For everyone else, the massive success of the movie "Ilvermorny" is nothing short of great news. The director fulfilled his dream of artistic creation, the magicians promoted magic through this film, the actors and minor actors had a lot of fun, and the audience got to see a great movie. You could say there were no losers.
Except for Shiller.
Actually, originally, Shiller couldn't really be considered a celebrity, just an internet influencer, and not even a top-tier one. His follower count on short video apps was just third-rate, and he didn't have many loyal fans; most people followed just for the hype.
His usual videos were all centered around superheroes. To be precise, most of his fans were actually fans of other superheroes, and Shiller acted as a camera, leading them to see the details of superheroes' lives. After the variety show buzz passed, his popularity declined significantly.
But this time, Shiller has fully made a comeback. To be exact, he shed his status as an influencer and officially became a star, not by slowly accumulating fans, but by becoming an overnight sensation, directly landing among the ranks of A-list celebrities.
Sounds pretty good. After all, acting pays well, and as one of the leads, he shares in the box office profits, which makes Shiller quite satisfied with the income.
But clearly, being a star isn't that easy. Now, Shiller's rest home is surrounded by paparazzi 24/7, with various media vehicles coming and going, making the whole community lively. Everyone wants to photograph him.
While being watched 24/7 with no privacy is quite annoying, after all, they've broken no laws, and they've even mingled with the community residents, learning quite a bit about Doctor Shiller from them.
His previous patients, as long as they had his contact details, all sent messages or called to greet him, or they wanted an autograph or photo. To maintain his client base, Shiller found it hard to refuse.
One could say that during the movie's peak popularity, Shiller's individual popularity surpassed that of The Avengers as a whole. His account on short video apps saw followers triple in just a few days. Numerous agencies contacted him, eager to sign him.
Shiller said he wasn't a professional actor, and they suggested he consider a career change; he said he still had his rest home to manage, and they promised it wouldn't interfere with his business time. It was a constant tug-of-war, trying to pull him into the entertainment industry.
Incidentally, Shiller quite enjoys cooking for himself, which means going out to shop for ingredients. Most of the items are easy to find, but he has to go to a Chinese supermarket to restock certain spices. Americans can't read Chinese and don't know the flavors, so having someone else buy them would definitely result in mistakes.
But as soon as Shiller steps out, he's swarmed by a crowd. Just the cars following him number in the dozens. Once he reaches his destination, it doesn't matter whether they're young or old, men or women, they all crowd in, trapping him inside unable to move.
Technically, the internet has a short memory. Once the movie's hype dies down a bit, there should be fewer people paying attention to him. However, because Shiller consistently refused interviews and kept a low profile, almost no one could catch him. The less they could interview him, the less material they had, the more curious the audience became, the higher the anticipation, and consequently, the higher the interest.
You could say that Shiller's evasion of interviews has turned into a form of hunger marketing. Now, even a photo showing just a glimpse of him, or a blurry silhouette or profile, would cause fans to flock over like crazy. It's practically become a secret to generating traffic.
Where there's traffic, there's profit. Where there's profit, there are photographers. Thus, even more people are snapping photos of Shiller. Besides staking out the rest home, major media outlets are also pulling strings, just to get in touch with Shiller and secure exclusive firsthand reports. Various television programs repeatedly invite him, even pursuing Chris and Strange.
The most absurd part is, Shiller has a fan who possesses the Innate Evil Cultist Saint Body. At seven years old, he contacted Mephisto, and without joining Kamar-Taj, he became a renowned black magician by middle school, only to be found when the Magic Defense Network was upgraded to the latest version. By then, the person was in college.
His primary contract was with Mephisto, diligently spreading the king of hell's heretical beliefs and even helping Mephisto form a church, which was legal. If the Ghost Rider was a military officer, then this person was a civil officer, greatly valued by Mephisto.
He even wished directly to Mephisto just to meet Shiller and take a photo together. Seeing such a request from his top subordinate, Mephisto had to fulfill it, so he approached Strange.
Strange was flummoxed: wait, is it now trendy to star-chase by dialing a hotline to hell? If people refuse to see you, does that mean you'll send them straight to hell?
But Mephisto was indeed sincere, offering a high price. Strange could only discuss with Shiller: you know, if people are offering free money, it's foolish not to take it. At worst, we split it half-and-half as your appearance fee.
Shiller was also speechless, realizing the fan probably didn't know the later parts of the story. If he knew he was the one who always opposed Mephisto's deputy, he'd surely withdraw his support and retaliate.
To prevent this from happening, Shiller had to call him first, giving him a rough idea of the subsequent plot, suggesting that if he's a fan of the character, it's better not to set his expectations too high, considering if Mephisto's faith is legitimate, his actions might insult the faith.
