American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

“Nightmare? That guy who plays with nightmares and fear?” Mephisto paused. “What do you need from him? The characteristics of his dimensional power? Is he absolutely necessary?”

Odin also scratched his scalp. He hadn't had much interaction with this dimensional demon god, only knowing that the characteristics of his dimensional power were very special.

“His dimensional power is still helpful for our next product,” Luke said. “He has the ability to manipulate dreams. This ability, with a little modification, can harvest a lot of energy from a large number of living beings. And establish a healthy energy cycle that we have always wanted to establish, but have always been just a little short of.”

“Then how about we just kill him?” Mephisto offered a suggestion in line with the demon god's philosophy.

“Kill him?” Strange looked at Mephisto. He found that Mephisto's remarks always seemed to be accompanied by dangerous words like 'kill him'.

What to do if there is a threat?

Kill him!

What to do if someone comes to compete for a share of the profits?

Kill him!

What to do if someone is blocking the way?

Kill him!

What to do if you need someone's power?

Can you snatch his power? If you can, then kill him!

Simple and straightforward to the extreme. Perhaps in the eyes of these demon gods, the purest and most convenient way to deal with enemies and opponents with conflicting interests is to destroy them.

This behavior was very inconsistent with Doctor Strange's professional nature.

“We can't kill everyone,” Luke denied Mephisto's words. “We can give him a probationary period first, and then see how he does before deciding how much of a share to give him. Of course, he needs to pay something to truly join us.”

“I don't think he will follow your ideas,” Mephisto questioned Luke's words.

“Let's try first. If he always refuses to join, then for the sake of our subsequent plans, we can only have a little chat with him. If he is a great demon god who would rather die than submit, then we can't just use him as a battery or something. Although the efficiency conversion might be a bit low,” Luke said softly.

After cooperating a few times, this group of them was already very familiar with each other's tacit understanding and sneak attacks. As long as they collected information beforehand, with their cooperation and strength, the possibility of a mishap was equal to zero.

“Who's going to talk to him? Although I'm good at signing contracts and bewitching people, I believe you don't want me to go. What's more, he probably wouldn't believe me either.” Mephisto really wanted to take on this task, but he also knew himself well enough to actively remove himself from it.

“I'm not suitable either,” Odin waved his hand. As a god-king, he was not good at negotiating.

“I've retired,” Gu Yi said lightly.

“I'm just a technician. I'm only responsible for providing products and opinions,” Luke also raised his hand.

So the eyes of the four people fell on the remaining two people at the conference table. To be precise, it was on the current Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange.

As for Nick? Their eyes didn't even linger on him, obviously not recognizing from the bottom of their hearts that Nick could do anything.

It had nothing to do with professional skills or eloquence. The main reason was that Nick's strength and body were too weak. Even if they wasted their energy to send him into Nightmare's dimension, he might not even see Nightmare's face.

Even if he was lucky enough to see Nightmare, with the mentality of a dimensional demon god, without corresponding strength, the so-called negotiation would only be a joke.

Being stared at by the unkind eyes of several people, Strange only felt a chill rush from his tailbone straight to his head! At this moment, he finally determined where the unease he had been feeling all this time came from.

It came from this group of old guys and Luke!

Strange looked sideways at his teacher. Facing Strange's pleading gaze, Gu Yi calmly and quietly turned her head away, happily drinking a cup of tea that had suddenly appeared in her hand.

Strange felt another chill in his heart. He subconsciously looked at Luke, and saw Luke's smiling face nodding at him. Instantly, his already long face became even longer.

Sure enough, after the Book of Energy was taken into the Dark Dimension by Kaecilius, he felt that according to Luke's character, it was impossible for him not to express anything. It was just that Luke had been too calm before, and he couldn't help but have the illusion that this matter might just be turned over.

“The duty of the Sorcerer Supreme is to guard Midgard,” Strange said dryly, still trying to struggle a bit when the time came.

“Don't worry, I will take good care of Midgard. You must also trust Wang and the others. If it really doesn't work, Master Gu Yi can also be rehired to help,” Luke smiled, completely blocking Strange's excuse.

“Okay, okay, but what should I do?” Strange leaned back on the back of his chair, giving up all hope. “Maybe before I even have time to say what I'm here for, the other party will kill me as an intruder.”

“Dormammu didn't kill you, and I don't think Nightmare can kill you either. Every one of you Sorcerers Supreme is very good at saving your own life,” Mephisto said gloatingly.

“I can let Thor or Loki go with you,” Odin said slowly, thinking. Just as a hint of joy appeared on Strange's face, Odin's next words made the joy on his face freeze. “Of course, provided they finish all the affairs at hand, or one of them is willing to help take over the affairs at hand of the other.”

“How you treated Dormammu is how you can treat Nightmare. I believe that with your ability and intelligence, he will always be willing to calm down and listen to what you have to say,” Luke encouraged Strange, cheering him on like crazy.

How you treated Dormammu is how you can treat Nightmare?

Strange thought about the sentence “Dormammu, I've come to bargain” that he had cycled through countless times, and the process of dying and living, living and dying, and experiencing all kinds of deaths until he was a little numb.

When he enters the Nightmare Dimension, could he really have an infinite loop with Nightmare of "Nightmare, I've come to talk business.GIF"? These two dimensional demon gods are not the same thing!

Having read Gu Yi's notes on the power attributes of the major dimensional demon gods, Strange would rather face Dormammu's big face in the Dark Dimension again than face a demon god who is good at playing with emotions and the spirit.

“Luke has prepared a product for you. I believe they will impress Nightmare,” Gu Yi said, comforting her pale-faced disciple. Before this, Luke had communicated some things with her in advance. If she hadn't confirmed some information, it would have been impossible for her to push the successor she had finally selected and cultivated into the fire pit.

