Busy Autumn Days (Part 1)

Autumn has arrived in New York. After the summer Heat Wave subsided, the sky began to turn bluer and the wind became cooler. However, in this bustling international metropolis, few people have the mood to stop and appreciate the changing weather.

The bustling traffic was faster and more hurried than the morning breeze. After iced coffee was discontinued, the hot coffee held by smartly dressed professionals, along with their hurried footsteps, lost its warmth, just like autumn.

The busiest place in this bustling city is undoubtedly Wall Street.

This street stretches from South Manhattan to Broadway and was once home to the New York Stock Exchange and the headquarters of various banks, enjoying immense glory in the last century.

But as it has evolved, the symbolic significance of this street has outweighed its practical significance. It is more like a financial symbol of the country. After the changes of the times, no bank has set up its headquarters here anymore. Most of them have moved to the Midtown, which has better development prospects.

This street may disappoint tourists from out of town because it is very short and narrow, and when people walk through it, it feels like the tall buildings on both sides are about to collapse.

The One consolation is leaning against the somewhat mottled exterior of the building and imagining a vintage car from the last century parked on the roadside, the morning breeze blowing through the street, cooling the coffee in my hand.

At the far end of Wall Street, accompanied by the sound of a cannon salute, the banners on the flower baskets gleamed in the sunlight, but the passersby seemed oblivious, as if a barrier separated all this excitement from the real world.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Schiller." Loki stood at the bottom of the steps in front of the door, smiling as he shook hands with Schiller.

He wore a very common white shirt with a dark green tie around his neck, the tiny print of which was visible in the sunlight. From the watch on his wrist to the leather shoes on his feet, they were all from brands favored by stock managers.

If you didn't know his name, almost no one would realize that he wasn't actually a Wall Street employee, or even a human being.

After releasing Loki's hand, Schiller said, "I really didn't expect that you would be so used to it here in just over a month."

"Thanks to the recent stock market slump, I haven't had a single day off in the past month, and I even have to finish my coffee in three gulps," Loki said with a laugh.

Schiller shook his head, looked at Loki, and felt deeply moved.

About a month before Odin, the All-Father, announced his impending slumber, he left his youngest son Loki, with the Ancient One.

The reason was that Loki had consumed a lot of energy and needed to digest it, which required someone to watch over him. Odin was preparing to sleep and couldn't take care of him, so he left him with the Ancient One to be cared for.

Ancient One, adhering to the principle that whether you have one sheep or two, you can still herd them, accepted Odin's request.

Then the Ancient One realized that she was really not cut out to take care of children. There were still plenty of opportunities in the universe waiting for her to take advantage of, and it would be a loss not to do so. So she left Loki to Strange and let the two of them train on their own in Kamar-Taj.

What's really amazing is that Loki and Strange actually get along quite well. Their family backgrounds are somewhat similar. Loki always felt that Odin favored Thor, while Strange's father always favored his brother. The two also have a lot in common in their personalities, which can be simply put as their moral bottom lines are quite similar.

Therefore, after living in Kamar-Taj for a while, the two got along quite well. And since a wolf and a jackal got along well, it's easy to imagine what would happen next.

The two started a betting pool on Kamar-Taj, wagering on the outcome of a war between the Hell Lord. Loki used his previously accumulated connections to recruit people all over the world to gamble online.

When the news reached Planet Sakaar, the Grandmaster, who was keen on gambling, didn't take it seriously at first. As a self-proclaimed gambling saint, he disdained to participate in such a low-level gambling game in a rural-urban fringe area.

Loki was immediately displeased when he heard that he wasn't participating. "You, Grandmaster, call customer service every day, and now that the betting is open, you're not giving me any face at all? That's going too far!" He rolled up his sleeves and headed for Planet Sakaar.

As the saying goes, a master's skill is evident from the first move. Loki's ability to deceive is no joke. In the original comics, even Thanos was fooled by him. He spent two days traveling on Planet Sakaar, and the Grandmaster was completely fooled into placing a considerable bet.

Afterwards, Strange approached Mephisto, the Lord of Hell, and the two teamed up to throw a physical fight, almost costing the Grandmaster his life.

The Grandmaster, who never backs down from a bet, initially intended to renege on his debt. However, Strange, along with Dormammu's apostle Mordo, went to Strange to knock on Planet Sakaar door. The Grandmaster weighed the difference between himself and Dormammu, gritted his teeth, and paid the bill.

After the debt was collected, Dormammu and Mephisto each received 20%, and the remaining 60% went to the two of them.

