Although this guy was somewhat blindly arrogant.
William had to admit it was lucky that Dickson had moved to Africa—where the internet and communications were extremely backward—after the incident with his wife and daughter.
If this pervert's brain had happened to click into place and he had launched his suggestions directly in English...
The Earth back then would have been in for a wild ride.
"Catherine, go chat with your Spartans first."
"Oh."
William sent the 'obedient' Halsey away and led Hank and the other Alphas to Dickson's side.
He took off his suit jacket, handed it to a nearby Alpha, pulled his shirt out of his trousers, and half-knelt in front of Dickson with a smile:
"Hello there, Mr. Bauer."
"Mmph! Mmph!"
"Heh." William ignored the other's muffled grunts and continued:
"From now on, you can only answer my questions by nodding or shaking your head.
Of course, you can also choose to ignore me or lie, but the outcome... (he looked at Hank)."
Hank nodded silently, reached his right hand into the holster inside his suit, pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at Dickson's crotch.
"Mmph! Mmph-mmph!" Dickson shook his head violently, his bloodshot eyes bulging wide.
That was his 'treasure'; he'd rather die than lose that!
*Click*—the sound of the firing pin hitting an empty chamber.
No bullets.
"Mmph..." However, Dickson had already wet himself.
"Sorry, boss, forgot to insert the magazine."
As Hank spoke expressionlessly, he loaded a full magazine into the pistol and prepared to aim and fire again.
"Alright, I haven't even asked the question yet." William raised a hand 'just in time' to stop Hank's movement.
"Yes, boss." Hank cooperatively holstered the pistol.
"Heh." William remained the same, maintaining his smile as he said:
"Mr. Bauer, the first question is very simple.
Did you only discover your talent for controlling human behavior through speech in the last six months?"
Scared nearly out of his wits, how could Dickson dare to move violently or harbor thoughts of resistance?
He immediately nodded with vacant eyes.
"Mm. Second question: is the effect of the psychological suggestion permanent?"
Dickson shook his head without a second thought.
"Very good."
William slowly stood up and looked down at the tearful Dickson, his brow furrowing slightly.
As for how to contain him...
With this pervert's linguistic control ability, he definitely reached Keter-class; even with the slightest lapse in attention, an Exafanistei-level event was possible.
Direct containment?
Downgrade to Safe?
Mm.
After reaching a conclusion in his mind, William said calmly to Hank beside him:
"Hank, use your Alpha methods to make Mr. Bauer completely blind, mute, and deaf, and chop off his hands and feet to cripple him.
Make it so he can never express his intentions for the rest of his life, wait..."
Downgrade to Safe.
Or just kill him.
William almost fell into a cognitive blind spot.
Although Umbrella's job was containment, its essence was to ensure the normal order of the World.
No matter how many precautions were taken, Dickson would still have an extremely low chance of a containment breach.
If he was killed, wouldn't the chance vanish entirely?
"Hank, kill him. The result I want is for him to disappear completely.
Can you handle that?"
"No problem, boss." For Hank, this was far too simple.
"Mmph? Mmph-mmph! Mmph!!"
Dickson, who had started to relax, began to struggle frantically upon hearing their conversation, twisting his urine-soaked body in an attempt to roll away.
Having received his orders, Hank showed no mercy. He directed several Alphas to put on disposable gloves, and they carried Dickson out of the hangar.
"Mmph—!"
*Thud! Thud-thud!*
Looking out of the hangar, William felt no ripples in his heart.
Cruel?
Not at all.
Kindness to the enemy is cruelty to one's own side.
.
Adjusting his facial expression, William led the remaining Alphas toward Halsey.
He came before the Spartans with a satisfied smile, his gaze lingering on each child for a long time.
Finally, he sighed: "Children, your performance was impeccable.
I can only say, congratulations on becoming true warriors.
And as your boss, I never liked empty platitudes!
Speak! What rewards do you all want?"
?
The Spartans had thought William would give some 'chicken soup for the soul' or encourage them to keep it up.
They hadn't expected happiness to arrive so suddenly.
"Boss!"
Myron was the first to raise his hand and shout: "I want a set... no! Ten sets of Playboy magazines!"
With that dummy taking the lead, Karl also slowly raised his hand and said: "Boss, I want a giant plush rabbit."
"Boss! I want us to go on a seven-day tour of Egypt!"
"Boss! I..."
"Haha, one at a time."
Suddenly being surrounded by a group of tall, burly Spartans made William feel a bit overwhelmed.
However, he was enjoying it.
———————
...
Several hours later.
Inside a corridor of a massive building on Minos Island;
William was walking side-by-side with Halsey, on the way to her private living quarters.
"Catherine."
William said with a heavy expression: "During that containment operation in Greece, I saw those monsters from mythology with my own eyes, which made me wonder...
If gods really did once exist in this World."
"Gods?"
Halsey, who was originally joyful at being alone with William, turned serious upon hearing the word 'gods.' She glanced at him and said calmly:
"Gods, I don't know, but...
Boss, have you heard of Burrhus Frederic Skinner?"
"Skinner?" William felt the name was familiar, but couldn't recall exactly who it was, so he shook his head.
Halsey continued to explain for her boss:
"Skinner was the founder of radical behaviorism, and he also conducted a terrifying experiment called the 'Skinner Box'.
In 1934, in his laboratory at Harvard University, he selected eight pigeons for the experiment.
The pigeons were first starved for a few days until they were extremely hungry for food, and then these eight pigeons were placed into eight separate boxes.
Inside the boxes was an automatic food dispenser that would automatically drop a piece of food every fifteen seconds.
No matter what the pigeon in the box did, once fifteen seconds passed, it would receive food.
Every day after that, the pigeons would stay in the boxes for a few minutes.
Through several days of observation and analysis, it was found that during the fifteen-second intervals between food drops, the pigeons began to exhibit strange behaviors.
Such as spinning counter-clockwise, swaying their bodies, stretching their necks, and so on.
It was as if these specific behaviors were what brought them the food.
A 'god' was born inside the box.
The pigeons were using their'sacrifices' to pray to that 'god' for food.
But in fact, that god was Skinner.
From the pigeons' dimension, they only knew that food appeared every fifteen seconds.
And they feared the food would disappear, thus using various behaviors to appease the 'god'.
Boss.
Think about it again: why did the ancients perform sacrifices?"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"