8mi Chapter 5865 - 4887: Marvelous Shadows and Ingenious Drama (13)
Chapter 5865 - 4887: Marvelous Shadows and Ingenious Drama (13)
"A high-society party, a bizarre murder, an atypical detective, an unusual suspect, and an innocent bystander..."Chris seemed to have entered some sort of divine state. He lowered his voice, mimicking a broadcast tone: "Youthful days are full of passion, but for some, their youth is always intertwined with murder, mystery, and death. Tony Stark, this playboy in the eyes of the public, a world-renowned billionaire, has a past that’s far more turbulent and bizarre than most. Surrounding him, besides flowers and applause, are many unusual eyes. Outside the Vanity Fair, there’s a hunting ground. Who is the hunter, and who is the prey?"
"Stop!" Stark shouted, "What do you mean by ’turbulent and bizarre past’? I don’t know of any upheaval in my past."
As soon as he said this, Chris instead began to scrutinize Stark from head to toe, until Stark felt a chill down his spine. Stark leaned back as much as he could, trying to avoid Chris’s gaze, wondering if he was overreacting. To keep manners, he awkwardly coughed and bowed his head: "What’s wrong? Is there something on my clothes?"
"Was your youth really so peaceful?" Chris asked.
"I wouldn’t say peaceful," Stark responded awkwardly, "My rebellious phase came rather late. It wasn’t until after my father left that I started smoking, drinking, and indulging my desires. During that time, I did cause quite a bit of trouble, and my reputation wasn’t great. I guess I was a little more of a scoundrel than other heirs."
Chris shook his head slowly: "That’s not what I meant. Have you ever been marked by someone?"
"Uh, you mean those trying to scheme against me?" Stark recalled and said, "My uncle, Obadiah, shielded me from most of them. He drove away those trying to seize my wealth and some malicious corporate spies. I have been deceived, but the losses were minor, just a little embarrassing."
Chris shook his head again: "That’s not what I meant either. Who was the first psychopath you encountered?"
Stark’s gaze kept darting over to Shiller, but he clearly didn’t dare to look directly. Chris seemed greatly surprised and said: "When did you meet?"
"When we were very young," Stark said directly, referring to the timeline where he and Greed are brothers, "We grew up together. I’m sort of his older brother."
"I see," Chris suddenly realized, "Then you should thank your brother; otherwise, you wouldn’t have survived until now."
"What do you mean?" Stark finally detected something was amiss. Wouldn’t anyone’s reaction on hearing that Shiller is his brother be "Shiller is actually the most dangerous presence next to me"?
"Has anyone ever told you?" Chris looked at Stark and said, "You have a lethal attraction to psychopaths."
Stark’s expression clearly cracked. Chris continued to add fuel to the fire: "Simply put, you are extremely attractive to those who are mentally unstable. To them, you’re like bait emitting an irresistible aroma. They would definitely go crazy over you."
"Why?" Stark asked incredulously, "Why would I attract madmen? Where am I going wrong?"
Stark also noticed that since he showed up in this appearance, both Shiller and Strange seemed quite odd, as did Chris. He could even predict that if Natasha came here, she’d certainly go nuts. What was wrong with this group of people?
They had just gathered a few days ago, and none of them showed any particular interest in him. They gathered as usual, eating, drinking, and chatting; no one ever told him anything like "your eyes tell a story." Just a few days later, why had they all gone mad, one after another?
Moreover, it wasn’t even clear that he was more handsome when young than when older. Stark was actually once said to be "too immature" when young, and Europeans and Americans generally don’t like faces that are too youthful. Rather, tough guys and slightly rugged older men are more popular. If one had a baby face, then they’d need to reach Leonardo DiCaprio’s level to have a chance at being popular.
Therefore, Stark started growing a beard very early, intentionally cultivating facial hair, and managed his beard to make his appearance seem more mature. It was a required course for European and American men. Stark even had a special image consultant, so his beard was always well-groomed, allowing flawless magazine cover photos by the media. It was only after he appeared more mature that his fans increased.
"You’re not doing anything wrong," Chris said, "but your eyes reveal too much. Tony, if you were like this when you were young, it’s hard to imagine you weren’t involved in a few serial murder cases."
Stark was really falling apart. He truly couldn’t understand the talk about psychopath bait and the like, nor could he grasp why he would be involved in murder cases.
Chris glanced at Shiller, who sighed lightly and leisurely said: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy once conducted a social experiment. They interviewed over a hundred convicted serial killers in prison, asking them what traits in their victims attracted them."
"Hold on," Stark interrupted him and said, "Serial killers kill because they are serial killers, because they are bad people, they just want to kill, not because their victims did something."
