The entity who destroyed everything was Dr. Pym, the original Ant-Man.
In his desperate attempt to save his wife, he had opened a channel to the Quantum Realm.
Initially, this development proceeded normally, but Dr. Pym never expected his wife—the original Wasp, Janet—had become infected with a zombie virus during her decades trapped in the Quantum Realm.
The moment he found his beloved wife, she attacked him. Unfortunately, he became another victim of the plague.
The most peculiar aspect of this quantum-based virus was that after zombification, victims retained significant intelligence while maintaining their pre-death abilities.
Therefore, after Dr. Pym's transformation, he and his zombie wife used quantum technology to return to the present world.
The zombie outbreak began immediately. Since the Ant-Man family all possessed shrinking abilities, they spread the contagion with terrifying efficiency.
When heroes finally noticed the zombie virus, the infection had already covered vast areas.
As superheroes mobilized to eliminate the undead threat, the Ant-Man family emerged one by one, using size manipulation for devastating sneak attacks on many heroes.
Among the casualties were Thor, Steve, Tony, and Banner—all successfully ambushed by the microscopic assassins.
These zombified superheroes caused the viral outbreak to spread globally.
When they were heroes, they had carefully controlled their powers to protect civilians most of the time.
But after zombification, such restraints vanished as they unleashed their abilities to maximum potential.
Among them, the most destructive were Thor as the zombie God of Thunder and Banner as the undead Hulk.
The combined power these two unleashed at full capacity proved impossible for any nation to resist, not to mention other superheroes and supervillains who had been turned.
As the zombie horde continued expanding, the entire world fell. No one could resist the advance of superpowered undead.
Only a small number of enhanced individuals remained alive, using their abilities to evade the zombie army's relentless pursuit.
Among them was one exception—Vision from the zombie universe, the android who had failed to be born in the Avengers world due to Marcus's influence.
"Is it because he's synthetic that he avoided this catastrophe? But I didn't expect to find Wanda imprisoned here by him!"
Marcus observed clearly that the zombified Wanda was being held captive by Vision. Though angry, she took no aggressive action. After transformation, she seemed to retain some love for the android.
This affection made her less violent when facing Vision. Even her anger stemmed only from being confined.
Moreover, Vision regularly fed Wanda fresh blood and flesh, keeping the zombie Scarlet Witch more stable than other undead.
Witnessing this, Marcus gained general understanding of the outbreak's origins.
"Zombie virus in the Quantum Realm? Truly fascinating. Who would introduce such contagion to that dimension?"
Marcus was familiar with the Quantum Realm, which made this revelation particularly surprising.
He genuinely wanted to know who had shrunk the virus to quantum scale and deposited it there.
Likely, that individual never anticipated the miniaturized zombie plague would destroy an entire universe.
After completing his temporal investigation, Marcus strode forward.
The Infestation virus spread continuously through his actions, with carpets of flesh and blood appearing beneath his feet.
Around him, numerous mutated hounds and runners howled while attacking countless zombies.
Tough tentacles shot from their mouths, instantly dragging targets forward before savagely biting the undead. The Infestation virus spread through each bite, contaminating the zombie victims.
As Marcus advanced, runner numbers increased. Some underwent additional mutations—evolving into more advanced variants while others merged together, becoming even larger monstrosities.
Marcus paid little attention to these developments, simply transmitting signals to all mutants: avoid harming the living.
The aberrants obeyed completely, collecting spreading spores and using tentacles to attack only zombies.
Though this infection method was less efficient, it prevented spore dispersal that might accidentally harm survivors.
The constant battle between aberrants and zombies attracted numerous zombie heroes and villains, all rushing toward Marcus.
The Survivors' Perspective
"Have the zombies left?" Peter asked from a basement, using a periscope to observe the outside situation.
Originally, he'd planned to escape through the basement's secret exit to warn others, but unexpectedly, all zombies had departed.
He clearly witnessed the building-sized zombie Ant-Man turning away, with zombie Iron Man flying rapidly through the air beside him.
"I must inform everyone. Something important enough to make these zombies abandon their hunt must be happening."
Carefully retracting the periscope, after confirming the basement remained secure and blocked, he emerged through the side's concealed door. This was the survivors' reserved escape route—precisely these passages had enabled their continued existence despite zombie pursuit.
Spider-Man moved cautiously through the safe passage until it opened into the survivors' secret base.
"Everyone, I've discovered an abnormal situation. Perhaps you can explain what's happening."
Peter related everything he'd witnessed, causing many survivors to frown after hearing his account.
Those who'd survived the zombie outbreak were all exceptional individuals, yet none could explain this development.
They'd never observed such strange zombie behavior. While they knew the undead retained intelligence and could communicate, they couldn't understand what would convince them to abandon hunting living people.
"This is genuinely abnormal. We've never encountered such circumstances. Something must have attracted them," one survivor concluded.
All survivors agreed something had drawn the zombies—something so important they'd abandoned their search for the living.
Seeing everyone shared his thoughts, Peter felt both pleased and curious.
He wanted to know what was attracting the zombies and whether that phenomenon might prove useful to them.
But the moment curiosity arose, he immediately suppressed it.
