A day later, Thor hovered in mid-air on the edge of Frost City, with a monotonous brown wasteland below him.
The endless expanse of withered grass swayed back and forth with the turbulent currents unique to the Knowhere.
It's too monotonous.
The Knowhere is nothing but endless desolation.
Suddenly, a thought popped into my head.
He remembered Terraria, a 2D sandbox game made of pixelated blocks from his previous life.
Since we're just killing time anyway, why not build a large-scale live-action version of this wasteland and enrich the environment of the Knowhere?
Thor raised his right hand.
The dark red Law of Reality, the golden Law of Creation, and the gray-white Law of Existence.
Three blinding beams of light intertwined and swirled between his knuckles, rapidly expanding into a massive energy vortex.
The power at the Multiverse Level directly crushed the original rules of the Knowhere.
He suddenly twisted his wrist and slammed the colorful ball of energy down onto the ground below.
boom!
The violent tremors spread wildly outwards from him, and the massive metal walls of Frost City emitted a dull hum.
Swish!
A pale blue haze of smoke flickered abruptly to Thor's right and behind him.
Betsy emerged silently from the smoke, her entire body covered in purple psionic armor, her right hand gripping a psionic blade imbued with the Law of Oblivion.
Without a word, she turned her back to Thor and assumed a defensive stance, wary of the drastically changing terrain below.
Immediately afterwards, the roar of the thrusters tore through the air.
Valeria soared out of the clouds on her hoverboard, her blonde hair dancing wildly in the wind.
Her left hand flew across the virtual keyboard, while her right hand gripped a palm-sized scanner.
The star-diamond staircase materialized out of thin air, Emma Frost climbed it.
She wore her signature white trench coat, arms crossed, chin slightly raised.
"What are you doing, Thor?" Valeria stopped three meters away, her fingers still flying across the keyboard, bringing up a massive waterfall of data.
"I was just about to dissect Gwenpool's nerves when you suddenly generated such a high-frequency energy oscillation. My scalpel almost severed her head! Do you know how terrifying that is?"
"The terrain outside Frost City is too monotonous," Thor remarked casually, then interlaced his fingers and pulled sharply outwards. "I'll add some spice."
The energy storm has intensified once again.
The brown wasteland below began to churn wildly.
The greenery spread at a visible speed, growing into knee-high emerald grass.
At the edge of the grassland, the soil quickly turns to sand, piling up into undulating golden dunes.
Further west in the desert, towering trees rise from the ground, their vines intertwining to form a dense, primeval forest that blocks out the sun.
On the other side of the jungle, the temperature plummeted, and snowflakes appeared out of nowhere, freezing the earth into a vast white polar snowfield.
Thor snapped his the Snap.
In front of the snowfield, countless huge bronze bricks squeezed out of the void, interlocked and stacked, and in less than ten seconds, a gloomy and ancient dungeon castle was built.
Behind the castle, the ground suddenly collapsed, and clear seawater rushed in, washing away white sand beaches and forming an inland ocean.
Boom boom boom-!
A deafening rumble echoed from the depths of the earth; Hell and an underground jungle were taking shape.
Several floating islands emerged from the clouds in the sky.
In just half an hour, the six ecological zones were perfectly integrated into the Knowhere.
Emma Frost walked up the star-studded staircase to Thor's side, looking down at this bizarre, patchwork-like continent.
" Thor, what exactly are you trying to do with all this?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Thor said, keeping everyone in suspense.
Below, on the newly sprouted grassland, the air seemed to distort.
Several white rabbits and colorful birds suddenly appeared out of nowhere, hopping and jumping in the grass.
Immediately afterwards, clumps of blue and green jelly-like creatures, about half a person's height, squeezed out of the soil and hopped around on the grass.
"Let me introduce it," Thor said, pointing to the jelly-like creatures below. "This is from a game I played, and I've brought its mechanics to life. Defeating the monsters here will drop specific materials. These materials can be used to craft equipment, weapons, or even summon certain bosses."
Thor paused, then added, "Defeating the boss will also drop powerful weapons. Just think of it as a large-scale live-action platformer game."
Emma Frost parted her red lips slightly, but did not reply.
With a flash, the star diamond particles recombined on the spot, and she instantly appeared on the grassland.
A blue slime noticed the commotion and bounced toward her.
Emma Frost raised her right hand, which instantly materialized into a half-meter-long solid diamond blade.
The blade reflected a blinding, cold light in the sunlight as she casually swung it.
Swish.
The diamond blade, with a hardness comparable to Vibranium, sliced through the slime's body without any resistance.
The blue, jelly-like body instantly split in two, turning into specks of light and dissipating.
