Chapter 945: The Mystery of Schiller's Past (Part 2) (Patreon)

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Upon seeing the knife that Constantine handed to him, Batman, who had just listened to Constantine's account, asked, "How tall was the young Schiller you encountered, approximately?"

Constantine took a moment to recollect and replied, "He appeared to be just under 6 feet tall."

"So, the memories you experienced should predate the ones we are currently in," Batman deduced.

"You mentioned encountering a young man and a young woman in your memories, and they mentioned a 'Patient Number One,' experiments, and subjects. This suggests that Schiller may have been an experiment of some mysterious organization, and at the age of around 15, he wielded cold weapons, killing over ten fully armed security personnel," Constantine remarked with a sigh. "I'm certain he possesses extraordinary abilities. To put it in perspective, if I were to describe it more precisely, I'd say that with both of you being the same age, his strength might be two to three times greater than yours."

Batman's pupils contracted, and he exclaimed, "How is that even possible? Humans can't possess such strength, I mean regular humans..."

"Do you consider him a regular human?" Constantine retorted, but Batman responded, "You used electricity to paralyze him, yet he didn't turn into mist. Perhaps at that time, he didn't possess such abilities, or else you wouldn't have been able to escape in your car; he could have easily caught up with you."

"And that knife you obtained doesn't seem to have any special powers. Given his frail appearance and minimal muscle mass, it's highly unlikely that he could unleash such incredible strength," Batman continued.

At this point, Batman paused, and Constantine noticed the change in his expression. "Have you figured something out?" he asked.

"If we must consider how an almost untrained, very frail, and relatively young person can suddenly exhibit strength far beyond the norm, there's only one possibility—he removed the brain's limitations on muscles," Batman concluded. "Under normal circumstances, humans cannot achieve this unless they enter an extreme state of mental agitation, commonly referred to as a psychotic episode."

A loud noise interrupted their conversation, and both of them turned their heads toward the window above the door.

Suddenly, another scream echoed from upstairs. Constantine rushed to the door, saying, "It's Zatanna; she must have encountered Schiller."

Both of them understood that despite their hidden agendas on this journey, they now had to unite. Without Zatanna, their chances of leaving this place would plummet, not to mention taking any items of interest.

They dashed out of the room and arrived upstairs, where they indeed found Schiller, wearing restraints, blocking Zatanna in the examination room.

Evidently, Zatanna had entered through that door and immediately encountered Schiller while patrolling this floor.

"I'll lead him away; you take Zatanna to that utility room, and we'll rendezvous there afterward," Batman instructed.

With that, Batman swiftly headed out, successfully diverting Schiller's attention and leading him to the other end of the corridor. Constantine hurriedly approached, helping the breathless Zatanna to her feet.

Zatanna appeared somewhat shaken, lost in thought. She remained silent until they reached the utility room, where she regained some composure.

Soon, Batman returned, and he asked Zatanna, "What did you encounter in the memory space? Tell us."

Zatanna shook her head vigorously and said, "I can't believe what I witnessed..."

With a dazed look in her eyes, Zatanna once again saw the hellish scene.

Inside the orphanage's cabinet, Zatanna saw a small figure sitting in the middle of a small blanket, playing with a heavily worn-out block of wood.

But what truly terrified Zatanna was the presence of over a dozen corpses surrounding the child, both adults and children.

The rightmost row of lunchboxes in the room had been knocked over, and a plump Asian woman holding a rice scoop had a bullet hole in her forehead. Next to her lay two young women and three children, their blood forming a small river.

In front of the boy, a man lay on the ground, seemingly about to pounce on him. Two other men were sprawled near the nearby bookshelf, and an older man lay beside the young boy.

The young boy, however, sat on the round blanket, watching the blood gather beneath it. In the face of such a gruesome tragedy, he held the worn-out block of wood, arranging it in the empty space as if in a trance.

Zatanna couldn't fathom what he was doing. She left the cabinet and approached the boy, crouching down and looking into his eyes. "You're Schiller, aren't you? Your eyes and your soul share the same color..."

"What happened here? Who killed these people?" she bombarded him with questions, but little Schiller remained silent, showing no reaction. Just as she was about to continue questioning, she heard a series of footsteps outside the door.

Recognizing the hurried footsteps, Zatanna knew that the attackers were approaching. She quickly picked up young Schiller and hid inside the cabinet. At this moment, a group of people in strange uniforms entered the room. One of them spoke in English, saying, "Everything has been cleared. He should be in this room... Huh? Where's the person?"

The speaker rushed into the room, searching all around, but couldn't find their target. However, a higher-ranking individual noticed the wooden block that young Schiller had dropped. He picked it up and felt residual warmth. He said, "The target hasn't gone far; he should still be in this room. Search carefully."

As they approached the cabinet, Zatanna clenched her teeth. As one of the figures neared the cabinet, she ignited a fierce explosion with a sharp "bang," sending the person and the cabinet door flying.

Zatanna carried young Schiller and dashed outside, with the sound of gunshots ringing in the background. She heard someone shouting, "Chase after them! We can't let Number One get away! He's the most promising one; we can't afford to lose him!"

Young Schiller appeared quite young and fragile, and Zatanna couldn't carry him while running. Instead, she pulled him a considerable distance before creating a ring of fire in mid-air, jumping into it with young Schiller in tow.

All the people in the room had chased into the hallway, oblivious to the fact that in the original room, a ring of fire had ignited in mid-air. Zatanna reappeared with young Schiller, saying, "This is an illusion."

