American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

"You're asking the wrong person." Luke sat in his seat, scratching his sparse, dry hair with a headache. "I was created solely to maintain and upgrade this city. If you ask me about the city's functions, what it can do, its strengths and weaknesses, and its positioning, I can give you an accurate answer because those are all within my scope of responsibility.

But the question you're asking isn't my responsibility!"

"What do you mean?" Hal asked, bewildered. "Aren't you Luke?"

"I am Luke, but so what?" Luke looked at him strangely. "Wasn't I clear enough? I'm just a creation, an avatar, a manufacturer named Luke with a defined scope of responsibility. You shouldn't be asking me those questions."

"Then who should we ask?" Hal and the others pressed Luke for an answer.

"You should ask the main body Luke in the laboratory," Luke said naturally. "Of course, if he doesn't have time to see you, you can go see Capitalist Luke. But how he arranges you and your universe is another matter."

"I've only been gone for a while, but it feels like a century has passed. I can barely understand you anymore." The Captain also had a headache. His memory of Luke was still of a single, unique individual, but after returning, he found it all messed up.

"Do you want to talk to him? Then I'll hand it over to him. Anyway, my mission was to bring the Captain home, and I've done what I was supposed to do." As the old Luke spoke, he fell into a cloud of glowing light that rose behind him, and then disappeared.

Everyone present fell silent for a moment, then looked at the Captain in unison.

"Don't look at me, he was still normal when I left, I swear!" Captain Steve raised his hands upon seeing everyone's gaze.

"Let me see, new leeks, no, customers!"

A warm voice suddenly rang out, and then a twisting beam of light printed out an approachable middle-aged man in front of everyone. He had a kind smile on his face, looking at Wayne and the others as if they were friends.

"You've already met that old man? I see you have. Look, look, how could he be so rude to guests? He even restricted your powers, that's too much!" The middle-aged man complained as he waved his hand, freeing Hal and the others from the incompatible state field.

Wayne regained control of the Batsuit.

Clark felt the power of his Kryptonian bloodline surging within him.

Diana also felt the divine power within her body again, and her control over the Lasso of Truth and other artifacts.

Hal's ring, John's bloodline, and Barry's speed were all lost and found, reappearing in their bodies. It was as if their previous disappearance and dormancy had been an illusion.

Although their powers had returned to their bodies, no one felt any sense of security. Instead, they felt it was a show of strength, a reminder and a warning.

Reminding them that the powers they relied on were insignificant.

The middle-aged Luke clapped his hands and continued with a smile, "Please allow me to introduce myself, I am the Hangman Luke, also known as Capitalist Luke. Actually, I'm just an ordinary businessman Luke, the virtual image of the intelligent system serving the Energy Bank. The intelligent system of the Energy Bank is me, but I am not the intelligent system of the Energy Bank.

My duty is to expand business and handle some commercial disputes. Just before you arrived, I reviewed the information about your universe, and I think it's very valuable. I want your universe to accept our Mind Energy and become a customer of the Energy Bank. What do you think?"

Wayne and the others were somewhat overwhelmed by the enthusiastic middle-aged Luke. Wayne, Diana, John, and others were better, either because they had traveled the world and seen a lot, or because they had lived long enough and experienced many people, or because they had experienced life, death, and destruction. Luke's strangeness made them a little confused, but it wasn't enough to surprise them to the point of being at a loss.

"What if we choose to refuse?" John and Wayne exchanged glances and asked tentatively.

"That's not a good choice." The enthusiasm on the middle-aged Luke's face diminished, and his tone became much more serious.

"Isn't doing business about mutual choice? If there's only one choice, isn't that a forced sale?" Carol said.

"We never force a sale. I know you are the darlings of this time in that universe, children of destiny, spokespersons chosen by various forces. If you don't want to, you can indeed bring us some trouble, but it's only trouble. I think you need to think about it again." As the middle-aged Luke spoke, he waved his hand, and Hal and the others froze in place as if they were lost in thought.

