Chapter 5005

"You don't know how scary he looks—he's like a wild beast that's lost its mind. Even in the most dangerous situations, I've never seen Thor like that. He looks completely mad, no, not just looks—he actually is mad..."

Loki sat on the sofa, speaking so fast his English wasn't standard anymore, with a hint of a Nordic accent. For Loki, this was unimaginable.

Loki has extremely strong self-control; he can precisely control every flicker of expression, every tone, every pronunciation of each word—he speaks only after careful thought.

Loki is fluent in nearly every foreign language—not just Earth languages, but many obscure ones in the universe. He's not just able to communicate; he's as fluent as a native speaker, with no trace of an Asgardian accent.

But now he doesn't care about that anymore—he just wants to blurt out everything he wants to say. If Norwegian weren't so obscure, and if Asgardians still used a variant of Old Norse that few on Earth could understand, he'd definitely speak his native tongue.

Shiler placed a cup of hot coffee in front of him, then sat opposite, listening quietly as he spoke. Though he's not a professional psychologist, he occasionally does counseling, though his style differs from greed's, or rather from most modern psychologists—he leans more toward the classical approach.

Psychology is a young discipline, but really, people just didn't used to classify certain behaviors as psychology—like going to church to pray and confess, which was equivalent to ancient psychological counseling, especially going to the confessional to tell a priest one's sins, which is identical to modern counseling procedures.

In modern times, this has become even more common—many lawyers and private detectives also act as psychologists, especially divorce lawyers, who most of the time are just listening to clients' complaints, analyzing their emotional patterns, and finding exploitable loopholes.

In modern psychological counseling, doctor-patient communication is frequent; doctors carefully ask about patients' feelings to understand their inner world, then comfort them.

But the more classical approach is like a priest's: quietly listening to the other's account, with little back-and-forth communication, mainly judging their current state through the content and pattern of their narration.

Greed's style is more like the former—he uses questioning to understand the consultee's situation—while arrogance leans toward the latter: he listens as the other speaks, understanding their state solely through listening.

Loki chattered on for a long time, noticing Shiler wasn't reacting, so he tentatively asked: "Did you understand? Was I speaking too fast?"

"No," Shiler shook his head and said, "Your expression is excellent."

"Then I'll continue." Loki obviously now full of the urge to confess, he went on to recount many early memories with Thor—what Thor looked like when angry, what their arguments were like, and what the worst aspects were in certain areas.

Because long-lived species have such long lifespans and so much to remember, Loki spoke for over half an hour before just getting started, but Shiler showed no impatience, listening intently the whole time.

Loki occasionally had to check if Shiler was really listening, since he was so quiet—neither asking follow-ups nor asking him to get to the point, appearing as if he'd zoned out.

"Yes, I'm listening," Shiler had to repeat again and again, "Back when you were fighting in Libra, due to starship deployment issues, Odin scolded him, and he mistakenly thought it was your prank, so he lashed out at you..."

After going back and forth a few times, Loki realized Shiler wasn't placating him—he was truly listening and remembered clearly; no matter when you asked him, he could explain the full context.

By the end, Loki felt embarrassed to continue, thinking that if he kept going, he'd fill Shiler Gao Ta's memory cache with too much junk—after all, to Shiler, what trouble Asgardians encountered hundreds of years ago in some star system seemed completely meaningless.

He was also getting a bit tired from talking, so he stopped, took a sip of water. Shiler had one leg crossed over the other, hands resting lightly on his knees, waiting for Loki to finish his drink and calm down before saying: "This universe's Thor really does look mad—this isn't your fault."

Loki indicated with his expression for him to continue, so Shiler added: "Your brother is much better than him—he'd never act like that."

Loki continued gesturing with his expression; Shiler didn't speak further. Loki flipped his hand, leaned forward, and extended his hand a bit more.

"Your plan has no problem," Shiler continued, "If you must find a flaw, it's probably just bad luck—but everyone has times like that, so don't take it too seriously."

"You're being a bit..." Loki didn't know how to evaluate it, "Is that all? You're not going to analyze my or Thor's state? Or the whole process of the plan? Any room for improvement?"

"I know what you're thinking—whether I'm not charging you so I'm just placating you." Shiler shook his head and said, "No. I don't judge right or wrong—I only follow your ideas to carry out reasonable forgiveness and comfort."

Loki opened his mouth: "That doesn't seem right?"

"Everyone's counseling style is different," Shiler said, his tone still slow, "Greed's style is more aggressive, while I lean toward tradition."

"A bit too traditional," Loki commented, "If I wanted comfort, I'd just go to Thor. I just want to know what's wrong with this universe's Thor..."

