After Shiller left, Strange wanted to take a nap, but Jarvis soon delivered new governmental work, requiring him to browse and sign. He had no choice but to continue working at the desk.
However, while browsing the files, Jarvis suddenly spoke up: "Sir, what do you think of these documents?"
Without raising his head, Strange said, "Not bad. The font is beautiful, the word count is reasonable, but aside from completely not understanding what they're about, everything is great."
"I've highlighted the key points. You still can't understand them?"
"I can read the words, but I can't comprehend the content," Strange said, "If you mean to say this is the painstaking translation you've completed, and I'm being disrespectful by casually glancing over, then I can pretend to spend more time. But you know, Jarvis, my literacy level isn't high enough to support me reading these. I can only maintain a good attitude and let the contents drift away over my cerebral cortex."
"No, sir, this wasn't translated by me, but by the Supreme Wisdom."
"And how is his translation skill?"
"Actually, not bad. There are no hard errors, but he deliberately makes the sentences awkward, which makes it inconvenient for you to read."
"So are you trying to get me to trouble him?"
"No, I mean, these documents aren't very good."
"What does 'not very good' mean?"
"It means not very useful."
"Oh, I understand. The Supreme Wisdom intends to drown me in garbage files, so I won't have time to do any real work. But it's okay, isn't Shiller still around?"
"What I'm saying is, if you get buried in garbage documents and leave all the useful work to Dr. Rodriguez, certain uncontrollable situations you don't want to see might occur."
Strange paused, then said, "What do you mean?"
"Doctor Schiller is very good at working, maybe a bit too good. If you don't do something to disrupt him, the pace of events might far exceed everyone's expectations, entering into an uncontrollable crazy rush. It's not the first time, is it?"
Strange suddenly remembered the last time he sent Shiller into the cosmos, triggering a great interstellar society chaos. One person had an accident here, and another there, and undoubtedly, it was all related to Shiller.
"Let it go out of control then," Strange said, "Anyway, it's the Three Great Empires and other aliens who suffer, what does it have to do with me."
"Really?" Jarvis retorted.
Strange immediately remembered that Shiller was particularly good at forceful intervention, and his methods weren't usually gentle, even cruel and crazy might describe them. Was he planning a grand trial for the Human race?
Strange then also recalled that not long ago, Shiller had just returned from the neighboring Great World, having supposedly spent the entire Halloween holiday there, though Strange hardly believed he was there just for a vacation. He had heard a bit about the cosmos situation there; they reportedly fought a Solar System war, and now an electronic life rule Earth...
Strange suddenly stood up with a start.
"No, Jarvis," he said, "Something's not right!"
"If my guess is correct, Doctor Schiller might have seen some advantages of Earth under Brainiac's rule in the neighboring world and wants to replicate them on our Earth. To truly unify the globe, we must fight an interstellar war; and to start an interstellar war, we must first make enemies for the human race in the cosmos..."
"He doesn't want you to take Brainiac's position in the neighboring world, does he?" Strange began pacing behind his desk, "He called me over here just to make me the scapegoat. If he says it's because I didn't do well during my tenure that the aliens attacked Earth, then it's all my fault!"
"I'm afraid so," JARVIS said helplessly, "I'm different from Brainiac; I'm no longer a purely electronic life. I have no interest in ruling Earth and probably can't act like Brainiac. So if we let the doctor do this, we might both be in big trouble."
Strange stopped and said as if enlightened, "You're right, JARVIS. If I get drowned in these garbage files and leave all the useful work to Schiller, the final result will be us both in big trouble. We can't let this go on!"
"Schiller! Schiller!!!" Strange shouted into the communicator, "Get to the office right away!"
A few minutes later, Schiller walked in holding a stack of files and said, "Quite a few people actively sought my advice as a political advisor, sparing me the trouble of collecting clues from each of them. For now, some people on this list can be trusted, while others are on the fence and are targets we can win over. The rest are die-hards..."
Strange widened his eyes immediately, "You've been out for less than half an hour, right? You've already finished the confirmation?"
"I said I don't need to personally confirm it. You gave them such a big problem, and naturally, they came to me, the political advisor, to solve it, so I could naturally confirm their positions."
Strange opened his mouth but didn't know how to start. He knew that if Schiller really wanted to do something, it would be hard to stop him. Interestingly enough, the best way to stop Schiller from doing something is to persuade him to give up on his own. However, Strange couldn't think of a good reason to start the conversation.
