Chapter 525: Schiller's Daily Life in the Hospital (Part 1)

Rich emerald green swayed in the fine rain. Mist rose between the trees, as if they had grown into towering trees overnight, inserting directly into the ethereal clouds. Raindrops hit the glass like a slightly dissolved painting.

"Tick, tick, tick..."

The metronome on the bedside table made a regular sound. Breathing gradually broke away from this rhythm, and the chest began to heave faster and faster. With a "thud," Schiller sat up from the hospital bed.

He pressed his palm against his dizzy head, turned his body, sat toward the edge of the bed, and saw his face reflected on the clean white floor tiles.

He exhaled, feeling a bit dry-mouthed, so he habitually reached out to press the call button by the bed. After he finished this action, he froze for a moment, as if he had remembered something.

The call button on the bedside table lit up, but the person who walked in was Stark wearing iron armor. After seeing him, Schiller shook his head, throwing some past memories out of his mind.

Fortunately, it wasn't a doctor in charge who walked in to tell him that he was a delusional patient and all his previous experiences were his fantasies, and that he was actually just a mental patient who had been hospitalized all along. This kind of development would be too cliché.

But Schiller still didn't understand why he appeared here. He looked up and looked around the ward, and then found that this was a high-end ward in a mental hospital.

The clean floor tiles were spotless, the flowers on the bedside table had no irritating smell, all the corners of the hospital bed had protective measures. Schiller, who had worked at the Presbyterian Hospital, knew that this should be the best kind of ward in a mental hospital, and it was the kind that was extremely expensive, with all kinds of equipment available.

"Squeak—", the sound of mechanical friction of the iron armor came. The armor opened, and Stark walked out of it. He walked to Schiller's side, sat down, and looked at Schiller with his eyes.

That look was basically hovering between "you can tell me anything" and "if you don't tell me, you don't take me as a friend."

Schiller felt a bit of a headache. He certainly knew that Stark and Steve must have made up something in their minds, but the problem was that after he returned to the Mind Palace, he didn't find any clues. He didn't know at all what these two people had seen in his Mind Palace.

At this time, Schiller had already reacted. He was definitely pitted by a certain personality in his Mind Palace, and as for which one, did he even need to ask?

"Xianmu Qiyuan"

At the beginning, he even left an abacus for him, and he actually repaid kindness with ingratitude. Schiller thought angrily, next time he must take all the abacus beads off and throw them away.

Now, there was an information gap between Schiller and Stark. Stark had learned some things in Schiller's Mind Palace, but because someone petty was playing tricks, Schiller himself didn't know what Stark and Steve had learned in the Mind Palace.

This is like a policeman arresting a criminal because of a case. The policeman knows the details of the case, but the criminal doesn't.

At this time, the policeman asks the criminal to confess, and this criminal is not an ordinary criminal, but a serial killer who has committed many cases. He doesn't know which case the policeman wants him to confess to. If he speaks rashly, it is easy to blurt out more.

Schiller was now in this state. He knew Stark must have made up something, but he didn't know what Stark had made up. If he were to tell all the pits that might exist in his Mind Palace, he might have to talk until next year, and after talking, he would never have to be discharged again.

Schiller reasoned based on the details he knew now. It was known that the biggest change he had this time was actually letting out a personality that had never floated to the surface since he came to this world, which was the Moonlight Schiller, also the young Schiller.

At the same time, Khonshu chose this personality as his power carrier. When Schiller took this personality out to deal with the Egyptian gods, Khonshu should still be in the mental ward of the mental hospital on the 10th floor.

Although Schiller only treated Khonshu as a tool, he also gave him certain permissions, allowing him to move freely within the 10th floor.

And below the 10th floor of the Mind Palace, there was nothing to begin with. After Stark and Steve entered the Mind Palace, they didn't take the elevator and walked up from the first floor. The first existence they encountered might be Khonshu.

If Stark and Steve were chasing Schiller's trail, after they expressed their intentions to Khonshu, Khonshu might take them to the ward where young Schiller once lived.

With Stark's intelligence, he should be able to find some clues there, thereby deducing Schiller's childhood experiences.

Since that was the case, Schiller thought, then what he exposed to Stark might be some memory fragments of his youth.

Standing from Schiller's perspective, this deduction had no problem. After all, he couldn't have imagined that DC Schiller colluded with the Id to perform a play for Stark and Steve. Marvel Schiller couldn't have thought of it at all.

Having repeatedly pushed this deduction, Schiller felt that the logic had no problem.

Since things had come to this, it was better to follow the plan. Schiller opened his mouth and said:

"Do you want to judge me?"

