At this moment, Iron Man, who was controlling Ultron's body with his consciousness, and White Can, wearing silver-white war armor, were being surrounded and attacked by a group of robots dressed in suits.
"This is really damn bizarre, what are these things?" White Can said, looking at the increasingly dense swarm of robots below, "Who would set the robot army to look like a bald old man in a suit? Does he have any sense of aesthetics at all?"
"As much as I loathe to say it, I agree with you this time," Iron Man said, "Especially when there are thousands of them. It's an absolute desecration of mechanical aesthetics."
Iron Man instinctively raised his palm to aim at an approaching robot, only to realize that Ultron's hand didn't have a Palm Cannon. He had to use all his strength to throw a left hook and shatter half of the robot's head.
Iron Man shook his hand and glanced at the Infinity Gauntlet on his wrist, saying, "Ultron must have done this on purpose. There's no way his body is this weak. Isn't this guy supposed to have turned every part of his body into a weapon? Why do I feel like I'm operating a home service robot?"
"Maybe in some universe, he decided to turn over a new leaf," White Can said with a cold snort, "and decided to spend the rest of his life in the garden and kitchen."
After saying that, White Can pressed his hands against his body and shot up into the sky like an arrow. The moment he stopped, he spread his arms.
Zizzzz——!!!!
The EMP Field unfolded, the electromagnetic storm instantly destroying the global communication systems, and all the robots toppled over, twisting and turning.
White Can landed, letting out a cold snort, "Now do you still think I'm greedy? If it weren't for Pepper, I wouldn't need to make money through business methods at all."
After looking at White Can for a while, Iron Man said, "But you know, giving her hope and then disappointing her again, will only make her more heartbroken."
"That was an accident," White Can said angrily, "I got played by that guy, and I'll settle the score with him sooner or later."
Having dealt with the robots, they continued to fly forward. On their way, they saw a beacon of light they thought might be a flight station or communication tower, so they planned to go there to check it out.
Along the way, they came across many corpses. Iron Man, controlling Ultron's robotic body, stepped over a huge body, crouched down, and said, "This guy was a cyborg, unbelievably strong. And what happened to this one, why is half of his face burned away?"
"They're not ordinary humans," White Can said, pressing his face guard, "Something definitely happened here. Be careful, let's go."
As they continued forward, a red figure swiftly appeared on the horizon, and a strong man landed in front of them.
"Superman," White Can called out his name, as the S emblem on the chest of the uniform was too conspicuous.
"You know me?"
"I know other universes' you," White Can said, surprisingly speaking the truth, "but they weren't as scruffy as you. What happened to you?"
Feeling embarrassed by the familiarity in the other's tone, Clark suddenly felt a little guilty. If the other party knew the other Supermen and found out he might have ignored his friends in need, wouldn't that be incredibly disdainful?
No, no, this wasn't the time for overthinking, Clark reminded himself. He said, "Since you know me, that makes things easier. I might need your help."
"Hold on, you don't know me, how do you know I can help you?"
Good, the artificial intelligence claiming to be Ultron probably didn't lie, thought Clark, with the skepticism typical of a genius questioning the whole world.
"You took out so many robots in an instant, and not by physical means, which suggests you must be powerful. Plus, I'm not blind; the battle armor you're wearing clearly isn't from this era."
That flattery was indeed loud and clear, no Stark could resist such a direct compliment, and even White Can coughed twice before saying, "The era I come from is indeed more advanced, but I'm more interested in what's happened to you guys here."
Clark was filled with sorrow and didn't know how to start explaining. Luckily, Ultron summarized a succinct and accurate version in his mind, which Clark recited.
But as he spoke, he noticed the two people opposite him frowning more deeply with each word until Clark almost felt as if he were back on the podium defending his college thesis.
"Is there... a problem?" Clark asked, a bit nervously.
"'Is there... a problem?'" Iron Man repeated, saying with great puzzlement, "Where isn't there a problem?"
Clark looked utterly confused; his computer experience was basically limited to proficiently using the newspaper's outdated computers for layout, and his mechanical engineering experience was limited to fixing the newspaper's printers.
"You just said he backed up his butler's AI consciousness, right?"
Clark nodded.
"And then you said, after his real butler died, he was very sad and kept watching the death video over and over."
Clark nodded.
"So, why didn't he go and cry to the AI consciousness of his butler? It's all AI consciousness, surely they could communicate."
Clark was stunned.
