Chapter 552: Thanos Who Doesn

Thanos, a household-name villain in the Marvel universe, won't be introduced too much here, just talking about his current state.

Now, he is in his own country, the Dark Quadrant. After he left Titan and entered the universe, he defeated a group of space pirates and replaced their leader. This group of people was the first batch of subjects Thanos used to build the country.

At this time, the development of the Dark Quadrant is orderly. The Black Order under Thanos is fighting in all parts of the universe, plundering resources for Thanos to develop his base.

Previously, the Dark Quadrant was at the peak of development. Even if destruction is Thanos's nature, he has been farming for a long time in his old home.

In a certain sense, Thanos's situation is somewhat like Stark's now. The development of the territory has a thousand threads, and it cannot be seen in a short while. Thanos himself is very strong, but sometimes, when fighting in the stars, what is needed is the overall strength of the civilization.

Thanos wants to speed up the development of the overall military strength of the Dark Quadrant, but doesn't know where to start. When he sits on the throne, he is thinking about this problem.

Now, he has two paths to choose from. One is to make himself more powerful, able to fight one against ten thousand, becoming an army of one, possessing the strength to conquer the universe alone, just like a cosmic demon god. The other path is to develop a military empire, just like Asgard.

For Thanos, the first path is simpler. He is of the Titan race and possesses innate advantages. The starting point is already much higher than many individuals in civilizations and even cosmic demon gods. However, if he can really develop an Asgard, it is also very attractive to Thanos.

He once imagined that if several major empires in the universe became the sharp blades in his hands, then those endless ambitions of destruction would become more and more realistic.

But the fact is that the Dark Quadrant is far from being as strong as these major empires. And at this time, the Thanos Empire, which has gone through high-speed development, has entered a bottleneck period. This is a problem that every civilization will encounter.

Thanos cannot be sure whether he should completely abandon this path and turn to specialize in his personal improvement.

Just when he was leaning on the throne with his eyes narrowed and thinking, an attendant walked in tremblingly. He was holding a giant communicator in his arms, which was making a "beep-beep" sound constantly.

Thanos frowned and turned his head, looking at the communicator somewhat impatiently, feeling very dissatisfied with this phone call that interrupted his thinking.

But he still reached out that big hand and took the communicator. For the attendant, it was a giant communicator, but for him, it was a normal-sized phone.

Thanos connected the phone, and a pleasant female voice came from the other side: "Hello, Your Majesty Thanos, I am Asgard's eldest princess, Loki. We just met..."

"I really don't know that you are a shy person. The time we met just now was too short to communicate in depth, so I called you. You can write down my phone number and call me anytime..."

Loki said these words very ambiguously, but obviously, her map was very short, and soon she revealed the dagger under the map.

"I think we can really talk about the Infinity Stones. I think you should know what a powerful treasure that is. And at this time, the Infinity Stones are within the Nine Realms. As long as you kill Odin and Thor and break through Asgard's defense, you can... Hello?? Hello!

!"

In the guest room of the starport transit station closest to the Dark Quadrant, Loki held the communicator and knocked it hard on the table. She gritted her teeth and cursed: "Actually dared to hang up my phone, a country bumpkin with no gentlemanly demeanor!"

But soon, she restrained this anger, took out the phone to dial again, but found that the phone she called Thanos was already unable to get through.

Loki snorted coldly, revealed a mocking smile, and then a light flashed on her hand. After dialing out again, she called Thanos again, and the sales pitch hadn't been finished for two sentences before it was hung up again.

Loki took a deep breath, not discouraged at all, and used magic to change her communication channel, then called Thanos again, and then, as expected, was hung up again.

Obviously, things have developed to this point, results or whatever are no longer important, the main thing is that she wants to win.

The contact and communication in the universe are somewhat similar to the principle of humans making phone calls, except they use another kind of signal. Loki calling Thanos is actually the same as a cosmic demon god calling the Sanctum Sanctorum; both are realized through cosmic source energy.

And in this way, there is also a part equivalent to a phone number, which is the uniqueness of the soul. Whether it is a cosmic demon god or an ordinary human, their souls are unique in the universe. And for creatures that can use cosmic source energy, the aura of the soul is equivalent to a unique phone number.

Some creatures can change their appearance, some creatures can change their body size, but the vast majority of creatures cannot change their souls.

This vast majority of creatures does not include Loki.

All divine positions in Asgard have their special abilities, and the God of Mischief's ability is that she can cover up the aura of her soul.

This is also why Loki was able to come to the Dark Quadrant unimpeded after being blacklisted by the vast majority of middle-level

And this can also be used to make harassment calls.

Therefore, Loki alone is equivalent to a telemarketing scam company that can change numbers infinitely; she can switch her numbers and IP addresses without limit, thereby harassing her clients.

After having her calls hung up on by Thanos multiple times, Loki still did not intend to give up; she used her duplication magic to create over a dozen versions of herself and took turns calling Thanos.

Some might ask, wouldn't it be enough for Thanos to just not answer the phone? But Thanos is not an ordinary person idling at home; he is the leader of an empire and has no idea how many affairs he has to handle every day.

Loki keeps changing numbers, and Thanos has no way to distinguish which is a harassment call and which is a normal call. He couldn't possibly hang up on every single call, or the Dark Quadrant would never develop.