"I can only analyze you, not him while facing you. That's basic professional ethics—likewise, I won't analyze you in front of others, so you can rest assured."

"Then you haven't analyzed me either," Loki said, "I just want to hear this."

"Due to personal reasons, if you don't explicitly ask me to analyze you, I won't say anything." Shiler shook his head.

"Why?" Loki asked curiously, "What personal reasons?"

"Usually, my analysis results are very accurate." Shiler clasped his hands around his knees, lowered his eyelids, and said, "Lies don't hurt people—the truth is the sharp blade."

Loki laughed, leaning forward even more: "What truth?"

"You've long noticed they're both abnormal." Shiler said, "From the first time I saw them, I knew you could terminate the plan, but you didn't. You chose to go to the World Tree's root system the moment you gained freedom—just to provoke Thor."

"Why would I do that?" Loki composed his expression.

"You want to understand..." Shiler drew out the words slightly, "... and confirm—who exactly is mad."

Shiler stood up, fastening his suit buttons as he said, "You've found that in the multiverse, your relationship with your brother is rare—most Thors and Lokis are locked in a back-and-forth tug-of-war, growing increasingly deranged."

"You began to suspect that maybe this—where everyone doesn't control their emotions, lacks interest calculation, and shows excessive emotionality—is the normal deranged relationship. You want to know where this leads, whether it's better than now."

"Now you know: you'll be killed by Thor." Shiler looked down at Loki, "A failed attempt frightened even yourself—since I don't charge—you purely deserve it."

Loki leaned back, slumped onto the sofa: "I'm starting to miss Greed."

Shiler walked to the side cabinet, picked up his phone—the call interface had been showing for a long time—he didn't answer, but turned to Loki and said: "Another visitor has been waiting a while—if you have nothing else, you may leave."

Loki immediately sat upright: "Another visitor? This universe's Thor?"

"I have no right to reveal that," Shiler said, "And don't think you can cast an invisibility spell to linger and eavesdrop, or I'll tell Thor..."

"Can't I just leave?" Loki sighed, flicked his staff, and teleported away.

Immediately after, Thor arrived—seeing it was Shiler, he first froze, raised an eyebrow, and said: "The psychologist is you?"

Shiler nodded, "Please have a seat."

Thor sat down, but seemed somewhat ill at ease, saying: "I've seen a psychologist before—when I was still a surgeon, since I didn't know whether I should confess my identity to Jian, I felt anxious, and then... but it didn't help much."

"I'm glad you don't reject seeing a psychologist," Shiler said, going to pour coffee again, "If you don't mind, you can start from the beginning."

"I'm not sure," Thor hesitated, "Where the beginning is for you guys—if I start from when I met Loki, will it be too long?"

"No problem—say whatever comes to mind, I promise I'll listen carefully." Shiler placed the coffee in front of him.

Thor's account was longer and more complex, as it included several of his emotional experiences, his tumultuous love-hate story with Loki, and then nearly all major events on old Earth 616.

But fortunately, Thor also lost patience as he spoke—by the end, he was basically just summarizing: what happened, what he did, and how it ended, with all details omitted.

When he finally had nothing left to say, having talked himself into a blank mind, Shiler continued to listen quietly. Thor of course wondered if Shiler had zoned out midway, but when he asked a few questions, Shiler answered fluently, leaving Thor only able to marvel at his professionalism.

"I've finished speaking, thank you," Thor said, "Even if you can't give me advice, just hearing me out has already made me feel much better. This story is truly too long and complex—I've never tried telling it to anyone before, because no one would have the patience to listen, and I myself wouldn't even bother recalling it—I don't have that patience."

"For some people, recollection is a burden," Shiler said, "The more you've experienced, the more this is true—you can try to recall and speak it out, and that already counts as very strong."

"You really know how to speak," Thor said.

"If everyone holds you to high standards just because you're good at recalling, then someone who praises you solely for that will seem especially kind." Shiler lifted his coffee cup, took a sip, "So it's not that I'm making empty compliments—I just don't hold unrealistic expectations of you."

"What you said is absolutely right," Thor said, slamming his cup down, "I don't know why they see me this way—Odin, Loki, the Avengers—I don't know why they always demand so much of me..."

This obviously provoked another long complaint from Thor—from Odin's high expectations of him, to Asgardians' demands for a perfect king, to the Avengers' burdens on his shoulders—he complained about it all.

"Not having expectations of you isn't necessarily a good thing either," Shiler said. "For example, my standards for you are based on those of an ordinary psychiatric patient, so you can be a psychiatric patient here with me, but if you don't want to go to a psychiatric hospital, you can't have only the identity of a patient, can you?"

Tolton paused: "That actually makes sense."