Before the cruise ship Dakotazo resumed its journey, several figures leaped aboard. Leading them, Constantine shook off the water from his hair, while Silverback Detective Bobo hopped onto the shoulders of the Master of the Dark Night. Zatanna was checking the supplies in her pocket, making sure nothing was left behind with Black Orchid at her side.
The appearance of this group surprised Oliver greatly. Although his dealings with the Magic realm were sparse, he had heard about the major event of the vampire invasion of London and had sought advice from the Master of the Dark Night while interacting with the local indigenous wizards in Mexico.
"Jim, what are you doing here?" Oliver walked over and shook hands with Jim. Jim smiled, patted his arm, and said, "So you're back already. I thought I'd have to wait a bit longer. How have you been recently?"
"Not bad. Are you guys here to help Shiller out?" Oliver immediately realized something.
"Of course, but to be precise, it's him helping us out." A trace of worry showed on the face of the Master of the Dark Night.
Oliver put an arm around his shoulder, leading him towards the gathering crowd on the deck, and said, "I've heard that the Magic realm hasn't been doing well. Has there been any improvement recently?"
"There might be some improvement after this." The Master of the Dark Night shook his head and began to recount the recent state of the Magic realm.
Previously, Shiller had orchestrated a plan to harvest a wave of souls from the mystic world's infamous Black Box Constantine, which resulted in many mid-and-upper-tier demons losing their shirts, as they had placed considerable bets on Constantine.
The influence of the vampire invasion of London had persisted, with mages dying or getting injured. The Magic realm's talent pool had withered, and with Gotham Magic Academy having only just been founded and most students not having studied for more than two years, they were hardly of any significant use.
This had led to a situation in Shiller's cosmos where the Magic realm was facing a lack of continuity. Demons, having lost a great deal of their capital, were much more cautious about lending power. The number of magicians had plummeted, and so had those borrowing power. Without power, people were reluctant to spend, and as a result, the economy of the mystic world was in recession, compounding a deflationary spiral.
But the DC Universe actually needed magic, as aside from angels and demons, there were many other Magical creatures whose attitudes towards the human race were mixed. Magicians were the main force in countering such creatures' invasions. The Earth Magical Defense Network that Strange proposed needed to be built. If everyone continued to pinch pennies like this, nothing would get done.
If this went on, the development of the Magic realm in this universe could fall far behind others. Should any major event arise on the Magic Side, there could be a collapse at a single touch, which was something no one wanted to see.
To break this cycle, economic principles had to be applied. Normally, when the economy is down, governments should offer various incentives to alleviate pressure on businesses and stabilize production. For consumers, increased investment in consumer welfare is needed to stimulate spending, and naturally, Shiller did just that.
Since the backbone of mid-and-upper-tier demons that lent power were out of money, they had to find a way to promote their development. They needed funds to lend in the first place.
It may sound absurd, but having developed for so many years, the vast majority of demons still made money through arbitrage, and even the generals under the Demon Kings relied on this method, with no thought of innovation for tens of thousands of years.
The general process involved giving a human a bit of power and then harvesting their soul after death. For demons, the soul of magicians was slightly more valuable than the power itself, and that difference was their profit.
For the Demon Kings, it was simply a matter of tempting more precious souls with more power to make a greater profit.
Of course, if possible, they would love to perpetrate carnage, stealing souls for themselves on the sly, but unfortunately, Heaven was watching over them, and the Fate Family wouldn't allow them to act recklessly, so it wasn't unreasonable that Hell had been at a primitive economic level for a long time.
Realizing the need to rejuvenate the Magic realm, Shiller went to confer with the other three members of the Unscrupulous Quartet, and they came up with a plan. They found Azazel and Beelzebub, who now had the loudest say in Hell. The goat and the fly studied it and found it actually feasible.
The previous transactions between demons and magicians were a bit like slash-and-burn agriculture. Basically, demons lured humans into touching magic through loopholes, lent them power, and once humans squandered that power, they became fodder for the demons upon death.
This transaction seemed fair, but in reality, humans were creatures with little self-control, falling for temptations every time, much like one should never test human nature.
So humans didn't have much say in this matter, but to gain great power, they usually made no-limit compromises with demons.
In the past, whether or not you sacrificed anything else, you yourself would certainly not escape; demons did not accept purely material objects for contractual conditions because most demons were not so powerful. Other than souls with a mark, they had no guarantee of being able to reclaim other objects.
But after a wave of their 'cash crops' were harvested, demons had to lower their proud heads and find ways to raise some capital for turnover, giving humans a great deal of bargaining room, with the key point being that the price to be paid could be changed to something other than themselves.
