Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4381 - 3474: Midnight Sons (36)

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A car slowly stopped at the entrance of the Roxsen Energy Industry Building. The barricade lifted, and the car gradually drove into the underground parking lot.

As Shiller just opened the car door and stepped out, a line of security personnel in black suits and wearing sunglasses came forward. The leader, wearing a headset, stepped up and shook hands with Shiller.

"Hello, Doctor Shiller, please follow us."

Shiller walked with them towards the elevator, still contemplating the information he learned yesterday. Dario Ag is very cunning; today's battle must be fought well.

Shiller adjusted his state of mind and gently touched the swordfish brooch on his chest with his hand. The leading security personnel turned back slightly to glance at his action without showing any emotion.

After exiting the elevator, Shiller was required to undergo a basic security check. Two female security personnel came over to conduct the check.

"Sorry, sir. You need to remove all sharp objects. Could you please take off the brooch? All items will be returned to you intact after your visit."

Shiller was not surprised at all. He took off the brooch and handed it to the security personnel. Another person came over to take the brooch away but moved into Shiller's blind spot, making it unclear where it went.

But in any case, he wasn't genuinely intending to use the brooch. To be precise, it wasn't intended for physical use; he only required the skills represented by the personality behind this symbol.

"Could you take off your glasses?" the security personnel asked again.

Shiller slightly frowned, pretending to be dissatisfied, but still removed his glasses.

When he wore glasses, the reflection on the lenses effectively covered his pupils, only vaguely revealing an outline, making him appear no different from an average person.

But once he removed the glasses, his gray pupils, devoid of any other color inclinations, stood out strikingly, exuding a desolate impression that made one's hair stand on end.

Although Shiller did not exhibit any intimidating expressions, the security personnel fixing their gaze on him all paused simultaneously.

Shiller immediately lowered his eyelids to cover half his pupils, pretending nothing had happened a moment ago.

However, the security personnel had to conduct a pupil safety check, as this era already had devices that could be implanted into the pupils for recording and monitoring, hence requiring a detection light to be aimed at the eyes.

Shiller had no choice but to cooperate by opening his eyes. He could clearly see the examiner's hesitant hand raising the light, while the hands of several security personnel beside him were already positioned on their guns.

This suddenly reminded him of why he wore glasses even though he wasn't nearsighted.

It's often said that the eyes are windows to the soul, a concept Shiller deeply understood. Possibly due to being of mixed race in his past life, his eye color was lighter, and coupled with his slightly neurotic gaze, he could easily be distinguished from ordinary people. To avoid this, he had to wear glasses.

This life made things even worse. The gray, which lacks any color inclination, is a hue unique to inorganic matter, often signifying death and destruction when appearing on a sentient being. Coupled with Shiller's gaze, it's an intimidating tool in interrogations, surpassing thousands of torture devices.

Watching the security personnel nervously complete the inspection, Shiller intended to put his glasses back on, but they had no intention of returning his glasses. Several security personnel escorted him forward without averting their eyes.

It was fortunate that he wasn't actually nearsighted, and he just embraced the experience of being treated as morbid.

As they continued walking, Shiller arrived at another office, not the one Samuel had previously led him to, but the top floor of the building on ground level. Once inside, there was a massive floor-to-ceiling window.

However, the decor here felt somewhat familiar to Shiller, not like the ultra-modern luxury of the Stark Building, but dominated by gold and deep green, with many patterns featuring figures, reminiscent of Asgard's Fairy Palace.

But this imitation Fairy Palace was far inferior to the real one. For one, the space wasn't large enough, the dome wasn't high enough, making the grand decoration style feel awkwardly cramped in a space under four meters in height. Furthermore, the placement of figure motifs was incorrect, and the divine hierarchy was misaligned. Even with the Asgardians' rough and unrestrained nature, they would never make such mistakes in this respect.

Dario even took pride in this style, saying, "The Roxsen Energy Industry Building's decor was modeled after Asgard's Fairy Palace. I dare say we've achieved at least 90% authenticity. I'm afraid even the Divine King would feel at home here."

Shiller surveyed the decor again and couldn't resist saying, "Don't you know that Asgardian art and culture are inextricably linked to Northern Europe?"

"No, no, no, they are not the same at all. Northern Europe has completely abandoned history; their overly simplistic stuff lacks any trace of Asgardian aesthetics. Only here, with me, is the authentic Asgardian artistic style."

Inside, Shiller sighed, thinking: If you knew the current Divine King Thor had his New York apartment decorated in Northern European minimalism, you might scratch your head in frustration.

Dario had been posing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. Seeing Shiller silent, he turned around. The moment he saw Shiller's pupils, he froze.

"I asked your staff to return my glasses, but they refused," Shiller said, "So if you suffer any mental distress because of it, it's not my responsibility."

Dario sharply averted his gaze, then gave Shiller a once-over, saying, "Is this how you control patients, making them obedient?"

"No. But I guess you wouldn't want to hear about the other methods." Shiller walked to the sofa and sat down. Normally, he would never do this, but to gain the upper hand in the conversation, actions and posture are very important.

