Chapitre 3301: Chapter 2443: Battle of the Bats (Sixteen)_1

"Fantasy companions are not an extremely rare mental characteristic," Shiller said, standing at the forefront of the conference room, pointing to certain words on the screen. "Dr. Holder mentioned in his paper that among the 8000 people surveyed, 70% described having had a fantasy companion with a very specific character setting, and 90% mentioned imagining a voice to comfort themselves when feeling lost."

"That's indeed the case," a doctor with red hair gently tapped the table with a pen and said, "I think everyone here should have had similar experiences, where we imagine another self to comfort us under various circumstances. This is actually a protective mechanism of the brain."

"So the problem is not there," an elderly doctor with a white beard across from him said. "Due to the uniqueness of his background, David inevitably had a more turbulent childhood than others, which could have caused him certain psychological stimuli, compelling his brain to activate more self-protective mechanisms."

"But that does not reach the level of dissociative identity disorder," a female doctor with glasses pushed her glasses up and looked at the case file in her hand, "I did not see anything in our known records of David's childhood experiences that could lead to such stimuli."

"That terrorist attack," another doctor suggested, "is definitely a major trauma."

"But the timing is much later than the emergence of his childhood personality," a Black doctor stroked his chin and said. "This indicates that before the terrorist attack, David's mental state was already unstable, and the attack was just the last straw that broke the camel's back."

The elderly doctor sighed slightly, paused, and then said, "We must separate all the elements in order to correctly identify the key issues."

All the doctors stopped to look at him; it was clear that many of them had been students under this senior professor.

"Fantasy companion, dissociative identity disorder, terrorist attack, superpower personality; these are clearly four separate matters."

People began to take notes, and the senior professor continued, "Among these four matters, which are normal, which are abnormal, and whether there is a causal relationship between them, only by clarifying these two questions can we find the key to unlocking David's Psychic_Battlefield."

"I feel the same way," Shiller pointed to the screen again and said, "Before starting this consultation, I had printed out the details related to these four questions. Everyone can turn to page 6 of the consultation material in your hands..."

The sound of flipping pages made the room even quieter, as everyone read the materials very carefully and attentively for over ten minutes before there was any movement.

"I think most people's argument is that having fantasy companions is completely normal, and any associations David made with people and objects during his childhood should definitely not be categorized as morbid," one of the doctors began.

Everyone nodded, then another doctor said, "David did not show very obvious characteristics of dissociative identity disorder in childhood. He never claimed to anyone around him that he was someone else, which suggests that the pathological features of dissociative identity disorder were also not evident at that time."

"But this doesn't mean that the development of dissociative identity disorder had not begun," the female doctor across from him said while looking at the case file. "I have done some research in this area, and many patients with dissociative identity disorder do not feel fragmented in the early stages and therefore do not tell anyone about their symptoms."

"But in fact, they have already begun to experience auditory and visual hallucinations, memory loss, physical uncontrollability, and even shocks and comas."

"But we have not seen this in the investigation report."

"Some patients show very subtle symptoms until they have an episode," the female doctor continued. "Especially during the transition from child to adolescent, they are often under so much mental pressure that they cannot accurately describe their symptoms, and because they do not have full capacity for civil conduct, they cannot seek medical help."

"I support Serene's view," the Black doctor said thoughtfully. "David's dissociative identity disorder wouldn't have been caused by a single stimulus. I guess he was naturally mentally unstable, and as he grew up, his parents paid insufficient attention, leading to a delay in seeking medical treatment, which then worsened to an unmanageable extent after the terrorist attack."

"This view is supported by the vast majority and is the likeliest scenario," Shiller said. "Although it's perfectly normal to have imaginary friends, if the number is too high, if they're thought of too frequently, causing disruption to normal thinking, it might also corroborate the argument that David's mental state has been unstable since his childhood."

"Can we get in touch with his relatives?" someone asked.

"Obviously not, his stepfather died in the terrorist attack, and three years after he was sent to the Mutant Research Association, his mother also died of cancer, while his biological father was never involved in his upbringing and knows nothing," Shiller replied.

The doctors sighed, but continued, "So all that's left is the most crucial question: the relationship between dissociative identity disorder and the superpower personality."

"There's a huge question mark here," the senior professor pointed out. "If he is a mutant, and he has dissociative identity disorder, how could it be that the superpowers of his dissociated personalities just happen to encompass a variety of superpowers? What are the odds of that?"

