Chapter 1983: Lighting the Wondrous Dream in the Heart (Part 13)

The afternoon sun grew even more scorching. Everyone shifted their focus to indoor activities, heading to various theaters to watch performances or visiting the Princess Fairytale Hall to take photos with the princesses.

The group became quite busy. Strange and Nick were occupied with chasing down and arresting the rowdy little mages and agents, then apologizing to the performers who had been affected.

Bruce spent the entire time in the park hunting down Eddie, who was carrying Venom. Venom had inherited some of Batman's abilities, leading to a grand battle of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance between the two.

Lucifer and Natasha had afternoon tea together. They chatted quite congenially, mostly due to mutual attraction, and somehow ended up at the hotel entrance.

Clark and Diana had no interest in the reconnaissance battle, nor did they want to return to the hotel so early. They prepared to head to the two areas on the far west side to play through the attractions they hadn't tried yet.

Loki and Thanos were at the Castle Hotel discussing attraction development and, incidentally, exchanging details on recent interstellar security work.

As for Schiller, his mind was already filled with his "wondrous dream." He was with Stark, researching the form in which this so-called Disney magic array existed.

Schiller had only the Tomorrowland area's attractions left to experience, so he and Stark headed to the Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin first.

This attraction involved riding in a slowly rotating vehicle and using a handheld gun to shoot at targets. Stark had already played a round, so he said, "I suggest you don't hold your expectations too high. The handling of these guns is like a pile of dog shit, and even the laser sights are crooked."

"So that's why you lost to Steve, right?"

"That proves nothing. Besides, he used to be a grunt carrying a rifle, while I'm a scientist. Why doesn't he challenge me to mental math?"

There was a heavy sense of resentment in Stark's tone; clearly, Steve's performance had bruised his ego. Schiller guessed it was highly likely that even without proper handling and with crooked laser sights, Steve still hit whatever he aimed at—Captain America and a target were a match made in heaven.

So, Schiller said, "My shooting level should be about the same as yours. After all, I'm just an ordinary doctor. Want to compete for another round?"

Stark rolled up his sleeves and said, "I won't go easy on you this time. Just wait and see."

Schiller and Stark boarded the vehicle. Schiller discovered that the toy guns hanging by the back of the seats were indeed toys, and the laser sights and aiming mechanisms were indeed a bit crooked.

He noticed Stark staring blankly at the gun, so he lowered his voice and called out to him. Stark shook his head and said, "I used to play this with Howard. I could always win. He said that one day he'd let me see a real shooting expert."

"And that so-called shooting expert he spoke of was Captain America. He said he never missed a shot and was the most powerful warrior in the world."

"But Howard's own marksmanship wasn't bad either, was it?" Schiller had anticipated this. He said, "People who lived through the war years always had a knack for this."

Stark curled his lip and said, "I hate that self-righteous attitude of his, always coddling me like a child."

"Isn't it nice to be coddled like a child?" Schiller looked at the toy gun in his hand and said, "At least all the tourists in this park are being coddled quite happily."

"Enough talk. I must let you see what a real peerless sharpshooter is."

The track vehicle started, moving at a slow speed. The children on the ride held their guns with both hands, constantly firing lasers at the targets while shouting "pew-pew-pew," laughing every time they hit one.

Stark looked truly serious. He calculated the angle of the laser's skew, and if he missed once, he didn't linger, immediately moving to the next.

Schiller also held his gun with both hands, looking very serious. He didn't show false modesty; if he had some combat experience in cold weapons due to certain personality traits, he had almost never used a gun.

In his previous life, the country he was born in had strict gun control. Later, when he came to the United States, he mostly dealt with kidnappings or assassinations, and the noise of using a gun was too great. Thus, whether in Gotham or New York, Schiller had rarely touched a gun.

However, this had one advantage: he wouldn't develop the habitual feel of a veteran gun user.

Stark felt the toy gun's handling was awkward because he often went to shooting ranges and had a concept of how a real gun should feel. Finding no recoil, he naturally felt uncomfortable.

But Schiller, having almost never used a real gun, found it quite fun that the gun could fire lasers, simulate explosion sound effects, and even vibrate.

Thus, just halfway through the journey, Schiller's score crushed Stark's. Seeing Stark's face getting darker, Schiller didn't intentionally throw the game but finished the competition seriously.

When the track vehicle reached the end, Schiller nudged Stark with his elbow and said, "Best two out of three."

Stark snorted coldly but still walked toward the starting point. Just like that, the two played seven or eight rounds of the shooting game, spending a full two hours on this attraction.

