Chapter 1388: The Return of the Old Days (Part 4)

In front of the circular Zen window, the light was hazy and soft, plating the silhouettes of the two men with a layer of halo. Stark looked at the angry expression on Strange's face with some confusion.

Actually, he had rarely seen Stephen so angry. It was a consensus that Strange had a bad temper, but most of it was just expressed in impatience, social maladjustment, and the kind of picky and pretentious problems he brought from his profession as a surgeon.

But it seemed like the first time Stark had seen him get truly angry. Strange, wearing a suit, stood up directly from the sofa. Yes, he wasn't wearing a magic robe. Stark also rarely saw Strange wearing a magic robe. It seemed that only when there was a large-scale scene requiring combat would he wear the Sorcerer Supreme's costume.

He wore a suit for the vast majority of other times, but it didn't seem to be to show that he was an upper-class person. Stark vaguely remembered that he seemed to have said he hated casual wear, mainly hating the sense of relaxation brought by casual wear. Perhaps the magic robe was also too loose for him.

How could anyone in this world hate relaxation?

Stark's knowledge of psychology and behavioral science told him that there was a type of person who needed anxiety and tension at all times, and this most often appeared in professions involving major events. One of the typical examples was a surgeon.

In Stark's profile of Strange, there was no doubt that he was a lunatic on par with Schiller. This pair of doctor combinations was equally mentally abnormal, and equally bottomless in morality.

Stark was angry at the scene written in the notebook because Captain America Steve was his friend. Even if it was Captain America from another world, he shouldn't have suffered such a disaster and been turned into a monster. His anger was quite justified and reasonable.

But Strange and Steve didn't get along well. They were also the typical conflict between civilian personnel and security personnel. Strange felt Steve was reckless, and Steve felt Strange was pretentious, not to mention it was Steve from another universe. In this situation, Strange should have shown schadenfreude, and he did indeed do so.

Where did the turning point appear? It seemed to be because in the scene recorded in the notebook, Captain America Steve, who had turned into a monster, was easily toyed with by the owner of the notebook and a small, unknown animal.

Strange felt Steve was too weak?

Stark thought of the last sentence Strange said. They paid so much, but only gained this little bit, so was he feeling that this deal was unfair?

But that was also a matter of another universe. Was it enough to make him react so strongly? And what about the things that happened in the dream universe before? Was Strange's view a bit too extreme?

After Stark asked this question, Strange, standing by the shelf, could no longer suppress the anger and malice in his tone, and said like a poisonous snake spitting venom:

"What truly makes me feel angry and humiliated is that the humans in that dream universe offered their physical forms, wisdom, and character, but gained nothing in return—normal social order, huh?"

"Do you want me to praise this group of idiots for still remembering how to deceive themselves? Do you want me to write a eulogy for their heroic act of cowardly selling everything out just to gain a few scraps? I can only say 'Damn idiots!' They deserve to die! Only this!"

"Too extreme," Stark evaluated quite conservatively.

"Far from enough! Tony Stark!" Strange turned around, stared into Stark's eyes, and asked: "You were also a businessman. I ask you, when you sell a product for a hundred dollars and no one buys it, who do you hate the most?"

"The buyer who doesn't know the goods?" Stark probed, but he actually wasn't very good at business.

"Wrong, it's the peer who sells it for fifty!" Strange gritted his teeth and said: "The reason they must die is that they lowered the price of the goods we can take to trade, including human appearance, wisdom, and quality! They fed the appetites of those gods with their own baseness, making them think I'm asking for an exorbitant price!"

Strange took a deep breath and explained further: "Humans must be valuable enough. Mine, all Sorcerer Supremes', all mages', the liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys of human civilization must be valuable enough! This is the bargaining chip for all negotiations. I only care about this!"

"Whoever kneels first dies. It's that simple!"

Stark fell silent. As the former largest capitalist in the US and now the largest in the world, and with another such capitalist in his brain, he and they understood better than anyone how much profit joint monopoly could bring. This was what all Sorcerer Supremes were doing—in a sense, kidnapping all humans and then sitting on the ground to raise prices.

Any demon god who wanted to reach out to humans had to pass through the slaughtering knife of the Sorcerer Supreme, which was the magic defense network covering the sky above Earth. Shed enough blood, leave enough benefits, and then the mages would take them to ask for a higher price. For thousands of years, Kamar-Taj had operated this way.

If a demon god wanted to invade Earth with force to plunder humans, they would find that what they plundered was far less than the consumption of a great war with mages, because mages would fight to the death, dragging Earth to perish together if necessary, making them spend a lot of power but gain nothing, which was completely not worth it, so they could only sit down and talk, or as the saying goes, be slaughtered.

This had been the conventional practice for thousands of years. Developing to this day, almost no demon god would suddenly have the idea of attacking Earth with force. To some extent, they had been tamed by rules and order.