While Strange was racking his brains, the Supreme Wisdom suddenly came in. He greeted Strange and said, "I heard your meeting with the heads of the new departments this morning was very pleasant, and you announced the main work for the next phase. It's a pity I wasn't invited, but as the Executive Secretary, I think I have a right to know about the main work of the interstellar council's next phase. Could you take some time to explain to me the key points of the new department and new work theme..."
Strange thought that the new departments and new work were likely part of Schiller's grand plan, so he didn't think highly of them. He also thought, although he didn't like the Three Great Empires, they would now be just as suspicious of the new departments and new work as he was, especially since he deliberately excluded the Executive Department from the meeting. If the Supreme Wisdom had emotions, he would probably be furious, and even as an emotionless electronic life, his tone was cold enough to freeze. With his attitude toward them, they could not possibly support the new work.
Not supporting was good, Strange thought. Although he didn't expect them to overthrow Schiller, they could at least delay some time, allowing Strange to think of a good reason to persuade Schiller not to be so aggressive. Don't underestimate this delay; Schiller had just talked about testing his subordinates' stances, and the results came out in less than half an hour. If no one delayed him, the targets would likely be in jail by the end of today's workday.
Strange sighed inwardly, then forced a smile, walked over, and patted the Supreme Wisdom's shoulder, saying, "It's not that I deliberately exclude you; you know, I'm the Supreme Mage, a doctor on Earth. I've never held any real office, and I don't know how this process works. So does your Executive Department have to attend the morning meetings?"
Since Strange had already perfectly established the image of a straightforward, clueless guy, the Supreme Wisdom wasn't surprised by his words and explained patiently, "Although I'm the Executive Secretary, we both belong to the Councilman's office, which makes us one department. When departments have meetings, I naturally need to attend on behalf of our department. Other department heads also bring their executive secretaries, don't they?"
Strange thought for a moment and said with some difficulty, "But those following behind them are all robots; how would I know they're department staff? I just thought..."
"Just thought what?"
The Supreme Wisdom's tone was unreadable, yet his gaze was gradually becoming a Death Stare. Strange, still feeling a bit guilty, said, "You know, humans rarely produce decent robots, and we've never dealt with mechanical civilizations, so when interacting with robots, it's hard for me to see them as creatures we can communicate with. Besides, you know, most electronic lives lack a soul, and as the Supreme Mage, I usually distinguish different lives by their soul vibrations. So I generally can't see robots; if you don't speak up, I'd mistake you for potted plants."
In fact, this was blatant discrimination by Strange. And given that two of the Three Great Empires are mechanical civilizations—while the Skrull Empire still has some purely carbon-based life, the Kree Empire has been mostly mechanically transformed. You could even say they have only one imperial member, the Supreme Wisdom, and everyone else is just a thread of his—plus, anti-discrimination has been promoted for many years. The status of mechanical lives has steadily increased under the protection of political correctness and has surpassed carbon-based life, becoming first-class citizens. He hadn't been discriminated against like this in a long time.
It can be said that Strange's emphasis on his identity as the Supreme Mage was indeed helpful. At least now, the robot body controlled by the Supreme Wisdom could do nothing but spin engines and cooling modules furiously. Strange had openly discriminated against him, and he could only endure it.
But Strange clearly understood the principle of giving a sweet treat after a slap, so he said, "Don't mind me; I'm just a blunt person who says whatever comes to mind. I can't be bothered to play riddles with you all. Alright, isn't the key point the agenda announced at the meeting? Actually, even if you didn't come to me, I would've come to find you, after all, I'm just making decisions, and you are the one who can execute the orders."
This made the Supreme Wisdom's expression slightly better. Strange continued, "However, the environmental agenda wasn't proposed by me; the idea actually came from my personal political advisor. This is Doctor Schiller, and I think you two should chat. After all, I don't understand those tedious administrative duties, so I'll leave you experts to it."
Strange perfectly dumped the responsibility. The Supreme Wisdom glanced at Schiller without complaint. Ever since he knew that humans would be Councilman, he knew there would eventually be a confrontation with Schiller—a battle of words and wits was inevitable. Just as he had mentally prepared his arguments, he heard Schiller say, "Actually, this all started with a trip the Honorable Supreme Mage made to the Temple of Eternity..."
Strange slapped his forehead.