Online games were one of the most addictive forms of entertainment among intelligent civilizations.
Whether it was grinding monsters, clearing dungeons, defeating bosses, leveling up, collecting gear, or competing against other players, everything revolved around one thing:
Mental satisfaction.
Every emotional fluctuation inside a game released spiritual energy continuously.
Excitement.
Frustration.
Anticipation.
Victory.
Rage.
All of it produced scattered mental energy.
If he could gather that energy on a massive scale, the Mind Stone would become unimaginably stronger.
The more Thanos thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed.
Just then, a groan interrupted his thoughts.
"Ugh… that hurts…"
The unconscious Void Sentinel slowly opened his eyes.
Hearing the sound, Thanos immediately returned to reality. Without hesitation, he clenched his left fist, activating the Mind Stone instantly.
A flash of yellow light burst from the Infinity Gauntlet.
This time, unlike their previous battle, Thanos no longer possessed the temporary power of ten million stars. Because of that, he acted first, refusing to give the Sentinel any opportunity to activate his abilities.
In an instant, his consciousness invaded the Sentinel's mental world directly.
Whether it was because the Mind Stone had evolved further or simply because the Sentinel's willpower was naturally weak, the invasion succeeded almost effortlessly.
Moments later, a pale blue glow appeared inside the Sentinel's eyes.
Then his expression became completely rigid.
The man slowly rose from the wheelchair before lowering his head respectfully.
"My lord."
Seeing this, Thanos nodded slightly in satisfaction.
At first glance, the mission appeared complete.
So he immediately began silently calling upon Death.
However, after waiting for quite some time, Death never appeared.
Thanos frowned.
At Death's level, hearing his summons was guaranteed.
So if she ignored him, there were only two possibilities.
Either she genuinely didn't have time.
Or the task wasn't complete yet.
But an abstract cosmic entity like Death could divide itself infinitely. Being "busy" was almost impossible.
Which meant…
The mission had failed.
Thanos looked toward the rigid Sentinel thoughtfully.
Then realization struck him.
Death didn't want a puppet controlled through mind manipulation.
She wanted genuine believers.
After all, mental control could be broken.
Back during the Battle of New York, Loki had controlled Hawkeye using the Mind Stone, yet Black Widow managed to snap him out of it through emotional stimulation.
Even though divine intervention may have been involved, it still proved one thing.
The Mind Stone's control wasn't absolute.
That meant he needed to alter the Sentinel's soul directly.
Thinking of this, Thanos activated the Soul Stone immediately.
Orange light flashed across the throne hall.
The next instant, his consciousness entered the Sentinel's soul world.
But after examining it briefly, even Thanos felt a headache coming on.
Chaos.
Madness.
Pain.
The Sentinel's soul was a complete disaster.
His parents had died when he was young.
He had been bullied constantly during childhood.
After growing older, he became addicted to drugs and self-destruction.
Then, after surviving endless suffering, he obtained the power of a million stars.
And even after gaining godlike power, he still had to suppress the Void personality every single day.
Honestly speaking, the Sentinel's life had been tragic from beginning to end.
But how exactly was Thanos supposed to rewrite all of that and make him genuinely worship Death?
Even Thanos couldn't think of a good solution immediately.
After pondering for a while, he finally withdrew from the Sentinel's soul world and summoned several executive officers.
One person's ideas were limited.
A group's ideas were not.
He had countless subordinates under his command, so why waste time thinking through every little problem personally?
Soon, a large group of executives arrived inside the throne hall.
Thanos immediately assigned them the task of designing a suitable "life script" for the Sentinel.
After handing off the work, he returned to his earlier train of thought.
If he wanted to gather mental energy efficiently, then creating the universe's largest online game really might work.
A single interconnected platform.
Trillions of intelligent beings.
Countless emotional fluctuations every second.
If all of that spiritual energy could be harvested continuously, the Mind Stone might evolve even further.
The more he analyzed the concept, the more realistic it seemed.
So he immediately summoned another group of executives and handed the project over to them as well.
