After driving Batman into depression that night, Schiller returned to the Marvel world. After giving Stark a motivational boost, Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen went into hiding from a vendetta, while Spider-Man had only just gained his powers and had yet to make his debut. Schiller found himself with nothing to do.
After that night, Schiller discovered that he had another chance at a random chat. By now, he had figured out that as long as he significantly influenced someone from a certain world, he could gain an opportunity to be randomly matched with a chat partner. Clearly, his conversation with Batman that night had left a profound impact on him.
Schiller intended to use this chance while he had free time. Professor Charles seemed busy recruiting students lately, and Spider-Man was too excited about his new powers to reply to messages. For a while, Schiller had no one to talk to, and he found himself feeling rather lonely.
So he used his random chat opportunity. A voice call interface suddenly appeared in his mind, something that had never happened when chatting with Charles or Spider-Man.
Both of them replied by typing, and the things that appeared in Schiller's mind had always been chat windows. This time, however, it was directly a voice call.
Schiller looked at the profile picture. The Sorcerer Supreme, The Ancient One!!!
The Sorcerer Supreme, The Ancient One, has sent you a voice call invitation. Answer or decline? If he answered, what would he say?
Schiller scratched his head, but ultimately answered it.
"...Mysterious voice of the universe, where do you come from..."
Schiller sensed a series of sounds. Calling them sounds was not quite accurate; they were more like thoughts and brainwaves. He heard nothing, yet understood what the other party meant.
Schiller replied with his thoughts as well. "...Who are you?"
In the Himalayan Mountains, The Ancient One sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, deeply absorbed in meditation. Suddenly, she frowned. A voice had answered her.
The Ancient One often sought answers from the chaotic voices of the universe through meditation. The countless echoes of the cosmos represented different mysterious omens in her mind. She could divine the future by listening to these cosmic voices, cleanse her thoughts, and find peace.
Yet these cosmic voices had always been disordered noise, never containing any logical notes. The Ancient One firmly believed that any conscious spirit wandering the universe would become a Cosmic Demon in the future.
She immediately raised her guard. Concentrating with all her strength, her thoughts became immensely powerful, enough to sweep through all nearby universes in an instant. Yet after scanning the area, she found nothing unusual.
The voice that had answered her seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It had no source and showed no abnormal energy signatures.
Schiller knew that The Ancient One was powerful. If comic-book settings were included, she was several times stronger than in the movies. Moreover, the current Sorcerer Supreme was not some young Batman; she was at the height of her power. Still, Schiller intended to take a risk for a great reward.
He said, "...Answer me... Answer me..."
"...No matter where you come from, no matter who you are... stay away from Earth!" The Ancient One's reply was forceful.
"...Earth's guardian?... Answer me..."
"I am Earth's Sorcerer Supreme... Who are you... Why are you transmitting cosmic signals..."
"I come from Carcosa... Lake Hali in the Aldebaran star system... The dark sun already hangs high in the sky..."
The Ancient One received a stream of incomprehensible information from the other side. She knew full well that connecting and conversing with an unknown being in the universe was extremely dangerous, but she had to determine whether it posed a threat to Earth.
The other party's messages were obscure and difficult to understand, but The Ancient One heard several recurring pieces of information: Carcosa, Hastur, and Lake Hali.
After an utterly incoherent exchange, The Ancient One roughly understood. The other side seemed to be warning her. She heard it repeatedly say one sentence: "The stars are right, The Old Ones return..."
The Ancient One believed that the person on the other end might be called "Hastur," living in a place called Carcosa. There was a Lake Hali there, shrouded in dense fog, and his enemies—the Demon Gods known as the Great Old Ones—would return to Earth when the stars were right.
Under The Ancient One's questioning, she learned that the being on the other side seemed to be imprisoned and thus unable to deal with his enemies personally. He had spread signals near Earth in order to warn its people.
But The Ancient One knew that humans and these Cosmic Demons possessed different forms of life. They simply could not hear those cosmic signals. If she had not meditated every day, no one would have been able to understand what the creature on the other side was saying.
Even The Ancient One could not completely understand the brainwave signals transmitted by the other side. They seemed to contain too much information: Great Old Ones, King of Demons, Azathoth... The other side seemed eager to give her all the information at once, but unfortunately, The Ancient One could not fully understand him.
She did not truly trust this unknown cosmic being either. Yet she could sense no trace of his existence, nor did she feel that Earth was receiving any additional attention. Still, his warning attitude put pressure on her. Where had another group of Demon Gods come from?
