Marvel Magic Case Files

Dinner was brought to the tent by the maid that day, but Captain Miller had no appetite.

Dinner was quite lavish. The emperor, in another tent, seemed to value his guest's health highly. Even in the wilderness, he didn't need to survive, and he could enjoy extremely nutritious field rations and meat that Captain Miller had never tasted before. This was already very satisfying. It was said that the Imperial Guard had hunted down a lion while on a reconnaissance mission. He didn't have any psychological barriers to eating protected animals. What really made him lose his appetite was the information he had received from the emperor.

In the center of the enormous tent sat a rough, long table carved from logs. Behind it sat a tall man in armor, his face identical to the one in his dream. The moment he saw the emperor, he felt his overwhelming presence. Even though the tent wasn't crowded at all, and could even be described as spacious, he felt breathless. Even so, Captain Miller felt a powerful sense of oppression, as if the very air around him spoke of the emperor's power, capable of even robbing him of his breath and heartbeat. Unlike the gentle conversation in his dream, he felt a profound fear.

It's not that he hasn't met politicians before.

Before becoming an astronaut for NASA, he was a test pilot for Lockheed Martin, facing auditors from Congress and the Pentagon on numerous occasions, and sometimes even questioning from members of Congress. While some might feel nervous in the presence of those in positions of power, he despised cunning and greedy politicians who always had one eye on their own coffers and the other on what could fill them even more, using this as a standard to measure everything in the world—as if everything had a price, the only difference being whether one could afford it.

This time was an exception. Captain Miller could sense that the man before him held the power to decide his life or death. The gaze of a ruler was scrutinizing him, the Emperor judging whether he was worth wasting his time on—just like the lessons he'd been taught in high school: authoritarian rulers were inevitably cruel—he knew that under that gaze, he had no power to decide; only the man behind the long table did. Captain Miller didn't consider himself stupid; he had recognized the Emperor long ago. Even the guards protecting the tent and the Emperor's armor made him recognizable, because He was the focus of the entire world.

Even if the White House and the Pentagon were unwilling, the conflict that occurred at the UN Security Council was a global spectacle. The air defense facilities deployed by the US Air Force Command on the East Coast became a laughing stock worldwide, and for the first time, all Americans truly felt that even in North America, they were not safe. This was a fear that North American countries had never experienced before. No matter how politicians propagandized it, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq did not have the capability to invade North America; only an emperor had that capability.

Just as Americans feared Soviet paratroopers during the Cold War, the media bestowed upon Him a series of terrifying or admirable titles, exaggerating His abilities and wealth, and fabricating non-existent slanders and myths. What followed was a frenzied spread of despair and patriotism; extreme nationalism and extreme liberalism, much like during the Vietnam War, resurfaced, even influencing presidential elections. Captain Miller scoffed at the media's lies.

He never trusted the media, because they only spoke for their financial backers. Now he was beginning to believe some of it—not to the point of believing the absurd ideas instilled in him by schools and the media that authoritarian rulers were synonymous with evil, nor was he as easily excited as the masses over "freedom" and "9/11." He knew the truth about the war—he believed the emperor possessed superhuman power. He had no doubt that such a man was incredibly charismatic. The world's mainstream media were speculating about why he was able to assemble such an army of peasants and workers, occupy the entire Balkans except Greece, thwart NATO's joint military operations, threaten all Mediterranean countries including Spain and Egypt, and threaten the defense and economic security of all of Europe. Some speculated that the emperor wanted to rebuild a nation like the Roman Empire, treating the Mediterranean as an inland sea.

He didn't yet know why the Emperor could speak to him in his dreams, but he was certain the Emperor possessed some kind of power he couldn't comprehend. He dared not deny the supernatural events, but after experiencing such a tragedy, he was wary of them and those with supernatural powers, including the Emperor who had saved him. If even a gentle man like Dr. Will had gone mad, who could say other people with supernatural powers wouldn't follow suit?

He also did not believe that the emperor would save him without a reason; his life must have been measured.

