Chapter 4852

Greed snapped to attention. "What?"

"There's a guy who looks exactly like me... charging into the battlefield. He... he even has a shield. He keeps shouting 'Avengers Assemble.' Good heavens, where did he come from..."

Steve's end was clearly not calm. There was a lot of static on the phone. Greed could also hear his shouts. It was as if someone had messed something up, and Steve was busy fixing it.

"That's Mephisto..."

"What?"

"Mephisto!" Greed emphasized loudly, "He wants to learn from you! Starting today, he'll be a righteous human!"

"Why would he turn into me?!" Steve shouted in disbelief, "He's become more like me than I am, and I'm not even in uniform!... Done. They think he's the real Captain America! Good God!"

Obviously something else happened over there. A heap of chaotic noise. Then Steve yelled in surprise: "Oh, he got shot! Frank, Frank, wait a minute! Don't don't don't... What do you mean I'm an impostor?! I am Captain America!!!"

Greed chuckled quietly. But he still said: "This is also a good thing, didn't he just take a bullet for you?"

"Block my ass!" Steve could barely take it anymore, "Any bullet that isn't blind could be dodged, but he insists on charging into it... Frank was scared by him. He thought he was about to gun down Captain America!"

Greed was overjoyed. He said: "He's performing heroic self-sacrifice. Just ignore him, do what you need to do."

"What other scheme does he have?" Steve was utterly baffled, "Isn't the situation here chaotic enough? Oh, he went to sign autographs for the kids. That's actually somewhat useful."

Steve's end was again in an uproar. Obviously Mephisto's arrival made the situation in Hampton even more complex and hard to grasp. Now besides the local wealthy, alien aristocrats, witches, mercenaries who work for pay, and the Punisher, there are both real and fake Captain Americas.

This fake Captain America, to perform heroic self-sacrifice, rammed into Frank's gun barrel. Greed estimated the Punisher might have encountered the most thrilling scene of his life—almost shooting Captain America dead.

The Punisher indeed has a bad temper, and his methods are very violent. But as an anti-hero, he is still a hero. He has never killed innocents. Making him kill someone like Captain America, he would certainly not accept it.

Especially, they seem to be in a big melee. Those aliens and mercenaries are all there, and they all know Captain America. This shot could even knock over the nobles of the Shi'a Empire. If Captain America really went down, everyone present except those reclusive witches could unite to attack the Punisher.

Mephisto is definitely doing this on purpose, one in ten thousand. Greed could tell. Mephisto indeed adopted his suggestion and plans to try it, not just paying lip service. But after being a devil for so many years, sowing discord and scheming have become his instincts. How to put it, he is essentially a primordial-grade supreme turd-stirrer, and when he acts, it's indeed extraordinary.

Greed couldn't sleep either. He got up, came to the doorstep, and looked down at the mountain foot. Sure enough, Hampton had completely exploded. On one hand, they need to tell which is the real Captain America; on the other, they need to determine if the Punisher has gone mad, each side splitting into eight pieces, at least divided into more than a dozen teams, drawn out as a major event that could conservatively be serialized for over twenty issues.

"Shiler! Shiler!" Chris shouted from upstairs, "I've revised the script, do you want to come up and take a look?"

Greed hurried upstairs. Chris ushered him into the study, shoved the freshly written thing into his arms, then closed the door and said somewhat excitedly: "See how it is?"

Greed looked at his actions and said: "Why are you being so sneaky?"

"Uh, this version isn't for all ages." Chris explained, "There are still kids downstairs, can't let them see it."

"Does the film's rating need to change then?" Greed asked while reading.

"No, not really. I naturally have a way to make it look harmless. Writing it bluntly is for ease of understanding and performance." Chris explained.

Greed nodded, he knew. Directors can use cinematic language to cover up many things. Some things, as long as they're not filmed too explicitly, pass review without problem. Especially this kind of film with political missions.

Greed began reading from the start. This story naturally was revised in the style Greed said. It's not that Mephisto tempted Samuel, but Samuel, based on some historical classics, investigated Mephisto's existence, learned he has a habit of collecting sins, and proactively came to the Christ Crown region, and used a magic circle to summon Mephisto.

The climax of this story is the negotiation between Safir and Mephisto. Chris basically replicated Greed and Mephisto's negotiation, just changing things like love into power. Safir is tempting Mephisto to gain greater power.

They are in a relationship of mutual use. Safir convinced Mephisto to give him power and knowledge, so he could further perfect those dangerous black magics, while Safir then creates more chaos and sins for him, making Hell more substantial.

This story looks much better, less religious, and feels more real, because most mages and demons are like this. Demons lend power to mages, mages make demons famous, and there's no piety or faith to speak of, mostly it's mutual use.

