Shiller fell into deep thought as he looked at the notebook. Stark, who was coming from behind him, spotted Peter's handwriting immediately. After all, Spider-Man of the Shiller universe spent most of his time in the laboratory of Stark Building, and their time together was much more than any Iron Man and Spider-Man from any other cosmos.
As a result, apart from having father-son-like feelings for Spider-Man, Stark also had the regard of a teacher for an excellent student. Over time, hearing any bad news about Spider-Man made Stark feel as if his heart was being tugged, almost suffocating him.
At this moment, an inexplicable anxiety surrounded Stark, leaving him no time to care about anything else. He rushed forward and took the notebook.
He first skimmed through what Shiller was reading, but the sentences seemed disjointed, thus he started flipping through earlier pages.
The truth about this universe then unfolded before Stark, told by the one Spider-Man who had not lost his memory within it and recounted over a short period of time.
As a first-hand witness, Spider-Man had experienced the complete plot of the Zombie Universe, which went as follows:
Zombie Sentinels descended from the sky, Avengers league members came to defuse the crisis, only to be unfortunately bitten by the Zombie Sentinels and turning into zombies themselves, infecting many citizens.
The first wave of heroes to turn into zombies included Captain America, Ant-Man, Wasp Woman and so on, and among them was Ant-Man who found Black Panther who arrived later to offer support.
By this time, they had already had breakfast on the street, and since they were not yet hungry, Ant-Man decided to lock Black Panther up to be eaten later when they got hungry.
Such a significant event prompted Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. to organize the remaining surviving heroes to develop a cure for the zombie virus.
But to call Reed a universe destruction engine is not without reason. While the research conducted by Iron Man Stark and Dr. Banner was going well, Reed had a sudden idea that the zombie virus was a manifestation of human evolution. So he started arguing, why not embrace the great god of evolution?
As a result, he led the traitor directly into the laboratory, causing the entire Fantastic Four to be infected.
Elsewhere, Nick and Iron Man planned to create a portal to leave this universe and preserve the existing survivors. However, the place where the Fantastic Four was researching the virus was not far from where they were constructing the portal. The Fantastic Four barged in.
The problem was that the teleportation device was already built at this time, and it was connected to the universe where the Observer was. After biting both of them, the Fantastic Four happily went to tour another universe.
In the meantime, a series of major events occurred in this universe, summarised as follows: the zombie virus spread globally, Galactus the planet devourer arrived and was shared amongst the zombie superheroes, Black Panther survived and returned to earth, and the zombie superheroes split into two factions and fought significantly.
Afterwards, a person seeking to usurp Black Panther's throne activated the teleporter, sending all the zombie superheroes to another universe.
A disaster immediately broke out in the other universe, so severe that all three Great Empires of the Universe were wiped out. Some of the zombie superheroes then ascended to the Moon, where they bit the Observer.
Driven by unending hunger, the more malevolent group of zombie superheroes sought to enter other universes to find more food. They found a portal and used a Zombie Sentinel as an energy source.
But at this time, Spider-Man, who had become a zombie but had not yet turned evil, opened the jar he was carrying, and inside it was Sandman's sand.
A massive sandstorm wiped out all the zombie superheroes, and the nanobots that Iron Man had previously researched and developed to combat the zombie virus were mixed in the sand, completely eliminating the zombie virus.
The Zombie Sentinel, that had previously been used by the zombie superheroes as an energy source for the portal, was returned to its original universe by the Observer, thus starting a cycle.
In the beginning, the Spider-Man of this universe was also unaware, constantly reincarnating within this cycle, but as Nick from Shiller's universe gained actual control of the Time Management Bureau and gradually put forth his multiversal spider trafficking plan, more and more Spider-Men were influenced.
The Spider-Mans who were helped by Nick began to project their faith onto him, which provided Nick a portion of the power of the Spider Totem. But more importantly, his will started to reach more Spider-Men through the connected Spider Totem, and the Spider-Man of the Zombie Universe was one of them.
The voice from the Spider Totem grew louder, interfering with the time resets of the two universes on Spider-Man, allowing him to gradually reclaim his consciousness through the numerous reincarnations until he finally fully regained consciousness.
Then came the five resets that occurred after Shiller arrived here. The traces left by the outsider made Spider-Man determined to act as soon as possible. He put his long-considered plan into action and wrote all the details in the notebook, hoping to receive help from the outsider.