This wasn't the normal world anymore. Curiosity brought only death. They had to control their inner desires and survive in this reality as long as possible.
"Maybe we should conduct reconnaissance," someone suggested, drawing everyone's attention. "I know safety is our priority now, but whatever's attracting zombies might be key to defeating them."
Surviving in a post-zombie apocalypse was extremely difficult. Ordinary undead already exhausted their resources, not to mention zombified superheroes and supervillains.
If they could discover what attracted the zombies, they might use this opportunity to eliminate the threat entirely.
However, while they spoke hopefully, everyone understood the extreme danger involved.
After all, that phenomenon had attracted so many undead. If they scouted now, they risked being caught in the zombie horde.
Moreover, superpowered zombies were among the attracted—requiring maximum vigilance.
But who should they send?
Few survivors remained present—this was everyone. Every action required careful consideration.
They couldn't afford further losses. Reducing numbers would make their situation even more precarious.
"I'll go. My spider-sense can detect danger in advance, and I'm agile enough," Peter volunteered, raising his hand.
He was among those who'd survived the apocalypse most easily, thanks entirely to his spider-sense.
The ability allowed him to sense approaching danger while his flexible, agile body helped him avoid most risks.
"No, while you move easily, you'll be easily targeted when facing Thor and the others."
Peter's abilities were indeed excellent for reconnaissance, but zombie Thor and similar threats wouldn't find catching or harming him particularly difficult.
After zombification, they attacked without restraint, even while retaining intelligence.
Compared to these undead, even with danger-sensing abilities, Peter's situation wouldn't be favorable.
"Let's go together. Peter is most agile and can serve as our scout, while we follow behind, ready to rescue him at any moment."
"Of course, we also need escape preparations during our advance."
The speaker was Hope, Dr. Pym's daughter and the second-generation Wasp.
She'd been fortunate—when her zombie father came to kill her, she'd reacted immediately, shrinking to escape.
"I think that works. We can pass by Base 1 on our route," Bucky agreed.
Recently, they'd received signals from Base 1 claiming significant progress on zombie virus countermeasures.
Reaching that location might help accelerate cure development.
Everyone agreed, gathering equipment to begin the operation.
Peter departed first, confirming his web-shooters functioned properly before climbing buildings and heading toward the zombie swarm.
Compared to the survivors' discussion, Marcus's situation was considerably more chaotic.
"Ah, zombie numbers are increasing," he observed, watching undead battle aberrants.
The flesh carpet beneath his feet became more aggressive as countless tentacles spread in all directions.
Abandoned buildings were torn apart by appendages and rapidly merged together.
Unlike the zombie virus that could only infect living organisms, the Infestation proved far more terrifying.
Surrounding machinery and structures combined with flesh and blood, spawning even more horrific aberrations.
Some fused with solid rock, others with mechanical metal, and so forth. These new variants greatly enriched the aberrant combat system.
Even zombie heroes and villains couldn't easily defeat these mutated creatures, especially the rampaging behemoths. Except for undead with powerful melee capabilities, other attacks felt like tickling to the monsters.
Marcus didn't pause for these developments, continuing forward while previously invincible zombie heroes and villains found themselves in desperate battles.
Zombie Doctor Strange raised his hand, releasing magic as a portal opened behind Marcus.
But before launching his attack, tentacles swaying in the wind on the ground struck first, piercing his arm protruding through the portal.
SQUEAL, SQUEAL, SQUEAL...
A swarm of maggots hidden beneath tentacles celebrated, crawling along the appendages toward zombie Doctor Strange.
"Want to ambush? Seeking death," Marcus noted.
Those maggots coexisting with tentacles were also Infestation virus spreaders, intimately connected to the flesh-and-blood terrain beneath Marcus's feet.
While devouring targets, they continuously nourished the living ground, making surface aberrations stronger and stronger.
What is this?
When Spider-Man Peter arrived, zombie heroes had already descended into civil war. Zombie Doctor Strange, infected by aberrant maggots, completed transformation in moments.
He became the first aberrant to master supernatural abilities, with portals becoming guillotines in his hands.
Numerous portals opened above zombie heads. The moment undead skulls passed through, the gateways immediately closed.
Zombie heads fell as portals snapped shut, all becoming nutrients for aberrant maggots. New flesh-and-blood pillars rose from the ground while fresh aberrant maggots multiplied as tentacles around the columns grew.
Such scenes left Peter confused. The mutated Doctor Strange differed completely from his zombie form, and surrounding flesh pillars made him shudder. His spider-sense frantically warned him to flee this location.
"Everyone, we may have serious problems!" Peter contacted others through his communicator, relating everything he'd witnessed.
When his followers heard this account, they fell silent. They hadn't expected such a terrifying entity to be attracting the zombies.
Moreover, these two forces seemed hostile toward each other—or the growing flesh pillars were predating upon the undead.
"Return, Peter. Be careful," they advised.
While uncertain whether the flesh pillars threatened them, they were sure they should avoid that area.
"Understood!"
After responding, Peter turned and shot webbing toward distant buildings.
This place felt too dangerous. If zombies weren't all attracted by those strange flesh structures, he would never dare use webbing so openly for rapid movement through this abandoned city.