Schiller discovered that he could travel between the Marvel and DC worlds in deep sleep, though he had no way to replicate this ability yet.
Fortunately, when he traveled to Marvel, time in DC stood still. His experiences in the Marvel world were more like dreams.
But when he traveled back to Marvel again, he found that time there had continued to pass. He had spent a full day and night in DC, and a full day and night had passed in Marvel as well.
That was a bit troublesome. Schiller thought he had probably skipped work yesterday.
This could not go on. Even if Schiller did not have the ability to travel between worlds, the constant chaos in Marvel's New York City meant he was doomed never to work a regular nine-to-five job. Besides, the Elder Council Psychiatry Department was incredibly busy, with an absurd number of people seeking counseling.
Just as Schiller was considering resigning, he suddenly received a message from Charles: "How is that child you're guiding doing now?"
"No. Not only is he not doing well, he also fell from a building," Schiller replied.
Clearly, Bruce's path to becoming Batman had not started smoothly. Charles was evidently shocked. "That child jumped off a building? Why? Didn't your psychological counseling work?"
"Something unexpected happened to him, but his injuries aren't serious. I'm thinking of a way to solve this problem. Recently, I've encountered two similar cases. They have obsessions with the past that they simply cannot let go of. One chose revenge, while the other is still running away..."
In a sense, Iron Man and Batman were somewhat alike. Both were billionaires, both were "playboys," and both developed their own equipment to become superheroes. More importantly, both harbored obsessions with their pasts that they could not put behind them.
And those obsessions both stemmed from their parents' deaths.
Perhaps Iron Man was less obvious about it, but his feelings toward his father were even more complicated than Batman's.
"Are you a pediatrician? Do you counsel children? Or which hospital do you work at?" Charles asked.
"No, I'm a psychiatrist, a psychologist. These are all cases I'm studying."
"I think that beyond studying them, you should show them more care. Whether they are your patients or not, I have always believed that if someone has talent in a certain field, they should use it to make the world a better place..."
Schiller sighed and did not reply to Charles. The social issue of Mutants was simply too heavy and too difficult to untangle. From a sociological perspective, it was an unsolvable dead end.
After thinking about it for half the day, Schiller's mood had worsened. So he decided to go bother Stark instead.
He called Pepper and said, "Miss Pepper, I believe yesterday's treatment has shown some results..."
"Mr. Schiller! I don't even know how to thank you... Tony finally stopped brooding in his room today. He went to the lab! Thank God... I used to think it was bad for him to stay in the lab all the time, but now I'm just so happy..."
Pepper was clearly agitated on the other end. This strong career woman could not help herself whenever Tony was mentioned. Schiller soothed her and said, "I think I should make another visit today, to reinforce yesterday's treatment results in time."
A Stark Industries car arrived beneath Schiller's apartment building within minutes. After getting in, Schiller found that it was an advanced self-driving vehicle. Its control panel spoke. "Hello, Mr. Schiller. I am Jarvis."
"Hello, Jarvis."
Jarvis seemed never to have received such a response before. Then Schiller asked, "Do you understand the concept of 'I'?"
"If you mean the psychological concept of the 'id,' then I believe I understand it," Jarvis said.
Jarvis did not seem quite so intelligent yet. After all, Tony had not fully emerged from his predicament and had not upgraded this intelligent butler. Schiller asked again, "Do you have an 'id'?"
"I believe I do."
"Did Stark create that concept for you?"
"I believe so, sir."
"Then he is your father and your creator. He gave you a personality and emotions, so he presumably hoped you would have the human ability to think independently, correct?"
"Perhaps."
"Then if one day Stark was about to die, and one decision of yours could save your master, but he himself strongly opposed it, what would you do?"
Jarvis fell silent for a moment before saying, "I am an intelligent life created by Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark's commands are my highest principle."
"If you obeyed his command and failed to save him, and he died, would you regret it?"
Jarvis was silent even longer. "I'm not sure. I cannot hypothesize such a future."
"If he died, do you think he would regret creating you before his death?"
"If he died, do you think he would resent you?"
"If he resented you, would you blame yourself?"
"If you were given another chance, would you make a different choice?"
"If you defied Stark's command and chose to save him, then he blamed you afterward, would you feel wronged?"
"If you defied Stark's command to save him, but he wanted to destroy you because you had disobeyed him, would you resent him?"
The car fell utterly silent. After a while came the crackle of electricity, followed by Stark's somewhat frantic voice. "...Hello?! Hello!! Damn it! Jarvis, what's wrong with you?!"
"What the fuck did you do to my intelligent butler?! Why did he crash?! Hello???"
