Chapter 158

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Tony Stark briefly looked over the list and realized there were about twenty-plus, no more than thirty people. 

The original appearance of the Skrulls, along with their current human identities, habitual locations, and more, were all clearly documented. 

"These are the Skrulls? They sure are ugly."

Tony couldn't help but curl his lip, spewing his usual venom before glancing at Nick Fury, "Is this everyone?" 

"All the Skrulls I'm aware of are here," Nick Fury replied with a serious face.

"This few people can hardly pull off a Secret Invasion."

A scoff of mockery crept onto Tony's face as he openly teased Fury. It wasn't that Iron Man intended to mock Nick Fury; it's just that Fury's handling of the situation was amusingly feeble, with many obvious foibles. 

It might be excusable for an average person, but Fury was supposed to be the king of spies! 

And yet, he was made a fool by Skrulls right under his command? That's just a joke.

"This is also why I'm here."

Fury seemed to ignore Tony's insinuation, his expression unchanged as he put down his coffee and stood up. "Notify me immediately if you find anything."

He waved goodbye to Tony and left without looking back. Iron Man did the same.

About five minutes after Fury left, Tony also rose and departed, getting into his sports car and driving in a different direction, as if nothing had happened.

"Jarvis."

However, the moment he returned to his luxurious mansion, Iron Man gave Jarvis an order.

"I want you to keep a twenty-four-hour constant surveillance on everyone on this list."

Swoosh!

Jarvis instantly scanned all the individuals on the list and confirmed with Tony Stark.

"Sir, how long should I monitor them?"

"Until we find more Skrulls!"

"Understood!"

Jarvis faithfully executed Iron Man's command, immediately connecting to all internet-enabled cameras and recording devices, and conducting searches.

It was not much effort for the technologically advanced Jarvis to locate all the Skrulls on the list.

"It's been a long time since I've contacted Helen Cho. Maybe I should find an opportunity to talk to her?"

After taking care of business, Tony lazily reclined on his posh sofa, deep in thought.

He had already asked Jarvis to look into Helen Cho's recent research achievements.

Stark had read some of her published papers and reports, and although the concept of the Cradle of Regeneration had yet to be introduced, the direction of her research suggested an inevitable development towards that breakthrough.

Thus, Iron Man was seventy percent confident that the Dr. Cho mentioned in the notebook, the one researching the Cradle of Regeneration, was indeed Helen Cho!

Even the prideful Tony Stark had to admit, the Cradle of Regeneration was a truly revolutionary accomplishment.

...

And at the same moment.

In the Temple One.

The spacious hall was dark and cold, like the deep and lonely night sky, giving an inexplicably oppressive feeling. 

Of course, this was only for Earthlings.

But for the cosmic warlord Thanos, this atmosphere was preferred.

Peering from his supreme seat at the kneeling leader of the Chitauri, The Other, beneath him, Thanos assessed the situation.

Yes, this peculiar character was indeed known as The Other, a rather obscure villain in the Marvel Universe. 

Few recognized the name alone. In simple terms, he was the one acting on behalf of Thanos to communicate with Loki, posturing in Loki's presence, and the unfortunate one who got smashed by Ronan during a dispute.

Though not frequently mentioned and seemingly not highly valued by Thanos, he was not just an insignificant extra.

Otherwise, how could he directly serve Thanos?

But compared to Thanos's daughters Gamora and Nebula, and the infamous Black Order, The Other was less renowned.

"Master, Ronan has agreed. He will use his power to locate the Orb for you."

Even without looking up at Thanos, The Other could still feel the immense pressure emanating from his master, making his tone even more respectful.

"He has made the right choice."

Thanos wasn't surprised; he calmly nodded.

The Accuser, Ronan, was a madman, and his rage toward Xandar had consumed his sanity, making him an obvious target for manipulation.

For someone like Thanos, it was not difficult to delegate Ronan for the task.

Yet, regardless, Ronan was ultimately not Thanos's loyal servant.

To ensure that Ronan would sincerely work for him and not play any tricks behind his back, Thanos had made a decision.

He would send Gamora and Nebula to assist and, more importantly, to supervise Ronan.

Thanos trusted that Ronan would agree.

After quickly reviewing these thoughts, Thanos shifted his focus back to The Other with another question.

"Besides the Orb, are there any leads on the other Stones?"

The kneeling The Other couldn't help but feel a bit awkward.

Infinite Stones, the legendary artifacts, aren't so easily found.

Even the information on the Orb was only acquired through significant effort. 

And even that was not precise data, but rather obscure clues.

There was no sign of any other Stones. Oh, and the Tesseract on Earth!

For some reason, his master didn't seem too interested in the Tesseract.

Even though it was highly likely to be an Infinity Stone, there hadn't been any plans to act on it.

Instead, he had been keeping an eye on Earth and the Nine Realms discreetly.

"Master, besides the Orb, only the Tesseract remains, we have no other information."

As those thoughts flitted through his mind, The Other earnestly replied to Thanos's question.

Thanos was not shocked by this; the Infinity Stones were not easy to find after all.

That is an existence containing the most powerful force in the universe!

"Is there any movement in the Nine Realms currently?"

