Chapter 3838

Schiller took the photo from Seeing Natasha, glanced at it, and then let his gaze fall on Seeing Natasha's face: "Do you want me to provide psychological therapy for this photo?"

"No. It's just that the detective said this might be helpful." Seeing Natasha paused, then continued, "I know you have this talent, but you rarely show it in front of us. Do you think this will work?"

Schiller saw Seeing Natasha's skepticism; clearly, Seeing Natasha did not believe that one could deduce the psychology and behavioral patterns of the person behind the camera just by looking at a photo. Perhaps one could infer a little, but it was likely not enough to identify the real culprit.

"Indeed," Schiller said. "I rarely show this because it makes me look like a freak, not very sociable. I dare say if I did this, Tony would scream and send me to a mental hospital for a full examination."

"Is it really that exaggerated?" Seeing Natasha looked at him and said, "Even after knowing what you pushed for in our universe, Tony still refuses to admit that you are a mental patient."

"Because his criteria for judging whether someone is mentally ill are flawed. But it cannot be denied that he represents the perspective of most ordinary people. Even if I were to poke a hole in the universe, they would only think it is a manifestation of my wisdom and power. But channeling spirits through a photo looks like madness."

"Well, I have to say, the universe here might be more accepting of such things," Seeing Natasha said. "Because Batman is a freak; deducing the entire life story of a family of three from a Christmas stocking is perfectly normal to the people here. So you can show off this ability without any scruples."

"I certainly cannot," Schiller shook his head and said. "Haven't you heard? If you show that you can do the work, then all the work will be yours in the future. I don't want to attract any extra chores with my talents."

"What exactly will it take for you to provide help?"

"It will cost extra," Schiller said. "Moon Knight wouldn't know how to do this, but if you want to hire Dr. Rodriguez, the price is different."

"I will discuss it with Batman, but on the condition that you can truly provide help." Seeing Natasha was clearly still somewhat skeptical. She did not deny that Schiller had abilities similar to mind-reading, but reading minds from a photo was still a bit too outrageous; even Professor X couldn't do it, and the Sorcerer Supreme couldn't channel spirits like that either.

"I will send the bill to him after it's over." Having said that, Schiller looked at the photo. He entered a strange state of focus, which was indeed somewhat different from his usual focus; it looked more serene, as if his soul had completely drifted to another place.

Just as Seeing Natasha was wondering if Schiller's soul had really left his body to investigate clues, he let out a long sigh.

"Interesting," Schiller said. "This is an experimental type of photography. Or rather, when the mastermind took this photo, they didn't have any expectations."

"Expectations?"

"Yes. Everyone has expectations for their own work, even if it's not for an art competition but just as a memento; they will outline a rough contour in their mind. For example, wanting a family photo full of a happy atmosphere, or wanting to build a very cute and honest snowman."

"Yes, I understand. So the mastermind didn't think that way?"

"Judging from common sense, they had an ulterior motive for this photo; they wanted to create a scandal, so they should have had expectations for the ambiguous atmosphere in the photo. But they didn't. This is directly reflected in the finished product, which is what you call—this photo is too bland."

"You found the reason behind our conclusion, but this reason doesn't sound helpful. What does having no expectations prove?"

"First of all, this completely rules out the suspicion of Abidonis," Schiller said. "Perhaps you might think the reason the photo is as bland as water is that their photography skills are too poor to accurately reflect their inner thoughts. But no, I can tell you that the photographer of this photo didn't fail to capture an ambiguous atmosphere because of technical issues, but because they couldn't conceive of an ambiguous atmosphere before the work was completed. For Abidonis, this is impossible. He is not the photographer of the photo."

"Okay, do you need me to applaud so you can continue?" Seeing Natasha was not teasing; she asked this very sincerely.

"That won't be necessary." Schiller shook his head and continued, "Having no expectations also means another thing, which is that in terms of sexual relationships, they lack the ability to anticipate the development of the situation."

"How so?"

"You and the President are two living people; you could do anything. You two would walk, talk, pose, and there might be eye contact or physical touch. Any normal person could think of these things. Based on this understanding, they would conceive of the most ambiguous scene and press the shutter when reality and the scene in their mind are closest."

"Is the mastermind not like that?"

"No. In fact, they lack anticipation of your actions. This is a fundamental flaw." Schiller pointed at the photo with his hand and said, "The time and place of taking this photo are both wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"You two weren't flirting at that time; calling it professional was already being overly intimate. You were just exchanging routine pleasantries with him after the capture was completed. If one wanted to take an ambiguous photo, would this be a good scene?"

"Of course not. But maybe they thought we wouldn't have any contact after this, so they seized the opportunity to take one."

"No. Have you realized that forging a photo is a better choice?"

"But forged photos have traces and can be found out."