The emperor ignored him and continued with his work.

He faced a portable computer and a portable printer. The armored maid was currently binding printed documents with parchment paper beside the printer. Captain Miller approached and saw a longsword and a large-caliber pistol he had never seen before on the table. He could faintly smell the propellant emanating from the muzzle. He had never seen this type of weapon before, much less any ruler of any country who would actually use weapons to kill.

In his mind, those who held power at most collected ornately decorated weapons, or perhaps engaged in aristocratic sports like shooting frisbees and wild ducks with double-barreled shotguns. He simply couldn't imagine those members of parliament going to war with guns; pens for signing documents were far more lethal than pistols. True rulers had no need to become soldiers themselves, even though he knew such rulers possessed immense charisma and that such authoritarian rulers who killed tens of thousands of people would be utterly impossible to produce under an elected system.

"Captain Miller." The Emperor shifted his gaze from the computer screen to the only guest in the tent. "I'm glad you've recovered. Your crew has been rescued; there's no need to worry about their health, including Justin."

"I am very grateful for your help, Your Majesty. That title is quite rare these days." Captain Miller sat down across the long table, guided by a maid. "While I don't follow current events closely, I don't think I would be unaware of a certain impressive ruler."

The emperor could hear the sarcasm in his tone.

He laughed and gestured for the maid to bring him and Captain Miller a glass of strong liquor. He then took a sip in front of Captain Miller as a gesture of goodwill.

"Nostalgia, Tennessee whiskey," Captain Miller licked his lips. Every gram of weight on the spacecraft had to be calculated. During a space mission, astronauts other than Russian cosmonauts had virtually no access to any alcoholic beverages, let alone spirits. "I haven't had anything like this in a long time. I'm curious, as an emperor, how could you drink such cheap, commoner's liquor?"

"This bottle of liquor was at the very bottom of the supply crate. Diana thought it wasn't sophisticated enough and could only be used to bribe the cavemen. However, with all the brandy and vodka gone, this bottle of whiskey seems quite precious. The grains we found after the last time travel weren't suitable for brewing, and my appreciation of wine is limited to whether it suits my taste. In comparison, I prefer this liquor."

"How long was I unconscious?" Captain Miller asked.

"According to the timetable on the assault boat, it should take about a year. But as you know, time has no meaning inside a wormhole."

Both sides remained silent for a while, only the printer continuing its tireless spitting out papers. After a few minutes, Captain Miller couldn't help but bombard him with a barrage of questions. "If I'm not mistaken, we've time-traveled. Where are we?"

"I don't mind answering your questions slowly, Captain Miller, consider this a rest." The Emperor picked up his cup and pushed a scroll on the table in front of Captain Miller. "I must admit to you that there are many things in this world that humans cannot explain, things that are simply beyond the comprehension of humanity due to the limitations of our knowledge at that time. Like Asgard—I'm sure you know about it—the so-called Aesir gods are nothing more than a group of aliens with technology far surpassing that of humans, nothing more."

"The thing that controls Dr. Will isn't some technology that humans don't yet understand," Captain Miller replied irritably. "I thought you'd be willing to tell me the truth, at least that's what your Royal Guard says."

"I'm willing to tell you, but I don't know if you want to know," the emperor sighed. "The more you know, the more desperate you become; at least most people lose their courage because of too much knowledge."

"I want to know."

Captain Miller was even more unhappy after getting the answer.

In short, they had time-traveled again during his coma, and it was incredibly fortunate that they were able to return to Earth. Time is a parameter describing the motion of an object; if they had blindly embarked on hyperspace travel, their next landing point would most likely have been in space or inside a planet—the Emperor showed him the data in those scrolls, including day-night temperature differences, atmospheric oxygen levels, planetary rotation periods, plant species, and so on, and used this data to deduce their current time and planet.

