Chapter 552: When the Flame is Ignited (Part 1) (Patreon)

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Stark looked at Schiller in surprise and noticed that his expression was serious, not joking. He furrowed his brow and looked at Pym.

Pym was confused by their behavior and scratched his head, asking, "What's going on? What do you mean I forgot something? What did I forget?"

Seeing that Stark and Schiller were both staring at him, Pym explained, "Yes, I am researching AI, but it's different from the direction Howard was researching before..."

"I believe that the human brainwaves are miraculous. If we want to give intelligent life a true soul, we can combine our own brainwaves to create it. This way, we can achieve..."

Schiller interrupted him and said, "I'm sorry, Dr. Pym, but the most urgent thing now is that I must confirm your mental state and see if you have been hypnotized."

Schiller did this because, in the original comic, Ultron was not created by Stark and the Hulk, but by Ant-Man Pym.

The principle is similar to what Pym said. Pym used his own brainwaves to combine with an intelligent life, causing this AI to have true consciousness. This AI is Ultron.

After Ultron gained self-awareness, he began to hate his creators and attacked Pym, hypnotizing him and making him completely forget that he had created Ultron.

Ultron's hypnosis was very successful, so he had enough time to evolve himself until he appeared and brought continuous trouble to the Avengers.

Ultron has a strong hypnosis ability. In the comic, he even hypnotized Stark, making him create a body for him, Ultron 9, and soaking this body in a solution, giving him an indestructible shell.

Schiller's attitude was gentle, so Pym quickly calmed down. He frowned and asked, "What do you think is wrong with my mental state?"

"I suspect that you may have been hypnotized," Schiller said to Pym.

"But we just met. How did you come to that conclusion?" Pym instinctively questioned.

At this point, Stark had already guessed Schiller's intention. The keywords of AI research, hypnosis, and amnesia were linked together, making it easy for people to think of the plot of the AI crisis. As an AI master, Stark knew better than anyone the harm that intelligent life without creator control could bring.

Schiller is a mind reader. In his professional field, he wouldn't speak without evidence. It is very likely that Schiller saw some abnormal signs on Pym through his mind reading, which can explain why he felt that Pym had a problem as soon as he saw him.

Nick also advised, "Dr. Pym, I think I should have told you the purpose of coming here before. Before conducting space operations, you must also pass the psychologist's test. You should know this, right?"

"I know, but is this gentleman the psychologist?" Pym said, looking at Schiller's white coat and the medical record book in his hand. He patted his head and said, "Oh, okay, let me change back to my original size first."

Pym pressed his wrist and with a "pop," he returned to his normal size. He was a smart person, so he guessed what Schiller was worried about. He asked, "Are you worried that my research results have hypnotized me?"

The two of them walked towards Stark's laboratory table together. Pym continued, "But I just started researching. The method I mentioned is still in the theoretical stage and has not been put into practice."

Schiller shook his head and said, "If your research results have hypnotized you, what makes you believe all of this?"

Pym's face suddenly changed, and he stuttered, "It shouldn't be... I never knew that AI could hypnotize people, let alone myself..."

"Don't make me doubt your professional ability," Stark stood next to the chair, holding his arms and asking Pym, "What is the most powerful ability of AI?"

"Learning," Pym immediately replied. He spread his hands and said, "But this is too absurd. Are you saying that I have created a powerful AI and then was hypnotized by it?"

Pym shook his head, obviously not believing this. Schiller patted the back of the chair and said, "In special circumstances, I won't ask you for a consultation fee. Sit here, and we'll conduct a test."

"Okay, what do I need to do?" Pym sat down.

He seemed very cooperative, so Schiller's attitude was also good. Schiller brought a chair and sat opposite him, while Stark and Nick stood by and watched their conversation.

At this moment, Schiller took out a bottle of wine from somewhere and gave Stark a signal. Stark signaled JARVIS, and JARVIS controlled a robot to bring two wine glasses.

When the golden liquid fell into the wine glass, small bubbles appeared at the bottom, and a strong wine aroma filled the air. Wine lover Stark sniffed hard and seemed to be intoxicated by the fragrance.

"Hey, where did you get such a fragrant wine?" Stark sniffed and complained, "With such a good thing, you didn't even share it with me?! Schiller, I really misjudged you. Give me a glass!"

Schiller didn't say anything, just handed the wine glass in front of him to Stark. Stark picked it up and was about to drink it, but the wine in the glass suddenly turned into blood with eyeballs floating in it. Stark's hand shook, and he threw the wine glass away.

The wine glass drew a beautiful arc in the air and fell to the ground, breaking into several pieces. With the sound of the shattering glass, the scene in Stark's laboratory shattered like glass.

In its place was a plain-looking bedroom. Pym reacted from his initial shock and said, "What? Isn't this my bedroom? What's going on? What did you do?!"

