"Quiet! Everyone, quiet!!!"
In an incredibly spacious meeting room simulated to resemble the cosmos environment, a figure walked in from the back door and raised their voice, "Stay quiet! Humanoids, take a seat on the left, and non-humanoids, float on the right. Owen! Owen!! Come out and maintain order!"
With a rustling sound, numerous chairs fell from mid-air, and a huge stage appeared in front of everyone. Under the spotlight, a figure made a shining entrance. Owen cleared his throat and said, "Ahem, welcome to—Arena!!!"
Before he could finish speaking, he was shoved aside. Shiller, holding a rolled-up flyer, approached the podium and tapped the microphone, "Ultron, pass out the flyers to the first row. Come on, everyone start passing them back. Take one each, don't take extra."
"That Laughing bat over there! I'm talking to you, don't take more than one! Just because there's no one beside you doesn't mean you can take enough for five, this thing is dynamically printed and costs a lot..."
"Eternity, Eternity, keep an eye on Star Eater. That stuff isn't compatible with the energy of your cosmos, it'll give him a stomachache if he eats it..."
"Is this... Thanos? I've heard a lot about you, Mr. Thanos, please pass it along to your right rear side, thank you."
"Tony, I mean, AI Iron Man, turn your head back around, stop staring at my robot Butler. Once the Arena starts, I guarantee you'll get to dismantle a lot more interesting information..."
"Alright, has everyone got one?" Shiller surveyed the room, which was filled with all kinds of demons and ghosts, but he acted as if he didn't see them, treating the crowd below as mere vegetables.
He hit the microphone hard, and the booming sound made most of the crowd frown. Then he leaned forward, closer to the mic and said, "First, let me welcome you to the Arena... Don't worry about how you got here, the fact is you're here now, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to accommodate my work."
Shiller shook the flyer in his hand, "As you can see, the public beta version of the Arena will start in a month. Next, allow me to introduce the investors of this Arena session..."
The screen behind Shiller quickly lit up, displaying various information about the Arena: investors, registered capital, corporate entity, management team, facilities, corporate culture, and glorious history...
"Stop!" Eternity shouted, "You brought us here just to listen to your scam convention?!"
He voiced what everyone was thinking. If they couldn't see that this was another scheme by Shiller, they might as well kiss the Omnipotent Universe level goodbye.
"But why go to such lengths to lock us in a place that feels like a pyramid scheme and try to brainwash us? Do you really think we're naïve seniors rushing to get an egg coupon?"
"Just open the portal and let us go back," Eternity said with a sense of resignation. "There's a pile of things to do in the cosmos..."
Others echoed in agreement, "Basically, everyone sitting here is at corporate CEO level, and by America's political system, at least at a Governor's status. Who of this stature has free time to listen to your pyramid-scheme scamming?"
"We're here because we don't want to eat shit-flavored chocolate, but that doesn't mean we want to eat chocolate-flavored shit."
After saying this, several people turned and started to walk away. Shiller's face immediately changed. He snorted coldly, straightened up from the microphone, and slammed the flyer on the desk. "Now, let's welcome our special invited artist, Laughing bat, to share with us the details of creating the recent blockbuster, 'Galaxy Rescue.' A round of applause, please!"
Laughing bat stepped up onto the stage.
There was an immediate uproar from below. Eternity suddenly changed his tune and said righteously, "I think the Arena is an excellent venue for cultural exchanges between two worlds and actually has investment potential. Tell us more about the investors; what's this all about?"
"Right, right," someone immediately agreed. "I also think the concept of the project is good. Owen, come on, tell us about the advantages of your management team, let me take notes."
"See, that's where you're wrong, Doctor Schiller. A proper business meeting shouldn't involve artists. What year did you say the project was started? How many years ago?"
"Not just a few years ago," someone immediately retorted. "I think you should start by talking about the birth of the Seventh Firmament for your corporate culture, but it might also go back to the destruction of the Sixth Firmament, when everything was chaos..."
"Exactly, I have something to say about that. When I first opened my eyes, the cosmos hadn't been destroyed yet. A meteor appeared in the sky, and I looked closely—it was the Arena Portal! I think you really need to get your corporate history straight..."
The people all talked at once, praising how great the Arena project was. It was good simply because it was especially good; never mind the reason, it was just really good. They unanimously suggested discussing more details of the project, even if it took 11 more hours—they weren't busy at all.
This group had learned to fear Shiller's tactic of playing chicken with the devil.
Though the process sounded like a joke, Shiller actually started to explain earnestly. These people didn't intend to listen seriously; they simply wanted to avoid eating shit. But as they listened, they really did start to get drawn in.