Chapter 682

Commercial insurance is something you may have never bought, but have definitely received sales calls about or seen promotional campaigns for.

It is something you may have never bought, but someone around you has certainly been tempted to purchase for various reasons.

It is something that, since its inception, has precisely exploited human psychological weaknesses.

Ultimately, no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first.

Humans fear dangers that have not yet arrived and excessively exaggerate their consequences; at such moments, insurance salespeople kindly assure you that insurance lets you live without fear of accidents, and naturally, many will be swayed.

Human society has always held mixed opinions about commercial insurance, primarily because, driven by profit needs, insurance packages are often overly complex, contracts are riddled with traps, claims are difficult to process, and fraud is common.

Moreover, the annoying sales calls, the repetitive sales pitches that wear out your ears, and the awkward situation where a distant relative asks you to support a policy out of family obligation—all of these are deeply frustrating.

But one must admit that these commercial insurance companies can continue operating for a reason: there have always been plenty of people in this world who worry about the future and accidents and still have some spare money—this holds true even on a cosmic scale.

But selling insurance to cosmic deities is different from selling it in human society.

In human society, commercial insurance companies cannot decide whether tomorrow or an accident will come first; they cannot determine whether their clients will encounter the disasters or calamities listed in their contracts, so they can only profit through contract fraud or delayed claims.

But Shiler can decide whether tomorrow or an accident will come first on a cosmic level, because the potential accident that might come is now in his arms, waving its tiny arms and battling Pikachu across the void.

Helen—or rather, Devastation—is a being whose very existence makes any insurance CEO weep; it is a natural disaster itself. You don't need to buy insurance—it doesn't matter—because you'll always be there when the disaster strikes, and you can't blame the disaster, can you?

In human society, those who never buy insurance are non-target customers; in the cosmos, those who never buy insurance are claim payouts.

Thus, Shiler used the divine member gifts meant for the deities as claim funds, establishing the Sanctum's reputation for honest business while heightening the deities' awareness of risk.

As for selling insurance, it was merely to provide a second career opportunity for those professional personnel who had diligently honed their sales techniques and proven their moral character even while imprisoned.

Having achieved a small goal, Shiler did not forget that, above the cosmos, two multiversal deities were still locked in combat.

Currently, Stark holds the upper hand, but he cannot immediately eliminate Solus; Solus's ability to absorb energy remains troublesome—even if he cannot digest it all at once, he can still absorb part of it, granting him extended endurance.

But this was precisely what Shiler wanted.

Aside from Stark, only Wong possesses the ability to traverse universes; Wong had already visited the Mullen family's multiversal outpost once, and returning now was second nature.

When Solus left, he took all defensive forces with him; now, the entire Mullen family castle stood empty, doors wide open.

The Mullen family's base had been meticulously developed for years and surely contained many valuable items, but Wong was not here to loot.

As a human—even one whose body and soul had been modified with extra storage slots—she could carry only a fraction of the Mullen family's inventory, a drop in the ocean.

Wong was here to move house.

Yes, literally: she intended to move the entire building.

This was not impossible. First, the Mullen family's base rested on a fragment of a celestial body—it was physically real, unlike the chaotic energy structures built by deities, possessing tangible substance.

Wong did not help deities move house not because she didn't want to, but because deities exist differently; some are one with dimensions—for example, Dormammu of the Dark Dimension, who is the dimension itself, and the dimension cannot be moved—or even if it could, Wong could not.

But for Wong, who had torn apart countless deities, moving a celestial fragment's floating island was not difficult.

The celestial fragment hosting the Mullen family base was one-quarter of a giant planet—perhaps vast to humans, but minuscule as a speck of sand in the cosmos.

Before magical energy, moving it was not impossible, especially since Wong had many magical artifacts.

Wong first pulled out a rope-like object, then fixed golden energy dots at various points across the floating island; as the magical dots lit up one by one, ropes of the same material as the one in her hand appeared between them, instantly binding the entire island into a tight bundle.