"They...?" The Captain looked at Luke.

"Don't worry, it's just a mental illusion. Haven't congratulated you yet, you're finally home, Captain. Do you know how much trouble and chaos your disappearance has caused us? We even had to invite you from another universe. Your return will make many people jump for joy." The middle-aged Luke waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to worry about Hal and the others who were trapped in the mental illusion, and instead went forward to warmly greet the Captain.

"Thank you." The Captain was a little embarrassed. He felt that the Luke in front of him was too different from the Luke in his memory. He didn't know who Luke was modeled after, but it definitely wasn't Luke himself.

"You're welcome, are you going home? I understand, you're eager to go back to see your lover and friends, and deal with some accumulated affairs, I can understand your urgency at this moment. But there's one thing I must remind you of." The middle-aged Luke rubbed his hands together, a smile on his face.

"What is it?" The Captain instinctively felt a sense of foreboding when he saw the smile on Luke's face.

"You need to settle your debt list." Luke smiled and pulled out a long list in the air, and the final total amount made the Captain's scalp tingle just by looking at it!

"Wait, I don't remember owing so much debt!" the Captain exclaimed.

"You didn't think that all the effort to rescue you was free, did you?" The middle-aged Luke looked at him in surprise.

"Wasn't it?" The Captain asked in a lost voice.

"Of course not! The main body doesn't care about anything now, he has handed over commercial affairs to me, so I need to be responsible for the interests of many shareholders! Because the Energy Bank spent a lot of money finding you and bringing you home. If you don't pay it back, won't this money become a bad debt?" The middle-aged Luke waved the bill and spoke eloquently.

"But that's too much!" The Captain's morality made him agree with Luke's words, but the amount on the bill made him want to smash his morality. If he acknowledged this debt, he would probably have to spend his life, his next life, and the life after that, just to pay it off.

Who was the last person to bear a huge debt for no reason?

It was Nick Fury, who was worn out by debt! In Nick's words when he chatted with him, his biggest goal was to be able to pay off the Energy Bank's debt, or Luke's debt, by the time he retired, even if that goal seemed a bit grand and unrealistic.

"Don't worry, as a friend, I've prepared a series of reduction and repayment processes for you, as long as you follow them, you can pay it off quickly." The middle-aged Luke excitedly explained to the Captain.

"Luke and Stark contributed to your rescue costs, although it doesn't seem like much compared to the debt, the actual amount is not small. This can offset a portion.

The universe that was found because of your rescue has great development value after a simple assessment, and there will be a bonus, which can also be used to pay off the debt. Although the bonus amount has been greatly reduced because of your inaction and even dragging your feet in that universe, it's better than nothing.

This can already eliminate a large part of the debt, and the rest can be paid off as long as you work hard, working 996 or 007 for decades. By then, you will definitely be able to pay it off.

Of course, if you are willing to join the development team for new universes, as long as you can bring benefits and profits to the Energy Bank, the shareholders will definitely not be stingy in offering you generous salaries and bonuses. This will greatly help you repay your debt as soon as possible! How about it? I'm taking care of you, right?"

"Are you a devil?" The Captain covered his eyes, he didn't want to see the middle-aged Luke's face.

"How could I be a devil? Although part of my body does come from the life spectrum of Mephisto, the director of the bank, my greed, stinginess, and meanness have absolutely nothing to do with him! At least I can't do something like working without paying!.

The behavior of the demons under his command who pay for their own pockets to work for free, and even turn around and hand over the harvest to Mephisto to pay wages in reverse, is quite explosive in the entire Energy Bank. I have always felt that he will be hung on a lamppost by those demons sooner or later. But at least now those lovely demons have saved the Energy Bank a lot of money, haven't they? After all, money is needed everywhere in the early stages of starting a business." The middle-aged Luke looked envious. If the main body hadn't set a bottom line, he would really like to lean towards Mephisto. That's a true role model!

