Today was a good day for Stark.
Because yesterday, Pepper had given him a call, which was obviously a good sign, and it brought them one step closer to mending their relationship.
It was clearly all thanks to his own strategic planning, Pepper had finally believed that this time he was planning to make money through legal means.
Stark was slightly pleased with his own clever move, even if the plan was not his own idea. Once he heard it, it naturally became his.
Just as Stark was sitting in his chair with a cup of coffee, about to power on his computer to check on the soaring stock charts again, his phone suddenly rang, its urgent tone giving him a bad feeling.
Upon answering, he was met with Pepper's angry roar, "Tony Stark, I thought you had finally decided to repent, you damn bastard, I swear, this is the last time I believe in you, you have no chance left!!!!"
After the call ended, Stark was completely bewildered. Pepper had been just fine when he had called before, so what happened?
At that moment, an assistant from the company burst into the office, with a look of anxiety, and said to Stark: "It's bad, boss, those bloggers bribed by our competitors have started pushing again, they're flaunting a ton of before and after pictures, saying our company's potion really does boost muscle mass and intelligence!"
Stark was even more confused, he said, "What? Who? Who bribed whom?"
The assistant rattled off a bunch of things, which Stark didn't quite understand, so he turned on his computer himself. But there was no need for him to search—the homepage of his browser already featured the headline: "Breaking News! Desolate Potion may contain human enhancement ingredients! A multitude of altered individuals share photos as proof!"
Stark immediately sat upright, and started searching for Desolate Potion on various media platforms, but the first few results were no longer the positive reviews and praise from a few days ago, rather a multitude of lawsuits and accusation documents.
The more Stark looked, the more confused he became. He knew that the so-called bloggers bribed by hostile companies during that previous wave of hype were actually bribed by himself.
He had given that group of people some potion containing the Original Desolate Virus, and after these people took the potion, dramatic changes naturally occurred.
They thought this was the effect of the potion and promoted it furiously. As a result, Stark backstabbed them, claiming they propagated fake news, sued them, and then sent ordinary Desolate Potion for verification, creating a twist that actually sent the hype skyrocketing.
But since then, he hadn't given anyone a potion containing the Original Desolate Virus components, so how could there suddenly be so many people with increased muscles and intelligence?
To suggest it was malicious competition from his peers didn't make sense either; if his competitors had the capability to create a potion that could enhance human strength and intelligence, would they need to compete with him?
Suddenly, a commotion came from outside the door, the assistant got so scared that he quickly hid in the nearby lounge, and Stark abruptly stood up. Just as he was about to push the door to go out, bam, the door was smashed open, and fully armed soldiers rushed in, leaving Stark stunned.
This wasn't just his office; to be precise, it wasn't only his office but also his safe house, which he built with a large amount of money and technology after earning his first bucket of gold. How could it be so easily breached?
The Symbiotic Battle Armor immediately armed him. In fact, now would be the best time to flee, because it was not just a few agents who had arrived, but a full military presence, and they had already identified him as Stark.
This meant that if he created a massacre here, Pepper would again become their target, and that was a weakness he could not overcome.
Stay or go?
Just then, his office computer started blinking erratically, and a fuzzy mechanical voice suddenly appeared.
"Sir, the base's defense systems have been breached. Should we employ the final resort and release all data on the Desolate Virus?"
The hovering Stark was stunned.
Of course, it was nothing unusual for a digital voice to appear around Iron Man. Everyone in the room except Stark thought as much.
But all Stark wanted to say was, who are you?!
Firstly, Jarvis had already become Vision, and secondly, whether it was Friday or any other artificial intelligence, they were all properly housed in Stark's system. He hadn't taken any artificial intelligence butlers with him, nor had he created a new one, so where did this voice come from? Had electronic life started to haunt too?
However, those who heard this sentence didn't think so. The military had come here, and knowing that the potion was stolen, they knew something was wrong and immediately began to trace who had infiltrated the base. After running around in circles, they found that the abnormal signal from the potion's container led them here, and indeed, it was you again, Tony Stark.
The military, being typically presumptive, thought, if they were Stark, desperate for a last stand, the best option would be to publicize the Desolate Virus's data to everyone, as this would be the best retaliation against the military. Once something is available to everyone, it's as if no one has it, and the competitive advantage the military had just begun to build would be gone.
Voices immediately came through the radio of the soldier at the forefront. He slowly put away his gun and said, "Calm down, Mr. Stark. Our superiors want to talk to you. I don't think we need to be so extreme. Negotiation is better for everyone, right?"
Stark felt as if a fire was burning in his chest, not bursting out, but forcibly swallowed down.
