Shiller shook his head, saying, "Lunchtime is not a good time for drinking."
"Drinking? ...What kind of drink?"
The light outside the window gradually weakened, turning from a somewhat dazzling white to a warm hue of the setting sun. Shiller walked to the window of the Arkham Sanatorium office, pulling the curtains closed. Banner sat on the couch, staring at the glass of wine in front of him, feeling somewhat dizzy.
"My God, what kind of wine is this? Just by the smell of it, I already feel a little..."
He tried to shake his head, his hand resting on his glasses, but before he could adjust, a flash of white blurred his vision, followed by a fuzzy darkness.
Banner felt himself falling into the darkness. As the fall accelerated, the wind whistled in his ears. After the light flashed a second time, Banner sat up from the couch. He looked around for Shiller but saw a bald old man sitting across from him instead.
Shiller leaned over, picking up the glass of wine from in front of him, introducing to Charles, "This is the patient I mentioned earlier, his issue is rather serious."
Then he introduced to Banner, "Now, we are in your consciousness space, in other words, we are in your dream. The wine can induce people to dream."
"In the dream?" Banner asked in confusion, "How is it possible? Isn't this reality? Then why does it seem so real?"
"Real? Are you sure you have 7 fingers?"
Upon hearing this, Banner looked down at his hand to find indeed, he had 7 fingers, but he hadn't noticed anything wrong.
"This..."
All in all, Bruce Banner is still an ordinary person, even if he's extraordinarily intelligent, his worldview remains within an ordinary person's frame of reference. He felt his shoulder and chest, finding everything felt incredibly real. He looked up at Shiller and asked, "Is this what you call the new treatment method? Isn't this more of the realm of mysticism rather than psychology?"
"No, everything here is rigorous and logical. You need to trust me, I'm not a quack."
Charles started to speak, "Can you open up part of your memory access to me? I need to find the origin of the illness before we can think about how to deal with it."
"...Alright, what should I do?"
Just as Banner finished asking, Shiller snapped his fingers and Banner's figure disappeared instantly. Shiller explained to Charles, "I've blocked his consciousness for now because the root of his psychological problems comes from childhood trauma. If he relives it in a dream, I'm afraid he'll have a mental breakdown."
Charles nodded, saying, "It's good to be cautious, considering the patient's safety."
As the two men spoke, the scene around them slowly changed. The exquisite wooden floor faded layer by layer, revealing somewhat grey ceramic tiles. The room's walls moved forward bit by bit, making the space smaller. The floor-to-ceiling window turned into a narrow, dusty window. A little boy was crouching in front of a cabinet and a bearded man was beating him.
Shiller and Charles were standing in the doorway of this small, old kitchen, watching little Banner endure domestic violence. Charles sighed, saying, "I knew it would be like this."
"Most patients with multiple personality disorder have undergone intense psychological stimulus. They created a virtual personality because their own personality couldn't bear the trauma," Shiller said, looking at little Banner.
Just as he finished speaking, the originally crouched, crying little Banner suddenly turned into a green giant. He was raging and howling helplessly, venting his anger onto everything around him.
"Fear," Charles said firmly, "His anger stems from fear. I can feel it very clearly. He's terrified of violence. Yet, he can only vent the anger that fear brings by being violent."
Shiller and Charles were completely unaffected by the raging Hulk, since this was inside the consciousness space.
Shiller continued to analyze: "While deeply suffering from the harm brought by violence, he also covets the authority that violence brings. This is a common trait in most violent personalities. They have been hurt by violence and yet bring violence to many others."
"The reason why they can't control themselves is that fear and anger have stripped them of all their sense of security, so they're trying to find a measure that can bring them a sense of security."
Charles continued, "… And that measure is to resort to violence."
"Never mind that, how can we resolve this problem? Forgive my bluntness, with the regular psychological therapy, it's probably impossible to eliminate this personality. Banner doesn't want to eliminate this personality representing his childhood trauma either."
"I can forcibly remove it, but that is meaningless." Charles sighed, seeing the interested look in Shiller's eyes, he explained, "I can easily modify people's memories, as simple as eating or drinking for me."
"I can even delete all his memories of being domestically abused, not leaving behind a trace."
"But the human mind and consciousness aren't that simple. Everyone's thoughts have inertia. After modifying their memories, it's like pulling a block from the bottom of a tall stack of blocks."