For the next week, Sean devoted himself to studying the power of the Mind Stone. Hydra's secret base was completely undefended before him, existing in name only. Whether it was its true master, Baron Strucker, or Dr. Stoke, who was responsible for its management, all of them were immersed in illusions.
Once the Mind Stone's effects wore off, they would only feel an emptiness in their hearts and a blankness in their minds, as though someone had taken something away. They would remember nothing else.
This medical center in Sokovia had now become Sean's private kingdom. Every staff member firmly believed in his fabricated identity: Dr. Sipes, holder of dual degrees in neurobiology and psychology.
As for Pietro and Wanda, who were participating in the experiments, they were still foolishly kept in the dark. They believed this was some sort of clinical drug trial and happily enjoyed plentiful food and generous stipends.
In the simple, brightly lit examination room, Sean sat neatly suited in a chair. Across from him sat a burly bald man. He was a test subject Hydra had found in a psychiatric hospital, a patient suffering from both thought and emotional disorders—his thinking was slower and more limited than that of ordinary people, and his reactions to emotions most people could feel, such as joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, were also much more sluggish.
The reason Sean used psychiatric patients as test subjects was that, if he wanted to gain a deeper grasp of the Mind Stone's power, he had to understand the minds and emotions of every living creature. The consciousness of psychiatric patients was completely different from that of normal people. This was the conclusion he had reached after a week of "psychological treatment."
A normal person's logical thinking was like a complex network of