Chapter 325: Releasing the Loki TV Series Across the Marvel Universe
[The Complete "Loki" TV Series: Contains the full run of both Season 1 and Season 2. Well? What are you waiting for — get this thing released!]
Ethan had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do with a videotape of Loki sitting in his hand.
Release a Loki TV show... inside the actual Marvel universe?
Become some kind of plagiarist?
Or was he supposed to hand it straight to Loki himself — let him watch and see just how tragic his own future turned out to be?
Or maybe call up Thor and the whole royal family — Odin included — and have them all sit down together for a viewing?
Let them watch this world's future, and see how great and successful the other parallel universe's Loki eventually became. Then give this world's Loki a good beating for comparison?
Or was the idea to send them off to rescue the God of Stories Loki? Leaving aside whether they even had the strength for that — physically getting there in the first place wasn't even possible.
Was the System trying to turn Ethan into some kind of one-man Time Variance Authority — let Loki watch what his future self became, and hope that lit some spark that eventually turned him into the God of Stories himself?
Obviously that wasn't happening either. Across infinite multiverses, there was only ever one God of Stories. At best, this might jolt Loki into finally seeing the light — there was no version of events where he actually became the God of Stories.
The only real upside for Ethan here, probably, was earning Loki's friendship and picking up a handful of Friend Points along the way.
As for whatever powers Loki himself carried — Ethan honestly wasn't impressed by any of them.
And unlike the original show, here there'd be no unrelated narrator conveniently on hand to walk Loki through the footage — and in the source material, Loki only started believing what he was seeing on screen after his escape attempts failed and he'd witnessed the TVA's various bizarre phenomena firsthand.
If Ethan himself just showed up and handed Loki this tape, Loki would assume it was some kind of manipulation — that Ethan had an angle.
And this universe didn't line up with the show's plot anyway — that world had no Ethan in it, no Kaito Kumon either. Loki would have even less reason to believe any of it.
So this tape was only going to be useful under very specific conditions — namely, once Loki no longer harbored any hostility or suspicion toward Ethan at all.
That was a problem for later. No rush on the Loki situation.
The one item from this pull Ethan could actually put to use right now was probably the [Body Limiter Breakthrough Card].
[Body Limiter Breakthrough Card: No matter how much effort a living being puts in, individual variation means every species runs up against a hard ceiling eventually.
That ceiling exists for a reason — it lets every species grow and develop while still retaining the survival instincts and rational faculties native to that species. This growth cap is what's known as the "limiter."
Once, there was a man who did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and ran 10 kilometers, every single day. Through sheer relentless daily training, he eventually broke through the human body's absolute limit.
He grew stronger! And, at the same time... he went bald!
Using this card breaks the body's limiter entirely — physical stats gain no further growth ceiling. But as strength continues to climb, hair will gradually, and permanently, thin out.]
Ethan finished reading and nearly dropped the card in shock.
Sure, this card could take him up another entire tier. But going bald as the price? He couldn't even bring himself to imagine it.
And this wasn't ordinary baldness, either — this was the exact same conceptual baldness that even someone as powerful as Saitama had never managed to solve, no matter how many methods he tried!
If baldness were the price of getting stronger, Ethan figured he could probably grit his teeth and accept it eventually — after all, with enough Friend Points, there'd always be other chances to gacha his way to more power. But being handsome? That was a lifetime commitment.
He pictured himself walking around bald from now on and being mercilessly roasted by Tony, Strange, and the rest of them for the rest of his life.
"No. No way. This card doesn't get used, not even over my dead body." Ethan finally made up his mind, shaking his head furiously as if trying to physically fling the terrible thought straight out of his skull.
He gazed at the card with genuine regret — but he'd already settled on the right recipient. Baldness aside, this card was practically tailor-made for one person: Uncle Fisk.
Fisk's physical stats had already been at the absolute peak of ordinary human potential even before Ethan started boosting him. Stack this card on top of that, and Fisk might genuinely turn into a real-life One-Punch Man someday.
Having tallied up the full haul, Ethan let out a quiet sigh. "All right. My current strength should be more than enough to handle Thanos without too much trouble. Time to go find Magneto and the others and talk through the Hogwarts plan."
Even though this pull hadn't done much to boost his raw combat power, working through the Compendium of Magic had at least taught him a whole grab-bag of strange and wonderful new spells.
Ethan felt genuinely at ease about the trip ahead. He'd already been to that particular world once before, back during the whole Holland-Peter incident — and everyone there was still alive and well, which was proof enough that this trip shouldn't cause any real problems either.
"First, I'll go find Professor X and the others. Then I'll swing by and talk to the Ancient One about the magic school plan — and I'll bring Strange along while I'm at it. Settled." Ethan thought it through as he opened a portal.
To Ethan, this was just an unremarkable day. But to everyone in the future magical world, this day would go down as monumentally important — they'd come to call it "Magic's Birthday."
And on that very same day, every year going forward, countless wizards across the two great magical strongholds — Kamar-Taj and the Magic Kitchen — would hold enormous celebrations to mark it. Muggles, naturally, would not be invited.
Earth-1999999.
Everyone had just returned to their home timeline through the Quantum Realm.
The group materialized in full gear — white quantum protection suits, standing together at the center of a massive circular platform.
A moment later, the white quantum suits faded away, and everyone was back in their normal clothes.
Tony had only just caught his breath — the trip through the Quantum Realm had clearly taken something out of him.
"Did everyone get their Stone?"
"We actually pulled it off," Colonel Rhodes said, grinning as he held up an Infinity Stone in his hand.
What he hadn't noticed was the grim look already spreading across both Tony's and Steve's faces — and he hadn't noticed, either, that someone in their group was missing.
Thud.
Hawkeye — Clint Barton — dropped to his knees without warning, his face carved with despair and grief.
The sudden collapse caught everyone off guard. Confused glances passed between them, everyone searching for an explanation.
Dr. Banner was the first to speak. "Clint. Where's Natasha? Where is she?"
Clint's eyes welled up. He seemed swallowed whole by some enormous, crushing grief, unable to force out a single word.
He looked at Steve, at Banner, at all of them, his eyes brimming with helplessness and guilt.
He didn't know how to say it. Didn't know how to tell them Natasha was dead.
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