Chapter 3396: Midnight Sons (Part 6)

"Breathe! Deep breath! Tony!"

Seeing Stark's body sway, Schiller rushed up and shouted at the air: "Jarvis! Oxygen mask!"

Stark shook his head, leaned against the glass curtain wall with one hand, turned around, and said: "I'm fine. I might just be..."

"Just what?"

Stark took a deep breath and said: "A person with a face exactly like yours killed me, you can't ask me to accept this so quickly."

Then he turned half a circle, spread his hands and said: "You must be going to mock me again, just like Steve. He has no feeling about this at all."

"Did another 'me' kill him too?"

"Not really. To save me, he jumped down himself."

"Fine, Tony. This is something I didn't know. Watching a person who looks exactly like a friend kill yourself, and then another friend died to save you. This is indeed a bit too much. I can not mock you for now."

Stark smiled, but it looked a bit forced.

"Your empathy is too strong." Schiller said, "Of course, it might also be because this game is too real, making you feel like you lived another life. But this is not a bad thing. Your acting ability will be stronger than most people."

Stark walked to the chair and sat down, his fingertips still trembling a bit. He said: "Tell me your business. This can divert some attention."

"Actually, there is no business." Schiller sat opposite him and said, "I thought you hadn't returned yet, so I went to the Avengers base first, wanting to leave a note for you. But I didn't expect to see Steve, and he said you were in a bad state. So I came over."

"He said I was in a bad state?" Stark sneered and said, "He meant I was going to settle accounts with you, right?"

"You really settled accounts with me properly today." Schiller thought for a while and said, "Your view today gave me a reminder."

"What?"

"Actually, we are not as divided as we appear." Schiller said, "Our memories are shared, and the things we learn are naturally shared too. It's just that for some reasons, we divided ourselves into various schools."

"What do you mean?" Stark leaned forward, put his forearms on the table, and stared at Schiller.

"I am a psychiatrist, right? I can treat people, but not every Schiller can. Don't you think this is strange?"

Stark was stunned, and then said: "How did you learn to treat people? Did you learn it in university?"

"Professional theoretical knowledge, of course. But it's mainly based on imitating my attending physician." Schiller said.

"Your memories are shared, so you must all know the theoretical knowledge. Can't others imitate? Or can't they imitate you?"

"They can, but they usually don't."

"Why?"

"Emphasizing one's own uniqueness helps maintain the split." Schiller also put his arms on the table and said, "Since you know that personality traits can merge, you know that we become so individualistic to prevent passive merging."

"Passive merging?"

"Humans only have one brain, one processing center. The physical form of existence dictates that human spirit is aggregative. The spiritual world and personality should be complete and unified, not split."

"Human spirit has self-healing properties. Mental trauma received will fade over time. Even patients with dissociative identity disorder will have a tendency to merge personalities after leaving the original pressure environment."

"So you also have a tendency to merge?"

"At the beginning, yes. When I first decided to exist in this way, the work wasn't that easy. I had to choose carefully, arrange carefully, and prevent all kinds of messes."

"The biggest mess wasn't that we were split too thinly, but precisely that some traits couldn't be separated. The way we chose was to only separate necessary traits, and emphasize the individuality of the traits, trying our best to ensure that abilities and personalities didn't overlap. This way, it's not easy to merge together."

"Wouldn't this be very chaotic?" Stark's facial features wrinkled together.

"Usually, only one personality trait controls the body, so it's not chaotic. You feel it's chaotic because we split up in Doujie. You can see two of me at the same time, so you'll feel it's very absurd."

"But in reality, when I control the body, many personality traits are on vacation. So-called vacation is dormancy. Their characteristics will disappear completely to avoid interfering with body control. This is very important and can also avoid passive merging."

Stark was completely bewildered. Clearly, Schiller was a subject he couldn't understand.

"You said I gave you a reminder, what was it?" Stark decided to pull the topic back on track. He wasn't curious about the principles now, only wanting to know what would happen in reality.

"Actually, there is no need to maintain such isolation now." Schiller said, "Because we have our own bodies in Doujie."

"Why is this again?"

"Usually, most personality traits aren't capable of controlling the body because they aren't sound enough."

"What do you mean?"

"For example, the 'me' you met, he belongs to the pathological part, and the pathological part usually can't control the body. Because they will disregard the state of the body in order to obtain pleasure or achieve the goal at the fastest speed."

Stark seemed to understand a bit, and said: "That 'you' was indeed like a madman. He took four of Batman's batarangs, but didn't have any reaction."

"That's it. Before, the body was very precious to us. If they were allowed to control it completely, it might bring catastrophic consequences. So basically, they would only come out for a short while when their characteristics were needed."

