Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 318 Codenamed "Golden Vanguard"

Chapter 318 Codenamed "Golden Vanguard"

Before he could even process what was happening, Tony leaped out of Stark Tower once more, intercepting the warhead even faster than before.

"Cannot scan. Cannot scan."

Tony silently reviewed the reasons for his first failure and prepared to grit his teeth and try again, but unexpectedly, the moment he made contact, a second explosion occurred, and the entire material universe was reduced to nothingness.

The Time Stone flashed with green light, and Tony, along with everything around him, was rewound to several minutes earlier.

The cyborg Tony, always connected to the internet, gritted his teeth and uttered, "Enemy attack!"

"I know, I know—"

This time, Tony was no longer panicked.

"Think it over carefully, Tony. Think it through."

Because panicking was useless, he had to calm down.

Unable to scan, unable to access.

In other words, this bomb will explode if you look at it too long, and melt if you get too close.

Tony, realizing these two points, almost laughed in anger. If he can't see or touch, how is he supposed to do it? He might as well just wait to die!

Tony, who had been pondering for a long time but didn't know what to do, couldn't continue his thoughts, because destruction had arrived as promised.

Unconvinced, Tony charged towards the about-to-explode bomb again: "I refuse to believe it—"

Kami~

"Okay, I believe you!"

Realizing that a direct breakthrough was completely futile, Tony had no choice but to revert to his previous line of thought and begin to consider how to break the deadlock.

While Tony was pondering, the cyborg Iron Man beside him uttered the phrase "enemy attack" again, but Tony ignored him.

Tony began to feel a little scared again—was there a limit to the number of times such time rewind could be performed?

If so, how many chances do I have left?

If not, then it's not necessarily a good thing.

What if I never find a way to break this situation?

Wouldn't he be trapped in this death loop, which lasts for less than a minute at most, forever?

In that brief moment of thought, Tony realized that he had already wasted this opportunity; he no longer had enough time to observe the bomb up close again.

"Okay." With his mind on edge, Tony, who was already here, wandered around the room, his eyes darting back and forth, trying to find something familiar in Stark Tower—like a bottle of good wine.

But even after time restarted, he still couldn't find a single bottle of alcohol; the most he could find was industrial-grade alcohol disinfectant.

After rebooting, looking at the cyborg Iron Man in front of him, Tony roughly understood why he couldn't find even a drop of fine wine in Stark Tower.

In this universe, he lost most of his human body and stopped needing it a long time ago.

"F**k!"

After a slight lapse in concentration and a curse, Tony forced himself to remain calm and once again soared into the sky to confront the bomb that was about to crash into their universe.

This time, he reprogrammed the scanning ray frequency and used a more covert method to scan.

click!

The bomb was activated prematurely, and everything vanished. The green beam chains pulled Tony back to where he started.

"Again!"

What if we changed the frequency of the Warframe Amozzo's core and used surface materials with opposite arrangements to physically contact the bomb?

Kama!

"Again!"

After trying it more than ten times, Tony was completely enraged. He completely detached himself from the terrible consequences of the universe's destruction and instead focused on treating it as a rigorous scientific project.

"Again!"

These failed attempts weren't even particularly frustrating for Iron Man, but with each failure, his despair deepened.

Admittedly, he still has many experimental protocols that he hasn't used yet, and he can still make many mistakes.

But Tony fears that in the end, after exhausting all means and trying all methods, and when he has no more mistakes to make, he still won't be able to find a solution.

What should we do then?

"Again"

After what seemed like the umpteenth failure, an unexpected black hand immediately landed on Tony's shoulder:

"Iron Man, are you alright?"

Tony, who was dizzy from being bombarded with failures, suddenly turned around and saw Batman, who had just repaired the teleportation device.

"I don't have time to waste on you right now!"

Having gone through countless failed cycles, Tony impatiently slapped Batman's hand aside and prepared to take off again to test another possible method.

But at that moment, the power source for the Iron Man suit suddenly went offline, and Tony, who had just left the ground less than five meters away, fell back to the ground.

Fortunately, Batman, who had anticipated this, pulled Tony back in time, preventing him from falling flat on his face.

"What's going on with my battle suit?"

The unexpected malfunction of the Iron Man suit cast a shadow over Tony's mind. Could it be that his suit, like his memories, was not affected by the time travel and was starting to have durability issues?

This will undoubtedly bring more uncertainty to breaking the loop.

But that shouldn't be the case.

The Amorod core inside this generation of Iron Man suits is self-evolving, making it almost permanently powered unless damaged externally.

"Never mind your suit for now," Batman said solemnly. Faced with Iron Man's confusion about the suit, he acted as if he wasn't the one who had hacked Iron Man's suit.

Batman restrained the agitated Tony and asked his first question with an almost certain tone, "How many times has this happened, Tony?"

Tony was utterly shocked upon hearing this: "How did you know?! You retained your memories too?"

"No, I have no memory, but I have experience."

Without the Time Stone and the Ancient One's spells, Batman doesn't have Tony's memories of these repeated loops.

But Batman is, after all, a detective, and he can always use his experience to find out what he wants to know from the smallest clues.

For example, Tony suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and his expression changed drastically in an instant, just like those gamblers in Wayne Casino who had lost countless times and were now making a desperate gamble to turn things around.

Furthermore, his attitude towards himself suddenly changed. After ruling out the possibility that he was possessed by some evil spirit, there is only one explanation:

"Time loops are interesting, but also terrible and terrifying—what will be the final consequences of that missile, and how much time do we have left?"

Batman also saw the strangely shaped bullet that shot out from the spacetime rift, which is presumably one of the culprits causing Tony's repeated cycles.

"In less than a minute, the missile will eventually—never mind."

Tony, who initially thought he had found a lifeline and a powerful ally, wanted to explain further, but then realized something and could only remain silent:

"That won't work, Batman—without countless accumulated memories, you can't help me solve this problem at all."

Batman, who was deep in thought, clearly agreed with Tony's line of thinking. With less than a minute to think, it was barely enough time to understand the cause and effect, let alone solve the problem.

But this doesn't mean that Tony can only face this battle alone:

"Code name 42, Golden Vanguard".

"What?"

Tony, who was already fretting about what method to use in the next loop, was even more confused by Batman's words: "What kind of magical spell can change time now?"

"I suppose so. Tell me this when the next cycle begins."

Batman adjusted a pocket watch he pulled from his belt, turning the second hand back to the second before Tony suddenly went berserk.

His ability to recognize Tony trapped in the loop at a glance stemmed not only from his keen insight, but more importantly, from the fact that this wasn't the first time he'd encountered such a situation:

"We have plenty of time to break this cycle."