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Chapter 521: Schiller's Descent into Madness (2)

"Quickly! Find a solution quickly! Bring him back to the real world! Hurry!"

Stark was becoming like an ant on a hot stove; he felt that if they continued like this, Schiller might not even want to resurrect, and that would be a disaster.

"But we can't convince him right now!" Steve was also anxious. He said, "I've seen similar situations on the battlefield before. When emotions break down completely, the more you console and persuade, the less they listen."

Charles looked pensive and said, "That's normal. That's why treating mental illnesses sometimes requires medication. Otherwise, you can never calm a patient down enough to accept treatment."

"But this is a dream world. Where can we find calming medication?" Stark furrowed his brows and asked. Then, he thought for a moment and looked at Charles, asking, "Professor Charles, even if you can't use force to modify Schiller's memories, can you at least stabilize his mental state?"

"If it's only this personality, perhaps it's possible. But if it's related to that high tower, I'm afraid I can't. How can I calm down a tower?"

Charles recollected and said, "If I remember correctly, without passing through that high tower, Schiller's personality can't rise to the surface of his consciousness. He can't control his body."

"The high tower has so many personalities; I can't hypnotize each one of them. If we try to bring this stabilized personality up, we'll definitely be stopped. Forcibly breaching is unlikely."

"Wait!" Stark and Steve exchanged glances. Steve was the first to speak, "Right now, it seems like there aren't many personalities in his high tower."

Charles also realized this because he knew that Schiller's consciousness was spread thin. Charles said, "He seems to have dispatched many of his personalities to deal with the gods of Egypt. We can use this opportunity to put this stable personality to sleep and then take him to the high tower. We can let him rise to the surface of consciousness..."

"It won't work. Schiller's body is currently in a death state." Steve raised an objection again. He said, "The problem is, how do we resurrect him?"

"Let me think... Let me think..." Stark rubbed his chin and paced in the corridor. He said, "If we follow this principle, as long as Schiller's soul returns and his body returns to a living physiological state, he can resurrect."

"His soul hasn't been obliterated. So, as long as we restore his body, his soul can return, and he can resurrect."

"But as you saw before, those kinds of fatal injuries, how could he come back to life?" Steve said with a touch of frustration.

However, Stark quickly said, "Ordinary people might not be able to, but don't you remember? Blue Spirit and the others told us that Schiller also has a unique symbiote within him. It's the source of Schiller's power to transform into Grey Mist."

"For a symbiote, there's almost no wound they can't heal. We just need that symbiote to repair Schiller's body, then let his soul return, and he can resurrect."

"In theory, it should work." Steve nodded and said, "One more question: how do we get that symbiote to repair his body? We're not Schiller; we can't control it."

"He should have independent intelligence. As long as he has intelligence, we can persuade him." Stark stopped his stride and then said, "Alright, that's the plan. Let's give it a try."

He looked at Professor Charles and continued, "Professor, you're in charge of calming down the personality in the room. Then, we'll follow the same path and bring him back to that high tower."

"After we return to the high tower, Steve, you'll watch over him. I'll try to find the consciousness of the symbiote that might exist in the high tower, then attempt to persuade it to repair Schiller's body."

"Once the body is repaired, we'll elevate this personality to the surface of consciousness, let the soul return, and Schiller will resurrect."

"Afterward, we'll control his body, find a way to calm him down, and then discuss the matter of him accepting mental treatment..."

Stark's rapid succession of plans was understood clearly by the other two. When they narrowed their eyes, an invisible force spread out, gradually slowing in frequency. All conscious beings present felt an irresistible drowsiness.

"Wait! Professor! You can't calm us down too!" Steve, heavily drowsy, protested.

Charles paused briefly. Stark and Steve managed to break free from this state, but near the table inside the room, Schiller's head, which had been continuously talking to the Balance, began to droop and gradually rest on the table as he fell into a deep sleep.

In the depths of his consciousness, Charles felt as though he heard a sigh, a sigh filled with relief.

But he didn't detect anything unusual. The plan continued smoothly. Stark and Steve entered the room, lifted the sleeping Schiller, and saw him holding the Balance. Stark hesitated for a moment but decided not to take it from him.

As they carried Schiller out, Khonshu, who was waiting outside, was taken aback by Schiller falling asleep. However, he still led the three along the same path back to Schiller's Temple of Thought.

Steve and Khonshu brought Schiller back to the hospital room on the 10th floor of the asylum. The owner of that room was absent at the moment, making it the perfect stronghold for them.

Steve wanted to search for Grey Mist's consciousness with Stark, but Stark refused. Considering that Schiller could wake up at any moment, Steve ultimately stayed behind to watch over the sleeping Schiller.

After leaving the 10th-floor asylum, Stark stood at the staircase junction, feeling torn between going up or down.

Suddenly, he heard a "thump, thump, thump" sound. He leaned over the railing of the atrium to look down and saw young Schiller chasing a gray ball.

The ball looked familiar, like highly condensed gray mist, resembling a slime. Stark was momentarily taken aback, then quickly descended the staircase, intercepting the gray ball.

Young Schiller, who had been chasing the ball, was surprised when he saw Stark. At this point, Stark had picked up the ball.

The gray ball Stark caught suddenly transformed with a "pop" into a floating Grey Mist. Stark saw two eyes composed of swirling patterns. If he wasn't mistaken, the expression of this Grey Mist seemed to be surprise.