Stark silently finished reading all the information. He closed his eyes and digested it quietly. But at one moment, the infinite killing intent leaking from the gaps in his armor made even Shiller turn to look at him.
It wasn't even anger, just a raw cold murderous intent, carrying a destructive desire capable of creating and annihilating universes in an instant.
But within a second, the gap shut again. Stark sighed in silence. He flipped through his notebook once more and said, "I have several questions. You don't have to answer them, I just need to clear my own thoughts."
"Looking at the full story described by Peter, the whole process is divided into two periods: before Spider Man's awakening and after."
"The watershed between these two periods is that, unbeknownst to Spider Man, the two universes each undergo their full storylines until the Zombie Sentinel is thrown back, at which point the narrative restarts."
"But after Spider Man's awakening, the universes sporadically reset. The reset points are much earlier than the completion of the story."
"I think the attention the other universes pay to Spider Man might have triggered some special Observer effect, making the cycle of the universe irregular. Even if the cycle is not complete, it resets endlessly."
Stark extended two fingers in front of his eyes and began to rotate them clockwise. He said, "The normal cycle of these two universes is like this, from cause to effect and back to cause, like a cassette tape on loop, replaying the beginning after the end."
After rotating his fingers clockwise halfway, he reversed the direction back to the starting point and said, "The cycle we're experiencing is more like this, the universe moves forward and then suddenly rewinds at a certain point, returning to its original state."
"So, there's a problem. If Spider Man wants to achieve his plan, he has to restore the regular cycle of the universe - moving from cause to effect and back to cause, without suddenly rewinding."
"His plan doesn't mention anything about this. I don't know whether he is unaware or if he has already made preparations."
"And one more thing: he wants us to help, but he should have figured out that each of our rebirth points are moving further and further back. How can we go back to the beginning to help him transmit brainwaves?"
"Wait." Stark suddenly furrowed his brows. He said, "Could these two inconsistencies actually be the same thing?"
"The further our rebirth point is pushed back means that the point of rewind keeps moving further back. Sooner or later, the rewind point will reach the end of the story. That is when the zombie superheroes are destroyed by Sandman, and the Observer is getting ready to throw the Zombie Sentinel back into this universe."
Stark glanced at his notebook again and said, "I know Spider Man's plan now. He plans to wait until that moment – right before the Observer throws it, but with just a second to spare – to replace the Zombie Sentinel with his own brainwaves and control it to commit suicide while being transported."
"This way the Zombie Sentinel will never land in this universe, and the cycle will be broken as a result."
Stark slightly raised his head, looking at the group photo of the Avengers members hanging on the wall. His tone turned heavy.
"He intends to sacrifice himself to put an end to the tragedies of these two universes," Stark said with his eyes closed in pain. "Even if I forcefully separate the two universes or somehow save his family and friends, the horrifying memories from the countless cycles cannot be erased. He would go insane."
Having spent a lot of time with Shiller, Stark too began to understand that psychology, like when one first encounters it, is indeed a miraculous field capable of accomplishing miraculous feats.
But as in every sector of medicine, the deeper the research, the more apparent it becomes that only a few things can be cured, and many things are beyond our control.
Human memory is so fragile that psychological trauma is permanent. The wounds run deep, changing an individual entirely. Regardless of how the current situation improves or whether the tragedy is rectified, the scars remain.
The saying goes that some people spend their whole life healing their childhood. Indeed, many of these people have had quite a rich life in adulthood and have been able to rectify lots of childhood regrets. But they are still heavily affected by it because those tragedies shaped their personalities. At this point, it's not considered a pathology but a norm.
Stark thought there was nothing he and Shiller couldn't change when working together, Spider Man didn't need to sacrifice himself. But what if he didn't sacrifice himself? He had to witness Aunt May and Mary Jane being devoured time and again in these terrifying cycles.
Stark couldn't begin to imagine the traumatic impact this would have. He was just grateful that the Shiller he was dealing with now did not seem to be a psychologist. So, he could resist asking him a question that was destined to receive a negative response.
What's even more despairing is that Stark knew long ago how memory is inseparable from personality. Once memory is wiped, personality is likely to collapse, and the enigmatic subconscious would overcome any arrogant attempt to modify conscious thought.
If Spider Man lost his memories, he would succumb to a state of mental chaos and haunted by subconscious nightmares. Sooner or later, he would remember and collapse.
It seemed that they were heading towards a dead-end no matter what they attempted to do. At this point, Stark fully understood what it meant to — saving the world is easy, but saving you is difficult.