Magneto left with mixed feelings.
From then on, he had a new experience, that of being accused of not being extreme enough. Clark's wild ideas had delivered a heavy blow to the others' minds, and he seemed overly spirited when he left.
"It seems I prepared the restaurant for nothing," Shiller said. "I thought there would be some physical confrontation."
"I don't like fighting," Clark said candidly.
"That's quite rare," Shiller laughed with his fork in hand and said, "If you told that to your counterparts in other universes, you would definitely receive a uniform salute."
"I don't think my counterparts in other universes enjoy fighting either," Clark expressed a different opinion, and he was always very good at expressing dissenting views in front of Shiller, which was actually a relatively difficult thing, especially in the face of Doctor Schiller.
Some might find Arrogant comparatively solemn and difficult to refute, but Greed always seems more like a doctor. His portrayal of the doctor role was almost perfect. When facing a doctor, it's easy to fall into a pattern of one question followed by one answer. People can feel pressured, more inclined to give the correct answer rather than what's in their hearts.
Some even feel their hearts are empty, unable to find any answers within, and thus are easily guided. They subconsciously negate certain extreme options, like liking or disliking something, responding "not really" as soon as they're asked.
Such answers often mean they're under stress, struggling to maintain their mental balance, and probing the world in a completely non-aggressive posture. For doctors, this is not a good sign.
Shiller always tried to avoid such situations during psychological counseling, but sometimes he would take advantage of them. He would suggest a possibility, the other would deny it, and then he would propose another, using the Exhaustion Method to find a stable path within an unstable psyche.
Or, it could be said that those who can express their views fluently and completely in front of a psychiatrist are the minority. If patients were capable of that, they wouldn't need to see a doctor. So, Shiller was used to the process of proposing possibilities, observing attitudes, and making diagnoses.
In this process, patients usually don't immediately negate Shiller's first question, even if they really don't want to see a psychiatrist, but they would instinctively explore rather than extremize.
But Clark was clearly not ill, even though he had just done something that couldn't be considered normal, so much so that Shiller wanted to urgently understand his psychological activity at the moment, but his reaction was still excessively normal.
"If they have the same background, education, and experiences as me, then they are bound not to be people who favor violence. It's just that there is no other way."
"They think that some things in the world always need someone to step up and stop them, so why not themselves? At least they can maintain absolute justice."
"Some criminals certainly need to be subdued, so why not by themselves? At least they are definitely stronger than these criminals, they can avoid being harmed, and they can also control the force of subduing well enough not to hurt the criminals themselves."
"We take for granted that these things happen, and the world always has a bad side because we understand what social rules are like. We think that this anthill, though neither sturdy nor reliable and always getting destroyed, is still their favorite home."
"Superman never thought of knocking down the anthill to rebuild everything. We just weave through it, silently cleaning up the messes because it's what they like, what they want, what they take pride in, a world that belongs only to them."
"We like doing this, not just because we like the human race, but because seeing them bustling about, slowly constructing this intricate little world, while we participate, helping to build it, gives us a sense of belonging."
"I have a vague memory of the distant past, or perhaps my brain intentionally forgot, but I know being an alien holds special significance for me. One day I will do something because of this identity."
"But that's only because I was born there. My birthplace and my race were not for me to choose, nor could I choose the responsibilities I bear. So although I am willing to take responsibility for it, it can never tell me who I really am."
The curtains hanging on the peeling wooden window frame fluttered slightly, and the evening light streamed through the window onto the dining table. The solid wood surface was lit with many intricate grooves, like the sprawling network of Earth's cities extending from the heart, pulsating blood to the distant lands.
"Who are you really?" Shiller asked.
This question was nearly unanswerable, but everyone could give a respectable response, all of which seemed hazy and vague, as if everyone were a philosopher.
"I feel like I am a mirror," Clark gave Shiller a surprisingly specific answer, one that was very concrete but also abstract at the same time.
"Why do you feel that way?"
"If they're brutal, I'm brutal. If they're gentle, I'm gentle. If they're kind, I'm kind. If they're evil, I'm evil," Clark pondered and said, "For a long time, I thought I was the synonym of justice, that nothing could shake the justice and fairness in my heart."
