Loki lay half awake in bed, turning her head away, not daring to look at Frigga's expression. She felt somewhat guilty, but hearing Frigga berate Odin also brought her some satisfaction. She was caught between these conflicting emotions, much like those who had listened to Shiller's words before.
A trap set a million times will still catch someone because it carries a certain sophistication. Loki thought about this, aware that whatever Shiller offered her would invariably be a bad move, but she wanted to see the effect of this move anyway.
The reason being, while Loki had started thinking about the health of her offspring, she still faced the immediate problem of having to fend off Frigga's nagging about marriage. Loki didn't truly want to take part in the absurd matchmaking show, she needed an excuse to refuse it.
At this point, Nick had learned about Shiller's return from the Realm of Death, but was deeply displeased with Shiller for letting Natasha take such a long leave of absence. Nick demanded that Shiller pay for Natasha's lost wages before their bodies could be reclaimed, and reassured them that they couldn't die so hastily next time, and at least make adequate work arrangements before departing.
Shiller couldn't be bothered arguing with Nick, so he directly approached Loki, asking her to use her illusion techniques to deceive S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security and steal their bodies out. As Loki was trying to find a way to skip the matchmaking event, this setup presented itself as an opportunity, resulting in a trade between the two—Shiller provided Loki with a strategy, and she retrieved the bodies for him in return.
Retrieving the bodies was relatively straightforward, but the advice Shiller gave Loki — it was fair to say — demonstrated a chilling indifference to the physical and mental health of Asgard's royal family members.
The advice in simple terms was to feign illness, an idea that anyone over ten years old would understand to be an exceedingly transparent ploy and one that their parents would see through without acknowledging. However, Loki would never give up any opportunity to test other people's love for her.
So, upon returning to Asgard, Loki began working relentlessly. She took on administrative, internal, and military affairs all at once, supervising hundreds of renovation and restructuring projects within Asgard on one hand, and constantly going to the Star Area to participate in various social activities representing Asgard on the other.
As a result of her relentless work, Loki predictably fell ill after a few days. Technically speaking, it couldn't be considered as feigning illness since she was indeed exhausted.
When someone falls ill due to overwork, their loved ones — even if they're angry — can't really condemn them too harshly. On one hand, they need to consider their feelings, and on the other hand, Loki's hard work benefits Asgard. Thor was caught in this emotional tug of war, feeling both worry and anger but unable to voice it.
The matter of matchmaking and marriage was tossed aside by Frigga and Odin, who instead began studying Loki's physical constitution in full force.
"Loki is indeed somewhat innately weak," Odin was the first to speak, clearing his throat as he walked away from Loki's room towards his own quarters. "When I found him, he was much smaller than a normal Frost Giant newborn, and his mental development was incomplete."
"But in all these years he's been growing, you never thought of enhancing his constitution!" The more Frigga thought, the angrier she got. She took her magic wand and walked briskly ahead, not even looking back at her husband. She voiced her regret and self-blame, "I'm to blame too. Since Loki never fell sick, I thought it was fine. I never expected that now…"
"She has been working too crazily of late. You should discuss this matter with Thor, and I will go ask an old friend from the Dwarf Race if they can find anything that can fundamentally improve her weak constitution."
The couple discussed it for a long time, but couldn't come up with a quick solution for improvement. All they could do was let Loki recover gradually, but at least for the next few centuries, they will be focused on Loki's health rather than her marriage.
Meanwhile, the ultimate tug of war between Thanos and Death continued. But ever since Thanos, who used to be a chef, began studying psychology, their relationship went through subtle changes.
In Thanos' youth, he was deeply influenced by Death and for a long time, he was driven mad by her, making Death the reason for many of his crazed massacres.
Originally, this would have led Thanos to seek the Infinity Gems and annihilate life across the universe, but Shiller appeared when this struggle was just beginning to take shape.
Shiller influenced both Thanos and Death, but actually, he mostly affected Death. Shiller kept Death busy with his elaborate schemes and then initiated several crackdowns on her, leaving Death with no time to manage her prospective disciples.
Intelligent beings are forgetful. Faith is sometimes like a romantic relationship. If it cools down for a long period after an initial passionate phase, weariness and boredom surge in like a tide. Especially now that Thanos isn't fully devoted to annihilating the Universe and has his own duties, he is busy every day. As time passes, the impression that Death has left in his mind isn't as strong anymore.
Once a sycophant wakes up, they would feel like slapping their past selves when they look back. Thanos chose to listen to Shiller's psychology classes even if it led to his demise, but at least he would die enlightened.
