"What do you mean?"
"Those strange clones."
"They all seem quite at peace." Shiller took out his phone, showed him a photo, and said, "Pamela's cultivation strategy was very successful. The seeds' survival rate reached 90%, and they seem to have no issues regarding nutrition. This way, we can carry out plant cultivation on Centaurus planet. The only problem is— the soil and fertilizer are a bit tricky."
"What's so tricky about that?" Loki seemed puzzled. To him, Earth soil always seemed to be free. Fertilizer was a bit pricey, but the supply wasn't lacking.
"We aren't using regular soil and fertilizer. The soil was brought in from Gotham. Don't ask why, because I don't understand it either. As for the fertilizer..."
Shiller hesitated. Loki squinted his eyes at him. Shiller still reached out and said, "We can't be sure if the fertilizer actually worked, but just to be on the safe side, let's not change this variable. Simply put, we need some alien corpses."
"Huh?"
"Remember when the incidents broke out, those two accidents? To keep the situation from escalating, I reclaimed the corpses, but I can't carry them around forever. So, I buried them in the soil, and unexpectedly they paired perfectly with Gotham's soil. Pamela also acknowledged the role of this bio-fertilizer in the plant cultivation process, so..."
Loki couldn't help but cover his face.
"Why do all our actions ultimately end up like this?"
"I wish I knew," Shiller replied sincerely.
This type of thing does happen frequently. Just like before, when Shiller teamed up with Strange for a dungeon run, it was supposed to be a decent medical dungeon, but it ended up becoming Hell's Kitchen.
Just like now, it was originally a proper Milky Way development plan, but somehow it turned into a corpse party.
"Alright then." Loki's moral baseline evidently wasn't that high either. He said, "They weren't benevolent, so it's not our fault for being unrighteous. From the pace of their infiltration, there's certainly no shortage of corpses, but the problem is, how exactly do we identify these fake humans?"
"Visa approvals can't be too strict. If we really don't let these people in, we might actually run short of corpses. So, it's best to set up a border checkpoint, and as they cross the border, we'll secretly..."
Shiller made a gesture. Loki got the idea, then said, "But who should we appoint as the inspector to accurately identify these fakes? I remember Charles' Cerebro is almost repaired, isn't it?"
"He could do it, but some fakes have impenetrable psychic worlds. After all, those electronic life forms aren't foolish; they might plant nanobots inside these bodies first and activate them later when needed. In this case, Mind Reading Technique wouldn't work."
"Then add a scanning device to try to detect those nanobots."
"There could also be mental traps; they might first brainwash and then cover up the brainwashing process, later triggering it by other means."
"That's indeed a problem. Though Charles, if he checked carefully, should be able to uncover it, he can't possibly sit there as an inspector without doing anything else, right?"
"I do have a good candidate." Shiller smiled and said, "Not Mind Reading Technique, but close enough, and he loves these shifts."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Arrogant."
Loki's proposal for a checkpoint got unanimous support from the Asgardians. In reality, the one they caught last time was indeed a spy, but it was a rather simple biomimetic robot controlled by JARVIS, which went around the edges of Asgard and was then caught by the patrol. The actual incident was only known to the Divine King, Queen of Gods, and Loki; the other Asgardians thought a spy had truly infiltrated their home.
Typically, the God Clan doesn't carry fear, but the last battle did show them the ruthlessness of these robots, plus this time the spy could get so close to their home. If they really snuck in, would there be any safe places left in the Nine Major Kingdoms?
So, they were all in favor of setting up a checkpoint. As far as the Human race was concerned, this was only appropriate. With more interstellar news appearing on the human internet, they also gained a basic understanding: the Nine Major Kingdoms are prime real estate; how can it be so easy for you to just walk in?
The checkpoint was set at the dimensional entry, which was the only open entry. Meaning, all Aliens wanting to come through had to pass here.
Alien spacecraft were temporarily not allowed in, so everyone had to disembark and walk. Once their identity was verified at the checkpoint, they were permitted into the Nine Major Kingdoms. As for the inspector at this checkpoint, it was Arrogant.
Arrogant sat at the desk. A green hand suddenly reached in through the window, handing in ID and visa documents. Arrogant glanced at them briefly, looked up at the big guy behind the glass, picked up the stamp beside him, and stamped the visa documents with a click, then returned them. The passage ahead displayed clearance.
But the big guy didn't know that Arrogant tapped something on the computer beside him, marking this fellow as highly likely to be a spy sent by the Three Great Empires, soon to appear at the plant cultivation base.
The phone suddenly rang. Arrogant picked it up; Greed's voice sounded on the other end, "How's the first day on the job feeling?"
Arrogant snorted coldly and replied, "I invite you on vacation, and you invite me to work. What kind of new breed of gratitude and revenge are you inventing?"
