"What are you yelling about? Didn't you already know about the existence of ghosts?" Helen asked, staring at an astonished Eddie.
"But he...he's Shiller!" Eddie pointed at the half-transparent figure in mid-air and exclaimed, "How did he become a ghost?!"
"First of all, let's get our terminology straight. I wouldn't consider myself a ghost, more like a specter. In this state, I can't possess bodies, nor do I have the ability to attack. I can basically only scare people."
Shiller floated down slowly, allowing Eddie to get a better look. Shiller's transparency was much higher than the ghosts Eddie had previously encountered. His entire body seemed like a shadowy figure. If it weren't for the familiar voice of Dr. Shiller, Eddie wouldn't even have been able to identify who it was.
"But there is one advantage. I'm quite inconspicuous. Unless you intentionally tune your brainwaves to my frequency, you're not able to see me." Shiller shrugged. "I'm in perfect spectator mode. Even if you hadn't called me here, I would've wanted to take advantage of Tony being unaware to fly back here and watch the drama play out."
"Drama? We're in big trouble!" Helen said, crossing her arms. "Ghosts have attached themselves to zombies, causing a massive zombie crisis as soon as they touched down. The superheroes of this universe don't have their reset memories. They still think zombies are just ordinary monsters and aren't on their guard."
"Worse still, Spider-Man wants to save everyone and won't let us eliminate the infected zombie superheroes on the spot. Spider-Man even has spider-sense, so we don't stand a chance trying to attack him from behind."
"If this continues, the zombie crisis will inevitably erupt, and the two universes will experience another cycle. We'll be stuck here with no way out."
Eddie turned to look at Shiller, seemingly confused. "You said Tony is here. Why did you bring him along?"
"That's the key point." Shiller snapped his fingers. "We once found a Devourer Engine, made by the League of Murderers in another universe using Galactus's head."
"Both The Hulk and Tony entered the Devourer Engine. Tony even conducted an in-depth study on it. We have found another head of a planet devourer this time, and I believe that Tony could fully replicate the Star Devouring Engine."
"Can the Devourer Engine help us overcome the situation in these two universes?"
Shiller shook his head. "Saving these two universes is not difficult at all. With the genius of Tony Stark, a cure will inevitably be developed."
"The biggest problem now is how to save the zombie superheroes, or more precisely, how to save Zombie Spider-Man."
"Other zombie superheroes haven't been affected by the Spider Totem. After each universe reset, they will lose their memories. But Zombie Spider-Man was affected by Nick, and the traumatic memories of countless cycles remain deep in his mind."
"These deeply seated scars cannot be healed by ordinary means. This is the only reason Nick had me come here."
"While tending to that mess he's collected in his mind is a bit of a drag, it's not to the point where I have to go to another universe. With so many stars in the cosmos, if the sun is watched by humans, I could as well throw it into the Andromeda Galaxy, isn't it the same?"
"I suspect he noticed early on that one of his lambs had fallen off a cliff and was stuck in a quagmire."
"Just as he said, every Spider-Man in each universe is constantly losing. There are too many pressing issues to resolve. He couldn't mobilize a large-scale operation to mobilize our universe's power for a rescue mission. He could only dispatch one or two professionals to assist Spider-Man."
"So are you that professional, Doctor?"
Shiller nodded then said, "To deal with such an extraordinarily complicated condition, I've prepared a special treatment. Eddie, how do you feel right now?"
Realizing Shiller was looking at him, Eddie seemed a bit puzzled. He looked down at himself and touched his chest. "What am I supposed to feel? Are you saying you used that special treatment on me?"
Shiller sighed, saying a bit helplessly, "Never mind. I shouldn't expect an ordinary person to be so perceptive. Venom, you've sensed it, haven't you?"
Hearing Shiller call on Venom, Eddie could tell Venom knew something. Then in his mind, Eddie asked, "What happened? Venom, what's happening to me?"
"You wuss. Haven't you noticed that you're not as scared as before?"
"I'm not..."
"Think about it, normally, you'd drop your cheeseballs all over the place in fright just by watching a horror film on TV. Now, you're meeting a ghost every five minutes on average, dealing with zombies and ghosts at the front and back. Despite your fear of heights not improving at all, you had no choice but to climb down from a height equivalent to the 8th floor. After all the exertions, draining your physical and mental energy, you're still able to communicate rationally and haven't collapsed. Does that seem normal to you?"
Eddie couldn't argue with that. Now, he realized just how unusual his current state was, especially considering what he had just been through. The protagonist of a zombie movie usually first learns of the zombie crisis from a TV news report, watches the world being overrun by zombies bit by bit; unlike him, he was throw into a pile of zombies and ghosts as soon as he landed, not being given any time to adjust.
