[This Chapter Is Sponsored by Shin! Everyone, please thank him in the comment!]
To tell the truth, this scene came somewhat too abruptly.
So much so that the hidden onlookers were stunned, not expecting the main character to appear at this time, only to be knocked to the ground by a burst of purple fire from Fang Mo.
The previously tense atmosphere disappeared in an instant, replaced by a headache-inducing awkwardness.
However, the other party was, after all, a universal overlord, equipped with four Infinity Stones, so it was unlikely he would be directly killed off just like that.
Quickly, he rose slowly from the dust.
During this time, those hiding in the shadows also secretly observed Thanos.
This was a muscular, purple-skinned man clad in golden armor. You could call him a giant if you wanted; his physique appeared even more robust than the Hulk's. At this moment, he wore the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand and held a thick, door-like greatsword in his right hand.
Merely standing there, he exuded a powerful aura from head to toe.
But this wasn't just a suppression of strength but also a commanding presence, like an emperor looking down upon the world, causing anyone who saw him to feel fear.
However, Thanos's expression was somewhat odd at the moment.
His expression was changing, seeming surprised, but also seemingly filled with confusion, dismay, and disappointment.
"You actually dare..."
Thanos shook his head, looking around subconsciously, and then suddenly noticed Gamora, who was buried in the ruins, with one of her arms exposed: "Gamora?"
It's not hard to tell from the original story.
Thanos cared deeply for his daughter Gamora.
For instance, he walked over to the pile of ruins, bent down, and pulled Gamora out with one hand.
But Gamora had already passed out, clearly unresponsive.
"It seems, there's one thing I must admit."
Seeing this, Thanos also raised his head and spoke up: "That is... you indeed do what you say."
"If you truly understand this, then you'd better return Gamora."
And on the other side of the crater, with a couple of cracks, Fang Mo's completely bent back slowly straightened up again, his mouth still emitting billowing purple mist: "I still have to do another live broadcast later."
"You won't have that chance."
Thanos shook his head, then slightly clenched his left fist, and Gamora's body was swallowed by a mist of spatial illusion: "Next, it's between us."
Saying this, Thanos also glanced around quietly.
Clearly, he had already noticed the ambush around him. Of course, this was normal; after all, he was considered a universal overlord, and sneaky tricks were obviously futile, just as Fang Mo had previously told the others, he had no weaknesses.
"What do you think this place is?"
Before Fang Mo could speak, Thanos suddenly asked again.
"Titan."
Fang Mo calmly said: "Your hometown."
"It used to be." Thanos looked around nostalgically. Without the Reality Stone, he couldn't manifest the scenes of the past like in the original story, so he could only verbally describe: "A long time ago, this was a very beautiful planet."
"But just like other planets, overpopulation and limited resources, and just when we were about to reach the end, I proposed a solution."
Thanos calmly stated his philosophy: "A completely random death, without any personal emotions involved, treating everyone equally without distinction... But they called me mad, yet the truth is as you see, it wasn't me who was mad, but them. The outcome here was exactly as I had predicted."
"Oh, is that so?"
After hearing Thanos's statement, Fang Mo also spoke up: "Then let me ask you something, do you know what the purpose of the universe is?"
"The purpose of the universe?"
Thanos frowned upon hearing this.
"The universe has no purpose." Thoughts of Nyarlathotep flashed through Fang Mo's mind, and his tone became teasing: "Order, rules, balance, whether it's the birth of life or the extinction of life... Sorry, the universe doesn't care."
"Whether it's overpopulation or resource depletion, it's just a natural phenomenon. Your method can indeed allow more civilizations to survive, but that's just survival. Life feeds on negative entropy, unless you exterminate all life in the universe, but what then? You would just end up with a cold, empty world, after all, even stars extinguish over time."
"Do you think you understand the universe? Sorry... The universe is under no obligation to make you understand, you're just arrogantly claiming a divine mandate."
After hearing Fang Mo's statement, Thanos seemed to ponder for a moment: "This is indeed the first time I have heard such a claim."
However, despite what he said, it was clear that Thanos was not swayed in the least, calmly stating, "But from what I've heard, compared to me, you are the truly insane one."
"Who isn't crazy? It's just about holding on."
Fang Mo did not care about the other's attitude, responding with a smile.
"Fang Mo, is it?"
Hearing Fang Mo's statement, Thanos suddenly looked up at him: "I seem to have heard of you, the Kree's homeworld was destroyed by you, wasn't it?"
"...Destroyed is a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?"
Fang Mo touched his chin: "Actually, I know the Kree civilization is weak, so when I was beating them, I already held back a lot..."
Hearing Fang Mo say this, Thanos suddenly laughed.
Yes, he had indeed heard about the incident with the Kree civilization, after all, it was one of the three great civilizations of the universe, and their homeworld was annihilated. Even though the Kree people tried hard to suppress this news, many well-informed individuals still learned the truth.
Thanos admitted he had indeed slaughtered many planets' inhabitants, but in his view, it was for a greater good, with the ultimate goal of making those civilizations healthier.
Now, with the universe's resources insufficient and populations exploding, it was necessary to sacrifice a portion of the population, and he carried this sin. Thanos always believed he was sacrificing himself for the greater good, thus he claimed it as his destiny. But now, this Fang Mo came out of nowhere and flooded someone's homeworld with water.
In Thanos' view, this was the true act of insanity.
"It seems you really can't understand these things."
Thanos nodded calmly, then his broadsword pointed directly at Fang Mo: "After all, only the strongest will can make the hardest choices."
"Only children make choices."
