"About two months before the zombie crisis broke out, Charles approached me. You know we've had our differences, and he hadn't reached out to me for quite some time,"
Magneto's low voice echoed in the room, accompanied by an inescapable chilly tone.
"Charles looked dreadful. He told me that the previous night, he had mistakenly tapped into the wrong energy source while using his brain wave amplifier. It overloaded and is now damaged."
"I thought he wanted me to fix it, but he told me something terribly unnerving with a pale face."
"He heard a foreboding message from the depths of the cosmos, that a group of beings, unimaginably powerful to humans, have turned the universe into their testing ground. A merciless, cruel, and terrifying cosmic collision is about to commence."
"My reaction then was probably the same as yours now - I didn't believe him. I thought he had lost his mind, fallen into an illusion, or was being manipulated by something."
"But that very night, Charles died in his office, his brain erupting from inside. Before he died, he left a single message - 'Save them, Marx...'"
Magneto took a deep breath, his brow furrowed with wrinkles of age, and said, "I finally realized this was no joke. Charles must have seen or heard something that led to his death, and I have to find out what it was."
"As I was investigating, I received a unique electromagnetic signal from within the cosmos. I didn't know where it came from, but it wasn't a communication method frequented by humans. It was more like a certain type of radio signal. I thought that was peculiar, so I traced the signal."
"What did you find?" Stark asked.
"A robot." Magneto answered, he then continued, "Someone left a robot in our universe, and it carried the zombie virus that you all were infected with."
"Then why did you open it?!" Stark incredulously exclaimed, "You knew it contained a virus!"
"Yes, I knew what was inside before I opened it. I also knew that it wasn't just any zombie virus, but a nanobot designed to harvest brain power."
Magneto slightly raised his head and explained, "It enters the human brain via the bloodstream, and unbeknownst to you, it uses the unutilized parts of your brain for computation."
"Of course, even if you're unaware, energy expenditure still occurs, which is why you always feel hungry. Such calculations require a lot of energy. The resulting hunger leads you to continuously devour others and prompts you to venture into other universes for fresh food. It's a method to help spread the virus."
"So, you knew everything?!" Another Spider Man stepped forward, staring wide-eyed at Magneto, "Even if you've lost hope for Earth in our universe, you shouldn't have spread the virus to other universes?!"
"This isn't about collateral damage; it's about the price we need to pay for salvation." Magneto clenched his teeth, "Charles wasn't the only one who glimpsed the incoming catastrophe. Other universes have awakened, trying to save themselves, and they need our help!"
Spider Man had a moment of realization, he approached the energy cage holding Magneto and questioned, "You mean to say that those stealing computational power are doing so to save the universe?!"
"So, I said that you destroyed yourselves!" Magneto Hatefully looked around at everyone present, "You great heroes, the ones who eradicated the zombie virus, you are condemning countless universes to the abyss."
Magneto took another deep breath and declared, "I'm not interested in saving the universe, what I want is the perpetrator who killed Charles to pay the price. I will avenge him, like a true Avenger."
The superheroes in the room fell silent.
"This is absurd." Steve pointed out, "The universe is suddenly about to be destroyed, and someone infects our universe to steal computational power to save it. It's ridiculous."
"But we've already seen the true nature of the zombie virus." Spider Man ran his hand over his aching forehead, "This proves it isn't a joke. If it wasn't for the urgent need for so much computational power, they wouldn't have released the virus. Redundant computational power is the most worthless thing in the world. Complete obliteration would be much simpler."
Stark took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. He looked at Magneto and said, "Where is the robot that you initially found? I need to dissect it and find out who's behind it."
Just as Magneto was about to reply, Stark interjected, "We are the masters of this universe. If they want our cooperation, they need to tell us the whole truth first. If you want to avenge Charles, you have to listen to us."
Both of them faced off for quite some time, finally, Spider Man stepped in and mediated, "Mr. Erik, we don't know if Charles in other universes have also died from directly looking into the truth due to the misuse of the brain wave amplifier. But if we act right now, maybe we can prevent all this. Now isn't the time for internal strife."
In the end, Magneto reluctantly said, "The robot is within the Sentinel. I had hidden the Sentinel in the broken brain wave amplifier. It likely still carries the zombie virus, be careful."
The superheroes hurried over to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, which was now a ruin. The young mutants that had turned into zombies were a lot more destructive than they had anticipated. They struggled to dig out the brain wave amplifier that was buried underground.
Indeed, the zombie sentinel was inside, but it was unconscious. Stark spotted something embedded in its chest. He remotely controlled his battle armor to pin the zombie sentinel down and then reached in to pull out the round foreign object.
By appearance, it was just a metallic sphere, but Stark believed it to be a transforming robot. The sphere's interior served as a container for storing the zombie virus, while the exterior had autonomous functions. He also found an interface resembling a communication device.
