When Nick walked in wearing a red reindeer sweater, Strange snapped his fingers and said, "Hey, bro, you're much more fashionable than the guy before you."
Nick paused for a moment and asked, "Who? The captain?"
"Yes, that red and green sweater of his is really awful."
"I let him choose between these two, and he chose the red and green one." Nick looked down, stretched out his sweater, glanced at the pattern on it, and said, "Honestly, I quite like the one he wore."
"Did you buy these clothes with yourself as the model? Haven't you thought how disastrous it would be when a white man wears it?" Shiller stood up, took another cup from the cabinet, poured a drink for Nick, and asked.
Nick sat down in front of the sofa, shook his head, and said casually, "It's fine. Besides me and the captain, no one would wear it. Since no one would wear it, any color is fine."
"Is it because these old-fashioned colors are the cheapest? When you took them away from the clothing factory, people must have paid you a disposal fee."
"Don't say that, it's my winter reimbursement battle cry. If it weren't for you guys calling me over, I'd be busy tallying up the 12,000 Christmas gifts per person..."
After speaking, he turned to look at Loki sitting on the sofa, then asked, "This lady is...?"
"She's Loki"
"Oh..." Nick said with a prolonged tone, "Interesting."
"Aren't you surprised?" Strange asked him.
"A bit, but I can't comment. As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I have to be silent on sensitive issues like gender and transgender."
"Before that, remove the bug on Steve's clothes," Shiller side-eyed him and said.
Nick waved his hand and said, "Occult incidents on Earth are also within our jurisdiction, and it's normal for operatives on a mission to have a communication device to contact the headquarters at any time."
"Did you hear what we said before?"
"I only heard the first version of the story, but I guess, there must be a hidden version, right?" Nick tilted his head towards Loki and nodded.
Strange briefed Nick on the current situation, and Shiller put the glass in front of Nick. Nick took a sip and said, "Okay, I think I get it. The plan and coincidence led to the current situation, but overall, we are still on track."
Loki took a puff on her cigar, looked at Shiller who had just sat down, and said, "When you gave me the advice to cause some troubles to test Odin's attitude, I had some ideas."
"Only that fool Thor would cause trouble without thinking, or rather, he really does cause trouble, whereas I do not."
"If one day I were to cause trouble, it would certainly be part of my plan, and this time is no exception." Loki laughed.
"Moreover, Thor and his foolish friends can only stir up small troubles. No matter how many times they cause such troubles, it's no big deal. Other than mocking their stupidity, it has no effect."
"But I won't do that. If I am going to cause trouble, I will cause enormous chaos, the kind that could boil the whole cosmos...." Loki's tone carried a touch of malevolence and madness characteristic of an evil god, she said, "I won't make the Father of all Gods angry, I'm going to stun him."
"You could just say that when it comes to creating havoc, you also want to surpass your brother," Shiller concluded.
"Alright, I won't deny that's part of it, but it's not the main reason," Loki countered, then added, "When I decided to make some noise, I realized that it's a great opportunity to kill three birds with one stone."
"Thor has been in a slump after being exiled to Earth. He needs a chance to awaken."
"When I found out that I wasn't Odin's biological child, I suspected a conspiracy but couldn't confirm it. I needed a chance to test Odin's attitude."
"After the father of all gods fell asleep, some people wanted to take advantage of Thor. Odin needed a chance to suppress them...."
"I combined these three opportunities and staged the event of the Destroyer invading earth."
"Looking at it now, it appears you've achieved all your goals." Strange contemplated and said, "Thor has awakened and even acquired the new power of light, you're not killed by Odin, which means he probably still loves you, and that group of people who wanted to manipulate Thor should have surfaced..."
"That's right, but there's one more thing, I deliberately trapped Thor on Sakaar, to hold him back. He would only be a problem here, and without him, I could proceed with my plan."
"So initially, you had no intention of going to Sakaar, right?" Shiller asked."
Loki sighed and said, "Yes, but without giving Thor some stimulation, no telling when he would awaken."
"So that's why you stormed into the High Lord's nest with no divine power. Turns out it was a decoy stratagem...."
"I wouldn't call it that. I knew that the High Lord wouldn't dare kill me." Loki propped her elbow on the sofa armrest, then continued, "I didn't expect that Thor would acquire a new power of light, but that's good news. In the next plan, Asgard will have more initiative."
"You still haven't said what your next move is?" Strange looked at her.
"Don't rush, how's business at The Sanctum lately?"
"You have the nerve to bring that up? While you were missing, I was on the verge of going crazy, don't you remember this is supposed to be a joint venture? I did all the work, is this fair?"
"Okay, from what you say, you should be proficient by now, let me ask you a question..." Loki said, having a puff of his cigar, emitting a cloud of smoke, then continued, "Right now, the Lord of The Underworld is looking for me everywhere wanting to kill me, The God of Light is also looking for me everywhere wanting to protect me."