Right, Clark thought, if Alfred meant that much to Batman, then Batman should have sought out the consciousness backup of Alfred after Alfred's death. Otherwise, to seek solace from others while ignoring his beloved old butler's consciousness would be utterly senseless."
"Could it be possible that the AI backup consciousness he created can't engage in dialogue?"
"If it can't even dialogue, then what's the point of backing it up?" Iron Man said with puzzlement, "Isn't the whole point of backing up your butler's consciousness so that you have someone to talk to after the butler's death? Without communication capabilities, what's the purpose of that backup consciousness?"
"If it lacks communication functions, then it can't be brought back as an artificial intelligence." White Can said dismissively as he concluded, "Computer programs and backup consciousnesses are completely different things."
"You can understand it this way; a computer program is a string of code, while a backup consciousness is a segment of a wave. The principle behind backup consciousness is by reading the soul frequencies of a living person, duplicating that exact same frequency, and storing it in a container."
"Due to certain rules, a world cannot have two identical soul frequencies. Therefore, while the real person is alive, the backup consciousness won't activate. But once the real person dies, that frequency becomes unassigned, and then there's no problem in starting up the duplicate consciousness frequency."
Clark didn't quite understand, but Ultron in his mind highlighted and used a more straightforward comparison to explain it to Clark.
Clark suddenly realized and said, "So if Batman uses the same principle, then he could directly converse with the backup consciousness after his old butler dies, right?"
"I certainly can," Iron Man said, "After Mr. Jarvis died, I spent two months in the lab with his backup consciousness, but in the end, it told me it did not wish to be brought back to life. It believed that I was capable of moving forward on my own."
"So even though I later created a new artificial intelligence and still used the name Jarvis, it is a brand new life form, not the old butler. I accepted his departure and started my life anew."
Iron Man sighed and said, "If that butler named Alfred truly molded Batman into a sufficiently admirable person, then I believe he would understand this."
"When your child has the ability to defy your death, when he believes he can unilaterally revert the deepest tragedy in the world, what you need to do is not indulge him, but you must make him accept it all."
"It will undoubtedly be painful, but there is an obvious truth: being obsessed with defying death and reversing tragedy only drags one deeper, eventually leading to complete madness. No good educator would want their child to fall into such a whirlpool."
Clark showed a hint of sadness as he said, "The old man was a good father; he had pulled Batman back from the brink of collapse countless times, and he was almost successful."
But Ultron suddenly pinpointed an issue in Clark's mind, saying, "Ask them if the backed-up consciousness can choose to dissipate itself?"
Clark paused for a moment before posing the question. The two Iron Men exchanged glances, but in the end, it was Iron Man who answered, "Yes, as long as it is based on the principle of using wave frequencies as backup, even within a container, it can think."
"If it chooses to dissipate, then almost no force can prevent it. Mr. Jarvis chose to wait for me because he knew I would be very sad after his death, and he didn't choose to leave immediately to comfort me."
"But Alfred might have..." Clark muttered to himself unconsciously, then took a deep breath and said, "He would, I know he would; he always wanted Batman to..."
Seeing the two men staring at him, Clark struggled to gather his thoughts and said, "In fact, the tragedy of his parents' death has always troubled Batman, and he has exhibited the excessive obsession with resisting death and reversing tragedy that you mentioned."
"Alfred was always trying to reverse it, he was constantly healing Batman, always leading by example, influencing Batman with his actions."
"Batman once inadvertently revealed that he had a big argument over the backup consciousness thing because Alfred didn't agree with it; he would peacefully await his death, accepting every outcome."
"So, when Batman expressed his desire to backup his consciousness and revive him after his death, he became very angry. He thought it was against humanity and not what heroes do. To do so would be no different from those supervillains who recklessly play with human minds and souls."
"But Batman insisted on doing it anyway." Clark massaged his temples and said, "He was just too obsessed. None of us could dissuade him, so in the end, he got his way."
"Batman probably doesn't know that copying a wave and storing a program are vastly different," White Can spread his hands and said, "The soul frequencies in a container are free; it's not like it will stay the same just because you put it there. It's only because of cosmic rules that it temporarily has no legal identity, but that's still a soul, maintaining the memories and emotions of when it was copied."
"At that time, Alfred was furious…" Clark shook his head and said, "He might have chosen to dissipate immediately. I understand him; he was a kind butler, but also a true tough guy. He would never bow to injustice, never yield."
"If the one in the container isn't Alfred's soul..." Clark's tone gradually grew heavier, revealing a hint of fear.
"And if Batman was seeking comfort from the backup consciousness after losing his butler, then who was it that conversed with him at that time?"