Watching the visibly irritable Schiller, Loki wasn't angered. He smiled, sat down, and placed the briefcase on his lap, saying, "Were the two proposals I gave you not successful?"
"It's not just the two proposals you gave . Yesterday, Sanctum Sanctorum held two etings and presented over a dozen sales proposals. Only two of them showed interest, and we still couldn't finalize a deal."
Schiller covered one eye with his palm and sighed, "This is the most difficult client I've encountered."
Loki sat down and patted Schiller's shoulder, saying, "Hang in there. It's just this one deal. After it's done, I'll treat you to a soak in the hot springs beneath the World Tree."
Taking a deep breath, Schiller said, "Well, they've provided with a ready excuse to stay here and sleep all day. Otherwise, if I were to work at S.H.I.E.L.D. during the dayti and do sales in my dreams at night, I'd be exhausted."
"But it seems like they've misunderstood sothing..." Loki looked up at the door Steve had left through. Schiller shook his head, dispelling the drowsiness from just waking up from a dream, and then said, "Whatever. Once I finish this deal with Death, they'll forget about it a few days after I'm discharged..."
Loki's mouth twitched, as if he wanted to say sothing. Steve's serious expression before leaving didn't seem like sothing that would be forgotten in a few days. However, seeing Schiller's irritated mood due to frequent rejections, he ultimately decided not to say anything.
"... Are you really okay?" Loki hesitated for a mont and then asked.
Because Schiller's current expression couldn't be described as serene or peaceful; it was more like gritted teeth and seething anger.
After taking a deep breath and exhaling, Schiller took another deep breath. He then gave a half-hearted smile, saying, "I'm fine, just feeling a little homicidal."
"Honestly, you explained to that concept of Death you ntioned, and it sounds interesting. But I don't think you need to be so fixated on it. After all, from what I can see, her impact on human civilization isn't that significant at this stage. There's no need to rush like this..."
Holding his arms, Schiller clenched his teeth and said, "Do you think I care right now whether she brings interest to human civilization?"
Loki patted Schiller's shoulder again and said, "Enough said, I understand, I really do."
Indeed, Schiller's symptoms of narcolepsy were because he truly was addicted to sleep, or rather, addicted to dreaming.
After obtaining the Judgnt Balance that allowed him to bother Death through the telephone, Schiller almost never stopped dialing Death's number to pitch his ideas to her.
At the beginning, Death didn't respond at all. However, perhaps she grew annoyed by Schiller's persistence, and she began to subtly convey so information, such as affirming or rejecting certain cooperative approaches Schiller proposed.
But Schiller's irritability stemd from the fact that 99% of his thods were rejected by Death.
Schiller wasn't an innocent con artist, and he didn't consider the cost of ti. At this stage, things had progressed beyond the point of interest. The competition between Schiller and Death was both about supremacy and survival.
Furthermore, Schiller wanted to find out why Death didn't let him die...
If one were to say that Death's transactions with Odin and Osiris were ant to bring her more followers, the premise was that Odin and Osiris held devout attitudes. It's more accurate to say that they worked for her rather than trading with her, just like Thanos.
It could be said that if Odin and Osiris were to bother Death through the telephone like Schiller did, the current Asgard and Egyptian pantheons might not even exist anymore.
The perspective on ti for the long-lived and short-lived is completely different. The hippopotamus goddess might think it's incredibly frequent for her children to call her once a week, but she isn't truly immortal, only long-lived. And her children call her once a week.
Death is an abstract concept; she is truly immortal. As long as space exists, she will continue to exist. Schiller doesn't call her once a week; he calls her dozens of tis a day.
Even so, Death hasn't been annoyed enough by him to kill him. There must be so reason Schiller doesn't know about. For this reason, he wants to uncover the secret reason Death isn't collecting him.
And to uncover this secret, he naturally needs to call Death. So, these days, Schiller hasn't done anything else. Whenever he has free ti, he sleeps and dreams, then takes the Balance and pesters Death with calls.
Of course, based on his current performance, neither of these efforts is going smoothly. While Schiller receives calls, most of the ti he's the one talking. She occasionally responds, but most of the ti, she's silent.
Now, Schiller finally understands why Death was able to bewilder Thanos. If she remained completely unresponsive and silent, Schiller would likely give up. But now, Death is clearly telling Schiller that she not only possesses personality and wisdom but also analyzes gains and losses.
What would it be like for an abstract concept to possess personality? How did her personality form? Would she be influenced by external factors like humanity? What's the difference in psychological state between divinely created beings and naturally born ones? Once an abstract concept with near limitless power possesses likes, dislikes, and the ability to analyze gains and losses, what changes will it bring to space?
