were highly technical, instantly making everyone realize this question was far from simple.
Although some didn't fully understand their meaning, it didn't stop everyone from feeling a sense of awe and wonder.
In addition, the question described a fact: Christine was dead in the future.
Christine, everyone knew her—Strange's colleague, and the kind of colleague with an ambiguous relationship. It was unknown whether their relationship had progressed further.
"Christine is dead?" Strange's brows furrowed instantly.
This was something he didn't want to see. During his injury, Christine had taken meticulous care of him, and their relationship had rapidly intensified. They were
already passionately involved.
No matter what happened in the future, he had to change this!
Strange silently made a decision in his heart.
"Doctor Strange's doppelganger? What does that mean?" Captain America's voice rang out, asking the question first.
As a remnant of the "old era," he genuinely had no idea what the term meant.
Not only Captain America, but even Tony Stark and Scott Lang couldn't quite grasp it.
"I know! I know!"
Peter Parker exclaimed excitedly, finally finding a use for his skills. "Captain, have you seen The Vampire Diaries? Uh, you probably haven't, otherwise you'd know what a doppelganger is. If you haven't, I think you should try watching it; it's a pretty good show..."
"Peter!" Tony Stark had to interrupt Peter Parker. "Just tell us what a doppelganger is."
"OK, okay, okay, it's a bit complicated to explain. How should I put it?"
After a moment's thought, Peter Parker gave a simple explanation: "You can think of it as another version of yourself! That is to say, there are two Doctor Strange in this world! Do you understand what I mean?"
If it were someone else, they might misinterpret Peter Parker's meaning, thinking he was using some kind of metaphor or symbolism.
Having participated in so many quizzes, the participants had amassed considerable knowledge of magic, the multiverse, and other such matters, yet they immediately grasped Peter Parker's meaning.
Those two Doctor Stranges were both Strange.
Not just a coincidence of names, but the same Strange!
While this situation was undeniably bizarre, the real world they inhabited was inherently strange.
Captain America could fight him, three Spider-Men could work together, so what was so unacceptable about two Stranges?
"So, we just learned there would be three Spider-Men, Peter Parkers, and now we know there will be two Doctor Stranges?"
Scott Lang was truly provoked and couldn't help but complain, "Is the future world really this crazy?"
"What's going on with this world lately?" Thor also couldn't hold back, "I've lived for over 1,500 years and never encountered anything like this, and now it's all happening at once."
"Two Doctor Stranges?" Strange felt something was off, "Could they also be from another parallel universe?"
"It shouldn't be like that."
Captain America gave this answer, "If they were from another parallel universe, then the two Doctor Stranges should be equal, there's no such thing as a 'original'. This 'original' is like... the other Doctor Strange is a clone of this original, this original is the main body."
"That makes sense." Peter Parker immediately agreed, "Then could the other doppelganger be created by some crazy magic? That's magic!"
"Everyone, I've got someone in mind!"
Tony Stark suddenly exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. "That Doctor Strange who was invited by the Watcher, we all thought he was strange, didn't we?"
Tony Stark's mention brought to mind the image of the skinny, monkey-like Doctor Strange with his smoky eye makeup.
That Doctor Strange was clearly abnormal, as if he practiced some kind of dark magic.
Furthermore, the Watcher himself had said he wouldn't interfere in the affairs of the multiverse, yet he seemed to know that Doctor Strange well.
Something just
didn't seem right. However, whether the Doctor Strange mentioned in this question was the same Doctor Strange remained a mystery.
"Alright, everyone, let's analyze this question," Captain America said, reminding everyone that the background discussion was almost complete.
Everyone stopped wasting time and turned their attention to the large screen.
Only Strange looked deep in thought, as if pondering something.
"Living happily ever after with Christine? There's no real reason, but I feel like that ending is almost too perfect."
Thor spoke first, expressing his opinion. "What we want to achieve is rarely so easy, right?"
"Of course, I'm just stating my feelings, nothing more. Just take it with a grain of salt. Maybe Doctor Strange's ending is really that happy?"
Everyone felt similarly to Thor about this option.
That's resurrecting a dead person!
How could it not come at a price?
That's breaking the boundary between life and death!
"I also think things won't be that simple. No matter what methods are used, resurrecting a dead person will definitely come at a great cost, right?" Tony Stark echoed.
"However, we can't just rule out option A because of that, can we?" Scott Lang said from the side.
Thor and Tony Stark were both just making unfounded speculations, nothing more.
"No, Scott, I just remembered something," Strange said, "'Absolute point in time,' aren't you curious about that term?"
Initially, no one had paid much attention to this particular term, but Strange's mention of it made them realize something.
This "absolute point in time" seemed to represent something.
"Mr. Strange, actually, I also found it a bit strange before, but since none of you asked, I thought maybe it was nothing special, and that I was just ignorant. Now it seems this word is really unusual?" Peter Parker continued rambling on to Strange, then asked, "Actually, what I wanted to ask is, what does this mean?"
