Chapter 2698: Hollywood Rhapsody (21)

Shiller had now discovered that Chinese people could never escape a particular conundrum—festive seasons, arrivals, and forever the child.

Afterwards, he attempted several more times, specifically as Shiller No. 7, Shiller No. 8, and Shiller No. 9, but not once was he successful, because, as he had previously discovered, there was more than one dog in the whole filming program.

Or to put it another way, it was tough to find someone among these people who wasn't a dog—when a bunch of lunatics got together, it was strange if anything good came out of it.

The lunatics on DC's side had style in their illness, charm in their madness, as if they wished to write in big letters across their faces that they were lunatics.

But on the Marvel side, it was different; everyone seemed normal at first glance, yet they were all exceptionally abnormal, or rather, each had their own normal and abnormal aspects, and when and where they might be abnormal was unpredictable.

Now Shiller could very much understand Adam.

In the Marvel world, when a program could still run, it was best not to tamper with it; when a plot was somewhat reasonable, there was no need to try to change it. Otherwise, things would only become more preposterous, and later on, things like Sandman mistakenly entering Atlantis and the three-year period coming to an end with the return of the Dragon King, or Forest Ice and Fire Man battling the Scarlet Witch until the Dao itself was worn down...everything would ensue...

In the end, Shiller realized that from this angle, it was unlikely that the situation could be turned around. Considering that the timeline itself was very fragile, and there were not many chances left for him to try, he decided to be a bit bolder and settle things once and for all.

The biggest problem now was that after Shiller's past was dug up, almost all official agencies could not find out what exactly happened at the time; being vague was worse than any terrible specific answer. Because of this, Shiller would have endless problems in the future.

To permanently solve these issues, Shiller needed to turn the vagueness into specific answers. Why not directly time travel to the era of the backstory, create a concrete reason, then let them investigate and find out? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

Of course, because the time-span of this travel was vast, the possible impact on space-time would be greater. Therefore, Shiller needed to be even more cautious, scripting everything in advance and simply executing once in the past.

The Shiller of the past was not Shiller; he was merely a character in a Marvel comic story, equivalent to having a body but a soul that was merely a machine tasked with executing the story written by the Superego.

And unsurprisingly, the entire experience consisted of large gaps; there was virtually no childhood, and the first visible point on the timeline was his college years.

Shiller's plan was to knock this Shiller out, find a place to stash him, and then fill in the missing part of his life himself. After all, all he needed was to find an opportunity to connect with law enforcement, create a legitimate reason, and then it would be fine for the likes of Nick to investigate in the future.

Shiller knew that this period's Shiller did not have superpowers, for his origin story was set as just a psychologist engaged in reading and research—not a superhero, and so he had no extraordinary abilities. Thus, knocking him out wouldn't be difficult.

The only problem was Shiller's current appearance differed from his younger self; after all, theoretically, over 20 years had passed, and no one's appearance remained completely unchanged over such a long time.

But that was not an issue—as a Symbiont, Gray Mist could change Shiller's appearance, leaving only one little problem: Greed did not want to go to college, let alone interact with law enforcement.

Nick was right about one thing, nearly every Greed realized just how foolish the operational logic of America's law enforcement was. This logic was contrary to what Greed stood for because sometimes law enforcement didn't even seek benefits, only answers.

Greed didn't want to go, and he certainly wouldn't seek out the main perpetrator, Arrogant—he knew Arrogant was planning to watch his troubles unfold, and he wouldn't give him that pleasure.

Greed found the one and only Shiller from his college days, of course, beneath the High Tower.

Columbia University Medical School sits along the Hudson River, a certain distance from the undergraduate campus. Here, in addition to the medical school, there's also the New York Elderly Association Hospital Society. Shiller's journey in medical research began from this place.

Shiller chose this point in time when he had just completed his undergraduate studies, begun learning at medical school, and obtained the supervisory internship qualification from the New York Elderly Association Hospital.

No Shiller wanted to deal with undergraduate exams again.

In America, the undergraduate and graduate schools such as law and medical schools are separate. This means students can't choose medical school majors right when they start college; they have to take undergraduate exams before entering medical or law schools, equivalent to studying medicine and law only in graduate school.

Of course, there are exceptions that allow students to start graduate studies without completing all undergraduate courses, and Shiller was one of them; he was actually in his junior year of spring semester now.

