nownovels Chapter 337 You absolutely must save the world!
Chapter 337 You absolutely must save the world!
Chapter 337 You must save the world!
Zhang Parker, who was being used like a forklift, received two pieces of news from Professor X: one good and one bad.
The good news is that he no longer has to painstakingly move all the incubation chambers one by one and then jump up and down to find and activate the self-destruct program.
The bad news is that in a few minutes, the Earth will be blown to smithereens.
"Then what kind of good news was that?!"
After working for half a day and only managing to move and gather a dozen or so culture chambers, Zhang Parker was immediately sweating profusely.
"We're still a long way from our goal, like the distance between New York and Paris!"
Originally, they planned to place these incubation chambers in the central facility, and with the assistance of Professor X, use a pre-prepared memory modifier to shape their minds one by one.
Then activate the self-destruct system to bury the entire place, along with the remaining clones that have not yet been infused with consciousness, underground.
If the entire Earth is about to perish, how can we possibly complete Professor X's "resurrection" plan?
"I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush."
Even though he knew the planet was about to explode in seconds, Professor X remained calm and collected. After all, no one could expect someone in a wheelchair to do any physical work, could they?
Of course, more importantly, he had already communicated with Superman, and all external enemies had been eliminated, so it would be faster for him to do these physical tasks.
They could simply move all the necessary culture chambers elsewhere, and Professor X could handle the rest.
"This makes things even easier—" Kang reached out and slapped his hand, causing the trunk of his Rolls-Royce to pop open:
"Just put them all in my car!"
"?" Zhang Parker's spider-like eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the Rolls-Royce, which was a mere six meters long from front to back.
"Is this some kind of new joke or slang from the future?"
Given that a Rolls-Royce Phantom is 6 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 1.6 meters high, how can a culture chamber that is 5 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter be inserted into it?
And you have to stuff in dozens, maybe even hundreds!
Before Condo could explain, Joey burst in and grabbed a cultivation chamber that looked even bigger than the car in front of him, and shoved it into the trunk, which visually couldn't possibly fit.
"Huh?" Upon seeing this scene, Zhang Parker's CPU immediately went off the rails.
The efficient Joey and Kang didn't forget to continue exploiting Zhang Parker, the labor force they had specifically recruited: "Hurry up!"
"I want to see what's going on." Muttering to himself, Zhang Parker followed suit, carrying the necessary clones from a distance to the trunk and peering inside.
Then it suddenly dawned on him: "Oh! This isn't—"
"That's right." After being criticized by Superman for the cramped interior a long time ago, the tycoon Kang really didn't forget to make some tiny, minor modifications to his time machine, which was disguised as a luxury car:
"It's like a blue police box; it's bigger inside than outside!"
The interior is a folded space. This car, which looks like a four-seater, has such a large passenger capacity that it will never feel crowded, even if you go to India to pick up passengers.
"Can I drive it around for fun?"
Although Parker Octopus is different from most poor Spider-Men, and is considered a moderately wealthy man, he had never seen such a "luxury car" before: "Just for a moment!"
"Don't even think about it! No one is allowed to touch my 'TADIS'!"
"Please, Doctor Who!"
Under Professor X's guidance, Joey, who was hurriedly moving the culture chamber, shook her head almost imperceptibly—these two are talking, and they're even acting out a scene!
Despite the small talk, Zhang Parker didn't forget to continue moving things. These incubation chambers, weighing several tons, weren't too much of a burden for Spider-Man's physique.
Back when Parker took over Peter Parker's Spider-Man body, it took him a long time to adapt to everything.
While Spider-Man's strength isn't as great as Superman's, capable of defying the laws of physics, it's still monstrous enough.
So much so that Peter Parker pondered for a long time, but still couldn't figure out how Peter Parker could resist killing Green Goblin, Lizardman, Rhino, Scorpion, or even Doctor Octopus himself with a single punch.
As he pondered, Zhang Parker swung across the densely packed series of culture chambers, stopping at one of them to rest briefly. A strange feeling welled up from the bottom of his heart.
It was somewhat like spider-sense, but there were no signs of danger.
Zhang Parker looked down at the transparent culture tank. In the reflection of the spider mask on the other side of the glass, there was a familiar face.
Peter Parker.
Perhaps it's because different Spider-Men are always drawn to each other, but this clone, immersed in nutrient solution, unconsciously raised one of his hands and pressed it against the palm of Octopus Parker's hand, which was attached to the outside of the hatch, through the glass.
Zhang Parker was immediately horrified.
"You Spider-Men are really weird."
Sensing the shift in Zhang Parker's thoughts, Professor X's voice came from afar:
"Take him with you. It's too pathetic to have the minds of Otto Octavius and Peter Parker crammed into this one body."
"No! Get out of my head!"
Peter Parker instinctively rejected Professor X's suggestion, denying his own understanding of his mind: "Peter Parker is dead! I am Spider-Man!"
"Believe me, you won't have a good ending if you continue like this, Otto."
Parker had indeed helped the mutants, so he could be considered a benefactor, and Professor X wouldn't mind giving him a hand.
"Your two souls are intertwined. You have Peter Parker's entire memory and life experience in your mind. This young man has the greatest spirit, which even I cannot easily distort."
Believe it or not, he will eventually come back, unless you ask me to help you.
Professor X's solution was simple: since Zhang Parker's body was originally taken from Peter Parker, he needed to return it to its rightful owner.
He could retain most of Peter's memories and, while ensuring control of his own consciousness, transfer them into a new clone body.
"I disagree! I am the ultimate Spider-Man! A Spider-Man far better than Peter Parker!" "blah blah blah... How boring!"
