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The Ancient One did not give Luke an answer, or rather, Luke would never get an accurate answer from her. After all, even though the two had become a co-existent entity similar to the Trinity Vishanti through the connection of psychic energy, they were still different from Vishanti.
A wizard universe is certainly tempting, but it is not something that Ancient One needs right now. After her status is elevated, she still has a period of growth to go, and she is not in a hurry to establish or find her own dimension or universe.
After all, this kind of thing is still very sensitive to demon gods like them. This is equivalent to showing the foundation of their power in every detail in front of Luke. If Luke makes any moves in it, no one can bear the consequences.
Of course, if it is only used as an accumulation and reference for subsequent power routes, the customized universe still has a large market.
Mephisto and other shareholders of the energy bank might be cautious, but that didn't mean they weren't happy to promote this customized service. Whether there were any backup plans or not, they weren't ordinary buyers anyway, right?
Even according to the thoughts of Mephisto, the first president of the Energy Bank, he would definitely ask Luke to add something to it and promote this product vigorously.
After all, the universe is still too crowded, and no matter how hard you try to squeeze those weak gods, you won't be able to squeeze out any benefits. And increasing the number of conquered multiverses requires time and training manpower, which also requires a lot of investment and waiting.
But if they could customize the universe themselves, it would be like expanding the pie, and their profits would increase hundreds or thousands of times. This is the real [loan] business that can be used as a pillar.
It is comparable to the ultimate version of the trinity of Fang, Xue and Yi.
No customer could refuse this service unless they already possessed a powerful dimension of their own. However, these demons were either not Energy Bank customers or were high-end customers who required customization.
At the latest bank meeting, Mephisto was so excited that he couldn't wait to make a big move. Shareholders like Dormammu and Nightmare also invested heavily again due to the new business prospects, resulting in heavy losses.
After all, through repeated collaboration, Luke, the core engine of the team's business, had proven his foresight and skills time and again. The early successes had already instilled a certain level of trust in Luke. To put it bluntly, if Luke were to give them a hard time right now, they would be severely injured, or at least retreat to lick their wounds and recover for a billion years.
At the latest meeting, with the votes of many shareholders, Luke's latest technology has been made the core of the Energy Bank's next business. The demons in the Hell dimension were whipped by Mephisto's Soul Whip like spinning tops, running around the universe like a locust, highlighting a locust-like promotion.
In the words of Tony Stark, it's like hell is empty and the devil is on earth!
In the past, newly born devils and demons would be led to learn how to deceive a human being into handing over his or her soul. But now, who among the devils and demons is too lazy to go to the trouble of seducing humans one by one, and then racking their brains to scam and harvest their souls?
In the past, this was a lucrative job, chosen only by the most cunning or powerful devils and demons. Even Mephisto, then one of the Lords of Hell, had to humble himself to take on this task, recruiting and harvesting the souls needed for Hell. Of course, he only selected the toughest, highest-quality souls.
But now, apart from those devils who can't keep up with the version and are still stubborn, they are still doing their old business. Anyone who accepts this kind of "good job" will most likely be ostracized and exiled.
There are devils and demons like these, but they're rare. After all, skilled personnel are so scarce these days that every last one shouldn't be wasted. And Mephisto has always considered salespeople his bread and butter.
Originally, there were enough people in one universe. But when Luke opened up his multiverse, qualified sales staff became a bit stretched. All the mentoring and employee training were brought over by his think tank, drawn from various races. He even relaxed restrictions, no longer just recruiting from the Hell Dimension, but also bringing in Dormammu from the Dark Dimension and Nightmare from the Nightmare Dimension. However, not many were accepted. Ultimately, S.H.I.E.L.D. provided a large number of sales staff, filling the gaps with a team model consisting of one human and one thug/bodyguard.
The change that occurred after these tribes joined was that Mephisto could no longer get free labor. Under pressure from all sides, he had to pay these salesmen a certain salary and could no longer put all the money in his own hands. After all, if there is no money, who would be willing to work for you? Right?
The devils and demons, who had been exploited for so long, had already staged numerous demonstrations in the Hell Dimension, each of which was forcibly suppressed by Mephisto. However, this kind of suppression, when supply and demand were balanced, was unsustainable. After all, the devils and demons were cunning and treacherous, and those who had always practiced shady schemes could not help but protest. This only showed how ruthless Mephisto's exploitation was.
The demons and devils even staged a massive strike, but Mephisto broke it up with a painful outlay of new currency.
A renowned director in the Atrium even filmed a trilogy documenting the tale of the devils and demons demanding their wages. Of course, the devils and demons in the film were all portrayed as they really were—the devils played devils, and the demons played demons—but Mephisto was played by his son.
Mephisto had always wanted the director's soul sent to Hell, but the director had earned a lot of new currency from this documentary, which allowed him to buy many life-extending items and live a long time. Furthermore, the company he worked for was a holding company of a subsidiary of the Energy Bank.
That's right, it's S.H.I.E.L.D. with some more corporate shares.
In the end, Mephisto offered to delay the expiration of a loan from S.H.I.E.L.D., where Nick worked, giving the documentary an additional whitewashing story.
But the changes within the Energy Bank were indeed drastic. It was no longer a structure solely controlled by the upper echelons of power; it had become a truly vast entity with intertwined interests and complex internal affairs.
The Dark Forest-like dimensional demons have also established unprecedented trust and order. Of course, this is limited to those with high IQ. If you look for some chaotic dimensional demons, their confused minds may only think about killing and robbing.
