American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Sitting in his seat, Odin began to seriously ponder whether he had ever offended Luke.

Mephisto's expression, on the other hand, froze abruptly, and the two soul fires within his eye sockets blazed intensely.

"Elaborate!" Mephisto sat up straight, his posture rigid. He felt that Luke's suggestion was excellent and highly operational, but his somewhat stiff mind could only sense some of the intricacies for the moment, yet he couldn't quite grasp the whole picture. This feeling of being just one step away from the goal made him a little restless. He felt that Luke must have more to say, and he wanted to hear the rest.

"How is the banking business developing?" Luke didn't elaborate, but instead asked an unrelated question. This question immediately caught the attention of Odin and the Ancient One.

The life or death of the Hell dimension was none of their concern, nor was it their place to worry about it. But the energy bank was closely related to them and the forces behind them.

Being stared at by the three, Mephisto smiled uncomfortably. "Everything is going smoothly. We have initially attracted many good seedlings. They are all capable, willing, and bold individuals. We have signed supply and demand agreements with at least a dozen. The rest are still in negotiations, waiting for an opportunity to get them to sign contracts. I believe that in a millennium or two, our bank can officially take its first steps towards becoming a formal institution."

As Mephisto spoke, he straightened his back more and more. In any case, at least in terms of the energy bank, he felt that he had done his best. This thing had almost become his lifelong career, and his level of care and concern was currently second only to his base dimension, Hell.

To build such a framework from scratch in such a short period, although with the strong support of Luke and the others, Mephisto believed that his contribution exceeded that of everyone else present.

"Too slow," Luke said, pouring a bucket of cold water on him. This sentence drew a glare from Mephisto.

"This speed is already not slow! Cultivating new gods, eliminating old gods, to achieve the scale you once described, doesn't that require time and opportunity?" Mephisto retorted. "A millennium or two is already extremely fast! You have to know that many demon gods don't interact with the outside world and are well-hidden recluses. Just finding them takes a lot of time and requires a certain amount of luck."

"So we should change the game, no, add another game on top of the existing one," Luke shrugged in his seat, unconcerned by Mephisto's complaints and rebuttals. He knew very well that his previous words must have stimulated this demon god.

"What game?" Mephisto became interested in Luke's words. He vaguely felt that what Luke was about to say would give him an answer to the question he couldn't understand before. He needed a sense of clarity.

Odin and the Ancient One also listened with interest to Luke and Mephisto's conversation. After all, the energy bank was closely related to everyone's future interests, and they also wanted to hear from Luke what new ideas he had to promote the development of the energy bank.

Anyway, although the War of the Nine Realms hadn't completely passed, the overall situation was settled, and Odin had enough time and energy to worry about other things. As for what to do about Asgard and the Nine Realms? Weren't there Thor and Loki? These two always had to slowly familiarize themselves with handling these complex matters.

"Have you paid attention to the forces of Midgard?" Luke asked casually.

"Those mortals?" Odin frowned. Even though many powerful individuals had appeared among the humans of Midgard, this didn't mean that Odin could completely reverse his deeply ingrained thinking accumulated over millions of years. That was that the mortals of Midgard were weaklings who needed Asgard's protection.

Just like humans, except for a few individuals, who would pay attention to the thoughts and ideas of ants and other weak creatures?

Mephisto was the same. He understood some of the forces and ideas of humans, but those were meaningless to him. He knew, but he wouldn't really empathize. What he cared about and worried about was how to use these to get those mortals to sign a few contracts, selling their bodies and souls to him.

"In the future, if the dimension demon gods establish a relatively stable relationship, I think the relationships within other cosmic civilizations are worth studying. Of course, we have a large number of people who can help us research, analyze, and summarize. What we need to do is not to be stubborn and change our way of thinking more or less," Luke saw through Odin and Mephisto's thoughts, tapped his fingers lightly on the conference table, and met their gazes, saying.

