Chapter 3652: Evil Forces (Part 1)

For everyone else, the massive success of the movie *Ilvermorny* could be called good news. The director had fulfilled his dream of artistic creation, the mages had promoted magic through the film, the actors and child actors had all had a great time, and the audience had seen a wonderful movie. It could be said there were no losers.

Except for Shiler.

In truth, Shiler hadn't originally been a star; he could only be called an internet celebrity, and not even a top-tier one at that. His follower count on short-video platforms was third-rate, and he had no die-hard fans; most people were just there to watch the spectacle.

The videos he usually filmed revolved around superheroes. To be precise, most of his fans were actually fans of other superheroes, while Shiler played the role of a camera, leading them to see the details of the superheroes' lives. After the buzz of the variety show faded, his popularity was not what it once was.

But this time, Shiler had thoroughly broken out. To be precise, he had shed the identity of an internet celebrity and officially become a star. And it wasn't a case of accumulating fans step by step, but rather an overnight sensation, directly parachuting into the ranks of A-list stars.

It sounded pretty good. After all, filming was quite profitable; the leads all had box office profit-sharing, and the income made Shiler feel quite satisfied.

But obviously, being a star wasn't so easy. Now, there were paparazzi around Shiler's sanatorium 24 hours a day, media vehicles of all kinds came and went, and even the entire neighborhood had become lively. Everyone wanted to photograph him.

Although being watched 24 hours a day without privacy was annoying, they weren't breaking the law, after all. They even mingled with the neighborhood residents, learning quite a bit about Dr. Shiler from their mouths.

All of his former patients who had his contact information sent him messages or called to greet him, or otherwise wanted an autograph or a photo. In order to maintain his client base, Shiler really couldn't refuse.

It could be said that during the time the movie's popularity was soaring, Shiler's individual popularity exceeded that of the entire Avengers. His short-video platform account gained three times the followers in just a few days. Countless talent agencies contacted him, wanting to sign him.

When Shiler said he wasn't a professional actor, the other party would tell him to consider a career change; when he said he still had a sanatorium to run, they would say they guaranteed it wouldn't interfere with his business hours. Either way, it was a back-and-forth tug-of-war, insisting he enter the entertainment industry.

Yet Shiler preferred to cook for himself, and to cook for himself, he had to go out to buy groceries. Other ingredients were easy enough, but the key was that certain seasonings had to be replenished at Chinese supermarkets. Americans didn't know Chinese, nor did they know the flavor profiles of those seasonings; if he let someone else help buy them, they would definitely buy the wrong ones.

But as soon as Shiler stepped out, he was surrounded by crowds. Just the cars following him numbered in the dozens. Once he arrived at his destination, regardless of gender or age, everyone swarmed over, pinning him tightly inside, unable to move.

Actually, logically speaking, the internet is forgetful. Once the movie's popularity died down a bit, no one should be paying attention to him anymore. But because Shiler had previously refused to cooperate with interviews and lived a secluded life, almost no one could catch him. The less they could interview him, the less material they had, the more curious the audience became, the higher the clamor, and the higher the popularity.

It could be said that Shiler's behavior of avoiding interviews had been turned into hunger marketing. Now, even if there was just a picture showing a glimpse of him, a blurry back or side profile, the fans would come swarming like a hive, which could simply be called a traffic password.

Where there is traffic, there is profit, and where there is profit, there are people filming. This led to even more people filming Shiler. Besides camping out at the sanatorium, major media outlets were also pulling strings just to contact Shiler and get an exclusive first-hand report. Major television programs were also repeatedly inviting him, even chasing him down to Chris and Strange.

The most absurd thing was that Shiler had a fan who was a natural-born cultist. At seven years old, he had made contact with Mephisto, and without joining Kamar-Taj, he had become a well-known black magician by middle school, only being found after the magical defense network was upgraded to the latest version. By then, the person was already in college.

His primary contractual target was Mephisto, and he had been diligently spreading the cult faith of the Lord of Hell, even helping Mephisto establish a church, which was even legal. If Ghost Rider was a military official, then this one was a civil official, and he was quite valued by Mephisto.

He even made a wish directly to Mephisto just to see Shiler and take a photo with him. When Mephisto saw that his top general had such a request, he had to satisfy it, so he approached Strange.

Strange was full of question marks: No, is it popular now to dial the Hell hotline to chase stars? If the person doesn't want to see you, do you have to send them to Hell?

But Mephisto was indeed very sincere, and the price offered was high. Strange could only come to Shiler to discuss it: You say this free money is not earned for nothing; at worst, we'll split it fifty-fifty as your appearance fee.

Shiler was also speechless; it seemed this fan didn't know the later plot. If he knew that he was the one specifically working against Mephisto's proxy, he would definitely unfollow and turn against him.

To prevent this situation, Shiler had no choice but to call him first and roughly reveal the subsequent plot, indicating that if he was a fan of the character, it was best not to set his expectations too high, because if Mephisto was a legal faith, then doing this might carry the suspicion of insulting the faith.

