Most people have never experienced sharing control of a body with someone else. Or rather, they might have had their bodies controlled by others, but they couldn't collaborate in controlling one body. However, Shiller, or most hosts of Symbionts, are experts in this area.
Perhaps defying common sense, symbiont hosts don't merely use the symbionts as tools, nor do they completely hand over their bodies to the symbionts. Their mode of cooperation is somewhat like "Working Cells," or you could also say "Overcooked." Except, the cooking arena is their body.
Or it could be likened to your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys suddenly having their own intelligence. They can communicate with you, and you can control them to perform operations humans can't usually do. For instance, you can have the symbiont adjust your heart rate, speed up your blood circulation, regulate oxygen supply to your brain, make your skin more radiant, or help you grow more hair.
It sounds impressive, but in reality, it's not that simple. For example, growing hair requires nutrition, and if the host doesn't consume enough nutrients, the symbiont cannot do this because it would be harmful to the host. Most symbionts won't deplete their energy to make up for the host, except in extreme cases of affection.
Using a commercial analogy, it's like the host is Party A, and the symbiont is Party B. The host is responsible for making requests, and the symbiont is responsible for doing them. But if the requests are unreasonable, they can only refuse.
And if the host gives no commands, the symbiont is basically on standby, with the host usually in control of the body.
In such scenarios, both the host and the symbiont have the authority to command the body, which can easily lead to a situation where the two give conflicting instructions.
The host thinks they should raise their arm, but the symbiont thinks otherwise. In most cases, the host's command takes precedence. But if it could endanger the host's life, the symbiont will forcibly keep the arm down. The symbiont is fully capable of that.
Then there's an even better scenario where, in a critical moment, the host and symbiont each take charge of part of the body movement. The host controls the torso's balance, while the symbiont controls the limbs; or the host controls running with the lower limbs, while the symbiont controls the upper limbs for more complex actions.
This has obvious benefits: the symbiont and host can perform more complex actions than the average person, and their reactions are faster.
Of course, that's when they cooperate well. Generally, symbionts and hosts cooperate well, and if they don't, the symbiont wouldn't choose that host.
For instance, Venom and Stark couldn't get along. Venom insisted on dragging Stark to the convenience store for junk food, but Stark stubbornly refused to go, causing their authorities to clash. Although Stark eventually won, it was a narrow victory.
Shiller and Gray Mist evidently have a good rapport. Although most of the time Gray Mist doesn't need to do anything, Shiller still requires Gray Mist to evade attacks. And during evasion, the two need to cooperate.
Because of the presence of the Tower of Thought, Gray Mist isn't on standby 24 hours a day. He spends most of his time playing in the tower. So when needed, Shiller has to call him over, and Gray Mist must quickly deduce Shiller's intentions through his thoughts. So far, the two have coordinated well, never making a mistake.
Venom and Eddie are similar, except Venom doesn't dwell in Eddie's subconscious. Both of them hang out in their conscious minds, and they can argue. Previously, Venom was only used in fights, with Venom controlling most of the body. But ever since Eddie learned the art of "Key," Eddie handles the thinking while Venom takes care of the typing. In just a few short hours, the two can produce enough to topple all the politicians in the Federal Government.
Greed watched the others stumble around, not bothering to hide his schadenfreude, and started circling them.
"Tsk tsk tsk, isn't that Superman lying in the snow? Aren't you cold? Get up and warm yourself..."
"Captain America, you too, why are you lying there with him? Come on, get up. The fight isn't over yet!"
"Miss, I know you used to study acrobatics, but doesn't being on all fours freeze your hands?"
"Why does it seem like someone is missing? More accurately, a rat is missing. Where did he roll off to?"
"Shut up! Shiller!" Stark roared using Steve's body, "Who allowed you to team up with your symbiont?! That's cheating!!"
"What can I do?" Greed spread his hands, "My symbiont can move independently. So the two of us can team up, right? You should scold the administrator instead of me; he's the one who suddenly changed the game mode."
Stark also wanted to curse the administrator, but Steve quickly discouraged him: "Now is not the time for verbal sparring. You need to familiarize yourself with my body, or how else will we fight?"
"Bullshit! I want to curse you too! Why can I hear the sound of blood flowing through the blood vessels in my brain? Why does it seem like I can see my own eyeballs???"
"Eh, you're exaggerating a bit, Tony. I'm a cyborg, not an alien. Who can see their own eyeballs?"
"But...but...why does it feel like I have a fish-eye view? Where's the switch to turn this mode off?"
