Chapter 3576 The Edge of Tomorrow (Twenty-two)

Faced with Bleniak's call, Schiller mutes his phone directly, then walks to the door of Victor's office and knocks on the door.

"Ah, Schiller, you're here. I must explain that today is not what I want to wake you up..."

"It's okay, I just want to ask if you're free this afternoon. Hans and Madeline asked me to play cards."

"Sorry, I'm not free this afternoon. Little Billy has an expert consultation. In addition to the doctor, he also called Zatanna and John. We want to study his bone development problems together..."

"Oh, by the way." Victor stood up from his desk and said, "Billy seems to be a little anxious recently. It can be seen that he doesn't want to go to the hospital, but he dare not say that. When have you been available recently? Can you give him a psychological counseling?"

"Just this afternoon, can I participate in the consultation?"

"Of course, but didn't you make an appointment with someone to play cards?"

"Come on, I've never beaten them even if it's one." Schiller shook his head and said, "Besides, our new human leader has been urging me to do some serious business. I would rather go to a consultation than holding group meetings and reading papers."

"Then let's make a promise." Victor rubbed his hands and said with a smile, "See you at 4:30."

"No problem." Schiller nodded.

After leaving Victor's office, Schiller didn't plan to go to the event building anymore. He picked up his cell phone, sent a group email to the students, and canceled the afternoon meeting.

The emails were edited, but they couldn't send them out. Schiller had to knock on the screen of his phone and said, "Don't play these tricks with me, Brenniac. I'm going to do the serious business."

"If you don't teach, if you hold a group meeting this afternoon, it will be very helpful to promote their thesis progress..."

"Forget it." Schiller gave up sending the email.

"Professor, if you don't go, you might let your students wait there for nothing. Do you really have the heart to bear it?"

"Ha." Schiller sneered and said, "Believe it or not, if I go, I will be waiting there for nothing."

Breniak remained silent, obviously still disagreed with Schiller's approach. However, it was obvious that Schiller's previous argument of "reverse consideration" had an impact on him. In order to avoid stimulating Schiller, he gave up further persuasion.

Schiller also knew that Brenniak probably wanted to wait for the students to arrive before morally kidnapping himself.

But he wouldn't have thought that the students would never be able to reach each other. To be precise, I guess I won't go any of them this afternoon.

Schiller wrote his paper in the office for a while, then finished the press release of an interview with a celebrity magazine, and looked at the promotional information of the football team on the official website of Gotham University.

As time was about to come, he went out again and drove to Gotham Central Hospital.

This hospital is not far from the activity base of the Tomorrow League, and is all near the Gotham River. If you go east, you will be in the city center, and further east, you will be in the Diamond Street and Schiller's shops.

Schiller asked the front desk for consultation room, and was taken to the conference room by the reception staff. Everyone was already here, but Schiller just went in and took a look, and then waited at the door.

Soon, Victor and Nora came with Billy.

"Oh, you're here. We're still thinking about going to greet you later."

"No need. Give me five minutes, I will do an emergency psychological counseling first, which should help him better answer the doctors' questions..."

Schiller took Billy to the room next to him. Billy sat on the stool, Schiller squatted down, looked into Billy's eyes and said, "Did the person who gave you Shazan's power say something to you?"

The slightly nervous expression on Billy's face collapsed in an instant. He became frightened and his body kept hiding back. Schiller pressed his knee and said, "Don't be afraid, he can't do anything to you. Now tell me what he said to you."

"He...he said that this power is harmless and will not cause harm to my body. He said not to listen to Professor Fries..."

Billy said stutteringly. Schiller still stared in his eyes: "I'm afraid there's more than that?"

Billy clenched his hands tightly, twitched his nose hard, and his muscles trembled a little. Schiller sighed, moved a stool and sat next to him, turned to look at him and said:

"You shouldn't call him Professor Fries. You called him Victor before, and you even wanted to call him father. Why did you change so much after talking to Lao Shazan?"

"I don't know." Billy's eyes were a little red, and he said, "The wizard told me that they don't want me to be Shazam because if I don't have superpowers, they can control me. So I should use my own power to get rid of them."

"What did he ask you to do? Kill them?"

"Of course not!" Billy was horrified, "He said I never thought so before! Not at all! I would never use this power to do bad things!"

"Did you really not notice the effect of this power on your body at all, Billy? Or do you just like this specialness, the feeling that it is above other peers?"

Billy's face turned red and he stammered and said nothing.

"I'm not saying that this is wrong. Everyone wants to be special. Not only children, but also adults. Human beings have never pursued equality, but privilege."