Strange and Loki saw how quickly this would make money, so they embarked on their path of telecommunications fraud.

They resorted to all sorts of tricks and crooked methods, and after succeeding a few times, the two actually acquired quite a bit of energy.

Although their moral standards were low, their strength wasn't high either. After obtaining the energy, they were eager to deal with it. As a result, due to improper handling, they caused an energy explosion, directly blowing a hole in the temple in Kamar-Taj and even tearing a hole in the protective shield.

When Loki returned from his practice and found his house collapsed, the Ancient One threw the two of them out. Loki originally wanted to return to Asgard, but Heimdall, who was guarding the Bifrost, had gone into seclusion to digest the information. Loki couldn't return for the time being, so he had to go to Earth again like Strange.

So Strange took Loki to join Schiller.

Schiller had no interest in dealing with this treacherous duo of cosmic con artists, but Strange secretly slipped Schiller a 20% bribe, Schiller turned a blind eye, allowing Loki to stay and work at the sanatorium.

Because Schiller's nursing home was also located in South Manhattan, close to Wall Street, Loki soon discovered that he had a job that interested him more than Doctor.

Loki has always relied on his talent to deceive people, without any systematic theoretical knowledge. After colluding with Strange, the two figured out some patterns, but they still didn't form a coherent system.

Loki, who passes by the New York Stock Exchange and major banks every day on his way home from work at the nursing home, suddenly realized that fraud could actually be an industry.

He suddenly realized that his perspective was still too narrow.

Loki has one advantage: when he's determined to accomplish something, he can't be swayed by what others think. He can let go of his pride, be flexible with his principles, and adjust his bottom line. In short, he can throw away his pride.

He approached Strange, and after another unspeakable conspiracy, Loki gloriously became a stockbroker and embarked on his journey of enlightenment on Earth.

Loki was very busy after arriving on Earth, and Strange was not idle either. After fighting the Riot, the Sanctum Sanctorum and the commercial street of Greenwich Village were reduced to ruins. Although there were no casualties because S.H.I.E.L.D.. had organized an evacuation in advance, the buildings were definitely destroyed.

It is unknown whether Nick solved his fall funding problem during this war, but he generously offered to find a new building for the Sanctum Sanctorum.

In Strange's original vision, his future residence should be far from human habitation, ideally in a remote mountain forest, like Kamar-Taj, where ordinary humans would have difficulty accessing it.

However, judging from the current situation, Sanctum Sanctorum is only ten meters away from Wall Street, it is still considered a hidden gem. Even if it is just across the street, it is still considered a complete separation in the world of fraud.

Thus, the Sanctum Sanctorum became an integral part of Wall Street since ancient times, and its new location was chosen on a corner of Wall Street and concealed by magic.

Greenwich Village embarked on a massive reconstruction, and the relocated Sanctum Sanctorum resolved most of its issues within a month, preparing to reopen.

On the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, many strange-looking people came, such as a stunt motorcyclist wearing a jacket. When Strange went up to shake hands with Johnny, he looked him up and down and said with some surprise, "I really didn't expect that you would still be quite handsome after having muscles and skin."

Johnny didn't seem to want to come at all; he exuded a perfunctory air. Clearly, the Ghost Rider was once again forced to work overtime to attend a social event.

Strange had just dropped him off when he noticed his mentor Mordo and the Juggernaut had also arrived. As he was busy greeting them, he saw Schiller get out of the car at the door, and he quickly told Loki to go and greet him.

This led to the scene at Wall Street Corner where Loki and Schiller had a pleasant conversation.

Steve, dressed in a smart suit, entered the Sanctum Sanctorum, but he was puzzled. He looked the building up and down and said, "Why does this place look exactly like the stock exchange from my time? Isn't this supposed to be the Sorcerer Supreme's New York headquarters? What does this have to do with the Sorcerer Supreme?"

A salesman in charge of greeting guests approached with a broad smile. He glanced at the invitation in Steve's hand and said warmly, "Mr. Rogers, right? Welcome! Doctor Strange is busy right now. If you don't mind, please wait in the back. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin shortly..."

Steve had a lot of questions but didn't know where to begin, but he still followed the guide inside.

Peter had just stepped onto the stairs, only saw Steve's back. He wanted to chase after him, but was stopped by Strange, who was walking over. Strange glanced at Peter and said, "Didn't you bring your girlfriend?"

"Gwen? How could I possibly bring her along?"

"How am I supposed to explain to her that I know Stark, Captain America, and a bunch of other big shots? You know, just yesterday she was worried I wouldn't be able to afford food..."

