The office was as silent as a grave.
"I only found out yesterday." After turning off the television, Professor Witten looked at the dumbfounded Professor Wilczek and continued, "It seemed this wasn't the first time he had made such remarks... And just a few hours ago, I heard my assistant joking with me that a charlatan had joined our research team and was tirelessly preaching in the lab all day."
Rubbing his index finger and thumb together uneasily, Professor Wilczek spoke with a grave expression.
"When did it start?"
"A week ago, after that experiment."
"...I never expected that experiment to affect him so deeply." Taking off his glasses, Wilczek rubbed the bridge of his nose. "How should we comfort him?"
"That's for you to think about. Don't even dream of pushing the responsibility onto me." Staring at his old friend, who seemed to want to kick the ball to him, Witten gave him no chance to do so. "You signed off on the list of researchers for the 5 TeV Lead-Ion Collision Experiment project team. Now that something has gone wrong, aren't you going to clean up the mess?"
"Did that really happen..."
Muttering quietly, Professor Wilczek saw that Witten had no intention of letting him off and finally sighed.
"...All right, I seem to remember now. That did happen."
After spending half a minute thinking about how to solve the problem, he finally made up his mind and looked up.
"Without question, he has gone mad."
"My suggestion is that Professor Milo take some time off. At the same time... we must find a way to stop him from making such irresponsible statements in IMCRC's name."
"This is a temple of science, not a place for preaching mysticism. If he truly believes in that nonsense... he would be