And the reason Thanos refused Loki so decisively is, of course, due to his wisdom.

Loki has already written the words "I am a liar" on her face. Races in the universe inferior to Thanos, and civilizations inferior to the Dark Quadrant, have already analyzed the answer very thoroughly; this is purely a scam, so why would Thanos still step into it?

In the era when Odin was dominating the world, he rarely met an opponent in the universe, and Asgardians only get stronger with age. Heaven knows how strong he is now. Plus, with that so-called new king, even Thanos, without the gauntlet or the stones, has to weigh whether he might get bagged if he just goes over there like that.

To take a step back, whatever the enemy wants me to do, I absolutely must not do. The more you want me to take the bait, and the more you use various gems and divine artifacts to tempt me, the more I must remain unmoved.

Whether or not to grab the gems is something I decide myself, not something I should go do just because you want me to; wouldn't that make me a laborer?

That is what Thanos thought, but Loki really had too much perseverance. She began to go without eating, drinking, or resting, creating dozens of clones every day and taking turns switching phone numbers to bombard Thanos with harassment calls.

Thanos had no way to trace the phone line to get to Loki, and even if he did, he would have to weigh the importance of the Asgardian Eldest Princess. If Asgard were to pour out its entire force now to attack the Dark Quadrant, Thanos might be able to save himself, but his territory, legions, and weapons would not be able to escape.

Finally, Thanos compromised.

In the last call Loki made, he said to her: "Come to my throne hall, and we shall talk in person."

The royal palace on the Dark Quadrant's capital planet is located in the very center of the city, with an overall shape like a spear piercing the sky. At the very tip of the spear, an extreme light illuminates the entire planet; that is the throne hall where Thanos resides.

To enter the throne hall, one must first cross a long corridor bridge. Under the perpetually dim yellow sky, which looks like a twilight of shifting shadows, Loki's black hair danced in the wind, and the sound of her heels clicking on the glass floor echoed over the twilight city.

When Loki appeared, she still held her head high, and a radiance emerged from her body, making her look like a deity descended to the world.

She saw that, besides Thanos sitting on the high throne, another somewhat gaunt figure stood beneath it. He had a gray head and deeply sunken eyes. Seeing Loki cast her gaze upon him, the figure spoke:

"Greetings, Your Highness. I am Ebony Maw, one of the Black Order under His Majesty Thanos, and also a general and strategist of the empire."

"Today, His Majesty wishes to discuss matters of the empire's future development with you. Please allow me to listen in and offer my humble, insignificant opinions..."

Loki frowned, and the radiance on her body suddenly flared up. An invisible wave was repelled, precisely reflecting back onto Ebony Maw, causing him to take two steps back and cough heavily twice.

Loki simply said: "Ebony Maw, are you trying to perform mental manipulation on me?"

Ebony Maw's complexion turned somewhat ugly; he had not expected his signature skill to be seen through by Loki just like that.

Ebony Maw does indeed possess the ability to manipulate hearts, but unlike Professor X's ability, his is not as comprehensive and is mainly manifested in verbal manipulation.

He can use language to bewitch people and make them think according to his train of thought. In the comics, he even made Doctor Strange fall for it. It can be said that while not as comprehensive as Professor X, he is more specialized.

Loki let out a cold snort, thinking of the entries written in the small booklet Schiller had given her, and said: "Are you trying to mentally control and suppress me? Are you also planning to use extreme violence against me?"

With a flash, the halo brightened another circle, and Thanos was so dazzled by her that he could hardly keep his eyes open. Thanos let out a cold snort, glancing at Ebony Maw with some dissatisfaction.

When Ebony Maw came to see Thanos, he heard that Thanos was going to invite Loki, so he volunteered to give Loki a show of force. As it turned out, not only did he fail to weaken Loki's momentum, but he actually made the radiance on her body grow stronger.

Thanos guessed that this radiance might be Loki's innate ability. Regardless of what this ability specifically was, she did not look like someone to be trifled with.

He sat up slightly straighter and looked directly at Loki, saying: "You have been contacting me for so long; what exactly do you want to say? You can put away those deceptive tricks of yours; let's talk about a real deal."

Loki reflexively wanted to start her sales pitch, but upon hearing Thanos's words, she knew that Thanos had other motives.

At this moment, Ebony Maw, who had been shaken quite hard by the reflected power ripples, cleared his throat and spoke on behalf of Thanos:

"We are not interested in the Infinity Stones, but we are somewhat interested in this new strategy of Asgard..."

Loki frowned. She naturally knew that it was widely rumored in interstellar society that her seeking aid was actually an Asgardian conspiracy, but she had not expected Thanos to be interested in this.

"His Majesty's empire is at its zenith, but we will never stop here; we still need more power. For this reason, I hope to learn the specific effectiveness and implementation methods of this Asgardian tactic, as well as... Asgard's future strategy."

Loki narrowed her eyes. She had to admit that Thanos was quite smart. Compared to the ethereal Infinity Stones that seemed like a trap, intelligence on Asgard's strategy was indeed more important.

Loki revealed a professional smile, and he said:

"Next, please allow me to introduce to you the source of these tactical plans, the professional team that creates genius strategies—the Sanctum of the Nine Realms!"