Chapter 700: U: The Infinite Event (16)

Time returned to when Lucifer was extremely irritated by Shiler's harassing calls; furious, Lucifer instantly forgot his wish to be an ordinary person and, following the truth and origin of the universe, sought out Shiler to scold him and reclaim his feather.

Yet, after searching the entire DC universe's origin, he found no trace of Shiler—this was highly strange, for no life within this universe could escape Lucifer's gaze.

Finding no result this way, he began sensing the power of his feather; he felt the feather's presence, but it was not within the DC universe—he sensed its aura coming from beyond the Source Wall.

Lucifer grew even angrier: Shiler wasn't just calling him with harassing calls—he was calling from outside the universe, leaving Lucifer no chance to catch the culprit.

Generally, entities within the DC universe, no matter how high their rank, could not interfere with affairs beyond the Source Wall; but Shiler had taken one of Lucifer's feathers, effectively taking a part of his power, and no matter where that part was taken, Lucifer could still control it.

Thus, enraged beyond measure, Lucifer, without hesitation, exerted control over that portion of power and roared.

But Lucifer was an entity from another universe; even if his rank was supreme within this one, it did not mean he could precisely control his power in another universe—his roar was essentially a phone call to Shiler, yet due to his inability to precisely control his power, the private call became a broadcast.

In other words, Shiler had become the phone itself, and Lucifer, standing within the DC universe's Source Wall, had sent a mass text to the Marvel universe.

When Lucifer's roar echoed across the Marvel universe, every entity of multiversal or higher tier heard his voice.

Yet, the vast majority of these entities did not realize the voice originated from outside the universe—they assumed it was just another being at their level having another tantrum.

This was not unusual; at this level, making one's voice resonate across all universes was not difficult.

Usually, if they wished to communicate, they sent private texts; but sometimes someone accidentally pressed the wrong button and switched from private to broadcast—this had happened before—so when Lucifer shouted, most assumed someone had gone mad and sent a mass text.

Yet, some entities noticed that the voice's aura did not belong to any known being.

Many high-tier beings sensed this voice was not one of their own; they began searching for its origin, and since Lucifer had used Shiler himself as the conduit for the call, these beings, in their search, eventually found Shiler.

After all, the message itself contained Shiler's name—no matter what, it was certainly connected to him.

Lucifer's mass text range was vast, including many top-tier Marvel figures, the most famous of whom was OAA, known as the Supreme Deity of the Marvel universe, the omnipotent creator, omniscient and omnipotent being.

OAA displayed little humanity in the comics; most of his actions were carried out through proxies—he would control certain figures within a universe to interfere with cosmic processes.

For instance, OAA once used the Cosmic Cube-wielding Thanos to repair cosmic anomalies, once appeared as a lonely old man to comfort Peter Parker, devastated by the death of his loved one, and after the Thing's accidental death in the Fantastic Four, OAA appeared to encourage the team, praised their spirit of cosmic exploration, and resurrected the Thing as a reward for that spirit.

It is clear that OAA resembles a system administrator of the Marvel universe—he operates above all programs, nearly devoid of personal preferences; if one must say he has a goal, it is that he favors a universe of infinite possibilities.

Meanwhile, Marvel's editorial team has acknowledged that OAA actually represents the real-world editors, readers, and Marvel Corporation—meaning real-world will is channeled into the comics through OAA.

Therefore, when a character from next door knocked on the door, OAA could not open it—Lucifer was a DC character, and in reality, his copyright belonged to DC Comics; if he appeared in Marvel comics, it would constitute infringement.

Thus, OAA could not allow Lucifer in, or else the real-world editorial team would face lawsuits.

But if OAA refused Lucifer entry, he could not let Lucifer keep knocking on the door—Lucifer could send mass texts through Shiler, yet Marvel entities' phones were unprotected; should they be forced to endure thousands of harassing texts per day?

Clearly, allowing Lucifer to keep knocking was inconsistent with OAA's duty to maintain cosmic order.

Thus, neither letting Lucifer in nor letting him keep calling—seemingly, the only solution left was for OAA to step out and fight Lucifer.

But Lucifer remained within the DC universe, and OAA could not enter the DC universe either, or else copyright issues would arise again.

In other words, Shiler had called Lucifer from the Marvel universe, and Lucifer had called the Marvel universe from the DC universe—neither could reach the other, like two Chihuahuas yapping and flailing at each other across a great distance.