The multiverse, in essence, is a tangyuan filled with sesame paste—the multiverse is the tangyuan, and individual universes are the sesame seeds; everywhere without sesame seeds is infinite void.

In the infinite, there is no concept of time or space; distance is not merely distance; to exist here requires special techniques, and movement is not simple.

Wong stood motionless beside the island, but soon, countless starlike points appeared in the completely dark space; one of these points flickered and grew larger in Wong's vision.

From her perspective, time and space were no longer abstract concepts; every event that had ever occurred in the universe, past and present, was randomly arranged beyond the cosmic points—but neither Stark nor Solus were there; they existed in other infinite possibilities.

When the universe expanded infinitely within Wong's vision, everything around her vanished instantly, then the starry sky reappeared, and a bright fiery sphere emerged behind her—it was the Sun.

When she returned to Kamar-Taj, she told Strange: "I cannot bring their base into an individual universe, but I have stored it in an infinite possibility known only to me."

"As for the inventory inside, I can only say the Mullen family must have had a special method to bring such items into an individual universe—I do not."

Wong shook her head; Strange knew his teacher was extremely pragmatic—she never exaggerated. The evidence confirmed that the gap between the multiversal and individual universe levels was even greater than he had imagined—even objects and energy were not interchangeable.

This was a realm humanity had yet to enter, and by current standards, it would take an extremely long journey to reach it; even those among the foremost mages knew almost nothing of what lay beyond the universe.

But it did not matter—before stepping into that level, they had already accumulated something: today, they had acquired a house.

Strange did not know how well the Mullen family's house was built, but from Wong's expression, it was not bad—sufficient as a multiversal outpost.

After learning this news, Nick drafted a "Human Civilization Heritage Inheritance Act (Multiversal Edition)" overnight and posted it on the Mullen family castle's front door; after a thirty-minute public notice period, legally, the house belonged to humanity.

Someone might ask why Nick suddenly showed conscience and set the notice period to thirty minutes—but in truth, since Wong had informed them that in the infinite, time does not exist, the time condition was nullified by force majeure; the moment it was posted, the house became humanity's property.

And above the cosmos, in another infinite possibility, Stark was pummeling Solus relentlessly.

Solus was upgraded from a first-tier being—or rather, he could not be said to have been upgraded; he was originally multiversal, merely changing his life form on the first day—but regardless, he needed an adaptation period.

Now, he found himself in a situation where he had just left the beginner village and encountered a boss; although the Iron God was still inferior to the true elders, crushing a novice brute was effortless.

Seeing the tide turn, Solus naturally tried to flee—but Stark, now enraged, clung to him relentlessly, forcing Solus to sacrifice part of his energy like a gecko shedding its tail, barely escaping.

Stark did not pursue him, mainly because he was unfamiliar with the infinite; Solus had operated here for years, and the Mullen family possessed special methods to traverse the multiverse—once they chose to flee, ordinary multiversal beings could not catch them.

Stark knew the area harbored danger and his energy was limited, so he did not pursue further and returned directly to Earth.

At this moment, Helen had been scolded by Frigga, along with Thor and Loki; it turned out that a mother long accustomed to raising children could unleash terrifying fury, and all juniors had to listen obediently.

Stark returned home to family bliss, but Solus did not; when he returned to the Mullen family's base via special means, he found only darkness.

Solus stood frozen—he thought he had taken a wrong turn, so he walked again, but the place remained dark, empty, nothing there.

Solus tried repeatedly, refusing to believe it, but the place was simply gone—his entire house had vanished without a trace.

He let out a silent roar echoing through the infinite, but more than anger, there was panic.

He could not accept that the Mullen family he had personally built had disappeared, so he began aimlessly searching the infinite for the vanished house.

After he left, another red-and-blue figure appeared in the infinite, staring blankly at the empty darkness.

A voice, nearly identical to Peter's but deeper and more weathered, spoke in utter shock:

"The… the Mullen family??"