They rushed back to Stark building and found a somewhat functioning laboratory. After fiddling with it for a while, Stark finally managed to power up the metallic sphere.
They were expecting a manual similar to the one Magneto provided, but after the metallic sphere flickered twice, a somewhat familiar voice of Spider Man came from the other side:
"Hello? Hello? Which universe, please respond!"
The color of Spider-Man's face changed vividly in an instant because the voice on the other end belonged to Doctor Schiller.
The other Spider-Man next to him noticed the fluctuating colors of Spider-Man's face, feeling a little perplexed, and asked, "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"No, nothing. Um... if you must know, no matter what he offers you, don't sign anything."
"What?"
"No, nothing."
But the Stark of this universe had already rushed up and said, "Who are you? What is going on? Tell us about the universe's destruction and the zombie virus!"
"Ah, about that, I'm not sure. Let me give you a phone number, you guys can ask him. It's not very convenient for me to take calls, so I'll hang up first."
The familiar busy tone came from the sphere and the superheroes in the lab stared at each other, none of them had expected this outcome.
Suddenly, the familiar sound of an incoming message came from the sphere, and Stark slapped his forehead: "So, this thing is actually a phone?!"
As he finished, a small door opened on the front of the sphere, and the familiar Arabic numerals on the keyboard were displayed, clearly for dialing purposes.
The serious and tense atmosphere at the scene was defused instantly. Steve banged hard on his shield, saying, "I knew it. Where do all these troublemaking deities come from? The biggest enemy of mankind is mankind itself!"
"Hurry up, call them quickly and ask what the hell is going on." Stark frowned, pressing his temples with both hands, seemingly suffering a great deal of headache. "Spider-Man! Come make the call!"
The local Spider-Man from the Zombie Universe walked out from among the three Spider-Men. He dialed the number displayed in the previous message, and the call was indeed answered.
"Hello? This is Loki, employee number 330619. How may I assist you?"
"I'm Spider-Man, our universe recently..."
"I'm really sorry, I have no idea, but I think you could ask the owner of the phone number..."
Spider-Man had to dial the number again, the voice over the phone said: "Sanctuary of the Nine Realms, this is Supreme Magician Strange. There's no room for reduction in the service package. For after-sales service, please call the Sanctuary's after-sales department directly. What can I assist you with?"
"I'm Spider-Man, we..."
"Oh, that's unfortunate, I now am busy and have no time to explain. Call this number instead."
Spider-Man took a deep breath and dialed again. This time, the call was answered by a mechanized voice that Stark almost instantly recognized as Ultron's.
"You are a part of the Twin Universe, correct?" Ultron opened the conversation: "I mean, those two universes that are intertwined due to the zombie virus. Of course, I'm aware of you. In fact, you're part of my defensive measures, have you destroyed it yet?"
All the people present were dumbfounded. The fact that the other party admitted so easily was a little unexpected. Spider-Man couldn't help but asked: "What exactly is going on? Can you start from the beginning?"
"Oh, it's not much. My master observed a group of pesky powerful deities planning to initiate their wicked plan. I was ordered to carry out various defense experiments in the cosmos."
"The wicked plan is simple. They intend to let all universes collide in pairs. Successful pairs will merge; unsuccessful ones will perish. I decided to bind your two universes together with the zombie virus in advance, to see if it was possible to resist the collision of the other universes."
"I am sorry for the damage caused, but it's better than you each colliding with another universe, which I believe would be much worse. But since you have already broken the cycle yourself, it's your own luck to rely on. Goodbye."
The call was finally disconnected this time. All those present were stunned for nearly a minute, digesting the massive amount of information.
"So it's true?" Steve said with some shock: "Are there deities in the universe planning to play cosmic billiards? Have they lost their minds?"
"Not really surprising, we can't observe deities from a human perspective. Maybe from their point of view, the universe is nothing more than a billiard table." Spider-Man shrugged and said.
"So there are some advanced civilizations that have discovered this and are starting to take measures, and our universe just happens to be an experimental subject, which is why the zombie virus outbreak occurred?" Spider-Man speculated.
"We may have been the subjects of two experiments." Stark pondered for a moment before saying, "Haven't you noticed? These guys are obviously not from the same group, and I suspect that the people using the zombie virus to steal computing power and those continuing the time loop in two universes are not the same group... none of them are part of the same group."
"But they could be connected, which we don't know about." Spider-Man sighed and said, "Just like I never knew that so many Spider-Men existed in the multiverse. And they even have a group... I was the last one to join!"
"Wait, if Spider-Man has his own group, could the other Avengers also have theirs?" Stark's eyes widened as he said.
Then he roared in a shocked tone that somewhat doubted himself, "All the Iron Men in the universe have joined the group, but they didn't invite me?!!"