"They could send you messages via email, yet let Batman and Luthor find no trace of their origin; this proves their technical means are powerful, perhaps capable of perfect photo synthesis. And how did you handle the scandal in the end?"

"Claimed it was a fake photo," Seeing Natasha said. "The public relations department denied my existence; anyway, no one could find out who I really was, so we just said it was a computer-generated dummy."

"So what does it matter if you use a synthesized photo?" Schiller said. "They should have been able to anticipate that you would refute the rumors like this, so whether they used a real photo or a fake one, the result is the same. Anyway, ordinary people don't have the ability to verify it."

"That makes sense," Seeing Natasha said. "Using a taken photo might actually expose them, because at least the camera position could be determined through the shooting angle. But if they used a synthesized photo, it would be almost impossible to find the source of the photo."

"So the topic returns to my judgment. Why didn't they forge the photo? Because they don't have a good preset for behavior in sexual relationships."

"Are you saying they don't know what counts as ambiguous?"

"They know, but they don't know how you two are ambiguous. They might know Batman, and they might know Black Widow, but they don't know what kind of ambiguous behavior is reasonable given your two behavioral patterns."

"That's normal, too," Seeing Natasha said. "I guess we two are the first people to have an intimate relationship across two worlds; perhaps most people can't imagine how we get along."

"No. Human thinking doesn't work that way. Humans are very good at putting themselves in others' shoes and drawing inferences. They might be able to use analogies through people they know who are similar to you, or through content in novels, movies, and animations, rationalize it in reality, and add some of their own preferences; they could probably imagine your ambiguous scenes."

"The mastermind can't?"

"They can't. They lack such associative ability; it's more like a lack of imagination regarding the factor of sexual attraction in sexual relationships."

"Is this something that requires unique imagination?"

"Yes, but ordinary people find it hard to realize this. Feeling the strange atmosphere between two people, making judgments about their mutual sexual attraction, and generating associations related to sex based on this seems like an instinctive behavior, but it is actually a special talent."

"Some people have strong sensitivity; in reality, this means: some people prefer watching romance movies and novels, like gossiping about the emotional problems of colleagues and friends, are interested in sex psychology, and will never miss a topic about relationships; while some people are more dull, not only can they not see the atmosphere between others, but they also cannot receive heterosexual attraction when applied to themselves, are even less interested in stories about 'you love me, I love you,' and rarely have associations based on these things."

"I think I understand a little," Seeing Natasha said. "So the mastermind is the latter."

"It's even more serious than that," Schiller said. "Others at best just have no trees on the mountain; they don't even have the mountain. This is the strange part. Even people without sexual ability wouldn't be without hormones and pheromones; as long as they have these two things, they are inevitably subject to sexual attraction. Even with paraphilia and distortion, at least some can be seen. I didn't see any such factors in them."

"Do you mean they are an asexual person?"

"Yes. At least on a mental level, they have no sexual characteristics: a lack of conception of sexual relationships, a lack of pheromone experience, and not even social sexual psychological experience. This can narrow the killer down to a very small range."

"What kind of person would have these characteristics?"

"Basically, it can be determined to be a minor living in an extremely simple environment, whose body has not developed and who has not received any sex education. According to the current hormone levels and developmental status of children, it might be under 6 years old."

"Children under 6? How is this possible?!" Seeing Natasha said. "A 6-year-old child's brain isn't even fully developed, right?"

"In fact, this is already a more optimistic assumption. The information society will give children more social sexual psychological experience; most 6-year-olds who have been exposed to the internet will not be so simple. So the age might be even younger, small enough to be completely unable to understand externally input content related to sex; perhaps 3 to 4 years old."

Seeing Natasha was simply full of question marks. She said: "But this is simply impossible. How could such a small child have technical means that even Batman and Luthor cannot track?"

"Eliminate all impossible conditions, and what remains is the truth. It's just that the truth can also have multiple interpretations: a 3- to 4-year-old human child can't do it, so what if it's not a human?"

Seeing Natasha was slightly stunned. She looked at Schiller and said: "Are you saying, Jarvis?"

"It could be a similar existence," Schiller continued.

Seeing Natasha walked to the chair and sat down, revealing a look of recollection. She said: "When I chatted with Wanda, she revealed that for Jarvis, sex is harder to understand than love. Their intimate relationship was in a state of complete stagnation for a long time because Jarvis couldn't understand human physical relationships."

"This is very normal; you cannot ask an electronic life without hormones and pheromones to feel anyone's sexual attraction. And for a logical being, without needs, how can one respond?"

"I don't know how the two of them solved it in the end," Seeing Natasha said. "But they've already had two children, so discussing this now might be a bit late."

"Is it helpful?" Schiller asked.

Seeing Natasha stood up and walked out, saying: "It's a huge help, Doctor."