Tim and Brand's negotiation still isn't going well. Although the fellow was intimidated by him, he always finds ways to evade the topic, unwilling to disclose more information about himself.
Going in circles, all Tim knows is that he's a superpower user, a friend of Professor Shiller, and that someone is chasing him. But this isn't what Tim wants to know.
Tim isn't very interested in his relationship with his enemies or with Professor Shiller. He just wants to know what really happened with yesterday's murder case. However, it's clear that Brand is particularly reluctant to admit to this matter. Or rather, the reason why he hasn't taken other aggressive actions is simply to brush this matter aside.
Tim has to begin thinking about why. Even if being chased and failing to escape is embarrassing, this isn't the time to dwell on such issues. When calamity strikes, if there's still reserve, there must be a reason.
Brand seems to be reaching his limit too. Looking at this cunning kid in front of him, the opponent has precisely grasped his weakness—Brainiac can't see illusions.
As an electronic lifeform, Brainiac is completely immune to all illusion attacks. This means he can only rely on external forces to determine whether someone has been attacked by an illusion, and the judgment isn't very accurate, so it's all about what the victim says.
Tim cleverly took advantage of this, claiming Brand was using illusion attacks on him, which Brand couldn't disprove. And since Brainiac couldn't see the illusions, there was no way to help Brand defend himself, leaving no choice but to follow Tim's testimony.
Brand isn't afraid of Brainiac attacking him. The problem is, Brainiac controls the order of Earth now; he can't evade this electronic lifeform in whatever he does within the rules and can't afford to offend him. Thus, he can only compromise to Tim, asking him not to act in pain and make a scene.
This clever guy is not easy to deal with, clearly regarding himself as a great detective, determined to figure out what the body is all about. Even if Brand doesn't want to talk, he must reveal something, in exchange for an opportunity to meet Shiller.
He reached out to Tim, who cautiously stepped back. But neither Tim nor Brainiac saw clearly what Brand did. Seen from the surveillance perspective, Brand disappeared and suddenly reappeared in front of Tim, pressing his finger to Tim's forehead.
"Ugh!" Tim immediately half-knelt down, painfully clutching his head, as countless memory fragments flashed in his mind—he seemed to know what Brand was.
It's not that Tim didn't regret it. Had he known this guy was related to the Outer God, he wouldn't have accepted his knowledge under any circumstances. Because the Outer God provides knowledge not by explaining with words, which is inefficient for them; they pour it directly into the psychic world.
Looking at Tim falling down, Brainiac emitted a piercing shriek, firing weapons, bullets flying around the room, lasers carving deep scorched marks in the walls. But none of this concerned Brand.
Now he seems to be just a heavy shadow, no longer having an entity, all attacks are ineffective against him, most pass right through. Even if Brainiac can't see illusions, he knows how weird the situation is and immediately contacts Shiller.
Before Shiller can respond, Tim stops convulsing on the ground. He slowly gets up. Frankly, he was just focused on the pain earlier, not noticing what knowledge the opponent transmitted. Now with his rationality returning, he can only see some broken fragments.
A secret transaction, a manipulated psychiatrist, a car accident, a sacrifice and descent...
These memory fragments seem completely jumbled. Tim spends a while to piece together a vague picture: Brand is not the avatar of the Outer God, he is a follower who sacrificed his body to the Outer God.
Simply put, Brand is a human who, due to certain experiences, gave up his shell to allow the Outer God to descend to the world.
From the process, apparently long ago, Brand was a fledgling psychiatrist. Whether coerced or by money and power exchange, he got involved in a human experiment project concerning brainwashing and mind manipulation. But there was an issue with the project.
It wasn't lack of progress or failure; it was that some big brain among them used some mental techniques to communicate with the Outer God and caught the attention of an Outer God. At that time, people had no research on the Outer God and thought they had achieved significant progress. The behind-the-scenes manipulator planned to kill Brand to cover things up.
As a result, precisely because they had made a mental connection with the Outer God, Brand felt the Outer God's call in a life-or-death car accident, made a pact, sacrificing his body to facilitate the God's descent, his shell became the God's vessel.
Understanding that, Tim suddenly realizes some previous perplexities, like what's this true body and false body business about. There might not be two bodies at all. The one wrapped in black substances in the room is the human shell of Brand.
Due to some accident, that shell was destroyed, and the Brand standing before him now is merely the Outer God assuming Brand's form. He doesn't have a human shell, which leads his spiritual pollution to be somewhat externalized, unlike when he existed in human form, possessing a perfectly seamless disguise.
However, the case still hasn't been completely solved. Tim looks at Brand and asks, "Why exactly did Edward fall ill?"