Peter and Strange walked to the back together, Strange asked him, "Are you just going to keep this a secret from your girlfriend forever?"

Peter scratched his head in frustration and said, "I don't want to do this either, but I really can't find a good time to bring it up."

"This sounds absolutely absurd. I'm going to tell her that I am Spider-Man, and that besides school and home, my most frequented place is the advanced labs at Stark Tower. I go for a run with Captain America every morning, and today I even attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Sorcerer Supreme Sanctum Sanctorum on Earth. The first person I met upon entering was an alien prince..."

Strange patted Peter on the shoulder and said, "If you really think that way, we'll see you at the mental hospital soon."

After Peter went in, Stark arrived late. He looked around the interior of the Sanctum Sanctorum and seemed very disappointed. He said to Strange, "You've made the Sanctum Sanctorum look like a stock exchange from the 1990s. Is it your unique taste... or is it your unique taste?"

"Practicality comes first," Strange said helplessly. "I don't want it to be like this either, but if we don't use the stock exchange structure, where will all those sales representatives be? On the heads of the magic cauldrons?"

Strange glanced at Stark's chest, though he couldn't see anything through his clothes, but he still asked, "Have you taken care of that problem with your chest?"

"That's right." Stark's tone was light.

"Because I suddenly realized that all the things I was worrying about were completely meaningless, so this morning I replaced the Arc Reactor with the new one."

Stark spoke rapidly, "You have no idea what I saw. I realized how stupid I was before."

Just then, Loki and Schiller walked in from the doorway. Schiller took a pen from his pocket, pressed a button, and Stark's voice came through. "I realize how stupid I was before..."

Schiller pressed the button again, and a voice came through once more. "I realize how incredibly stupid I was before..."

"Click, I realize how incredibly stupid I was before..."

Strange quickly stopped Stark, who was about to throw a punch, and said, "Calm down, you don't have a magic reactor right now!"

Schiller twirled the recorder and said happily, "What a once-in-a-century windfall! It seems that opportunity always favors the prepared mind."

Before Stark could yell at him, Schiller continued, "Don't worry, I'll save it for your wedding."

"Seriously," Strange changed the subject, asking Stark, "What exactly did you see?"

Stark pursed his lips and kept walking forward with his head down. Schiller said to Strange from behind, "The magic reactor may be out of power, but the important thing has never been the reactor itself."

"You're right." Stark walked forward, turning back to hold up a finger, and said, "All those meaningless things don't matter anymore, Howard, Arc Reactor ...who cares!"

"Stark is moving on, friends!"

After saying that, he strode forward, shaking off the two people behind him.

Schiller asked Strange in a low voice, "What's the situation in the universe?"

"Just as we expected."

The impact of Knull serving the food was neither huge nor small.

The reason why this matter is not significant is mainly because the definition of Demon God in the universe is very broad, but there are a few basic principles.

First, these powerful beings did not evolve from civilization. They are completely different from races such as humans, Asgardian, dwarves, or Symbiote. They exist in the universe as individuals and do not have society or civilization.

Secondly, most of them were born from cosmic forces. Their birth was not through a long process of evolution, but rather because some forces in the universe awakened their consciousness.

Thirdly, theoretically speaking, their lifespan is infinite; as long as they are not killed, they can live until they die.

Whether it's Mephisto, Setar'ak, or Dormammu, they all conform to these criteria, therefore they are also among the Demon God.

However, not every Demon God who meets these criteria can be as powerful as the three mentioned above. The vast majority of them are not large in size in the universe. The composition of these Demon God is still pyramid-shaped, and only a small portion can reach the strength of Dimensional Demon God.

Because many Demon God are not powerful enough, they have little power to resist disasters in the universe. And there are often various natural disasters in the universe, such as a dimension suddenly collapsing or a universe suddenly exploding. After such accidents occur, many Demon God die one after another, and the surrounding Demon God will gather to divide their corpses.

Therefore, the explosion of the Knull Power Channel is not uncommon in the universe, except that previous ones were natural disasters, while this one was a man-made disaster.

Although it was a man-made disaster, not many people knew the Truth, and the scope of the damage was not very large. Although many innocent bystanders were affected, it was still within a reasonable range.

Therefore, this event did not cause much of a stir at the Multiverse level.

The One instance that could be considered influential was when the Ancient One contacted Eternity through the Eye of Agamotto to discuss her retirement. Eternity, somewhat bewildered, asked her, "The Chaos Force of the universe's origin has been severely depleted recently. Do you have any clues?"