The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4161 is, The Supreme Mage (Part 1)

New York's first snow came a little later than usual, and colorful gift boxes filled the shop windows. As Christmas carols echoed through the streets, this holy winter lady gracefully descended from between the skyscrapers. Snowflakes swirling in the breeze under the eaves resembled the hem of her pristine white skirt.

The crowds continued their hurried pace. In Times Square, people wore thick, long trench coats, scarves wrapped around their necks, carried lead-gray tote bags or handbags, and wore beanies, passing by gleaming shop windows. Standing on the sidewalk under the traffic lights, their faces reflected the flashing colors of the advertising screens, their lips turned down. When the light came on, they quickly crossed the streets and alleys, their steps firm as if they truly knew where they were going.

For ordinary people, this winter is nothing special. They are still working hard to finish the last of their year's work, hoping to leave before Christmas. The lights of big cities are gradually fading, and more and more fashionistas are appearing in remote towns. No matter where they are, sardines can't truly consider the canned goods on the factory assembly line their home. They yearn for the ocean, and no matter how much they feel homesick, they will eventually have to go back.

For the superheroes, this will be an incredibly busy winter. They'll be busy cleaning up the mess, repairing broken bottles and jars, and clearing the house before Christmas so they can have a festive New Year.

As the central universe of the multiverse war, Asgard suffered far greater destruction than imagined. Dimensions shattered, and the power of nightmares wreaked havoc everywhere. Asgard was in ruins, and many things were broken. They didn't even have much time for a post-war review before they were busy cleaning up the mess.

Meanwhile, the destruction caused by the power of nightmares affected more than one star system. Many civilizations were drawn into it, including the Shi'ar Empire, the only non-mechanical empire that had not attacked Asgard. The three empires were weakened equally, but there was no power vacuum. Asgard and humanity had to use this time to fill the resulting void. This was their most pressing issue recently.

Schiller was sitting in his office at the sanatorium. He had finished completing all the medical records, but that didn't mean he could relax. He was preparing the report needed for the S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting in half an hour.

Regarding humanity's right to a place in the Interstellar Council, various factions hold differing opinions. Predictably, it's a scenario where conservatives feel the radicals are too conservative, leaving only the choice between radicalism and even greater radicalism, between greed and even greater greed. However, the real issue they need to discuss is how to satisfy their greed without causing major chaos. They've already held over a dozen meetings on this topic.

Because everyone has so many opinions and ideas, we asked each person to submit a personal statement before this meeting. There are no strict requirements; just write down whatever comes to mind. After all, when we put them all together, we can summarize some key points.

Schiller was adding to the report when there was a knock on his office door. He looked up and saw Strange standing outside.

"Are you here to pick up the medical records?" Schiller pulled out the few medical records he had just finished writing and handed them to him, then said, "You haven't done many surgeries this month. Are you too busy being a janitor?"

Strange sighed, sat down across the table, and said, "Don't even mention it. If you include the distance of the portal and the faster-than-light engine, I'm averaging tens of millions of light-years of steps a day now. After running like this for over a month, I can even find time to perform a few surgeries. The title 'Hand of God' is truly well-deserved."

Schiller laughed and then said, "So, how much did you find?"

Mentioning this, Strange grinned. The two of them laughed like two huskies for a long time before Strange pursed his lips and said, "Indeed, quite a lot. Andromeda, Centaurus, Libra, Triangulum, Cygnus... basically all of them were affected. Hundreds of millions of civilizations were disrupted, resulting in countless extinctions and migrations. The equipment and relics that were dropped and left behind are naturally countless. If it weren't for the Flerken helping with the transport and Franklin creating a pocket universe for storage, these things alone could fill several solar systems."

“Sounds like you’ve had a good start.” Schiller nodded in satisfaction, then said, “Have you seen the S.H.I.E.L.D. notification? How’s the report coming along?”

Strange shook his head and said, “I haven’t written a single word. Don’t look at me like that. I guarantee most superheroes couldn’t write anything. We already gave up all our strength in the last war. This kind of annoying politics is not our domain.”

“You’re always like this,” Schiller sighed. “When faced with problems like these, you’re unwilling to use your brains, so you never improve. Are you going to hand in a blank paper again this time?”

"Shouldn't it be okay to just write a couple of sentences?" Strange said uncertainly. "Even if we write something serious, our opinions won't be adopted, so we might as well just write something casually to save time."