As it turned out, the other party was actually very excited, and after hanging up, he discussed it with Mephisto for a whole night.

The next day, Strange received news that Mephisto was prepared to personally play the biggest villain of the series, Mephisto.

Shiler didn't know how this guy had convinced Mephisto, nor did he know what Mephisto was thinking, but in the end, when he saw Saphir—who looked exactly like him and was transformed by Mephisto—in his Gao Ta, he felt that the world had finally gone mad.

The Shiler transformed by Mephisto—or to be precise, Saphir, who looked exactly like the school doctor Barton—had a pair of red slit pupils like Mephisto's true form, long black hair, and combined with Shiler's original appearance, this really wrote the words "I am not a good person" right on his face.

The day he arrived, he almost scared the terror-inducing Falcon Head to death. The Egyptian pantheon, with many gods squeezed into one plane, was far inferior to a Dimension Lord. The key was that this Lord also had Shiler's face. If Kong Su had a cell phone, he would have almost worn out his dial button calling the police by now.

Fortunately, Gao Ta was also full of talent. First, the World Serpent Ye Meng, smelling something wrong, came over to look and his pupils shook, and later, one of Nyarlathotep's avatars, the Black Pharaoh, received the new visitor quite enthusiastically. And by the time Greed returned, half of the personality traits in Gao Ta had run over to watch the fun.

Greed took the elevator down to the bottom floor, and when the door opened, he was speechless. It wasn't enough that I was being besieged in the real world these past few days; how come when I returned to Gao Ta, it was still crowded?

Then, seeing another new version of himself, Greed almost took off on the spot. He had indeed agreed to Strange's request to act opposite Mephisto because Mephisto's price was good. But that was for filming a movie! How did you actually come here!

And you came, you came; as a dignified Hell Lord, don't you have your own skin? Why do you have to use mine?

Shiler didn't know how to describe the Shiler played by Mephisto. He was that very typical stereotypical devil image from various film and television works: wearing a suit, refined, but actually revealing an evil aura from head to toe.

And Mephisto had definitely added his own private goods. The Shiler he molded didn't look exactly like Shiler; he had become more handsome and evil, lacking Shiler's post-modern, neurotic indifference, but adding a more traditional evil aura.

Shiler wanted to call the police now. But obviously, the policeman who could arrest Mephisto, Strange, had already chosen to collude with him. And the key was that he had been blinded by money earlier and agreed to Strange's condition for Mephisto to participate; the contract was signed, and it was too late to regret it now.

Mephisto was wearing a very old-school traditional gentleman's suit, unlike the manipulation that preferred bright colors. His attire was low-key and luxurious, the shoulder tailoring was softer, combining British conservatism and French elegance, and he held a gold-patterned cane in his hand, his hair combed meticulously back.

Greed opened his mouth, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say. But Mephisto reached out to brush the dust off his collar and said, "Long time no see, Dr. Shiler. Recently, I investigated and found that you are very popular among humans, and the movie you are filming happens to have a scene between you and me. I'm afraid I have to borrow your image; I think this will also bring me more believers."

Only then did Shiler understand that Mephisto wasn't interested in the movie; he was eyeing the movie's traffic.

Actually, to be fair, these demons and cosmic gods were indeed a bit behind the times. In the Middle Ages, if they wanted to proselytize, they could only rely on fooling believers and then word-of-mouth.

But what time is it now? It's the 21st century! If you register an account on the hottest short-video platform and broadcast something, it's faster than you struggling to fool believers in their dreams to gain followers.

Mephisto was obviously among the first to wake up. They realized that modern people were not as ignorant as those in the Middle Ages; they received a massive information bombardment every day, and the evil level of some of that information far exceeded the Demon Code.

To modern people, God and Satan were just cultural symbols. Most believers now were too far removed from that era; they only treated this as a mythological story, and could even joke about them recklessly on the internet. The church's ruling power had long since been far from what it used to be.

In an era where one could even openly discuss demons, the old sneaky methods were simply too inefficient. With the internet, they could completely proselytize openly.

Kamar-Taj would only block the main body of a god from invading Earth, but they were not a religious organization and couldn't manage others' proselytizing. They even, to some extent, allowed gods to find proxies to proselytize. As long as you didn't start a war on Earth or hold large-scale cult rituals that disregarded human life, then neither Kamar-Taj nor the Sorcerer Supreme would care. They didn't care in the Ancient One's era, otherwise, with the Ancient One's power level, which religion could have developed under her?

In other words, as long as you conducted religion legally, reasonably, and in compliance, there was no need to be sneaky. Taking advantage of the booming development of the internet, one could completely choose to gain followers online.

But even for a demon, accurately grasping internet trends required some skills. And the clever Mephisto directly chose the simplest way, which was to ride the coattails of popularity.

Who is the hottest person on the internet right now? It's Shiler! If he could catch this wave of massive traffic, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes to become popular?

(End of chapter)