Shiller nodded, agreeing with Stark’s statement, but continued: "However, one of the criteria for selecting these serial killers was that they all admitted they weren’t killing impulsively or randomly. They were selectively targeting victims. The purpose of the social experiment was to understand what their conditions were."
"So what is it?" Stark showed some interest too. "Is there some sort of universal standard here?"
Shiller gently tapped his eyes.
Stark widened his eyes slightly. Shiller leaned against the bar and said, "In over sixty investigation reports, killers mentioned words related to ’eyes’ or ’eye contact.’
"Common words used by serial killers to describe their first encounter with the victims are: ’He looked at me,’ ’He stared at me,’ ’He looked at something,’ ’He looked at someone.’
"That’s quite normal," Stark said. "As long as they’re not blind, in most life situations, they’re looking at something. Moreover, these killers love to shirk responsibility. If they claim their motive was provoked by the victim’s eye contact, they can rationalize their crime since eye contact leaves no evidence."
Shiller shook his head and said, "The key isn’t the truthfulness of their testimony, but the fact that so many killers have similar expressions, indicating that most of them care about this."
Stark showed a puzzled expression again, and Shiller continued, "The content of the narration isn’t important; the way it’s narrated matters. Many of these serial killers are madmen with mental illness, and some things they see may be illusions. For instance, they think the victim is staring at them, but in reality, the victim isn’t. The real question is why they feel the victim is staring at them."
"Eyes can only be used to convey emotions." Shiller rubbed the tabletop with his fingertips.
Stark paused for a moment. He had never thought about this, but upon careful reflection, it made sense. The emotions conveyed by eye contact are always feelings, not logic. No human can use eyes to convey logic.
It’s like the joke about the eye-pie chart; seeing three parts contempt, three parts indifference, four parts nonchalance from someone’s eyes. All these words describe emotions, and you never hear about seeing three parts differential calculus, three parts force analysis, three parts chemical equation from someone’s eyes.
A pair of human eyes there doesn’t need extra words for people to discern the emotions in them. It is a natural human empathy. Although the emotions empathized differ from person to person, at least no one thinks of logical causality issues upon seeing those eyes.
Thus, eyes are the portals of emotions, only portals of emotions. Eye contact is the most basic and pure form of emotional communication. Many people avoiding eye contact are actually avoiding emotional exchange.
Stark remembered Strange’s point that he often evades eye contact. He reflected and realized it was true, but not because he didn’t want eye contact with his friends; it was simply because he was used to it.
Anxiety makes him habitually avoid eye contact because this very direct emotional exchange exacerbates his anxiety. Over time, he’s accustomed to not looking at others’ eyes while speaking.
"The emotions conveyed through eye contact are excessive," Shiller concluded, "which easily leads to empathy overload."
Stark nodded firmly. He was thinking why anxiety makes him afraid to meet others’ eyes and what exactly he wants to avoid. Then he realized, it’s not that the other party is intentionally conveying some intense emotions with their eyes, but that the slightest emotion revealed in their gaze can be amplified by his empathy feeling.
For instance, when his uncle Obadiah advised him to mind his private life or urged him not to indulge in alcohol and drugs, there may be just a little concern in the gaze. However, Stark’s empathetic ability would amplify this concern, transforming it into disappointment, and then into contempt and aversion, manifesting typical signs of empathy overload.
The other party wasn’t conveying so many emotions with their gaze, and rationally he knew that even if Obadiah truly wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t look at him with contempt. Obadiah knows his talent is exceptional, and no one would disdain a young genius capable of supporting the Stark Group’s science division on his own.
Yet, his overly active empathy apparatus deceived him, making him perceive many intense emotions that were not there. This is also the origin of various paranoia, although many fail to realize it stems from empathy overload.
Thinking about this, Stark began to understand why these serial killers would mention eye contact. They all care deeply about certain people’s gazes, even ones they’ve imagined, because these killers have severe empathy overload issues.
Their empathy organs may be so sensitive that even without anyone looking at them, they’d conjure up eye contact to empathize with.
Many might assume that most psychopaths lack empathy or have weak empathy, but this doesn’t conflict.
Human emotion is like a pool, and empathy is the pipe that channels water into it. Some have thicker pipes, allowing more emotions to flow in simultaneously, indicating strong empathy. Others have thinner pipes or are blocked completely, thus exhibiting weaker empathy.
However, as long as emotions are abundant and stimuli intense, when the flood comes, regardless of pipe thickness, both get overwhelmed. Many so-called people with weak empathy or naturally high tolerance, faced with intense stimuli, react similarly.
Killers with weak empathy aren’t immune to emotional turmoil and may even become more susceptible to damage due to infrequent use of their empathy organ, entering empathy overload mode, overreacting to any slight emotional stimulus.