Bab 2077: Chapter 1398: Call of the Stars (Twenty-Four) _1

Jarvis and Xu Shang-Chi huddled together, looking at the large picture of The Ancient One on the front page of the headline. She looked as though she was running, or maybe flying, and she was holding a little girl in her arms.

"Monster?" Jarvis was the first to utter this word. He furrowed his brow and couldn't find anything odd about The Ancient One in the picture. He even noted that her face bears none of those black patterns.

Continuing with this thought and looking further down, he noticed the date of the newspaper. That was 11 days ago, on the 29th day after The Ancient One said she arrived here, and also the day when the incident happened.

Xu Shang-Chi went upstairs to call others. Wanda and Riley who came downstairs also crowded around to look at the newspaper. They were equally confused by the word 'monster'. To them, there seemed nothing unusual about The Ancient One holding a little girl; it didn't look like kidnapping at all.

"Could it be the combination of The Ancient One's ability to fly and use magic that scared people?" Wanda speculated.

"Look here, 'upright quadripedal monster.'" Riley furrowed his brows and said, "This description sounds odd, doesn't everyone have four limbs?"

"Not these monsters." Jarvis suddenly paused. He was not human, thus allowing him to view the situation from a more objective standpoint.

"Do you think I am a monster?" Jarvis suddenly asked.

"Stop kidding." Wanda thought he was joking and responded with a more solemn expression, "We are having a serious conversation."

"What if it's like this." Jarvis outstretched a hand, and under the shocked eyes of Riley and Xu Shang-Chi, his skin gradually disappeared, revealing a palm full of mechanical structures.

"You're actually..."

Xu Shang-Chi hadn't managed to yell out when Riley covered his mouth. Apparently, his spider-sense alerted him ahead of time. Indicating Xu Shang-Chi to look at Wanda, Xu Shang-Chi froze, struggling to stifle his cry of surprise.

Jarvis looked seriously into Riley's eyes and said, "Since coming into this world, your behavior has been particularly strange. I don't understand why you can't control yourselves. From this perspective, you all seem like mad monsters too."

"In other words, if we see those creatures as monsters, they may view us as monsters too. In their eyes, the idea of walking upright, having four limbs, and not having any tentacles or slime might be terrifying."

All of them stood there, mouths agape, stunned by Jarvis's hypothesis. Jarvis looked at the picture on the report and said, "Upon her arrival in this world, The Ancient One may have been attacked by creatures, and that's why she destroyed New York."

"No, that's not right." Riley denied Jarvis's speculation and said, "I know Master Ancient One, they are not easily angered nor volatile people. Although I find those who practice magic can seem a bit cold and unfeeling, and have little concern for most things, they rarely resort to bloodshed, even in the face of enemies."

After pondering for a moment, Riley said, "Or rather, they generally prefer to obliterate powerful enemies. As for the weaker ones whose attacks can't harm them at all, they just ignore them."

"It could be related to the little girl." Wanda said thoughtfully, "The Supreme Magician wouldn't do something without a reason. She had no reason to kidnap a little girl, so the little girl must be special."

Jarvis put down the newspaper and looked at the others, "We should go to the TV station, they might have more detailed reports."

Having identified important leads without delay, they quickly gathered their belongings and soon arrived at the New York TV station.

In the archive room, they found a large number of case files relating to the kidnapping, but most of these focussed on how savage the monsters were, and how pitiful the little girl was. The atmosphere was appropriately terrifying, but there were few actual facts presented.

"For such a big case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would definitely be involved." Riley speculated, "I think that's where we'll find the truth."

They drove to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For ordinary people, the bureau might be a bit difficult to find, but they were regular visitors. Because of the stringent security measures, few people would approach the bureau. However, after the disappearance of virtually all the locals, they managed to enter the bureau with ease.

It took some time to retrieve the information, but Jarvis's skills in this area were unparalleled, so it wasn't long before they sorted out the sequence of events.

"Jennifer Maw, that's the name of the little girl. She's seven this year, has brown eyes and golden hair. Her parents are a pair of lawyers living in Queens District. They own a house and have insurance. The family is in pretty good financial shape."

"The only problem is, the files refer to this little girl as a 'disabled person'."

They looked through all the photos in the files and couldn't figure out where Jennifer Maw's disability lay.

The video Jarvis unearthed deep within the archive confirmed this. A commemorative video of her seventh birthday clearly showed the little girl. She was physically sound, and her visual, auditory, and linguistic abilities were all within the norm.

Jarvis's medical knowledge also told him that judging by Jennifer's respiration rate, skin color, and limb movements, she probably didn't suffer from congenital heart disease, asthma, or the like.

Initially, they thought she might have a mental disorder, but later they found a victim assessment report after the incident. Jennifer's disability was described as "terrifying" and "unacceptable".

"Since Miss Jennifer's incident, her parents have kept her at home because her appearance is too horrifyingly ugly. The terrifying mutations that cause her to scare anyone nearby is why the Maw couple always avoided having her appear in public."

