Chapter 1400: The Old Days Return (16)

In the space filled with thick gray mist, two beings who were like gods yet not gods gazed at each other. The old face holding the quill still held doubts about the black sun hanging opposite.

The God of Stories, Loki, was an extremely special existence in the universe. He managed all the stories in the universe, creating stories, listening to stories, and feeling stories. He was the child of stories and also the father of stories. Therefore, when every story was written by his pen, it was also written into his soul.

A recent absurd, bizarre, and terrifying story had attracted him. There were too many horror stories in the universe, but most were scattered and chaotic. Each story had a ghost, and they were all different, but they didn't know each other. Most of the time, they only harmed the race that created the story.

But the horror story that the God of Stories, Loki, heard recently was different from all others. It had order within chaos. Countless terrifying existences each had their names, and even had kinship, using their symbols, personalities, and hobbies to jointly form a complex network of relationships.

Yet it was very disordered within order. They didn't want to deliberately harm any intelligent life, just staying quietly in the depths of the stars, and the madness encountered by those who peeked at the truth was just their own seeking of death.

Setting this aside, from Englewood to the end of the mysterious existence's dream world, this ups-and-downs story aroused the curiosity of the God of Stories. He wanted to know if there was really anything in the depths of the stars.

So he came, and saw this black sun hanging high in the sky, terrifying, grand, and magnificent.

However, no matter how the God of Stories, Loki, investigated, he seemed to always be separated from the existences in the depths of the stars by a thick barrier.

He couldn't approach them, nor could he observe them, and he didn't know how to respond to the call of the stars.

The story he obtained didn't specify this, and there were no similar techniques in all other stories.

This was very incredible, because if anyone had really contacted the stars, the God of Stories, Loki, would definitely have been able to find traces in the thousands of stories he had listened to.

Just when the God of Stories, Loki, felt puzzled, another story caught his attention. And this story came from himself in another universe.

"A flash of intense light, and Schiller woke up from a somewhat confused drowsiness. Outside the bedroom window of Asgard, one could see the bright energy tail flames of the Shi'ar Empire's royal spaceship as it decelerated and landed.

This is truly strange, Schiller thought. The Queen and her husband of the Shi'ar Empire actually came to congratulate in person, and arrived earlier than the other two major empires..."

An interesting suspense story.

The fact that this story came from another version of himself inevitably added a more suspenseful quality to this story—what kind of universe could allow so many parties to wrestle here in this way?

When the God of Stories, Loki, projected his attention to this universe, he heard all the stories of this universe, as well as countless slightly familiar, interference-filled noises in all those stories—"God of Stories! Thor locked me up! Help!"

Schiller, or rather Greed, who was projecting his consciousness onto the black sun, suddenly felt a call coming from the tower.

"Greed, Greed! If you hear the broadcast, please return to the tower immediately. After hearing the broadcast, please report to the tower broadcast station immediately!"

Schiller pulled his consciousness back impatiently, then projected his consciousness down again, arrived at the tower, and took the elevator to the broadcast station floor. As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a green-skinned Schiller sitting in front of the broadcast station shouting.

"Greed, Greed, if you hear the broadcast, please... oh, you're here."

"What's the matter, Skrull? Why are you in such a hurry to find me? I'm doing serious business," Greed asked.

The Schiller called Skrull walked up and said: "It's not me looking for you, it's Nick. He's looking for you like crazy. You go over there quickly."

"But I still have things to do," Schiller said, frowning and crossing his arms: "What urgent matter does he have that I must go over? If it's the psychological assessment report for this period, can't you just give it to him? Isn't your body currently at the Time Variance Authority?"

"If it were that, I wouldn't come to find you," Skrull shook his head: "Don't you know yet? He's looking for you, it must be something related to funding or something. Or it's an extension of your previous plans. I heard him curse for half an hour, I really couldn't stand it anymore, you go over quickly."

Greed shook his head helplessly. He just wanted to say they were changing shifts, but he felt movement beside his body inside the clinic in Hell's Kitchen.

At that time, he pretended to be asleep because the TV show was too boring, but now Peter Parker was shaking his body, wanting to play the new two-player game with him. Schiller had at most three seconds to wake up, otherwise Peter and Steve would likely go to Stark to complain, and then he would be exposed.

So Greed strode forward, rushed to the broadcast station, and shouted: "Pride! Pride! Pride, are you there? If you hear the broadcast, please come to the broadcast station immediately. If you hear the broadcast, please come to the broadcast station immediately!"

Not long after, a black-faced Pride appeared outside the broadcast station door. Greed stood up from the broadcast station and said: "Hurry up and take the shift! I swear this is the last time this month, please!"

Pride was full of impatience, but he still pursed his lips and said: "No way, Batman can recognize me."

"Then you go to the black sun, Skrull goes on the account, and then I go on his account."

"You really play too many games."

A few minutes later, Schiller walked along the corridor of the Time Variance Authority. Before he reached Nick's office, he heard him cursing wildly inside. He actively blocked the dirty words in his tone, and the remaining one-tenth of effective information was that Loki's absenteeism led to work that should have been completed seven or eight days ago still having no clue.

Schiller pushed the door in. Nick turned his head and wanted to roar, but when he saw it was Schiller, he paused and asked tentatively: "Schiller?"

"That's right, it's me. Skrull just called me over. What's the matter, worth you getting so angry?"

