Chapter 3653

Schiller is truly a bit impressed by Mephisto. To a certain extent, the devil is synonymous with the phrase, "He who has no shame is invincible under heaven." As long as they can achieve their goals, they will stop at nothing, and there is simply no dignity to speak of. In a way, one could even call him the innate internet saint.

Moreover, his brain turns very quickly—he wouldn't be the King of Hell if he weren't smart—and while other demon gods still couldn't figure out what the internet was all about, he had already self-taught the techniques of riding trends and hijacking other people's traffic.

If he were to use his true form or mold a new image of someone else right now to promote himself and recruit believers, it would likely be very difficult. Not only would he have to start an account from scratch, but if he didn't pull off some hardcore stunts, he wouldn't be able to attract much traffic at all.

Devils are all greedy; they are not satisfied with gaining a few followers a day. Since there is a way to reach the goal in one step, why use such a clumsy method?

The movie screenwriter has already set it up for you: you and the character of Dr. Barton, the most popular school doctor, are two sides of the same coin. As long as you borrow his image to display your own charm, wouldn't you go viral in minutes?

Although the image he uses is Schiller's, in the movie, his identity is actually the most evil black magician, Saphir. And Saphir's power source is Mephisto.

If someone falls in love with Saphir, it is actually helping Mephisto expand his popularity. After all, many people now think the King of Hell is Satan. Even if he can reverse the concept for a portion of the people, Mephisto will have made a huge profit.

For these cosmic demon gods, human faith has a very special power. And it's not just devout believers; casual believers can also provide the power of faith. Who says fans who like Saphir aren't Mephisto's casual believers?

Mephisto has already figured out from his own believers exactly how many people like Schiller now. When the time comes, if he plays this role well, even if he converts one-tenth of the fans he gains into casual believers, it is absolutely no loss.

Schiller is regretting it now; he is very regretful. If he had known it would be like this, he would never have agreed to Mephisto's request to participate.

He may be having a great time acting, but the problem is that he is wearing his own face, and won't the character fans he attracts eventually convert into his own fans? By then, his sanitarium could stage a "Zombie Siege" without needing any special effects!

Schiller naturally intends to take some measures. He first called Chris; after all, Chris is the director, and he should firmly resist this unreasonable behavior of investors inserting people without cause.

"Hello?" Chris's voice sounded a bit muddled, as if he had just woken up. "Dr. Schiller? It really is you. I truly have thoughts by day and dreams by night; I actually dreamed of a long-haired, black-haired you, drinking and chatting with me in my dream, discussing the script for later..."

Schiller gasped and said, "A long-haired me? Then did you see clearly what color his eyes were?"

"It seems... it seems they were red... He said he was some kind of devil. I asked him if he had horns, and he even grew a pair of goat horns on his head for me. There were even goat hooves. Human dreams are truly strange. Hahaha."

"Where are you right now?" Schiller asked.

"I'm at my villa on Long Island. What's wrong?"

"You wait, I'm coming to find you right now." Schiller was just about to hang up the phone when he heard Chris say on the other end, "Oh, Schiller, you're here. Wait, how did you get here so fast?!"

Schiller could no longer care about much else and hurriedly turned into gray mist, flying toward Long Island. He circled the villa area but couldn't find Chris. He stopped on the roof of a building and called Strange.

"Hello? Stephen! Chris Columbus has been kidnapped! To be precise, he was kidnapped by a ghost!"

"Are you not awake yet?" Strange walked out of the bathroom, wiped his dripping hair, and then said, "What happened to Chris?"

"He was kidnapped by Mephisto!" Schiller gestured, seemingly not knowing how to explain it. He said, "I called Chris and said I was coming over. Then Mephisto, who had turned into my appearance, appeared in his house. When I came to find him, he was gone!"

"You wait, I'm coming over right now."

Ten minutes later, Strange descended from the sky, looked at Schiller standing to the side, and said, "I really want to ask if you are in your right mind. What Mephisto? What kidnapping? What on earth are you talking about?"

Schiller was stunned. He only then realized that Strange didn't know Mephisto had turned into his appearance. But then again, there was no need for this old devil to go show off at the Avengers. He didn't need to urge them to hand in psychological reports!

"The matter is complicated," Schiller said. "Has Chris told you the real script? I mean, do you know what the story after the fourth installment is like?"

Seeing Strange's blank expression, Schiller had no choice but to tell Strange the complete script first. After listening, Strange still didn't quite understand.

"So, the real black magician Saphir and the real Sorcerer Supreme are both inside your body. They both grew up to look like you. And the Mephisto who wants to act is not the Mephisto who only revealed his true form as the King of Hell at the end, but that Saphir who looks exactly like you?"

"That's right, this damn devil is playing word games with the contract again. He said he wanted to play Mephisto, but he didn't say whether he was going to play his true form or the believer he controls."

"But according to what you mean, the headmaster of Ilvermorny that I played was also controlled by him. Why didn't he turn into me?"

