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Chapter 27 - Chapter 027: A Mutant?

"Doctor, could you come outside and talk to me for a minute? There's something I'd like to ask you," Hill asked Raymond quietly, just as Weaver had hoped.

"No problem," Raymond said casually with a shrug.

Hill gave Weaver a quick nod, and Weaver, knowing what she wanted, had no objections.

Soon the two of them stepped out into the hallway.

Before Hill could say anything, Raymond smiled and asked, "Miss Hill, do you think I'm still sick?"

Raymond's blunt question took Hill by surprise.

She had planned to be more cautious, but since he was so direct, she decided not to hold back either.

"I just think that what Agent Weaver said made a certain amount of sense. Your decision is really a little hard to understand..."

"So you think I'm still sick?" Raymond interrupted again without explaining himself.

"Uh..." Hill was a bit embarrassed.

What was she supposed to say? Deep down, yes, that's what she thought—but saying it out loud would be hurtful. Raymond's question didn't leave her any room to dodge.

While Hill tried to figure out how to respond, Raymond continued, "Well, to be honest, you're not entirely wrong. My condition isn't completely healed yet."

"What?!" Hill's eyes widened. "But you said earlier..." Raymond shook his head and smiled. "If I remember correctly, I said, 'I'm almost better. I never said I was fully recovered, did I?"

Hill thought back and realized… he really did say "almost better."

During their time together on the plane, both she and May had felt that Raymond was acting completely normal.

And because of that one line—"almost better"—they just assumed he was fully recovered.

So Hill told Director Egghead that Raymond was fine now, and the director didn't question it because he also thought Raymond seemed perfectly normal in their conversations.

Back when the original "Dr. Raymond" had his breakdown, even his main personality often spoke nonsense and seemed lost in his mind. It was rare to see him behaving normally.

Maybe things improved a bit later when he was sent to the Clockwork Mental Hospital, but even then he still showed signs of mental instability from time to time.

The current Raymond, of course, showed none of that. So it made sense that the director and Hill didn't notice anything strange.

Still, what Raymond had just said felt a bit like twisting words.

Most people would take "almost better" to mean "basically fine". Who would think it actually meant "I'm still sick"?

Technically, he wasn't wrong—but it was clearly a word game.

And the truth was, Raymond was playing a word game.

When he said, "I'm almost better," what he really meant at the time was that he was mostly recovered.

But just now, when Weaver asked him to pick a department, he suddenly realized something very serious—his knowledge of psychology was actually very weak…

Even though he had already absorbed a lot of the original body's memories, most of them were still jumbled and not properly processed.

At best, it was like watching a blurry slide show.

He might be able to get away with casual conversation, but if he really had to teach a class, there would definitely be problems.

If he had a few more months to slowly digest all the psychological knowledge of the original body, it wouldn't be a problem.

But since his arrival in this world, only three or four days had passed in total.

He hadn't even finished reading the system's introduction, let alone found the time to study these memories.

Realizing this, Raymond quickly thought of a way to fix the problem.

If he couldn't teach psychology for now—why not teach something else?

After all, his Deadshot personality was a top-notch assassin, mercenary, and weapons expert. Whatever the weapon, he could use it like a pro. He also had a deep knowledge of modern combat tactics.

Even legends like Black Widow and May would fall far short of his Deadshot self.

If he switched to that personality, teaching in the Combat Division would be incredibly easy—maybe even too easy.

The only issue was… how would he explain this sudden burst of skill?

Then he came up with a not-so-perfect solution—pretend to be a mutant!

When he thought it through, the idea actually seemed pretty sound.

Even on Earth, his old world, there were a lot of unexplained things. And in this world, where superhumans were common, it made even more sense.

If he could convince people that his new personalities were just part of some supernatural mutation—like Legion—then he'd save himself a lot of trouble in the future.

People always try to investigate what they don't understand. But as soon as you give them a reason they can accept, they stop digging.

Even if something strange happens, they'll just blame it on the same reason.

If he could successfully pretend to be a mutant, and get people to believe his personalities were imaginary creations of some special ability—realistic but made up—then everything would make sense.

Right now was the perfect chance to test this out.

Seeing that Hill was dumbfounded by his clever wordplay, Raymond continued:

"I know, Miss Hill, my explanation may sound a bit far-fetched. But I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I'm not sure if I should tell you or not..."

"Because once I say it, I might never be able to live a normal life again."

"Huh?"

Hill picked up something strange in his tone.

"What if I told you... that after what happened before, I was pushed to the edge and somehow awakened a special ability in me. Would you believe me?" Raymond said slowly.

"A mutant?" Hill stared at him in shock.

"Mutant?" Raymond tilted his head, as if confused, and began his performance.

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