"The greater difference lies between the styles of the two universal magic realms," Strange said, interrupting a teacher-student conversation filled with innuendo and hidden meanings.
"During this period, I've read almost all of your books that record the history of the magic realm. I noticed a strange phenomenon that no matter who the recorder is, what era they're from, or who their contract maker is, they all tend to record their every conversation with supernatural beings."
"What's wrong with that?" Zatanna shrugged: "If mages don't record that, what else can they record?"
"But the historical books of the magic realm in our universe usually record every fight the mages have."
Strange used slight force on the armrests and rose from his chair, pacing in front of the screen, attracting everyone's attention.
"What is very strange to me is that the mages in your universe seem to always follow some rules that seem meaningless to me. The one thing I can't understand the most is that their first reaction when encountering certain powerful beings is to talk to them."
"What's the point of this?" Strange seemed puzzled. He shook his head slightly and said, "Are mages hoping for these beings, which are completely different from the human race, have never been human before, and will never understand humanity, to comprehend them? How is that even possible?"
"Even among us humans, contradictions arise due to differences in race, nationality, and living environments, since human beings fundamentally cannot understand each other. How can anyone want to find recognition from the Demon God?"
"What I find most incomprehensible is that the most recorded content in your history is 'such and such mage asked such and such a powerful existence a certain question,' but this question is completely irrelevant to his personal interests and has nothing to do with the future of mankind. It's more like some useless philosophical contemplation, like 'where did humans come from and where are they going'."
"I mean no offense to any philosopher present." Strange said this, but still apologetically nodded in Shiller's direction, then said, "But to ask a being who is not human at all about the direction mankind should take, isn't that thinking too highly of them?"
"Frankly speaking, any being that does not belong to this race has no need and should not express any views on the future development of our race, because their so-called understanding is always a feature of imagination rather than empathy. Their opinion is not important, we do not need their condescending guidance."
"But somehow, mages in your universe seem to care very much about these issues: absolute darkness, absolute light, the origin and destination of mankind, the birth and destruction of the world... "
"I cannot assertively say that studying these things is wrong. After all, there will always be people who care about these issues. But to my limited understanding, the magic realm of your universe should not yet have developed to the point where they should study these issues for amusement."
"I of course understand what you're saying." Constantine took the wine glass from Bruce's hand and said, "It's indeed absurd to study the origin of the world before even filling one's stomach, but there are so many such daydreamers. It's not necessarily unrelated to the influence of the thinking of angels and demons."
"Yes, so I proposed at the beginning that you lacked a cover to prevent these forces from invading. But if the thinking does not change, even with the magic defense network, there will be people who will break the solid fortress from within because of rigid thinking."
"I agree with that." Zatanna muttered, "If it weren't for those human traitors, we wouldn't know how peaceful it would be."
"Although it's not absolute, I must say that correcting the thinking of mages who have reached adulthood may be difficult." Strange pursed his lips, showing a difficult expression, "If they persist in saying they are doing it for the good of mankind, it starts to appear like we are causing needless trouble."
"Isn't that exactly the purpose of this school?" Pamela spoke in her usual cool tone, "The previous generation is hopeless, we can only focus on educating the next."
"Yes, but I believe that among the next generation there should be a chief heart who holds a similar viewpoint to me."
"You mean we should also have a Supreme Magician?"
Constantine frowned slightly. Strange nodded somewhat modestly, "Firstly, he must be a human supremacist. I know some of my opinions sound very radical and extreme, but sometimes extreme measures are necessary. A militant human supremacist is always better than an appeaser who unscrupulously sells out our interests, right?"
Constantine slowly nodded, reluctantly accepting this idea. Then, Strange continued, "An ideology that leads the magic realm forward shouldn't be about fighting against something, but understanding what to establish. This is why I said that the trial difficulty is not high enough."
"Perhaps this trial can let them understand not to fear authority and be influenced by inertia thinking, but this merely arouses their rebellious psychology and does not enable them to understand what kind of magic realm they want to build."
"Rebellion might be the starting point of establishing an ideology, but if an ideology only has an angry rebellion and lacks a more rational and objective creative part, then the actions it leads are doomed to fail. After mages know what they should rebel against, they should know more about creating a world that leads humans to go faster and farther."
Shiller looked up at Strange, his thumb brushing gently against the glass. When Strange turned his head and met his gaze, Shiller shook his head and said, "This is exactly what I meant. You can never predict what the seed you plant will grow into. If you extend this branch a little further..."
