Chapter 866: Starry Splendor (Part 8)

"This time, he is not fighting alone."

In the office of Arkham Asylum, Schiller smiled and said: "There will definitely be many mysterious organizations revealing information about this plan to him and giving some insignificant suggestions."

"What makes me a bit strange is, what good does doing this do for you? Don't tell me you're being kind-hearted and just want to help mutants?" Strange took a sip of water and said: "I don't have any special feelings for mutants. Although I don't hate them, I don't have any good feelings either, because when I was in middle school, I once missed an exam because a mutant classmate's ability suddenly erupted. They are quite troublesome."

"I think that whether it's borrowing Asgard to clear the Red Orchid equipment, or holding the Molten Steel production hostage to command Wakanda, or Nick's equipment support, these are all stopgap measures." Stark sighed and said: "The confrontation between ordinary people and mutants will never end. Even if ordinary people want to end it, there are people who don't want this matter to end, so it will never end."

"Humans are like this. They must pick the weakest among their own kind to bully. The rich want to bully the poorest among their own kind, and the poor also want to bully those even poorer. Even beggars want to bully those weaker and more powerless than themselves. This is the inherent flaw of humanity." Stark shook his head and said.

"Indeed, without Project Red Orchid, they will still have Plan B and Plan C. As long as mutants are not exterminated, the confrontation between the two sides will not stop..."

Schiller leaned back in his chair, looked at Stark and said: "Why do you think ordinary people are so repulsed by mutants?"

"Of course, it's because of their uncontrollability."

"On the surface, that's true, but it's far more than that."

Schiller nodded and said: "That's right, the sudden eruption of mutant abilities will cause harm, but if you think carefully, who is being harmed?"

"Who?" Strange looked at Schiller with some curiosity. He felt that Schiller must have some "high insights" again, and he was very interested in this.

Schiller revealed a mocking smile and said: "If one day, a mutant's ability erupts on the subway, who do you think is more likely to be harmed? The politician who travels in luxury cars every day with a row of bodyguards, or the office worker who rushes to catch the subway every day to go to work?"

"Of course, the latter." Strange replied without hesitation. He paused and then said: "That bunch of rich people wouldn't squeeze onto the subway."

After saying this, he kept glancing at Stark. Stark pursed his lips unnaturally and said: "I'm not used to physical contact with others, and the signal on the subway is bad, which will delay my work..."

"Let's take another example. A mutant suddenly erupts, harming two people at the same time. One is Peter, who is in his youth and hasn't had the spider mutation yet, and Tony, who is also young but has already inherited a large fortune. Both are injured equally severely. Who is more affected?"

"Definitely Peter." Tony crossed his arms and said: "His family's financial situation is barely considered an ordinary family. They are basically hovering on the poverty line. If Peter is injured, his aunt and uncle will definitely be very worried. At the very least, one person will have to stay in the hospital to accompany him."

"Among the two laborers, one stops working, and the family income is immediately cut in half, but the expenses are several times higher because they have to pay for Peter's treatment. As for me, ordinary injuries are not a problem for me. Even if I were disabled, I could make a prosthetic limb."

"So, it can be summarized like this: the possibility of the poor being harmed by mutants, and the severity of the harm suffered, are much greater than those of the rich."

"Because there are many more poor people than rich people." Strange tapped the armrest and said: "How many people like him are there in the world? Most people are just like my family situation before. They live quite well usually, but basically have no savings..."

"That's right. The current situation is that in this country, a very small elite class decides the fate of the vast majority of people, right?"

Stark and Strange looked at each other and nodded. Schiller continued: "This elite class actually knows that mutants don't pose that much actual harm to them. The probability of them encountering a mutant eruption is much smaller than that of ordinary people, and even if they suffer harm, they can afford the loss."

"But have you noticed that the anti-mutant sentiment of this group of people is actually much stronger than that of the general public."

Strange touched his chin and said: "According to my experience working in the hospital, it seems that's really the case. The hospital often treats some mutants who have suffered deformation injuries. Ordinary nurses or intern nurses at most complain that the wounds are a bit scary, or that the situation is complex and difficult to handle, adding to their workload."

"But our vice president often curses, saying that these mutants should just die and never appear in their hospital."

"Why do you think that is?" Schiller asked.

Strange frowned and thought for a while, then said: "Actually, those mutants' wounds are difficult to handle, but ordinary people's are about the same. If you have seen people who have suffered severe car accidents, you know that the degree of human injury has no most bizarre, only more bizarre. Nurses are used to this kind of thing."

"However, the hospital I worked at before was a private hospital. The dean holds shares, and income is linked to the hospital's revenue. Once a large-scale injury event caused by mutant ability eruption occurs, the hospital will be crowded with those injured, and reporters will follow. They love to report these things."

"Due to the media and reporters, the dean cannot drive them out, but many of these people cannot afford the sky-high medical expenses of private hospitals. More importantly, when there are many people, they occupy the convalescent wards, causing patients who had previously reserved high-end wards to be unable to check in. People who reserve these wards are truly rich. With the decline of one and the rise of another, the financial report for this quarter will definitely look very ugly..."

"In other words, the anger and hatred of the general public toward mutants mostly come from threats to survival, such as being delayed from work or school by mutants, having their workload increased by mutants, or even losing their lives in accidents. But most of the elite class's hatred for mutants mostly comes from mutants causing them to lose interests outside of survival."

"Most are like this." Stark said: "I have heard some shareholders complain, but many of them have never seen a mutant at all. They just have to spend more money to hire security to prevent certain vicious events of mutants losing control, so they hate mutants to death."

"That is indeed the case." Schiller rested his hands on the armrests and said: "But not everyone deserves to lose interests. They also have to work hard to operate their industries. It's normal to have emotions if they can't accept the loss."

"But there is another more typical type of person. They talk about ideology, but in their hearts, it's still business. From the act of being anti-mutant, they can gain more benefits."

"Some politicians will use this claim to win votes for themselves, and some companies will choose to take sides to please the majority of users. Unfortunately, these people have more say than ordinary people and can better determine the future direction of this country."

"In other words, actually, many people are not anti-mutant because they sympathize with the general public, but because there is profit to be made. The person who formulated this plan is the same."

"They don't hate mutants and therefore stop them from joining the solar system development plan, but because they want to stop them from joining the solar system development plan so that they can get a bigger piece of the cake, they hate mutants."

Schiller looked at Stark and Strange, both of whom nodded. They felt that what Schiller said made sense.

Actually, now, many of the people who are most enthusiastic about being anti-mutant have never even seen a mutant.

Searching through media reports that are anti-mutant, many media outlets have errors in common sense in their language and text. There was even a newspaper that wrote the mutant X-gene as the Y-gene, and a group of people echoed underneath, saying that the Y-gene should be exterminated.

"In summary, since these people can be anti-mutant for the sake of profit, then as long as the profit is sufficient, they can also worship mutants as gods. Black is them, white is also them. The speed of changing their tune only depends on the amount of money."

Stark narrowed his eyes and looked at Schiller, saying: "You want to lure them with profit? But now, the biggest benefit they can get from being anti-mutant is to divert domestic contradictions. If you want to induce them to change their tune, you must come up with greater benefits."

Schiller shook his head and said: "This is indeed a method, but it is too laborious, and it's not like I haven't tried it. I said I could help them solve domestic contradictions once and for all, and they said I was an extreme leftist lunatic."

"I don't intend to do this thankless job again. Let's change to another method." Schiller smiled and then said:

"We cannot increase the benefits they get from praising mutants, but we can increase the losses they suffer from repelling mutants." ===== CHAPTER 867 =====