How do you know it won't be accepted?

"With our political acumen, the most perfect tricks we can come up with are not even half as insidious as those of the congressmen. Don't ask us to do this kind of thing, otherwise what are we even good for? We're just sitting around doing nothing 365 days a year. Now that we've finally entered their field, if we don't hurry up and shine, then we should really be buried alive."

"Although the basic laws of politics are common among intelligent life forms, ordinary people cannot become the political leaders of Earth. Although their physical condition and lifespan have been greatly improved, they are still too fragile compared to others. Although they can become advisors and members of parliament, the representative figure still needs to be a superhuman with all-around abilities."

What's wrong with Captain America?

"You said it yourself, he's Captain America. Do you think other countries would agree to that? Besides, although his political acumen is relatively good among you, he still lacks the ruthlessness that politicians should have."

"So the question now is whether we need to elect a leader? And this opinion piece is the ballot?"

“You can understand it this way,” Schiller nodded and said, “As long as a leader can be elected, the subsequent problems are easy to solve. But the problem is that the selection is very difficult.”

“Then Nick,” Strange said again. “He’s doing a good job leading S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Bureau of Time is doing well too. Spider-Man listens to him a lot, which proves he has strong leadership skills. And of course, he’s ruthless, as you mentioned. Why not choose him?”

"How much of the Interstellar Council's funding will actually reach Earth, and how much will end up in his own pocket?"

Strange was somewhat speechless.

“However, he does have a lot of supporters,” Schiller said. “Similarly, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. also has a lot of supporters. Iron Man is the same, Doctor Doom is very popular, and there are Magneto, Professor X, Jarvis, and so on. Each of them has a group of loyal fans.”

"So who did you vote for?" Strange asked, somewhat curiously.

"Never mind that for now. I just want to ask you, who do you want to vote for?"

Strange looked troubled. He said, "I have to admit that the people you've mentioned each have their own strengths and weaknesses. They all seem good at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they all have some issues. By the way, can I vote for you?"

“Of course not,” Schiller shook his head and said. “If I could, everyone would vote for me, but I would refuse.”

Why are you refusing?

“I am not a good leader, do you understand what I mean? I have a lot of good ideas, I know how to handle complex things, I can steer things in the direction I want them to go, and I can handle a lot of complicated problems at the same time, but that doesn’t mean I can be a political leader.”

Strange seemed to understand somewhat, but not entirely, so he asked, "Why is that?"

"What kind of person is Odin? What kind of person is Magneto? And what kind of person are you? Where do you see the difference between me and you?"

After thinking about it very seriously, Strange said, "I think what we have in common is that we are both very stubborn, and because of our stubbornness, we are determined. You are also very stubborn, but your stubbornness is not quite the same as ours, and I can't quite put my finger on it."

“It’s not that,” Schiller shook his head and said. “The key is that you can comfortably place yourself in a leadership position and then give orders to others. That’s an essential quality of a good leader.”

"As if you've never ordered around anyone else," Strange said dismissively.

“It’s different.” Schiller shook his head again. “I have never ordered you to do anything. I can guide you, I can tempt you, I can use all sorts of means to leave you with no choice, but you always have to make a choice. Even if there is only one option, you have to choose for yourself, not just do whatever I tell you to do.”

"So why not?" Strange asked, somewhat puzzled. "I mean, why don't you just direct others directly?"

"Would you listen to me if I gave you orders? Don't forget who it was that, when I first came to this world, berated me for half a day just because I was late. Back then, if I told you to do something, would you have done it?"

"Isn't it your fault for being late?" Strange retorted righteously. "I had dozens of surgeries waiting for me, and I waited for you in the conference room for a full half hour, and all I did was say a few words to you. Do you know how long I would have yelled at you if you were my intern?"

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore." Schiller waved his hand, bringing the topic back on track. He said, "Rather than directly ordering someone around, I'd rather go through a roundabout way, help them eliminate all the options, and then let them choose the only one themselves. Even if you value my opinion later and listen to me, I will still choose to do it this way. This isn't your problem, it's my problem."

"So why?"

"You can think of this as the last safety measure on my broken engine. If this behavior pattern hadn't slowed down my efficiency, our universe would be crashing around the entire world at billions of times the speed of light right now, and could have smashed the OAA into the holy spring of the neighboring heaven."