"Not really," The Ancient One shook his head. "I'd love to see a future with more changes. In any case, it's much more interesting than a future that never changes."
"Do you know why I want to retire so much? It's because I've used the Time Stone too many times... At first, I was curious, but in the end, I couldn't control myself."
"When I've seen everything—every timeline—and know the end result of whatever I want to do, all that's left is boredom."
"Although I am only a few hundred years old, if you take into account the time I have spent traveling along the timelines, my age is no younger than the Earth beneath my feet."
The Ancient One kept talking, and it seemed this pressure had been accumulating in his heart for a long time.
After listening to the Ancient One's words, Shin finally understood why this guy hated work so much. He had assumed that the Ancient One had only lived for a few hundred years, but he hadn't expected that his actual experience spanned billions!
In that case, it was only natural for him to be tired of the Time Stone and his duties as the Sorcerer Supreme.
After talking for a while, the Ancient One seemed to snap back to reality and shook his head. "So you should understand—I am very happy about any unknown because it means I have new things to experience again."
"To be honest, I just noticed that the timeline has been a little chaotic recently. If you hadn't come here, I wouldn't have even been able to find you."
Shin curled his lips, realizing he had walked into a trap.
"So, it was just a chance encounter. That's fine. Let's go our separate ways."
"Wait!" The Ancient One grabbed Shin's wrist. He struggled a few times, but it was useless—it felt like a mountain was pressing down on his arm.
"Hey, hey, hey! I don't like men. And you don't need to use magic to grab someone, right? You could tear an ordinary person's wrist apart with that grip," Shin said hurriedly.
"I don't like men either, and are you an ordinary person?" The Ancient One scoffed before his expression turned serious. "You're not from our world, are you?"
The Marvel universe had an incredibly vast and layered structure—a single universe, multiverse, omniverse... In short, it was an endless stacking of realities.
But beyond that, even the so-called supreme beings in Marvel likely had no real understanding of what lay outside the omniverse.
The upside of this was that people in the Marvel world had a high level of acceptance toward visitors from beyond. To them, interdimensional travelers were not strange at all.
Even if Shin told the Ancient One his full experience, the sorcerer wouldn't be surprised. In this world, plenty of beings can perceive the fourth wall. Marvel and DC even had each other's comics. Traveling between fictional universes was hardly news to someone like the Ancient One, who could observe parallel realities.
"Yeah, I'm not from your world. So what? Is there a problem?" Shin asked, crossing his arms.
"Can you take me to other worlds?" the Ancient One's face lit up with excitement. "It's too boring to stay in this world. Once I'm no longer the Sorcerer Supreme, I might as well go traveling."
Shin rolled his eyes. "You're a servant of Eternity. Will he even let you leave?"
The Ancient One laughed. "Do you think Eternity, as a rule-based deity, needs so-called servants? The so-called servants of Lord Eternity are just a reward given to the Sorcerer Supreme."
"To put it simply, we Sorcerer Supremes protect Earth, which is the heart of Eternity, and in return, Eternity is our backer. The Vishanti system is derived from Eternity's heart."
"When a Sorcerer Supreme dies, Eternity protects their soul. This is a privilege granted for our service, but there's no obligation to serve him forever."
"So you're saying that you're free to leave?" Shin finally understood what the Ancient One was getting at. "You want to travel to other worlds with me?"
"Of course. Would you enjoy watching the same TV series hundreds of times?" the Ancient One nodded seriously.
"I thought you wanted to cause trouble for me," Shin said, exasperated.
The Ancient One chuckled, "Why would I cause trouble for you? For me, avoiding trouble is always preferable."
"Because I have the Time Stone and can see countless futures, I've learned one thing—people should always respect the unknown. Those who try to control everything always end up making things worse at unexpected moments."
Shin nodded. That much was true. Take Iron Man, for example—he created Ultron. Batman created Brother Eye. The government created the Sentinel Program.
In Marvel, anytime someone thought they could invent a solution to fix everything once and for all, it always backfired spectacularly.
However, Shin looked at the Ancient One and deadpanned. "Hearing that from the Sorcerer Supreme, who literally owns the Time Stone and constantly meddles in the future, is incredibly ironic."
Wasn't the Sorcerer Supreme's greatest ability predicting the future? The Ancient One had even developed a sense of world-weariness precisely because he had foreseen too many futures.
This was probably one of those classic cases—people inside the wall wanted to get out, while people outside wanted in. Those who could control everything sought ignorance, while the ignorant sought control.
Still, regardless of the Ancient One's reasoning, Shin didn't see a problem with his request.
Traveling to a completely different world was still a challenge—Shin hadn't yet figured out why some beings who crossed over lost their souls.
But if it was just moving through different Marvel universes, that wasn't too difficult. He just needed to recharge Karasuki.
Also, the Ancient One had the Time Stone, which made replenishing Karasuki's energy much easier.
Unfortunately, the Infinity Stones lost all their power the moment they left their home universe. Even if Shin wanted to collect them, they would be useless beyond their native realm.
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