However, it's still a bit thin. More importantly, Greed just remembered he had promised many people to give them more screen time. The little mage's side is relatively closed, just talking about school affairs, the structure is already very tight, the dialogue has no room, there's little to change. So we still need to start from Safir's part.

Greed pondered a bit, then said: "It's like this, S. H. I. E. L. D. found me. They said they want to appear in the movie. Of course, they don't need too much screen time, just show them doing their duty faithfully. Do you think we can add it in?"

"In this scene?" Chris asked. He thought for a moment and said: "But this era probably doesn't have S. H. I. E. L. D. yet. If we were to tell the story of S. H. I. E. L. D.'s founding, it might again be too drawn out."

"What about Asgard?" Greed asked.

"But Asgard in this era should be waging war in the cosmos, right? They shouldn't be focusing too much attention on Earth." Chris said.

"Alright." Greed originally didn't hold much hope, because this kind of last-minute addition is indeed hard to integrate, and the era also doesn't fit.

"Why not just make a separate movie?" Chris asked.

"Because the investment is too huge, and quality can't be guaranteed," Greed said, "The promotional meaning is also too strong, not easy to get investment."

"Then let's make a TV series." Chris said, "We can shoot one season first, and if the effect is good, renew it. That way, several video platforms should be more willing to invest."

Greed nodded, he also thought this is a good idea. Shooting a movie for the magic school is mainly to appease public opinion, let the public have a deeper understanding of magic, not to panic. This benefits people of every country, and every country is also willing to participate, so this movie can have a big production.

But S. H. I. E. L. D. has very obvious national and regional characteristics. Although it's said to belong to the United Nations, anyone with eyes knows its jurisdiction is limited to the U. S. and its allied nations. Without global influence, it's difficult to attract big investment.

Asgard is even more so, fundamentally not human. Filming a movie to promote them is actually quite subtle. Now it's nothing, but if later there's a falling out, we might still have to bear the label of 'traitor to humanity'? Then even fewer would be willing to film.

But for a TV series, there aren't so many concerns. TV series investment is relatively small, also no big scenes, mainly relying on plot and setting to win, entertainment value is also relatively strong, and it can be shot season by season. If the response is bad, just cut it, the loss isn't big.

Chris returned to Massachusetts with the script, doing the final touches. Greed then contacted S. H. I. E. L. D. and Asgard, as well as a quite famous certain streaming platform, inquiring about their intention to shoot a TV series.

The platform is actually very interested, especially in Asgard. Now ordinary people know Asgard exists, but for what they actually are, they still don't understand well. Many people are also very curious. Unfortunately, Asgard doesn't open tourism, going to Asgard you can't randomly take photos, and if you take them you can't release them. People know very little about it.

If at this time there was a TV series, specifically filming Asgard people, it would definitely be popular. The platform even would be willing to build a S. H. I. E. L. D. for this drama.

Exactly, S. H. I. E. L. D. counts as a freebie. After all, superhero crime and spy films have been shot too much, even combining these two yields nothing new. Only after Nick agreed to disclose some real cases, and the existence of Hydra, did the platform reluctantly agree to give it a try.

To settle the related matters of Asgard's TV series, Greed called Loki. But Loki has been busy lately, so Thor personally came over.

As soon as he entered the manor, he pointed at the door outside and said: "What's going on down there? Why are they fighting?"

"Some local festival activities." Greed simply explained, "Warming up for Christmas."

"Although Asgard doesn't celebrate Christmas, you can't fool me like that," Thor shook his head and said, "What's the TV series about?"

Greed simply explained, then said: "Regarding the TV series, I have two ideas. Do you want to hear them?"

"You say it. If it could be as successful as a movie, that would be great."

"One method is to create contrast. Mainly film Asgard's splendor, the gods' strength, the invincible ages of cosmic conquest..."

Thor shook his head. His head of blond hair wasn't tied up, but flowed wildly loose, longer than most of the time in the movies and comics. When he shook his head, it was like a male lion shaking off its mane.

"We've long since stopped waging war. Filming those past things all the time is meaningless." Thor said, "Besides, we don't want humans to think we're just big fools who only know how to fight."

He paused a moment, then seemed somewhat embarrassed to say: "We want to emphasize, we and humans share common points. We are both intelligent life, both have abundant emotions, and should naturally be like brothers and sisters."

"Odin previously didn't value Midgard, because here the war value is low, not a strategic point, also no too many resources. Most people on Earth are too fragile. Dragging this place into war, there's no benefit."

"And now we value Earth, because Earth's diplomatic value is high. Humans indeed are one of the few civilizations in the universe daring to have deep exchanges with Asgard. This proves, our commonality must be greater than our respective uniqueness. We should naturally be this close, right?"