And they seemed capable of silently arriving near Earth to spread signals. Who could guarantee that they would not affect human minds?
It had to be said that The Ancient One had not spent so many years as the Sorcerer Supreme for nothing. Her concerns were entirely reasonable. If this story had not been fabricated by Schiller, the Cthulhu Mythos really did drive mad anyone who got involved with it.
Fortunately, this was merely something Schiller had invented to fool The Ancient One.
Just as The Ancient One wanted to continue probing, the communication cut off. The other side seemed to have encountered some trouble.
He had made no demands, had not tried to lend his power to anyone, and had said nothing about ruling the universe. That actually made The Ancient One trust him a little more.
Demon Gods rarely knew how to hide themselves. They could not restrain their madness and chaos. If the other side had been dangerous, the experienced The Ancient One would have followed the connection and cut him down immediately.
But for now, the Demon God on the other end seemed gentle and rational. Still, The Ancient One did not relax her guard in the slightest. This might only be an appearance.
Schiller had mastered the essence of always leaving half of what he said unsaid. Before The Ancient One could press him for more details, he hung up, rubbed his hands together, and prepared to copy her abilities.
With a tap, the system prompt sounded. "Magic Ability (Low-Level) loaded."
Schiller knew that The Ancient One's abilities had to belong to the mystical side, and they were certainly related to magic.
After loading the magic ability, Schiller began testing it. Then he discovered that its advantages and disadvantages were about evenly balanced.
The advantage was that he did not need to follow the Marvel world's rules for magic. Schiller could cast magic without paying any price or suffering any side effects. The bad news, however, was that this truly was only a low-level magic ability. What Schiller could do included Telekinesis, Fire Magic, and short-range teleportation.
Telekinesis had a range of roughly ten meters. It was somewhat like a Levitation Charm. Within ten meters, Schiller could move objects freely, but only objects that weighed no more than he did. Things like houses and cars could not be moved.
The Fire Magic was almost completely lacking in offensive power as well. Schiller could ignite a small flame in his palm. It was powerful enough to light a cigarette or burn a sheet of paper, perhaps even a book. Expecting to use it against people would be wishful thinking.
The most useful ability was undoubtedly teleportation. Within a range of about twenty meters, Schiller could appear or disappear at any location he chose. That was enough to help him avoid many dangers.
However, while casting magic required no price, it still consumed physical and mental energy. After teleporting five or six times in a row, Schiller would be so exhausted that he could barely stand. More importantly, his mind would begin filling with noise, making it difficult to concentrate. That was the consequence of overusing magic.
Still, compared to the steep price other Marvel mages had to pay to cast magic, Schiller was already extremely fortunate.
The abilities he loaded were often labeled low-level, which meant they could definitely be upgraded. However, Schiller had yet to find a way to upgrade them. He guessed that perhaps he needed to raise his intimacy with the people he chatted with, help them, or save them before he could obtain more advanced abilities.
At his limit, continuous teleportation could let Schiller move more than a hundred meters away from his original position in an extremely short time. The ability ignored obstacles along the way and could pass through walls.
He could sit in his psychology clinic and then instantly appear in a house two streets away. The greatest benefit this brought Schiller was that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could finally no longer catch his trail.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had naturally tracked him to Hell's Kitchen long ago. But just as Schiller had predicted, this place was crowded and full of watchful eyes. The gangs were extremely wary of outsiders, and S.H.I.E.L.D. often encountered all sorts of obstacles while conducting operations. For instance, when they rented the house across from Schiller's clinic, they were extorted for a hefty sum.
After Schiller began using teleportation to go out, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were completely baffled. They clearly had not seen Schiller leave, yet after a while, he would walk back from the street. Or they would see him leave, fail to see him return, and then find him appearing inside the clinic again a short while later.
This completely shattered the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' assumptions about Schiller's daily schedule.
But it only strengthened Nick Fury's belief that Schiller was an unpredictable and dangerous person, especially as his contact with Stark grew increasingly close. That was not good news.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intention to play the Stark card was written all over their faces. Clearly, Nick Fury wanted to use Stark's sense of justice to make him work for S.H.I.E.L.D.
And S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were not the only ones encountering strange events. Over the past few days, Schiller had also noticed odd things happening around his clinic. When another four pounds of cake disappeared from his refrigerator, Schiller confirmed that a thief had definitely broken into his clinic.
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