131

Chapter 131: Differences in Ideas

On Kamar-Taj's square, a golden belt encircled Carol Danvers in the air, followed by a bolt of orange magical lightning.

Carol neither dodged nor reacted to the lightning. With a swift movement, she broke free from the magical belt with a loud "bang."

Landing gracefully, she shook her head and said, "I think you should use your purple thunderbolt again. You can't learn magic from someone with a bald head."

Thor looked on with helplessness. He had hoped that, being somewhat of a magician himself, he would easily grasp the spells taught at Kamar-Taj.

However, he realized he had overestimated himself. Thor's magic was typically elemental, focused on lightning and storms, while the Ancient One's magic dealt with concepts like space and time. The difference between their types of magic was significant.

Despite two months of practice, Thor found casting even simple spells with the Sling Ring challenging. Most Kamar-Taj magicians could manage these spells with ease, but Thor's attempts had been lackluster, mostly remaining at the level of superficial tricks.

As the trial subject, Carol Danvers had some insight into this. The strength of the magic belt could only restrain mortals, with Captain America being its maximum target. The defensive capability of the magical shield was inferior to the Vibranium shield, and the magical lightning only produced minor effects.

Advanced techniques, like the Aikon's form or spatial manipulation, were exclusive to the Ancient One.

Indeed, the Ancient One's magic was spectacular and costly, with impressive special effects.

Thor was somewhat embarrassed. He had hoped to learn from Doctor Strange and imagined himself wielding Stormbreaker to defeat Thanos. The only useful skill he managed was replacing the Tesseract's spatial portal, though his lack of finesse meant the effect was inconsistent when the Bifrost's portal was closed.

At least he didn't accidentally harm himself...

According to the Ancient One, Thor had a solid grasp of magic compared to most of Kamar-Taj's magicians. If he weren't Thor, he might have done well to earn a living here. With diligent study, he could potentially reach the level of Master Wong.

Thor felt regretful at the thought of being compared to Doctor Strange's comedic sidekick. He abandoned his aspirations of grandeur and started to delve into Kamar-Taj's magical texts.

In reality, he was more napping with a book in the library while the system assistant handled the book's contents.

Thor believed it was important to expand his knowledge base so the assistant wouldn't have to keep asking questions.

After a few days, Carol decided to leave. She planned to stay on Earth for a while longer. According to her, many planets in the universe still lacked the Avengers' protection. She intended to continue her role as a cosmic guardian.

Thor wanted to mention that staying on Earth might keep her busy for a long time.

Suddenly, he recalled that S.H.I.E.L.D. was developing a major new project, rumored to be a crime prevention system, with technical support from Stark Industries.

Though the project was in its early stages, Thor quickly realized it was an insight program—a system designed to limit and eliminate the causes and conditions of crime before it occurred. This system would use various social factors and measures to prevent and control crime and reoffending.

The core technology, known as the Zola Algorithm, predicted criminal behavior before a crime was committed, treating individuals as criminals before a court decision.

Modern criminal law prohibits such predictive guilt. The idea of convicting individuals based on anticipated actions rather than actual crimes could be seen as a violation of rights and regional discrimination.

From another perspective, if the "crime prevention" system lacked effective control or was misused, it could become a tool of totalitarianism, stabilizing the regime through repression—a goal originally intended by HYDRA.

Although the Insight Project facilities were not officially completed until 2014, Nick Fury might seek Carol's opinion on the feasibility of the project, given her knowledge of advanced civilizations like the Kree.

Carol's reaction was intriguing. Her eyes lit up when Thor described the vision to her in jest.

"What a brilliant idea! I think it's fantastic!" she exclaimed.

Her response surprised Thor. "If implemented, using predictive information to address sources of danger in advance and prevent issues before they arise would be a milestone for society!"

Thor asked, "Then have you considered that preemptively dealing with someone before they commit a destructive act could be seen as an abuse of power? Arresting someone for a potential crime that hasn't happened yet?"

Carol pondered this for a moment before nodding. "That's a valid point. But isn't it too late to wait for a crime to occur before addressing it? You made the Avengers to deal with such issues, but why not preemptively address potential threats?"

Thor countered, "What if it's determined that I'm a potential danger? Some people have called me a walking nuclear bomb."

Carol hesitated, then said helplessly, "If that were the case, I'd have to monitor you closely."

Thor finally understood that Carol's logic was rigid and unyielding. Her perspective was inflexible, and convincing her otherwise would be challenging.