It's now certain they're still on Earth. Their exact time can only be determined based on geographical location and astronomical events. The only saving grace is that the Imperial Guard didn't find any dinosaurs or other prehistoric animals. The Emperor expressed regret, jokingly saying he'd love to keep a trilobite as a pet, though the oxygen levels on Earth at that time might have caused oxygen poisoning for ordinary people like Captain Miller.

At the same time, the Emperor also acknowledged to him the existence of things in this world that many humans considered supernatural. However, the Emperor claimed that this was due to the inadequacy of science and technology, leading to the birth of many superstitions—using Asgard as an example, he argued that so-called superstitions, gods, and magic were merely explanations limited by the experience and dogma of the time, and that another dimension could still be explained scientifically, only that humanity's knowledge had not yet reached that level—the murder of the crew of the two spaceships, Dr. Will, and his wife Claire, was by predators from another dimension. The Emperor called them extradimensional entities, while Captain Miller preferred to call them demons; he didn't believe they were things that could be understood by rational humans, but he didn't refute this.

He always felt that the emperor was hiding something from him, but he couldn't understand what the emperor was hiding from him.

"How do we get back to 2016?" Captain Miller asked the question he most wanted to know.

"There are many questions about time travel, but I think we may still follow Novikov's principle of self-consistency, namely the circular world line. Our actions will only lead to an increase in entropy in isolated systems, while non-isolated systems may experience an increase in entropy to balance the excess entropy."

After answering the questions, the emperor also made his own request.

This relieved Captain Miller; he had finally reached the point where his life would be measured. He had long known that someone like the Emperor wouldn't save him for no reason—the Emperor claimed he had a space fleet that needed a captain. That fleet was far larger than the one that had sailed to the edge of the solar system to rescue him, and therefore required many qualified crew members. Although he hadn't seen the so-called space fleet, Captain Miller believed him without hesitation—even though when he saw the information about the ships in the files, many of the spaceships were over ten kilometers in size.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to command that fleet. When we return to our original point in time, we will face an extremely severe space naval battle. I need qualified captains and officers," the Emperor said. "I need you to be the captain and train the crew. I need your help, Captain Miller. Without you, Earth cannot defeat the invaders."

"Alien invasion? Or demons?"

"I prefer to call it an extradimensional entity; please remember that name. Faster-than-light travel cannot leave the extradimensional realm for the time being, and most people do not yet know what lies within it. I also do not wish them to know, as this would rob them of the courage to explore. If humanity loses its courage, it will forever remain an infant. An infant cannot face this dangerous universe."

After the emperor finished his drink, even Captain Miller could sense his displeasure.

"For now, we're only facing aliens. I've warned governments around the world that an alien fleet is approaching Earth, and that Earth is their target. As you might guess, before we have sufficiently advanced observation methods, such warnings are often seen as crazy rather than rational."

"So, where are the crew members?"

"Once the Imperial Guard finishes its reconnaissance, we will select suitable teenagers from the local indigenous communities. With sufficient education and knowledge, I believe they can accomplish the mission."

"I won't live that long," Captain Miller gasped, feeling like he'd been fooled.

"You can, Captain Miller. You've been in a coma for a year, but do you feel your muscles atrophying?" Hearing this, Captain Miller involuntarily clenched his arm. Aside from the pain of just waking up, he didn't feel weak. This was another question, so he turned to the Emperor, who answered, "Your time has been artificially frozen. You won't awaken until I confirm you haven't been contaminated by outer dimensions."

Although it sounded unbelievable, Captain Miller believed it was true. The whole world knew the Emperor possessed extremely advanced technology; artificially stopping time might not be surprising. Captain Miller felt he understood this world less and less. "You mean, I survived because you allowed it?" Captain Miller was somewhat unconvinced. He glanced at the pistol on the table, then at the greatsword, and finally concluded that the Emperor was telling the truth. "Why me?"

"If you were dead, I would only be able to find a suitable candidate from among the educated indigenous children. Now that you are alive, an experienced astronaut would be perfect for the position I have prepared for you. In addition, I greatly admire the courage you have shown, and I hope that every human being can have your courage when facing extradimensional entities."