After a moment of contemplation, Thanos looked down upon The Other with a lofty gaze and asked.

Planet C53, in Thanos's view, was hardly worth mentioning.

Even when categorizing civilizations across the stars, C53 was completely a lower-level planet.

Thanos had destroyed many planets far more advanced than C53.

To him, C53 was merely trash.

However, the troublesome fact was that C53 was Odin's territory!

He was the fierce one who once dared to wage war against the Skyfathers.

Critically, he battled the Skyfathers in a titanic confrontation and still survived.

Thanos admitted that he did not want to provoke such a ruthless character.

Although Odin was now very old, this aging referred to his physical body, not his divine power.

As a god-king, the older Odin got, the more terrifying his divine power became, but an aging body could restrict the use of that power.

But that's under normal circumstances.

If Odin was angered and engaged in a battle regardless of his own physical harm, defeating Thanos would still be very, very easy.

That was the significant reason Thanos had always hesitated to take action against Earth.

Additionally,

Thanos knew there were several dimension demons in the universe coveting C53, yet they had never succeeded.

And about a decade ago, it was said that Ronan had attempted to destroy C53 and had also failed.

Whether these affairs were because of Odin Thanos did not know, but C53 was not as simple as it appeared, its true complexities indiscernible.

Combining all these factors, it was natural for Thanos to refrain from acting rashly.

He would not give up on the Cosmic Cube, but he would wait for the right opportunity.

"Not long ago, Asgard was thrown into chaos."

"The Frost Giants invaded Asgard, attempting to kill Odin, but ultimately they failed."

"Asgard was enraged, and their second prince nearly destroyed Jotunheim."

"But in the process, an accident occurred, and Loki fell into the cosmic abyss."

The Other's voice rose, briefing Thanos on the situation.

Thanos's eyes brightened with opportunity!

Wasn't this the chance he had been waiting for?

Loki was Odin's son, truly a superb trump card.

The only concern was the danger of falling into the cosmic abyss, thus Loki's chances of survival were slim.

Nevertheless, it was the only opportunity, and Thanos would not simply give up.

"Has Loki's body been found?" Thanos immediately pressed on with the inquiry.

The Other, kneeling on the ground, stiffened momentarily before nervously replying, "Apologies, my lord, I thought it wasn't significant intel."

Whoosh!

Before The Other could finish speaking, he perceived the air around them growing tense.

Glancing up at Thanos, he indeed saw him staring back with a grim expression.

The Other trembled with fear and quickly bowed his head again.

"Forgive me, master, it was my oversight!"

The Other promptly admitted the error, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

"It is for me to decide what is important, not you!" Thanos's voice came, deep and chilling, preventing The Other from even daring to breathe.

"Yes, master."

He responded hastily.

"Confirm this immediately!"

"Yes, master!"

The Other dared not utter another word, and upon receiving the command from Thanos, he devoted himself entirely to the task.

Mobilizing all the forces at his disposal, he began searching the universe for Loki or his corpse.

The Other nearly believed it was pointless, as Loki was likely dead, but who was he to question the orders of his master?

The authority that Thanos had established in his mind was too profound to defy.

...

Tony Stark, holder of the diary, naturally could not know of Thanos's covert actions.

After establishing a "cooperation" with the Furyed skulkers, Tony continuously employed JARVIS to monitor the Skrulls and their movements in hope of finding other Skrulls hidden on Earth.

He hadn't expected much, but upon looking, Tony Stark was shocked to his core.

In just half a year's time, Tony had discovered numerous Skrull gathering areas across the globe, mainly in America, but also in Russia.

The smallest of these groups numbered thousands, while some even reached tens of thousands.

Based on Tony's estimates, the amount of Skrulls hiding on Earth could be reaching hundreds of thousands!

This was indeed alarming.

Iron Man did not dare to delay, immediately joining forces with Nick Fury.

He relayed the shocking findings to the old spy.

"Hundreds of thousands of individuals?"

"Are you certain?" Nick Fury almost popped his eyeballs out, scarcely believing his ears.

With the help of JARVIS, they had continually discovered new Skrulls over the past half-year.

But according to Tony's information, there were only a few hundred.

How could their numbers have exploded so exponentially in such a short time?

It seemed almost like a joke.

"The last time we met, you gave me the latest list of just thirty-four people, altogether not exceeding five hundred Skrulls."

"That was less than two weeks ago, right? How did it become hundreds of thousands now?"

Nick Fury expressed profound shock and some incomprehension.

Hundreds of thousands!

How many people lived in Manhattan alone?

Spoilers from the diary had led the sly fox to guess that there must be plenty of Skrulls on Earth.

But he never imagined there would be so many.

So many that it was terrifying!

And how could so many Skrulls possibly stay hidden?

Indeed, Skrulls have the ability to shapeshift, perfectly disguising themselves as anyone.

But even perfect camouflage is still just that—camouflage!

A fake can never become real.

To truly perfectly disguise oneself requires extensive preparatory work; otherwise, flaws are easily exposed.

If there are only a few individuals in disguise, occasional flaws might go unnoticed. But what if there are hundreds of thousands?

Blending in perfectly with Earth to avoid attracting attention is simply impossible.