"Very small, Professor," a male doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "My research leans towards social surveys, and facts have proven that mutants indeed have less stable minds than normal people."

Shiller coughed heavily, and the black doctor obviously showed a dissatisfied expression. The speaking doctor gestured with his hand and said, "Hear me out, it's not entirely their fault. On the contrary, the mental instability of the majority of mutants is due to the unwelcome attention they attract from those around them because of their mutant abilities, which causes them to live a life of constant upheaval."

"Without a stable living environment, it is difficult to establish a stable personality, and therefore, a stable mental state," he continued.

The doctor went on to state his conclusion, "Usually, mental instability leads to their mutant abilities going out of control, which is the culprit behind many mutant disasters. That's why I've always opposed harsh mutant isolation legislation, as it only leads to a further deterioration of the situation."

"However, whether their mental state is stable or not, it has no impact on the type of mutant ability they possess," the male doctor said, looking at the data in his hand. "If a mutant's ability is to create fire, then a mental breakdown will only make his fire ability uncontrollable, igniting a large area, rather than suddenly turning him into a mutant with ice control abilities."

"That makes perfect sense," the doctor nodded and said, "We, I mean mutants, have mutant abilities stemming from the X gene. As long as the X gene does not change, the type and strength of the abilities usually remain the same."

"So, we can rule out the possibility that David suddenly acquired mutant abilities to endow different personalities with superpowers because of dissociative identity disorder. In other words, it's a complete coincidence." The female doctor's tone revealed her puzzlement, "It just so happens that there's a mutant whose ability is to endow other personalities with superpowers, and he just so happens to have an unstable mental state, just so happens to suffer from dissociative identity disorder, and thus he became what he is now."

"How could there be so many coincidences?" someone immediately contested her statement.

"I also don't think it's a coincidence," the black doctor said. "As a mutant myself, I can responsibly say that there isn't a single mutant whose ability entitles their other personalities to have powers. It doesn't fit our long-standing research into mutant abilities."

"I've also printed out the classification data of mutant abilities for everyone to check, just flip through the documents," Shiller said.

Everyone began to pore over the documents again, this time taking a bit longer, as the information was truly complex. After research on mutants began, countless experts from various fields embarked on various studies, resulting in several theories on classifying mutant abilities.

Even though Shiller had succinctly summarized several mainstream school methods of classification, it was still lengthy and complicated.

But those present were no novices, naturally all experts considering they were invited for consultation by Shiller, soon found the commonality among these classification methods—that all mutant abilities lean more towards having a direct impact on themselves or the world.

To achieve a certain goal, say to make a place hot or cold, the resulting mutant ability would always be the shortest route within the confines of cosmic rules, such as directly lighting a fire or instantly creating ice, rather than giving a mutant the capability to produce rocks and mud for building a furnace.

This is also easy to understand, as the X gene is a gene, not an artificial intelligence. It cannot subjectively understand what level humanity has developed to, and then based on the level of evolution and development, decide how an ability should manifest. It is relatively natural and primal.

From this perspective, generating a mutant ability that endows superpowers to separate personalities that emerge from oneself seems unscientific, because the X gene obviously should not be able to understand what dissociative identity disorder is.

"So, if granting superpowers to one's own personalities isn't David's mutant ability, what is it?" Shiller asked.

Everyone began to think, as obviously this wasn't an easy question to answer. To these experts, David's original ability might just be a mediocre answer like pyro control or ice control, which would be unacceptable because there's no clue as to why such an ability would evolve into endowing so many personalities with superpowers—it didn't make sense.

A spirited debate began, with each person presenting their possible explanations until the atmosphere in the room became hotter than a cauldron.

Shiller stood at the front, quietly listening. He had some guesses about David's situation, but he still needed inspiration from professionals.

The collective wisdom of the group lived up to its name, with one hypothesis catching the attention of most. The black doctor hypothesized, based on known mutant abilities, that Legion might possess some sort of psychic power.

Whatever the specific nature of this ability, it certainly was very powerful and because of its nature, would be disrupted by mental instability, especially by dissociative identity disorder.

This coincided with Shiller's own assumptions. He believed that David's mutant ability could very well be an unimaginable, incredibly strong psychic power, which, due to dissociative identity disorder, was divided into shares and became the superpowers of each of his personalities.

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