As expected, when Stark and Steve arrived at the hospital room, they found Shiller once again asleep. Stark went up to shake Shiller awake, but Shiller showed no reaction. Even when Stark played music and switched his battlesuit to vibration mode, even putting his hands on the head of the bed, Shiller remained fast asleep.
Steve had already gone out to call the doctor. After the doctor came in and conducted an examination, he said during his adjustments to the equipment, "His physiological signs are all normal, he is not in a coma. He is truly just asleep."
"You might not know, in many cases of psychological disorders, insomnia and hypersomnia manifest at the same time. Perhaps Shiller experienced symptoms of insomnia last night, which is why he is sleeping so soundly now. If you don't have any urgent matters, you can come to see him later."
After the doctor left, Stark frowned as he looked at Shiller. "I think we need to go find him inside the Thought Palace and clear up what is going on," he said.
As he said this, he walked to the other side of the hospital companion bed, and said to Steve, "You wait here, watch after my body. I'll enter the dream to find Shiller and ask him what's happening."
Steve did not refuse, he knew Stark, now possessing knowledge of magic and psychology, would be safer entering the dream world. If Steve were to join him, it could instead reduce their efficiency.
Moreover, if Shiller and Stark simultaneously entered a dream state, their bodies without supervision could be in danger. So, Steve sat in the middle of the two hospital beds, with Shiller on the left and Stark on the right.
After Stark entered the dream, he arrived at Shiller's Thought Palace in the same way as his previous visit. But this time, the palace was much livelier. Looking down from above, there were quite a few people on each of the first ten floors. And this time, there was even a Shiller waiting to greet him.
A Shiller with a globe for a head approached and shook hands with Stark, leading him enthusiastically to the elevator.
In the elevator, he introduced to Stark, "We don't know what's happened to Shiller recently. He shuts himself inside his room every day, making phone calls with that scale..."
"And mumbling to himself unconsciously at the empty desk, talking about resurrection conditions, Valhalla, and the like..."
"To tell the truth, we are all worried, but none of us dare to ask. As his friend, you should persuade him not to get lost in dreams and to return to reality."
As the globe-headed Shiller spoke, Stark's face grew increasingly serious. The elevator stopped at the 201st floor. The globe-headed Shiller led Stark forward and as they walked, he said, "This is the temporary office level. He is in the office at the very back. You can see him just by pushing the door open."
This Shiller kindly directed Stark, who nodded in response and quickly moved towards that room.
As he pushed the door open, Stark saw Shiller sitting at a desk, onto which nothing lay but a balance scale they had seen before. On one of the scale, a feather was balanced against a heart on the other.
At that moment, the heart-end of the scale was higher, with Shiller pressing down on it with two fingers. It seemed to Stark that an unseen entity was pressing down on the other end.
When Stark came in, Shiller happened to be drinking from a glass of water. So, Stark did not hear what Shiller was saying. He approached and hesitated before deciding to sit in the empty seat across the table.
"Sit over there," Shiller pointed to another side of the table where a chair appeared. Startled, Stark asked, "Why?"
"Because someone is sitting across from me." Shiller rubbed his temples, in his vision, a woman in business attire was sitting across from him. A name tag affixed to her chest read, "Client Manager."
The female form was inspired by comics Shiller had previously read. Originally, his mental image of Death was similar to that of Thanos because the most impressionable depiction of Death in his past life had been from comics.
However, after several bouts of negotiation, Death's robes had turned into a business woman's attire. After all, who else could be as difficult to deal with as a client's manager?
Luckily, Shiller had made some progress. Now, Death was even willing to sit across from him to talk. This was, quite simply, a historic breakthrough.
So even when Shiller heard someone calling him from reality, he ignored it. Today, even if the king of heaven himself came, Shiller would have to successfully conclude this negotiation.
Some might think that Death was merely an illusion conjured by Shiller, just like in Thanos's case. But in actuality, it was entirely different; Death was truly present.
Truthfully, Death was a bit taken aback by Shiller. In a long span of her professional career, Death had traded with many beings, including Odin, Osiris, Mephisto, Hela and the like.
Most of the death-related or resurrection-related gods of each deity system had transactions with her.
The usual process of trading would be that these gods perceived the presence of Death and, assuming Death had a physical form, they would see an illusion of Death similar to Thanos. At this point, they would realize that Death desires more death, and resurrection is but another form of bringing death.
They would then understand that as an abstract concept, Death couldn't directly cause death and needed to act through a medium. In other words, she couldn't directly tell Odin to kill. Death could only provide a roundabout way, which was to give Odin the power to resurrect warriors, thus leading him to cause more killings.
These concepts are what they inferred in the darkness. That is, as soon as they considered the entity concept of Death, they understood these things. Agreement meant the completion of the trade.