However, when she looked at the corpses scattered around, she felt her fingertips trembling. Zatanna had witnessed large-scale scenes before, but in such a small room with so many corpses and blood, she couldn't help but shiver.

But at that moment, young Schiller broke free from her grasp and walked to the center of the circular carpet, picking up the wooden block. Zatanna hurried over, crouching down and holding his shoulder. She said, "What's going on, Schiller? Tell me about this wooden block..."

Zatanna gripped young Schiller's wrist, taking the block from his hand without encountering any resistance. She stared at the unremarkable, heavily worn wooden block, completely baffled by its significance.

Suddenly, young Schiller rushed toward the door, catching Zatanna off guard. By the time she turned her head, he had already run into the hallway.

"Come back! They'll capture you!" Zatanna shouted hastily.

She rushed out of the room, but the group of people was already approaching. Zatanna attempted to reach young Schiller, but the next moment, gunfire erupted, forcing her to create a Magic Shield for protection.

Just then, a group of people rushed in, with one of them carrying away young Schiller. Zatanna's magical cards knocked down a few individuals, but it didn't stop them.

The group was highly trained, and with incredible speed, they managed to load their target into a vehicle, leaving only Zatanna behind, stomping her feet in frustration.

"They are undoubtedly professionals!" Zatanna emphasized from inside the utility room. "They might have injected something into Schiller, probably a tranquilizer, which is why he didn't resist and didn't say a word."

However, Batman and Constantine exchanged glances and pieced together the entire story based on their experiences.

"Schiller's childhood must have been spent in the orphanage," Batman concluded, "As you mentioned, you also saw Chinese characters, which suggests that this orphanage might not be on the East Coast, or even in the U.S."

"Schiller not being an American is not surprising, but this conflicts with the information we already have," Constantine chimed in. "His childhood was likely spent in Germany, and he should be of German origin. He also plucked a feather from Lucifer Morningstar when he was about the same age as the young Schiller you and Zatanna saw."

Zatanna furrowed her brow and said, "No, this doesn't necessarily conflict because we don't know where those people took young Schiller. What if they happened to transport him to Germany?"

Constantine rubbed his chin, saying, "That's a possibility. In my memories, young Schiller underwent some kind of experiment, and towards the end of it, he reappeared in the same country as the orphanage."

"The organization responsible for the experiments wouldn't likely place their facility in a foreign country they're unfamiliar with. During that era, the international situation had mostly stabilized, and the bipolar world order had taken shape. It wouldn't be easy to conduct such activities in other countries."

"Did you hear them speaking with a U.K. accent?" Zatanna muttered to herself. "I think I did, but it wasn't as pronounced as your accents..."

"You have to consider that agents all over the world can speak English. Many agents can not only speak English but also languages from hostile countries, or they might even belong to those countries. Language alone can't determine their nationality," Batman explained.

"Let's continue along our previous line of reasoning. Schiller was born in an Eastern country's orphanage. One day, a mysterious organization stormed the orphanage, killing almost everyone there and then taking Schiller away."

"We know that in reality, young Schiller appeared in Germany. Suppose they did transport young Schiller to Germany and conducted some kind of experiment on him there, giving him extraordinary powers."

"Then, one day, Schiller reappeared in the Eastern country. This might have been a necessary step in the experiment, or something unexpected might have occurred, possibly related to what was mentioned as 'unsealing' by those people."

Batman glanced at Constantine and continued, "But as per your experiences, they didn't succeed. Schiller, who had been trained professionally and possessed abilities far beyond ordinary, may have eliminated all those involved."

"Next, it leads to my part of the story. A domestic organization in this country, calling themselves the 'Ninth Management Bureau,' admitted Schiller to this mental hospital. It's highly probable that this Ninth Management Bureau discovered Schiller's anomaly, subdued him, and then brought him here for treatment."

"This also explains why I could see in the medical records that Schiller had extremely high levels of aggression, consistently breaking security measures. The warnings about Schiller in his records, mentioning his professional training, likely refer to the specialized training he received within that mysterious organization."

"Now, we're faced with several major questions. Firstly, what exactly was the content of this experiment that granted young Schiller such immense power?"

Constantine looked at Batman, who was deep in thought, and said, "You mentioned earlier that there's only one possibility to grant such power to an individual as frail as him."

Batman frowned and said, "But there are many issues with that. Firstly, removing muscle limitations can only increase strength by a maximum of 20-30%. Even in a state of extreme excitement and agitation, it can't go beyond doubling the strength."

"Additionally, this heightened state places significant strain on the body. If muscle limitations are removed and maintained for an extended period, it can lead to severe consequences. That's why mental hospitals actively use tranquilizers on patients who enter such an agitated state."

"Allowing them to stay in such an excited state may lead to harming themselves before harming others."

"Furthermore, the extent of improvement depends on a person's baseline physical attributes. If someone has barely exercised their muscles, they can't possibly unleash a significant amount of strength while in an agitated state."

Batman was lost in thought, but Constantine continued, "Is there a possibility that Schiller possesses an extraordinary natural talent?"

Batman was about to counter with a probability-based argument, but then he realized that it was indeed possible. He heard Constantine say, "They kept emphasizing that Patient Number One was special. Considering the international situation at that time, if he weren't exceptionally unique, those people wouldn't have stormed in like that."

"So, you're saying that Schiller might be an exceptionally rare talent," Batman admitted, breaking his usual composed demeanor. "Well, it is possible. If he weren't exceptionally unique, perhaps none of these events would have unfolded."

"Now, we have another question: how did he go from being a mental patient to becoming a psychologist?"

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 946: The Three Detectives (Part II)