"But then I realized that the justice and fairness wandering in my heart are not mine either. I am not human, I was not supposed to have any opinions by birth, or at least the moment I knew I wasn't human, I should have known I originally wouldn't have any opinions."
"If my life-pod had been found when I was 18, even though I would have had the appearance of a young human, I would still be as pure as a blank sheet of paper, just like a human who had slept for 18 years, merely a larger baby."
"Those things I believed I stood for were actually acquired in those 18 years of education, or derived from my own reflections afterward, but regardless of the source, they are a reflection of the society I have seen."
"If I hadn't been born in the peaceful calm of Smallville but instead in a place of perpetual war and chaos, I would surely have become a cruel killer, and eventually a tyrant who ruled the world."
"I have heard that among Superman's kind there exist such beings, but I believe he must have experienced many events corresponding to his behavior; he suffered violence and cruelty and projected all that onto his actions."
"Many people around me have not deeply realized this point, not recognizing that I am more susceptible to the education of human society and more likely to reflect everything in it than an average human."
"The cause of justice I am engaged in is the ripple effect of the education I received in the first half of my life, it would be better to call me the God of Smallville rather than the God of the World, for it was this town and everything about that life that turned me into what I become when I descend over the skies of Metropolis."
"Even many Supermen themselves aren't aware of this, thinking they were born this way and cannot change, but the first time I realized things were this way was when I keenly noticed the difference between myself and them."
Doctor Schiller fell into thought, Clark had proposed an entirely new perspective that he himself had never considered.
The formation of an individual's personality is multifaceted, and many people think that education and living environment complete a personality, but in the psychoanalytic school, some traits are considered innate.
Even without theory and merely from a practical standpoint, some people's mental states are more unstable than others from birth; it was always that way, but at that time, people's channels to communicate with the outside world were weak, and it was even less likely for them to express their views, so these were overlooked.
Clark believed that his entire personality reflected his education and social experiences, more purely than any human.
In Doctor Schiller's view, the most important proof of this theory was that Clark was an alien, and much more powerful than humans, especially since his spiritual power had become unshakably strong.
This meant he would never be mentally unstable, not even when he was a baby; his mind was incredibly steady, and any potential internal reaction in his psychic world that might have caused problems with his connections to the outside world would be eradicated by that powerful glow.
People always say a baby is a blank sheet of paper, but baby Clark must have been even more so, unaffected by human's inherent frailty, a supremely fair test paper.
The Kent family then filled out this test paper with perfect answers, turning him into shining gold, ensuring he stayed dazzling even when away from here.
Many people, including the other Supermen and even Batman, hadn't realized this, believing Superman's strength and righteousness were due to being an alien, not due to his upbringing on Earth.
Perhaps because there were no other samples to compare, they thought Kryptonians were a species naturally strong and just, from birth.
But on closer thought, this is highly illogical. Krypton is very distant and alien to humans, and while they seem immensely powerful to humans, in the cosmic perspective, they are still just a drop in the ocean, insignificant mayflies.
Such different civilizations could not possibly give rise to wholly identical social norms, could not possibly adhere to an undifferentiated concept of justice—if Superman were naturally imbued with a sense of justice, it certainly wouldn't be Earth's justice; he would be the God of Krypton, not the God of the World.
Clark's theory nicely explains this issue; his power lay in a more stable mental state, and all his heart of justice stemmed from the education by the Kent family and from his response to the simple environment of Smallville.
Doctor Schiller was now curious about another issue.
"How did you find out?"
"When I went to Mexico and then came back, I began to feel a little different," Clark said. "A strange emotion spread in my heart, almost allowing me to see a new world."
"Can you talk about it?"
"Of course. When I was little, although farm work was hardly strenuous for me, I didn't really want to do it, because it took away from my playtime. I could fish in the river, catch insects on the farm ridges, run wild with friends in town—weren't all those things more fun than farm work?"
"But my dad asked me to help him, and my mom would praise me after I finished, so to make them happy, I would do it."
"As I grew up, I realized I was the eldest son of the Kent family, and one day I would have to come back to inherit this land. My father was slowly aging; he was no longer as strong as he was in his youth. Only if I did more could he do less."
"Since it wasn't difficult for me, why not do a little more?"