"Then, the mages would take the happiness of every individual in the abundance of the human society they have established as their own happiness, and take their development process as their own enjoyment. They would embark on a path opposite to the pursuit of endless knowledge and power, and instead, devote their lives to liberating the abilities of every human individual to pursue knowledge and power."
Strange said these words fluently, then looked at Shiller.
Shiller raised his glass to him from across the space.
Constantine clutched his forehead and said, "I'm definitely not the first target this group of Soviets eliminated, right? Bruce?"
Bruce had already started taking notes, it seemed as though he wanted to incorporate these words into the motto of Wayne College. This only resulted in Constantine slicing the cigar with even more despair.
"From a philosophical perspective, this is almost the only solution to the extreme self-existence sense inevitably sought by strong individuals in human race after their self-cultivation," Pamela objectively and justly commented. "That is to have them shift their attention from themselves to their population, to prevent them from feeling that they have lived enough, or that they will never live enough."
"Alright, friends, let's make this clear." Constantine put out his cigar, took a sip of his drink, then looked up at Strange standing by the side and asked, "Do you think any of these three children could be a future Supreme Magician?"
"Just that they have more potential compared to others." Drinking his wine, Strange stood up straight, looking relaxed. At least in terms of maintaining an elegant demeanor at all times, he could really be regarded as the Supreme Magician.
"In fact, Steven." It was the first time Shiller addressed Strange by his name. Strange turned his gaze towards him, assuming a humble and respectful stance, though his expression was more like, "I shall see what faults you can find now".
"I totally understand. You hope that the future leader of the magic realm, who will undertake important responsibilities in this cosmos, can learn enough experience from your cosmos, especially your style of dealing with the Demon God."
Strange slightly raised his chin, nodded modestly, and patiently waited for Shiller's twist, even though his body language betrayed his certainty that, no matter how many "buts" you begin with, I can always find my reasons."
"But, have you considered they might have altitude sickness?"
"...Huh?"
"I guess mages are quite used to teleporting from flat ground with no elevation directly to the top of the Himalayas, right? Have you ever considered that not everyone has such a strong constitution to go back and forth between flat ground and the summit of the Himalayas five or six times a day?"
Strange opened his mouth wide.
"Where on earth is this?" Harley struggled her way to stand up from the ground, but fell right back down as she got halfway there, with her legs losing force, and collapsed onto the ground with a "bang".
Barry was gasping heavily, his face flushed red, and said, "Why do I feel like someone sucked all the oxygen out of this room? Bruce! Bruce! Are you sure we didn't fall into a trap?"
Bruce, already feeling unwell due to his hallucination, was now more dizzy. He tried to prop himself up with his arms, but to no avail, he had been struggling on the surface of the blanket and couldn't even manage to stand up.
The truth is, the laws of physics are fair to everyone. It wasn't as if teleporting from the flat ground of one cosmos to the summit of the Himalayas in another would somehow save you from the powerful punch of altitude sickness. In two worlds with essentially the same physical laws, one could say that whoever went there would get knocked down.
"Oh, my God! Who are you guys? How did you end up in the Supreme Magician's study?" A sweet-sounding girl's voice rang out from outside the door, and a girl around fourteen or fifteen years old, dressed in traditional Indian attire, rushed in.
"Wait, you guys aren't the new students the Supreme Magician said would be coming to school today, are you? ...Let me check, two boys and one girl, the girl is a bit older, my God, it's you guys! What happened to you?"
"I don't know. We're having trouble breathing, our hearts are beating irregularly, we feel dizzy, and I'm a little nauseous." Harley tried to describe her feelings as precisely as possible. She looked outside through the window of the Zen room and said, "Please don't tell me we're above four thousand meters of altitude."
"Much higher than that, we're close to six thousand meters above sea level."
"Help..."
"You guys wait here, I'll go get Master Song. She knows how to handle this kind of situation. Please hang in there!"
Upon saying this, the girl ran off quickly, leaving the three children floundering on the spot like fish just pulled ashore.
Not too long after, a woman with grey hair, Master Song, rushed in. She and several other mages lifted the three children onto the beds in the rest area. Then she waved her wand and three magic bubbles were put on their heads.
"Really, I need to have a serious talk with Yao. How could his disciples be so impetuous? Don't they know that severe altitude sickness is lethal?!"
An expression of panic immediately spread across Strange's face.