"What help is there for us?" Mephisto asked. He only cared about the growth of energy, the expansion of the Hell dimension, and the development of the energy bank. If Luke could indeed convince him and it was necessary, he would of course transform his thinking. He wasn't one of those demon gods with bad brains and mental confusion who couldn't think clearly.

"You have a very lethal weapon, but once this weapon is used, it hurts both the user and the target. So do you use it, or not?" Luke didn't answer, but instead threw out a question in reply.

"Nuclear deterrence?" The Ancient One understood what Luke was trying to say.

"What is that?" Mephisto's pale bone mask wrinkled up, like a crumpled piece of parchment. He could barely understand this term, after all, he had recently obtained many new words and theories from his Midgard employees.

"Literal meaning," Luke said softly, "If we regard the energy leaking from the Abyss dimension as a powerful weapon similar to Midgard's nuclear weapons, then how can we maximize its benefits?"

"Throw it at other dimension demon gods' homes?" Mephisto somewhat understood what Luke was trying to express. Associating it with his previous proposal, the feeling that the door was about to open became stronger and stronger.

"Wouldn't doing this attract the siege of those demon gods?" Odin was a little worried. He felt that Luke was playing bigger and bigger. Of course, it was impossible to get off the ship, and it wasn't easy to get off the ship now. If it weren't for the concern that it might bring hidden dangers to Asgard, he actually quite liked Luke's ideas and plans. It had the style of him causing trouble everywhere back then.

"That depends on the target we choose and how we handle it later," Luke crossed his arms, placed them on the table, leaned forward, and scanned Odin and Mephisto.

"Is this nuclear deterrence what I think it is?" Mephisto's eyes lit up a little. In this short period of time, he had extracted some relevant explanations about nuclear deterrence and the like. Associating it with what Luke had said, he was obviously treating the energy of the Abyss dimension as a strategic weapon!

"Compared to Abyss deterrence, Abyss blackmail and the like, these names are too blatant and easily arouse vigilance and dissatisfaction," Luke waved his hand, "That would make us create a lot of enemies. That's not good. We can change to a more gentle and easier to accept saying, less aggressive."

"I don't care what it's called, I just want to know, how do we use it to get energy?" Mephisto didn't hide his greed and straightforwardness at all. He was about to tell Luke: [Come on, as long as your plan works, you can call it whatever you want].

"Are you sure you can't eliminate those Abyss energies?" Luke asked Mephisto.

"I can suppress it, but it's difficult to eradicate it. Especially since this energy can also assimilate Hell's power to grow. If I don't care about it, there will definitely be no problems in the short term, but there will definitely be big problems in the long term. Later, I may have to consider moving to a new home," Mephisto had a constipated expression on his face.

Anyone who had a pile of self-generating and stubbornly difficult-to-eradicate polluting garbage thrown into their home wouldn't be in a good mood. Especially since this garbage would also lead to a series of sequelae, such as bringing a pile of viruses and bacterial infections. So Mephisto was very annoyed now, but he couldn't say anything. After all, this thing was brought back by the demons he sent out to earn extra money. Who would have thought that after going out, those guys could bring back such a polluting thing?

This is simply the parasitic energy of the dimension world! It can steal your home if you don't care about it!

"If I can't save it, then I can only banish Nidavellir from the Nine Realms," Odin also said his decision in a painful tone. He didn't want such a highly polluting thing to exist in his home all the time. Especially since it had given birth to consciousness. Even if doing so would make the energy cycle of the Nine Realms and the World Tree become fragile and traumatized again, he couldn't care about it.

"So, if our energy bank launches a pollution cleaning service, do you think those demon gods whose homes have been polluted would be willing to pay a cleaning fee?" Luke asked again.

"If there is no way, I am willing to pay some energy to buy the service. Of course, the premise is that the other party has the power to make me buy the service," Mephisto's answer was still straightforward. He had now figured out what Luke was planning.