Ordinary objects wouldn't tempt demons, who actually preferred human souls, and in their eyes, not all souls were equal. The highest quality was the soul of sinners.
Sin adds a lot of weight to a soul. The heavier the soul, the richer its flavor and the greater the power it could provide. This was why many demons, knowing the odds were slim, still placed their bets on Constantine.
But to add an extra layer of sin to a soul wasn't so simple. In a world where God exists, if you're a devout Believer diligently following the doctrine, you can actually wash away many sins.
Even if you aren't a Believer, don't believe in anything, haven't done many bad things, or the bad things you've done aren't severe enough to reach the sin threshold, they won't be marked. Even after committing evil deeds, genuine repentance means the additional sin won't be added.
Some evildoers, though they committed misdeeds towards the outside world, treated their families and friends well, thereby reducing their sins. Even those who committed evil deeds in secret but performed superficial acts of kindness to cover them up, had their sins lessened.
Therefore, it was very difficult to accumulate a soul weight of over 21 grams; there weren't many such wicked people among the human race, and often, meticulous investigation was required to find even one or two.
Moreover, the souls of these sinners would suffer losses if they were to arrive in Hell via ordinary means, and only through a ritual execution and sacrifice could the loss be minimized.
"We just drew an array on the seabed," Constantine began to explain to Oliver, "After all, the souls of the sinners on this ship are quite heavy. The execution ritual is a bit like express packaging, which has to be tight and secure to avoid damage. However, the magic array that collects the souls resembles the transport plane and truck en route; if it's substandard and too bumpy, it too can cause losses."
"So, you've transported all their souls to Hell?" Oliver asked.
"Yes, as the first batch of trade materials. A total of 99 sinners' souls, with an average weight of 25 grams. That's a major gift that even the Demon Lord would take notice of..."
"Wait, 99? But there are more than 99 people on this ship."
"Yes, there are only 99 truly perfect sinners' souls. Some that slightly fall below this standard are considered bonus items, and there are others completely deficient, not meeting the 21-gram mark--they will be sent back shortly."
Oliver slapped his forehead.
As strange as it sounded, if you did a good deed, even if it was for your own benefit, it would cleanse your own soul, resulting in a soul that wasn't heavy enough, and thus scorned by demons who favored sin, essentially becoming a flawed product.
At that moment, Amanda walked over to the scales. She was a bit curious about the weight of her own soul. Maybe it was around 25 grams too, considering she hadn't killed a few people.
The goat demon appraising her from her seat slowly shook its head as if it wasn't too optimistic about her chances. Amanda stepped on the scales, and it read exactly 21 grams.
"Stop dawdling, ma'am. From the state of your soul, you don't belong here. Maybe you should take a left turn and ask those angels if they'll take you," the goat demon said disdainfully.
"That's impossible," Amanda said in disbelief, "I'm the head of the agents. I've had my subordinates kill quite a number of people, done all sorts of theft of secrets and intrusion into privacy, even breaking and entering."
Seeing that he couldn't convince her, the goat demon reluctantly flipped through his parchment roll and fetched a pair of glasses to wear before speaking, "Last June you captured two killers. One indiscriminately killed 15 people, and the other tortured a family of four, right?"
After recalling for a moment, Amanda replied, "Yes, the Michigan Ripper. The other should be called the Garden Goblin or the Family Killer, I forget; he wasn't very famous."
"That reduced your soul weight by at least 0.2 grams. And this summer, you presided over the trial and execution of a killer who would trap children in cars and burn them to death."
"The Wood Piler, I remember him, that damned bastard. He didn't confess until the very end!" Amanda said through gritted teeth.
The goat demon's face seemed to improve and he even cracked a smile, adding, "I remember his soul seemed to have gone our way. Great-grandmother quite liked the taste of that one."
"Ma'am, it's an honor to meet such an upright enforcer of justice. How about you step down and go have some tea over there, and after our boss is done talking, I'll take you to meet Great-grandmother in the depths of the fiery abyss?"
Amanda looked somewhat perplexed at the goat demon's enthusiastic smile but still found herself pushed off the scales by the souls that followed.
At that moment, the black man wearing an eyepatch approached her and called out, "Ms. Waller, come with me; your family has been waiting for you over there for a while."
Amanda was startled, but when she turned her head, she saw her mother's slightly aged but unchanged face, and then she heard a familiar scream.
"Amanda! Amanda!! My little Mandy!"
She felt herself being forcibly embraced as her mother held her face and exclaimed, "Oh my God, it really is you."
Before Amanda could speak, her father came over, wrapped his arms around them both, and said, "You wouldn't believe how grateful we are that you weren't there that day. We were thinking about it until our last second; thank goodness you weren't there!"
Amanda could no longer hold back, and tears flooded down her cheeks.