After he put Batman into depression that night, Shiller returned to the Marvel World. After boosting Stark's morale, the Night Devil in the Hell's Kitchen District hid from the hit men. Little Spider had just gained his power and hadn't officially debuted yet, so Shiller had some spare time.
After that night, Shiller found that he had another opportunity for a random chat. He concluded that whenever he significantly influenced a figure in a particular world, he could get the chance to randomly match with someone for a chat. Evidently, his conversation with Batman that night had made a far-reaching impact on him.
Shiller decided to use this chat opportunity in his spare time. Professor Charles seemed to be busy recruiting students recently. Little Spider, being too excited with his new power, hadn't responded to any messages. For a moment, there was no one to chat with, and Shiller felt quite lonely.
So, he used the opportunity for a random chat, and a voice call interface suddenly appeared in his mind. This had never happened when he was chatting with Charles or Little Spider.
They both replied in text, and what appeared in Shiller's mind were only the chat boxes. But this time, it directly became a voice chat.
Shiller saw the profile picture - the Supreme Magician, the Ancient One!!!
The Supreme Magician, the Ancient One, has sent you a voice call invitation. Accept or decline? If he let him accept, what should he say?
Shiller scratched his head and eventually accepted it.
"... Mysterious sound of the universe, where do you come from..."
Shiller heard a series of sounds, or rather, they were more like thoughts and brainwaves. Shiller didn't hear any sound but understood the meaning conveyed by the other side.
Shiller responded using the same method, "... Who are you?"
Up on the Himalayan Mountains, the Ancient One was meditating intensely on a cushion. Suddenly, she frowned as a voice responded to her.
The Ancient One often sought answers from the chaotic universal sounds through meditation. Various echoes in the universe symbolized different mysterious omens in her mind, and she could use these sounds for divination, mind-cleansing, and achieving calmness.
But these sounds of the universe were always disordered and never had any logical notes. The Ancient One firmly believed that any conscious spiritual entity roaming in the universe would become a future Cosmic Sorcerer.
So she immediately became vigilant. She concentrated all her mental prowess, which was so powerful that it could scan all nearby universes in an instant. However, after scanning for a while, she did not notice anything unusual.
The source of the voice that responded to her seemed to come from nowhere and did not show any energy anomalies.
Shiller knew that the Ancient One was strong. If the comic settings were integrated, then she would be several times stronger than shown in the movies. Furthermore, the current Supreme Magician was not the young Batman, she was at her peak. However, Shiller still chose to seek fortune from risk.
He said, "... Answer me... Answer me ..."
"... No matter where you are from, no matter who you are ... Stay away from Earth!" The Ancient One's response was tough.
"... The Guardian of Earth?... Answer me ..."
"I am the Supreme Magician of Earth... Who are you... Why are you emitting a cosmic signal..."
"I come from Karkosa... From Lake Hally in the Plough constellation system... The dark sun is already hanging high in the sky..."
The Ancient One sensed the being from the other side transmitting a series of incomprehensible information. She knew it was very dangerous to converse with an unknown entity in the cosmos. Still, she had to figure out whether the other party would harm the Earth.
The information from the other party was extremely complicated, but the Ancient One frequently heard the repeated reference to Karkosa, Hastur, and Lake Hally.
After a session of non-cohesive conversation, the Ancient One roughly understood that the other party seemed to be warning her. She heard the other party repeating a sentence over and over again: "When the stars return to their positions, the day the Old Day returns..."
The Ancient One thought the person on the other side might be called "Hastur", who lived in a place named Karkosa. There was a "Lake Hally" there, shrouded in thick fog, and his enemy, the Demon God called "Old Day Dominator", would return to Earth when the stars returned to their positions.
In response to the Ancient One's questioning, she learned that the existence on the other side seemed to be imprisoned and could not deal with his enemies personally. He was spreading signals near the Earth on purpose to warn the Earthlings.
But the Ancient One knew that the life forms of the Earth people and these Cosmic Sorcerers were completely different. They couldn't hear these cosmic signals at all. If not for her daily meditation, no one could understand what the other party was saying.
Even for The Ancient One, she couldn't fully comprehend the brainwave signals transmitted from the other side, as it seemed to be mixed with too much information like about the Old Day Dominator, The Foremost Demon God, and Asathos. The other party seemed eager to give her all the information, but unfortunately, The Ancient One could not fully understand it.
