Chapter 52: Chapter 52: The Ever-Growing Shadow Army 

Even as the sleek ship carrying Loki warped away, the cloaked warships in the void did not retreat. Instead, as if completely unafraid of death, they opened fire on the Rainbow Bridge while simultaneously attempting to ram it. 

Odin forcefully tanked the bombardment from several warships. Gungnir tore through space and returned to his grasp. Gathering an infinite amount of divine power, he unleashed a terrifying, concentrated beam of divine energy that instantly vaporized the entire clustered fleet! 

Watching the flaming wreckage of the warships raining down from the starry sky, Luke couldn't help but feel that a certain glowing cosmic superheroine wasn't nearly as badass as Odin. However, that massive burst of power wasn't cheap; Luke's dark energy reserves had been almost entirely drained by the All-Father in that single attack. 

With a casual backhand strike, Odin eradicated the remaining small fighter pods still harassing Thor. He landed heavily on the Rainbow Bridge, his face incredibly gloomy. Seeing the Asgardian guards groaning and stumbling around, his expression darkened even further. 

"Very well. Not only do you dare to attack Asgard, but you also dare to take my son. Whoever you are, I will find you, and then... I will slowly crush you into dust!" 

Odin's single eye scanned the surroundings before he roared into the heavens, casually releasing a pulse of divine energy that pulverized a few passing birds just to vent his frustration. 

Meanwhile, on a distant flagship. 

Thanos, holding the Mind Stone glowing with a sickly yellow light, suddenly shuddered in pain. 

"My Lord?" Ebony Maw asked nervously, stepping forward. 

"It is nothing. Loki has been retrieved. Starting today, we must remain hidden for a time," Thanos ordered, his voice heavy. 

Ebony Maw looked confused. "My Lord, Odin is a legendary powerhouse renowned throughout the cosmos. Why did we intentionally provoke him? If he discovers us, we might..." 

Thanos placed the Mind Stone inside a specialized containment device designed to isolate its energy signature and prevent it from being tracked. Placing the device into a hidden compartment, Thanos finally let out a long breath. 

Confronting Odin had genuinely made him tense. After all, Odin was terrifyingly powerful—a being capable of annihilating Thanos and his entire fleet single-handedly in his prime. 

But he had no choice! 

A shadow fell over Thanos's eyes, but since Ebony Maw was his most trusted and capable lieutenant, Thanos didn't mind sharing some information. 

"A short while ago, I successfully used the Mind Stone to detect the resonance of another Infinity Stone." 

Ebony Maw's eyes widened in sheer delight. Every Infinity Stone was an artifact of universal renown. Gathering all six would solve everything! While they already possessed the Mind Stone, one stone was far from enough to achieve their ultimate goal. 

Ebony Maw bowed deeply. "My Lord, please allow me to retrieve this Stone for you!" 

Thanos shook his head. 

"Based on my perception, this Stone possesses the power to distort space. It is undoubtedly the Space Stone. And its location... is on Earth, one of the Nine Realms under Odin's protection." 

Ebony Maw froze. 'Great. We just offended Odin a second ago, and now we have to go rob his backyard? Isn't that literally asking for a death wish?!' 

Seeing his subordinate's stunned expression, Thanos ignored his earlier offer. 

"Because Loki is Odin's son, I originally intended to use him to retrieve the Space Stone for me on Earth. But the plan has changed. I will send Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive to Earth to secure the Stone. Loki will accompany them. If necessary, we can use Loki as a hostage to negotiate for it." 

"But Odin will not sit idly by!" Ebony Maw protested, still confused. 

Thanos offered a grim smile. "We just slapped him across the face, did we not? If he catches wind of us, he will undoubtedly come hunting. But the Rainbow Bridge was partially destroyed today; he cannot travel instantaneously. That is our window of opportunity. Furthermore, he currently has no idea it was us, does he?" 

Thanos suddenly recalled the Earthling who had appeared at the last moment. Thinking of that man, Thanos felt a rare sense of uncertainty. 

His original plan had been to manipulate Loki into killing Thor, thereby provoking Odin and testing the old King's true strength. According to his intelligence, while Asgardian magic grew stronger with age, their physical bodies eventually broke down, unable to withstand the overwhelming power. Thanos had calculated that Odin was far past his prime and incapable of utilizing his full divine might. 

But Odin's performance today had completely shattered those calculations! 

And that Earthling had ruined almost every aspect of his plan. Five thousand elite Frost Giants couldn't kill Thor, and they couldn't even kill a few fragile Earthlings! Furthermore, Thanos strongly suspected Odin's sudden resurgence of power was directly connected to that man. After all, Odin had looked like he was on his deathbed just days ago, but immediately after entering some sort of pact with Luke, the old King had become as fierce as a tiger. 

'That man is a massive variable,' Thanos thought. 

After pondering for a moment, Thanos turned back to Ebony Maw. "When Loki arrives, bring him to me. I need to 'gift' him something before my plan can truly begin." 

Back on Asgard. 