Fang Mo smiled: "As I said before, the universe does not need to be understood. You're just too full of yourself, always thinking you understand the destiny of the universe. I have a bit of a critique for you, but I guess you won't take it to heart. Enough talk, let's show our weapons, we're going to have a duel with you."
"...We?"
Thanos was stunned, then instinctively looked up into the sky.
A several-story-high pile of building rubble was rapidly falling, and then with a loud crash, it smashed directly onto Thanos.
The ground shook violently, and a huge cloud of dust swept around like a tidal wave, while Stark flew over from above the rubble: "It seems, this guy isn't so hard to deal with after all..."
However, the counter came immediately.
A flash of blue light, and the entire pile of rubble exploded instantly, the flying metal shards flinging Stark away.
As for Thanos.
He walked out of the rubble unscathed.
"I thought you would want a duel with me, and they were just spectators." Thanos said slowly: "But it seems that's not the case. However, I hope you understand one thing, even if you all try your best, the outcome will not change."
"Sorry, we don't think so."
Right after Thanos finished speaking, suddenly two people in iron armors dived from the sky, crossing paths in mid-air, their shoulder armors opening, and immediately firing explosive warheads.
Stark Industries was originally a weapons research entity, and the power of the missiles at this moment was truly astonishing, instantly turning the ground into a sea of fire, the heat of which could be felt even from a distance.
But it wasn't over yet.
Because of the flames preventing anyone from getting close, Doctor Strange took action.
The ruins exploded suddenly, and then he flew up into the air in his wheelchair, his hands forming spells, and several orange-red energy blasts entered the sea of fire.
Even Hawkeye fired a few explosive arrows.
For a moment, the flames were even more intense, and Captain America, Natasha, and others, seeing this from a distance, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. With such powerful attacks, they hoped it would at least cause some damage to the enemy.
However, just as the Captain thought this.
He suddenly noticed Rocket Raccoon beside him.
Rocket was quietly pulling Groot, the tree creature, as well as Mantis, Drax, and others, slowly moving towards their spaceship.
"Rocket, what are you doing...?"
Captain America also seemed a bit startled, wondering what was going on.
"Nonsense, of course, we're finding a good place to watch the battle. We'll act when Fang Mo needs us," Rocket Raccoon said while pulling Groot, speaking to Captain America: "Otherwise? You don't think you can help in this battle, do you? Let me take a look at your gear, hmm...tight butt-lifting pants, plus a shield? Seriously, man, I wouldn't dare to get too close even with a spaceship, are you guys out of your minds?"
"Indeed."
Drax nodded beside him: "Friend, you see, my pot is much bigger than your shield, but I still wouldn't dare to rush in. Oh, by the way, you can't lay your shield flat on the ground, can you? So how do you use it as a toilet?"
"???"
Captain America was once again cornered with a question and remained silent for a while before barely answering, "…I'm sorry, I don't use the shield as a toilet."
"Is that so?"
After hearing this, Drax nodded thoughtfully, "Hmm, that makes sense. After all, your thing looks more like a lid than a pot. It wouldn't be comfortable to use."
"Uh…"
"F*ck, can you stop discussing your bad habits?"
Before Captain America could react, Rocket Raccoon couldn't help but burst out, "Are we really going to wait for those two freaks to start fighting before we run?"
No sooner had he said this than a faint voice came from a distance.
"SHINRA TENSEI!"
With this shout, the space not far away suddenly stiffened.
Then, before everyone could react, the entire heavens and earth began to shake uneasily. With Thanos' location as the epicenter, a massive, almost absurdly large spherical force field began to expand wildly outward.
"What… is this?"
Captain America seemed stunned.
"Run!!!"
Before he could snap out of it, Rocket Raccoon immediately shouted, jumping onto Groot's back, "Hurry up! Groot!!!"
Even the floral giant elephant tree person felt the threat and started running without needing further prompting from Rocket Raccoon, with Drax following close behind. Captain America and Black Widow exchanged glances and then started running as well.
However, when they rushed into the spaceship.
They found that two people were already sitting there, one was the uneasy Mantis, and the other was the grim-faced Nick Fury.
"Fury?"
Captain America was startled: "When did you…"
"Since he started biting the Power Stone," Nick Fury spoke, "Of course, I wasn't the first one here. Ms. Mantis hasn't left the ship from the start."
"Uh, I'm sorry…"
Mantis said nervously, "But I think he doesn't need help… or rather, if he fails, then going up there would be sending ourselves to death."
"Don't talk nonsense! We're about to die right now!"
As Rocket Raccoon operated the spaceship's controls, he yelled impatiently, "Damn, the engine starts too slowly! The shockwave is about to hit us!"
Hearing Rocket Raccoon's words, everyone instinctively looked forward.
He was right; the hemispherical force field was expanding at an extremely fast pace, about to hit the spaceship. The power of this thing was clearly absurd; everything engulfed by the force field was not just thrown away but instantly crushed into powder.
Whether it was the ground, mountains, or those massive ruins of buildings.
Everything was violently trembling, disintegrating, vanishing, with only dust swirling in the air like sea waves.
"…"
Seeing this, Captain America instinctively wanted to raise his shield but then thought it might be useless, so he put down the shield and instead touched the life-saving charm in his chest pocket, "Hopefully, what Fang Mo gave is effective…"
As he was speaking, the pale white spherical field charged towards them.
Everyone instinctively closed their eyes, but strangely, after a while, they didn't notice anything unusual.
When they bewilderingly opened their eyes.
They found that the terrifying force field had inexplicably started to retract.
"Is this…"
Captain America was slightly startled and then said somewhat moved, "Did Fang Mo notice us? Did he control his power? He actually…"
However, before he could finish speaking, a roar from Fang Mo came from the distant dust.
"Thanos, Fuck Your Mother!!"