Peter, seated on a chair, shook his head vigorously. Then, he turned to Shiller and asked, "Doctor, what the hell is going on? I've got no idea what just happened. Can you explain?"
By now, the Hippo Goddess had come walking over with a tray filled with various snacks and glasses of water. She cleared off the table, put down her tray and placed a glass of water in front of Peter. She said, "Relax, kid. You can have some food before you continue..."
Peter could feel a tense itch in his throat, and instinctively picked up the glass and took a sip of water. Then, he heard Shiller say:
"It's nothing major; I only built a Heaven."
With a "Puff", Peter spat out the water in his mouth. The sparkling spray of water flew into the air and slowly fell back down, causing ripples across the water's surface.
In the steaming hot spring, Strange, with a towel draped over his shoulder, turned to Shiller and asked, "What did you and Odin discuss? Did you really sell your resurrection quota?"
He sighed, saying, "If I may, you've taken a considerable risk with this. It would be safer to keep these quotas on hand for emergencies..."
"You mortals are so fragile. Not just Captain America or Spider-Man, even Iron Demon God could face danger if caught off guard," Loki chimed in. After wiping his hair with a towel, he continued, "Having extra resurrection quotas is always useful. But what I'm more curious about is what remuneration you plan on receiving?"
Shiller took a sip from his wine glass, removed the towel from his forehead, and said, "Asgard is our ally, and humans are the subjects of the Father of All Gods. Therefore, sharing the resurrection quota with Asgard gratis is also a way of enhancing our own strength..."
Loki rolled his eyes, saying, "There's no one else here, just us three. There's no need for the official jargon. Tell us what you really discussed with the Father of All Gods."
Shiller neatly folded his towel and placed it on the side, leaned back against a rock, and casually said with an arm draped over the edge of the hot spring, "As I said, I didn't ask for anything in return. Conversely, I would provide the Father of All Gods with a more reliable plan for the construction of Valhalla..."
Strange narrowed his eyes, shared a glance with Loki, cleared his throat softly and then asked, "So, how did you deceive... I mean, how did you plan it?"
Shiller cast his gaze on Loki, saying, "Even if you're not part of the Aesir, living in Asgard for so long, you should know the issues with Valhalla."
"When Asgardians die, their souls would ordinarily go to the Realm of Death. However, Valhalla is essentially an interception apparatus. Odin intercepts the warriors he wants to resurrect at his discretion and has their souls stay in Valhalla, sparing them from going to the Realm of Death."
"Since Death works in collaboration with Odin, the interception of souls in Valhalla is legitimate. But the problem is that Odin wishes to resurrect many warriors, and he simply doesn't have enough resurrection quotas. The souls he intercepts far outnumber the ones he can actually resurrect."
"Even the resilient souls of the Asgardians, waiting in line within Valhalla, will eventually dissipate."
"So, Death doesn't care about how many souls Odin intercepts with Valhalla. After all, there's a limit to how many he can resurrect. In the end, the souls that dissipate will end up in the Realm of Death anyway."
"Over time, there have been too many souls waiting for resurrection in Valhalla," Loki continued after Shiller. He shook his head, saying, "These warriors sacrificed their lives for Asgard. Even if they can't be resurrected, they shouldn't have to spend years cramped in a small hall."
"Originally, when there were plenty of resurrection quotas, these valiant spirits had hope. But with tighter restrictions and quotas, hope has virtually extinguished," said Loki with a sigh.
"I understand that Odin doesn't want to empty Valhalla. After all, these valiant spirits are a reserve force. You must amass enough power before the visible day of doom arrives in Asgard," Shiller said as he swirled his wine glass. "Perhaps many warriors, though crammed in Valhalla, would rather not dissipate voluntarily, hoping they could still contribute."
Loki's mood fell. Every time he thought of Ragnarok, he felt immense pressure. From an outsider's perspective, Odin might seem like a ruthless king, exploiting his loyal subjects to their utmost, squeezing the last bit of value out of them.
But these valiant spirits pledged their loyalty to him, willing to dedicate their last bit of strength for him. This proved that he was a great king.
"So, you're planning on..." Strange began to say.
Shiller chuckled lightly and said, "The crux of the problem is that there are not enough resurrection quotas."
"Death has tightened the resurrection quotas for all deity systems. It's not just Valhalla suffering; as far as I know, it's causing chaos in the Egyptian Pantheon, with resurrection quotas simply not being enough."
"Like Valhalla, they promised too many IOUs, and there's no place for the lingering souls. Anubis has moved to the riverside to pitch a tent because the Underworld City is overcrowded."
"As far as I know, some Eastern deity systems are experiencing the same. This disaster has affected many people."
"Today's administrators of these forces mostly haven't personally dealt with Death. The last deals with Death were thousands of years ago. And no one could explain to them why the number of resurrection quotas was suddenly reduced. They're probably quite confused right now."