"They both resent each other, with old grudges and new added, as soon as I appear, they are bound to fight."
"So the question is, we know that a cosmic war is on the verge of happening; the conflict between the Land of Death and the life force of the World Tree will surely be on a massive scale. What are we, the Holy Sanctuary, supposed to do?"
Strange, scratching his chin, said, "Hmm... must we mediate?"
Nick shook his head, revealing the answer, "We need to warn, to inform other cosmic sorcerers that we are about to fight."
"Is it to deter them? To declare to the cosmos that Asgard still possesses formidable power. Manifestations of this being even Hela and Baldur can stir up unrest, thus no one could question the authority of Odin..." said Strange, catching on quickly.
"Exactly," Nick continued, "Sometimes, internal competition not only consumes power but also serves as a deterrent to external forces. The power demonstrated in an internal struggle could deter some entities from acting recklessly."
"Moreover, this would shake the internal situation of Asgard. Thor has gained new powers of light and is destined to be the new king; however, at this point, Baldur, who was once the heir to the throne, made a high-profile appearance along with the princess Hela of Asgard..."
"The previously unchanging succession suddenly has the potential to sway. This will inevitably induce a major reshuffling within Asgard. With this upheaval, I could revisit the balance of power within Asgard and lay the foundation for future societal structure reforms," Loki concisely summarized.
Stranger applauded lightly, speaking to Loki, "God of Mischief, you live up to your name."
"In this scheme of intertwined plans, you've accomplished all your goals, including awakening Thor, probing Odin, and shaking up Asgard's existing structure..."
"The only problem is, how will Baldur and Hela fight? Hela agreed to your terms, but Baldur did not; are you planning for Hela to throw the match?"
"Why not? After all, even if she wins against Baldur, she can't defeat Odin, so she's bound to return to the realm of death. Isn't a loss, retreat, recovering in the realm of death, a good premise?"
"Actually, I think this plan can be further improved," Shiller interjected, drawing the focus of the others.
"What if we fight for real?"
"What do you mean?" Nick looked at Shiller questioningly as he detected something different.
Shiller turned to Strange, asking, "You mentioned earlier that you created a magical broadcast at The Sanctum that can send messages to all cosmic sorcerers; is it possible to only send messages to a fraction of them?"
"Of course, even without the broadcast, our customer service can handle it."
"Good, our esteemed customers who previously joined the higher membership should receive the latest cosmic news..."
"Seriously, what do you mean?" Strange looked at Shiller puzzledly.
"What I'm saying is, since Baldur and Hela have to fight each other regardless, why don't we choose a place where there're more cosmic sorcerers and genuinely start a war?"
"Before starting this war, we use the broadcast to send messages of impending war to the sorcerers who paid for high-level membership at The Sanctum, warning them to seek sanctuary; then we start the war. Those who survive are our members, the dead become our member's gifts, how does that sound?"
Before anyone else could speak, Shiller further added, "Of course, I know what you're worrying about: not enough people affected, not enough staff, insufficient destruction, maybe not enough gifts to recoup the cost..."
"But don't worry, don't we still have our most esteemed platinum members? Call on them to conjointly start the war, with so many powerful cosmic sorcerers at once, from Centaurus to Purgatory Nebula, from the Eternal Kingdom to the edges of Hell, that sounds quite normal, right?"
"At the same time, The Sanctum, which possesses cosmic responsibility and spirit of humanitarianism, opens a fast evacuation passage; those willing to join as members are evacuated, those who don't join are transformed into natural bounty."
"How much we snatch during the fight is all based on our ability. After the fight, protection fees are collected then distributed according to membership levels..."
"Of course, this type of division might be a bit chaotic, as how much someone contributes during a war is hard to measure by numbers."
"Why not reserve this part of the funds at The Sanctum as a shared investment? We distribute dividends on a regular basis to them. The more you invest, the more you get... "
"Then consolidate the ownership structure, establish a board of directors, have shareholders vote on hiring professional managers, divide cosmic regions, such as the Big Galactic Region, Big Nebula Region, and so on. Then set up branches, hire managers, implement strategies matching different environments..."
"...cough, cough, that was a bit too much, no problem, just stick to the ten thousand year plan for now... oh wait, I completely forgot..."
Shiller glanced at the three of them and said, "All three of you have eternal life, right? Sadly, I am but a common man, so I'm afraid..."
"Enough, ten sets of infinity serum, that's the highest price I can offer."
"One hundred sets or no deal."
"Deal," answered Nick, staring at Shiller with his one eye.
Shiller smirked and raised his glass, "To the cosmos."
The other three, with different expressions, also raised their glasses, implicitly agreeing, "To the cosmos."