Actually, she did not trust this unknown cosmic being, but she couldn't sense its existence, and didn't get the feeling that Earth was under any extra scrutiny. However, the other side's warning attitude did put pressure on her. Where did this group of demon gods emerge from?
Additionally, they seemed to be able to silently arrive near Earth and broadcast signals. Who could guarantee that they would not affect the human psyche?
The Ancient One, for her many years as a Supreme Magician, was not chosen by chance. She had very valid concerns. If this story was not made up by Shiller, then anyone who came into contact with the lineage of the Cthulhu Mythos would go mad.
However, the only good news is that it was just a story cooked up by Shiller to fool The Ancient One.
Just when The Ancient One wanted to continue probing, the communication was cut off, as if the other side had run into some trouble.
It didn't make any demands, nor did it wish to lend its power to anyone, and certainly didn't babble about ruling the cosmos. This actually convinced The Ancient One, to a degree.
Evil deities seldom know how to hide their madness and chaos. If the other side was a dangerous character, the experienced Ancient One would immediately hack at him through the internet cable.
But for now, it seemed the evil deity on the other end was gentle and rational. Nevertheless, The Ancient One did not let her guard down; this might just be an illusion.
Indeed, Shiller had mastered the skill of leaving conversations half-finished. Before The Ancient One could ask for more details, he hung up the phone. Then, rubbing his hands together, he planned to replicate The Ancient One's abilities.
As soon as he touched it, a system prompt transmitted: "Magic ability (low-level) equipped."
Shiller already knew that The Ancient One's abilities were definitely mysterious and related to magic.
After equipping the magic abilities, Shiller began testing. Then he found, this ability could be said to be a mixed bag.
The good part was that he did not have to follow the magic settings of the Marvel World. Shiller could use magic without paying any price, and there would be no side effects. However, the bad news was that this was just a low-level magic ability. The things Shiller could do were: telekinesis, flame magic, and a short-distance flashback.
The range of telekinesis was about 10m, a bit like the Levitation spell. Within 10m, Shiller could freely move items, but only those that did not exceed his own weight, like a house or a car, were too heavy to move.
The flame spell also had virtually no aggressiveness. Shiller could ignite a bunch of flames in the palm of his hand. The power of the flame was just enough to light a cigarette or burn a piece of paper or even a book. Hoping to use it to fight people was wishful thinking.
The most useful of all was the Flash. Shiller could appear or disappear at any point within a range of about 20m. This was enough for him to avoid many dangers.
Although using magic did not require any cost, it still consumed physical and mental energy. After about five or six consecutive flashes, Shiller would get tired and have trouble standing. More importantly, his brain started to become cluttered with noise, making it somewhat hard to concentrate. This was the consequence of overusing magic.
However, compared to the high price that other Marvel mages have to pay to apply magic, Shiller was already very lucky.
The abilities that he had loaded were often marked as low-level, which means they could definitely be upgraded, but Shiller couldn't find a way to upgrade them yet. He guessed that maybe he needed to improve his intimacy with the person he was chatting with, help them, or save them in order to get more advanced abilities.
With continuous flashing in extreme situations, Shiller could vanish from the original place in a very short time and reappear over a hundred meters away. What's more, he didn't need to worry about obstructing objects on the way as he was able to go through walls.
He could sit in his clinic and appear in a house two blocks away in an jnstant. The biggest advantage for Shiller was that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could never catch his tail.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents did come to Hell's Kitchen as early as possible, but as Shiller predicted, there were too many people around and the Mob was very vigilant about outsiders. S.H.I.E.L.D. often encountered all sorts of obstructions in its work; for instance, they were charged a large sum of money when they rented the house opposite Shiller's clinic.
Since Shiller started to use the Flash for going out, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were completely baffled. They didn't see Shiller go out, but after a while, he walked back from the street. Or they saw him leave, but didn't see him return, and after a while, he appeared in the clinic again.
This completely broke the SHIELD agent's estimation of Shiller's routine.
However, it strengthened Nick Fury's belief that Shiller was an unpredictable risk, especially as his interaction with Stark became increasingly close. This was not good news.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intention to use Stark as a trump card was written all over their faces. Obviously, Nick Fury intended to use Stark's sense of justice to work for S.H.I.E.L.D..
Moreover, it wasn't just the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who encountered strange things, Shiller also found out that something strange had happened around his clinic in the past few days. When he realized that the cake in his fridge was lacking another four pounds, Shiller confirmed that there must be a thief in his clinic.