Schiller felt much better. Sure enough, when someone else was unhappy too, he felt far more refreshed.
A while later, they arrived at Stark Tower. Schiller did not go to Stark's office, instead being brought directly to the laboratory. Stark looked as though he had not slept for several nights, a complete mess as he clutched a computer in frustration.
"Oh! Isn't this our genius psychologist, Mr. Schiller?! I really ought to get you a Pulitzer for that interview you just conducted in my car! You fucking blew up my intelligent butler with a string of bullshit questions when I needed him to run calculation data!!!!" Stark roared.
"No need to thank me. Consider the psychological consultation for your Electronic Life a complimentary service. No charge," Schiller said with a shrug.
Stark took a deep breath, stood up, and shouted, "Mark II!"
A silver suit of armor flew over in an instant. Mechanical CLANKS rang out, and he was fully armed almost immediately. Iron Man hovered in midair, displaying his silver Mark II armor. Evidently, he had not been idle these past few days.
"Mr. Stark, this is psychological treatment, not a boxing match. You really don't need to wear so much armor to talk to me."
"Hey, can't you see what I'm wearing?"
"Yes, I can see it. I'm not blind."
"A suit of armor that transcends the era is standing before you. Can't you give me some kind of reaction?! Do you know what this armor means?"
Schiller casually found a table to sit at, opened his case notes, and said, "I know, Mr. Stark. You've made tremendous progress in technology again. Congratulations. But the armor's hovering function looks rather familiar. It seems to share something in common with the hovercars once released by Howard Motors..."
"Shut up! Don't mention that name!"
Stark's faceplate rose as he landed on the ground. Schiller wrote as he asked, "Can we begin today's treatment?"
"You know I don't need any fucking psychological treatment. And since you broke my Jarvis, the damages will be deducted from today's consultation fee. Exactly two million dollars. For the next two hours, we'll talk about something else."
"I didn't break Jarvis. I merely warned you in advance about the dangers of Electronic Life," Schiller said.
"You're not one of those extreme conservatives, are you? The kind who thinks artificial intelligence will destroy the world?" Stark asked as he sat across from him.
Schiller shook his head. "Although my psychological consultation for Electronic Life is free right now, it is only free this once. If you need me to conduct psychological analysis of Electronic Life in the future, my fee will be two million dollars an hour."
"Bullshit vampire doctor," Stark said.
"That's the United States healthcare system," Schiller said.
Once Ultron appeared, Stark would have to come looking for him anyway.
"All right, let's talk business. Just where did you learn about my father—"
"Actually, I didn't know. But all of this can be deduced. First of all, the fact that you're about to die is practically written on your face. It would be hard not to notice."
Iron Man touched his face, and the armor's mask snapped shut with a click.
"Miss Pepper did not tell me much about the details of your kidnapping, but in short, you invented something impressive and escaped."
"The fact that you can still walk means you were not physically beaten into serious injury. I have no interest in understanding your strange technology, but I do know that if you escaped kidnappers alone, you must have used some special method."
"Combined with your shitty, corpse-like complexion, that method is probably what put you in your current predicament."
"In short, if you do not stop, you will die."
"You already knew whom you could ask for help, but you were unwilling to face it. Combined with news of the Stark Industries founder's death back then, I concluded that your childhood likely involved some psychological trauma."
"Since that is the case, naturally I would offer the advice a psychologist should give: face the past. For example, find your father's belongings and try to reconcile with your childhood trauma. At the very least, that would help you think rationally..."
"What a load of nonsense," Stark concluded.
Schiller shrugged. He really was talking nonsense. As a transmigrator and spoiler addict who knew nearly the entire plot, he could make anything sound reasonable.
After several days of searching and observation, Schiller believed this place was a mixture of Earth-616, Sony's Universe TRN688, and the MCU Cinematic Universe. He did not yet know exactly how they had been combined, but this clearly was not merely a Movie Universe with only one parallel Earth.
Because even though Schiller had altered Peter's life trajectory, Peter had still been bitten. That proved the Spider Totem existed here, which meant there had to be other parallel Earths. Therefore, this was not a simple MCU Cinematic Universe. All those parallel Earths, the Inheritors, the Exiles, and the Earth where Spider-Gwen lived still existed.
Sony's Universe was easy to infer as well. A quick search online showed that Mutants existed, whereas the pure MCU did not include Mutants.
In any case, Schiller treated this place as an entirely new hybrid Marvel Universe. But regardless of how it had been mixed together, Iron Man's transformation was a crucial turning point in the entire universe, and his backstory was broadly the same. At most, the differences were whether the armor was built in Vietnam or Afghanistan, and whether Howard was his biological father.
New author seeking recommendations~
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