Stark suddenly realized and said: "Now it's completely different. You have that magical symbiote, and you have your own bodies in Doujie. And injuries sustained in the game will recover quickly after exiting."

Schiller nodded and said: "So it doesn't matter if the body is broken."

"But..." Stark was still very worried and said, "If you can all freely use the special skills of other personality traits, won't you really merge together?"

"I'm afraid it's very difficult." Schiller said truthfully, "If it were so simple to merge, it wouldn't have split in the first place. But perhaps it's possible to be influenced by other personality traits."

Stark was clearly getting nervous again. He turned his palms toward himself, clenched his fists slightly, and pursed his lips.

"Tony, have you changed after all these years?"

"Perhaps." Stark said.

"Then do you think I have changed?"

Stark tilted his head, looked at Schiller, and didn't quite understand what he wanted to say.

"I haven't changed." Schiller said, "Change is a very difficult thing for me. Because this isn't just about the 'me' you know. If you must assume that I am a society, then the progress of society is always harder than the progress of an individual."

"And I don't like change either. Every major change in my life can't be called a good thing, at most it's not bad. I don't have any expectations for change either."

"Although you feel that I have compromised a lot for my friends, this still can't be called a change. And if one day I decide to change, will you stop me? Or support me?"

"I don't know." Stark's fists were clenched tightly, the edges of his palms turning white, "I know too little about you, I don't know if the change will be in a good direction or a bad direction, or... a direction where I lose a friend forever."

"You have changed a lot, Tony. But every time you change, I don't feel like you will leave me."

"But we are not the same. You... are much more complex than me. There might be many unexpected situations, and it might be much worse than imagined."

"Everyone is the same. When you make a choice, you must be prepared for the worst. I also have times when I don't want to but must force myself to accept the worst possible result."

"But I..."

"At that time, it was about you, Tony. The only time it was like that. When you became the Iron God, I also prepared for the possibility that you might ascend, letting all Iron Men in the universe merge into one, and my friend would be submerged in it."

"Really?" The water in Stark's eyes almost overflowed, and when he looked over, it was like looking at two shining star clusters, he said, "Did you really prepare?"

"...... Fine, I didn't. But fortunately, you gave me a good result." Schiller smiled and said, "So I also promise you, it will definitely be a good result."

?? Some people question how Schiller can still be strengthened 【339

"Once the violent trait affects me, if it's not discovered in time, and I, as the personality controlling the body, harm the body with some extreme violent behavior, then we'll be in big trouble."

"I get it," Stark said. "Now you possess the gray mist, so even if you harm the body, it can be repaired. So even if the violent trait affects you, it doesn't matter."

"But..." Stark still said worriedly, "If you can all freely use the special skills of other personality traits, won't you really merge together?"

"I'm afraid it's difficult," Schiller said truthfully. "If it were that simple to merge, we wouldn't have separated in the first place. But perhaps it's possible for everyone to be influenced by some of the other personality traits."

Stark clearly became nervous again. He turned his palms toward himself, clenched his fists slightly, and pursed his lips.

"Tony, over all these years, do you think you've changed?"

"Maybe," Stark said.

"Then do you think I've changed?"

Stark tilted his head, looking at Schiller, not quite understanding what he wanted to say.

"I haven't changed," Schiller said. "Change is a very difficult thing for me. Because this isn't just about the me you know. If you must imagine me as a society, then the progress of society is always harder than the progress of an individual."

"I also don't like change. Every major change in my life couldn't be called a good thing; at best, it was not bad. I don't have any expectations for change either."

"Although you think I've compromised a lot for my friends, this still can't be called a change. And if one day I decide to change, will you stop me? Or support me?"

"I don't know." Stark's fists were clenched tightly, and the edges of his palms began to turn white. "I know too little about you. I don't know if the change will be in a good direction or a bad direction, or... a direction where I lose a friend forever."

"You've changed a lot, Tony. But every time you change, I don't feel like you'll leave me."

"But we aren't the same. You... are much more complex than me. There might be many unexpected situations, and it might be much worse than imagined."

"Everyone is the same. When you make a choice, you must be prepared for the worst. There are times when I don't want to, but I have to force myself to accept that the worst result might exist."

"But I..."

"There was a time about you, Tony. The only time like that. The moment you became the Iron God, I was also prepared that you might ascend, letting all the Iron Men of the universe merge into one, and my friend would be drowned in it."

"Really?" The moisture in Stark's eyes was almost overflowing; looking over, it was like gazing at two shining star clusters. He said, "Were you really prepared?"

"... Well, I wasn't. But fortunately, you gave me a good result." Schiller smiled and said, "So I also promise you, it will definitely be a good result."

?? Someone questioned how Schiller could still be strengthened.

? Schiller hasn't synthesized the big watermelon yet.

? (End of chapter)