Streetlights and Gods (Part One)

Most human thoughts and actions followed patterns and logic. What a person thought and did depended on the situation they were currently facing.

It was no surprise that Strange had such a bold idea. At this moment, he was a successful, wealthy man—not merely rich, but extremely rich.

In the months before he came into contact with The Ancient One, his daily life had consisted of dealing with the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Nor had he turned to magic because setbacks had forced him to seek its help. The Ancient One’s invitation to study magic had been more like an invitation to an academic exchange in an entirely new field.

Therefore, Strange held no particular reverence for magic at this point. His view was much the same as Stark’s: magic was merely another form of energy that could be utilized. What magic was depended mainly on how people chose to use it.

And Schiller had helped him narrow things down, filtering out Wang’s talk about cultivating the mind and maintaining balance and peace. He had made Strange realize that while solving problems with violence could be crude and simple, it was sometimes highly effective.

Under these circumstances, Strange inevitably began to think, trying to find a path simpler and more effective than burying his head in ascetic training at Kamar-Taj.

It was an inevitable line of thinking for someone educated in human science. The ultimate purpose of every experiment was to improve efficiency and accelerate production.

It was no surprise that he had sought out Stark, either. Though the two had had some conflicts before, things had reached a point where their shared interests mattered more. Clearly, when it came to magic, they had even greater common interests.

Stark sat behind the lab bench, one elbow resting on the table as he pressed a hand to his temple. "Even so, it’s only an idea for now. We’re missing far too many of the necessary conditions to put it into practice."

He waved a hand. "You walked in here, showed me what magic was, and then the two of us immediately started setting our sights on powerful aliens."

"I’m telling you, buddy, if you’d gone to anyone other than me—other than Stark, overflowing with genius ideas—they would’ve absolutely had you thrown out as a lunatic."

"Humanity hasn’t even built a spaceship yet, and we’re already thinking about borrowing money from aliens. That’s a little crazy."

Strange sat on the other side of the lab bench with his arms folded. "The idea is bold, but it isn’t impossible. It just needs time."

"It needs a lot of time." Stark looked at Strange. "Right now, I haven’t even touched the threshold of magic, and you? You’re just a magic apprentice. You haven’t even formally used magic yet."

"Looks like we really do need to treat this as a long-term plan. Oh, did I remind you? We can’t casually tell people about magic, so don’t tell too many people about this plan either."

"Don’t worry. Even if magic weren’t involved, I’d still keep certain people from learning about your unethical plan. They’d definitely nag us to death over it—like that old fossil who always calls himself my uncle, and that idiot kid who swings around in the sky, and…"

Strange said, "I don’t know who we need to keep this plan from, but…"

Then he looked up at Stark. Stark looked back at him as if they understood each other perfectly. "…you definitely know who we must not keep this plan from."

In the S.H.I.E.L.D. office, the bulb overhead flickered on and off. Beneath it sat a square table, with one person seated along each of its four sides.

Nick and Schiller exchanged a glance. Nick said, "So, you’re planning to rob aliens?"

"Don’t make it sound so ugly." Stark denied it. "This is borrowing. Borrowing, understand?"

"Well…" Nick opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but there seemed to be too much to say, and for a moment, he could not get the words out.

After a pause, he put his hand on the tabletop in a calming gesture. "I understood everything you just said. There are some powerful beings in the universe that possess magical energy. Ordinary people call them aliens, while magicians call them Cosmic Demons."

"They can lend their power to humans through some method and allow people to cast magic. So the essence of magic is the power of Cosmic Demons."

"And now, you plan to borrow some power, arm yourselves with it, refuse to repay the debt, and then borrow even more power."

"Leaving aside whether it’s technically feasible…"

Before Nick could finish, Stark interrupted him. "I know it’s a bit unethical, but he came up with the plan."

Stark pointed at Strange and sold out his teammate without the slightest burden of conscience. Strange froze, then glared at him.

Nick was stunned too. "Unethical? What’s unethical about it?"

Nick and Schiller both looked at Stark and Strange in confusion. Stark and Strange exchanged glances, and then Stark said, "Fine. We shouldn’t have overestimated the moral standards of you two."

Nick said in great surprise, "So after setting aside the technical problems, the first issue you considered was morality? That really is a little unexpected."

"But I’m not talking about morality. I’m talking about logic."

"First, according to you, Cosmic Demons are intelligent and capable of communication. That proves they aren’t stupid."

