Chapter 401: What Are the Benefits of Paying to Win? (Part 3)

"If you want to test the impact of magic on ordinary life, starting with plants is not a good idea. Obviously, the growth cycle of plants is longer, and the changes are less obvious..."

Looking at the eyes of the few, Connors said, "Fine, I know that animal experiments have certain dangers. Even small things like lizards, if their body size is magnified thousands of times, will have great lethality. You have already seen it."

"I know very well that any experiment has certain dangers." Stark shook his head and explained, "But you have to know that the danger of conducting such experiments on Earth is really great."

"In order to conduct real-time observation, we can only choose to conduct preliminary trials on Earth. If there are certain results, maybe we can move to outer space, so there will be no worries."

"Let's take a look at this first." Connors walked up, took the small flower pot, and looked at the seedlings inside, saying, "Sunflower seedlings... a bit different, it seems that it has indeed been affected by some kind of radiation."

"Different? Where is it different? Why didn't I see where it is different?" Stark narrowed his eyes and leaned in to look. Connors said, "Coincidentally, I have a master's degree in botany. My master's thesis was to study pollen dispersal."

"Look here." Connors reached out and pointed to the roots of the sunflower seedlings, saying: "The fine fluff on the surface of the plant has become longer, and perhaps denser. This visible change is already a very big change."

"Fine, I spent a lot of effort, but just made the fluff on its surface longer?" Peter asked.

Connors shook his head, looked at Peter, and said, "This is what I said, the changes in plants are more subtle. If it were on a white mouse, you can imagine it growing two-centimeter-long front teeth."

"Although just looking at the front teeth is not particularly obvious, because it will affect eating, you can quickly discover that it has obvious behavioral changes, which will be more intuitive."

"Fine, setting aside these principles, what should we do now?" Strange looked at Connors and asked.

"Peter and I will stay to continue the magic plant experiment. As for you, I just saw that the gemstone in your hand can speed up the growth of the plant, but I advise you not to do so at will."

"You cannot be sure whether the magical power it carries will radiate the plants you accelerated. Once the plants mutate, the consequences will be much more serious than mutated animals."

Stark turned his head and stared at Strange, saying, "You are not allowed to do this within New York, and Ximalaya is not allowed either. You must know how precious Earth is. This is our only home now."

"Fine, wait until your experiment has preliminary results, then I will come over." After Strange finished speaking, he left without hesitation. Stark looked at his back and shook his head, saying, "He won't listen to you. This person doesn't understand what experimental safety principles are at all."

"It doesn't matter. Because he doesn't understand the correct radiation method, so I think, even if he casts magic on some plants, it should not be able to change their properties."

After leaving the laboratory, Stark and Schiller stood in front of the laboratory door. Stark turned his head to look at Schiller and asked him, "I have a question I want to ask you, but you absolutely cannot reveal it."

"I guess you want to ask how Steve is doing now?"

Stark turned his head to the side, curled his lips, and said, "The Avengers is also a force of humanity. I don't want it to have any accidents."

Schiller sighed slightly and said, "I can only tell you that the situation is not optimistic. I have told you many times that Steve suffers from acute anxiety disorder. This is a disease, has its corresponding symptoms, and if not treated, it will become more and more serious."

"Then why not treat it?"

"The problem is here. He himself is resistant to taking medicine. Even if I can persuade him, I am not sure whether those drugs that are relatively effective for ordinary people are effective for him."

Schiller and Stark walked forward while saying, "The change that serum caused Steve is not just making his body stronger. His immune system and absorption system have also changed, which means that he may not be able to absorb the ingredients of certain drugs, or that the dosage for ordinary people has no effect on him."

"The Wanderer from Douluo"

"Then wouldn't increasing the dosage work?"

"You'd better not say that in front of Strange. No attending physician can listen to this."

"Patients always ask doctors to increase the dosage to suppress their pain, but this matter is not that simple."

"If it were an ordinary person, we would have a very safe and reliable method to determine exactly what dosage of medicine will work. But facing a super human, without any experimental data, I absolutely cannot increase his dosage in violation of regulations, otherwise, it is irresponsible to his life safety."

Stark lowered his head and looked at Schiller from above his eyes, saying: "I am now sure you are not that madman."

"No, even if he came, he would say so. I'll say it again, I am unscrupulous, but absolutely not a quack."

"There are two methods now." Schiller stopped and looked at Stark, saying, "Either continuous experiments, increasing the dosage little by little, observing Steve's reaction, but using a large amount of medicine in a short time may cause harm to his body and spirit."

"There is another method, which is to change the environment he is currently living in, let him reconstruct his mental sense of security, and then get enough rest to fundamentally solve the anxiety problem."

Stark was about to speak, but Schiller turned his head and looked at him, saying, "In the current situation, the decision Steve made himself might not be rational enough. Therefore, he needs his relatives or guardians to provide him with more reliable advice."

