Shiller took a sip of wine and let out a slow sigh.
For a long period of time, he had been busy making various people suffer, from focusing on Valhalla and death to the point where OAA hung this cosmos outside the big world, he had been busy with long-term planning and overlooked a very tricky problem - the growth of young heroes.
A little bit of thought about the current situation of the Earth reveals that what human civilization lacks now is talent, not superheroes.
The scope of talent not only includes scientists who master knowledge and technology, but also the technical and inventive talents are not in short supply. What is lacking now is mainly those with good organizational ability, a heart of justice, and plenty of physical and mental energy for official matters.
To some extent, how many waters a bucket can hold depends not only on the short and long boards of the bucket but also on the density and hardness of most other boards. If most of the other boards are leaking and lacking screws, then discussing how long the long board is and how short the short board is, is meaningless, because it's destined to leak.
The problem faced by humanity lies in the fact that besides Shiller, almost no one imagined that the era would develop so quickly, and young heroes representing Avengers Internship Members, Matt's students, and independent youth hero teams like New Warriors Team were still being trained as superheroes for a long time.
They have a sense of justice, are full of vitality, and under long-term guidance and training, they have commendable physical strength and strategic minds. The only problem is that they have too many muscles in their brains.
Although education is based on people, and what individuals can develop into depends on their own talents and efforts, it is not impossible to find problems from the social level.
Shiller has almost single-handedly propelled human civilization forward by a large step, but after pushing this big step, he's been busy spinning the wool ball. As a result, these young superheroes, who could have been the best talent reserves, are still confined to defending justice on the streets, punishing evils, and fist fighting with enemies.
Those with strong organizational abilities, at most, can pull up a team like Nightingale and barely make the team work without causing too much trouble.The ones with bad organizational abilities are even weirder. Some are loners, some are talkative with masks on and socially awkward without, some are irritable and do not listen at all, and some are too soft and hesitant, believing whatever others say.
This sounds like character defects, which seem hard to correct, but in fact, it is just that their teachers, elders and peers in their educational environment have not realized that their future responsibilities will require them to have good judgment, the courage to decide in time, the focus on the target from beginning to end and unwavering determination.
Because being a street superhero does not need these traits, just needs to be kind enough and able to fight, but the time change too fast now, street superheroes can no longer solve the problem, or using them to solve the street law and order problem too wasteful, so they naturally have to learn these traits.
So, the fundamental contradiction that the young heroes are facing now is the contradiction between the growing demand for leadership talent reserves on Earth and the inadequate education received by the potential young heroes.
When Shiller got a bit more idle, he noticed this. But because he had not been paying attention to these young heroes for a while, he did not know their level. So he managed to find Matt in advance, hoping to understand and know about the level of the young heroes.
But Matt showed him how capable these young people are, which made Shiller realize that the problem of inadequate education in some aspects is not students, but teachers.
The teachers' concept has not changed, still hoping that everyone can have strong physical strength, a peaceful state of mind, and kind thoughts. This is not wrong, but it is not suitable for the current era.
Therefore, education centered on these aspects seems a bit outdated, and Daredevil Matt, Captain America Steve, and even Stark who taught Spider-Men knowledge and technology, are not good at sociology, they don't know how to weave a net, let alone spin a wool ball.
Obviously, in this era, it is unrealistic to solve problems with brute force alone. As the wheel of history rolls forward, the tide of the era washes the sand, many contradictions have no right or wrong, but are just conflicts between the new and the old.
So the concept of first judging good from bad, then keeping the good and overthrowing the bad, will inevitably give birth to metaphysical methods of dealing with things. If not restrained, it would only do harm to good intentions, turn justice into dictatorship, and fall into another trap of zero-sum thinking.
Shiller clearly knows this, but he knows more that he can't directly rush up to everyone and say "You have taught wrongly" or "You have learned wrongly." Strong force and a just heart are always essential, but Shiller is more concerned about the missing part.
So, Shiller sent Hydra Agents to the protesting Bronx, but these agents did not deliberately intensify conflicts, they did not stop the riots, but let them flow, observing what kind of method young superheroes as represented by the New Warriors Team adopted to face this matter.
This can be called a benchmark test, although Shiller does not care about their good or bad grades, just need an evaluation result, but the final result can be called terrible to the extreme.