The fan was surprisingly excited, even discussing all night with Mephisto after hanging up.
The next day, Strange received news that Mephisto was preparing to personally play the biggest villain in this series of movies, Mephisto himself.
Schiller didn't know how this guy convinced Mephisto, nor did he understand what Mephisto was thinking. Anyway, when he saw Saphire, who looked exactly like himself and was turned into by Mephisto, in his own high tower, he felt that the world had finally gone mad.
The Schiller that Mephisto turned into, or more accurately, the Saphire who looked exactly like school doctor Barton, had a pair of Mephisto-like red vertical pupils and long black hair. Coupled with Schiller's original appearance, this truly put the words "I am not a good person" right on his face.
The day he arrived, he almost scared the terrible great falcon's head out of its wits. The gods of the Egyptian Pantheon, crowded in a single plane, were no match at all for the Dimensional Lords. The key point was that this lord had Schiller's face. If Khonsu had a phone, he'd have worn out the dial button trying to call the police.
Fortunately, the high tower was also full of talents. First, Jormungand of the Dust World, noticing something was off, came to check and had his pupils in a quake, followed by one of Nyarlathotep's avatars, the Black Pharaoh, who warmly welcomed the new visitor. By the time Greed returned, half of the personalities in the tower had already come over to watch the show.
Greed took the elevator down to the bottom floor. As soon as the door opened, he was speechless. Recently, he thought he'd had enough being chased in the real world, only to return to the high tower to find it just as crowded.
Then, upon seeing another new self, Greed almost took off on the spot. He had indeed agreed to act in a rival scene with Strange and Mephisto for a decent price offered by Mephisto. But that was for a movie! Why did he really come?
And since he's here, as a mighty Hell Lord, doesn't he have his own skin? Why use mine?
Schiller had no idea how to describe Mephisto impersonating himself. He's the very stereotypical devil image often seen in various film works: dressed in a suit, gentle and refined, but from head to toe, exudes an evil aura.
And Mephisto definitely added his own touch. The appearance of this Schiller differed slightly, becoming more handsome yet sinister, losing Schiller's postmodern neurotic coldness, but gaining a more traditional evil aura.
Schiller now also wanted to call the police, but it was clear that Strange, the only police capable of handling Mephisto, had already chosen to collude with him. The key issue was that he himself, previously blinded by money, had agreed to Strange's condition of having Mephisto participate, and the contract was already signed, leaving him to regret it too late.
Mephisto wore an old-fashioned traditional gentleman's suit, different from Manipulation's preference for bright colors. His attire was low-key yet luxurious, with softer shoulder tailoring, combining British conservatism and French elegance, gripping a cane with gilded patterns, his hair meticulously combed back.
Greed opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. But Mephisto brushed some dust off his collar and then said, "Long time no see, Doctor Schiller. Recently, I've investigated and found that you're quite popular among the human race, and the movie you're making happens to have a rival scene between us. I'm afraid I must borrow your image, as I think this will bring me more believers."
Only then did Schiller realize that Mephisto wasn't interested in the movie; he was eyeing the film's traffic.
In all fairness, this bunch of devils and cosmic sorcerers are a bit out of touch with the times. Back in the Middle Ages, they could only rely on coaxing believers and word-of-mouth to preach.
But what time is it now? The 21st century! Registering an account on the hottest short video platform and casually broadcasting something is much faster than slowly coaxing believers in dreams to gain followers.
Mephisto was clearly among the first group to awaken. They realized that modern people are not as ignorant as those in the Middle Ages. They receive massive information bombardments every day, some of which are far more sinister than the Evil Magic Scripture.
To modern people, God and Satan are just cultural symbols. Most modern believers are too far removed from that era, treating it only as myth, even jokingly discussing it online without reservation. The Church's dominance is far less than before.
In this era where even openly talking about demons is possible, the old sneaky methods are way too inefficient. With the internet, they can preach openly.
Kamar-Taj will only prevent the Demon God from invading Earth, but they are not a religious organization and can't stop others from preaching. In a certain respect, they even allow Demon Gods to find deputies to preach as long as you don't start a war on Earth or conduct large-scale heretical rituals that trample on human lives, then neither Kamar-Taj nor the Supreme Magician will interfere. The Ancient One didn't interfere back then either; otherwise, with The Ancient One's combat skills, which religion could have developed under him?
This means as long as you preach legally and compliantly, there's no need to be sneaky. Taking advantage of the flourishing internet, they can fully choose to gain fans online.
But even devils need some skills to accurately grasp online trends. The smart Mephisto directly chose the simplest method, which is to ride the wave of popularity.
Who's the hottest person online now? It's Schiller! If he catches this huge traffic wave, won't it be a matter of minutes for him to become famous?