"Loki has been absent for almost a week," Nick put his hands on his hips, sighed deeply, and said: "You know, now the only ones who can mix well in the stars are him and Thanos. Thanos has a special identity and high prices, we don't dare to use him much. Now we are all counting on Loki to spy on interstellar intelligence."

"Thor locked Loki up. He's not working, information updates too slowly, six project teams stopped working with him, and the intelligence network spanning various single universes can't be built."

Nick pinched his eyebrows hard and sat behind the desk, looking tired and frustrated. Schiller shrugged and said: "It's useless for you to find me. You know I'm not the type for field work."

"I didn't intend for you to do field work either, that's too wasteful. I'm contacting all special humans in the pan-human civilization circle who can change their appearance at will. Mystique is busy, Rogue and Mastermind are in Magneto's hands, that guy won't let people go easily, mages are very busy and basically can't leave, and Spider-Man's appearance of hiccuping three times after saying one lie can't do intelligence work either."

Nick sighed deeply again. Schiller poured him a glass of water. He gulped down half a glass, put the cup on the table, wiped his mouth, and said: "I asked you to come over, on one hand, I want you to talk to Thor. When they changed the Asgardian throne, he didn't really do anything to his brother. Why is he imprisoning him now?"

"His set of rhetoric about preventing overwork is even more ridiculous. The three of us humans haven't said anything yet, can Frost Giants really die of exhaustion first?"

Schiller nodded deeply and echoed: "I also think they are making a mountain out of a molehill, but just like Stark has to watch me, who let them have big fists?"

Nick sighed again and said: "If I had known today would happen, I should have thought of a way to strengthen your combat power, at least let you be able to run when you are caught."

"No way," Schiller shook his head and leaned against the desk.

"There is one more point," Nick tapped the table with his fingertips and said: "I can't talk to that damn mental patient control freak Magneto at all, and he doesn't trust me at all, because S. H. I. E. L. D. did hunt him down before. But it seems you two can talk."

"Gwen Spider-Man just told me that her and Spider-Man Noir's mission to transport the M'kraan Crystal to the Underworld has been completed. Mutants will definitely find you and ask for your advice on handling the M'kraan Crystal."

"You can use this to bargain with them, let those two old foxes not hold mutants like Rogue and Mastermind tightly in their hands. Does he really expect them to have babies?"

Nick fiercely tapped the table with his knuckles and said: "I will never agree to their extortion-like terms! 20 sets of combat suits with the same standard as Spider-Man is my bottom line! Doctor, remember this point, not one more set!"

"Of course, for Professor X's sake, I can include three years of warranty and maintenance, and we can help train the people they send over. That group of mutants is no different from illiterates, they should be content!"

Schiller smiled and sat down opposite Nick. He put his hands on the table, looked into Nick's eyes, and said: "I actually think you don't have to rush to make an offer. After a while, mutants will be more anxious than you."

Nick narrowed his eyes, his thumb gently stroking the side of his index finger. Looking at Schiller's serious expression, he widened his eyes again and said: "You're not, are you? Tony Stark is watching you so closely, and you can still have a way..."

"I always have a way."

"Tell me about it." Nick pulled his chair forward, also put his hands on the table, leaned forward, and made a posture of listening.

"Before long, the M'kraan Crystal will likely show its true power, and mutants will be completely unable to control it."

"Did you do something to it?" Nick frowned, his serious expression seemingly judging whether Schiller's behavior was a bit too risky. He pondered for a moment, touched the area under his nose with his hand, and said: "Dr. Schiller, I heard that you have made progress in polytechnics, but in this regard, my opinion is completely consistent with Tony's. Not every thing that looks like a light bulb needs you to screw it."

Schiller waved his hand, indicating that he had completely misunderstood, and said: "I don't have this ability, nor do I have a good opportunity to screw the M'kraan Crystal. I know its danger."

"But at the same time, I know its special nature. Its essence is actually a channel to other universes, which is somewhat similar to the subway I opened for Eternity, but not exactly the same."

"What is the difference?"

"The M'kraan Crystal is more unstable," Schiller shook his head and said: "You can understand it as a big bomb that can open a portal at any time, so I hinted that mutants should put it in the Underworld."

Nick laughed and said: "Yes, because skeletons won't die again."

"Don't tell cold jokes," Schiller wrinkled his nose and said: "But it actually has nothing to do with that. The most important thing is that the Underworld where Hela is located has a very close connection with the Death Realm. The Kingly Power Hela uses is actually also from the death of this world."

"So what is the significance of this?" Nick hinted for Schiller to make it clear.

Schiller leaned back, put one leg on the other, revealed a smile, and said: "Soon, a group of monsters who once cruelly killed the death of their own world will come to this universe through the channel opened by the M'kraan Crystal, and their purpose is to perform an 'autopsy' on the death avatar of this world, kill him, and kill the death of this universe."

"Landing in the Underworld full of death aura allows them to better understand the death of this universe and find the death avatar of this universe faster."

Nick narrowed his eyes slightly.

Schiller stood up from the table, looked at the starry sky outside the window of the Time Variance Authority office, and said: "I need a good target to see if the sword I've been sharpening for so long is sharp enough."

Nick sat in place, just raising his eyes to look at Schiller.

"An exam?"

"An exam."

Nick's fingers kept tapping on the table. After a minute of silence, he asked: "How do you ensure that everyone will unite to resist foreign enemies?"

"They have no choice but to do so."

"Oh?"

Schiller turned his head to look into Nick's eyes and said.

"Because the death avatar of this universe is me." ===== CHAPTER 1401 =====