Riley read this excerpt from the report, but Jarvis found another clue. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's evaluation of the suspect's motives stated: "The suspect has a similar degree of mutation and disability to Jennifer, which may be the motive behind her kidnapping a fellow kind."

"So, in the world of monsters, looking like us is abnormal?!" Riley exclaimed in shock, "The society of monsters is still functioning, while we have been cast out and have become the 'disabled and mutated monsters' in their eyes?!"

The group fell silent but eventually admitted to this fact. The case files they subsequently found confirmed their speculations, as all of them, from suspects to victims, were all creatures covered in slime and full of tentacles.

"Why didn't the little girl mutate?" Jarvis raised another question, pursing his lips and saying, "I think we need to go to Jennifer's house to see. The address... The address is here."

The group once again drove to the Queens District, and without much difficulty, they found the Maw family's house. Jarvis noticed several police cars parked at the entrance of the house, and the police tape remained undamaged.

Once they entered the house, Riley found himself familiar with the surroundings. The standalone residences in the Queens District were quite similar in structure, meaning he quickly located Jennifer Maw's room.

There was nothing unusual about the room. It was filled with the whimsy and warmth of a child's room. Jarvis concluded, "It seems that Jennifer's parents, though they confined her, did not abuse her. They must still love their daughter deeply."

"What's this?" Riley suddenly pulled out a small medicine box. Jarvis hurried over and looked at the few bottles of medicine inside. He subtly muttered the name of the drug, "Fluoxetine... "

Then he looked at the notes attached to the medicine packaging. The dosage written on them was too small, so Jarvis said softly, "Childhood depression."

"Jennifer has childhood depression."

Jarvis rifled through the medication in the box and made a guess, "She might also suffer from mania and insomnia."

Everyone gathered around the medical box while Jarvis looked at Xu Shang-Chi and said, "Remember your hypothesis? Dreams."

"Did Jennifer avoid mutating into a monster because she was unable to sleep or dream? But there are so many insomniacs in the world, aren't they... "

"Oh, wait." Riley interrupted his train of thought, "If these monsters are rational and continue to live in an orderly society, at most, they might think of non-mutants like Jennifer as severely disabled, not threatening enough to kill."

"I think... I guess I understand now," Jarvis sighed, "When the Ancient One arrived in this world and saw all the monsters, she thought the world had been occupied by them."

"But at first, she didn't attack these monsters. There was no need. They were not worth her effort. As she flew over the New York Sky and saw Jennifer sunbathing in the courtyard, she became intrigued."

"If it were you, what would you think if you saw a normal little girl living among the monsters?"

"That little girl is a survivor. I'd have to save her," Wanda immediately responded, "And the sooner, the better. Who knows if the nearby monsters would eat her up on the spot?"

Jarvis nodded and continued, "Perhaps some of Jennifer's actions got the Ancient One's attention, making her believe that the little girl was asking for help. So, she picked her up to leave."

"But her parents, who were monsters, saw their child being taken away. They couldn't just sit back and allow it. They loved their child and wouldn't let a flying monster kidnap her."

"In the eyes of the parents, the Ancient One, who flew, was a fearsome monster, trying to steal their child. From the Ancient One's perspective, Jennifer's parents who rushed out were grotesque creatures, ready to harm Jennifer. Thus, she might have..."

"...Waved her hand to kill them," Wanda's tone dropped.

"The Ancient One must have felt guilty about hurting Jennifer," Riley sighed, "Perhaps not too long after, she found out about the state of the world from Jennifer."

"Children are highly adaptable. All the people around her have turned into monsters. She might have been scared for a short while, but her parents can still communicate, take care of her, and love her. So, she might have accepted her reality. The society of monsters had domesticated the little girl."

"So, in Jennifer's eyes, even though the Ancient One looks like her, she is a monster who killed her parents. She would not just be ungrateful but also harboring hatred towards her. Perhaps that's why the Ancient One felt guilty."

The room fell silent. Once everyone had digested this harsh reality, Riley asked, "Then why did the Ancient One want to wipe out all the monsters in New York? She knew they were still living in an orderly society..."

Everyone shook their heads, apparently unable to fathom the Supreme Magician's thoughts.

Meanwhile, by the zen window, Stark, who had just finished his last sip of tea, looked at Strange and asked:

"If one day, humans unknowingly turn into monsters like innocent lambs, continuing to live their lives normally, what will you do?"

"Destroy them."

Stark's fingers froze.

"I understand they might be powerless to resist, but I'd still feel rage," Strange's expression was cold and cruel. He looked Stark in the eye and said, "What makes human beings great is that they won't yield to fate because of their weakness."

"Every Supreme Magician bears all the suffering and expends all their strength to resist kneeling to God. We are like this, and it's best if humans are too."

"If they indeed no longer have the opportunity to resist and can only walk on the path chosen by God, then at least the Supreme Magician still has the power to give everyone a splendid funeral..."

"Just to slap God in the face?"

"No, after eliminating them, then slap God in the face - physically."

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