The exhilarating adventure he has experienced within just a few hours could arguably be called the most thrilling of his life, bar none. And with virtually all his escapes performed on his own, it's almost unimaginable for an ordinary person.
While it's all too easy for people to criticize the characters in horror movies from their lofty perches, claiming this or that should have been done differently, it's worth remembering that under high pressure, forced mistakes are part and parcel of the experience. Throw such critics into an environment filled with monsters, and their performance might not be much better than the protagonists'.
Eddie considered himself an ordinary person and he knew he wasn't particularly brave. Yet, if he were to objectively rate his performance over the last few hours, he might well award himself a perfect score. His courage was nothing short of extraordinary; in a horror movie, he would undoubtedly be a pillar of the main characters.
Reflecting on his journey, Eddie noted that there were few occasions where panic caused him to hesitate. He'd been there before.
It wasn't that he chose to waver, squandering precious time. He simply didn't have control. Yet, over the last few hours, it was as though he had been guided by a celestial being, possessed by Jesus; decisive and swift, his every move exuding confidence.
Was this really him? Eddie felt a twinge of horror, at which point Schiller provided an answer: "This is my latest brainwave therapy, designed to solve all the difficulties faced by superheroes."
"In simpler terms, a ghost wearing a magnetic field control device follows you around for twenty-four hours, continuously influencing your brainwaves with magnetism. This helps dispel extreme negative emotions, stabilizing your emotions."
The voice of Venom echoed in Eddie's mind: "Indeed, I did sense some minor changes. However, I assumed them to be natural phenomena of this cosmos. Earth's magnetic field is highly varied, and only an extremely magnetism-sensitive creature could discern these changes."
"All the steps taken by a psychologist are emergency measures," Schiller posited, a common assertion in the psychology field. "That's because unless it's the last resort, people won't go to a therapist. Everyone in the psychologist's office is a severe case."
"However, treating psychological issues is diametrically opposed to treating physical ones. Emergency measures are far less effective than regular therapy. Yet, severely afflicted patients tend to lack the capacity to take small steps daily to soothe their emotions, which leaves them with no choice but to resort to enforced long-term therapy."
"So a ghost is tailing Zombie Spider-Man now?" Helen astutely identified the crux of the matter. "So this is what you want, doctor? They mingle with unsuspecting superheroes, taking their time, even failing a couple of times along the way, all to buy more time for the brainwave therapy?"
Schiller nodded in agreement: "The peculiarity of these two universes lies in their countless cycles of rebirth, which reset all disasters. So even if they fail, it doesn't matter. Everything will reset anyway. They just need to succeed the last time."
"However, since Zombie Spider-Man retained his sanity due to specific reasons, the therapeutic results won't be reset with him but will continue to accumulate. So if they fail, it's actually a good thing. A few dozen more cycles won't be an issue."
"But I don't plan to do that. I'm going to resolve the issue within this cycle."
"Why?"
"Because I now have a better approach." Schiller added with a smile.
A bit puzzled, Helen asked, "What approach? How can you both save the two universes and heal Spider-Man's mental wounds within this cycle?"
"It'll all hinge on you, miss."
Helen's jaw dropped, she asked in surprise, "Me? How can I possibly help? If I knew how to, I wouldn't have summoned you, doctor."
"After finding out that you've also come to this world, I made a slight adjustment to my plan. With you on board, everything will be much easier." Schiller floated in front of Helen, who still looked dubious.
"Helen, believe it or not, you're much more powerful than you think, which isn't some motivational platitude but a fact. Many ignored instincts lie dormant in your subconscious."
Helen paused, contemplating her many tendencies she had glimpsed in that folder named "Instincts". She furrowed her brows in deep thought and said, "Is that really true? I assumed they were merely my fantasies, or required some preconditions at least."
"Typically, these capabilities emerge in adulthood. But as far as I can see, due to your overly secure living environment and overeating, you could have used some of those abilities already. You just never realized, so you never used them."
"I haven't been eating all that much!!!" Helen raised her voice, "With all the commotion between the Apocalypse Star and the Green Lantern Corps, I ate fewer than two thousand lantern furnaces. That's barely enough to fill a tooth cavity!"
Schiller gave her a look that clearly said, "Are you hearing yourself?"
After a few seconds of glaring at each other, it was Helen who finally admitted defeat. With a sigh, she lowered her hands and sank her thoughts into her subconscious.
Helen finally grasped what Schiller was planning and thus reopened the 'instincts' folder that she had previously tossed aside. Her gaze landed on one of the entries.
That instinct was named "Doomsday Spores".