"Of course, it's because you aren't as popular as me!" Schiller said helplessly. "He wants traffic. He wants to be a big hit, so of course, he will pick the more popular one. Moreover, Saphir's character design is much better than yours. He thinks the audience will love watching this, which is why he pulled off such a stunt."

"Then let him act," Strange said. "He is a devil; his acting skills should be pretty good. I'm actually quite looking forward to you two acting opposite each other."

"He wants the character he plays to go viral. But the problem is, if the two of us look the same, the audience will think it's me playing two roles—what if I really win an Oscar?!"

"What's wrong with an Oscar?" Strange asked. "That will make more people know you, and more people will come to you for medical treatment. Wouldn't you make a fortune then?"

"If you had visited my sanitarium these days, even for a glance, you wouldn't say that. Even if I go out to buy a bottle of bean paste, it's like squeezing into the New York subway at eight in the morning!"

"This is just growing pains," Strange said. "Fame is very short-lived. It won't be long before there are new, good-looking movies, and they will go chase new characters. By then, you'll be fine. If you really find it annoying, just go hide somewhere else."

"The problem is that Mephisto is using my face to cause trouble right now! Can you imagine him turning around in front of Stark? How many decibels of screaming will that turkey erupt with?"

"He will probably just think you had a whim and wanted to change to a new image," Strange spread his hands and said. "Of course, it's also possible he will think one of your personalities ran out. But anyway, he doesn't know anyone except you. It doesn't matter which one it is."

"If you ask me, you also deserve it," Strange said with a bit of disdain. "If it weren't for you creating so many personality traits, making everyone a bit confused, people would easily notice you are different and become suspicious. But now they will only think it's a new personality logging in and won't take it to heart at all."

Schiller opened his mouth and was actually unable to refute. After all, his various personality traits all have strong personalities; their clothing, temperament, style, etc., are all different. So it's very normal for a devil personality to come out one day.

Now Mephisto is determined to play this role. He definitely won't let Schiller ruin his plan, which is why he took Chris away a step ahead of him. Although Chris is definitely in no danger, to prevent Schiller from causing him trouble, Mephisto will also find ways to interfere with his line of sight. For example, pretending to be him to cause some trouble, and then letting the Avengers and S. H. I. E. L. D. tie his hands and feet.

Schiller is absolutely certain that Mephisto will impersonate him; otherwise, why would this devil go into his high tower? Wasn't it just to gather material?

And Greed is indeed responsible for this matter. Just because he likes to bring those strange things into the high tower, such as big pythons, big falcon heads, Black Pharaohs, etc., when Mephisto came, the Superego thought it was his new figure and let him pass without even thinking. It really allowed this devil to succeed.

But if Mephisto is Schiller, then who is Schiller?!

Now Mephisto has seized the initiative. If Schiller chases after him to explain, he probably won't catch him in this lifetime. He must think of a way to stop this damn devil from using his face to cause trouble.

Thinking of this, Schiller's movements paused. If Mephisto is Schiller, then he can be Nyarlathotep!

This is the benefit of having an extra vest. Schiller thought, and Sothoth happens to be a folklorist; this kind of scholar is specifically for expelling devils in the Middle Ages. It belongs to the professional match.

However, just him alone won't quite work. After all, his understanding of Mephisto is limited, and I'm afraid no exorcism ritual can expel a devil of Mephisto's level. He needs to find someone who understands Mephisto, preferably someone whose relationship with him isn't so harmonious. The two of them join forces to stop Mephisto's behavior of insisting on riding the trend regardless of Schiller's life or death.

Schiller thought of Ghost Rider Danny, who is Johnny's younger brother. He has a grudge against Mephisto and has always had some persecutory delusions, feeling that all the misfortunes in life are brought by Mephisto. He even dislikes his own brother Johnny, who contracted with Mephisto.

If it were in the past, Schiller would suggest he see a doctor. But now it proves that Danny still has foresight. And his power doesn't come from Mephisto, but from the Spirit of Vengeance inside him. This Spirit of Vengeance is a righteous, good person and is very trustworthy.

No sooner said than done. Schiller first used gray mist to turn into Dr. Sothoth's appearance, and to gain people's trust, he certainly couldn't just show up at the door. Otherwise, it would easily arouse Danny's suspicion. He must make this matter look more reasonable.

Thus, he first posted a thread on a forum for occult enthusiasts, discussing the occult elements existing in the movie "Ilvermorny" and inferring who the mastermind behind the movie is.

After all, he is working backward from the answer, so naturally, he speaks with reason and evidence. And because this movie itself is related to magic, it has been liked by many occult enthusiasts. The forum itself has significant traffic, and this post was pushed to the very top, quickly reaching hundreds of thousands of views and being reposted by various internet platforms and short video software.

Although Danny doesn't have any occult knowledge, the Spirit of Vengeance inside him can be considered his teacher and has some understanding of this aspect. When Danny swiped to this post, he felt an anomaly in the Spirit of Vengeance inside him.

(End of chapter)