Fate doesn't want to shake the box filled with candy. It wants to open the box and see what color the candy inside is. Because only by doing so can the trajectory of fate be determined, allowing everything to operate in the pattern it desires, rather than developing into increasingly bizarre outcomes amidst a jumble of haphazard plans.
From a reader's perspective, Little Superman understands that fate just wants everything to return to a major event rhythm, with unexpected situations, disasters striking, powerful enemies invading, joining forces against enemies while internal struggles occur, or defeating external foes, rebuilding homes, or being utterly destroyed and starting anew.
No matter if each Superhero wants such a life, no matter what stage of life they are in, no matter if they want to play a role in these major events, they must follow this path.
And it cannot tolerate the character who should act as the accident generator suddenly stops causing trouble, the character who should incite internal conflict suddenly unites with others, or the character who should destroy everything in the end abandons the idea of world destruction and chooses to live a peaceful life instead.
But these things can happen amidst the collisions in the black box because everyone is unaware of each other's plans, and thus doesn't consider others when making decisions. The lack of cooperation means anything can happen, including many outcomes fate doesn't want to see.
The best solution is to break this black box, let at least one person know all the plans, then arrange for this person to guide all uncertain plans into a definite line, and follow those traditional storylines.
However, Reed clearly took precautions; he started a fire in there before leaving, possibly using methods he didn't even understand himself, so he doesn't know what consequences this fire will cause.
This results in two possibilities for opening the black box: either all the information is still intact, or at least most of it is, which could guide a definite line, and that would be favorable for fate.
But the other possibility is that most of the information has already been destroyed, which complicates things greatly because then it would be impossible for anyone to know all the plans.
Supreme Little Superman couldn't help but ponder, if the real black box is Shiller, then there's no need to gather everyone's plans and put them in this room. Because if they didn't put them there from the beginning, fate wouldn't have the chance to open it, only accepting the senseless chaotic collisions.
They must have had a reason for doing so, and the only possibility is that they wanted to guide fate into opening this room.
If there's absolutely no chance to break the situation, fate likely wouldn't take action, but if there's such an opportunity, allowing someone to open the room, they could learn all the plans and then guide the storyline towards the direction fate wants, then fate might send someone.
The key lies with Schrodinger's cat; for fate, after opening it, it might succeed, or it might not, so how would it choose?
Or rather, for Reed, is it better for fate to succeed or not?
Logically, it's of course better not to succeed, but still, as said before, if he didn't want fate to succeed, he simply wouldn't put it there. So, it means he wants fate to succeed, but why?
Little Superman's super brain is already considered one of the more efficiently used among the Supermen, but Mr. Fantastic is truly worthy of being the one with the highest wisdom in the setting. His series of operations are making Little Superman's super brain smoke a bit, what in the world is this about, Lei?
He honestly can't see the point of creating this room, wouldn't it be better to prevent fate from making any moves directly? Why intentionally expose a flaw?
Couldn't figure this out, Little Superman switched angles, pulled himself over and asked what fate would do. In other words, Reed wants to know how the screenwriters would write this.
Little Superman isn't stupid either, he can tell Reed has already discerned something from the "nonsense" he spoke earlier, which is why he's asking him. So, what would the editors do?
Little Superman carefully considered through all the comics he had read and thought that the editor wouldn't take this risk at all.
Suppose the plot has reached a point where a black box has to be opened, and inside this black box there's a 50% chance that the plot would completely fall apart, like a ball of yarn with countless loose ends, not knowing which thread to pick up the next storyline, then this comic series would essentially collapse.
If the popularity of this comic series is still decent and there's some profit to be made by continuing, then the screenwriter certainly wouldn't open it; opening it and messing everything up would not only result in no financial gains — which is a minor issue — but also draw criticism, which isn't worth it.
This is why many American Comics become increasingly formulaic because screenwriters and illustrators don't have great pay or ample skills, and yet some old characters still have a lot of fans. Drawing innovative plots would displease readers easily, inviting criticism, so they just draw the old formulas all over again.
And then, due to receiving criticism for drawing too many clichéd comics, they face pressure from above to innovate; ignoring plot logic and character setting for the sake of anti-cliché resulting in disgusting plots, many such comics harbor resentment within the lines, purely aiming to retaliate against society.
Moreover, if the writers open this black box, they must reveal at least one or two plans from within, right? This would be the collective wisdom of the cosmos' brightest minds, even coming up with a barely coherent plan would cause significant hair loss, and those lazy dog writers certainly wouldn't put in this effort.