Schiller turned his head, looked at Stark's eyes and said: "Without someone's consent, peeking into his inner world, finding some evidence that he is abnormal, and then taking despicable means to lock him in a mental hospital..."

"Tony Stark, do you want to say that this is for my own good?"

Stark froze. He didn't expect Schiller, who had just woken up, to have such strong aggressiveness. He spread his hands and explained: "It's not like that. Actually, we just..."

"Then why am I here?"

Schiller stood up, looked down at the hospital gown on his body, and then turned to look at Stark, who was still sitting on the hospital bed, and asked:

"Do you support Khonshu or Ammit?"

"... What?" Stark was a bit puzzled.

"Do you know why they fought?"

"Why?"

"Khonshu believes that only after a crime has occurred does he have the power to judge and rule."

"What's the problem with that?" Stark asked.

"And Ammit believes that crimes that have already occurred are irreparable, so criminals should be killed before the crime occurs."

"Absurd." Stark commented and said: "If you follow this theory, everyone in this world is a criminal."

"Then what on earth are you doing?" Schiller looked at Stark and asked.

"You dug out some old things in my Mind Palace, so you concluded that I should be locked in a mental hospital, so I appeared here."

"But have I harmed anyone because of my mental abnormality? Have I committed any crimes? Aren't those abnormalities just existing in my mind?"

"Essentially, you are doing the same thing as Ammit." Schiller stared into Stark's eyes and said: "Even though he just killed me."

Stark took a deep breath and said: "We didn't want to judge you, and we didn't lock you here..."

"Well, now I'm going to leave here..." After saying this, Schiller turned and walked away. A black shadow swept past him. Stark walked in front of him and blocked him. Schiller stopped, shrugged, and said:

"If you were going to let me leave here, you wouldn't have worn armor to come today."

After saying this, he glanced at the armor parked in the center of the ward and showed a somewhat mocking smile. He said: "The cigarette I gave you back then has become the weapon you use to deal with me now."

"When you used it to kill Ammit, did you feel that you were very righteous? And when you use it to stop me now, do you think so too?"

"Even though I haven't done anything, because of my potentially dangerous and powerful uncontrollable power, you treat me as a criminal and monitor me, and even in necessary cases, you don't hesitate to use force to coerce..."

Schiller walked to the opposite side of Stark, looked directly into his eyes, and said: "One day, you will pay the price for this idea of yours."

Just when Stark thought Schiller would leave the ward directly, Schiller turned and returned to the hospital bed, lying down with his back to Stark, and stopped making a sound.

At the moment before Schiller turned his head, Stark was sure he saw thick disappointment in his eyes, which made Stark start to waver.

Schiller didn't blame him, but just repeated the internal logic of his behavior. And when this logic was brought to the table and analyzed clearly, it sounded as ridiculous as Ammit's concept.

This made Stark start to doubt whether he had really done something wrong. After all, as Schiller said, Schiller hadn't done anything to harm society because of his mental abnormality. On the contrary, whether it was his behavioral performance or his conversation, he was very normal, and even before, he had used his wisdom to benefit human civilization.

If a person is born with a bomb, and no one knows whether it will explode and hurt others, should he be permanently imprisoned and not be allowed to do anything?

Between individual freedom and public safety, which one should be chosen?

Before, Stark had always leaned toward the latter, but now, he began to think about the essence of this problem. Is it this person's fault to be born with a bomb? If not, why should he pay the price of being imprisoned for it?

Even Schiller, after being treated like this, would feel deep disappointment. So, will there be many people in this world who have noble thoughts and are willing to sacrifice themselves to maintain public safety?

"Do you know? At the moment he questioned me, I was really thinking, are we letting him go to the hospital really to treat him, or are we afraid that he will lose control and threaten us?"

"Do I really have the power to do this? Before he has done anything, I look at him with the eyes of a potential criminal?"

In the base of the Avengers, Stark sat at one end of the table, and Steve sat at the other. Steve heard his question and asked with some confusion: "Why did you wear armor to visit him?"

"If I don't wear armor, how can I go there? Drive? Do you know how congested the morning rush hour in New York is?!" Stark asked back.

"Then why don't you explain to him?"

"I..."

Steve covered his forehead and said: "You wouldn't have been led into the ditch by him again, would you?"

Stark sighed and said: "I would rather he be deliberately stimulating me like in the past, instead of really feeling sad and disappointed for this." ===== CHAPTER 526 =====

Stark sighed and said: "I would rather he be deliberately provoking me like he used to, instead of truly feeling sad and disappointed because of this."