No noticeable changes will happen, except from now on, the power of resurrection would be enabled. Souls appointed by them will be rejected by the land of Death.
How Death would identify the souls these gods have designated depended on their respective symbols. Odin's symbol is his long spear while Osiris's symbol is this balance scale.
Generally, a token of faith is not lost. Those who have the power to resurrect and therefore, potential subjects of death transactions, often have many followers and are very powerful. No one can steal these tokens from them. For example, it is unlikely that anyone could snatch Odin's long spear from him.
Long ago, when the Egyptian Pantheon was thriving, it had numerous followers and Osiris was mighty. However, in recent times, the Egyptian Pantheon left their prosperous path littered with problem children, unlike Asgard. Thus, the number of transactions represented by the scales has not risen.
The power of death is infinite. However, if she refuses to accept souls, it is like losing a source of income. This income is currently being used by her as an investment in this pantheon.
Only when the rejected souls cause more killings will this investment break even. But, as the Egyptian pantheon has been lagging in modern times and followers are few, the transaction volume represented by the scales has been running at a loss for a long time.
Death has resurrected many followers for Osiris. This is analogous to a sunk cost. If she gives up on the scales now, wouldn't the rejected souls be given in vain?
Any being with human nature would hesitate in the face of sunk costs. Death is no exception.
Therefore, she would rather tolerate Shiller's pestering calls than give up this channel. Who knows, in a few million years, the Egyptian Pantheon could evolve into another Asgard.
But on one hand, Shiller is really bothersome. Cold calls are not just the enemy of mankind, but are also a nuisance to any intelligent creature. No matter how mighty the universal overlord or a god is, they have all surrendered under her skirts during all these countless years of crossing romantic battlefields.
However, Shiller isn't interested in discussing love or romance, only finance. In just three days, he had already managed to submit over a hundred plans and made thousands of calls. The words that left his mouth were nothing but interest rates, principal, loans...
To be honest, after listening for so long, Death is practically starting to understand human finance.
This is exactly why Death is slightly tempted. According to Shiller, her previous method of cooperation was inefficient, with more given than received.
Using the contrast between Asgard and the Egyptian Pantheon, Shiller thoroughly analysed for Death why this method doesn't work.
In simple terms, typical investments carry risks. No one can have the best of everything. Someone might earn a lot from one investment, only to lose greatly on the next. For instance, the highly profitable Asgard compared to the Egyptian Pantheon, which almost went bankrupt.
There are many ways to conquer everything, especially when Death is controlling such a large authority. Why would the game administrator be worried about striking gold?
After Shiller's thoughtful analysis, Death was slightly tempted. However, she is unlike the Cosmic Sorcerer. With such a large authority under her control, she doesn't want to cooperate with anyone on equal footings. She only wishes to manipulate Shiller like she did Thanos.
The current situation between the two is simple: Shiller hopes to use Death, and Death wishes to use Shiller. Both are aware of the other's schemes, yet neither is willing to let go of the benefits of mutual use. Shiller and Death both aim to win. Despite recognising each other's competitive spirit, neither can let go of their own.
Anyway, they have been in a stalemate for a long time. Only recently did they have a breakthrough where Death finally revealed herself to have a face-to-face talk with Shiller.
However, the talks are not going smoothly. Death acknowledges that the situation is unfavourable to her. She doesn't know how Shiller found out that her final condition is to create more death, while she is unaware of Shiller's final condition.
Just before Stark entered, Death was trying to probe Shiller, attempting to clarify the underlying motives of Shiller's deal with her.
At the halftime break, Stark entered. Stark was not a negotiating party with Death. Therefore, he could not see Death. From his point of view, it seemed as though Shiller was murmuring to the air.
"Honestly, Shiller." Stark placed his hands on the table, speaking sincerely, "I can understand your past ideals and beliefs. Even though I'm not a Marxist, after hearing Steve and Natasha talk about the grandeur of that era, it elicits a sense of nostalgia."
Shiller was too absorbed in reviewing contract clauses and provisions to comprehend what Stark was saying.
"However, as I've told Steve, that era has passed. Dwelling on the past brings no benefits. It will only harm you. Trying to resurrect the past only brings harm to more people," Stark said, looking straight into Shiller's eyes.
"If you're trying to resurrect the Soviet Union, I have to dissuade you," advised Stark.
Due to overworking and fatigue, Shiller did not catch the meaning of Stark's words. Suddenly, he noticed Death, on the other side, flinch and make a frightened face before quickly disappearing without a trace.
Before she left, her voice echoed in the room:
"You want to resurrect the Soviet Union??"
"Goodbye!!!"
Stupefied, Shiller just stared.