Shane Freak
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Chapter 682: The Salesperson and the Mover (Part Two)
🕑 Added 2023-10-25 13:25:26 +0000 UTCIn DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List
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Commercial Insurance, something you may never have bought, but have undoubtedly been solicited for over the phone or seen advertisements for.
It's something you might never have purchased, yet surely, someone around you has been tempted for various reasons.
From the day of its inception, it has expertly captured the vulnerabilities of the human psyche.
To put it simply, no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first.
Humans fear dangers that have not yet arrived, often overestimating the potential consequences. At such moments, insurance salespeople kindly inform you that insurance can make you fearless of the unforeseen, allowing you to live freely, naturally enticing many.
Society's judgment of Commercial Insurance has always been a mix of good and bad. The primary reason lies in the fact that, driven by profit needs, insurance packages are often overly complex, with contracts full of traps, making claims challenging, leading to fraud, among other issues.
Furthermore, the incessantly annoying sales calls, the sales pitches you hear until they ring hollow in your ears, and the awkward situation where a distant relative asks you to support them out of familial obligation, all contribute to ongoing distress.
However, one cannot deny that these Commercial Insurance companies continue operating for a reason. There are never too few people in this world who worry about the future, unexpected events, and have some spare money in hand. This fact holds even in the cosmic realm.
Yet, selling insurance to Cosmic Gods is different from doing so within human society.
In human society, Commercial Insurance companies cannot determine whether tomorrow or an accident will arrive first. They cannot predict whether their clients will indeed face the various natural or man-made disasters written in the contracts. Hence, they can only profit through contract fraud or delaying claims.
However, Schiller has the power to determine which comes first in the cosmic realm: tomorrow or an accident. After all, the potential accident is now in his arms, playfully swinging its stubby arms, brawling with Pikachu through the void.
Helen, or the day of destruction, represents a being that would bring any insurance company CEO to tears. Its mere existence is a natural disaster. You can't blame the calamity if you don't purchase insurance and yet find yourself confronted by disaster every time, right?
In human society, those who never buy insurance are not the target customers. In the cosmic realm, those who avoid insurance become the claim funds.
In this manner, Schiller used what should have been the demon gods' Member Gifts as claim funds, establishing the image of honest business practices for the Sanctum Sanctorum, while heightening the crisis awareness among the demon gods.
As for promoting insurance, it was merely to offer those diligently honing their sales pitches in prison, the morally tested professionals, an opportunity for re-employment.
Having achieved a minor objective, Schiller certainly didn't forget that above space, demon gods from multiple cosmic layers were still in contention.
At the moment, Stark had the upper hand, but he couldn't immediately eliminate Solus. Solus's ability to absorb energy was troublesome. Even if he couldn't digest it all at once, he could always absorb a part, allowing him more time to sustain himself.
But this played right into Schiller's plans.
Aside from Stark, only Ancient One possessed the ability to traverse space. Having already visited Morlun Family's stronghold in the multi-dimensional space, she would find it even more familiar this time.
When Solus left, he took all defensive forces with him. Now, the entire castle of the Morlun Family was unguarded, doors wide open.
The Morlun Family's base, carefully managed over many years, certainly contained many treasures. Yet, Ancient One wasn't there for a raid.
Being human, even though her body and soul had been modified, granting her extra "inventory slots," allowing her to carry more large items, they were still drops in the bucket compared to the Morlun Family's stockpile.
This time, Ancient One was there to move house.
Yes, physically move the entire house, planning to relocate the whole structure.
It wasn't impossible. Firstly, the Morlun Family's base was located on a fragment of a celestial body, a tangible reality differing from the convoluted energy structures erected by various demon gods, having a physical form one could touch.
Ancient One didn't help the demon gods move, not out of reluctance, but mainly because of their different forms of existence. Some demon gods coexisted with dimensions, like Dormammu of the Dark Dimension, where he was the dimension, and it was him. Moving an entire dimension was impossible, or if possible, beyond Ancient One's capabilities.
However, for Ancient One, who had previously torn through various demon gods, helping a celestial fragment or a sky island relocate was not difficult.
The celestial fragment where the Morlun Family base resided was a quarter of a giant planet. It might seem large to humans, but in the grand scope of space, it was as insignificant as a grain of sand.
But in the face of magical energy, moving it wasn't impossible, especially since Ancient One possessed numerous magical tools.
Ancient One first took out something resembling a rope, fixing several golden energy light spots around the sky island. After the magical lights illuminated one after the other, ropes of the same material appeared between the light spots, binding the entire island like a rice dumpling in an instant.
