In this hellhole known as Hell's Kitchen, thefts were aplenty, but Shiller had never heard of a thief who specifically targeted cakes, not just cakes, but also the coffee grounds that Shiller had ground himself, soda biscuits, and jams.
Was this thief starving to death in the previous life? Stealing four pounds of cake in a day was not enough, he also had to add half a pound of soda biscuits, two cans of coffee and three bottles of jam.
He's not afraid of stuffing himself to death, Shiller thought.
Of course, although he wasn't stealing anything essential, Shiller still had to catch this thief and figure out how he had stolen everything.
Shiller set a trap, using the thief's favorite cake and a little bit of fear gas, placing them in the warehouse, the place he least frequented in this house, waiting for the thief to take the bait.
While waiting for the bait to work, Shiller, in a notebook, wrote the story he was about to spin for The Ancient One.
Imparting the concept of the King in Yellow to The Ancient One was not a pointless endeavor by Shiller. In the worldview of the Marvel Universe, there are countless Cosmic Sorcerers, such as the triune Emperor Mount Wey, whose power The Ancient One had borrowed.
The origins of Cthulhu in Marvel are quite scattered, some say it's an embodiment of nothingness, others say it's the blood and tears of the cosmos, they are not a unified race and do look vastly different.
In contrast, the original Cthulhu literature is more systematic. It all starts with the demonic god Azathoth, but what Shiller mentioned to The Ancient One was another system, which is the cursed script "The King in Yellow", a fictional book in Chambers's short story.
The setup in this script is even more abstract and romantic than the Cthulhu mythos. In the distant Pleiades star cluster, the ancient city of Karkosa is situated on the Lake Hally, where an ancient Outer God known as the King in Yellow is imprisoned. He witnessed the fall of two black suns and was later designated as the representative of the "wind" amongst the Old Day Dominators, becoming the sworn enemy of Cthulhu.
Most notably in the King in Yellow setup is a symbol exclusive to him—the Yellow Sign.
But all of this isn't important. The key is that Shiller needs a legitimate identity to converse with The Ancient One.
He can converse with Stark as a psychotherapist, act as a life coach for Little Spider, or be treated as a criminal by Night Devil. It doesn't matter.
But The Ancient One is different. If Shiller doesn't have a sufficiently mysterious and powerful identity, this Supreme Magician will not listen to what he has to say.
Having read the comics, Shiller knows that in the worldview of the Marvel Universe, there is also the existence of the Old Day Dominators. Now that he has reminded The Ancient One, if she seeks to verify it, she would discover that everything that Shiller, masquerading as Hastur, has said is true. There was a group of blind and foolish Old Day Dominators imprisoned in an extra dimension, but no one knows if they will return to Earth.
As long as The Ancient One believes even a little in the identity of the King in Yellow that Shiller is impersonating, Shiller can obtain quite a bit of the information he wants from her.
While waiting for the trap to catch the thief, Shiller intermittently filled in details about the setup of the Pleiades star cluster. After all, to bamboozle the Supreme Magician, his identity and backstory needs to be plausible at least.
And that thief didn't keep Shiller waiting too long,
On a pitch-black night with a high wind, a rare night in Hell's Kitchen without the sound of gunfire, Shiller was lying in bed in a semi-conscious state when he heard a loud noise coming from the warehouse downstairs.
He instantly woke up, knowing that the trap he had set had worked. He hadn't expected to actually catch this thief using a slice of cake.
He crept downstairs, without turning on the light, for if the thief was armed and saw him coming down, he would be aiming ahead of time. Thinking of his own safety, Shiller planned to use Flash to teleport directly over when he reached the other side of the corridor, catching the thief off guard.
Just as he was about to teleport, he suddenly realized that the warehouse door was open. Could it be that the thief wasn't affected by the fear gas? Even managing to open the door and walk out on his own? This was quite bad.
Shiller gave up on teleporting, because once he teleported over, not only would the thief need a moment to react, Shiller himself would need about two seconds to adapt to the unfamiliar environment, as was the case every time he teleported.
He noticed that the thief seemed not to have noticed him. He tiptoed along the wall and moved down the corridor, only to see a very small, round silhouette emerge from the door gap that was only as tall as a man's calf, complaining as it went, "Damn it! Am I drunk? Why does this cake smell like a methane pond?"
Shiller looked at the figure, speechless, then he turned around, reached out to the light switch, and flicked it on with a "clap".
The round creature across him shrieked, instantly took all fours and tried to run, Shiller extended his right hand, and using a Space Teleportation Spell, caught the creature directly in his hand.
Shiller felt a nasty feeling, sensing the fluffy touch in his hand. He was holding a yellow, round and fat creature with two long ears and a lightning bolt-shaped tail—a Pikachu.
"Bullshit! Let me down! Don't touch me with your dirty hands! What's up with you?! How could you catch me?! Let me go!!"