Steve and Khonsu brought Shiller back to the ward of the insane asylum located on the 10th floor where they were before. The owner of the ward was absent, so it could serve as their base.
Steve wanted to go with Stark to find the consciousness of the gray mist, but Stark rejected him, considering that Shiller could wake up at any time. In the end, Steve stayed to watch over Shiller, who was unconscious.
After leaving the insane asylum on the 10th floor, Stark hesitated at the staircase, unsure whether to go down or up.
Suddenly, he heard a "thumping" sound, and when he peeked down over the railing at the atrium, he saw young Shiller chasing a gray ball around.
The ball looked familiar to him, like highly concentrated grey mist or a slime. Stark hesitated for a moment, then hurried down the stairs to intercept the gray ball.
Young Shiller, who had been chasing the ball, was surprised to see Stark here. By that time, Stark had already picked up the ball.
The grey ball, caught by Stark, turned into a swarm of floating grey mist with a "pop". Stark saw two eyes made up of whirlpools. If he was not mistaken, the gray mist looked shocked now as well.
This was the first time Stark spoke to such a creature. He hesitated for a second, unsure of what to say. But he said, "I am Stark, a friend of your master Shiller. Do you recognize me?"
What surprised Stark was that the gray mist actually bobbed up and down as if nodding, though it was hard to recognize any head, Stark understood that it was trying to nod.
"Alright, listen, your master is in some trouble now. I know he might have told you about a plan to intentionally disable his own defenses, letting him die. But the problem now is that his soul is in trouble too. If we can't revive him, we can't help him..."
"So, I hope you can control yourself to repair Shiller's body, so his soul can return and revive..."
Having quickly said all this, Stark did not expect the symbiot that looked like a leaky exhaust gas could understand him. But to his surprise, the gray mist sent him a curious emotion, and then Stark actually heard a voice saying:
"...What did you say?"
"You can talk? Why didn't you speak up earlier?" Stark stared at the gray mist and asked.
"He doesn't want me talking casually with strangers." The Gray Mist replied, "and I smell the scent of a guy I hate on you..."
"The guy you hate? Who? Wait... It can't be that pile of slime, can it?"
"Exactly, him. He's sick, I don't want to play with him, stay away from me."
"Alright, you're not wrong about that. That pile of slime is really sick... No, that's not what I wanted to say. Did you understand what I was saying before?"
"But I won't disobey his order." Gray mist answered: "If he doesn't want me to do that, then I won't do it."
"But we are doing this for his own good..."
Stark stopped immediately after saying these words, because he seemed to have heard this argument a long time ago.
He remembered meeting Shiller for the first time. Shiller had asked Jarvis the same question in the car and then asked him.
So, Stark cleared his throat, then asked the gray mist:
"If one day Shiller is on the brink of death, and your decision could save your master, but he strongly opposes it, what would you do?"
"If you obey the order and don't save him, and he dies, would you regret it?"
"If he died, do you think he might regret creating you as he neared his end?"
"If he died, do you think he would resent you?"
"If he resents you, would you blame yourself?"
"If you had a second chance, would you make a different choice?"
"If you disobeyed Shiller's order and chose to save him, and he blames you afterwards, would you feel upset?"
"If you disobeyed Shiller's command and saved him, but he wanted to kill you because you defied his order, would you resent him?"
Using his astounding memory, Stark relayed these questions exactly as presented to the Gray mist. However, he didn't see the crash-like scenario he had imagined analogous to Jarvis's programming. The Gray mist said:
"In principle, I would not defy his orders..."
Stark was the one taken aback. He looked at the puff of Gray mist, then asked: "In principle, wouldn't... what do you mean?"
"That means I need extra payment."
"I..."
Stark held his forehead, completely forgetting that the main characteristic of a symbiont is to follow its host, and obviously, this symbiont hadn't chosen a good one.
"What do you want?" Stark asked.
"When he wakes up and finds that a bottle of wine has been touched, you can tell him it's due to loss during storage, how about that?"
Stark didn't understand the Gray mist's request, but it didn't sound like a difficult task, so he agreed.
Afterward, the Gray mist disappeared from his sight. After a while, it returned and said:
"The body has been repaired, the elevator is over there, the manager is off today, so if you're planning on leaving, it's best to do so soon..."
Stark felt a bit strange, but his urgency took over. He quickly went back to the insane asylum and carried a half-asleep Shiller to the elevator- then he easily returned to the surconsciousness. After that, the three of them woke up from their dreams and returned to reality.
After they left, the Gray mist sighed and entered the elevator, riding up to the hospital floor. At that moment, two figures were leaning against the well's railing, looking down.
The Gray mist sidled up to one of them, dressed in a black suit. DC Schiller patted the Gray mist's head and said, "Don't think I didn't hear you earlier, did you sneak a drink again?"
"I didn't, it was a loss during transportation!"
Schiller shook his head in resignation, lit a cigar, and said to the green-haired figure beside him, "Seriously, we actually managed to persuade 'the self' to cooperate with us..."
The green-haired figure giggled but said nothing.
DC Schiller touched his forehead wound and said, "It's only fair to get a bit of revenge for all the work dumped on a patient, right?"
"But you must have other motives, right?" the green-haired Schiller asked.
DC Schiller scoffed, "You might think I'm the crazier one, but in fact, it's the exact opposite. He's far crazier than me. The most maddening feeling in the world is greed."
"Committing suicide to probe a secret that he's curious about is just routine for him. But I have to be ready to counteract him in case he plays us into destruction."
"So?"
"Suffering from childhood autism, witnessing the brutal murder of his parents, anti-social personality disorder due to trauma- but ultimately contributing to society through his own efforts..."
"This origin story, stacked with many protagonist elements, should provide us with great security in this world."
"WHAT makes you so sure this could become our origin story?" the green-haired Schiller asked.
Black-suited Schiller took a puff of his cigar, then slowly exhaled smoke. Through the billowing smoke, he looked down at the lower floors and said,
"What matters is not the story, but the storyteller."
"When the most important existences in this world are all propagating this origin story..."
"The story is no longer just a story."