These questions pique Schiller's curiosity. Essentially, Schiller, embodying the trait of greedy curiosity, is eager to make Death a subject of study and gain power from analyzing her personality and emotional characteristics.
And a research subject that's half-dead and rarely responds would make any researcher feel frustrated. Schiller is currently in a very frustrated state.
Loki keenly sensed this, so he hastily left behind the proposal and rushed back to Asgard without looking back. As he was on the road fleeing, he was still pondering: Which unlucky person will happen to fall into Schiller's crosshairs? He must make sure to be on Bifrost on ti to enjoy the show.
Another individual who knew this truth was the Supre Sorcerer Strange. At this mont, he was in the Avengers' base, participating in a eting hosted by Steve.
"...In conclusion, I believe that Schiller might have experienced so stimulus, causing a recurrence of his ntal disorder, and the situation is quite grim."
Steve sighed, his expression more serious than ever. He said, "Aside from considering the suffering he might be going through, we also have to think about the potential destruction if he suddenly becos ntally unstable..."
Saying this, he glanced at Stark. Stark clenched his fist against his lips and then coughed, saying, "I acknowledge, I shouldn't have provoked him yesterday. But I didn't expect it to worsen so quickly."
"Can't we find a doctor?" Peter raised his hand to ask.
"That's the problem." Matt tapped the table with his finger and said, "We don't have a doctor right now who can provide him with treatnt, and he might not even cooperate with the treatnt."
"Starting from yesterday, during our communications, he exhibited strong aggression toward . Today, he's developed symptoms of narcolepsy and appears quite irritable, with so signs of depression..."
"If this continues, his ntal state might deteriorate step by step. No one knows how it will end."
Stark sighed and continued, "Moreover, the issue is that ntal problems are different from physical trauma; we can't use magical power to treat them..."
"Indeed, we practically have no thods right now that can affect a person's ntal state. And even if we do, it's not guaranteed to work on Schiller."
"Cough, cough..." Strange cleared his throat. He touched his face and then said, "Are you really sure it's a ntal issue?"
Matt and Steve looked at him, and then Steve said, "Oh, I forgot, you weren't there when we described what we saw in Schiller's Temple of Thought."
Steve explained to Strange what they had seen there, Schiller's childhood and adolescent experiences.
Upon hearing this, Strange had a sudden realization on his face.
Suddenly, Strange brought up, "Have you noticed, there's a contradiction in all of this?"
Stark and Steve exchanged a glance, both of them furrowing their brows, then they looked at Strange together.
"If, as you guys said, Schiller might have suffered ntal trauma during childhood, leading him to develop an anti-society personality during his adolescence..."
"But the Schiller we saw before was a normal person. You guys aren't saying that all of his normal behaviors back then were a disguise for a murderer, are you?"
"Impossible." Peter denied this first. He said, "I lived with Schiller and Dr. Connors for quite a while, and I have Spider-Sense. If he was pretending, I would have definitely sensed it."
"I don't think so either." Matt agreed, saying, "His ntal issues at that ti were much more severe. If he was truly a killer, he wouldn't have needed to save ."
"He was facing more serious ntal problems back then than he is now. So how did he get better?" Strange asked.
The group exchanged glances, then turned to look at Strange together. Strange continued, "Or to put it differently, if soone was able to cure Schiller's severe ntal issues back then, then maybe we can cure him now in the sa way?"
Stark rubbed his chin, pondering for a mont, then said, "There's a reason. Now it seems like he might be experiencing a bipolar episode, but his ntal issues might have been worse before. So, who cured him?"
At this point, Strange suddenly spoke up, "Do you guys rember when I first t Schiller, I told you he was wearing a ring?"
Everyone's gaze returned to Strange's face once again. Clearing his throat, Strange said, "And then there's that cryogenic technology that shouldn't belong to this era, as well as the significant salary that Schiller's whereabouts were unclear about, as ntioned by Nick before..."
"But I rember, Schiller explained." Peter scratched his head, recalling, and then said, "I rember he told Dr. Connors that freezing his wife was the story of a friend of his. That friend was a Cryogenic Scientist who invented such powerful cryogenic technology specifically to freeze his wife suffering from degenerative disease..."
At this point, Stark stood up, summoned his combat suit, and then said, "JARVIS, search for global Cryogenic Scientists' records, filter according to the conditions Peter just ntioned."
"Searching... Search complete..."
"No results found."
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