Only three clumps of translucent blue gel and a few copper coins remained on the grass.
Emma Frost used the tip of her knife to pick up a clump of gel, the glint of her Star Diamond Body shimmering on its surface.
She immediately activated her subspace decomposition and absorption capabilities to test the energy level of this thing.
A few seconds later, she sheathed her diamond blade, looked up at Thor in mid-air, and shouted, "List. Give me all the information on all the monsters that will spawn here, and all the bosses you mentioned."
Thor landed on the grass as he descended from mid-air. " Emma Frost, you want to play this game too?"
Emma Frost rolled her eyes and crossed her arms again. "With such a commotion, everyone in Frost City has felt it. In less than ten minutes, everyone in town will be rushing out to see what's going on."
She took a step forward, closing in on Thor: "I need to establish rules. The number of explorers entering this area each day must be limited. Thirty percent of all materials obtained must be forcibly handed over as city tax. Rare materials will be purchased uniformly by the city lord's mansion. Frost City doesn't support idlers; this place is perfect for giving them something to do."
Thor stroked his chin, a typical capitalist's demeanor, which certainly suited the arrogant queen's style.
He raised his hand, Law of Creation began to operate once more.
Countless data about Terraria, including monster encyclopedias, crafting recipes, and boss mechanics, converged in mid-air and were eventually compressed into a thick parchment book.
The cover features four large, gold-embossed characters: Terraria.
Thor tossed the book to Emma Frost, Emma Frost caught it easily and casually tossed it into her diamond space.
Valeria, standing to the side, completely ignored their conversation.
She hovered on her skateboard, flying almost close to the ground, frantically scanning a green slime with the detector in her hand.
The beeping notification sound kept going off.
"A peculiar structure." Valeria stared at the data on her personal terminal. "No internal organs, a pure energy aggregate, yet possessing some stress responses of carbon-based life forms. Like some kind of conceptual product..."
She turned her head sharply and stared intently at Thor.
" Thor," Valeria licked her lips, speaking rapidly, "Just let me dissect it, okay? Just a small piece of tissue. Your body's structure is absolutely a top-level scientific research topic in the multiverse. I guarantee I won't use anesthesia; you can heal yourself anyway."
Thor reached out, grabbed Valeria's head, and shoved her away. "Don't even think about it! You little brat, all you ever think about is cutting me into pieces."
"You cheapskate!" Valeria slapped Thor's hand away and pouted. "Fine, if you won't let me cut it, I'll just go catch a few bosses and dissect them myself."
The hoverboard beneath her feet suddenly accelerated, transforming into a streak of light as it hurtled towards the distant bronze castle.
As he flew, he took out his personal terminal and frantically recorded the unknown creatures along the way.
Betsy sheathed her psionic blade and walked to Thor's side.
She didn't speak, but stood quietly, her purple psionic armor gradually disappearing beneath her skin.
Emma Frost brushed non-existent dust off her trench coat, her gaze sweeping over Thor: "I heard you brought back two more women?"
"Cough cough..."
Thor coughed.
"One of them was even directly given to Madelyne to take away." Emma Frost pressed on, her red lips uttering words with an undeniable air of authority, "Explain?"
"They're not bad fighters," Thor scratched the back of his head, trying to brush it off. "Besides, they're not very popular in their original world, and their situation is pretty bad, so I just lured them over. More henchmen mean Frost City will be safer."
"We don't need waste," Betsy suddenly interjected.
"Absolutely not trash," Thor assured him immediately.
Emma Frost snorted and didn't dwell on the matter.
She knew this seemingly reckless but secretly cunning guy all too well. As long as he didn't threaten her position as city lord, she didn't care how many people he brought back.
"Alright," Emma Frost said, smoothing her hair. "Which universe are you going to visit recently?"
Thor breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the artificial Sun in the sky, "Not sure yet. Maybe I'll go back to my own universe to take a look and deal with some lingering issues. Or maybe I'll go to Ultimate Spider-Man's place and have some fun."
Emma Frost replied without hesitation, "I'll go with you."
Thor abruptly turned to stare at the White Queen, his voice rising. "Are you sure? This is your Frost City. You're not going to take care of it?"
Emma Frost turned around, her back to Thor, leaving him with only a haughty silhouette.
"Don't worry, Maria is here."
Thor opened his mouth, and an image immediately flashed into his mind of Maria Hill sitting in front of a mountain of documents, with dark circles under her eyes, frantically chugging coffee while processing city reports.
This woman was being treated like a nuclear-powered donkey.
But what can you do when she's just an employee and you're the boss?
At worst, we can just give her some abilities to help relieve her fatigue.
He's quite the capitalist!