The so-called multi-dimensional space was akin to glutinous rice balls containing sesame, where the multi-dimensional space was the rice ball, and the individual spaces within were like the sesame. In areas without sesame, everything was an infinite void.
In this infinity, concepts of time and space didn't exist, and distance was more than just separation. Existing here required special skills, and moving wasn't so straightforward.
Ancient One stood beside the sky island, motionless, but soon, numerous starlight points appeared in the complete darkness of space. One of them brightened, growing larger within Ancient One's field of vision.
From her vantage point, time and space ceased to be abstract concepts. Every event that had unfolded in the entire Space from antiquity to the present was scattered disorderly beyond the luminous points of the Space. However, Stark and Solus, engrossed in their duel, were not present there. They existed within a different realm of infinite possibilities.
As the Ancient One's gaze infinitely magnified Space, the moment came when everything around vanished. Then, the starry sky brightened anew, and a radiant fireball appeared behind her - it was the Sun.
Upon her return to Kamar-Taj, she said to Strange, "I couldn't bring their base into our singular Space, but I've concealed it within an infinite possibility known only to me."
"As for the contents within, I can only speculate that the Morlun Family has a unique way of transporting them into singular Space, a method beyond my capabilities."
The Ancient One shook her head, and Strange understood. His mentor was a pragmatist; she wouldn't downplay the truth. The reality was, the chasm between the multiversal Space stratum and their singular Space was even more profound than he'd imagined, affecting even objects and energy that weren't typically transferrable.
This realm remained uncharted territory for humanity. And by all current indications, the journey to penetrate this domain was long, even for front-running sorcerers like them, who were still virtually clueless about what lay beyond their Space.
But the relationship didn't matter. Before stepping into that level, they had already made some gains, like acquiring a house that day.
Strange wasn't sure about the quality of the Morlun Family's residence, but judging by the Ancient One's expression, it wasn't too shabby. It would suffice as a stronghold for journeys into the multiversal Space.
After Nick was informed, he drafted a "Human Civilization Heritage Inheritance Act (Multiversal Space Version)" overnight. The Ancient One affixed it to the door of the Morlun Family's castle. After a 30-minute notification period, the house would legally belong to humanity.
Some might question Nick's sudden conscience in setting a 30-minute notice. Still, in reality, since the Ancient One had informed them that there was no concept of time within the infinite, the timeline was moot. The property belonged to humanity from the moment the notice was posted.
Above Space, in another realm of infinite possibilities, Stark was relentlessly hammering Solus.
Solus, having only recently transformed — it wouldn't be accurate to say 'ascended,' as he was already part of the multiversal Space stratum — needed time to adapt to his new form of existence.
Yet now, he found himself, fresh from the beginner's village, face-to-face with a boss. Although the Iron Sorcerer wasn't quite on par with the big leagues, beating a rookie like Solus was a breeze.
Seeing the tide turning, Solus tried to flee, but Stark, ablaze with genuine fury, clung to him, forcing him to cut his losses and leave behind some of his energy to make a narrow escape.
Stark didn't pursue. His unfamiliarity with the infinite realm was a disadvantage, and Solus, having operated here for years, had the Morlun Family's unique methods to traverse the multiversal Space. They could easily elude any entity of the regular multiversal stratum.
Stark, aware of the lurking dangers and his limited resources, refrained from a deeper chase and returned directly to Earth.
By this time, Helen had been sternly reprimanded by Frigga, as had the brothers Thor and Loki. It turned out that when a long-standing mother figure lost her temper, the younger ones had to listen obediently.
While Stark returned to familial bliss, Solus faced a stark contrast. When he returned to the Morlun Family's castle base using a special method, all that greeted him was darkness.
Solus stood there, stunned. Thinking he had erred, he retraced his steps, only to find the same engulfing darkness and emptiness.
Refusing to accept this, Solus tried repeatedly but found nothing. His entire house had vanished into thin air.
With a silent roar of rage echoing through the infinite, confusion overtook him.
He couldn't accept that the Morlun Family he'd built with his hands had vanished. So, he began a aimless search in the infinite for the house that was no more.
After his departure, another figure, clad in red and blue, appeared in the infinite. Faced with the vast darkness, he too was startled.
A voice, almost indistinguishable from Peter's but imbued with greater depth and world-weariness, spoke in utter shock:
"Where... Where is the Morlun Family???"
He has arrived. He has come.
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Next Chapter>>Chapter 683: Buzzing (Part One)
