Ancient One's Voice Call Invitation

From the night he drove Batman into depression, Schiller returned to the Marvel world. After giving Stark a pep talk, Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen went into hiding from revenge, and Spider-Man had just gained his powers but hadn't officially debuted yet, so Schiller found himself free.

After that night, Schiller discovered he had another chance at random chat. By now, he'd figured out that if he had a significant impact on a character from some world, he'd earn a chance to randomly match with a chat partner. Clearly, that night's conversation with Batman had a profound effect on him.

Schiller planned to use this chat opportunity while he had the spare time. Professor Charles seemed busy recruiting students lately, and Spider-Man was too excited about his new powers to reply to messages. With no one to talk to for the moment, Schiller felt quite lonely.

So, he used the random chat opportunity. Suddenly, a voice call interface appeared in his mind—something that had never happened when chatting with Charles or Spider-Man.

Both of them replied by typing, appearing as chat boxes in Schiller's mind, but this time it was directly a voice call.

Schiller looked at the avatar: Sorcerer Supreme Ancient One!!!

Sorcerer Supreme Ancient One has sent you a voice call invitation. Answer or not? If you answer, what do you say?

Schiller scratched his head, but ultimately answered.

"...Mysterious cosmic voice, where do you come from..."

Schiller sensed a series of sounds—not exactly sounds, more like thoughts and brainwaves. Schiller heard nothing, yet understood the other side's meaning.

Schiller replied with his thoughts: "...Who are you?"

On the Himalayan Mountains, Ancient One sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, deep in thought. Suddenly, she frowned as a voice answered her.

Ancient One often sought answers from the chaotic cosmic voices through meditation. The various echoes of the universe in her mind represented different mysterious omens. She could divine, cleanse her mind, and find peace by listening to these cosmic voices.

But these cosmic voices were always disordered noise, never any logical notes. Ancient One firmly believed that any conscious spirit wandering the universe was a future Cosmic Demon.

So she immediately heightened her alertness. She focused all her concentration, her willpower incredibly strong, enough to sweep through all nearby universes in an instant. But after scanning, she found nothing unusual.

The voice answering her appeared out of nowhere, with no origin and no energy anomaly.

Schiller knew Ancient One was powerful. If combined with comic book settings, she was several times stronger than in the movies. And the current Sorcerer Supreme wasn't a young Batman; she was already at her peak. But Schiller still decided to risk it for the reward.

He said: "...Answer me... answer me..."

"...No matter where you come from, no matter who you are... stay away from Earth!" Ancient One's reply was firm.

"...Guardian of Earth?... Answer me..."

"I am Earth's Sorcerer Supreme... Who are you... Why are you emitting cosmic signals..."

"I come from Carcosa... Lake Hali in the Aldebaran star system... The dark sun already hangs high in the sky..."

Ancient One sensed a stream of incomprehensible information from the other side. She knew that connecting and conversing with an unknown cosmic entity was extremely dangerous, but she had to find out if it would threaten Earth.

The information was obscure and profound, but Ancient One caught several recurring terms: Carcosa, Hastur, Lake Hali.

After a conversation that was like a dialogue of the deaf, Ancient One roughly understood that the other side seemed to be warning her. She heard them repeatedly saying: "When the stars are right, the Old Ones return..."

Ancient One thought the person on the other side might be called "Hastur," living in a place called Carcosa, where there was a "Lake Hali" shrouded in thick fog. His enemies, the demons called "Great Old Ones," would return to Earth when the stars aligned.

Under Ancient One's persistent questioning, she learned that the being on the other side seemed imprisoned, unable to personally deal with his enemies. He had been broadcasting signals near Earth to warn humanity.

But Ancient One knew that Earthlings and these Cosmic Demons had different life forms and couldn't hear those cosmic signals at all. If she hadn't meditated daily, no one could understand what the being on the other side was saying.

Even Ancient One couldn't fully comprehend the brainwave signals transmitted from 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, but unfortunately, Ancient One couldn't fully understand Him.

She didn't really trust this unknown cosmic entity either, but she couldn't sense any presence from the other side, nor did she feel Earth receiving extra attention. Yet the warning attitude put pressure on her. Where had another group of demons suddenly come from?

