"Yes, the Temple of Eternity is located in nothingness, a place you can't just fly to. Dimensional jumping won't work either. Without coordinates, using any common method won't get you there, so don't waste your efforts. I'll pass on any messages to you, so don't worry too much."
"That's right, Abstract Entities have emotions. They are the personified forces of law, and each has a different personality. If I had to say, Eternity and Death are quite lively, while the others are somewhat introverted..."
"Dimensional Demon Gods are rare for you guys too? Hard to believe! But they are indeed more mysterious than ordinary Demon Gods, since they have their own dimension and rarely show themselves. Oh, you've met Mephisto? That cunning old goat..."
"I'm usually too busy, after finishing surgery I have to teach students at the Magic Academy, then head back to Kamar-Taj for work. But now with the high-speed rail connecting to Kamar-Taj, I can go to Sichuan for lunch..."
"You're talking about Mutants? Their magic is different from the kind I use. They rely on talent and must have the gene to use it. For my kind, you don't need that, but you still need some Magic Talent, it's quite mysterious. If you have it, you do, if not, you don't."
"Electronic Life? Of course not. How could pure logic beings learn magic? They don't even have the ability to associate, they definitely can't learn. Robots can't either, unless they are the kind with a soul and emotions, which would make them no different from ordinary people."
Strange picked up the cup next to him and took a sip of water. His mouth was dry from talking, yet these ministers still stared at him with bright eyes, as if he were a tasty dish or a beautiful sight. The green glow in their eyes was like starving ghosts reincarnated.
Tonight's meeting felt particularly strange, Strange thought. The environmental work itself was already baffling, and his subordinates surely had many questions for him. Yet, when he asked about the progress, each one thumped their chest loudly, swearing to complete the task.
When he asked if they had any problems they needed help with, they shook their heads like rattles. If he pursued the matter, it would seem like he didn't trust them, and though he was indeed skeptical inside, he couldn't say much due to encouragement purposes.
Then the evening meeting ended with all topics covered. There were no more details in the script Shiller wrote for him. Then these ministers began talking to him about random things, asking for news about the Temple of Eternity one moment, and then about the progress of the human race starship.
What made Strange despair was that even the work group chat they roped him into was now filled with cat emoji packs! Where did these guys even download them from?!
He could understand that they might be learning some pop culture to get close to him. But the problem was, he wasn't very trendy himself, most of the popular memes online were beyond his understanding. Now interacting with these aliens made him feel like the outsider!
Moreover, many memes in English were in acronym form, just a few capital letters could represent a sentence. Additionally, since several countries used English, each country's English memes differed slightly. So as they chatted on, Strange had to look up what those acronyms or some English slang meant. It was truly making things difficult for Americans.
The evening meeting was originally only half an hour long, normally, the interstellar council did not encourage overtime work, but for some reason, these people just wouldn't leave. He had refilled his water glass several times, his throat was about to go up in smoke, yet no one showed any intention of leaving.
Strange was really quite tired, so he could only wave his hand and say, "Okay, if there's nothing else, don't hang around here, go home!"
Everybody left reluctantly. Even though their bodies had left the council office, their souls stayed in the group chat sharing emoji packs, chatting fervently until midnight. Strange got up late at night to use the bathroom, and when he opened the group chat, the emoji packs had changed from cats to panda heads.
The next morning, as soon as Shiller walked into the office, he saw Strange holding a phone, tugging at his hair.
"Come over here and take a look," Strange called to him, adjusting his monocle on his eye, squinting like an old man, pointing at the phone screen and saying, "What does this say? What's the meaning of this Chinese sentence?"
"Oh, it's just praise, saying you're great." Shiller replied quite half-heartedly.
"Then why is it with this expression?" Strange frowned, "It's clearly sarcastic, isn't it?"
"Don't you have a translation app?"
"The translation app says the same thing as you." Strange sighed, "I'm afraid I'll never understand the trends."
He tossed the phone onto the desk, leaned back. Before his back had touched the chair, Jarvis beeped twice and said, "It's time for the morning meeting, everyone is ready, just waiting for you."
Strange jumped up like a carp maneuver, walking toward the door while still glancing at Shiller and saying, "Those ministers have been acting very strange lately, it's definitely your doing, right?"
"I'm just encouraging them to work hard," Shiller smiled and said, "Of course, I think you don't need my encouragement, right?"