Deathstroke, a super cyborg warrior injected with serum, stands 193 centimeters tall and weighs 200 pounds, with a brain potential development over 90%, possessing roughly ten times the normal strength of human limits.
In comparison to the strength that Deathstroke possessed, Shiller's weight was really too light. Therefore, lifting Shiller was effortless, but because it required so little strength, it left Deathstroke feeling disoriented, even with a sense of unreality.
On the topic of "Has the world gone mad, or have I?", Deathstroke leaned more toward the latter. He preferred to believe that all the shocking things he encountered had a more complex logic behind them, which he simply could not understand at the moment. However, now he began to seriously consider whether it was God who went mad, or if something was wrong with the physical laws of this world—someone with such body type and weight could not possibly possess such great strength.
Reason told Deathstroke that Shiller might be a superpower user, or a cyborg like himself. But no, he felt Shiller was far from these, even completely unrelated, so he pondered seriously about Shiller's physical functioning issues.
Deathstroke carried Shiller out of the bustling docks, found a car nearby, drove through the city center of Hurgada, heading towards the more peripheral areas, moving inland in Egypt until reaching his safe house near the southwest in the Red sea area.
It was an abandoned American Military Base, with quite a spacious underground area. Deathstroke placed Shiller on one of the beds in the military dormitory and, as a precaution, locked the door. But soon he discovered that this too wasn't very secure, almost redundant—it only took a few minutes before the door flew off.
Seeing the figure dashing out of the dormitory door, Deathstroke readied himself as if facing a great enemy, first taking out his great sword, but then reluctantly switching to twin swords. However, looking at it, one had already broken, so he had to toss it aside and switch to dual sticks.
"Oh God, I'm never using that broken gun again."
Deathstroke heard Shiller speak and breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed Shiller had come to his senses. But soon he realized he had celebrated too early—Shiller was sober, but merely just sober.
Shiller turned to stare at the iron door that flew away. He walked over seemingly to pick up the door. Deathstroke watched as the part of the door frame Shiller grabbed melted like butter, and then as soon as he picked it up, with a flick of his hand, the door flew away again.
Shiller turned around, and Deathstroke stepped back two paces: "Don't come over!"
The tranquilizers and anti-inflammatory drugs couldn't salvage Shiller's fully damaged hearing. What's more troublesome was that Deathstroke wore a full-face mask, meaning Shiller couldn't even see his lips moving, so he kept walking towards Deathstroke.
"Don't you dare come over!!!"
Deathstroke really didn't want to be like an actor in a stage play, emphasizing with exaggerated voice before an action scene. In fact, he wasn't a man of many words. He was often called the "King of Silent Killers" because he was ruthless but spoke little, making a move without warning.
Even so, he knew Shiller might not hear him, shouting louder was pointless. But now he understood why the ancestors of humans, ancient apes living in trees, roared—more than communication and warning, it was a kind of emotional release.
When people are helpless, they tend to become hysterical, and roaring and shouting are the last things they can do. It's quite effective in venting emotions, and surprisingly, it even successfully halted Shiller's steps.
Shiller didn't hear what Deathstroke was shouting, but he figured the other person must be yelling, after all, he could judge the speaking state from the direction of the neck muscles and Adam's apple. Fortunately, Deathstroke's neck was covered with fiber material, allowing Shiller to see how the sternocleidomastoid muscle propped up the entire neck muscle group with all its might.
Shiller reached out his hands and said, "I'm not here to attack you, calm down, okay?"
"You have the nerve to say that?!" Deathstroke chuckled angrily, "Two hours ago, you almost threw me to Israel with a single move, and you say that to me?!"
"I warned you." Shiller roughly guessed what Deathstroke was complaining about, although he was a bit out of control earlier, he still retained memory, "It's not something I can control. I think we need to have an honest discussion to facilitate our upcoming cooperation."
"Who would want to cooperate with you? If I weren't afraid you'd run out and cause trouble, I would have thrown you out for bounty already!"
Deathstroke found himself becoming more talkative, not because his personality suddenly became lively, but because people tend to be more excited during intense emotions, stimulating the language center, naturally making them speak more.
"You rampaged through the African port as if an Orca grew legs and landed. That damned sniper never shot so delightedly in his life, and now there's still a bullet lodged in the muscle of my upper arm, I..."
Before Deathstroke could finish, he noticed Shiller's somewhat bewildered eyes, and then he realized Shiller genuinely couldn't hear what he was saying. He forcefully closed his eyes, then lifted his mask halfway to reveal the lower half of his face.