"If we require that payment must be settled with our new currency. They must first deposit a sum of energy in our energy bank and exchange it into an equivalent amount of new currency before they can purchase this service, do you think they will buy it?" Luke continued to ask.

"Can I charge a handling fee?" The soul fire in Mephisto's eye sockets was as bright as two small light bulbs, and the fiery energy fluctuations rose upward like a surging tide with his high emotions. And his answer obviously also answered Luke's question on the side.

"Look, everything is difficult at the beginning. If they agree, then will there be actual progress in the bank?" Luke leaned back on the back of the chair and said in a calm tone.

"Yes, at least they have deposits in our energy bank and realize that we have this business and institution. I think in order to avoid all the energy of some small demon gods from being polluted, we can also open up an energy safe storage business! We guarantee that their energy will not be polluted, as long as they deposit the energy in our energy bank! We can only charge a little bit of storage fee," Mephisto took over Luke's words with great interest and high emotions, and even launched a new banking business by analogy.

He felt that his whole person's thinking had been broadened. His brain was wide open, and one business idea after another flashed through his mind at this moment. At this moment, he couldn't wait to go back and whip the demons under his command to work hard.

"If people know that the Abyss energy was released by us, our future days will be difficult, right?" Even Odin, this fierce man, shuddered a little when he thought of the appearance of those dimension demon gods who had been scammed and were furious once the facts were exposed.

Luke and the Ancient One were not afraid. Anyway, Midgard's defense against dimension demon gods' invasion is now not to say impenetrable, but as long as there are no traitors inside, their safety can still be guaranteed. Mephisto was not afraid either, at worst he could hide in his Hell dimension for millions or hundreds of millions of years. But what about Asgard?

He was not afraid of the so-called majority of dimension demon gods, but once the number increased, he would also be numb! His family was big and his business was big, and he would feel pain for a while if anything was damaged in the battle.

"Why would it be released by us?" Luke looked at Odin very strangely.

Odin was speechless by Luke's question.

"It's obviously Malekith, the Abyss carrier, and Nidavellir, the planet that came alive, who are spreading pollution everywhere! They are the source of pollution!" Luke spread his hands and continued: "Even if someone suspects it, have you ever seen anyone who doesn't give weapons to others, but throws them at their own home first? Odin and Mephisto, including future Midgard, are also victims of Malekith, the culprit! We are still the initial victims! In order to get rid of the energy entanglement of the Abyss dimension, the three of us, the initial victims, jointly found a way to seal its energy and generously shared it with the major dimension demon gods. Are we wrong?"

"No!" Mephisto's body began to tremble with excitement. He felt that he liked Luke at this moment too much. Although he was morally low at this moment and his plan was appalling, it was very much to his liking!

"If we regard Malekith as the spreader of the Abyss dimension energy, the walking source of pollution, then we are the dimension environmentalists! We are doing our best to promote and improve the technology to eradicate the Abyss dimension energy, and we are doing our best to help many dimension demon gods protect their homes from being polluted. What kind of selfless dedication is this? Shouldn't we be the moral benchmark of the demon gods?" Luke righteously threw the blame on Malekith.

"In terms of calculation and playing tricks, you humans still have racial advantages!" Mephisto leaned back contentedly and said with great emotion.

"But there are still people who know some facts," Odin added secretly, "Such as the fleeing Laufer and Surtur."

"Who would believe it? We are the same victims as them!" Mephisto curled his lips.

"Otherwise, let [Malekith] take a walk in their territory?" Luke tentatively looked at Odin.

Facing the three pairs of burning eyes, Odin's face turned green and he couldn't hold back any longer. He coughed twice and slowed down his tone a little: "Let the Nine Realms go, if you toss it again, your Midgard will also be affected."

"But these two are indeed a small hidden danger, why don't our next target be to let the beasts go and choose them two?" Luke rubbed his hands and looked at Odin and the three.

The three nodded together.

PS: Thank you to classmate Silent Peak for the reward