Before this, Thanos vaguely sensed that something was wrong. Besides Death's effects on him via magic, some of her actions and words also had a strong guiding nature. After Thanos wasn't as intensely infatuated with her, he caught a crucial clue to all this, despite having no system to guide him.
In the course about mind manipulation and controlling others, Thanos truly understood the secrets behind all—there indeed existed a discipline systematically guiding individuals on how to control and manipulate others.
In the few hours of private conversation with Shiller, Thanos tried his best to learn related knowledge from Shiller. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and with a book of psychological disorders, everyone around you seems to be mad.
After understanding various techniques and principles, Thanos compared these with Death's past statements and actions before him, finding out that she had been manipulating and using him all along.
These techniques were so obvious, each one had its corresponding prototype in theory. They weren't innovative or high-level at all, merely typical.
Thanos, although not without temper, could be described as a character who knows how to endure. Knowing that he had been manipulated and used, he was understandably vexed. Having gained more knowledge about manipulating others, he was preparing to use Death as his practice subject.
Many people's impression of Thanos leans more towards the Infinity Gems and the Mad Titan but in reality, Thanos is an intellectual character. His wisdom is not to be underestimated, and his understanding and cautiousness are unrivaled across the cosmos.
And then Death recognized the difficulty of this sham love game had elevated from simple to extremely challenging. There was something wrong with every one of Thanos' responses, though Death couldn't pinpoint what exactly was off. He was still the same obsessed, passionately sincere Thanos.
To put it simply, these rule-observing Gods didn't fall into the hands of weak beings because they weren't strong enough, but because they cared too much. Once they focus on an issue, their intellect would significantly decrease, and they would lose sight of the big picture.
In simpler terms, Death became anxious.
Death was preoccupied with Thanos. Her usual work was left unattended, causing the now universe-controlling Infinity to become anxious.
Eternity used research as an excuse to travel back to the inner part of the Grand World. Although everyone knew he wasn't just there for business, no one could stop him because his direct superior, Adam, was away as well.
Adam was busy erasing evidence of his mistakes within the Grand World, afraid that the main body of the Grand World would discover his blunders. When he did occasionally return, he would give a pep talk to Infinity but wasn't of any actual help.
Although Death liked to meddle in affairs covertly, at least she did some work. The two enduring themes of the cosmos are survival and destruction, and Death accounted for half of that. Her work responsibilities were naturally important. But now that she'd set her sights on Thanos, she'd decided to ignore the upkeep of the Realm of Death.
The structure of the cosmos was complex, yet not as intricate as imagined. Puzzling bugs would occasionally occur. Though Death seemed idle when normal in the Realm of Death, she would fix the defects when they appeared.
Right now, the company's bosses and team leaders were all out for a business trip, one colleague was skipping work for a date, the other was just wasting time at their desk, and another was stuffing their face in the cafeteria. Infinity was the only one working in the project team and he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
But he was not the only unfortunate god amongst those who observed the rules. Oblivion was also suffering from bad luck recently, and his misfortune was even more inexplicable.
After a new wave of ideology broke out on Earth, all the Spider-Men in the Central Universe got caught up in various debates inevitably. Of course, Shiller orchestrating Hydra to disseminate the contact information of the Spider-Men may have played a part in the matter, but it's certainly not the only reason.
Just as Gwen said, Spider-Man was excellent at fighting. Though he didn't quarrel with anyone in his daily life, he'd never give in when it came to debates on truths.
Once they disguised their real identities, the Spider-Men, naturally talkative and with superb memory, were able to relate to every kind of knowledge. They had an unusual amount of energy and could persist in a debate for three days and nights without tiring. Once they got onto the newspaper commentary stage, they impressed everyone.
But, the majority of humans in this world weren't as smart as Spider-Man, and someone willing to express opinions isn't necessarily very impressive. Most were merely shameless. Arguing with idiots could irritate anyone. Even though Spider-Man was generally composed, he could still get angry.
The most irritating fact was that a group of self-proclaimed nihilists suddenly started to challenge Spider-Man. They refuted whatever point Spider Man made and they criticized what he praised, arguing continuously around the clock.
In the office of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s psychologist, thirty extra desks were crammed into what had once been a spacious and bright office, with over thirty agents frantically typing at their desks. Shiller stood by the window, watching them, occasionally pointing at someone and speaking.
"Hurry up and write, Spider-Man will post another round of opinions by this afternoon. Refute them following what I told you before. If they post three pieces, we post five."
"Nobody is allowed to slack off. Remember, Nihilism is inseparable from the teachings of Hydra. Long live Helada!"