Four massive phantoms of gods hovered in the gray mist, communicating silently in an unspoken language, each passing on their information. The colossal Spider God was the first to speak.
"Gather..."
The Black Sun followed closely behind.
"Analyze..."
Then came God of Stories.
"Write..."
Last was the Scarlet God.
"Manifest..."
The space fell silent for a long time. But it wasn't that they had nothing to say, rather all information was exchanged in a blink of an eye. As the gray mist covered the surface of the Sky Island and cleared again, four small figures appeared in the center of the island.
Riley, who seemed to still be indulging in some other dream, blinked fiercely, then was scared by the massive phantom of the spider before him, Riley jumped back and adopted a defensive pose, then exclaimed in surprise, "Spider Totem?"
"Am I dreaming?" The girl next to Riley vigorously shook her head, but a pair of giant crimson eyes in mid-air turned towards her. Jessica was almost instantly entranced.
Xu Shang-Chi stared quietly at the Black Sun. For some reason, he seemed to find more information in those intricate patterns than others. He was also the only one among them who had sensed the summoning in advance, so he was not surprised to show up here.
Quill frowned, looked around, and found that in addition to the previous black Sun, there were three more gods. He wondered, was this a part of the secret behind the stars? An ancient and mysterious Deity System, what was the name of this Deity System? What were the names of these gods?
Quill inadvertently asked aloud, and the old man in front of him who was writing something on a massive book smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, child, you can call me the God of Stories. Perhaps you don't know that you've been written into a fascinating story yet?"
Quill seemed a bit confused, but the quill started moving rapidly. The old man said, "Every event in this world will appear in a story. When I rewrite the story, I can rewrite them."
"If you make a covenant with me, you will see part of what is in my book of stories, past stories, current stories, future ones, the whole Earth, the whole interstellar, the whole cosmos..."
Quill was unsure whether he was mistaken, but he felt that this sentence was not directed towards him, but towards the giant spider on the opposite side of the God of Stories.
Jessica, standing next to Riley, felt the incomparable great power of the Scarlet God and heard a somewhat young woman's voice say, "You have a strong talent, but I can make you stronger. Your talent will be coupled with Chaotic Powers, allowing you to use a variety of chaos magic."
"I need this." Jessica did not hesitate at all, she took a step forward and said, "We're stuck without a large-scale weapon of destruction. If you can give me magic, that would be great. But what do you need from me?"
"I need you to help me find someone, he is called... Oh, okay, let me rephrase that. If you become my follower, you will be completely spared from the madness spread by other gods. At the same time, you must bring me the information of the god who spreads madness, which will become... someone's hunting target."
Riley, facing the Spider God, scratched his cheek and opened his hands to continue explaining, "I'm afraid I can't worship you. On one hand, I'm not a devout person, I don't rely on gods, I like to solve problems myself. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether my teacher and elder, who is another god, would allow me to worship you. Why don't you talk to him?"
The gigantic spider sketched out words in mid-air with spider silk. Following the spider silk with his eyes, Riley read the words and said, "Okay, If you're related to the Spider Totem, then yes, I would naturally be a follower of you. But don't expect me to pray morning and night..."
The spider silk formed a line of words.
"I can send any Spider-Man to you at any time, any place, and also let you go to any Spider-man's side."
Riley's breathing changed immediately, he pursed his lips and said, "Even if the universe's nature is special and maybe being sealed?"
"This is the Spider-Man's special privilege."
Riley was a bit swayed. If the god in front of him said he could give him power or energy, he might not necessarily be moved. Riley currently lacked some hard measures.
Hard measures not only include weapons of mass destruction, but also the hardest measure is, I can decide when someone comes, and also when I leave.
And the next line of words from the God of Spiders added the final straw to the fire in Riley's heart.
"I have enhanced the Spider-sense, creating a 'Brain-net!' composed of the minds of countless Spider-Men. You can now communicate with each other anytime, anywhere, unrestricted by time, space, race, or even thought patterns,"
"So, now I have a chat-room in my head?"
"Yes, if we establish a stable connection, you can join at any time."
