"Don't just laugh—say something. How much longer do I have to put up with this?" Strange asked.
"Do you really think you're putting up with it? Don't you think this situation is quite good?"
"What's good about it?" Strange asked in confusion. "They haven't said a single thing of substance. I don't even know how far they've pushed the environmental protection work."
"Oh, so you really want to advance environmental protection work." Schiller wore an expression of sudden realization. "I never expected you to be an environmentalist."
Strange was on the verge of collapse. "Weren't you the one who told me to advance environmental protection work?!!"
"If you don't know the progress of the environmental protection work, how do you know it hasn't progressed?"
"Because they would have told me if it had!"
"You can't even understand what they're saying. How do you know they didn't tell you?"
Strange opened his mouth, only to find himself somewhat unable to argue back. He really had not paid much attention to what those people were saying, and he had no idea whether any actual facts had been buried beneath that mountain of function words and adjectives. He tried hard to recall it, but could only say that it was fortunate Dream Power Doctor Strange had blocked him. Otherwise, that brief moment would have sent him back into dreamland.
"So it did progress?"
"No."
"Then what do we do?"
"I think you seem to have gotten one thing wrong," Schiller said. "We demanded that the work be advanced in order to turn things into what they are now. We did not work hard to turn things into what they are now in order to advance the work. You can't get cause and effect backwards."
"...What?"
"What do you work hard for? Money? Status?