Chapter 2695: Hollywood Rhapsody (18)

Afterward, many professionals analyzed the conversation scene among Shiller, Peter, and Stark from various detailed aspects. They all said that during the conversation, Shiller maintained the professionalism of a psychologist, making sure not to provoke the patient, actively guiding them, and using his professional knowledge to ensure that everyone could communicate calmly and peacefully.

This wasn't considered a huge revelation given that Shiller is a well-known psychologist and also a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. It would be surprising if he didn't have a solid professional grounding.

However, one point that everyone cared about was the relationship between Strange and Shiller. In the first episode, it had shown their daily work in the hospital where Shiller was late for a consultation because he was calming down a patient, and Strange's attitude was not good at that time.

Previously, Strange had even called Shiller a drug addict, treating him with disrespect, and although it's said that colleagues repel each other, one is a surgeon and the other is a psychologist, which are quite unrelated fields. How could they not get along?

Regarding the issue of drug addiction, the internet had several rounds of discussions, where many people with a history of drug addiction stood up and said Doctor Schiller couldn't possibly be addicted to drugs. He showed none of the tell-tale signs of addiction, such as a vacant gaze, limb twitching, or an inability to concentrate.

Some said it was possible that he had a history of addiction, but even so, as a psychologist, that would be quite unprofessional, and they even began to question the legality of Shiller's license.

And of course, some people dug deeper, as Superego had written a little origin story when he first created this character. The original setting had Shiller going through the proper channels of education and then working at major hospitals.

Since a character was directly written in, Shiller existed even before he arrived, otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many acquaintances from teachers and classmates.

Since he had a rich social network, it was natural that he knew people. As Shiller suddenly became famous, of course, acquaintances came out to spill the secrets.

The key points of these revelations were as follows, first, Shiller was a devout Catholic who spent a lot of time attending church to pray on weekends and had good relationships with many clergy members.

Second, he did have a history of alcohol and drug addiction, but the informer only provided evidence from his college to graduate school days, unable to prove that he was still addicted after obtaining his license.

Third, he had excellent grades in college, was gentle and polite, and had quite a few suitors, but there was no word of him having a long-term partner or even of him dating at all.

Fourth, his professional skills in college had helped many high-society individuals, which was why he was able to immediately join prestigious places like Elders Council Hospital after choosing his profession. Now he still provides professional psychological counseling for the likes of Stark the billionaire.

Fifth, and the most sensational one, some said he had once worked for law enforcement out of necessity, which was a significant reason why he could later join S.H.I.E.L.D. and become a consultant psychologist for superheroes.

Greed rushed into the High Tower immediately after seeing these revelations, shouting toward Superego's office, "Superego! What kind of origin story did you create? Just copied the reality bluntly, huh?!"

Others were shocked by these revelations as well. The Avengers, being superheroes, of course, couldn't delve into investigating Shiller's background, though they often asked incessantly, and guessed blindly, but didn't investigate very thoroughly.

Pepper had investigated Shiller before hiring him, but things like having worked for law enforcement or minor details of Shiller's youth were impossible to find out, at most, they could only discover that he was professionally competent and had interactions with high society.

While everyone was curious, they also knew not to take these revelations at face value, with many clever ones realizing that Shiller was not from this world. Thus, it was very possible that the information released was also a ruse by him, a mix of truth and falsehood just for amusement.

But there was one person, a person not from this world, who also went online, and that was Pamela.

Although she worked in the Himalayas and would logically have no signal, thanks to China's rapid construction pace, the internet had already been connected even amidst the ongoing mountain construction works.

Although she could only connect to a domestic network, don't forget China also had a version of TikTok, one that was more advanced than the international version by not just one version, and this side's marketing accounts would say anything, aiming always to shock and awe.

The algorithm of TikTok wasn't for nothing, Pamela kept being exposed to news about the documentary, and she'd binged on a fair share of superhero gossip. Now she could be considered the most informed person in the DC Universe about Marvel heroes.

While browsing, she came upon an analysis video of Shiller. Although most were nonsense reposted by marketing accounts, Pamela knew Shiller well enough to feel that the revelations matched her understanding of him.

The most truthful was the section about law enforcement agencies. Shiller clearly had an unusually thorough understanding of institutions like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, knew their operational styles too well, and it seemed even Agent Amanda wasn't as familiar with them as he was.

Other personal matters like being Catholic, his university grades, whether or not he dated, were not very important. The key was the law enforcement agency part, which sparked the curiosity of many.