"When the contract was made, Death promised it firmly. Yet it quietly reduced the quotas without saying anything, causing confusion amongst its clients' companies. Isn't that unreasonable?"
After Shiller finished speaking, both Strange and Loki fixed their gazes on him, their expressions saying, "So, who do you think is to blame for this?"
Shiller also got their point and said, fair and square: "Who do you blame for this? Of course, it's Death!"
"She exploited the system loopholes, evaded taxes, used overissued funds to sign contracts with others, and when discovered, she couldn't cash in. She has to take responsibility for all that! I'm just an innocent bystander who reported an injustice. Can you blame me for that?"
Shiller spoke so self-righteously that even Strange and Loki were a bit shaken. Then Shiller's words refreshed their understanding once again.
"Death doesn't bother explaining to these forces, perhaps she feels there's nothing to explain. After all, she is the rule of the universe, she can do as she pleases. But, we can't stand by and let the dog scheme blatantly disrespect the players."
"If she dares reduce the welfare today, she may directly shut down the server tomorrow. We must stand together, actively protect our rights, and strive for every bit of player welfare."
"So you plan to find Death?" Strange looked at Shiller and knew the fact that Shiller was rejected by the Realm of Death. So he said: "But, you can't even enter the Realm of Death, how do you plan to find her? And even if you could find her, what bargaining chip do you have to negotiate with her?"
"In not too long, you will find out."
Shiller showed a mysterious smile, and what was to come was known to many others.
Initially, the contract Death signed with Shiller to resurrect him was simple, with very few requirements. More importantly, it didn't specify that the race Shiller resurrected had to be the same as his own. In other words, Shiller could resurrect humans or Asgardians.
Death only prevented Shiller from resurrecting the Soviet Union, restricting the time when he could resurrect humans, but she didn't restrict the race. Therefore, Shiller teamed up with Odin to exploit this loophole. Shiller sold a portion of his resurrection quota to Odin, who used it to resurrect the Asgardians.
In addition, Shiller didn't just sell the slots to Odin. He put the slots up for sale. Anyone with interest could negotiate with him.
Originally, Death had reduced the quota because of illegal voting, which was discovered by Eternity. However, with Shiller messing things up like this, wasn't it the same as not reducing the quota at all? Rather, by making such a big scene, even an investigation by Eternity would lead back to Death.
So, Death began furiously calling Shiller. But the irony was, Shiller didn't pick up at all.
In the end, Death was driven to the brink and had to seek out her tool, Thanos.
However, as soon as Thanos arrived in the Solar System, he fell into an ambush. The Hulk, in his rage, launched a Tang Priest's golden hoop, stunning Thanos with Shiller's light ring.
Despite Thanos' strength, he hadn't yet assembled the gemstones or created the Infinity Gauntlet. Furthermore, he got in a huff because his goddess called him to find another man. Coupled with the Hulk's shameless attack, Thanos was directly knocked out given the perfect set of conditions.
Although the Titan Giant was hard-headed, he could not withstand the Hulk's punches. After being sent flying with a 32-hit combo, Thanos was sent to the Realm of Death.
Unluckily for him, Deadpool was sent to the Realm of Death for retaliating against Eternity by defecating in the Eternal Temple. Deadpool—all while being attacked by death episodes arranged by Eternity more than three hundred times over three days—bested Thanos' curse and was sent to the Realm of Death.
Death, who hadn't seen her old lover for a long time, was extremely excited. But while she was having an intimate moment with Deadpool, Thanos knocked on the door.
Death initially thought Thanos brought Shiller, so despite her disgust, she still opened the door for him. But to her surprise, Thanos, also having not seen his old lover for a long time, got overly excited and immediately went to embrace Death.
Death slapped him out of the Realm of Death with the back of her hand. But the real Thanos was still being comboed by the Hulk and was still dazed. He was resurrected only to be killed again.
In this manner, Thanos kept dying, getting kicked out, then dying again. His "will they, won't they" relationship with Death in the Realm of Death was interrupted dozens of times, enough to annoy anyone, no matter how patient.
Death made a fuss about it to Eternity. Eternity hung Thanos outside the cosmos space, but when Death returned to the Realm of Death, she realized something was wrong.
Thanos was not to be underestimated. Although he wasn't a Universal Overlord yet, his potential was significant. His selection as Death's tool was due to the resiliency of the Titan Giants and that he was a smart titan—his features were easy to utilize.
All along, even though Thanos was obsessed with Death, he also had ambition. Death didn't think he would come to the realm of death through means like suicide.
If it wasn't suicide, then it was murder. However, Thanos was one of the top powerhouses. Even without gemstones and gauntlet, he was not someone anyone could handle easily. Who could have killed him? And killed him so many times in such a short period?
Sensing something fishy, Death started investigating. As a kind of rule-like entity, she could see the timeline directly.
Death took a timeline and looked ahead of it. Then, her hand shook, and she threw the timeline out.
Because she saw Shiller standing at the front end of the timeline, smiling at her.