NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

Because the rush hour had passed and ambulances have the highest priority under traffic laws, Pepper and Merri spent less than ten minutes getting from the Ark Hospital headquarters to the backstage area of ​​Warren's book signing.

Click.

As soon as the two carrying first-aid supplies pushed open the door, they were greeted by the crew-cut man's face, which had turned somewhat bluish.

Pepper's gaze then swept around and she saw the commander sitting on the sofa looking somewhat anxious, with Mihara and Yuni beside him.

Having experienced the harrowing raid more than two weeks ago, Pepper is no longer the flustered young doctor she once was.

Without needing any prompting from her senior, Merri, she sensed the strange atmosphere lurking beneath the surface.

First of all, judging from his clothing and appearance, the man lying on the ground was undoubtedly a notorious Mississippi field agent.

Secondly, Mihara was injured. Even from a distance, one could tell that the man's bloody wound was caused by the iron whip covered in barbs.

Secondly, judging from the commander's leg-shaking and hand-touching behavior, it looks like he's having an anxiety attack.

How could a man who would risk his life to fight Lecher to save her be uneasy over something so trivial?

can you?

Pepper, whose IQ had suddenly spiked, immediately realized there was something fishy going on, and quietly said to Merry beside her:

"Senior, can you take care of the wounded on the ground for now? I need to check on the commander's mental state."

After saying that, seeing that Senior Merri nodded in agreement, the little doctor hurriedly ran to her commander and pretended to begin examining Phoenix's pupils.

During this time, she also urged Mihara and Yuni to step back a few steps so as not to interfere with her activities.

"commander."

Taking advantage of the opportunity to check her pupils, Pepper gently reminded Phoenix, who was still shaking his leg, in a whisper.

"Don't act out post-traumatic stress disorder. Listen to me, act out adjustment disorder. That's easier to act out."

"?"

Upon hearing Pepper's words, the person who was still pretending to have an episode blinked, indicating that he didn't quite understand what adjustment disorder was, and why it was so easy to act out.

"PTSD patients experience prolonged periods of low mood, accompanied by symptoms such as amnesia, paranoia, loss of interest, and dissociative reactions. Most importantly, PTSD does not manifest so quickly."

According to the standard, the commander should now be acting out ASD, or acute stress disorder.

As Pepper spoke, perhaps realizing that her pupil examination had taken a bit too long, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and begin examining the commander's ear canals, back of the head, neck, and other areas where it would be convenient to whisper.

"Oh dear, ASD and PTSD are both very troublesome to act out. If you don't act convincingly, doctors will easily notice something amiss. If you act convincingly, you might end up acting out of cognitive impairment, and eventually you might actually become mentally ill."

Commander, listen to me. Perform an adaptation disorder demonstration. Find two or three trigger points, and once they are triggered, the individual will exhibit violent tendencies.

Then you can act out a personality that is afraid of being separated from familiar people, or a personality that is prone to losing control of emotions after being separated from close friends or family members; either one is acceptable.

If these two points are exhibited, it can be diagnosed as an adjustment disorder, which is also a type of mental illness.

understand? "

After listening to Pepper's advice, the eager-to-learn Phoenix immediately had Alick search and compile a large amount of information about adjustment disorder on the public internet. When the little doctor was about to get up and leave, Phoenix grabbed his little hand and imitated him, entering the state of adjustment disorder.

"Stay with me a little longer, Pepper."

"Eh?!"

The moment the familiar warmth seeped into my brain through the back of my hand.

Caught completely off guard, Pepper suddenly felt her breathing apparatus malfunction—a fleeting but extremely intense disturbance.

"I...I still need to help treat the wounded, senior!"

The girl with the single ponytail looked like a frightened fawn, not even bothering to look back at the commander. After carefully withdrawing her left hand, she hurriedly hid beside Senior Merri for protection.

At the same time, she kept thinking to herself:

Why can the commander get into character so quickly when playing a mentally ill person?