You can see it from the Sentinel Robots; writers love forcefully creating settings because creating settings is simple; a setting only requires a sentence, while explaining the principle requires considering cause and effect, historical background, motivation, and methods. If they truly had this ability, they wouldn't be a small-time writer at an American Comics company, they would have already gone to Hollywood.
Moreover, when writing innovative plots, the worldview needs to be explained, and screenwriters may be more willing to use their brains. However, if it's a brainless repetitive filler plot, everything follows a template, and there's no need for anyone to bother crafting plans in a black box.
Little Superman thought for a moment. Although many screenwriters follow templates, it's hard to say if they might just run into the innovative camp. So he asked, "Has your cosmos always been experiencing some repetitive events? The general process is..."
Little Superman briefly described the process of traditional comics. Either a great disaster occurs or a civil war breaks out, or sometimes both happen simultaneously. He feared Reed wouldn't understand, so he added, "I'm referring to the general direction; the details might be a bit different, such as a group having some peaceful and happy days or someone suddenly having an epiphany. Those don't count."
Little Superman was referring to some independent publications, where quite a few personal and independent comic artists seem more humane, with relatively high standards, able to create some well-liked or more logical stories. But this doesn't represent the overall tone of the cosmos.
"If you know the history of our cosmos, then you'll know we are those typical cosmoses you've mentioned." Reed was cautious, avoiding using words like games or comics, only using cosmos to refer, "The things you mentioned have happened countless times in our cosmos, almost always the same."
"That's right," Little Superman snapped his fingers, "You are a traditional cosmos, the kind without much innovation. In that case, I can bet that the screenwriters won't open this box."
"Really? What will fate do then?"
Initially, Little Superman didn't understand the question, but soon he realized that Reed was asking, if they don't try to open the box, what will the comic draw next?
Although Little Superman hadn't been there for long, he could roughly understand that this comic should be about the struggle with fate. But the problem is, if the screenwriters don't want to risk the storyline becoming completely chaotic and can't craft the tons of plans inside this room, they decide not to open the black box; it can't end here. Otherwise, it's a bad ending, right? There must be something drawn later, to provide an ending?
At this point, Little Superman suddenly remembered the reason he came here seemed to be attending a wedding. Previously, Wanda had mentioned that he was going to help at the wedding, so is the main storyline of this comic actually the wedding?
Typically, comics have both a clear line and a hidden line. If this story is a comic, the surface is preparing for a wedding, while secretly it's a battle with fate; the wedding is the clear line, and the struggle with fate is the hidden line.
That means Reed's black box is actually guiding fate, steering the hidden line in this direction. When it's almost finished, they use the black box to block it up, preventing the hidden line from continuing, thus forcing only the clear line to be drawn.
"It's probably the wedding." Little Superman said, "If you don't want to draw overly adventurous and complex plots, it would be better to draw a wedding. At least there's a fixed process with a wedding..."
At this point, Little Superman suddenly realized.
"So the key is the wedding?" he asked, "You want to ensure the wedding proceeds smoothly, thus creating this black box so that the screenwriters can't expand on the conspiracy behind the wedding, and can only focus on the wedding itself?"
Reed finally laughed, "This is not my arrangement, and you were not sent by me."
"Shiller?" Little Superman murmured, "It can only be him."
Recalling Reed's previous plan to pollute the card pool, it's very likely that Shiller added a bunch of his cards in the pool. Fate draws one, Shiller comes to stir the situation, fate draws another, Shiller stirs it again, and finally, fate draws all cards which unexpectedly derail everything.
And since Shiller is a single person, their actions have a tacit understanding, all pointing towards the same goal, which is to ensure the wedding goes smoothly.
The accidents destined by fate to ruin the wedding have all been stirred up and resolved through previous card draws. Fate now has to turn to the hidden line, but the hidden line is blocked by the black box. Fate has no choice but to focus on the wedding. However, the wedding's accidents have already been resolved...
Little Superman realized that fate has no other options.
But Little Superman is a bit worried that if the screenwriters decide to ignore logic entirely, and create a super awkward accident to ruin the wedding, like a meteor dropping from the sky, dinosaurs reviving, or even vegetables jumping up to attack, what should be done?
He decided to go and talk to Shiller, even though they excluded all accidental situations and blocked the hidden line, the screenwriters might still ignore virtue, inventing a ridiculous machine plot twist, so precautions must be taken.
Having crafted such a large plan, if it ends up failing due to some trivial ploy, it would be a shame. Little Superman considered Shiller an old friend; it's rare to have someone to chat about comic plots with. He had a good impression of Shiller and wished him success.
He quickly bid farewell to Reed, returned to Earth, and arranged to meet Shiller at the previous café.