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Of course, she was just joking.

After all, Loki had played quite a few pranks on her in the past.

Her unintentional joke sent a chill down Loki's spine, and he began to genuinely imagine himself being hammered by Thor into Helheim.

"Hey, what are you thinking about? I feel like you've been acting a little strange since you came back!" Thor noticed Loki's odd behavior and shook Loki's shoulder, asking curiously.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just suddenly remembered something!" Loki forced a stiff smile.

“I bet he’s been thinking about how Sif beat him up. Oh my god, it hurts just thinking about it!” Volstagg, one of the Warriors Three of Asgard, winked.

"...Looks like you want to give it a try?" Seeing that Volstagg dared to joke about her, the hot-tempered Sif wasn't going to tolerate it and made a move to attack.

Upon seeing this, Volstagg immediately lowered his head and shut his mouth.

This old lady is not to be trifled with.

"Huh, is that a Life Card?" Just then, Fandral, one of the Warriors Three, noticed the Life Card that Loki had tossed aside. Shouldn't this thing be in Odin's vault?

"Oh, this is what my father just bestowed upon me, Thor. What do you think of it compared to your Mjolnir?" Loki said with a sneer.

"Hahaha, Loki, what are you talking about? How can this thing compare to Mjolnir!" Thor laughed as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

The others also started laughing.

Loki laughed too, a bitter laugh, and his gaze gradually turned cold.

Yes, how can I compare to you!

This place, Asgard, doesn't belong to me at all!

After feigning joy and joking around with Thor and his group, Loki finally managed to fool them away before taking the Life Token, leaving his palace, and quietly departing Asgard.

Chapter 279 Pantheon

Watt Alheim.

This is a planet that is withered, desolate, and lifeless.

Surprisingly, however, the atmosphere of this planet is suitable for human habitation.

The experiences of Jane Foster in the future in the movie prove this point—otherwise, Jane Foster would have died the moment she entered this planet, and there would have been no chance for her to encounter the Aether.

However, the planet has been abandoned ever since Odin's father, Bauer, led the Asgardian army to defeat the Dark Elves thousands of years ago.

The reason is simple: although the planet has a suitable atmospheric environment, it receives almost no starlight—the star in the star system where the planet is located is a hot but extremely dim star.

In addition, the unique environment of Watt Alheim makes the entire planet extremely dark.

Apart from the dark elves who are inherently fond of darkness, it is obviously extremely difficult for ordinary creatures to accept living here for an extended period of time.

However, this did provide Loki with a convenient opportunity.

Like the Land of No Return where the Collector resides, Wat Aelheim is also a rare place that can escape Heimdall's sight—in the movies, Heimdall cannot observe Jane Foster, who accidentally enters here, the remnants of the Dark Elves hiding here, or Thor and Loki, who forcibly enter here despite Odin's prohibition.

So after discovering the space passage to this planet, Loki made it one of his secret bases.

After quietly leaving Asgard, Loki came to this place, an ancient ruin left by the dark elves, and even a throne—Loki had sat on this dark elf throne more than once, imagining himself ascending the throne.

Only as time went on did he gradually realize that the throne of Asgard was nothing but a pipe dream for him.

Sitting alone on his throne, Loki took out the magical communication crystal that Josie had left him.

As magic was channeled into it, the crystal immediately began to emit a dazzling light.

Soon, Josie's holographic image appeared above the crystal.

"Oh, you contacted me even faster than I expected!" On the other side, Josie, who was chatting and drinking tea with Howard the Duck on the spaceship, also did not expect Loki to activate the communication crystal so quickly.

“I am the Frost Giant, am I?” Loki asked Josie in an extremely hollow voice.

"It seems you've already come into contact with the Ice Box. If that's the case, you must already have your answer, right?" Josie countered.

“But I’m clearly different from them!” Loki still refused to accept the fact.

“That’s right, it’s definitely different. From the very beginning of your birth, you were tiny, not at all like the child of a frost giant. You were more like a human child, and that’s why Laufey abandoned you!” Josie nodded and then revealed another astonishing fact.

"What did you say? I am the child of Laufey, the Frost Giant King? And I was abandoned, not taken by Odin as spoils of war?" Josie's words exploded in Loki's ears like a thunderclap.

“That’s right. Isn’t it surprising? Not only are you an enemy race of Asgard, but you are also royalty. Your background has never been inferior to Thor’s.” Josie nodded in confirmation.

"Heh, what's the point? He's still just a despised piece of trash! In that sense, I should thank Odin!" Loki said bitterly. Facing Josie, he had completely lost his former pride and was as vulnerable as a child who had lost his parents and family.

“No, no, no, I don’t agree with that. Although you are weak now, and your power is insignificant in my eyes, I still have to say, Loki, some people are born extraordinary! Your birth and your upbringing prove that. Think about it, Loki, if you had been born like an ordinary Frost Giant, or even stronger, would Odin have adopted you?” Josie was displeased to hear Loki’s somewhat self-deprecating tone.

The reason I've been targeting you is to train you into a competent pawn. If you give up on yourself, how the hell am I supposed to continue playing this game?

So he had to give this kid a pep talk.

Yes, this is definitely not PUA.

Loki was stumped by Josie's probing question.

Yes, if I had been as strong as any other frost giant child back then, would Odin have still adopted me? He probably would have eliminated me completely—no, my merciful father wouldn't have done that.