"It’s like the human credit system. If you take out a loan from a bank for the first time and refuse to pay it back, that bank will never lend to you again. If the amount is large enough, the other banks will blacklist you too."

"I know this is more like robbing a bank than taking a loan. But banks don’t move. If you have enough force, you really can rob them repeatedly. Cosmic Demons aren’t legless, though. If they find out you refuse to repay them and they can’t beat you, can’t they just leave?"

Nick asked Strange in puzzlement, "According to you, your teacher borrowed power without returning it, then beat all her creditors into submission. Wouldn’t every Cosmic Demon run as far away as possible whenever they saw her? How would she borrow more power after that?"

"Is there a possibility," Schiller said as he looked at Nick, "that those who don’t want to lend her power can’t run away?"

Strange offered a more reasonable explanation. "Cosmic Demons don’t wander the universe either. Some of the more powerful ones usually have their own territory, like… what was it? The Dark Dimension, and the Crimson Dimension. That’s what I heard from Wang. Those are basically Cosmic Demon territory."

"That does sound somewhat feasible." Nick stroked his chin. "But there are still many problems, especially on the technical side."

Then the three of them began discussing, one after another, how to borrow money to buy guns, and then use those money-bought guns to rob people.

"I say…" Schiller tapped the table, sounding as if he truly could not listen any longer. "Why is your thinking always so limited? Why do you always think about violent robbery? Can’t you be a little more flexible?"

The other three looked at him. Schiller said helplessly, "This is why I’m always so out of step with you people. Do you know? What you just said sounded exactly like rednecks gathered in a farm warehouse, playing poker and loudly running their mouths."

"Abandon that blunt, violent mindset of yours. It’s the least efficient method. Nobody robs banks anymore these days. Buying guns, gathering manpower, preparing vehicles, filling them with gas, scouting the location in advance, planning escape routes… it’s far too troublesome."

"If you have a plan, just say it." Nick studied Schiller. "I can see you’ve been holding it in for a while."

"Compared with robbery, we can use an entirely different method."

"What?"

"Fraud."

Schiller spread his hands. "What’s the highest score a bank robber can get? A few million dollars? And scammers?"

"That depends on what kind of scammer you mean. If it’s a successful scammer…" Nick looked at Strange. "You’ll have to ask him."

"Why are you looking at me?" Strange said irritably. "Compared with certain people, what kind of successful scammer am I?"

He looked at Stark again. Stark stared wide-eyed. "Why are you looking at me? I’m an industrialist. I don’t engage in financial fraud. Besides, I wasn’t the one who created the Immortality Factor…"

After saying that, he looked at Schiller. The other two looked at Schiller as well. Nick said, "At the moment, you can answer that question yourself. I haven’t seen a scammer with a more glorious record than yours."

"Fine. I have a plan. The whole borrow-money-and-don’t-pay-it-back routine is outdated. We’ll give it a more fashionable name."

"Like?"

"Investment."

Schiller placed both hands on the table and began his explanation.

"Look, the current trading method of Cosmic Demons is all one-on-one. From a human perspective, that transaction model is extremely crude and primitive."

"They’re still stuck at the level of barter and face-to-face transactions, but modern finance has long moved beyond that level."

"The first step is to break away from one-on-one transactions. We can conduct one-to-many transactions, or many-to-many transactions. Simply put, we let Cosmic Demons invest their power in us."

"And then? Investments need returns, don’t they?"

"Cosmic Demons…" Schiller moved one hand to the right.

"…invest their power…" He moved his hand to the middle.

"…in us." Finally, he moved his hand to the left, indicating three stages.

"More Cosmic Demons invest more power in us." Schiller made the three gestures again.

Under the curious gazes of the other three, he suddenly quickened his pace and rattled off a long string of words.

"We use the power invested by other Cosmic Demons to give returns to yet more Cosmic Demons, and tell them that the more they invest, the more they earn."

"Set up a tiered system, establish promotion ranks, raise returns layer by layer. Recruit one Cosmic Demon, and you can take three percent of the transaction value as a reward. Recruit two Cosmic Demons, and you can take seven percent. And so on—the more people you recruit, the more you earn…"

"Once we make the base large enough, we start using later investments as returns for earlier investors. Investment income rises, investment returns rise, and when the gap reaches an ideal value…"

Schiller spread his hands. "…the industry encounters difficulties caused by force majeure and can only temporarily bid everyone farewell. We deeply regret this."

