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Chapter 29: Sanguan Broken, The Timeline Has an Owner
🕑 Added 2025-03-25 17:20:23 +0000 UTC"The first timeline is relatively normal—it leads to the future where the purple sweet potato snaps his fingers," Natasha Romanoff continued. "And the second one is the zombie universe… a future where even that purple sweet potato essence isn’t spared."
"Why do I feel like these two might be the same thing?" Clint Barton muttered. "What’s the difference? The purple potato snapping his fingers is basically a world-ending event, and the zombie universe sounds just as bad. In the end, it’s the same level of catastrophe, isn’t it?"
"The real problem is what Luo Chen described next," Nick Fury said. "In addition to these two timelines, he mentioned something called the 'abandoned timeline.' Now tell me, does that phrase not terrify you? If timelines can be abandoned, then they aren’t just naturally occurring—they can become obsolete."
Nick Fury wasn't even sure if the zombie universe was the scariest part anymore. The real horror lay in the implications of an abandoned timeline.
"An abandoned timeline?" Tony Stark muttered to himself. "Does that mean the timeline has an owner?"
As he pieced together Luo Chen’s words, he felt a chill run down his spine.
The timeline has a master.
That meant someone—or something—was overseeing the timeline, choosing which ones continued and which ones were discarded. The timelines might not be naturally forming and evolving on their own but instead were selected.
"As of now, Luo Chen’s diary has revealed two major timelines," Tony said. "Besides the abandoned timeline, we have one where the purple sweet potato snaps his fingers and another that leads to the zombie universe.
And in that zombie universe, my head is the first one to roll."
He exhaled sharply.
"Every possible future sounds bleak, terrifying even. But Luo Chen never referred to these as 'abandoned timelines.' That means whether a timeline is abandoned or not doesn’t necessarily depend on whether it leads to the end of the world. So what exactly determines the value of a timeline?"
The sheer volume of information was overwhelming.
Parallel universes, alternate versions of himself, timelines, new timelines, abandoned timelines—it was too much.
"Wait, let me organize this," Tony said, pacing back and forth.
"The choices people make create new timelines. Some of those timelines eventually diverge enough to become completely different parallel universes. But not all timelines lead to new universes."
He continued muttering to himself, trying to straighten out the concepts.
"For example, the movie universe and the comic universe are both parallel universes. But they aren’t timelines that split from the same origin. Instead, they’re two entirely separate trees.
Our Marvel universe—the so-called 199999 universe—isn’t the same as the X-Men universe, for example. They have connections but are fundamentally distinct."
He activated a holographic projection and quickly sketched a branching tree.
"If we think of timelines as branches on a tree, then different timelines should share the same root. But entirely separate universes, like the movie universe and the comic universe, are different trees altogether. They only intersect when someone—say, a writer—decides to make a crossover happen."
His mind raced with possibilities.
"So let’s assume each of these trees has an owner. And that owner constantly makes choices. If a branch grows in an undesirable direction, they cut it off—hence, abandoned timelines."
He felt as though he had uncovered some kind of terrifying logic.
"In that case… when they talk about restarting the universe, it must mean uprooting the entire tree and planting a new one in its place, hoping it grows in a way that meets their expectations."
The realization sent a shiver down his spine.
If that were true, then someone—or something—was overseeing not just one timeline, but the entire multiverse.
It felt like a massive, unseen hand was hovering over everything, deciding which realities thrived and which ones were erased.
For the first time in a long while, Tony Stark felt small.
"Abandoned timelines… Who's making these decisions? Who decides which timelines continue and which ones get erased?" Maria Hill asked, her expression grim.
"Someone is controlling it," Nick Fury replied.
"I just remembered something," Natasha spoke up. "Back in the earliest chapters of Luo Chen’s diary, when he first arrived in this world, he was worried about attracting the attention of two specific people—one called the Ancient One and the other named Kang."
The room fell silent.
"We didn’t know who they were back then," she continued. "We even spent a ton of resources trying to figure it out. In the end, we guessed they might be figures from the mystical side of the world, beyond our reach.
But here’s the thing—back then, Luo Chen wasn’t famous. He was just some unknown guy struggling to get by. So why was he so certain that these two would notice him?"
Nick Fury’s eyes narrowed.
"Are you suggesting that they are the ones responsible for maintaining the timeline?"
Natasha nodded.
"Luo Chen seems to know that these two are in charge of making sure the timeline unfolds correctly. And if something strays too far from the intended path… they cut it off."
A heavy silence filled the room.
Nick Fury clenched his jaw.
"That would explain a lot," he muttered.
But Natasha wasn’t finished.
"There’s one more thing that doesn’t sit right with me," she said. "Luo Chen refers to himself as someone who doesn’t belong here. If we assume he’s telling the truth, then he’s essentially an anomaly in the timeline.
But instead of trying to change things, he’s been keeping a low profile. Almost as if… he’s afraid of drawing too much attention."
The realization sent a chill through the room.
"Are you saying he’s trying to minimize his impact on the timeline to avoid being erased?" Fury asked.
Natasha nodded.
"If timelines can be abandoned, then anomalies—people who don’t fit into the script—could be erased just as easily. Maybe Luo Chen wants to make something of himself in this world. But he’s choosing to hold back, staying under the radar, because he knows the moment he stands out too much…
They’ll notice him."
If Luo Chen had been present in the room, he would have been stunned by how accurately they had pieced it all together.
