What did it mean to lift a rock only to smash one's own foot? What did it mean to tell one lie and need ten thousand more to cover it up? Strange's current predicament perfectly illustrated both sayings.
Before he had seen through Schiller's intentions, Strange had needed to cover for his sudden proposal of environmental protection work. So he had racked his brains for an excuse and announced it at the regular meeting: cosmic resources were being depleted, and dark matter had begun to fluctuate. He had even sent Little Thomas to fabricate evidence. Data monitoring records in black and white could not be faked.
"I was just about to mention that," the Supreme Intelligence said. "The dark matter monitoring equipment used by the Bolins was purchased from the Kree Empire. They sent us a set of dark matter monitoring data, and the readings were highly abnormal—nothing short of disastrous. But there is currently no conclusive evidence that this was caused by excessive consumption of cosmic resources. I do not think that argument holds up. Perhaps we can address the dark matter outbreak from other angles."
Schiller remained unhurried. He sat before Strange's desk, while the Supreme Intelligence stood beside it. Schiller turned slightly toward him and said, "Do the Three Great Empires have the ability to resolve a full-scale dark matter outbreak across the universe?"
"We can suppress some dark matter, reducing its activity or preventing it from increasing further."
"But presumably not all of it. Not even most of it, correct?"
"That is correct. But now that we know about this, we can conduct research in that direction. The Three Great Empires possess ample resources and scientific reserves. I believe it will not be long before we can handle this problem."
"That is good," Schiller said. "But