After he finished, the conference room fell silent for a full minute. Stark was the first to speak. "That really is a rather creative concept… my ass. Isn’t that just a Ponzi scheme???"

Nick looked at Schiller too. "Although I estimated your moral bottom line as low as possible, its flexibility is still terrifying."

Schiller suddenly said very seriously, "I have always believed that for humanity to enter the universe, it needs not only the essence of human civilization, but also some of its dregs."

"Trash is merely a resource placed in the wrong location. Essence is the driving force that takes us into the universe, while dregs are weapons. After all, no cosmic civilization probably has as many dregs as humanity."

"Of course, this is only an entry-level method." Schiller shrugged. "After expanding the concept of one-to-many and many-to-many transactions, we must change the current state of barter. That’s primitive-era nonsense. Without a general equivalent, do they still have the nerve to call themselves powerful, advanced aliens?"

"With a general equivalent comes the concept of currency, followed by markets, supply and demand, crowdfunding, companies, stocks, futures…"

"What humanity needs to become is not a buyer who refuses to repay debts, nor a thug who uses violence against creditors, but a fair and conscientious banker with an excellent reputation and image, praised throughout the universe."

"And force is merely a necessary means of ensuring fairness. We can even promise never to deploy the Sorcerer Supreme first."

"And if they refuse to join, we send the Sorcerer Supreme to knock on their door, right?"

"Don’t put it that way. If the Sorcerer Supreme has already gone to knock on his door and he still has a chance to live, that’s already tremendous progress. We’re practically a cosmic anti-violence vanguard organization."

"When we have both force and reason, we can begin establishing a trading system, setting transaction rules, and then dividing classes, subdividing them layer by layer—legitimate and perfectly justified…"

The other three looked at one another, but Schiller appeared remarkably calm, nothing like a conspirator planning to capitalize the entire universe.

"Of course, those are matters for later. Let’s talk about the first plan. There are many benefits to doing things this way."

"This can’t really be considered a scam, because later on, those early investors will all learn The Truth. But they won’t stop. Because of their sunk costs, they will help us keep the secret. Not only will they keep it—they’ll actively help us find more people."

"That solves Earth’s problem of blocked information. Although we don’t understand Cosmic Demons, Cosmic Demons certainly understand Cosmic Demons."

"You don’t need to explain the principles of a Ponzi scheme anymore. We all know them. But the biggest problem with this scam is that after you run off with the money, you need a way to hide yourselves and launder the money."

"If this were an individual, hiding and changing identities might be relatively easy. But Earth can’t run away. We can’t abandon the entire Solar System just to fleece Cosmic Demons, can we?" Nick raised a question.

"If we really begin operating this scheme, hiding ourselves may indeed be difficult. But there’s another approach: find a sufficiently powerful patron, promise him benefits, and have him handle the trouble after we run off with the money."

As he spoke, Schiller looked at Strange. "Earlier, you said your teacher, the Sorcerer Supreme, had mentioned something about being busy with the birth of a new god recently?"

"That’s right. Like I told you before, it seemed that some mysterious being she had always traded with told her that something was about to be born near Earth, and she was preparing for it."

"Would the mysterious being behind her be interested in taking a share?" Schiller shifted the elbow supporting him on the table and continued. "Use the Sorcerer Supreme’s reputation as the guarantee for the opening, let the being behind her act as the banker, pull a few small Demon Gods into the scheme first, use the power they invest to put on a show, and build up a positive example for publicity."

"Once more people join and we’ve accumulated more power, focus on breaking through with one major Demon God. Throw money around to clear the way, promise him a high return rate, get him in first, then let him taste some sweetness and use that to fool a few more major Demon Gods."

"Once those powerful Demon Gods join, introduce recruitment rules and have them help us squeeze the smaller Demon Gods. We’ll give them commissions."

"When it’s time to run, return everything to those with the biggest fists. For the weaker ones, we all join hands, chop them up, and eat the meat. Part goes to the being behind the Sorcerer Supreme as protection money, and we keep the rest ourselves."

"Once the small Demon Gods in the universe grow a little more, we can use that power as capital to harvest another round."

"There’s one problem…" Stark frowned. "You know that one important part of a Ponzi scheme is that in the early stages, there has to be something tangible to lure in investment. What are you planning to use as the thing that convinces them to invest?"