And they seemed able to silently approach Earth and broadcast signals. Who could guarantee they wouldn't affect human minds?

To be fair, Ancient One hadn't been Sorcerer Supreme for nothing. Her concerns were very reasonable. If this story weren't fabricated by Schiller, then the Cthulhu Mythos lineage really did drive anyone who touched it mad.

Fortunately, this was just Schiller's fabrication to fool Ancient One.

Just as Ancient One wanted to probe further, the connection broke. The other side seemed to have encountered some trouble.

He hadn't made any demands, tried to lend power to anyone, or spouted nonsense about ruling the universe. This actually made Ancient One believe him a bit more.

Demons rarely knew how to hide; they couldn't help their madness and chaos. If the other side were dangerous, the experienced Ancient One would immediately trace the connection and cut him down.

But now, the demon on the other side seemed gentle and rational. Still, Ancient One didn't let her guard down; this could just be a facade.

Schiller had mastered the essence of always leaving half unsaid. Before Ancient One could press for more details, he hung up, then rubbed his hands together, planning to copy Ancient One's abilities.

He tapped, and the system prompt came: "Magic Ability (Low Level) Loaded."

Schiller knew Ancient One's abilities must be on the mystical side and definitely related to magic.

After loading the magic ability, Schiller began testing and found it was a mixed bag.

The advantage was that he didn't have to follow Marvel's magic rules. Schiller could cast magic without paying any price or suffering side effects. But the bad news was that it was indeed just a low-level magic ability. What Schiller could do included: Telekinesis, Fire Magic, and a short-range Blink.

Telekinesis had a range of about 10 meters, somewhat like a Levitation Charm. Within 10 meters, Schiller could freely move objects, but only those not exceeding his own weight. Things like houses or cars were immovable.

Fire Magic was almost non-offensive. Schiller could ignite a flame in his palm, with power roughly enough to light a cigarette, burn a piece of paper, or a book. Expecting to use it to fight was wishful thinking.

The most useful was Blink. Schiller could appear or disappear anywhere within about 20 meters, enough to dodge many dangers.

Although casting magic didn't cost him a price, it still consumed physical and mental energy. After about five or six consecutive Blinks, Schiller would be too exhausted to stand. More importantly, his mind would fill with noise, making it hard to concentrate—the consequence of overusing magic.

But compared to the high price other Marvel mages paid to cast spells, Schiller was quite fortunate.

The abilities he loaded were often marked with "Low Level," indicating they could be upgraded. But Schiller hadn't found the upgrade method yet. He guessed it might involve increasing intimacy with chat partners, helping them, or saving them to gain higher-level abilities.

Under extreme conditions, consecutive Blinks allowed Schiller to move over a hundred meters in an instant, ignoring obstacles and passing through walls.

He could sit in his psychological clinic and instantly appear in a house two streets away. The biggest benefit for Schiller was that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could finally never catch his trail again.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had of course already tracked him to Hell's Kitchen, but just as Schiller had predicted, the area was crowded and full of eyes, the gangs were highly wary of outsiders, and S.H.I.E.L.D. operations frequently ran into all sorts of obstructions—for instance, when they rented the building across from Schiller's clinic, they were swindled out of a hefty sum.

Ever since Schiller started using Flash to leave the clinic, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were completely baffled. They clearly hadn't seen him step out, but after a while, Schiller would walk back from the street. Or they'd see him leave, not see him return, and then he'd suddenly appear inside the clinic again.

This thoroughly upended the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' deductions about Schiller's daily routine.

But it only solidified Nick Fury's belief that Schiller was an unpredictable and dangerous figure, especially as his contact with Stark grew increasingly close—this was not Good news.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intention to play the Stark card was written all over their faces; it was obvious Nick Fury wanted to use Stark's sense of justice to get things done for the agency.

And it wasn't just the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents running into strange occurrences. Schiller had also noticed odd things happening around the clinic these past few days. After the cake he'd stored in the fridge went missing by another four pounds, Schiller confirmed that his clinic must have been broken into.