Shiller was taken aback when he saw that young face. Although Deathstroke had already revealed his mouth while drinking soda earlier, the exposure was minimal, and it wasn't easy to judge. But now he could confirm that Deathstroke indeed looked fairly young.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean he's truly a youngster, because in the comic's backstory, there was a period when Deathstroke became youthful again. The process is a bit complex, but essentially, he fainted after encountering danger and was saved by some recluse monk, who restored his body to a youthful state. But this state didn't last long; he soon returned to his normal age.
When Shiller first encountered Deathstroke in his cosmos, he was in a youthful state, likely for the same reason. Later on, when he met him again, Deathstroke was an old man, proving that the rejuvenation had ended.
But whether young or old, it didn't make much difference to Deathstroke because he was immortal. In the comics, he could live for over 500 years, so even if he appeared old, his bodily functions were unaffected.
Now Shiller could understand what Deathstroke was saying, but upon discovering that he was just swearing loudly, he couldn't be bothered to listen further. Being deaf had its advantages, after all — ears can't be shut off voluntarily, but eyes can.
He sat down on the nearby sofa, unintentionally destroyed the armrest with a single move, and when reaching for an energy bar on the coffee table, split the table in half. The energy bar crumbled into bits like instant oatmeal within two seconds, and as soon as the package was torn open, the contents flew everywhere like a burst of confetti.
"I've realized a rather sad fact." Shiller reclined back on the sofa, covering his forehead, then said, "It seems I'll have to make do with that broken gun."
Deathstroke looked like he'd been punched; witnessing the living room get decimated in mere seconds made him feel like the saddest person — why on earth had he brought this human-shaped, wrecking Orca into his safe house?!
Seeing Shiller take out that gun, Deathstroke couldn't care less; he rushed forward, snatched the gun, and roared, "If you dare misfire here, I'll throw you into Israel!"
"I'm serious," Shiller said, "No other firearm can withstand my strength. I'd press the trigger right into the gunstock."
Deathstroke, utilizing 90% of his highly developed brain, processed this, then said, "You mean you want to put a missile launcher on a runaway high-speed train and, while overturning it, attack them with missiles? Are you a corpse-whipping enthusiast?"
"Why don't you understand?" Shiller looked at him and said, "Uncontrolled strength isn't strength. If I can't control throwing someone into the Red sea, it's not an effective attack strategy."
"Oh my God, you actually know," Deathstroke feigned immense surprise, saying, "Didn't you think about this when you crashed into me?"
"Because I knew you wouldn't be thrown in," Shiller replied bluntly, "Your renowned name and formidable resistance to blows made that clear to me — I figured it was some sort of guarantee."
"A guarantee?"
"A guarantee to stop me." Shiller stood up again, saying, "Now it seems, honor lives up to its reputation; there aren't many who can intercept a runaway train with cold weapons, Mr. World's Greatest Mercenary."
Deathstroke opened his mouth but was speechless. He had to admit that earlier, when he described the troubles he encountered to Shiller and demonstrated his skills, it was partly for show. Yet, it wasn't out of vanity but deterrence.
Deathstroke was extremely cunning and shrewd; he understood that violent intimidation can sometimes defeat opponents more easily than violence itself. He divided society into cities and jungles, and for those not regularly in extreme violent environments — specifically, agents from most developed countries — overwhelming violent scenarios were more likely to break them.
As a Weapon Master, Deathstroke didn't kill solely with cold weapons. In fact, cold weapons had no particular advantages; that Great Sword was even better for defense than attack. What cold weapons could do, guns could achieve too, as it's said: beyond seven steps, a gun is quicker; within seven steps, a gun is both accurate and fast.
Yet Deathstroke preferred using cold weapons because the violence they invoked was far greater than guns. An enemy cleaved into pieces by a Two-handed Sword often rendered more foes combat-ineffective, sending them fleeing in terror, but with a gun, the effect would be vastly diminished.
While dealing with agents, Deathstroke would showcase his violent nature as much as possible, demonstrating his immense strength, indestructible physique, and seemingly non-human bodily attributes to make them understand what kind of monster he was, easily scaring away those with poor psychological resilience.
Even seasoned veteran agents couldn't entirely be exceptions. Imagine, who would dare to arrest a terrifying being that took a missile to the face and emerged unscathed in the mushroom cloud of an explosion?
The so-called need to seize a ship was just a slightly lame excuse. Deathstroke already knew there were bombs on that ship. He leaped over to show Shiller that he shouldn't mess with such a violent monster.
This tactic usually worked very well, scaring away countless people looking for trouble with him. But, as the saying goes, if you walk the night too often, you'll eventually encounter a ghost; if you play psychological tricks too much, you'll eventually meet a Shiller.