Schiller clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention and said, "Now, we are in Pym's dream, and we can also find evidence of his hypnosis here."

Stark raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is the wine the problem?"

Schiller explained, "Actually, we can also go to the Radiance Alliance's base, but it's a bit troublesome. Since I'm already here, it's faster to enter the dream directly."

As he spoke, Schiller waved his hand, and the scene in the bedroom shrank rapidly, becoming a small ball floating in his hand. More balls appeared, and Pym noticed that they were scenes of his life, one after another, such as the bedroom in his apartment, the barn on his family farm, and the laboratory on the West Coast...

Schiller arranged the balls into several rows, forming a wall. Before Pym could speak, Schiller said, "No, I'm not interested in prying into other people's privacy. I'm just looking for possible... Oh, here it is. Do you see it? This is the keyword, AI."

Schiller pointed to one of the balls, and instead of a laboratory, a field appeared. Pym explained, "This is where I first had the idea to study AI, but that was a long time ago."

"Well, for the sake of your privacy, can you tell me when was the last time you did this kind of experiment?"

"About six months ago."

Schiller continued to search through the balls, and Stark frowned, looking at him. "Can you really do this now? Just casually searching through someone's memories and finding possible clues?"

"In fact, I've always been able to do this, or rather, many psychologists can do this. They just use a method that you can understand, such as letting you lie on a chair, playing music, and guiding you to recall memories."

"And this..." Schiller reached out and took a ball, saying, "is just a more intuitive method, but the principle is the same."

"Many people don't care about their memories. When they can't find anything in their memories, they think they have forgotten. But often, it's just because there is no suitable method and habit to sort out memories. Some things are recorded in the brain, but cannot be found due to more redundant information."

"Memories can be regular, so psychologists who have received professional training can help you sort out memories. In the absence of real physiological diseases, this treatment can help you keep your brain clear and improve thinking efficiency."

"It sounds like something a scammer would say," Stark summed up. "It's like what those drug salesmen who claim to be able to improve humanity's IQ and memory would say..."

"This cannot improve IQ and memory," Schiller continued to search through the balls. As he searched, he said, "I mentioned this issue in the September issue of last year. I heard that you are very interested in psychology recently. Didn't you read it?"

"Uh..." Stark was choked for a moment and coughed twice, feeling a little guilty. But Schiller didn't seem to be checking his homework. He just mentioned it casually. Soon, he found another ball and said, "Oh, here it is."

"Do you see it?" Schiller pointed to the ball and said, "It looks a bit dim, and the scenes inside are not very clear."

"What does that mean?" Pym walked up, holding his arms and staring at the ball. Schiller explained, "This means that your memory is not stable enough during this period of time and may have been interfered with by external forces."

Schiller crushed the ball, and the group appeared in the laboratory. Another Pym was operating the computer. After a while, he stood up and then sat down again. Stark walked up and asked the Pym standing next to him, "What are you doing?"

"I think that after he stood up, his memory was erased. The memory of continuing to operate the computer after sitting down again was fabricated by someone. Look, many of the information in the computer is unclear, and it's hard to tell what he was doing," Pym said, frowning.

"We see everything here that you remember, Dr. Pym. I think, with your memory, you should be able to remember what you were doing on the computer at that time, even if it was a complex programming. At least you should remember the general idea," Schiller said.

"No, I can remember everything," Pym frowned. "Every line of code is stored in my brain."

"Then obviously, there is a problem. One second, you remember everything in the computer, and the next second, the information in the computer becomes unclear. The only possibility is that someone modified your memory and implanted the memory of you working in front of the computer," Schiller said.

"But maybe he is not skilled enough and didn't add any details, just added a summary like 'Dr. Pym has been working in front of the computer.' For ordinary people, this is enough. If you tell them during hypnosis, 'You have been working during this time and haven't done anything else,' they will believe it because they don't remember the specific details of their work."

"But for you or Tony, smart people like you, if you check carefully, it is easy to find loopholes because you remember all the details of your work. Your powerful memory makes memory replacement very difficult."

"Can you hypnotize us?" Stark asked.

"A newly born AI life can hypnotize Pym and make him unaware of it. Do you think I can't hypnotize you?"

"But..." Schiller changed the subject and said, "Whether you can successfully hypnotize someone and whether you can avoid such detailed checks are two different things. There are many ways to deceive one's own brain, and many people don't check their memories unless there is a problem. It's hard to find out if they don't check."

Pym and Stark looked at each other, and Schiller said to them, "So, today's events should remind you to check your recent memories regularly to see if there are any abnormalities. This can help prevent you from being hypnotized by strange things."

"Now, let's go back to reality and see if your research results have really hypnotized you."

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 553: When the Flames Ignite (Part 2)