Only after finishing all his arrangements did Thanos finally raise his head and look toward the distant blue planet hanging silently in space.
Earth.
Beautiful.
Fragile.
And incredibly important.
"When will the Reality Stone finally appear…"
If not for the Reality Stone, he would have left long ago and continued conquering the universe directly.
After all, the Milky Way alone was far too small to achieve true universal balance.
Unfortunately, without the missing stone, many of his future plans remained incomplete.
Since large-scale conquest had temporarily slowed, the only thing left was continued cultivation.
Not long afterward, his subordinates brought Jean Grey into the hall once more.
Or rather…
What remained of Jean Grey.
Her body had become horrifyingly thin. Most of her hair had fallen out completely, while her skin looked dry and lifeless like a corpse preserved for years.
The Phoenix Force still burned inside her.
But she herself had already become little more than an empty shell.
Thanos grabbed her by the head casually before activating the Space Stone again.
The two vanished instantly.
Time passed quickly.
Years slipped by in silence.
Three years later.
Inside Sanctuary II.
A portal opened suddenly.
Then Thanos stepped out calmly before tossing a broken piano-shaped object onto the floor beside him.
No.
Not a piano.
Jean Grey.
At this point, almost all flesh had disappeared from her body entirely. She resembled a living skeleton more than a human being.
Over the past three years, Thanos had continuously absorbed stellar energy while using Jean as a cultivation catalyst.
Now, however, he no longer needed her.
His body could already endure temperatures reaching hundreds of millions of degrees within stellar cores directly.
Jean's usefulness for cultivation had finally ended.
Soon, several subordinates arrived and carried her away carefully.
Even if she was no longer useful for training, she still remained an extremely valuable living energy source.
A perfect biological battery.
Afterward, Thanos opened his system panel calmly.
"System. Show status."
Physical Condition: 800,000Strength: 400,000Agility: 700,000Mental Strength: 300,000
Passive Skills: Titan Bloodline, Super Regeneration, Super Constitution, Super Strength, Super Agility, Powerful Spirit, Hardened Skin, Blood Regeneration
Active Skills: World-Destroying Power, Ruler, Star Absorption Technique, Power of Ten Million Stars (Cooldown)
Equipment: Tyrant Blade, Tyrant Armor, Infinity Gauntlet, Power Stone, Mind Source Stone, Soul Stone, Space Stone
Three years of cultivation had produced astonishing growth.
Every attribute had surpassed hundreds of thousands of points.
Unfortunately, Infinity Stones from alternate universes still couldn't be used properly, leaving him with only four usable stones for now.
Still, the Mind Stone itself had evolved significantly during this period.
It had now become the Mind Source Stone.
While Thanos continued reviewing his progress, an executive officer suddenly approached respectfully.
"My lord, we have completed seven new brainwashing scripts for the Sentinel."
Thanos nodded indifferently.
Over the past three years, countless versions had already failed.
No matter how the scripts were designed, the Sentinel simply refused to accept them fully.
Even Thanos had gradually started losing patience.
Still, he casually picked up the newest set and began reading through them one by one.
Then suddenly—
"Hm?"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
One particular script caught his attention immediately.
Unlike the others, this version barely changed the Sentinel's life at all.
His tragic childhood remained.
His suffering remained.
His trauma remained.
The only difference was the addition of a single person.
A little girl.
Someone kind.
Someone who genuinely cared about him during childhood.
Someone who became the emotional pillar supporting his entire life.
The more Thanos read, the more impressed he became.
Finally, he looked up toward the executive officer.
"Who wrote this?"
"This script is excellent."
The officer quickly checked the information again before answering respectfully.
"My lord, it was written by Earth's most famous novelist."
"His pen name is 'The Man Quiet in the Night.'"
Thanos nodded thoughtfully.
"Interesting."
"Life really does require diversity. Imagination born from emotion is something scientists can never fully replicate."
"You people excel at research."
"But when it comes to understanding the human heart, you're still lacking."
After confirming the final script, Thanos immediately ordered the Sentinel to be brought in again.
The next experiment was about to begin.
.....
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