American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Gu Yi didn't give Luke an answer, or rather, Luke would never get a definite answer from her. After all, even though the two had become similar to the Vishanti trinity through their psionic connection, they were ultimately different from the Vishanti.

While a mage universe was incredibly tempting, it wasn't something Gu Yi urgently needed right now. After her elevation in status, she still had a growth period to go through and wasn't in a hurry to establish or find her own dimension or universe.

After all, such things were quite sensitive for beings like them. It would be like displaying the foundation of one's power in minute detail before Luke, and no one could bear the consequences if Luke were to tamper with it.

Of course, if it was just for accumulating and referencing future power paths, then custom-made universes still had a market.

Mephisto and the other shareholders of the Energy Bank might be cautious, but that didn't mean they weren't happy to promote such customized services. As for whether there were hidden tricks, they weren't ordinary buyers, were they?

In fact, according to Mephisto, the first president of the Energy Bank, he would definitely ask Luke to add something to it and vigorously promote this product.

After all, the universe was too crowded, and no matter how much they squeezed the weak gods, they wouldn't get much out of it. Increasing the number of conquered multiverses would take time and require nurturing personnel, which also required a large investment and a long wait.

But if they could customize universes themselves, it would be like making the cake bigger, and their profits would increase a hundred or a thousand times. This was the real 【loan】 business that could be used as a pillar.

It was the ultimate version comparable to the trinity of housing, schooling, and medicine.

No customer could refuse such a service, unless they already had their own powerful dimension. But such demon gods were either not customers of the Energy Bank, or they were high-end customers who needed customization.

At the latest bank meeting, Mephisto was so excited that he couldn't wait to start a big project. Dormammu and Nightmare, among other shareholders, also reinvested heavily in the new business prospects, making huge payouts.

After repeated collaborations, Luke, as the core engine of the team's business, had proven his vision and technology more than once. The early successes had given them a certain level of trust in Luke. To put it bluntly, if Luke were to swindle them hard at this point, it would hurt them to the bone, and they would have to shrink back and lick their wounds for at least a hundred billion years to recover.

At the latest meeting, with the votes of many shareholders, the latest technology Luke had brought out had been designated as the core of the Energy Bank's next business. The demons of the Hell Dimension were whipped like tops by Mephisto, scurrying around the universe like locusts, promoting it in a locust-like manner.

In Tony Stark's words, it was truly a case of hell being empty, with demons on earth!

In the past, newly born devils and demons would be led to learn how to swindle and deceive a human into handing over their soul. But now, who among the devils and demons would bother to painstakingly bewitch humans one by one, then rack their brains to come up with scams to reap their souls?

In the past, this was a lucrative job, only the most cunning or powerful devils and demons could be selected. Even Mephisto, who was one of the lords of the Hell Dimension at the time, had to lower himself to run the business and recruit souls for the Hell Dimension. Of course, he chose the tough ones, the ones with extremely high quality.

But now, except for those devils who couldn't keep up with the times and stubbornly stuck to their old ways, anyone who was assigned to this 【lucrative job】 was likely being ostracized and exiled.

It wasn't that there weren't such devils and demons, but there were very few. After all, there were too few skilled personnel in the business right now, and every one of them couldn't be easily wasted. And running the business had always been regarded by Mephisto as his base.

Originally, there were enough people when there was only one universe. But when Luke started the multiverse business, there was a bit of a shortage of qualified business personnel. Mentoring, employee training, and the like were all brought over by his think tanks from various races. He even relaxed the restrictions and no longer just drew people from the Hell Dimension. Dormammu from the Dark Dimension and Nightmare from the Nightmare Dimension also got involved, but not many were recruited. In the end, S.H.I.E.L.D. provided a large number of business agents, filling the gap with a team model of one human and one bodyguard.

And the change that occurred after these races joined was that Mephisto could no longer freeload on labor. Under pressure from all sides, he had to pay these business agents a certain salary and could no longer put the money in his own pocket alone. After all, if there was no money, who would be willing to work for you? Right?

Those devils and demons who had been freeloaded on for a long time had already launched many parades in the Hell Dimension, but they were all forcibly suppressed by Mephisto. But this kind of forced suppression was impossible to sustain when the supply and demand were reversed. After all, those devils and demons were cunning and treacherous characters, and even those who usually engaged in behind-the-scenes conspiracies couldn't help but stand up and protest, which shows how outrageous Mephisto's exploitation was.

The devils and demons even held a massive strike, but Mephisto reluctantly dissolved it with an expenditure of a new currency.

A certain big director in Midgard even authentically filmed a trilogy of the devils' and demons' history of demanding wages. Of course, all the devil and demon characters that appeared in it were played by their true selves. Devils played devils, demons played demons, but Mephisto was played by his son.

Mephisto had always wanted that director's soul in hell, but this director had earned a lot of new currency from this documentary film and could buy many things to prolong his life and live for a long time. Moreover, the company he worked for was a holding company of an Energy Bank subsidiary.

That's right, it was S.H.I.E.L.D., which had acquired more corporate shares.

In the end, Mephisto made a deal to extend the term of a loan that Nick's S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to expire, in exchange for adding a whitewashing history to the documentary.

But the changes in the Energy Bank were indeed drastic. It was no longer just a framework of high-level forces, it had truly become a behemoth with intertwined interests and complex internal affairs.

The dimension demon gods, who were like a dark forest, had also established relative trust and order for the first time. Of course, this was only limited to those with online intelligence. If you were to look for some chaotic dimension demon gods, their chaotic brains might only be thinking about killing, killing, and robbing.

