After the portal ceased to open, the Lokis mistook the foreigner to be from the Time Management Bureau coming to rescue them. Combined with Old Loki leading the way, the rest of the Lokis followed suit.
Running and running, they found a majestic temple appearing in front of them.
After all the Lokis rushed into the temple, the figure in the black and red unitard braked abruptly, pointing at a hole in the ground and said, "Jump in, and you'll be safe!"
The Lokis showed suspicious expressions. They turned their heads and found that Alioth was blocked outside the temple door. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
But the next second, an even bigger monster stuck its head in, a ferocious monster covered in sharp spikes and fangs roared, shouting, "I am going to eat you all!"
Simply from the looks, this monster was much scarier than Alioth. Compared to it, Alioth, amassed from dark clouds, seemed like a soft marshmallow.
It would be fine if this monster just looked terrifying. However, its body exuded a frighteningly dark aura, giving people a feeling as if it would swallow up the cosmos's stars.
The Lokis inside the temple started to panic again. Watching the monster nearly squeezing into the temple, President Loki gritted his teeth and jumped into the hole in the ground.
The other Lokis jumped in one after the other. After they left, the giant monster opened its huge mouth and bit Alioth over six hundred times in two minutes, swallowing it up entirely.
Then the huge monster turned into a little girl. With short little legs, she trotted into the center of the temple and dived into that hole.
It didn't matter that she jumped in but she had a pile of Gungnirs following her behind.
Originally, Gungnir was chasing two monsters, but since Alioth was eaten, there was only one monster left.
And that monster had already jumped into the hole, and Gungnir, who only follows Odin's orders, turned into shooting stars and flew into the hole.
The next second, a group of Lokis landed first, followed by a little girl, and finally a group of Gungnir radiating golden light.
After the little girl landed, before anyone could react, she transformed back into a gigantic monster and swallowed everyone up.
Then she made a 180-degree U-turn and dived back into the hole everyone had just come out from.
Afterwards, "whoosh", the hole disappeared.
The monster and the Lokis returned to the hole, but just as the Gungnir that came after them was about to follow, the portal closed.
So, a group of long spears glowing gold seemed quite confused.
Gungnir didn't possess high wisdom, after all, it was just Odin's weapon, only following the program set by Odin.
Gungnir would chase whoever Odin ordered it to. Of course, the Father of All Gods wasn't foolish, for some enemies, losing his own weapon wouldn't be worthwhile.
Therefore, when the subsequent chasing might destroy itself or when it completely lost its target, Gungnir would automatically return to Odin.
This auto-return function was extremely powerful because Gungnir could almost ignore the rules of Universe Space and fly very fast, so it wouldn't take long to return.
But now, it found that it could not return.
They couldn't sense their master's presence at their current location, and the auto-return path couldn't be calculated.
But Gungnir couldn't be as flexible as a human, it wouldn't "stop looking if it couldn't be found," or think about its situation. They would only automatically calculate the shortest return route.
So, dozens of Gungnirs swarmed in one direction, but were quickly blocked by a barrier.
Because in the normal cosmos, there wouldn't be any spatial rules that could block Gungnir hence they didn't have an emergency brake procedure. If they can't break through the wall, they keep trying; if they can't drill through the wall, they keep drilling.
Meanwhile, in the nearest cosmos, within a majestic temple, Eternity, who had just returned from a meeting intending to rest, suddenly heard a drilling sound coming from above his house.
Eternity found it very strange, what's this noise?
In an instant, Eternity appeared at the source of the noise, and the scene in front of him made him feel very strange.
Dozens of long spears emitting golden glows are rotating relentlessly at one point on the barrier of the Marvel Universe.
Eternity found it strange, what happened to Gungnir?
Of course, Eternity was aware that Gungnir was Odin's weapon and knew this long spear had magical properties, but the problem was, ordinarily, Gungnir wouldn't get stuck, what happened to these long spears?
Finally tired of Odin's enslavement, they decided to run away from home?
Eternity thought for a moment, considering it was probably a bug. Having managed the cosmos for so many years, what strange bugs haven't he seen? Just delete and rebuild one, nothing difficult.
But just as Eternity was about to raise his arm to delete the stuck Gungnirs, he paused. Because he thought of a very serious problem.
These long spears were ceaselessly drilling at the barrier of the Marvel Universe. If he just deletes these long spears without finding out the cause of the bug, today there are dozens of long spears stuck here, what if tomorrow there are billions of Gungnirs drilling here, wouldn't the boss freak out?
Friends with some knowledge of programming would understand, it isn't scary when a bug occurs, but it is terrifying when an incompetent teammate fixes the problem in the simplest and most brutal way without investigating the cause of the bug.