As for being hung on a lamppost?

Do you think he's afraid?

If one Capitalist Luke falls, thousands of Capitalist Lukes will stand up! As long as the main body doesn't die, what is he afraid of? He's just a tool person with no emotions, used by various shareholder bosses to achieve KPIs!

A Capitalist Luke who has never been hung on a lamppost has an incomplete life!

The Captain was silenced for a moment, he felt that the current Luke had a bit of the Luke he remembered.

"Invading other people's universes is an immoral and unjust act," Steve said.

"Why is it an invasion? We are going to serve, to help them move closer to higher civilizations!" The middle-aged Luke looked at Steve strangely and corrected him.

"Is there any difference?" The Captain thought seriously.

The middle-aged Luke looked thoughtful, seemingly not expecting the Captain to ask this question. He pondered for a moment and said tentatively, "Does it sound better?"

The Captain was silent again.

"A high sense of morality is indeed not easy to accept, do you want to filter and clean up the influence of the ring? The filter and cleaning package has been very popular recently in the Supreme Mage lineage. Your spiritual development is a bit wrong!" The middle-aged Luke frowned: "You have to think like this, the universe is not just us as predators, those dimensional demons are staring at worlds, most of which will not leave a single bone. At least we don't eat so ugly, right? We eat meat, they can still drink soup, and even develop and grow with us. We didn't swallow their universe whole, skin and bones, and turn it into nourishment for our dimensional world, did we? If it's not us, it's other demons."

"They are stubborn," the Captain said softly.

"There are many people who are unwilling to accept reality, and there are many who want to change reality. Some become heroes, some become cowards, but under the general trend, it cannot be changed by individual will. Even if they are dimensional demons, they are just an extra charging battery for the data dimension. Moreover, I believe they will make the right choice, even if they are unwilling, someone will help them make the right choice." The middle-aged Luke's face was a little cold.

"What do you want to do?" The Captain looked at Luke's face and felt a little panicked.

Luke smiled and waved his hand to pull out a virtual light and shadow. Inside the light and shadow, Wayne and others were struggling in a sea of bugs. Their bodies were glowing white, and the power of the White Lantern Corps was wrapped around them. Each of them could be called their strongest state when fighting Thanos. However, in the overwhelming sea of bugs, their struggles still seemed so weak.

Their killing power against the sea of bugs was constantly weakening, and the sea of bugs was constantly evolving. In just a short period of time, the sea of bugs had self-evolved at least two generations, and Wayne and the others had been resurrected at least once after death.

"This is?" The Captain looked at the scene in the light and shadow and suddenly turned to look at Luke beside him.

"Mental illusion. They are suffering the attack of the third-generation Brood subspecies. If they cannot find the key to restrain the subspecies, then they will be forever trapped in the mental illusion, unless someone releases them. But I certainly won't, will I?" The middle-aged Luke's eyes glowed as he looked at the mental image.

"Find the key?" The Captain frowned.

"They will always find it. When they have exhausted all their means, they will think of the energy that they have never used, the energy that belongs to us," Luke said gleefully.

"Our energy?" The Captain looked at Luke and asked tentatively, "Could that be the key to defeating those bugs?"

"It's not wrong to understand it that way." Luke nodded: "The third-generation Brood subspecies is a biological weapon that has been modulated for deployment to other worlds and universes. They have good resistance to all known energy and have the characteristics of devouring and evolution, except for Luke's Mind Energy. Tell me, if this kind of Brood is specially cultivated and then deployed to their universe, what will they do?

If they don't want their universe to be swallowed up and their civilization destroyed, they can only choose to join our energy system, actively integrate into us, and become a part of us. They have a precedent for this, don't they?

What's that saying? Use magic to defeat magic?

I like this sentence!"

PS: Thanks to the reward from the silent peak student.