The final outcome was that Schiller won. As they walked out of the game area, Schiller said to Stark, "Didn't you notice? It wasn't the gun's handling that affected you; it was the sound effect that played every time you hit a target. For you, that wasn't a reward mechanism, but a punishment mechanism."

Stark frowned deeply and said, "It was too noisy. How could they make a pistol sound like a shotgun? My head is about to explode."

"During the recovery phase of anxiety, you shouldn't be disturbed by noise. It bombards your nerves, causing your state to plummet. By the end, didn't you just not want to hit the targets at all?"

Stark didn't speak, which counted as tacitly agreeing with Schiller's guess. Because every shot resulted in a huge noise, it was truly torture. For Stark, it was rare for his desire to win not to overcome other emotions.

Schiller nudged him again and said, "This shows you're getting better. The paranoia brought on by anxiety is fading. You're starting to learn not to sacrifice your spirit and emotions to satisfy the needs of paranoia, but like an ordinary person, prioritizing your own comfort."

"And what about you?" Stark retorted.

"I feel quite comfortable with my paranoia."

Stark rolled his eyes, spreading his hands with an expression that said, "You're truly beyond saving."

Then he immediately held up a finger to signal Schiller to shut up and said, "If you try to steer the conversation back to how your treatment is highly effective and how I should double your consultation fee next quarter, I'm leaving immediately."

Schiller covered his mouth with a fist, cleared his throat, and then counted the number of floor tiles on the threshold.

Then they went to race go-karts. Honestly, this was another disaster because the go-kart design was a bit small, and both of them were quite tall, making it very uncomfortable to be curled up inside.

The track wasn't a professional one either; the protective barriers were two stacks of tires, and the length of the straights and the positioning of the turns were slightly anti-human. More importantly, this thing was also very noisy.

But for the sake of the competition, they played three rounds until the staff at the entrance recognized them both. As they left, they were even handed a few badges printed with the iconic buildings of Tomorrowland.

Then they went to ride the Space Mountain roller coaster. This roller coaster was relatively thrilling. On one hand, it was indoors, and the environment was almost pitch black, with only various cool light strips, giving one the feeling of traveling through time and space.

On the other hand, the ups and downs were quite significant. After riding Buzz Lightyear and then the go-karts, both were a bit overwhelmed by the time they reached the roller coaster. They only rode it once, and Stark stood at the entrance, holding the railing and dry-heaving twice, then said, "I shouldn't have eaten steak after the ice cream. I feel like my stomach wants to jump out of my body."

"I think we should go get some hot drinks." Schiller also felt a bit exhausted. He glanced at the sky; it was already past five in the afternoon.

But Schiller felt that the afternoon's journey was quite enjoyable. Although they kept circling between two attractions, for the sake of winning, they played with great focus.

Stark was a fairly good gaming partner. Although his mouth was harder than vibranium, he clearly completed every game seriously, and regardless of winning or losing, he wouldn't dwell on it for long, immediately diving into the next round. Occasional complaints were harmless and didn't spoil the fun.

With both competing seriously, the positive motivation brought by victory was quite strong, and they didn't realize it was dinner time until they were done.

For dinner, they found a nearby restaurant—a proper dining establishment, not a fast-food joint. This dining experience was much better.

The restaurant was relatively quiet, the food was above average, and the service was fast. Schiller, while cutting his black pepper salmon with a fork, said, "I plan to go to the Haunted Mansion again before the park closes. I always feel that the legend isn't a coincidence."

"But didn't you say earlier that the statue mentioned in the legend appears suddenly at 3:00 AM?"

"I plan to take advantage of the crowds to see if I can find any clues. If I do, I'll come back in the middle of the night."

So, after dinner, the two returned to the Haunted Mansion like thieves. But this time, they didn't immediately join the queue; instead, they pretended to take photos and started wandering around the courtyard leading to the entrance.

The statues in the Haunted Mansion were behind a small fence. The statues were cartoon-style busts, not very large overall, and a protective barrier was placed in front to prevent people from stepping on the grass.

As Schiller watched, he noticed something was wrong. He pointed to one of the statues on the far right and said, "Have you noticed they're a bit crooked?"

Stark squinted for a long time and took two steps back, then realized that the five statues placed there were slightly shifted to the left as a whole; the one in the very center wasn't aligned with the central axis but was shifted to the left.

"Perhaps there's another spot there." Schiller said while recalling, "I just checked online; the Haunted Mansion was the last project Walt Disney participated in designing before he died. Combined with that legend, this is definitely not a coincidence."

"Perhaps there's another spot there." Schiller glanced at the bustling crowd outside and said, "It seems we really do have to explore Disney at night." ===== CHAPTER 1984 =====