There were no detailed contents for this period on the timeline, but Shiller was here to fill in the story of the timeline. He figured that since the Super-Ego Manuscript was experiences from a previous life, he should have some free time during this period.

Through a series of exams, and having obtained nearly all the qualifications, most professors told him to prepare well and immerse himself in his new studies and internship life. This was likely to be his most leisurely time in the coming decade, for his future would essentially be a cycle of school, research, and internships.

Although Shiller excelled in psychoanalysis, that wasn't his field of study during his school years. Instead, he delved into Gestalt psychology, which views the psyche as an integral whole rather than studying consciousness in isolation, emphasizing that the total psychological experience is greater than the sum of its parts.

Shiller remembered choosing this direction mainly because of his Tower of Thought, which at the time was quite stable and efficient; he no longer needed to study how to merge so many personalities. What concerned him was how to make the Tower operate with even greater efficiency.

Moreover, at that time, Shiller didn't have a memory bank. His memories were stored within the traits of various personalities, meaning whoever was dominant at the time had the memories of that period. They would then share and reconcile memories once they receded.

It was precisely because of his research into Gestalt psychology and the reinforcement of their concept as a whole that Shiller underwent a transformation. He adopted the idea of a memory channel that could unify all memories into one compartment, accessible to whomever needed it.

The unification of memory made cooperation between different personality traits more efficient and, by centering around memory, brought all personality traits closer together, preventing the possibility of dissociative identity disorder.

It was also because the memory bank was a recent development that Greed had the opportunity to meddle with it, eventually leading to an incident which forced cooperation with a law enforcement agency.

But now, Shiller came with a complete Tower, and there were no enemies of his in this world. Thus, he could approach law enforcement agencies in a much gentler manner.

However, Shiller had forgotten one thing: not only was he an alumnus and classmate of the renowned Hand of God Stephen Strange, but they were also in consecutive grades.

Generally, different grades wouldn't be considered classmates, but medical school was different. Typically, those interning during the same period were classmates, often spanning two to three grades, and their relationships were even closer than undergraduates of the same year.

This was because at this stage, everyone was committed to their chosen fields, bound to work in the same industry and possibly even in the same hospital or department. With similar work content, it was natural for them to have more in common than during their undergraduate studies.

Shiller was aware that he and Strange couldn't possibly have any feelings of camaraderie; otherwise, Strange wouldn't have been so arrogant upon his arrival. Nonetheless, upon encountering the young Steven in the hallway for the first time, Shiller was taken aback.

The current Strange seemed different from the haughty demeanor Shiller was used to seeing. Though still expressionless, Shiller could almost immediately sense his unease.

Wait a minute, what are you anxious about?

It wasn't until after Strange had passed by that Shiller realized Strange's main talent lay in surgery, specifically in high-precision neurosurgery, and he performed better the more critical and challenging the situation was. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been called a god.

This talent, however, could only be showcased in the operating theater, and the minor tasks at medical school could not reflect his skill.

Yet he was still a student; how could anyone allow him to perform surgery on critical cases? According to Shiller's own knowledge, it seemed Strange became sensational in a surgery that took place five or six years later, which earned him the title of a prodigy.

Considering he was almost 30 at that time, it was nothing short of miraculous for someone under 30 in the intensely competitive field of neurosurgery to have such skill.

This meant the current Stephen Strange was still an unknown, lacking family background, acquaintance in his field, or close mentors.

Shiller was too, in a similar position.

Although Shiller deliberately kept a low profile, even using his devout Catholic faith as an excuse to skip internships for church, all to avoid attention, their current status in the school was comparable. They were the ones no one helped save seats for in the cafeteria or library.

Seeing Strange, Shiller couldn't help but wonder about Stark's whereabouts. Which university was he attending?

However, from what Stark bragged about, Shiller remembered that Stark mentioned graduating from MIT in his teens and before turning 25, he had obtained three PhD degrees, making his educational level appear far beyond theirs.

But Shiller's visit this time aimed to complete his backstory and wasn't intended to intersect with these two "turkeys." He needed to hasten his coincidental encounters with law enforcement personnel.

Shiller also knew he had to avoid showing any abnormalities during this period. To achieve this difficult goal, he brought a capable assistant with him: Ultron.

Shiller pressed a button beside his glasses, and a voice sounded in his ear, "I'm here, Doctor, no targets around. I think you can now head to the library; it's not crowded there."