"The meaning of life lies in work. I just found you the most suitable job, isn't that a good thing?"
Arrogant was too lazy to argue with him because he knew Greed truly thought that way. He believed arranging a suitable job for everyone in the world was benefiting the entire planet. Whether the person wanted to work or not, that was inconsequential.
Arrogant didn't have any objections to this job. After all, compared to teaching, all other jobs in the world seemed rather easy. Even though his current teaching job was considered quite relaxed, there were always plenty of stubborn and supposedly smart students. Occasionally, there would be surprises in his email, but more often than not, they were nonsensical papers. Escaping from this for a few days was quite nice.
In fact, the job really suited Arrogant. His psychoanalysis method was a passive talent; with just a glance, he could assess things fairly accurately. Previously, when judging comic characters, it wasn't challenging because, as someone who had read the comics, he knew their backgrounds and some additional information, making the reasoning process not too difficult.
However, facing these aliens who never appeared in comics before, some of whom weren't even human, determining their mental state and identifying spies among them was quite a challenging task.
Most importantly, the positive feedback was immense because Greed was responsible for dealing with those spies. Greed didn't practice the art of murder; his method was pure slaughter, yet his efficiency was astonishingly high.
To put it bluntly, Amanda's clone trick back then was meant to exhaust this bunch of artists. Luckily, she didn't encounter Greed, or else she would have seen the power of a modern assembly line.
Arrogant would mark them during the day, and almost before nightfall, they would be lying in the cultivation base. Once dead, they could be thoroughly examined and confirmed by Arrogant. Same-day verification, same-day settlement—the sense of achievement was great.
Additionally, there were Charles and JARVIS as supports. In critical moments of uncertainty, they could use tools. Within two days of the checkpoint opening, the accuracy rate of judgment was 100%.
Of course, it only meant the ones marked were definitely there, but whether any escaped the net, that remained unseen.
Just as newcomers were entering the Nine Major Kingdoms successively, Greed was studying that little box. At that moment, a group of unexpected visitors arrived at the tavern, namely Peter and Polaris's party.
"What brings you all here?" Shiller asked.
"We heard you opened a tavern here. There are even videos online of Asgardians visiting," Peter waved his phone, sat at the bar, and then said, "We haven't had a decent meal for days. Cook us something special, Doctor."
"No problem," said Shiller. "Want some drinks?"
They each ordered a beer. The others sat at the bar chatting, while only Polaris sat in the direction of the kitchen.
"How have you been feeling lately, ma'am?"
"Not bad. I've been talking a lot with the Arkham Knight. My goodness, you wouldn't believe how complicated his story with Batman is," Polaris said, her face full of gossip. "I've been asking him non-stop these days, and every time I find out something new, but I feel like that might only be a third of the story. It's like an endless ocean of riddles."
"What do you think of their story?"
"Honestly, I think they both seem a bit like mental patients. Maybe they really are. I feel much more normal than they are, and my relationship with Quicksilver is also more normal. At least we're just lovers, not foster father and son, friends, mentor and disciple, or enemies..."
"Do you think their story benefits your current mental state?"
"Perhaps it does. I've spent so much time listening and thinking about these stories that I've almost forgotten my troubles. Sometimes I imagine myself as one of them and wonder what I would do then. But honestly, I can't think of a better solution either."
"Some riddles don't need answers," Shiller smiled and said. "A simple relationship isn't necessarily simpler than a complex one. Perhaps because it's too simple, leaving no choice, things have progressed to where they are."
"True," Polaris nodded. "We're just lovers, and everyone thinks if you're dating, you should get married eventually, so Quicksilver proposed. If we had other choices, maybe it wouldn't be this way."
"Do you think you should build a more complex relationship, like Batman and the Arkham Knight?"
Polaris shook her head like a rattle, saying, "No, no, no, we can't develop from one extreme to another. I think simple relationships have their benefits too."
"But if you refuse his proposal, besides splitting up, don't you have no other choice?"
"Do you think I should let him understand me? If he knew what I was thinking, maybe he'd realize I didn't refuse because I didn't like him enough. But then, he might not forget me. If I straightforwardly told him nothing, he might soon start a new life."
"That's something only you can answer; it's your decision to make. When a coin is tossed, you already know your choice."
Polaris looked calm, as if she already knew her answer. She said, "When that terrible disaster destroyed my family, I had no nest to return to, so I lost hope. I can no longer be a homing bird, yet I hope my partner will always wait for me at the nest, which is unfair to him, even if he just waits from afar."
There was a hint of determination on Polaris's face. Humans are an amazing species, growing both slowly and rapidly. Whether over decades or in an instant, they always manage to astonish.
"Alright, ma'am," Shiller placed a beer in front of her, saying, "Stop thinking too much and have a drink."