"Why are you shouting so loudly?" Shiller dug at his ear and hung the cleaned glass back on the rack.
Strange stood angrily in front of the bar, glaring at him.
"What would you like to drink?" Shiller turned to ask him.
"Is this your doing?" Strange slapped a gossip tabloid on the bar.
Shiller shook his head and said, "No."
Strange was taken aback. He looked at Shiller with a bit of suspicion. Typically, Shiller wouldn't deny something he truly did; he might evade or change the subject, but wouldn't deny it so cleanly. Could it really not be his doing?
"The report was written by Eddie," said Shiller. "I see he has potential as a gossip journalist, so I gave him an opportunity."
"So it was your idea after all?!"
"That depends on how you define it..."
"Does Loki know about this?"
"Is that what you're worried about?"
Strange seemed to be utterly frustrated. He leaned back with closed eyes, covered his forehead, then rubbed his face vigorously, flicked his cape, sat down at the bar, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Do you know, this might make Thor challenge me to a duel!"
"So you're afraid you can't beat Thor. There's no need to worry about that. Until Loki returns safely, Thor definitely won't have time to bother you."
"What about after?!"
"Once Loki's back, he certainly won't sit by and let Thor beat you up."
"Yeah, he'll help Thor beat me up!"
"Really?"
Their eyes locked. In the instant he met Shiller's gray eyes, Strange felt scorched and suddenly turned his head away.
"Even though this might help Loki get acquitted, afterward, our reputations will be tied together."
"Oh, I see, you're worried his reputation will drag you down?"
Strange didn't have a chance to respond before several accusatory glances came from around the bar. He slammed the table, then said, "I'm not involved with him! I..."
"No wonder Thor disagrees," Polaris shrugged and said.
Strange covered his forehead.
"It's just a piece of gossip," said Shiller. "In the context of the entire economic society, tabloids write every relationship ambiguously, even the Supreme Wisdom and the Scrool Emperor. No one takes it seriously."
"Jury members are affected by this because they choose to believe it. That way, they have an excuse to side with Loki, like shooting an arrow before drawing a target."
"People might even suspect this is a rumor spread by the Interstellar Court itself. It exonerates Loki while appearing forced and avoids retaliation from the Skrull Empire. Anyone interested in such rumors is more concerned about its political significance than the truth."
Shiller placed a beer in front of Strange, the bottom of the glass hitting the table with a "clink." "...Unless someone is guilty."
Strange took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, unless someone feels guilty, why else would they hide it from Loki?"
"I haven't hidden it from him."
"Are you saying he's aware and agrees with this plan?"
"Whether he previously knew or not, he definitely knows now. As for agreeing... Since he hasn't opposed it, he must agree."
Strange couldn't help but sigh deeply, "He's currently imprisoned, how can he oppose?!"
"Oh, right. If he suddenly tells the prison guard, 'I have nothing to do with the Supreme Magician', the Skrull Empire might release him overnight to prevent you from truly attacking their capital."
"Alright, it's come to this, let's eat first." Shiller served a steak to Strange and then said, "If you and Thor get into a fight, I'll definitely back you up. Don't worry."
Strange sneered coldly, said nothing, and focused on eating. Polaris whispered on the side, "I think they're up to something."
"Who's up to something with whom?"
"Everyone with everyone."
"If Batman asks me what intelligence I've gathered in this universe, I wouldn't even know where to start," Arkham Knight couldn't help but say, "Truly, every family has their woes."
The Robins who had come along finished their meal and went to the warehouse in the back to get gear. Then slowly, some other teams also came over for preparation, and there were wounded coming for recovery.
The wounded were Batwoman's Robins. Yes, after returning to her own universe, she found some assistants too. However, they weren't gender-swapped versions of Dick and the others, but two girls from Atlantis, a pair of sisters.
Generally speaking, both of them are superpower users, not easily injured, but unfortunately, their superpowers are water control, and in this universe, water is scarce, making their abilities useless, ultimately being tricked by those aliens' traps.
Other Robins in the tavern helped the two sisters upstairs. Shiller gave them an injection of healing potion, but perhaps due to the Atlantis bloodline, the potion wasn't very effective and they could only wait for self-healing.
More teams brought those black boxes. They all had the same structure but were buried in different locations. As more boxes were dug up, Shiller realized he probably needed to get professionals to take a look.
By evening, a teleportation portal appeared at the tavern entrance, and Reed came out of it.
Shiller didn't bother with small talk and placed the stack of boxes in front of him. Reed waved his hand and said, "I'm not interested in this pile of junk. It might affect mages' portals but has no effect on mine."
"...Why? Peter said these could interfere with all energy creations."
"My teleportation portal is not an energy creation."
"Huh?"
