Chapter 3359

"I think it might be that he was sent here by his parents, lying on the hospital bed, watching the plague doctor wearing a bird-beak mask, receiving all kinds of patients."

"Because he was too young, he couldn't understand what the plague was. Coupled with the fact that the plague doctor's methods of treating diseases in that era were indeed too fantastic, he imagined all this as magic."

"People suffering from the Black Death are very painful. They might scream, howl, and claw. Because they couldn't understand this behavior, they would subconsciously add their own fantasies, seeing the patients who came for treatment as strange monsters, such as octopus men, raven men, etc..."

"But there are also things that can't be explained here." Schiller's fingertips tap lightly on the armrest of the chair, and he says, "These strange patients and the magical medical methods might all be imagined by this child."

"In modern medicine, basically every disease is interrelated, but here, the content in the manual is basically nonsense; it looks like it's not a scientific discipline developed naturally, but more like fantasy. This matches the statement of the conscious world."

"And some of the tools used for treatment here were also used by plague doctors in the Middle Ages. For example, they would use boiling sulfur water to disinfect, try to use a scalpel to remove the ulcerated parts of the skin, or use herbs to reduce the patient's pain. This part should be the child's memory in reality."

"But there is only one point that is not quite right, and that is the clothing worn by the patients who come here."

"Clothing? Are you talking about clothes?"

"That's right." Schiller nods and says, "People can't imagine things they have never seen at all. Even if these strange diseases and treatment plans are strange, they must have prototypes. Many of them look like part of the symptoms of the Black Death."

"But in terms of clothing and dressing, if this child has never seen the clothes of rich people, he must think that everyone in this world is dressed in dull colors. He can't imagine the luster of silk, doesn't know that clothes can be embroidered with patterns, and won't know that people can wear all kinds of jewelry. Only people who have seen this kind of dressing can imagine it."

"We said before that this child might have been sent here before he could remember things. Then he could only have seen people dressed like this in the ward."

"And the people he saw dressed like this were not just one or two. The clothes worn by the octopus man before were woolen fabric, the texture looked very good; the shirt worn by Mr. Raven was silk, and the bowtie was also tied very standardly. This is not something a child from a poor family could imagine."

"In that era, people with this kind of dressing must be nobles and rich people, even if they really had to be treated, they would invite royal doctors, and would not invite folk bird-beak doctors, let alone come to such a dirty and messy ward. Then where did this child see them?"

Strange also falls into thought. And at this time, Schiller proposes another possibility. He says: "Unless, this child is not here for treatment at all. He is locked here for another purpose."

"You don't mean to say..."

Schiller shakes his head again and says: "It shouldn't be. Patients who have suffered physical abuse, the fantasies in their spiritual world will present some of the same specialized characteristics, usually related to reproductive organs, and will also have more violent and bloody elements, not so calm."

"Then what could it be?" Strange thinks and says, "What use would a child have for these big figures?"

Strange thinks to himself for a while, only to find that Schiller hasn't made a sound for a long time. After he looks over, he finds that Schiller is distracted, not looking like he is concentrating on thinking; it looks like his soul has drifted far away.

"It's not dawn yet, maybe we can sleep for a while." Strange sighs lightly. He adjusts his posture, preparing to squint for a while, to see if he can continue the dream just now.

Finding that Schiller still doesn't respond, he thinks Schiller has fallen asleep. As a result, Schiller suddenly moves, as if he has just come back to his senses.

"What were we talking about?" Schiller's coughing sound sounds a bit like covering up. Strange narrows his eyes.

"What happened to you just now?" Strange asks.

"Thought of some things from the past." Schiller says, "I think it's a bit like the current situation, so I flipped through my memory to see if there were any common points."

"Things from the past? Things from your childhood?" Strange thinks and finds that he doesn't seem to have heard Schiller mention things from his childhood. And he himself is not as interested in Schiller's past as Stark. Schiller doesn't mention it, and he never takes the initiative to ask.

Strange knows that he is actually not a very curious person. His life motto is more like "If everyone can manage themselves well, the world will have a better tomorrow."

And, because of some experiences during his studies, he is also disgusted by people probing into his private life without a bottom line. The scope of private life includes what he is doing during non-working hours, and his background, past, family, etc.

At first, it might be because his background was not good and he was a bit ashamed to speak, but later it turned into "It's already the greatest tragedy to live on the same planet as you idiots, there's no need to discuss the differences in birth regions."

In general, Strange is a person with a very strong sense of boundaries. He doesn't violate other people's privacy, and he also refuses others to violate his privacy. He has no curiosity about other people's privacy and won't spend time and energy to explore these issues.