"I guess your first reaction just now was to make a choice for him, so I can think..."

"Those 40-plus wedges are enough, right?"

Stark lowered his eyelids in silence, turned his head away from Schiller, and said: "... Do you know? In that damn thing that your damn personality did, the moment my emotions fluctuated the most was not when Steve pulled the trigger."

"Then when was it?"

"It was when he said Howard, Bucky, and you were all his friends, but I was not on this list."

Stark looked at Schiller again and said: "Don't look at me with that look. Yes, when I recalled the look and expression Howard had when he mentioned Captain America, it made me have no good feelings for Steve."

"But when I truly came into contact with him, I understood that no one should feel ashamed because they want to be friends with Captain America."

"If he didn't treat you as a friend, he wouldn't have pulled the trigger."

"If he really treated me as a friend, he wouldn't rather pull the trigger than turn around and ask me what I was thinking."

Schiller took a deep breath, looked into Stark's eyes, and said, "Do you know, you two are especially like elementary school girls who are sulking now. You would rather tell others the story between you from beginning to end, tell it countless times, than say a word to each other."

Seeing Stark still wanting to say something, Schiller interrupted him very decisively and said, "I don't have time to pass messages between you. Considering you paid me so much money, I will keep everything you said today confidential for you and will absolutely not tell Steve."

Stark widened his eyes. Before Schiller turned around, he said, "I don't have time to get involved in your elementary school girl friendship. I have more important things to do."

"Hey! What else can be more important than the Avengers splitting up??!"

Stark shouted, looking at his back.

"Anything!"

The next day, Arkham Asylum welcomed Steve and Bucky. Schiller opened the medical record and briefly described Steve's current situation to him. What surprised Schiller was that Steve actually intended to choose the first item, which was to increase the dosage.

He explained: "The Avengers cannot leave me for too long. The shadow of Hydra has not yet gone away. This is my lifelong mission, and I must complete it."

"Before, I was resistant to taking medicine because I felt that things hadn't reached that point, but recently I found that my state is getting worse and worse."

Steve's state was indeed a bit haggard, and could even be called exhausted. He said, "I really don't know much about this subject. I thought it was just a small cold that would heal itself, but now I can't fall asleep naturally at all and can only rely on Professor X's hypnosis."

"In order to deal with Hydra, many people even paid with their lives. Compared with this, taking some medicine is nothing."

"I admire your spirit of sacrifice, Captain." Schiller lowered his head to flip through the medical record and then said, "Why not listen to what your friend has to say?"

Schiller looked up at Bucky, who was sitting relatively far away, and said, "Why are you sitting so far away? Do you know? The last group of patients with phobias should be chatting happily with demons in hell now."

Bucky shook his head. Steve reached out and said, "Don't be like this. He is willing to come with me, which already took a lot of courage. That personality of yours is really a bit..."

Bucky coughed twice and then said, "I think the Captain should choose the second path, change the environment."

"No." Steve said very firmly, "I have to stay here. There is still work that hasn't been finished, and where else can we go?"

"My suggestion is also the second one, Captain. Don't blame me for not reminding you. I cannot be sure whether that serum of yours is immune to the influence of certain mental illness drugs. If a large amount of medicine is used in a short time, it may cause permanent damage to the spirit."

"Although dealing with Hydra is good, one must also pay attention to sustainable development." Schiller flipped through the medical record again and then said, "You also have to consider that Stark might not be so willing to see Bucky now, and if he is allowed to go to a very far place alone, it looks more like exile. If you accompany him, it will just be a relaxed and pleasant trip."

Hearing Schiller's meaning, Steve asked, "Do you want us to..."

"That's right. In the core star sector of the Andromeda Galaxy, the planet where the High Elves live is a vast primeval forest. The scenery is very beautiful. Many members of the Brotherhood of Mutants have gone there to travel."

"Because they have highly transformed their home planet, the temperature and weather are very pleasant, and there are no dangerous creatures, which is very suitable for vacation."

Steve wanted to speak out to refute, but he took a look at Bucky, thought about Stark again, and finally spread his hands and said, "Fine, I know, Stark and Bucky must be separated. The solar system construction plan is underway, Stark cannot leave, so only we have left."

"Due to the needs of the confidentiality agreement, I cannot tell you that Stark is very sad because you didn't count him in the list of friends before."

"I also cannot tell you that he actually very much hopes that you will give him a call now to comfort him."

"And I even more cannot tell you that if you mention slightly what Howard once told you about his expectations for his son when you are on the phone, it will make him very moved and happy."

After Steve walked out with his phone, Schiller called Connors to confirm that Peter was also buried in the laboratory doing experiments, then called Charles to confirm that he had gone to the Andromeda Galaxy to build a sky island, and finally, his call was made to Loki.

"Those whose moral bottom line has not been tested have been sent away by me. Our plan can begin." ===== CHAPTER 402 =====