"Didn’t Stephen mention it earlier? The being behind the Sorcerer Supreme told him that a new Beast Totem was being born."

"Speaking of which, what exactly is going on?" Nick asked Strange. "What is a Beast Totem? If it’s being born on Earth, will it have any bad effects on us?"

Strange shook his head. "According to my teacher, it’s a symbol of a kind of cosmic power. It’s all mysticism stuff. Though it’s being born on Earth, it has nothing to do with the people on Earth."

Nick rubbed his temple. "I’m guessing it must be connected to that giant bat last time, right?"

As he spoke, he looked at Schiller. Schiller gave him an affirmative look and said, "We can make something of this."

"A new cosmic totem power is rising, and it needs your help. Give roses, and your hands retain their fragrance. During the birth of a new god, investment returns reach 200%. Join the Totem God Cult and embark on a successful demonic life. How does that sound?"

Stark and Strange applauded. Nick commented, "In theory, it really could work. The major Demon Gods capable of retaliation would also be beneficiaries, while the small Demon Gods whose power gets siphoned away definitely couldn’t defeat those powerful beings acting together."

"Add the being behind the Sorcerer Supreme to ensure no one dares play Black Hand, and the exploitation and harvesting chain basically forms a closed loop."

Nick sighed. "The plan is good, but the risks are still huge. Earth is at too great a disadvantage. Humanity here is too fragile, and civilization is still backward. Without borrowing the strength of others, we can hardly play games with any cosmic force. If they track us back home, we have no real resistance to offer."

"I have always believed…" Stark said firmly, "that if one day Earth truly faces annihilation and we are powerless to resist, then at the very least, we must have the power to avenge it. So…"

"Stop!" Schiller directly cut off what Stark was about to say. "Don’t say something so inauspicious. Besides, Earth isn’t powerless to resist."

"Perhaps in your eyes, the power of resistance must be military force. I admit that we need enough force to earn a seat at the negotiating table."

"But when we genuinely cannot develop enough military power in a short period of time, there is nothing shameful about using other means to accumulate resources and buy time, just like what we just planned."

"Actually, I think your thinking is constrained." Strange continued from where Schiller left off. "You think nuclear bombs created by human science might not be able to effectively harm those bizarre aliens, but we can take another approach—for example, use magic to make one."

"If we can truly trick… I mean, borrow enough power from those Cosmic Demons, then it can likewise become a weapon with which we defend Earth. These are merely different paths, with no essential difference between them."

Nick sighed again and continued, "Every beginning is difficult. We have a plan, but where do we start?"

"We really know too little about things beyond Earth." Stark said as well. "At any rate, I don’t know any Cosmic Demons."

Strange shrugged. "I could go back and discuss it with my teacher, but I always feel that such an unethical plan…"

He sighed too, then said, "It would definitely seriously lower her opinion of me and make her think I’m an ignorant swindler."

"And I’m not sure she’d really go speak to the being behind her about it. No matter how you put it, this is a little too unethical…"

"Our most urgent task now is to find someone who thoroughly understands things beyond Earth, especially the Demon Gods in the universe and the various other factions, so they can answer our questions and help us screen the first batch of victims… I mean, participants." Schiller proposed.

"How could that be easy? The vast majority of people on Earth don’t believe aliens exist. Even space agencies and astronauts couldn’t possibly know about those mysterious things." Nick said, holding his forehead.

"Even if we find someone, we have to make sure he isn’t dangerous and can communicate normally with humans." Stark added.

"Preferably with a lower IQ too, so we can get information out of him easily and he won’t guess our purpose." Strange added as well.

The three of them sighed in unison, feeling that they were daydreaming.

Just then, Nick’s phone suddenly rang. After answering it, he said, "Yes, that’s right… What happened?"

"What did you say?… Are you sure?"

"Really? What else?"

After hanging up, Nick repeated the report he had received over the phone. "A suspected alien impact object has been discovered in New Mexico. At the same time, the state reported a mentally ill man claiming to be a god, who attacked personnel investigating the site."

"He claims to be a god from Asgard, and the alien object that fell from the sky is his weapon. Because he was stripped of all his divine power, he can’t lift his weapon…"

At that, the four looked at one another and spoke like they were playing a word chain.

"An alien?"

"An alien who has lost his power?"

"An alien who has lost his power and has no weapon…"

"An alien who has lost his power, has no weapon, and apparently isn’t very bright!!!"