"You enjoy this kind of happiness, obviously studying the same course in the same school, but you have a secret identity. But what do you like is this psychological superiority of ‘I am very different’, or is it the sense of accomplishment you have gained by using Shazam as a person, and by saving others?"

Billy was stunned by this question. Before he could answer, Schiller said: "Old Shazan is always emphasizing the first point to you, emphasizing that you are unique, emphasizing that you should do your best to maintain your uniqueness. This makes you feel that the happiness brought by maintaining Shazan's identity is because of being unique."

"But is this really the case? When you are the happiest, are you imagining yourself turning into Shazan and accepting their admirational gaze when playing games with your classmates? Or are you using this power to help others and accept their gratitude? Which one makes you happier?"

Billy sat in place, thought for a long time, and then said, "Sometimes I do fantasize about how much they admire me when they find out that I am the great hero Shazan. But I just think about it, I don't want them to know."

"Why?"

"It's not cool to be an adult," Billy shook his head, "If I become an adult, I can't play with them. They will definitely laugh at me."

He hesitated for a while and said, "But I did help a lot of people, even my classmates' parents. When they looked at me with gratitude, I felt very proud, but sometimes I felt a little depressed."

"What's depressed?"

"Shazan is a big hero, but I'm not." Billy said with his lips pursed. "They praised Shazan, not me. It made me a little disappointed."

"Your grades are not very good." Schiller suddenly changed the topic, "It can even be said that he can't keep up with the course. He has a mediocre sports, a well-behaved personality, and is not that popular."

"You want to be popular, so you want the praise that Shazan gets to fall on you. You will definitely be popular. But that can't be done because everyone knows Shazan is an adult. They will never think of you. It makes you feel very disappointed, right?"

Bi nodded vigorously, turned to look at Schiller, with a little surprised and admiration in his eyes.

"I dare not tell Victor, because I'm afraid he thinks I'm too vain. It should be the word vain, right? My mother in a foster family used to say that. She said I was a vain child."

"My classmates do guess Shazan's true identity in their spare time. They say he may be a policeman, some say he is a porter working at the dock, or even a classmate's father. But they will never guess on me."

"Every time this time, I am happy and lost. If they don't know, they won't take me to play. But if they don't know, I will always be the inconspicuous one."

"I understand very well." Schiller nodded and said, "The same is true for adults. If you have an amazing hobby, you are worried that you will be beaten to be unique and kicked out of the group. But you also want others to know how powerful you are in this regard. You are always worried about gains and losses."

"How did the adult solve it?"

"This is not the point, Billy. I can't say if there is really a solution. Whether you can really solve it or not, it's your own business. Can you understand what I mean?"

Billy turned his head back, lowered his head slightly and said, "The wizard said Victor didn't want me to be Shazam. Is that what he thought?"

"He knew you were Shazan. He didn't stop you when you went to help others. What do you think?"

"But they want to cure my illness. That will make me lose that power, right?"

"If you just want to lose this power, it doesn't take so much effort." Schiller shook his head and said, "Since your last power failure, you should understand that this power is not omnipotent. It comes from the gods of Mount Olympus, and those gods do not always work."

"So I can keep that power and cure my illness?"

"Victor planned this way. But whether he could do it depends on this consultation. So you need to answer the doctor's questions seriously and cooperate with the examination and treatment. OK?"

Billy nodded, but he still seemed a little hesitant. Schiller knew that this conversation alone was not enough to shake Old Shazan's position in his heart.

At the beginning, Schiller could directly analyze the despicableness of Lao Shazan to Shivana because Lao Shazan himself promoted Shivana's tragic life. Shivana himself also knew who his enemy was. From an emotional standpoint, they were the same.

But for Billy, when his previous host family was unhappy, he relied on using Shazan's power to vent his stress. Shazan may have other intentions, but he did teach him a lot.

Compared to latecomers like Schiller and Victor, Lao Shazan is the elder who has always been with him. Lao Shazan's status in Billy's heart is not so easy to be shaken, so he can only take his time.

However, since Old Shazam came to Billy at this time, it proves that Billy was indeed shaken. He liked this new family and also liked his new life in Gotham.

Shazan's power is no longer his only spiritual pillar, and he has changed from necessities to non-essentials. The supplier will naturally be in a hurry.

Old Shazan knew that as long as Billy could return to that state of isolation, he would still be the only person he could trust, and naturally he could manipulate and fiddle with him at will.

And his insidiousness is that Billy is still a child and is easily manipulated and instigated, but because of his young age, everything he does seems to be from his heart.
Chapter completed!