Riley hesitated a bit, but still nodded. He then felt a pathway open in his mind. The next second, a torrential noise almost blew his mind. Even Spider-man himself could not handle this much information from chatting Spider-Men in a short time.
Riley's mind buzzed instantly. He tried to send a message, but found it different from an online chat room. A computer screen shows limited messages, expired information gets wiped off. If the chat is too fast, the message might get lost and nobody would notice.
However, the capacity of Spider-Man's cognitive network is astonishing. Even after thousands of new messages had gone by, the introduction that Riley had sent out was still in sight for everyone. Many Spider-Men received it.
Great, Riley thought, they can finally chat freely without worrying about bothering others or internet charges.
Excited, he sent a message, or rather, a snippet of his memory. This network allows direct uploading of memory fragments. One can share their experiences without any loss of information.
No media could receive others' information better than direct brain-to-brain communication. When Riley posted his dramatic story, the noisy chat room fell silent for a second – before an even more intense discussion broke out.
Most of the Spider-Men were in awe. Meanwhile, a few private messages came in. Riley found it interesting because he could instantly identify who they were.
Peter from the Central Universe said: "Have the Spider Totem teleport you to the lab in the Stark Building. The Solar System Intelligent Cruise Project has the robot manufacturing data you need. I've unlocked the access for you."
Shadow Spider-man said: "I'm in the Central Universe resolving issues in the home star of the Sulfur Dwarf. There's about two cubic meters of high-quality molten steel here. You can use it to build the robot's frame."
Gwen Spiderman said: "Hey? I'm in my own universe. Spider Silk just got a good beating from me. They've been quieting down recently. If you need help, just give me a call."
Scarlet Spider-Man Cain said: "Where to kill? How many to kill?"
More private messages poured in, the Spider-Men chaotically discussed strategies to solve Riley's problem. Producing robots was a consensus among them. The key was what kind of robots to make, how many and where to deploy them.
Riley found this information very useful, but if he had to vocalize all these ideas, it might take him months. Spider-Man finally experienced what it's like when his mouth couldn't keep up with his mind.
Meanwhile, Peter from the Central Universe sent another message. Riley read it carefully, it was a paper titled "Investigation and Research on the Great World Barrier Portal and Channel and the Conjecture of Its Universality."
Their discussion ended hastily. By the time they woke up, they were still in an abandoned underground storage unit due to lack of power. This was their new temporary base, with a decent supply of long shelf-life food, and a sturdy door.
When the four of them woke up, they looked at each other, simultaneously sighing. They understood from each other's looks. They had made more friends from deep within the galaxy. In this new dreamworld, everyone found seemingly valid solutions to their problems.
"I now have a book in my head full of countless stories. You can consider them intelligence. All stories that happen in this universe, past, present, or future, all have a chance to appear in this book. That means we don't need to infiltrate the enemy base to collect intelligence," Quill said.
Jessica also stood up and said: "I can use Chaos Magic, at least to face the monsters like mountains and seas, we are no longer helpless."
Riley stood up and started walking around the room. He said: "The League of Murderers is planning to invade other universes. Our plan is to guide them to our arranged destination before they start."
"There are two problems. First, how do we lead them? Second, how do we make them go to the designated places?"
"As for the second point, Peter just sent me a paper he wrote. It mentions that like the Spider Totem, there are several phenomena in the universe that can allow an individual or group to travel freely between universes, such as the subway that leads to other universes from the Central Universe."
"He pointed out in the paper an unverified conjecture that the first star in the universe, the sacred object of the Shi'ar Empire, the M'Kraan Crystal, could potentially be a portal to other universes. This could be key to luring the monsters."
"You mean..." Quill squinted his eyes.
"They have plans to invade other universes, but they have not taken action yet. In addition to finding their targets, they should also be looking for suitable portals. After all, they plan not only to transport people, but also gods. The portals that meet the requirements are not numerous."
"Tell them how useful the M'Kraan Crystal is, let them locate the crystal, crack the crystal, activate the crystal, and then...the party begins."