"Alright, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"About everything here." Dario walked over and spread his hands as if showcasing the room or perhaps himself; he said, "Everything about the Roxsen Energy Co., Ltd, and me. What do you think?"

Shiller really wanted to respond with the phrase "a pile of dog crap," but he thought he couldn't say that. Although he had a cat, he couldn't insult dogs like that either.

"What kind of evaluation do you want?" Shiller said, "I am a psychiatrist, so I can only evaluate from your perspective. How would you like me to evaluate you?"

"I consider it a masterpiece," said Dario. "To become a great civilization, we must emulate everything about them. Their civil structure, art culture, ideology, and most importantly, we must have their martial spirit."

Shiller nodded, saying, "If such a creative process brings you mental satisfaction, then I think they have value."

"Aside from that? Don't you want to consider what they can contribute to human civilization?"

"Again, that depends on what you hope they bring to human civilization."

"Asgard would be very pleased with it," Dario said. "They would see humanity as the cosmos' closest civilization, consider us one of their own, and they would accept us."

"And then what?"

"We could enjoy the same fame they do. The entire cosmos would fear us, and we could, like them, possess boundless resources and power so formidable it makes the whole universe tremble. Isn't that the ultimate goal of human civilization?"

"Is that what you think?" Shiller asked genuinely, as this was indeed the first time he heard about Dario's philosophy.

Dario nodded and sat opposite Shiller, saying, "I think the current path Earth is developing on is completely wrong. Asgard is the cosmos' top civilization. If we don't learn from them, who else could we learn from?"

"You hope Earth will learn from Asgard? In what way?"

"I said, we have to do better." Dario lightly clenched his fist, saying, "Everything being done now is wrong. Independently building our fleet only evokes their displeasure. No lord would want their knights' swords honed too sharply. We could ask them to station troops on Earth, which is just as safe, and much simpler than constructing a heap of junk ourselves."

The rhetoric seemed too stupid, making Shiller unsure if Dario was genuinely thinking this. But he quickly understood that Dario was testing the waters.

He and the Dark Elves' plans faced the greatest obstacle from Asgard. At least as he saw it, the gravity traps Asgard set up could only be solved by Asgard.

If Asgard made moves recently, their plans would face failure risks. So he intentionally brought up Asgard, appearing to gauge Shiller's attitude toward Asgard.

"Asgard probably won't station troops on Earth," Shiller said. "They do not govern the Nine Major Kingdoms in such a manner."

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Seeing Dario's gaze flicker, Shiller knew he had guessed correctly. As expected, Dario asked, "Then, how do you think they govern here? Is it with magic?"

Shiller shook his head again, saying, "The World Tree. They control the World Tree. The World Tree allows them to observe every corner and movement throughout the Nine Major Kingdoms."

This answer seemed to exceed Dario's expectations. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at Shiller and asked, "Is the World Tree really that powerful? Are they currently monitoring us through the World Tree? How do you know?"

Now, Shiller understood why Stark said Dario lacked technical understanding. Dario wasn't merely lacking technical comprehension; he entirely lacked scientific thinking.

His manner of speaking and questioning resembled that of a politician. He gives a speech, expecting the audience to react as he predicted. If not, then he would feel confused and angry.

Once the listener counterquestions with something they don't understand, their next step isn't to humbly learn and understand what this thing is, but to directly respond with rhetorical questions to regain verbal advantage.

They don't care what the audience really thinks, only blindly following their train of thought. When they can't continue, they use such rhetorical tactics to suppress doubts, then proceed.

A classic example is, "Don't you all have phones?"

"Coincidentally, Lord Loki of Asgard is also a friend of mine. Shall I call him over, and we can have a chat together?"

Again, Dario was caught off guard by Shiller's reaction. He seemed not to believe Shiller was serious, so he said, "I'm not questioning your relationship, but isn't the Asgardian Prince very busy?"

He assumed Shiller would seize the opportunity to steer away from the topic, but Shiller said, "His Royal Highness indeed is busy. However, if I invite him over, he should deem it significant to come."

With that, he stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, snapped his fingers, and said, "Your Highness the Prince, do you have time for a chat?"

Dario also stood up, just about to say something when a flash of magical brilliance appeared, and Loki's figure manifested in the office.

"What's the matter, Doctor Shiller?"

Turning his head, Shiller saw Loki, dressed in a long, dark green formal outfit, with a crown gleaming with golden light on his head, and a scepter shimmering with magical brilliance in his hand. Goodness, he must have started dressing up since hanging up the phone yesterday.

As soon as Loki landed, seeing the surroundings left him bewildered.

Where have I ended up? Is this still Earth? How come it looks so much like my home's bathroom?

Turning his head again, he met Shiller's barren, gray eyes without glasses. He wasn't just bewildered now, he took a step back, chuckled awkwardly twice, saying:

"Uh... I suddenly remembered I left the stove on at home. You guys chat first; I'll be off."

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