"Each of us wrote a plan and placed it in this room," Reed explained. "We only know our own plan, not others', and we don't know if our plans can work together, nor what effect they will have. The complete plan is in the room."
Little Superman blinked in surprise. He vaguely understood what was going on but wasn't very detailed. He tried to speculate, "If these materials were burned, then no one would ever know the complete plan."
Reed nodded and said, "Yes, because we don't even know who participated in the plan's formulation. If it's burned, we wouldn't even know whom to ask for a copy."
"You don't even know who's involved?" Little Superman asked, puzzled. "Then how did you collect these plans?"
"Of course, it was voluntary submissions, utilizing the technology of Battleworld, completed jointly by superheroes from two worlds."
"Would Batman be involved?" Little Superman asked.
"Certainly, although we don't know specifically who's involved, we can guess part of it. For example, on our side, what I've learnt is there's Iron Man. He's originally my collaborator, having done a lot of research in this area, and he knows I've participated. Of course, there's Shiller, maybe mutants, and on your side, surely Batman..."
"So doesn't that mean you know?"
Reed, however, shook his head and said, "Precisely because it's participated by two Great Worlds together, no one can fully understand the situation of the other world. Even Batman, without Battleworld sending an invitation letter to a specific superhero, has no channel to contact people from the other world. People from the other world don't know him either, even if they've heard of him, they lack understanding. Sometimes, the information barrier is also a defense."
Little Superman began to ponder, having heard of Battleworld needing invitation letters previously, he felt it was redundant. Since an exchange platform is established, let everyone go. If you don't want some overly destructive villains to go, just blacklist them and let others freely interact without needing to invite one by one.
It seems now that some limits are not just to limit the number of people but more importantly to block the flow of information. The unobservable state also has its effects.
"Under such circumstances, no one knows how many plans are in this room," Reed continued, "No one knows whose plans conflict with whose, or whose can cooperate, meaning the success rate cannot be determined."
"I understand," Little Superman nodded, "You opened a mailbox, letting those who are aware of the existence of fate write down their plans to counter destiny and send it to this mailbox, but it only goes in, not out, and no one knows what's inside. These plans collide randomly within, and the result is uncertain."
"Whether these plans can lead to a destination after colliding cannot be determined, meaning whether you are truly resisting fate is also uncertain. This way, you won't fall into fate's trap by resisting destiny."
Little Superman has his own understanding. It's like you let a class of kids throw candy into a black box, each one only knows the color of their own candy, but is completely unaware of others'.
When you pick up this box and start shaking it, the candies inevitably collide, just like these numerous plans inevitably intersect. But which candy collides with which, whose plan intersects with whose, is uncertain.
Since it's cannot be determined, it's unknown what outcome this chaotic intersection of plans might lead to. This makes the final destination countless. Given countless destinations, the roads become countless too, and once roads multiply, it naturally becomes a square, and thus predetermined arrangements hardly apply.
"But there's still a problem: for the participants, some results are unacceptable, while others are highly desired. How can you reduce the probability of the former and increase that of the latter?"
Little Superman raised his own question, and Reed explained, "There's a key figure in this plan, I think you've met him, otherwise, you wouldn't be here."
"Shiller?" Little Superman immediately recognized, "What's different about him?"
"He's one person, but not just one person. Have you heard of dissociative identity disorder? Or, personality fragmentation?"
Little Superman nodded, "Several different personalities living in one body. Is Shiller suffering from personality fragmentation?"
"Sort of," Reed said. "While he himself thinks not, the manifestation looks similar. More importantly, he has over two thousand personalities."
"?"
"Hypothetically, currently, there are three thousand people submitting plans into this room, and one thousand of them are Shiller..."
"Wait a minute," Little Superman interrupted, "I'm a bit confused."
He began thinking, still using the kids and candy metaphor. Suppose one kid has the right to queue repeatedly whereas others can only throw in one candy. This kid can repeatedly queue and throw in candies, then to some extent, he can control the ratio of candy colors inside the box.
For example, this kid prefers red candies, so he repeatedly queues and throws in more red candies, making it easier for other candies to collide with red ones when shaking the box. This probability is indeed skewed.
Or, he can specify a category instead of a color, for instance, warm colors. This kid throws in different candies each time, but they're all warm colors, increasing the probability of other candies colliding with warm-colored ones.
"But..." Little Superman thought for a moment, then said, "But wouldn't fate then know his destination?"
He meant that if using Shiller to manipulate probabilities, wouldn't Shiller himself know his destination? It's like he alone controls most of the plans so fate needs only target him to disrupt everything.
"This is crucial," Reed said. "Shiller is an outsider, the fate of two worlds impacts him less."
"That's not right," Little Superman said. "I'm an outsider too, even if fate can't directly arrange my actions, it can create accidents around me, forcing me to proceed in a certain direction."
"That's why I said the impact isn't that significant, but it definitely exists," Reed said. "You can also guide him through the people and things he interacts with, even using some special cosmic rules to alter his identity, making him accept certain fates."
"But what's peculiar is Shiller himself might not know his destination."
Little Superman showed a puzzled expression again, Reed continued, "His over two thousand personalities, although residing in the same Tower of Thought, using the same memory bank, can choose not to view."
"As long as they don't observe other personalities' memories, it means they don't know each other's plans. But since they are the same person, the plans they formulate naturally tend to align, enabling a lack of precise destination yet pulling in the same direction."
Little Superman suddenly realized, "So actually, you're leveraging the traits of multiple personality disorder to create this plan. The real black box isn't this room, but Shiller himself."
Reed nodded, thinking this Superman was quite intelligent, having grasped his point swiftly.
Little Superman started to think deeply, being a comic book reader, he was skilled in stepping outside the involved perspective to analyze issues. He wasn't fixated on the mechanism of dissociative identity disorder or probability theory; his thoughts were quite simple.
To put it bluntly, this is a card drawing game. Those wanting to defy fate aren't the ones drawing the cards, but the creators of the card pool. They built a card pool for fate to draw from.
Normally, each person fills in one card. Fate can draw any of them, hence fate cannot figure out which card people want it to draw, nor can it plan in advance for the drawn card.
However, people want fate to draw certain cards, especially ones helping them escape fate. At this time, Shiller is needed to pollute the card pool.
Since he's the same person, he places many cards tagged with Shiller in the pool, causing fate to easily draw him. It's already difficult to influence him, and different Shillers don't communicate, so it's not apparent what cooperation they're planning.
For fate, it's immensely challenging to foster, plus they're scattered, lacking coordination, unclear on which direction to nurture. On the other hand, for those resisting fate, Shiller can attract fate's attention while his method of polluting the card pool prevents fate from drawing the worst outcomes for them, hence increasing the probability of positive results.
Little Superman had to admit this tactic seems absurd, but upon thought, it's rather clever. Facing fate, a mysterious and unnameable entity, Little Superman believed the best counter-strategy is to skillfully respond to every move, safely maneuvering through every mishap created by destiny, which is quite commendable.
But these smart folks turned the tables, creating a scenario for fate, knowing it wants to draw lines to anchor fate's trajectory. So they utilize uncertainty to forge countless endpoints, aware it aims for negative outcomes, they artificially disturb probabilities for positive results.
"Now..." Little Superman looked again at that wall.
"This naturally has its purpose," Reed said. "If it were you, what kind of accident would you arrange to open this black box?"
Little Superman paused for a moment: "Why should I open it?"
He quickly realized there was a deeper meaning in Reed's words. He wasn't actually advising Little Superman to open it, as Little Superman arrived too late, having not participated in the planning - this room had nothing to do with him. Reed's real question should be: how would fate open this black box?