"I've researched the Shi'ar Empire's great teleportation gates; we can't use them. On one hand, the maintenance cost is too high, and on the other hand, if it explodes, the whole galaxy would be affected. The safety is far too low; even the Shi'ar Empire couldn't protect it."
"So what are you planning to do?"
"We'll just punch a hole in the space."
Despite knowing Reed's personality, Shiller couldn't help but hold his forehead. But Reed confidently said, "We can only use this method; it's the safest way."
Shiller looked as if saying, "Do you want to hear yourself talk?"
"Actually, past teleportation portals were also about punching holes in space," Reed changed his phrasing. He picked up a napkin beside him, folded it, then used a knife to pierce through the layers and said, "This is the principle of a regular teleportation portal. Fold two spaces together, then make a hole, and you can go from one end to the other."
"Where do you intend to punch this hole?"
Reed took another napkin, this time laying it flat on the table, gripping the knife handle tightly, and plunging it downward. The bar used ordinary wood, so after the paper was pierced, the wood also had a small hole, with the knife standing upright in it.
This puzzled Shiller somewhat, mainly because the explanation was too abstract, and he said, "You might as well just explain the principle."
"We are using the concept of the Antimatter Universe," Reed said. "According to my calculations, the cosmic constants in the Antimatter Universe are different from ours. In short, where we move one meter here, it might be a hundred meters there. The principle is actually much more complex, involving the structure of time and space. But you can understand it this way."
"So what's the safety aspect?"
"The energy of a teleportation portal is used to fold dimensions, so if energy is withdrawn or the structure compromised, this folding becomes unstable." Reed picked up the previous napkin and gently twisted it, making the folded two sides move in different directions, causing the previously punched hole to shift and no longer allow light through. He continued, "This is the problem with most teleportation portals."
"My system, due to not involving dimension folding but rather directly connecting to the Antimatter Universe, creates a one-time link. Even if subsequent energy is withdrawn, the hole remains. If created at specific locations in specific ways, the passage will be very stable and indistinguishable from material creations. No one can interfere or close it."
"You're saying we make a hole to the Antimatter Universe and, because their constants differ from ours, we walk a short distance there which equates to walking long here, reaching further, then emerge from their hole. Not to mention what's inside the Antimatter Universe, don't you think this takes too much time?"
"As I said, this involves the concepts of time and space, not just the space concept but also the time concept. In terms of time needed for traversing there, it's relatively static here. And when entities from our world traverse there, they don't walk physically but move mentally, akin to a game's loading screen. I admit, it might be slower than usual teleportation, but the safety is greatly improved."
"Sounds too incredible," Shiller couldn't help saying; he couldn't imagine what principle this operates on.
"Thus, we won't encounter anything in the Antimatter Universe, including those pests. Because essentially, we're not truly going over; we're merely using that universe's constants to recalculate on ourselves. It's a mathematical process. You can understand it as transferring files in the phone from one folder to another but during that's done using a computer's processing power…"
"Getting more far-fetched," Shiller said. "Alright, even if the process you describe holds true, how do you ensure those pests in the Antimatter Universe don't invade?"
"You still didn't get it. We've created a channel, but it's not a channel; it's akin to a transcoder. We are not sending people over, so naturally, the pests can't come over…"
"Let's stop discussing technical issues; just honestly tell me, is this thing safe or not."
"I can't say it's entirely risk-free," Reed said, "but I can guarantee it's much safer than existing teleportation portals. The efficiency is slightly decreased, but the stability and reliability are greatly increased."
"Any drawbacks?"
"It occupies computational power in the Antimatter Universe. But I don't think those pests would mind. Also, there's a practical application issue; within specific areas, the singular points where passages can open are limited and relatively fixed."
"You mean we can't freely choose locations and must open portals at fixed points you calculate?"
"Correct. That way, the safety is heightened. However, the singular points are relatively evenly distributed; there's no problem setting up a transportation system across the Milky Way."
Speaking this, Reed pulled out a tablet from his bag, placed it on the bar, pointed at it and said, "Here's the map I've planned for the Milky Way high-speed transit network, what do you think?"
Taking a glance, Shiller found it to be a 3D map of the Milky Way. He approached it and gingerly dragged it around, indeed noticing, as Reed said, the distribution was fairly even, with important star systems included.
However, with a slight zoom-in, he spotted an issue. Shiller pointed to a location and said, "Don't you see there's a problem with the singular point here?"
"No way there's a problem; I calculated it, and calculated it twice," Reed shook his head confidently.
"What if there's already something there?"
"Just move it a bit."
Shiller stared at him, offering a wry smile, and continued zooming the map, pointing at the label and saying, "While labeling it, did you check what the name of the planet at this singular point is?"
"…What is it?"
Reed leaned over to take a look, finding Shiller had zoomed in on a familiar star system, and the planet at the labeled point was notably marked—"Earth."