The restraint and caution that Matt has always stressed to these young heroes have become another kind of shackle. Those young people who are originally impulsive and irritable, although they are restrained and won't cause big troubles, those who are originally decisive leaders would also become afraid and hesitant because of this.
This can be said to be the worst result.
Shiller, in reality, was not worried about the young heroes being impetuous, making mistakes due to lack of experience, or being blind to what's right or wrong. What he feared the most was the young people showing an indecisive attitude; swaying left and right, neither moving forward nor retreating, wanting to speak and act but not daring to do so.
Because the former mistakes were just due to their youth, they could be easily rectified with the growth of their experience and knowledge. However, if they were the latter, it would imply to some extent that their personalities were being shaped by an unhealthy environment.
Professor X's assessment of Queen Lilandra of the Shi'ar Empire was exactly this. Agreeing with something but not daring to fully agree, disagreeing with something but not standing firm against it - continually comforting herself with the benefits she reaps, but in reality, she's just lacking in judgment and bravery.
The environment that shaped Lilandra was certainly bad; she grew up in repression. With no inheritance and no favoritism, she had no one to rely on. Thus, she had to always tread cautiously. Over the years, this shaped her into a fearful, indecisive personality.
Perhaps from another perspective, the young heroes of Earth were also in such environments. The high-level planners like the members of the Luminous Alliance never discussed any strategies about human future development with them. The heroes close to them, like Daredevil Matt and Captain America Steve, were not full-time teachers but merely guided them in their free time.
Their comrades were just as confused as they were. In the waves of the times, their short ten or twenty years of life experience was not enough to provide answers to all problems. Nobody told them whether they were important or how to make themselves more important.
So, they became blind followers of the era. They empathized with the plight of the lower-class citizens, yet felt frustrated because their abilities surpassing the average person could not change the situation.
The way they dealt with this pain and confusion was to think.
That's why, two months after the protest in the Bronx erupted, most members of the New Warriors Team were still pondering - and not even close to a conclusion.
The highly virtuous Spider-Man was wondering who was to blame. Nightingale, who came from the wealthy class, was deliberating which class should bear more responsibility. Speedball Robert was thinking about how to make everyone happy without hurting anyone. Xu Shang-Chi was considering the pros and cons of productivity development for ordinary people.
Everyone sat there daydreaming, and because they didn't think about the problems together, they didn't act together. Knowing they couldn't just wait to die, they reluctantly patrolled for several months as if by maintaining public security, they had resolved the issues.
From Shiller's perspective, the schemes of the older generation had already factored in a significant margin of error for the young heroes. Even if they caused a huge explosion that killed dozens or hundreds of people, Shiller could still figure out a way to bring them back from the Realm of Death.
But their lack of action, while preventing mistakes, in the long run, would dull their judgement, their ability to seize opportunities, and the inspiration needed to make plans.
In due time, a wider stage would definitely be available for the individuals of the Luminous Alliance. These young heroes would eventually need to step onto the stage and lead humanity forward. But by then, if they only excelled in fighting and hesitated when making decisions, that would truly be a disaster for human civilization.
Over dinner and drinks, Shiller shared his thoughts with Matt. He mentioned: "I had already contacted Spider Silk and gave her an individual mission to search for the most distinctive universes across the cosmos, particularly the dangerous ones."
"Among the feedback I received, I found a distinctive universe. And Spider Silk's feedback was that simply casting her attention to this universe via the Spider Totem had caused her Spider-sense to go off as if her brain was about to explode."
"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" a wide-eyed Matt asked.
"Indeed it would be, and it's a danger beyond reason and imagination," Shiller nodded: "What's most important is that the young heroes' abilities, significantly more potent compared to normal, might not guarantee their survival."
"What?" Matt grew louder, his blank eyes stared at Shiller's, "How can you ensure..."
"Although they will definitely get hurt and bleed and even possibly die to some extent, I won't just throw these greenhouse flowers into Hell without doing any preparation."
"In fact, I've already sent people to scout the examination site, eliminating all unnecessary obstacles as much as possible, and even slightly lowering the difficulty."
Shiller finished his last sip of wine and placed his glass on the table. He looked into Matt's eyes with a cold gaze that Matt could not comprehend and said:
"Don't blame me for letting the children that are close to you go to their deaths. If I had a child, they would certainly be the first to face it."
Then, in Shiller's focused eyes, that neurotic smile appeared again.
"After all, when it comes to tormenting my own children, I have a long-standing experience."