"Fish-eye view? There isn't one." Steve was a little bewildered.
"There absolutely is! Your field of vision is as wide as a freaking IMAX screen, and you're telling me you don't have a fish-eye lens on???"
"Huh? Isn't your vision like this?" Steve thought for a moment and said, "It's been too long since I was an ordinary person; I've forgotten what their field of vision looks like. But this might be because my eyes are more sensitive to light, allowing me to absorb more, so I can see further."
"You're such an illiterate! High sensitivity to light means night vision ability, not how wide your vision is! And, don't you think there are too many colors? Doesn't it dazzle you?"
"It does a bit, but I think it's a good change. It allows me to use more colors in my paintings. I can't hold an exhibition on Broadway just because I'm Captain America; they really like my paintings and call me a leader of modern impressionism."
"Can't these modes be turned off? I can't see anything clearly!"
"No. And this is just a static image. When we start moving, you'll find that time seems to slow down. That's because my dynamic vision far surpasses that of ordinary people. Only this way, I won't fall flat on my face while running at high speed because I can't see the road clearly."
"Then you take over the visual system; I'll handle something else."
"That won't work either. You simply can't control motor neurons. Jumping three meters high isn't my limit."
Stark sighed heavily because he knew Steve was right. Just now, when he controlled his limbs, he really just took a step forward with the usual strength used for walking, and ended up jumping three meters high. If he were to control his body, Captain America would turn into a bouncing tiger.
But actually, he's not the worst off. The worst is Lord Batman.
Asking a human to control a Kryptonian's body is no different from facing an Elder God. The entire sensory system of a Kryptonian constantly inputs a massive amount of information for them. It's exactly like touching the spiritual pollution of an Elder God, which can directly blow up an ordinary person's brain, driving them insane.
When Lord Batman took over the brain control of Lord Superman, besides the torrent of information rushing in, there were countless pop-ups in front of him. Body control was even detailed to the muscle fibers.
But for Kryptonians, this is normal because they have super brains that can handle more matters than humans. In other words, the human brain's fuzzy algorithm is actually still underdeveloped, mainly because the energy doesn't keep up. If they could really supplement through the Yellow Sun like Kryptonians, maybe they would develop to the point where they could finely perceive every part of their body and micromanage.
Batman's brain development is already far ahead of many ordinary people, but still not quite up to par with a super brain. But fortunately, it's not stuffing Batman's brain into Superman's body; he's still using the matched super brain, so he just needs to get used to operating this system.
Lord Batman began processing the pop-ups in front of him, not at all slow. Then he heard Lord Superman beside him ask leisurely, "What are you doing?"
"...Attempting to control your body."
"Yes, I know, but why are you dealing with those things?"
Lord Batman replied with a question mark directly using his consciousness.
"Look at the lower left corner," Lord Superman said.
Lord Batman's thoughts were guided to look at the lower left corner, where he saw a blue button.
"Press it," Lord Superman said.
Lord Batman didn't know what he wanted, but he pressed it anyway. Then, in an instant, the whole world turned silent.
No more of those maddening pop-ups, no more extremely complicated operation mode, no more massive information, the mind was directly blank.
"What did you do?" Lord Batman asked, "How did you clear your mind?"
"That's the button to start the simplified mode," Lord Superman answered, "I don't know why either, but when your consciousness came in, it started the full operating system. But I can't even use that thing; I only use this one."
Lord Batman was momentarily speechless.
"That's not an operating system," Lord Superman tried to explain, "You can think of it as the system for developing operating systems, used to edit operating systems. We normally don't use this."
"Why?" Lord Batman asked.
"Why what?" Lord Superman was equally puzzled, he said, "The more advanced the race, the simpler the method of controlling the body. Humans have it so complicated because their evolution is incomplete, like a crude old computer program. But we are already at the stage of strong AI, even relying solely on instinct, without expending effort to control, we can perfectly master this body."
"...Is that why you don't use a super brain?"
"My brain is only a super brain compared to humans, but its advanced level is the same as my body's, there's nothing super about it."
"It might not be that simple."
"Are you a Kryptonian or am I a Kryptonian???"
"You are. But you can't deny that you haven't been to school. I mean, you haven't received a full education on Krypton. I know a lot of things are engraved in your genes, and your spaceship likely retains some. But I believe that can't replace the comprehensive higher education on your home planet. I believe those educations include parts that teach you how to use more complex development systems, but you didn't learn it, so you can't."
"Huh." Lord Superman snorted coldly, then said, "It sounds like you can. Top student Batman?"
"I can."
"Hmm???"