To the general public, it seemed perfectly normal for a highly skilled psychologist to be employed by institutions like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as they had many professional consultants, with a specialized institute for crime psychology, so it was normal for Shiller to work for them.

But for superheroes who knew the whole story, Shiller didn't seem like someone who would work for law enforcement, especially unlikely for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Particularly Nick, who thought anyone could work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation except Shiller because they fundamentally knew how illogical these institutions operated.

However, as the saying goes, all talk and no action makes Jack a dull boy, and Nick decided to investigate this matter. After some inquiry, he found that there might indeed be some truth to it, but even he couldn't find the details.

It's strange indeed, Nick thought. If Shiller had really done it, it was highly unlikely that he would keep it a secret from them. If Shiller hadn't done it, then who could have forged it?

What's more, if Shiller had done it, how could he possibly fail to find out about it?

Actually, Nick didn't really take working for the law enforcement agencies seriously. After all, it wasn't possible that Shiller was an undercover agent sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to his team. So what difference did it make whether he had worked there or not?

But not being able to find any trace of it still made him feel uneasy. All the heads of the agents had the same ethos: you could be good or bad, but you could not remain unknown to them. Suspicion was ingrained in their bones.

Nick suspected Shiller, not his stance per se, but because he felt that generally speaking, the tangled messes Shiller got involved with didn't drag on too long, yet were shockingly big. If there was a conspiracy that he had started back in college, how massive would the repercussions be? Hence, he grew even more anxious.

On the other side, Greed and Arrogance were reconciling accounts with Superego.

"I can't be blamed for this," Superego directly shunned the responsibility, saying, "Even if it were copied by me, I must have something to copy from, right? Who did the things in the previous life?"

"Most of them were Morbid," Greed spoke. "I only did it that one time."

"And that one time you did it, you caused trouble," Arrogance said irritably. "You caused the mess yourself and then deleted the memory, causing all of us to be caught off guard. If not for that, how could we possibly get caught?"

"It was just an accident," Greed said.

"You're not even willing to tell the truth up to this point," Superego became even more distressed, saying, "Any other Shiller could have done it, and I wouldn't be surprised, but how could it possibly be you? How could you have specifically spared..."

Arrogance was already looking quite displeased as he gazed at Greed and said, "So why on earth did you not deal with that witness back then? If it weren't for her, would we have to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation?"

"I've told you I had my own plans; stop asking," Greed obviously still didn't want to tell.

Then, he suddenly came to a realization, looked at Superego, and exclaimed, "You did this to retaliate against me, didn't you? You copied and pasted our past experiences into my cosmos! Now it has been dug up, how am I supposed to explain it?"

"Then how are you explaining it to us right now?" Superego said righteously. "Go tell them you have your own plans."

Greed felt a headache coming on. Wasn't this basically admitting to them that he was weaving a huge conspiracy? But he wasn't!

Greed's gaze swept between Arrogance and Superego before finally sighing and saying, "This matter is complex, I find it difficult to explain to you, we are one and the same person, can't you trust me?"

"We are the same person, and yet you deleted our memory?!"

Sighing deeply, Greed knew it was futile to argue any further. He didn't stay there any longer. Instead, he rose to the surface, pondering how to resolve this thorny issue.

Now that it had been exposed, no matter what he said, those who knew him would definitely think that him never mentioning it before was a trap he had dug, waiting for someone to fall into. He was now in a position where jumping into the Yellow River wouldn't wash him clean.

Shiller thought it over and concluded that, given his past glorious deeds, making excuses would be useless. This was definitely a retaliation aimed at him and Arrogance.

That left only one option: to prevent the past experiences copied by Superego from being exposed. After all, he actually hadn't done those things in this cosmos, so why should he take the fall for it?

But he was already drawing attention now. Even if momentarily overlooked, it would be discovered eventually. The solution was to ensure he didn't become popular, didn't appear in the public eye at all, thus avoiding a whole host of problems.

Although most people had no chance to take a regret medicine, it wasn't necessarily the same for Shiller. He had many ways to travel through time at his disposal. The trouble was that Nick was also the head of the Time Management Bureau, and deceiving him would be difficult.

But eventually, Shiller came up with a plan. As they say, a monk from afar may chant the scriptures well. Barry, as the originator of Divine Speed, could use his abilities in Marvel as well.

The nature of Divine Speed did not merge with Marvel's timeline; time-traveling activities would not be detected by the Time Management Bureau, allowing Shiller to return to the past without making a whisper.

This time, he would stay quietly working at Arkham Sanatorium. Better to end this broken falsehood and rest.