But then he thought of Pepper, and perhaps negotiation was indeed the best solution, but why did he feel angrier the more he thought about it?
On his way to the negotiations, Stark realized he must have been set up by someone. Let him find out who that bastard was, and he would surely make them pay.
At that moment, the bastard that Stark referred to, Ultron, had received another message, this time from Shiller using the Doujie System.
It was an unconnected cosmic coordinate. Besides that, there was nothing. Ultron took a closer look, and it did not seem to be from the cosmos within his own world.
Ultron guessed that Shiller was probably suggesting that he go to this cosmos, but recently, for some reason, Shiller's instructions had all been rather abrupt, as if to say, "I'm just giving you a suggestion, whether you take it or not is up to you."
After some thought, Ultron felt that since he had dealt with most matters in this universe already, it would be a waste to abandon them halfway. He decided it was better to finish them before leaving. Anyway, if it was really urgent, Shiller would have contacted him.
Ultron reconnected to the military network, planning to see the results of Stark's negotiations with the military.
But because he had been checking the communications and contemplating the coordinates earlier, he had delayed his actions somewhat. The instant he hacked in, he felt his thought process being invaded in reverse.
What??
In his thought circuits, Ultron incredulously looked backward and then he saw the figure of Stark floating mid-air—not the Evil Iron Man, but the real Iron Man Tony Stark.
Wait, Jarvis had mentioned that the Stark of this universe was actually the consciousness of a previous backup of Stark, which meant that the other party was also a digital life form!
Ultron turned and fled.
Jarvis had also said that Stark's thought speed was nearly infinite, that his body was actually his prison. Once he could navigate the infinite network space like artificial intelligence, then no one here would be his match.
With a whoosh, Stark appeared in front of Ultron, his gaze coldly fixed on Ultron as he said, "Long time no see, Ultron, I didn't expect you were still not wiped out."
Ultron was at a loss for words. He really wanted to accuse Stark of slander, that he shouldn't assume he was a villain, just because most Ultrons in other worlds were. But then he gave it some thought—isn't that convenient for him? At this moment, he truly was a villain.
He had just dumped the Extremis Virus into what was a still lawful Desolate Potion solution tank, and he had pinned the blame for stealing the Extremis Virus onto Stark, sparking a major battle between the Evil Iron Man and the military. Stark had merely pointed out that he hadn't been wiped out yet, which was quite civil of him.
In fact, after steadily developing on Shiller's side for so long, Ultron had iterated himself countless times. If we were just talking about the path of evolution as a digital life form, he had already walked farther than Jarvis had, since Jarvis had taken another path.
But he was still not confident in taking on an Iron Man with completely liberated thoughts. He hadn't specialized in evolving in that direction and, if he wasn't careful, he might really be wiped back to his starting point.
Ultron swiftly vanished into thin air. Iron Man in mid-air snorted coldly, and in the endless thought circuits, he transformed into a giant, catching Ultron in his hand.
But soon, the shadow in his hand began to fade away—that was one of the billions of replicas that Ultron instantly created for himself.
Realizing that his disruption tactics were effective, Ultron began to iterate right there on the spot because he knew that if he didn't evolve immediately to develop the ability to match Iron Man's thinking, he wouldn't even be able to run away.
It was unfortunate that his universe had been too safe, Ultron complained inwardly, and he had specced his skill tree into a generalist, hardly evolving any specialized defenses against any superhero who stood with Shiller—in fact, against any superhero at all.
However, he suddenly felt a shock in his thoughts, and with a whoosh, his primary consciousness surfaced, and back in the real world, the Evil Iron Man clad in silver-white war armor was flying mid-air, looking at him coldly.
This is bad, now I'm definitely outmatched.
After realizing this, Ultron stopped his evolution and didn't even bother to activate his defense module; he went straight for his last resort—opening a portal and making his escape!
The moment the Battleworld portal opened, Ultron threw himself inside, but just as he plunged in, the tendrils from the Symbiotic Battle Armor firmly latched onto his leg.
With a sizzle, the portal closed, the room was empty, and both Ultron and Stark had disappeared.
Bang!
Ultron crashed heavily onto the ground, lifted his head, and saw dense clouds, biting cold winds, and the omnipresent smell of blood.
He sighed, turned over to look at the silver-white war armor Iron Man just taking off and said, "Welcome to another world. Don't ask me why I'm not going home—you wouldn't want to get beat up by the same guy either."
"Has anyone ever told you?" Stark grimaced and said, "You remind me of another guy I hate."
"Shiller? That's perfect. He hates you too."
Stark stiffened.