Is it really...acted?

Chapter Forty: Meeting Shu En

The news that "a suspended commander named Phoenix has crippled someone again" spread like wildfire among the upper echelons of the Ark because the person who was crippled was an employee of Missilis.

Within three hours, about 70% of the "nobles" were already very familiar with the event.

Next, they had to ask each other why they used the word "again".

Who else has that commander named Phoenix crippled before?

……

……

"Huh? You mean that guy crippled two field agents? And the reason was that the field agents wanted to kill him?!"

On the top floor of the Missilis Building, a petite girl pulled out a pistol, pointed it at Mihara standing in front of her with a look of disgust, and moved the gun up and down.

She is Shu En, the youngest CEO of Missilis and the most outstanding technical expert recognized by the Ark Technology circle.

"Hey, don't you belong to my Missilis?"

The thought that Missilis, one of the three major companies in Ark, would once again be the subject of ridicule and gossip among its many competitors in the days to come is unbearable.

Then there's the rather unsettling financial report curve recently compiled by the Ministry of Finance.

The anger that had been building up inside Shuen surged up like a volcano, and he roared in a fit of impotent rage:

"Kneel down, all of you! You useless scrap metal!"

Mihara and Yuni, who knew Shuen's temper inside and out, exchanged a glance when they saw their boss looking overwhelmed and hysterical. They could only kneel silently on the genuine luxury wool blanket, awaiting the punishment to come.

Snapped!

Sure enough, the moment Yuni knelt down, a shoe sole landed squarely on her head.

"You! I told you to follow that guy, and you lost him, but you had to wait for the field operations department to ask you before you'd admit he was missing?"

The pressure on her feet gradually increased, forcing Yuni to slowly bend over and crawl on the ground.

"Trying to escape punishment, huh! I'll teach you to keep quiet about what you know! I'll teach you to keep quiet about what you know!!!"

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

As Shuen grew angrier, he stomped on Yuni's temporal bone as if he were compressing a soda can.

"Tell me, why didn't you help the field agents subdue that guy!"

"..."

"I'll let you speak!!!"

"But...but Yuni's orders were to protect the commander..."

A series of simulated artificial tears slid down the little girl's cheeks, dripping onto the exorbitantly priced wool blanket, silently protesting Shuen's blame.

On the side, Mihara tried his best to defend himself:

“Shuen, Yuni can’t understand the subtext, everyone knows that…”

boom--! ! !

A bullet, angled downwards, pierced Mihara's abdomen, silencing the woman abruptly.

"……Well."

"Did I tell you to speak?!"

With gritted teeth, CEO Misilis continued to pull the trigger, repeatedly driving bullets into Mihara's chest and abdomen.

"Scrap metal! You're all just a bunch of useless scrap metal!! Don't forget, I'm the one who created you, it was me!!!"

……

……

Worth has been in the rehabilitation center for several years now, and he's encountered a fair number of bizarre things, though not many.

However, when he saw Phoenix smiling kindly at him from the lobby of the rehabilitation center, his consciousness still went slightly hazy.

no……

Wasn't this man just sent out of the rehabilitation center yesterday? Why was he sent back this morning?

Does this mean the ruling has been changed again?

Recalling the agonizing days in the monitoring room, Voss felt goosebumps creep up his back and neck, and quickly asked a colleague on guard duty nearby:

"What's going on? Why is this plague god back again?"

The colleague over there, who had clearly also worked in the monitoring room, didn't look too good either. "I heard he crippled two of Missilis's field agents this morning, one of them was completely smashed, chicken and eggs. Do you think he wouldn't be brought back?"

Gumbling—

Voss instinctively swallowed. They were all men, and when they heard the story of the chicken and the egg breaking, they couldn't help but feel a false sense of empathy, like the fox mourning the death of its mate.

"What did the higher-ups say?"

"Don't worry, I heard that the higher-ups are considering his unstable mental state, so they won't put him in solitary confinement or take him to the interrogation room this time."