But if that were the case, even if Odin still adopted him, he would definitely grow up under all sorts of strange looks and would never have the comfortable life he has now as the second prince of Asgard.

If that's the case, then my birth was indeed not so ordinary.

"Are you thinking that, given Odin's mercy, he wouldn't harm you even if you were like any other frost giant baby? You're simply overthinking it... The merciful Odin only exists in the Odin you meet when you're older, the one who has already achieved greatness. In his early years, Odin was far more tyrannical than Thor is now, slaughtering countless civilizations... Asgard's reputation was never built on Odin's mercy, but on blood and fire. So, if you hadn't looked so weak back then, you'd most likely be gone!" Josie seemed to have seen through Loki's thoughts and immediately said.

He didn't want Loki to give up on himself, which was true, but he also didn't want Loki to have too much affection for Asgard.

"I won't allow you to insult him. No matter what, he's the one who raised me!" If before this, Loki still harbored resentment towards Odin's favoritism and suspected that Odin's motives for adopting him were not pure, then after Josie revealed that he was abandoned by Rauf and picked up by Odin, his dissatisfaction had largely dissipated, and even turned into gratitude to a large extent.

After all, he didn't think there was any point in adopting an abandoned child.

"Oh, it seems our third princess has softened...tsk, although she was born extraordinary, she's been spoiled rotten by women!" Josie smacked her lips and shook her head.

"Damn it, I'm not some third princess, what are you trying to say!" Loki said angrily through gritted teeth.

Although I don't know why Josie always jokingly calls him the Third Princess, a grown man should not be called a princess for any reason.

"Actually, it's nothing. I just want to ask you, do you want to prove your extraordinary qualities to your adoptive father and your biological father, to prove that you are stronger than your brother Thor, and to prove that you are more suitable to be a king?" Josie's voice, like a devil, kept eroding Loki's defenses.

"So what if I want to? So what if I don't?" Loki clearly didn't want to admit defeat and said arrogantly.

“If you want, then submit to me, and I can grant you anything you desire. Of course, if you don’t want to, then let’s pretend nothing ever happened—you can continue being your second prince, serving as Thor’s foil, comfortably living your original life of luxury. Trust Thor’s feelings for you; once he ascends the throne, he certainly won’t mistreat you. He might even follow the practices on Earth and bestow upon you a title like a prince or grand duke!” Josie said nonchalantly.

However, in Loki's case, Josie's subsequent words were clearly blatant sarcasm.

Because if Loki chooses the latter, it's tantamount to admitting that he's a useless person, inferior to Thor.

This was completely unacceptable to Loki, who was actually incredibly proud.

However, being a man of deep thoughts, he couldn't just give in to Josh so easily.

"Heh, submit to you? And grant me everything I want? Anyone can brag. I admit you are powerful, but what makes you think you are powerful enough to rival Odin and Thor?" Loki retorted with a cold laugh.

This has now put the problem in Josie's hands.

Yes, how can he prove that he can give Loki what he wants?

Are we supposed to go and fight Odin?

Or perhaps it would directly increase Loki's power?

Either way, they've fallen into Loki's trap.

Josie definitely wouldn't do something so foolish.

“I don’t need to prove anything, but if you’re interested, you can come and visit me and get to know my subordinates—if you can defeat any one of them, I’ll give you a divine weapon that’s no weaker than Thor’s hammer, how about it?” Josie said with a half-smile.

Josie's words plunged Loki into silence once again.

Loki couldn't determine Josie's true intentions. After all, if Josie wanted to do something to him, wouldn't he be walking into her trap if he went to her territory?

But if I don't go... do I really have to live in Thor's shadow forever, just like they said?

"Where are you?" Finally, Loki gritted his teeth and made his choice.

He wanted to see if this human's subordinate was really that powerful.

If all of this human's subordinates are truly stronger than oneself, then siding with them wouldn't be a bad choice. Besides, it's impossible to get someone to do things without paying a price! One could at least get some benefits to improve one's own strength, right?

“The smart choice is here. Come find me… Don’t disappoint me, Third Princess!” Josie gave Loki a star coordinate and then said jokingly.

"I told you, don't call me the Third Princess! Why do you keep calling me the Third Princess?!" Loki roared in impotent rage.

"Hehe, you'll find out when you get here!" Josie smiled mysteriously, then ignored Loki's roar and cut off the communication.

"This kid doesn't look honest at all, he'd better not get burned... Hmm, this wine is absolutely wonderful, I've already fallen in love with the taste!" Howard, who had witnessed Josie and Loki's entire conversation, took a sip of the wine in his glass as the call ended.

Although in Marvel history, Howard the Duck is based on Disney's Donald Duck.

However, early Disney obviously wouldn't let Marvel use its own star actors so casually.

Therefore, in the actual development process, in order to make the distinction between the two more obvious, in addition to the great differences in appearance, their personalities were also shaped into completely different appearances.

Therefore, although Howard the Duck looks somewhat ridiculous, he is definitely not the comedic relief like Donald Duck.

He is a true powerhouse.

While it may not be the absolute best, it is far more powerful than those street-smart superheroes on Earth.

"Hehe, of course, this is a top-tier craft beer from a certain civilization. Don't worry, this kid won't escape my grasp!" Josie smiled slightly, took a sip of her drink, and said, "Top-tier magical craft beer from Silvermoon City, how could it not taste good?"