Joey, who had been speeding by, yawned listlessly, interrupting Zhang Parker's identity crisis. He then stuffed Zhang Parker and the incubation pod beneath his feet into the trunk, completing the loading of the last piece of cargo.
"What are you waiting for?!"
As possibly the most powerful telepath on Earth (without exception), Professor X, who is temporarily acting as a psychiatrist, is likely to have a genuine assessment of Parker's mental state.
Perhaps Parker himself hasn't realized it, but he has indeed become more and more like a normal Spider-Man lately, often spouting meaningless witty remarks at crucial moments, and his jokes and banter have gradually caught up with the average level of the Spider-Man army.
Better safe than sorry. In order to prevent the special Spider-Man, who had been unlucky all the way with him, from disappearing, he decided to put this Spider-Man clone in the trunk and take it back first!
With everything ready, everyone climbed into the car, and Kang personally started the engine, acting as the dedicated driver. With a whoosh, the car disappeared into the flow of time, heading towards the 40th century.
Along the way, Professor X was finalizing the details of their collaboration with the prominent entrepreneur Kang.
"I must state upfront that my people are not your property, or anyone else's. These mutants must enjoy complete free will and be free from the constraints of your bullshit capitalist framework!"
"What are you thinking! I'm running a state-of-the-art 40th-century company. Don't always try to apply that triangular trade mentality to this!"
Kang was somewhat speechless. Compared to his own abstract variations of becoming an Egyptian pharaoh, an ancient centurion, or a medieval inventor, he was a thoroughly civilized man. He was there to make money, not to engage in the slave trade.
"My requirements for the artists under our company are simply that they are not antisocial, do not kill, do not beat up fans, and preferably do not sleep with fans, etc. I need more detailed rules."
Professor X doesn't believe in verbal promises, and even with Superman backing him up, this Kang the Conqueror doesn't seem entirely trustworthy:
"None of your demands can go against their own will, and I must implement these demands on every single X-Men and every single mutant. If we can't reach a consensus, I won't resurrect them, and all you'll get is this pile of unconscious bodies."
"Then there's nothing to discuss—don't you know how many troublemakers and FXs are among these mutants you brought?"
Kang, gripping the steering wheel, recalled the specific members of the mutant group:
"If I ask Wolverine to stop drinking so much, to stop attacking innocent people so easily, or to stop Magneto from thinking about exterminating humanity, wouldn't that be going against someone else's will?"
Professor X touched his bald head, then lowered his head with a somewhat embarrassed smile: "Oh, that doesn't count~"
After all, as the principal and partner, he had worked hard his whole life, and these were all he asked of Wolverine and Magneto.
"Therefore, we need detailed rules for everyone, and they must be done according to my ideas."
"No problem, we can go back and slowly draft the specific contract details."
Kang was helpless; after all, he was a man of principle—"It's a seller's market, you call the shots!"
Ever since his last attempt to forcibly take away the punk Spider-Man resulted in him being thoroughly beaten by Superman, Kang realized that it was indeed better to be reasonable in getting things done.
It's better to suffer a small loss than to be hit by a Kryptonian's iron fist.
It's a deal.
If given a choice, Professor X would really not want to join Kang, this supposedly future entertainment and media giant, and become some kind of idol.
Unfortunately, he has no choice now. The multiverse is colliding with each other, and perhaps only the future can be considered safe.
After listening to Professor X's conversation with Kang, Joey had a new question:
"I just remembered something else."
Realizing that the multiverse was colliding, Joey suddenly remembered that the Didi driver in front of him was a variant of Kang the Conqueror, from the future:
"You, like the other conquerors Kang, come from the future. If you still exist, it means the future is safe and sound. Doesn't that mean the crisis didn't destroy everything, and the future ultimately landed peacefully?"
"Cause and effect in time don't work that way."
Kang reached for the center console screen, trying to turn on the car stereo and play the Superman theme song, but was glared at by Joey's red eyes and could only stubbornly accept the explanation:
"Even if we take a step back and assume a simple linear causal relationship between the present and the future, my existence doesn't mean that all universes will be safe and sound. Do you know how many variants of Kantians there are?"
"Maybe only a few hundred, at most a few thousand. You have to understand, parallel universes are infinite, so theoretically there should be an infinite number of intelligent people like me! Where did they all go? Maybe they were never even born before the universe was destroyed!"
According to Kang, even if time and causality are deeply intertwined, his existence does not mean that all universes in this crisis will be safe.
"Anyway, the cause and effect in spacetime isn't that simple, is it?"
Kang manipulated the time machine to turn around and choose a new 'direction':
"If you don't believe me, go to my universe in the 40th century and see for yourself. What's happening to you now won't affect you at all—?!"
As Kang expressed his confusion, a large red exclamation mark appeared on the central control screen.
"What's wrong?!"
The other three immediately stuck their heads over. This was time travel, not a real Rolls-Royce Phantom outing. Who could sit still in this situation?
"Don't panic! It's just a technical adjustment!"
Kang frantically tapped on the center console, but finally slumped back in the driver's seat, deflated.
"Oh no! Why aren't the coordinates working?!"
"Does what you said mean the way we understand it?"
"That's right!" Kang slammed his hand on the steering wheel in exasperation.
"The things happening in the era you people live in, that is, 'now,' are beginning to affect my future!"
In other words, his family is gone!
"Superman!" Kang grabbed Joey, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and almost pulled off the badge that represented "hope" from the latter's chest.
"For my business, my intellectual property, my assets!"
He screamed hoarsely, tears streaming down his face, his expression contorted, pointing his finger at Superman, roaring out the most beautiful yet stern blessing:
"You must save the world!"