For example, a sealed symbiote god.
So after much discussion and consultation, and with the unanimous agreement and joint efforts of the Energy Bank's shareholders, they rebuilt an energy extraction system outside the prison where the Symbiote God was imprisoned, treating the Symbiote God as a long-term gold mine.
The symbiotes had no objection. Some of them, willing to change, joined the Energy Bank, collaborating with humans and other intelligent life forms. As long as the seal of the Symbiote God remained intact, they could survive peacefully. They hoped the Energy Bank would seal the prison even tighter, or weaken their founding god.
Everyone was very satisfied. The only one who was dissatisfied was Mephisto, who had lost a continuous extra income. Yes, under the pressure of various factors, he paid the salary.
Of course, the version he came up with after discussing with the human think tank was to cut the base salary at the beginning, and then turn the remaining salary into bonuses, which would be given based on business volume. If the business did not meet the standards or the requirements of the rules were not met, a certain amount of salary would be deducted.
To this end, Mephisto and his advisors devised a rigorous and meticulous set of detailed work procedures, with numerous rules and conditions interconnected. The payment of salaries quelled some protests. Mephisto, seemingly reformed, honestly paid salaries for a while. But soon, many demons and devils discovered they were not receiving their supposed base salary. After at least half of the demons and devils realized they were not only not receiving their supposed salary but were actually being paid to Mephisto, a wave of swindling and deceit ensued.
Finally, under the protests of Energy Bank shareholders and customers, Mephisto had to revise the rules and regulations again, and only after obtaining the approval of all shareholders did everything get back on track.
For the demons and devils of the Hell dimension, this is now version 2.0 and even higher. They can openly earn vast profits, far exceeding the previous one-on-one fraud model. After all, not every fallen soul is noble and worth a fortune.
For the Hell Dimension, if the number of souls is insufficient, then purified spiritual energy can also be used as a source of nourishment and supplement. It can even enhance its vitality and willpower, and is more favored by it than those souls.
Due to the high psychic energy requirements of the Nine Realms, Hell and Mephisto even considered bringing a number of humans to the Hell Dimension. Mephisto even discussed plans with Stephen of Kamar-Taj and Nick of S.H.I.E.L.D. to establish a Nine Realms tourist attraction in Hell. If the humans were high-quality, they would offer free transportation.
But Mephisto's plan was rejected without hesitation by Stephen and Nick. Who knew if those people would ever be able to return? Didn't they already know what kind of world the Hell Dimension was? Who in their right mind would bother to visit a world like the Hell Dimension? The energy radiation alone, even with some protection, would be enough to devastate a human's body. If they were marked by the Hell Dimension again, that would be even more troublesome.
Although the possibility of the Hell Dimension invading the Nine Realms was currently low, that was no reason to allow those who had been infected with Hell's power and become its followers to act freely in the Atrium. Those people were a nuisance.
In the end, Mephisto compromised and took out a certain amount of new currency, and exchanged it for those extremely evil and difficult-to-deal-with criminals in the Atrium world at regular times and locations with some debt relief conditions.
Of course, this behavior cannot be a straightforward transaction. In Nick's words, these criminals will be transferred to the newly opened prison in the Hell dimension to serve, and the money from Mephisto is a donation.
In fact, Mephisto still prefers the first plan. If there are a large number of Hell believers active in the atrium, with their wanton behavior, they can at least lure many human souls to fall, and then be marked and captured by the Hell dimension.
Mephisto didn't mind being rejected, though. At least it prevented a fuss from escalating, like a loathsome alter-ego of Luke's coming to confront him about compensation. After all, Midgard and the Nine Realms belonged to Luke and Asgard. In the past, such behavior would have been considered provocation and a call to war.
All the current energy bank salesmen have received a new promotion training notice. They need to inform potential customers of Luke's latest technology as quickly as possible and sell it out.
While the current technical requirements are still very high, and the manufacturing difficulty and resource requirements are not low, this will all change. At Luke's research speed, by the time this group of salespeople are trained and the technology is rolled out throughout the universe, the second or third version of the technology may already be available in Luke's lab.
Furthermore, in Mephisto's view, this kind of universe-creating technology didn't need to be fully developed. A fragmented, simplified, or even galaxy-sized universe would do. Even a few bugs and hidden dangers wouldn't matter. As long as not all the standard universes were flawed, a few customer complaints and protests were acceptable.
After all, doing so would attract more clients. As for energy consumption? Psionic energy was certainly out of the question, but exploiting the God of Symbiotes and other unfortunate dimensional demons, extracting, borrowing, and converting their energy to make do, was certainly possible.
If you want something better, something more perfect, then you should at least become a VIP customer of our bank, right? If you are at a higher level, you can even enjoy customized services.
Take out loans, collect rent, and earn interest.
Mephisto has already imagined the beautiful days in the near future when groups of supported dimensional demons will explore the multiverse and supply energy to him and the energy bank.
Well, the contract must add a little more power of the abyss to give those customers a little sense of urgency.
Mephisto found that he even had a little love for the Abyss now, of course, the premise is that the Abyss does not entangle him. He still has a shadow over the power of the Abyss.
As for whether the Abyss would expand to a point where it could destroy the entire multiverse, what did that have to do with him? That day might require the destruction of all universes multiple times over. What if Luke could come up with a better technology by then, one that could truly purify and dispel the power of the Abyss?
People need to have dreams, and so do demons. Right?
…