Eddie found Shiller in his office at Arkham Sanatorium. Before he entered the office, he heard Shiller's interrupted voice coming from behind the door, as if he was having a phone conversation.
"Being busy at work is just a temporary excuse, you can't bait him for a lifetime with this. A Demon God usually doesn't have the abundant curiosity of a human being; at first, she might be interested and want to figure out why you're avoiding him, but she'll give up after not too long."
"Mr. Thanos, you need to understand a principle. Keeping someone by your side does not count as artificially creating a closed space. She will feel restricted and want to leave. But what you are doing is the exact opposite. You need to make her feel like she is free and also make her not want to leave."
"Yes, under normal circumstances, this is quite difficult, especially when the other party is a Cosmic Sorcerer far more powerful than you. However, as long as it's a sentient being, there will always be something they fear. You need to find that key."
"Of course, if you make progress, you can contact me anytime. The cosmos has given too much to these gods. We ought to take something back. It would be my honor to help... Alright, goodbye."
Thanos ended the call and came out of the bathroom to see a woman in a black dress and hood sitting on the sofa in his office.
"What's wrong, dear? You were gone for quite a while."
Thanos responded calmly, "My clothing unfortunately got caught on my belt, and it took me a while to unhook them. Now, I do have some time. What can I assist you with?"
Death, appearing somewhat surprised, hadn't expected Thanos to free himself so quickly. She sat on the sofa, lifted her leg, cleared her throat, and then said, "You should know that the faith of the human race on Earth holds special power, right?"
Thanos nodded and sat opposite Death, who reached out a hand to adjust her hood and continued, "My old adversary, 'Oblivion', is currently busy spreading his faith on Earth. I hope you can stop him, or at least slow the progress."
"Do you hold a grudge against him?"
"It's not exactly a grudge." Death floated behind Thanos, bent over, held his face with her icy fingers, and said, "I just hope you can do something for me. This is just a small gift for our reunion after a long separation, a chance for you to express your love to me. You will, won't you, my dear?"
Thanos immediately remembered what Shiller had introduced in class about the 'obedience test in mind manipulation'. It involves asking the other person to do a small favor as a test of their willingness to comply. If they oblige, they will gradually fall into the trap of mental manipulation.
Recalling the most basic solution Shiller had mentioned in that lecture, Thanos began to contemplate his strategy, comparing his current circumstance.
Many people clearly understand that they need to decline decisively in such situations, especially when there is no vested interest between you and the other person. A simple "No" is often enough, sometimes even emphasized with "I am under no obligation to do this for you", offers a valid refusal.
But if one wants to reject softly without offending the other party, many people make the mistake of presenting an excuse, such as indicating they're too busy at present, thus seemingly rejecting while actually fulfilling the obedience test by providing an excuse, which inherently symbolizes evasion.
Thanos's natural response was to say he was too busy, firstly because that was true, and secondly because he did harbor fantasies that the other party would understand him. A major misconception of intelligent life forms is the belief that the other can understand us.
But he had to resist this instinctive response and opt for a more tactful dialogue approach.
"No, I'm afraid I can't do that." Thanos took a deep breath in his heart, trying to replicate Shiller's demeanor during his lectures. He looked intently into Death's eyes and said, "As you said, we've finally reunited after all this time, why wastep it on unimportant matters."
After he finished speaking, he leaned forward, reached out his hand, and held Death's hand, saying, "I have envisioned our reunion countless times, but now that the day has come, I realize that I can't bear even a moment apart."
As Death opened her mouth to say something, Thanos interrupted her, raising a hand and continuing, "Of course, I always prioritize your affairs over my own feelings. I will gladly do this task for you, but can we not go together?"
Thanos was actually practicing Shiller's method mentioned in class to deal with this kind of obedience test, that is, to find a way to throw the error back at the other party, it's not because I don't want to do it or can't do it, but because you did not provide me with certain conditions, so I couldn't do it.
And this kind of shirking responsibility can't be too rigid, utilizing the principle of reverse obedience test, proposing a condition first that the other party might agree to, if they agree, then propose an even more aggressive one.
What Thanos originally thought was, if Death really agreed to go with him, then he would suggest going directly to fight Oblivion, from Death's attitude, she wouldn't directly confront Oblivion, otherwise she wouldn't have come to find him.
But Death's reaction completely exceeded Thanos's anticipation, her first reaction was a moment of perplexity, and then her head shook even faster than a wave drum, shaking her head while saying: "No, no, I can't go to Earth!"
Thanos slowly squinted his eyes, from Death's body language just now, it was as if Earth had something terrifying on it, could this be the key play Shiller mentioned?
At this time, in the office of the Arkham Sanatorium, on the single sofa next to the tea table, Shiller, with one leg over the other, told Eddie sitting on the opposite sofa: "...So, in your relationship with Venom, it's always him manipulating you, and this is precisely rooted in the first thing he asked you to do after possessing you."
"But I had no choice but to refuse him at the time!" Eddie explained excitedly, during the previous hour, he had not contradicted Shiller at all, he was desperately trying to regain control.
"Can you imagine? A regular human hearing an alien's voice, and my mental state wasn't very good at the time, I thought he would harm me, so I just..."
"Yes, but after you later confirmed that he wouldn't harm you, you didn't think about reversing this relationship... why not?"
"I, I thought we were friends, manipulation and all that, it sounds a bit too evil." Eddie said somewhat uncomfortably.
"But I think you have already realized that complete indulgence is not a good thing, you should see him more as your child, you need enough authority to guide him, to get him to do the right thing."
Eddie began to shift uncomfortably, apparently Venom was making a fuss in his heart again, he jerked Eddie hard to the left, dragging his chair across the floor with a grating sound, Shiller's gaze instantly fell on the leg of the chair.
"No, Venom! Dammit, don't do that...Shiller is right, you need some discipline, can't you be a bit more polite?"
At this point, the phone beside Shiller rang, he picked it up and spoke to the other end.
"Hello? Mr. Thanos, did the method I mention in class work? Is Frigga feeling guilty? Yes, well if that's the case then it worked, don't let this shake your heart, Isn't there still Odin?"
"Yes, that's right, just continue in this direction and you'll be fine, good, if there's any development, just give me a call...You're welcome, it's always my honour to help out."
Loki hung up the phone, hearing the noise outside her chambers. She hurriedly stashed her mobile under a pillow.
At that moment, Loki was lying in bed, her black hair falling behind her ears, her pale face coughing a few times.
Frigga and Odin walked in, one after another. As soon as Frigga saw Loki's face, she rushed to the bedside to hold her daughter, who was unusually angry with Odin behind her.
"You are such an irresponsible father! All these years you have never paid attention to Loki's health, a great deal of the blame for her illness falls on you, Odin, I've really had enough!"