This was the first time Stark had spoken to such a being. He hesitated for a moment, not sure how to start, but he eventually said, "I'm Stark, a friend of your master Schiller. Do you recognize me?"

To Stark's surprise, Grey Mist actually nodded—though it was hard to determine its head, Stark realized that it intended to nod.

"Alright, listen. Your master is facing some trouble. I know he might have told you a plan earlier, asking you to remove the defenses of his body so he could face Death. But the problem now is, his soul is in trouble. If we don't resurrect him, we can't give him the treatment he needs..."

"So, I hope you can control yourself to repair Schiller's body. This way, when his soul returns to his body, he can resurrect..."

Stark spoke rapidly, not expecting the entity in front of him, which looked like escaping exhaust, to understand. Yet, much to his surprise, Grey Mist emitted a puzzled emotion and then Stark actually heard a voice say:

"...What did you say?"

"You can talk? Why didn't you speak up earlier?!" Stark stared at Grey Mist.

"He doesn't allow me to talk to strangers." Grey Mist replied, saying, "And, I smell the scent of an annoying guy on you..."

"An annoying guy? Who? Wait... it couldn't be that Rotten mud, right?"

"Correct, it's him. He's sick, and I don't want to play with him. Keep your distance."

"Alright, you're not wrong about that. That Rotten mud is indeed sick... No, that's not what I meant. Did you understand what I said earlier?"

"But I can't go against his orders." Grey Mist replied, "If he didn't tell me to do it, I wouldn't."

"But it's for his own good now..."

Stark had just finished speaking when he suddenly froze. The argument he had just used seemed like something he had heard a long time ago.

He recalled that Schiller had asked JARVIS the same question in his car the first time they met. Later, Schiller had asked him the same question.

So, Stark cleared his throat and asked Grey Mist:

"If one day, Schiller is on the brink of death, and a decision you make could save him, but he strongly opposes it, what would you do?"

"If you follow orders and don't save him, and he dies, would you regret it?"

"If he dies, do you think he would regret creating you before he died?"

"If he dies, would he resent you?"

"If he resents you, would you blame yourself?"

"If given a chance to start over, would you make a different choice?"

"If you defy Schiller's orders and choose to save him, and he blames you afterward, would you feel unjust?"

"If you defy Schiller's orders to save him, and he wants to kill you for disobeying, would you resent him?..."

Stark presented these questions to Grey Mist with his astounding memory, but the scene he expected, like a program crashing, didn't occur. Grey Mist responded:

"In principle, I won't go against his orders..."

Instead, it was Stark who was taken aback. He looked at the Grey Mist entity and said, "In principle won't... what does that mean?"

"It means you have to pay."

"I..."

Stark covered his forehead. How could he forget? Symbiotes' main characteristic is that they bond with their hosts. Clearly, this symbiote hadn't bonded well.

"What do you want?" Stark asked.

"After he wakes up, if he notices a sip missing from a bottle of liquor, just tell him it was lost during transportation. How about that?"

Stark didn't fully understand Grey Mist's request, but it didn't sound too difficult. So, he agreed.

Afterward, Grey Mist disappeared from his sight. After a while, it returned and said:

"The body is repaired. The elevator is over there. The elevator operator is off today. If you want to leave, it's best to do it soon..."

Stark felt a bit strange, but his anxiousness prevailed. He hurried back to the asylum and placed the drowsy Schiller in the elevator. They returned smoothly to the level of conscious thought, and after that, each of them woke up from the dream, returning to reality.

After they left, Grey Mist let out a sigh and also entered the elevator. It ascended to the hospital level. Two figures were leaning against the railing of the atrium, looking down.

Grey Mist approached and rubbed against one of the Black Suits. ?????dcSchiller patted Grey Mist's head and said, "Don't think I didn't hear you earlier. Did you steal some alcohol again?"

"I didn't. It was lost during transportation!"

Schiller shook his head helplessly and lit a cigar. He said to the green-haired figure next to him, "Honestly, we managed to convince the 'Id' to cooperate with us..."

The green-haired figure burst into a series of chuckles but didn't say anything.

dcSchiller touched the wound on his forehead and said, "To let a patient handle so much work, for such an incredibly unethical action, a little bit of revenge is only reasonable, right?"

"But you must have other motives, don't you?" The green-haired Schiller turned his head and asked.

dcSchiller snorted coldly. He said, "You might think I'm the crazier one, but in reality, it's the opposite. He's much crazier than I am. The most maddening emotion in this world is greed."

"To use self-sacrifice to probe some curiosity-driven secret is routine for him. But I need to have a backup plan in case he tries to get us killed."

"So?"

"Having childhood autism, witnessing the brutal murder of parents, forming an anti-society personality due to psychological trauma, and ultimately contributing to society through personal efforts..."

"This story that piles on various protagonist elements should provide us with a great guarantee for survival in this world."

"Why are you so sure that this can be our origin story?" The green-haired Schiller asked.

The Schiller in the Black Suit took a drag of his cigar and exhaled smoke. Through the haze of smoke, he looked down at the lower levels and said:

"It's not the story that's important, it's the one telling the story."

"When several immensely important existences in this world are all narrating this origin story..."

"The story ceases to be just a story."

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