But if an alien appeared, allowing the gods to easily get what they wanted, it would cause all other demon gods to have different intentions, as well as the ambition to replace them.

Strange walked back to the single chair and sat down. The angry emotion seemed to have been digested by him, but a deeper coldness emerged on his face, cold and sorrowful, indifferent and compassionate.

Too contradictory, Stark thought, but surprisingly harmonious.

"They didn't just sell their own interests cheaply, but also ours. The moment they made the deal—I'm sorry, whether they were willing or not, they were no longer of the same kind. I will destroy them."

Stark was certain that Strange didn't have a bit of guilt when he said this, not a single bit.

The expression on Stark's face changed slowly. Another deeper thing that didn't belong to him emerged on his face. It was another darker soul. He almost couldn't wait to join this conversation. He asked in that deep tone:

"Even if it violates fairness?"

"Seeking fairness from demon gods is stupid."

"I'm referring to the humans who were destroyed."

"Equally stupid. Trolley problem, I choose to hit one, because I have no morality."

An answer so straightforward that it choked Batman. The people in this world were simple, rude, and righteously terrifying.

"Even if that 'one' might be you one day?"

"I will rob power to prevent myself from being tied up. If I'm a bit unlucky, then adjust my posture to make the train that hits me derail, and everyone dies together, also because I have no morality."

Equally selfish and arrogant beyond reproach.

If a person has no morality, then there is no moral dilemma. Whoever implicates me deserves to die. As long as I don't die, it doesn't matter who dies. If I die, I'll drag everyone to be a cushion. If I don't die and someone else dies, I'll mock them. A perfect logical closed loop of moral vacuum.

"Then are you guarding all 'humans'? Or humans on this Earth in a narrow sense?" Batman asked again.

"I am one with the humans on this Earth. I am them, and they are me." Strange didn't hesitate at all.

"Do you think you represent them?"

"I'm not a party leader." Strange began to show sufficient impatience, as if the person opposite him had asked a stupid question.

"Are you going to say that even if one human doesn't approve of me, I can't represent them? Are you going to say that we should establish a Kamar-Taj opposition party, and then our two sides take turns in power, so that we can represent everyone's will, which is true democracy?"

"There is no such democracy! I am completely one with humans because I didn't have to do these things at all, do you understand? I could let demon gods plunder at will, anyway, it wouldn't hurt me. My contribution is my position, and my justice is my democracy!"

A very shocking remark, but Batman could still find loopholes in it. He was very good at these logic games and was confident that no one could beat him.

"You certainly wouldn't let it be, because you are also enjoying the order of Earth. You aren't just paying and sacrificing unilaterally." Batman pointed out.

"Of course, I'm not that great."

"Then your contribution isn't just defending public interest, but also defending private interest. Then humans don't have to appreciate your favor."

"Of course."

People in this universe carried a frankness that confused Batman. Whether it was an affirmative or negative answer, they wouldn't leave a middle value, and they didn't know the principle of leaving room for conversation at all.

"Then why..."

"Because I have no morality."

Closed loop again.

"I won't shape myself into a great person who is dedicated to the public. Whether you believe it or not, I don't care about reputation, and I don't care how those who perish or survive because of my choices look at me."

Strange leaned his body forward, pressed his elbows on his knees, and looked into Stark's eyes, or rather Batman's eyes, and said.

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"I don't pay for certain people or things, don't pursue meaning and morality, only pursue a clear mind and a complete state of mind. As long as I can convince myself, there's no need to try to convince anyone."

Ultimate idealism, this is easy to understand, so Batman said: "I understand." — But he actually understood it all along, better than anyone else.

They were like looking in a mirror, but because Batman had a sense of morality that was at the other extreme, stronger than anyone else's, it was also like being enemies.

After Batman left, Stark, who had listened to their conversation, was also thoughtful, but his train of thought was completely different from Batman's. He looked at Strange and asked: "So that's why the Ancient One could still maintain a complete state of mind and have no guilt after destroying the 'humans' of the entire Earth?"

"That was just an accident, but even if it wasn't, she would have. We are the same kind of people. This is the most important reason she chose me."

"If one day we..." Stark was pessimistic as always.

"Everything we do is to stop 'if one day we' from happening." Strange emphasized.

"Isn't this gambling?"

"Yes, Schiller has been gambling from beginning to end, and so have I. From the Sanctum Sanctorum to Asgard, from S. H. I. E. L. D. to mutants, there hasn't been a single time that wasn't. Even at the beginning, we hadn't stood at the pinnacle of humanity. In terms of power and wisdom, we weren't qualified to represent ordinary people."

"But we never, not even for a second, struggled with whether all of humanity agreed. We had no guilt for those who might sacrifice on this road, and no apology for the sand and gravel eliminated in the tide of the era."

"Why?"

"Because we have no morality... We must have no morality." ===== CHAPTER 1389 =====