As the dense darkness surged up, Shiller heard the sound of papers being flipped, accompanied by the whispers of young people. When his vision brightened again, he found himself in a university classroom.
He looked around and confirmed that it wasn't the university he attended, but it did resemble some American university. It was class-break time, and students were leaving in small groups, while two or three others remained seated, flipping through a book and talking softly as they read.
Shiller pretended to head for the door, but as he passed by their seats, he glanced at the book's title—"The Path of the Soul" by Charles Xavier.
Shiller frowned slightly; he guessed this should be Charles's dream, but why was it like this? He expected them to appear on the beach immediately, with Magneto reaching out his hand toward a pile of bullets, one unfortunately shooting into Charles's spine, ultimately causing his paralysis.
If that were the case, then whatever Magneto explained would be useless; they would win this round without doing much. However, Charles's nightmare turned out to be something other than the widely known beach divorce scenario.
No wonder Dream Power Doctor Strange dared to propose this type of competition; perhaps Charles already knew his nightmare wouldn't be the day he split with Magneto. Otherwise, with their small numbers and another inevitable loss, they wouldn't have proposed the competition.
With fewer people, they must have been certain to win all three rounds and then capture one more from the opponent. But thinking about it, it's possible. Charles and Erik know each other thoroughly, so diving into the other's nightmare makes it easy to take the other away. With Dream Power Doctor Strange's guaranteed win, the chances of winning all three rounds are great, as long as they can secure a point from others, they'll win.
But on Arkham Batman's side, there were no long-time partners; it was a team formed halfway through. Apart from the widely known alley gunfire necklace, no one else knew the other's nightmare or whether they could gain each other's trust. Luckily, they won two rounds with their knowledge of Gotham; otherwise, it would really be trouble.
"Why are you reading this?" Shiller pretended to have just noticed the book, stopped walking, and said, "Do you guys really like this Xavier?"
"No, no, no," the two students quickly distanced themselves, one said, "We all know he's a madman who invades and manipulates others' lives with his mind. We don't like him; we just want to see if there's any incriminating evidence in his book…"
Shiller squinted slightly; he seemed to understand what was going on. So he too disdainfully said, "As if he's that strong, you're talking bad about him here, isn't he still not hearing it?"
"There's a rumor he's been caught," one student lowered his voice, "Apparently the military created a brainwave shielding device and captured him. He can't hear anyone's mind now."
"It can't be, doesn't he have an old friend called…what's his name?"
"Oh, that German guy. Ha, he's struggling himself; if it weren't for saving him, our good professor wouldn't have been exposed. I think those two are done together."
Shiller didn't have to work hard to gather the intel he wanted from the two students. He walked out with the other students, pondering the current situation.
If nothing goes wrong, Erik should be the one ambushed, severely injured or losing his power. To prevent him from being captured, Charles exposed his own abilities, quickly going from a world-renowned psychologist to a reviled pervert and manipulator.
Everyone is extremely wary of mind probing; who would like a person or a monster capable of fully perceiving their own thoughts? If someone possesses such an ability, there will be a sense of fear and disgust towards him, and all his past achievements will be attributed to stealing thoughts from others' minds, turning him into the most venomous madman and thief in the world.
The younger Erik and Charles actually had personalities opposite of their older selves. Young Charles was somewhat haughty, diligent in the field of psychological theoretical research after returning from the battlefield, publishing multiple books. Since psychology was a very young discipline, his works were heavily emphasized, turning him into a renowned scholar at a young age.
However, his abilities had not been widely exposed at that time, despite collaborating with organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. and wanting to establish his own school, the public was unaware of his mind-reading ability. So, this time point should be right when he was first exposed.
Imagining what he would go through, Shiller thought that for Earth to survive to this day, Charles's temperament is indeed too good; he truly deserves the title of Marvel's top saint.
Sure enough, as he walked out of the school gate, he saw a giant poster paste outside featuring young Charles's face, marked with a big red cross, with "Perverted Psychic Voyeur Get Out of School" written underneath.
From the words of those two students earlier, Charles should already be a professor, but perhaps not a full-time professor, more likely a guest lecturer touring American universities, respected and welcomed wherever he goes, given his good image and ability to always know what people think. Falling from Heaven to Hell in a day, no one would feel good.
Shiller knew that since he appeared at the university, Charles must also be here now. After thinking for a while, he found someone to ask for the address of the administration building and quickly headed there.