Luke had absolutely no idea that he had just drawn the personal attention of Thanos. If he had known, he probably would have locked himself in Kamar-Taj and refused to come out. 

He directed the Shadow Ninjas to help carry the unconscious Einherjar guards back into the palace, then walked over to where Thor and Odin were talking. 

"What's the situation?" Thor asked as Luke approached. 

"Don't worry. I just ordered my ninjas to knock them out. Nobody's dead. But they're going to have massive headaches for a couple of days. I highly recommend they skip wearing helmets during their guard shifts this week," Luke replied casually before turning to Odin. 

"How are you holding up? My dark energy was almost completely bottomed out there." 

Odin shook his head, signaling he was fine. His single eye stared up at the artificial star he had installed to act as Asgard's sun. 

"I simply didn't expect that after just a few decades of peace, factions in the universe would dare to provoke me again!" 

Luke was speechless. 'Boss, you've lived for millennia. You really consider a few decades just a blink of an eye, don't you? That's enough time to have great-grandchildren on Earth!' 

Luke was considering whether he should just take Thor back to Earth to buy Odin some souvenirs to calm him down, but Odin kept talking. 

"I will not let this go. The warships destroyed today belonged to various factions—Kree, the Collector, the Nova Empire. They were clearly hijacked and controlled by the true mastermind. Once I find out who is responsible, I will personally chop them into pieces!" 

'Nothing in the universe will be able to save them, I swear it!' Odin thought viciously. 

Luke shook his head. 'Good lord, you don't even know who the mastermind is yet and you're already making wild threats. What if it's some cosmic-tier entity? You might get Asgard wiped off the map.' 

But after a moment of thought, Luke decided to leak a little "official spoiler" to Odin. 

"From what I know, the power used to mind-control your guards most likely originated from the Mind Stone. And currently, the Mind Stone should be in the hands of the Cosmic Overlord, Thanos." 

Odin shot Luke a surprised look, but he didn't doubt the intelligence. He assumed his old friend, the Ancient One, had peered through time and relayed the information to Luke. 'Though she usually refuses to intervene...' 

Odin didn't dwell on it. The battle today had rekindled the fiery blood from his ancient conquest of the Nine Realms. With Luke acting as a battery, Odin could actually unleash a significant portion of his power without collapsing. It was more than enough to go out and annihilate the mastermind behind this farce. 

If he couldn't use his power, he might have tried diplomacy. But he wasn't a benevolent King by nature; he was the God of War! The undisputed boss of Asgard! 

"If that is the case, I will dispatch my spies to gather intelligence on Thanos. Then, I will personally deliver a grand gift to him." Odin made his decision. He then ordered Thor to prepare a guest room for Luke. 

Since he hadn't really explored Asgard yet, Luke decided to stay for a few days. After all, the Battle of New York wasn't scheduled until next year. For all he knew, a certain patriotic super-soldier was still taking a nap in the ice right now. 

Following Thor, Luke admired the distinctly Norse, majestic architecture of Asgard, pulling out his camera occasionally to snap photos. After half an hour of walking, they finally reached his room. 

"Okay, first thing's first: you need to show me where the bathroom is. Otherwise, I'm definitely going to get lost trying to find it in this maze," Luke said, inspecting the incredibly neat and luxurious bedroom, noting the distinct lack of a connected restroom. 

"There will be maids stationed outside. If you need anything, just ask them," Thor replied casually, as if this were the most normal thing in the world. 

'Damn, so this is the extravagant life of royalty? You even have personal maids?!' 

Wondering if these maids offered back-scrubbing services, Luke peeked out the door. He did indeed see several maids standing by. But seeing their incredibly thick, layered, overly modest dresses, he was instantly disappointed. 'Aren't they going to get heatstroke wearing all that?!' 

Disappointed, Luke retreated back into the room and told Thor to leave him alone. After all the fighting and flying, he just wanted to rest. 

But instead of sleeping in the guest room, Luke casually drew a Sling Ring portal and stepped right back into his apartment in Los Angeles, happily flopping onto his own bed. 

'There's no place like home. Nothing beats my own bed.' 

Finding a comfortable position, Luke opened his System interface. 

After several hours of passive mining, his energy reserves had reached exactly 5.21 million. He finally had enough to upgrade his physique! 

He didn't hesitate. He tapped [Upgrade]. 

His body trembled violently for a few seconds... and then everything went back to being completely mundane. 

Opening his status screen, Luke saw that his physical constitution was now 32 times that of a normal human. He felt incredibly powerful. He hopped off the bed and struck a few bodybuilding poses in the mirror, but seeing that he still didn't have any ridiculous, bulging anime muscles, he sat back down in disappointment. 

His new passive income rate was 22,400 Energy Points per minute (from the Shadowkhan), and his personal energy recovery rate was 22,400 points per second. He was undeniably a powerhouse now. 

However, the System prompt informed him that his next physical upgrade would only unlock when he reached 50,000 Shadow Ninjas. Luke felt a massive headache coming on. 