Although this matter is difficult, it is still possible for Strange to complete it. And as long as he completes this, according to the group's rule of equal share for equal effort, it means that Strange has won a generous benefit for the Sorcerer Supreme lineage, which will make his position more stable and more respected and favored by the mages.

Strange raised his eyes to look at Luke.

Under Strange's burning gaze, Luke grabbed a black light团 from the void, lingering with an ominous black aura. He gently threw the light团 forward, and the black light团 slowly scattered a cloud of misty black mist along the way, which was solidified by Strange's power in front of him.

“This is?” Strange sensed the light团 floating in front of him, like a black tadpole with a black tail, which gave him a bad feeling, and subconsciously glanced in Luke's direction.

“Black Nightmare Seed. Animals, monsters, humans, and other kinds of life that are attacked by the Black Nightmare will fall into a deep sleep, and will become violent after waking up. During the period of infection, it will collect the life and light energy carried by the infected life form. Of course, I have made some modifications to it, weakening the characteristic that it will become violent after waking up,” Luke explained to Strange.

In essence, the Black Nightmare Seed created by Luke is one of the by-products of mental energy. Collecting certain emotional energy from life will definitely magnify and perpetuate the other side of the emotion. What Luke did was to greatly weaken the sequelae, although this would also lead to a decrease in the efficiency of energy collection. But he doesn't need to urgently restore any power. It doesn't matter.

And this Black Nightmare Seed is highly consistent with the power characteristics of the Nightmare Dimension. Nightmare, who has always been trying to make the power of dreams exist more in the real world, will definitely want to take it for himself as long as he sees the Black Nightmare Seed.

However, at that time, he will find that no matter how he replicates it, he can only create semi-finished products that are similar in appearance but different in spirit due to the lack of key elements. It is naturally no problem to use it in his own dimension. But once it is taken out of the real universe, all kinds of problems will come one after another. In the end, while being exhausted physically and mentally, if he doesn't want to give up the convenience of the Black Nightmare Seed, he will have to bow his head to Luke and the others.

Strange, Mephisto and others who knew something about the Nightmare Dimension understood Luke's words for a while. Strange was okay, but Mephisto praised Luke's technology from time to time. He seemed to have only seen Luke, a weirdo, who played this thing of technology on the dimensional demon gods.

“In addition, you can tell him that if he chooses to join us, we can plan a sustainable dream energy collection path for him. This path will not have any risks, and no one will regard him as an enemy and knock him down as a villain,” Luke added, “He can safely and comfortably lie at home and continuously obtain everything, without having to work hard to think about which world to invade today and which world to invade tomorrow, risking huge risks just to harvest so little energy. I believe he will understand. After all, he is not the kind of chaotic creature whose brain is completely affected by that kind of power characteristic and doesn't know how to think and analyze the pros and cons, is he? Like Your Excellency Mephisto, he can communicate and cooperate with a large number of benefits.”

“You say my confidence is about to soar,” Strange smiled wryly. If it were someone else, perhaps their confidence would have been filled by Luke's encouragement, but what he heard from Luke's words was all: [I have prepared everything for you, go and deliver it!], [It doesn't matter whether you live or die, it is very important whether the things are delivered and the words are passed on]!

“It seems your confidence is not strong enough,” Luke smiled, and took out a translucent sapphire gemstone that exuded a charming brilliance from the void. As soon as this gemstone appeared, it emitted energy fluctuations, making the minds and spirits of everyone around it become peaceful and calm for a while.

“Even my spirit can be affected, is this also a product of new energy?” Mephisto frowned slightly. He didn't like this kind of power very much. If everyone was extremely calm, or had no desires, how could he bewitch people?

“Take it with you, it should be able to exempt you from some of the influence of Nightmare's power,” Luke also threw the blue gemstone to Strange, and continued under the other party's calm expression: “Well, it should also be able to create a space for Nightmare to communicate with you calmly.”

Strange opened his storage place made by relying on a certain dimensional small space, put the gemstone and the Black Nightmare Edge into it, and closed it in full view of everyone. It was not until the energy emitted by the blue gemstone disappeared that everyone felt their minds and spirits return to normal.

“If he asks me what the plan is, how should I answer?” Strange saw that Luke had taken out so many things, and he also knew very well that he was destined to go on this somewhat dangerous fantasy journey. Since he couldn't resist, he simply didn't resist, and it was true to try his best to make up for various loopholes first.

“You can let him come and talk to us. If he feels unsafe, we can also show some sincerity. In fact, to put it bluntly, it's very simple, that is, we package his nightmare, package it into something similar to a virtual game. We can also recommend batches of game developers to him. From the script to the various links of the game, we can arrange it for him in all aspects. He only needs to provide some insignificant props and expenses. As for the candidates to handle it,” Luke said, turning his attention to Nick Fury, the little transparent man at the meeting.

“The plan can be handed over to Director Fury to handle. He is the most suitable person among us to do this plan.”

Nick, who was named by Luke, was a little tearful for a while. Finally, Luke finally remembered him, the little transparent man at the meeting! He, Nick Fury, and his S.H.I.E.L.D., are finally about to usher in a wave of version enhancements?

Nick was very keenly aware of some of Luke's coquettish operations from this plan. He obviously did not give up Midgard. No matter what, Nick was still very moved by Luke's kindness this time in taking him to play with the ordinary people of Midgard. In particular, Nick had already seen that if this plan could be successful, he and S.H.I.E.L.D., including Midgard, could gain something from it.

PS: Thanks to the reward from classmate Quiet Peak.