Someone was faster than him. Arkham Batman, upon discovering it was on a university campus, headed swiftly towards the administration building because given the era, Charles must have already become a professor, and regardless of anything, he would probably have an office there, making the administration building the right place to look for him.
Arkham Batman's outfit was a bit eccentric, so he used a grappling hook to reach the rooftop and climbed down along the wall. Fortunately, one side of the building was close to the forest, and climbing down, he spotted those familiar blue eyes.
By now, Shiller had also slipped inside, using a much simpler method. He went to a nearby shop to buy a cup of coffee, took off his hat, put away his gun, buttoned up his trench coat, and walked in with steaming coffee. He smiled and nodded at whoever he met; no one knew what he was doing, but no one stopped him either.
He wandered all the way to the principal's office, where he heard the sound of an intense argument coming from inside.
"I've said it, all the theories were discovered by my own research, and they are also recognized by other psychology experts. My teaching abilities have never been questioned. Before this, everyone loved my classes, and seats were hard to come by. Why can't I continue teaching?"
"Mr. Xavier, please calm down. I've also said that the school's schedule is very full and there really isn't any room."
"I originally had three classes, which were scheduled last semester, and now you're telling me they have been canceled at the last minute without giving me a reason..."
"I'm sorry, but... you know, the school has to consider the impact of public opinion, after all... after all, the student protests have been quite severe..."
"I've said it many times, I don't invade others' minds haphazardly, and I'm not some control freak or madman."
"Yes, but there are also those who question the source of the research materials in your publications..."
"You don't think I read other people's minds to write these theories, do you? I..."
Arkham Batman stood on the balcony and saw that when the principal saw Charles's furious expression, he took a fearful step back. But this seemed to anger Charles even more.
"Let me go back and teach!"
"...Alright."
Arkham Batman couldn't help but cover his forehead; this principal and student are not wronging you at all.
Charles stormed out of the office, and Schiller, hiding not far away, immediately followed him. Normally, following Professor X is not wise because he would certainly notice if he paid attention. But Schiller was betting that he wouldn't pay attention, as he was already distressed enough.
But this was not all, because shortly after walking out of the administrative building, Charles saw that huge poster. His expression turned frighteningly cold, and even Schiller and Arkham Batman, who didn't have mind-reading ability, could feel his angry brainwaves.
Schiller sighed inwardly; the present Charles was still too young, overly concerned with others' opinions, endowed with true teacher's ethics and medical ethics, feeling betrayed by his students—angry and heartbroken, no wonder he had nightmares.
But Schiller did not expect Charles to lose reason to such an extent, because soon, the boy who posted the poster walked over and removed it.
This was in broad daylight, the poster had been up for less than half an hour, and the boy was known as a notorious troublemaker at school, while Charles's face was exceptionally eye-catching; with all these factors combined, who wouldn't know what was happening?
There were immediately terrified screams around, and it was unclear who started running first, but people were escaping in panic while shouting "monster".
But the next moment, everyone quieted down, or rather, the entire school fell silent, all the students, teachers, and the principal just stood there motionless. Charles stood cold as an ice sculpture.
Schiller felt Charles's brainwaves invade his mind, and he didn't resist, just stood there among the crowd because he knew, judging by the final outcome, Charles likely didn't do anything too over the top. Otherwise, he and Magneto wouldn't have parted ways; the two terrorists would have long joined forces.
And sure enough, about half a minute later, Charles made a decision, and the teachers and students returned to normal. However, it seemed Charles had erased their memories from before, as after regaining their memories, people didn't continue to run but went about their business.
But it wasn't just because young Charles's abilities were limited, it was also that in his anger he wasn't thorough enough, the memory erasure clearly wasn't clean. Not only people like Schiller and Arkham Batman with strong wills weren't fully erased, but students and professors with psychological knowledge who were on guard also retained their memories.
This completely messed things up; soon enough, many calls were made to the New York Police Department, claiming they were manipulated, saying Xavier controlled their minds and erased their memories.
Initially, it was indeed teachers and students calling, but later it changed, and many began to fish in troubled waters. Some said Xavier manipulated them to make work mistakes; others said Xavier controlled them to rob banks; some said under Xavier's mind control, they completely forgot the knowledge for exams; and others claimed politicians only wanted to restore Black rights because they were manipulated by Xavier.
Eventually, it developed into anything bad being attributed to Xavier's manipulation, whether it was breaking an egg while cooking or hijacking a police helicopter. When asked, the answer was, "Xavier controlled my brain."
Things developed to this point, and S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't possibly ignore it. But just at this time, the existence of mutants was exposed.