Fifty thousand ninjas. Even if he spent every single point solely on buying basic ninjas, that would cost over a hundred million Energy Points! It was absurd! 

And that wasn't even factoring in the cost of the actual physique upgrade after that, which would likely cost at least 50 million points itself. The road ahead was long and agonizingly expensive. 

Looking at his nearly depleted "Available to Mine" energy pool, Luke called Baron Mordo, telling him to get the cleanup crew ready. Then, he shadow-stepped back into the Dark Dimension to do some big business. 

Tapping coordinate after coordinate in Odin's book, Luke decided to test his gacha luck. 

Since his army's strength and numbers had grown massively, Luke didn't bother with single pulls anymore. He went straight for a 10-pull! 

His luck today was actually fantastic: two low-tier dimensions, and zero dead coordinates! 

Figuring that his jump from 16x to 32x human stats was a massive power spike, Luke decided to just order the army to invade both low-tier dimensions simultaneously to see if they could handle it. 

The process was far easier than he anticipated. The enemy dimensional creatures couldn't even withstand a single strike from the standard Shadow Ninjas, let alone the Razor Claws and Troll Ninjas. 

Even the Dimension Lords themselves took one look at the five-meter-tall Trolls and immediately retreated, terrified to take a hit. 

In just fifteen minutes, both dimensions were easily conquered. Feeling incredibly relaxed, Luke just kept tapping coordinates. One by one, hostile dimensions rapidly fell and were assimilated into his Dark Dimension. 

He kept this up for hours until he actually started feeling mentally fatigued. 

Looking down at Odin's grimoire, which he had only flipped through about 1/20th of, Luke couldn't help but marvel. As expected of a top-tier faction that had ruled the cosmos for tens of thousands of years. This coordinate stockpile was something the Ancient One could never hope to match. 

'Sorry, Ancient One. You lost this round. When it comes to wealth, companions, artifacts, and territory, you probably only win in the 'artifacts' category.' 

Looking at his reserve pool of nearly ten million newly acquired Energy Points, Luke finally felt rich. 

He told Mordo—who was still tirelessly hauling loot back to Kamar-Taj—that he was done for the day, and returned to the material plane. 

With ten million points currently being excavated, Luke planned to buy exactly 7,000 more Shadow Ninjas once it finished processing. He would leave a few million points as an emergency reserve battery, just in case Odin actually went to go smash Thanos's front door in. He had to support his powerful ally, after all. 

'If Odin just straight-up murders Thanos now, wouldn't that be amazing?' 

Checking the time, he realized it had been nearly five hours since he left Asgard. Luke stretched his back and decided to get some sleep. He would check on the situation tomorrow. 

Time flies when you're wrapped in a warm blanket. 

It felt like he just blinked, but a whole night had passed. 

Luke stretched lazily and sat up. Honestly, with his current 32x human physique, he could easily stay awake for several days without any negative side effects. But twenty years of mortal habits meant his biological clock still made him sleepy at night. 

Besides, why stay up late for no reason? Eating well and sleeping well was the peak of human luxury. Luke firmly believed that a good night's sleep felt infinitely better than pulling an all-nighter. 1

Opening his System, he saw his available energy had hit 10.24 million. Idle games really were ridiculously overpowered in the late game. Following his plan, Luke purchased 7,000 Shadow Ninjas for 7.42 million points. He had 2.82 million left over—more than enough for Odin to go on a cosmic killing spree. 

'As expected, behind every successful man, there is a...' 

'Wait, nope. Not finishing that sentence.' 

Luke quickly stopped his wandering thoughts. Looking at his empty "Available to Mine" pool, he pulled out Odin's grimoire to do some more gacha pulls. 

As he tapped coordinates, Luke happily mused to himself. 'Thank god mid-tier Dimension Lords can actually change their spatial coordinates. Otherwise, I might accidentally portal right into a boss room way above my level.' 

'...Wait. No way, right? There's no way someone upgrades to a mid-tier dimension and just forgets to change their locks... right?' 1

'Forget it. Stop raising death flags!' Luke quickly forced the thought down. 

This was the problem with having too much energy after a good night's sleep; his mind loved to wander and set up jinxes. 

'Speaking of which... if other dimension owners can change their coordinates just by expanding their space, why haven't I noticed anything different about mine?' 

Luke looked around his Dark Dimension in confusion. 'They said I can change my spatial coordinates. How do I even do that? Do I physically push it?' 

After grinding energy for a few more hours, Luke decided to test if he could actually move the Dark Dimension's coordinates. As it turned out... 

He actually could. 

It was an incredibly novel sensation. He felt like an expert pilot, literally drifting his entire Dark Dimension through the chaotic void of the multiverse. 

However, the dimensional void was incredibly empty and boring to look at. Since there was no risk of crashing into another dimension, he drifted around for a while before losing interest and deciding to head back home. 

'...FCK! FCK! FCK! Where the hell is my massive Marvel Universe?!' 

Luke stared in absolute, dumbfounded horror. He couldn't find the spatial anchor to return to the Marvel cinematic universe! He was completely stranded!