"After I joined Kamar-Taj, I had some in-depth conversations with the Ancient One,"
Doctor Strange explained. "The Ancient One once told me that my hands being destroyed in the car accident was an absolute point in time."
"What does that mean?" Thor still didn't understand for a moment.
"In other words, no matter what, my hands would have been destroyed in the car accident, because if my hands hadn't been destroyed, I wouldn't have become Doctor Strange!" Doctor Strange continued to explain.
Everyone present suddenly understood.
"Although I don't yet know the exact principle behind absolute time, if that's the case, wouldn't it take a huge, huge price to bring Christine back to life at an absolute time point?"
"A huge price to pay than to bring back a dead person?"
Tony Stark offered a more basic assessment.
"No, Stark, according to the Ancient One, absolute time cannot be changed! Even she couldn't do it," Strange said again.
Everyone was taken aback.
It seemed they had underestimated this absolute time.
They hadn't expected that even someone as powerful as the Ancient One couldn't change such an absolute time.
Strange's expression darkened further. He hadn't really taken it too seriously when he learned that Christine was dead in the future.
After all, knowing the future in advance wasn't really the future.
He could easily change that.
But now the question told him that Christine's death was unchangeable!
This was a real headache.
"But Strange," Captain America pointed to the screen, "the question said that your doppelganger did it."
"I don't know how that Doctor Strange did it, but absolute time is the rule of time. He changed absolute time, breaking the timeline," Strange added gravely. "That will definitely have extremely serious consequences."
"Breaking the timeline?" Scott Lang's brow furrowed sharply. This was obviously a very serious matter.
"So… option A can actually be ruled out?" Scott Lang paused for a moment, then spoke again.
If Tony Stark's initial reasons weren't enough to eliminate option A, Scott Lang now felt they should be.
Even he, not being a sorcerer, knew how serious the matter of breaking the timeline was.
"No, no, no." Strange shook his head, then suddenly pointed to option B. "Everyone, take a look at this option."
At Strange's prompting, everyone carefully examined option B.
They actually noticed something.
"If Christine's death is an absolute point in time, it means that Christine's death is a condition for Strange to become Doctor Strange. If Christine didn't die, Strange couldn't become Doctor Strange."
"But if Strange isn't Doctor Strange, how can he revive Christine?"
"Option B is a paradox!"
Captain America said in a deep voice.
"Isn't this just the grandmother theory?"
Tony Stark added casually, keenly grasping Strange's meaning. "So changing the absolute point in time won't just break the timeline, it will cause it to become disordered!"
"What will happen if the timeline becomes disordered?" Peter Parker asked, his little face raised, staring intently at everyone.
"It definitely won't be a good thing!" Thor gave a very "accurate" answer.
"That's right, definitely not a good thing!" Strange agreed.
"C!" Tony Stark said to everyone with a very certain tone, "It will cause the framework of reality to collapse, it will cause the entire universe to collapse! The answer to this question is C!"
"Stark is right." Captain America agreed, "Does everyone remember the question about how Doctor Strange obtained the Time Stone?"
"Yes! That question!" Scott Lang slapped his thigh, Captain America's reminder made him realize it immediately.
"Doctor Strange tried to restore a spellbook using the Time Stone, and it caused a rift in space!"
"That was just restoring a spellbook!"
"If the timeline were disrupted, oh my god, I can't even imagine."
Scott Lang was shocked and couldn't bear to think about it.
"That's right, if the timeline were disrupted, I can only think of one result: the collapse of the reality framework, because the timeline is one of the cornerstones of the reality framework."
Strange, now a mystic, still carried some authority.
This question, analyzed to this point, doesn't really need further discussion, nor does it need to look at the other options.
The answer is quite obvious:
C.
Of course, B and D describe things that are currently undeniably correct and cannot be eliminated.
However, they are also uncertain about those two options!
But C is something that can be confirmed with a considerable degree of certainty, so the answer is naturally C.
Frankly speaking, once you understand the meaning of some "professional" terms, this question is actually not difficult at all.
Or rather, the real difficulty of this question lies in its being somewhat beyond the scope of the question itself.
Once you understand those things beyond everyone's usual comprehension, this question is actually quite easy.
The next step, naturally, is who will answer it. Following everyone's usual practice, it undoubtedly falls to Strange.
Strange didn't hesitate and directly gave his answer to the big screen: "I choose C, the universe collapses!"
[Correct answer!]
Everyone's guess was correct; the answer was indeed C.
[Congratulations to the answerer Stephen Strange for obtaining the reward skill "Wind Family Spirit Control"!]
[Reward has been issued, please check!] With this system notification, a related skill and corresponding information were instantly infused into Strange. This made Strange's eyes shine.
A way to save Christine had been found. Although it wasn't the best way, it was better than the collapse of the entire universe. After all, this "Spirit Control" skill was simply too overpowered; it could even be considered a powerful skill that broke the boundary between life and death.
....
You can get the fully completed English PDF of the fanfiction you're currently reading on my Patreon shop, along with many other books available there.
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(End of Chapter)