Like a certain sealed symbiote god.

So after discussion and negotiation, with the unanimous agreement and joint operation of the Energy Bank shareholders, they rebuilt an energy extraction system outside the prison where the symbiote god was held. They were using the symbiote god as a long-term gold mine to mine.

The symbiotes had no objection to this. Some of them, the ones willing to change, joined the Energy Bank's ranks and cooperated with humans and other intelligent life. As long as the symbiote god's seal was not broken, they could live in peace. They couldn't wait for the Energy Bank to add another layer of seal to the prison, or weaken their founding god.

Everyone was satisfied, the only one who was dissatisfied was Mephisto, who had lost a continuous extra income. Yes, under the pressure of various factors, he was paying wages.

Of course, the version he came up with after discussing with the human think tank was initially a cut-down base salary, and then the remaining salary was turned into bonuses, depending on the amount of business. If the business did not meet the standards or did not meet the requirements of the rules, a certain amount of salary would be deducted.

To this end, Mephisto and his think tank planned and set up a logically rigorous and meticulous set of work rules, with various rules and conditions linked together. The payment of salaries calmed down some of the protests. Mephisto also seemed to have reformed and honestly paid salaries for a period of time. But soon, many devils and demons found that they couldn't get the so-called base salary at all. At least half of the devils and demons found that not only could they not receive the so-called money, they even had to give money to Mephisto, and then the wave of shirking and cheating swept over.

In the end, under the protests of the Energy Bank shareholders and customers, Mephisto had to revise the rules and regulations again, and only after obtaining the approval of all the shareholders did everything return to normal.

For the devils and demons of the Hell Dimension, it was now version 2.0 or even higher. They could openly earn a lot of benefits that far exceeded the previous one-on-one fraud model. After all, not every fallen soul is noble and worth a lot of money.

For the Hell Dimension, if the number of souls is insufficient, then the purified psionic energy can also be used as resources and supplements. Even psionic energy that can improve its activity and will is more favored than those souls.

Due to the high psionic energy output of the Nine Realms life, the Hell Dimension and Mephisto even wanted to directly pull a group of living people to raise in the Hell Dimension. Mephisto even discussed with Stephen of Kamar-Taj and Nick of S.H.I.E.L.D. about opening a tourist area for Nine Realms life in the Hell Dimension. If they were high-quality humans, they could be picked up and dropped off for free.

But Mephisto's plan was rejected without hesitation by Stephen and Nick. Who knew if that group of people could come back after they went there? What kind of world the Hell Dimension was, they didn't know? Which normal person would go to a world like the Hell Dimension for tourism? Just the energy radiation, even if certain protections were done, would be enough for humans to handle. If they were marked by the Hell Dimension again, it would be even more troublesome.

Although the possibility of the Hell Dimension invading the Nine Realms was very low now, it was not a reason to allow those who were infected with the power of hell and became its believers to move freely in Midgard. Those people were all trouble.

In the end, Mephisto retreated to second place, took out a certain amount of new currency, and exchanged it for those heinous criminals in the Midgard world who were difficult to deal with, with some debt reduction conditions.

Of course, this kind of behavior could not be a straightforward transaction. In Nick's words, it was transferring this group of criminals to the newly opened prison in the Hell Dimension to serve their sentences, and Mephisto's money was a donation.

In fact, Mephisto still liked the first plan. If there were a large number of hell believers active in Midgard, with their wanton behavior, it could at least induce the souls of many humans to fall, and then be marked and captured by the Hell Dimension.

But Mephisto didn't care about being rejected. At least it avoided things getting out of hand, and one of Luke's clones that he hated came to his door to reason with him and discuss compensation issues. After all, Midgard and the Nine Realms were 【jointly】 owned by Luke and Asgard. In the past, this kind of behavior could be regarded as a provocation and a declaration of war.

The Energy Bank business agents have now received a new promotion training notice. They need to notify the potential customers of Luke's latest technology as soon as possible and promote it.

Although the technical requirements are still very high, the manufacturing difficulty and the resources required are not low, but these will change. With Luke's research speed, by the time this group of business agents completes their training and promotes it all over the universe, the second version of the technology, or the third version of the technology, may have already appeared in Luke's laboratory.

What's more, in Mephisto's view, there is no need to have a complete version of this kind of technology that can create universes. A damaged version of the standard universe world, or a simplified version, a galaxy-sized version, can all be used. Even if there are some loopholes and hidden dangers, it doesn't matter. As long as not all standard universes have problems, then a few customers' complaints and protests are acceptable.

After all, doing so can attract more customers. As for the energy consumption? Psionic energy is definitely impossible, but squeezing the symbiote god and other unlucky dimension demon gods, extracting, borrowing, and converting their energy to make do with it is still no problem.

If you want a better, more perfect one, then at least you have to become a VIP-level customer of our bank, right? If it's higher, you can even enjoy customized services.

Loans, rent collection, interest eating.

Mephisto had already imagined the beautiful days in the near future when groups of dimension demon gods who had been supported would develop all over the multiverse and transport energy to him and the Energy Bank.

Well, the contract must add more abyssal power. Give those customers a little sense of urgency.

Mephisto found that he even liked the abyss a little now. Of course, the premise was that the abyss should not entangle him. He still had shadows of the power of the abyss.

As for whether the abyss will expand to the point where it can destroy all multiverses, what does it have to do with him? That day may require all universes to be destroyed many times. What if Luke can come up with better technology that can really purify and eliminate the power of the abyss by then?

People must have dreams, and demon gods too. Right?

……