Yet OAA had another solution: smash the phone.

Shiler had called Lucifer by exploiting a bug; tracing and correcting that bug would be complicated, and Lucifer certainly did not want to do it—but Lucifer had called the Marvel universe through the feather within Shiler's soul, and Shiler himself was the phone.

Thus, if this phone were smashed, the harassing calls would naturally stop.

But as the supreme boss of the Marvel universe, OAA could not personally smash the phone—he issued orders to his subordinates.

His first subordinate was the Living Tribunal; yet even a being of the Living Tribunal's tier would not do manual labor—he would delegate to his own subordinates. To the Living Tribunal, smashing a phone was simply eliminating a being—wasn't Galactus the perfect candidate?

But even Galactus, at his tier, would not act personally—he had minions. Galactus's herald was the Silver Surfer, formerly an astronomer from an alien planet who volunteered to become Galactus's herald to prevent his mother from being devoured.

His primary duty was to find food for Galactus; due to his inherently kind nature, he usually guided Galactus toward uninhabited planets.

One day, as he flew through the universe as usual, searching for food for the perpetually hungry Galactus, he suddenly received a chaotic message from his master.

In short: find a certain person and kill them.

But perhaps due to hunger, Galactus's mind had turned to a sludge of pulp—the message contained no context, no location, no method, no reason, and even no name.

The Silver Surfer was deeply confused; then Galactus sent another series of messages, pointing to a specific universe, and added a few brief syllables: "Shiler."

The Silver Surfer analyzed carefully and deduced that the coordinates pointed to the universe where the person might be, and the syllables were likely the target's name.

Though the information remained vague and incomplete, the Silver Surfer could not defy Galactus's command—he followed the coordinates into that universe.

Within each individual universe lay infinite dimensions and spaces; the Silver Surfer had no idea where to find this "Shiler." In truth, even without coordinates from Galactus, the outcome would be identical—it was still searching for a needle in a cosmic haystack.

On Earth, finding a person by name alone was difficult; how much more so in the universe? The Silver Surfer lacked Lucifer's ability to broadcast to the entire universe—he could only use the brute-force method: go wherever he went, ask everyone he met.

Life in the universe was too vast; in many species, the syllables "Shiler" carried different meanings. After searching, the Silver Surfer found over three hundred alien beings, over two hundred alien plant species, dozens of alien animals, and even a pile of feces.

Floating in space, he stared at the chaotic collection behind him and sighed helplessly, convinced he had misunderstood something.

Yet, aside from brute force, there was no better method—the Silver Surfer continued searching and asking, until suddenly, a breakthrough occurred: he entered the dimension of a cosmic entity.

Thanks to the power granted by Galactus, the Silver Surfer possessed formidable strength—he could easily handle minor deities. After beating this minor deity, upon hearing he sought a person, the deity recommended a good place to inquire.

"Hello, this is the Sanctum of the Nine Realms. How may I assist you?"

"I…" The Silver Surfer adjusted his speech pattern, then said hesitantly: "I… I'm looking for someone."

"Who are you seeking? Please provide the name, traits, and background information—the more details you provide, the faster we can locate them."

"Uh, I only know his name—he's called Shiler."

"Shiler? Are you referring to Mr. Shiler Rodriguez?"

For the first time, the Silver Surfer heard the word "Shiler" pronounced with perfect clarity by a being of this universe—he exclaimed in delight: "Yes, exactly! That's the syllable! Do you know him?"

"I'm sorry, he is our client manager. Unless you are a Platinum member, we cannot connect you to him."

"But the person I'm looking for is him."

"We sincerely apologize—the client manager serves only Platinum members. Our records show you as an unknown caller; without Platinum membership, we cannot connect you to the client manager."

The Silver Surfer asked many times, but received the same response each time; from the receptionist's words, he learned that this "Shiler Rodriguez" was the client manager of the Sanctum of the Nine Realms, and one had to become a member of the institution to contact him.

After much questioning and getting nowhere, he finally asked: "Alright, then how do I become a member?"

"Would you like to sign up for Platinum membership immediately?" The receptionist's tone instantly became enthusiastic. "I'll connect you to our Platinum membership staff right away—Gemma? Gemma?! Are you there? What? She's having lunch? …Oh, alright… Loki? Will you take the call? Yes… Yes…"

"Hello, this is the Sanctum of the Nine Realms. I am client manager Loki Odinson. How may I assist you?"