People around Schiller all want to know what exactly created today's Schiller. Even out of politeness, they won't ask directly, but once they have a chance to understand, they won't let it go.

But Strange has a vague premonition that Schiller's past looks very secretive, just because it might come from a very distant universe. But for him personally, this is not a secret; he doesn't want to speak it out not because of any mental trauma or pretending to be mysterious, but purely because he feels that discussing this issue is a waste of time.

Some pasts that might be called shadows for ordinary people don't count for much in his eyes, and it's not these things that forged him. Mentioning them would be like a boring account book.

And because Schiller is very unique now, most people have made up a very bizarre background for him, interspersed with some plots that most people can't accept, and then they think to themselves that this might be Schiller's mental trauma, so they try their best not to ask, but can't help their curiosity, so they pretend not to ask while secretly investigating.

That's right, I'm talking about Tony Stark. Anyone can see that he is curious to death, and he has made up the most, but he just won't ask.

Strange, however, feels that things are not that complicated at all. As long as you ask, Schiller will say. It's just that from Schiller's perspective, it might not be very interesting, but plain to the point of being boring.

"Yes." Strange hears Schiller answer. He talks about his past so naturally.

"When I was very young, probably when I just started to remember things, I was kidnapped by a mysterious research organization. They said I had certain talents, and if I could develop these talents, I would be very useful to them."

"They might want to use me to carry out some terrorist attacks, or they might want to achieve some results in the field of human mental research, or they might be both. Anyway, they studied me every day."

"There are some details I can't remember clearly, but anyway, it's just repeatedly wandering in a few rooms, either doing some equipment checks, or identifying some strange patterns in picture books, or sitting opposite someone and answering his questions."

Strange feels that this story is more exciting than he imagined, so he sits up slightly and asks: "Did they abuse you? I mean physically or mentally."

"Their purpose is to study me, not to deliberately abuse me. But they did have some behaviors that could be called abuse in terms of behavior, but I didn't feel much at that time."

"Specifics?" It's not that Strange is particularly interested in this part, but if you want to pick out the part that has the greatest impact on Schiller in this story, it should be this part. Since we have already spent time discussing it, it's better to point to the key point.

"There are pain reaction tests, but it seems they were worried about destroying the experimental product, so it wasn't that exaggerated." Schiller says while recalling, "If I have to say, the most painful time was probably equivalent to being hit on the toe by a cabinet."

"That's still very painful." Strange evaluates.

"Maybe, but at that time the distance between my spirit and flesh was relatively far, and I didn't feel much. It was later, when I was organizing my memory, that I found out about this."

"Anything else?"

"They tried to mentally manipulate me." Schiller waves his hand, seemingly a bit inarticulate. He says, "They tried hypnosis, but it didn't seem to work well. Then they used emotions to influence me."

"Use emotions? What emotions?"

"Family affection or something." Schiller seems a bit uncertain, he says, "They found a female researcher to take care of me. But she didn't come at a good time; I was... not very friendly at that time."

Strange hears the guilty tone in Schiller's voice, skips the polite probing process, and asks directly: "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing much, just didn't listen to her, which led to her work being unable to be completed. I vaguely remember she was almost driven crazy by me." Schiller says while recalling, "I was very, very, very difficult to deal with at that time, more difficult than now."

This really surprises Strange, he says: "More difficult than now?! Are you serious?"

Schiller smiles and says: "Didn't I tell you? The one controlling the body at that time was the morbid state, and what's more terrible is that I didn't have a normal state at all at that time."

"Hiss..." Strange breathes in lightly and says, "That's indeed a bit too difficult to deal with."

"And the morbid state at that time wasn't very mature either. Can you understand what I mean? The system is still in the testing phase and may have any problems." Schiller says while recalling.

"Although that research organization was evil, most of the employees were ordinary people who couldn't understand my operating mode at that time at all. So their research on me could be called chaotic, but with no progress."

"I knew it would be like this." Strange says, "It's always been you abusing others."

"That's not it." Schiller subconsciously refutes and starts thinking, while Strange sees that he is trying hard to search his brains to find some scenes where he was in a weak position.

"At least they had guns." Schiller says after holding back for a long time, "And I was just a child; I had no way to defeat them by force."

Strange snorts coldly and says: "When you say the word 'gun', I hope you understand that thermal weapons are the last resort for modern humans to protect themselves."

"And if you often see this kind of last resort, there is only one possibility—you are the greatest danger in their lives."

(End of chapter)