He's skillfully avoiding the murder topic because he knows Brand doesn't want to bring it up. Whether it's because his shell being destroyed feels embarrassing or he wants to shield Edward, asking directly is sure to yield nothing, so subtle inquiries are necessary.
"I was away for a while," Brand seemed to be pondering as well, "I told you, I'd already heard the word that the enemies were coming for me, so I left immediately."
"So those are your enemies, not Brand's?"
"If they were Brand's enemies, why would I run?" Brand appeared a bit helpless.
Tim thought about it and agreed. Those behind-the-scenes manipulators conducting experiments are just humans, after all. They don't have such deep research on the Outer Gods, and how could an Outer God fear a group of ordinary people?
But if we follow this line of thought, who are the Outer God's enemies? To drive an Outer God to this point, could it be that there's another Multiverse level disaster looming?
Tim's heart sank. Brand continued, "I admit I was a bit greedy; I've used this shell for so long, I couldn't bear to let it go. So I retrieved part of the original soul to hold it for me until I came back. But I didn't expect..."
Brand pressed his lips together: "This guy's skills are not up to par. The cases of the patients in my charge were very complicated; one misstep would lead to problems. Yet he completely couldn't handle them, couldn't even pretend to be me. Obviously, this agitated Edward..."
So that's how it was, Tim suddenly understood. This Outer God might have brought back the original Brand, letting him inhabit the body temporarily. Otherwise, an unoccupied shell would soon rot and become a corpse. Waiting too long, one would come back to just a pile of white bones, and the account would be utterly wasted.
Unexpectedly, in the field of psychiatry, the professional level of this Outer God was far higher than Doctor Brand. Leaving in such a hurry, Brand didn't have time to transfer his patients. The returning Doctor Brand was utterly overwhelmed by the pile of complex cases.
Because he couldn't treat Edward, Edward's condition worsened. Coupled with his existing paranoia, Edward became even more uncontrollable after noticing the doctor's abnormal behavior. Thus, during the evacuation, he directly eliminated the returning Doctor Brand.
Tim felt a mix of amusement and helplessness. He had initially thought that Edward had discovered the true nature of the Outer God and killed to eliminate them. Unexpectedly, Edward's favored attending doctor was the Outer God, not the incompetent newcomer.
But in hindsight, regardless of whether Brand was an Outer God or not, his professional level was genuinely high, distinguished in the fields of psychiatry and pathology. He almost managed to treat Edward, who presented a collection of symptoms, into a normal person. This level of skill is undeniably impressive.
Edward merely suffered from mental illness, but he wasn't dumb. He could sense who's treatment was effective and who was good to him. Maybe Brand didn't tell him too much of the truth, and even if he did, Edward likely wouldn't care. He just wanted to get rid of the "monster" impersonating his attending doctor and bring back his own doctor.
Moreover, he happened to be quite talented in this regard. Even when his condition had deteriorated to the point of affecting his abilities, he still managed to take advantage of a natural disaster to orchestrate a murder case that even Brainiac found difficult to decode.
The reason he left the corpse in that state was actually to inform Brainiac and those behind him that there was something wrong with this Doctor Brand, wanting them to investigate the matter and find the real doctor back.
"Then why did you suddenly come back?" Tim asked again.
Brand showed a somewhat embarrassed expression: "Once Brand died, I knew something was wrong; there couldn't be a second culprit. And if I let things develop on their own, I'd probably end up with a new enemy."
Brand spoke ambiguously, but Tim understood.
Among Brand's patients, only Edward had the ability to kill. So once the returning Doctor Brand died, the Outer God immediately realized that it was Edward who acted.
Thus, he quickly remembered that he had rushed off too quickly, failing to properly manage the patients, leading to the exacerbation of Edward's condition and consequent murder. If something happened to Edward or if he got caught because of this, it was hard to say how Professor Shearer would perceive the situation.
Originally, there was some connection between the enemy and Shearer; if pursued, he might've relied on Shearer's connections to escape a crisis. But if even Shearer's side got messed up, he would be doomed. So, he hurriedly returned, trying to resolve the matter.
This is why the body disappeared. Because the Outer God was destroying evidence, willing even to abandon the account to clear Edward of suspicion. Tim suspected he did more since Edward's disappearance from the hospital was also quite bizarre.
The surveillance footage showed that Edward walked over on his own, which means it was likely he saw his familiar attending doctor calling him over, leading him to the blind spot. So it's very likely Edward's memories were tampered with, and he wouldn't remember committing murder.
No body, no DNA, and the perpetrator doesn't remember committing the act—this couldn't be constituted as a murder case. Tim thought, no wonder Brand dared so confidently to seek out Professor Shearer; it turns out everything had been taken care of.