During the test, the code runs smoothly. But the moment it's launched live, the revised and seemingly recovered code is guaranteed to run invalidly thousands of times, causing all programs to crash.
Considering these consequences, Eternity immediately became cautious. It's needless to say how important the barrier of the Marvel Universe is. Any bugs concerning it must be handled with care.
What should you do when a bug appears in the program but you can't find the cause and don't want to alarm the boss?
Exactly, call for help immediately.
Eternity sent a group message to the other instances of himself in other universes. The gist was, he discovered a bug, could fix it, but wanted to identify the root cause. If any big shot was willing to come over and take a look.
Many Eternities that were relatively close to this location, upon hearing that there was an issue with the barrier of the Marvel Universe, raced over at the fastest speed. Shiller's Eternity, the unlucky bloke from another universe, also received the message.
Although he was quite far away, he felt guilty!
Not to mention anything else, he had just made a hole in the universe barrier for the convenience of commuting to work.
The moment the unlucky Eternity saw these long spears, he knew that if it weren't for Shiller's meddling, there would be ghosts!
Unlucky Eternity was about to speak, but then he thought that despite the fact that he and Shiller had built a subway for their commute, the OAA must know about it. The big boss must have tacitly agreed to it.
But if he stood up now and said that he created this bug by digging a hole for his selfish desires, how could he face his colleagues in the future?
After thinking about it, he decided to mind his business. Anyway, he had been kicked out and assigned elsewhere. The headquarters' problems are for them to solve.
With many Eternities gathered together, the efficiency was not low. They commenced a net-style inspection, investigating all the basic code of the universes to see where the problem lied.
Indeed, Eternity isn't the foundation of the universe for nothing. Without spending much time, he discovered the traces of the hole Shiller had made.
So, countless Eternities and other abstract entities from the surroundings gathered around the hole, whispering and discussing which line of code went wrong and what kind of mistake could cause such consequences.
As the universe where Shiller was located had been kicked out, he was no longer in the timeline of the headquarters universe, these abstract entities couldn't utilise their ability to view timelines. So, they could only resort to the most mundane method - a carpet-style search with cooperation from all departments.
However, this task is both meticulous and tedious. They searched here and there yet found nothing, which made everyone uneasy. Soon, many complaints echoed throughout the universe.
"I'm so annoyed...have to work overtime again!"
"Who would leisurely make a hole here? Are they insane?!"
"Who the hell created this?! If I catch him...!"
Meanwhile, Conqueror Kang, who had just enjoyed Loki's misfortune, hadn't had much time to be happy when he discovered that the monstrous creature with sharp teeth and claws was back, and this time it was coming for him.
"I advise you to run." Loki said, looking at him, "Wait a bit longer, and you'll learn what a Blade Storm is."
Conqueror Kang, nonchalantly, activated his time-stopping ability, trying to control his enemy the old-fashioned way.
Then he almost got chewed up within two seconds.
Seeing the uncontrollable giant creature, Conqueror Kang shouted while running, "Impossible! How can you be uninfluenced by time-stop?! I control all cosmic timelines!!"
The giant creature chased him and shouted back, "Is it possible that I don't belong to this universe's timeline?!!"
Conqueror Kang was completely freaked out. The void has an end, and the area was certainly not enough for him to run. So, he pressed the transmitter and teleported away, but upon returning to the regular timeline, the ensuing thunder strike from Thor was waiting for him.
In no time at all, the creature found him again. Conqueror Kang was not only dodging the creature's biting but also keeping away from Thor's thunder strike. Soon, he was in a complete mess.
Just as he was feeling desperate, he suddenly saw a strange person in a black and red uniform by the road, holding a sign that read "Head to the Temple of Eternity!"
The person flipped the sign, the back of which read, "Your future self, let me save you!"
Conqueror Kang was overjoyed. However, he still remained cautious. Although he ran in the direction indicated, he was ready to activate the transmitter at any moment to avoid traps.
When he ran into the temple, Conqueror Kang realized — isn't this the place where he played the escape room game?
But soon, he realized that there was a hole here. It led to a completely isolated universe, and if he could jump through, wouldn't he be able to escape this universe's monstrous creature and the thunder?
Having been pushed to a dead end, Conqueror Kang didn't think much and jumped right in.
Sure enough, when he hit the ground, everything was quiet. No roar of the monster, no thunderous booming.
Conqueror Kang stood still, guffawing for a bit, then, at the moment he raised his head, his laughter abruptly ended.
Bcause in front of him were standing a sea of abstract entities.
And when their Death Stares collectively fell upon Conqueror Kang, he seemed to hear countless terrifying roars —
It was you who messed with the code?!!