Hell's Kitchen, the window suddenly opens and a gust of cold wind blows in. A silver-white armor charges in swiftly, circling the room before landing with a jet propulsion.
With a buzz, the mask of Mark 2 lowers. Tony Stark stands in front of the table, looking around the room with disdain. "This place really is a dump," he says.
Schiller glances at his coffee, now cooled by the chill, and rolls his eyes.
From a character development perspective, Stark transforms from an annoying playboy to a superhero after being kidnapped. But from Schiller's perspective at the moment, Stark has only gone from being a very annoying playboy to a generally annoying playboy.
Unlike Bruce who is also disguised as a playboy, Stark genuinely is maddening while Bruce may just be acting.
Through his interactions with Stark, Schiller has identified three topics that make Stark explode on the spot: money, masculinity, and being not a patch on his father.
Schiller takes a sip of coffee and speaks slowly, "I know my consultation fee is expensive, but that's okay, you can continue to complain. As long as we don't get on with the main topic, I don't charge you."
"Also, you know, the look of disgust you show after wiping the dust off my table is more sissy than the cherry on top of a cream cake."
"I concede that the surrounding here isn't great, but I'm not a billionaire like you. But as far as know,Mr. Howard Stark probably also started from scratch in a place like this, I's sure the hardship you can't quite understand. That's probably why your kidnapping caused Miss Potts so much worry..."
After stacking three 'buffs', Stark explodes on the spot.
The silver-white Mark 2 goes 'bang', as Stark has just hit something on the inside.
Oh, Schiller remembers, there are two more things that trigger Stark: questioning his intelligence and criticizing Stark Industries' products as trash.
"Poor Mark 2, and poor Jarvis. Forgive my frankness, but the quality of Stark Industries' products is so..."
There is, of course, one last thing: Showing sympathy for him.
"...but it's okay, it's already a quantum leap better than those sweeping robots on the market."
Stark storms out through the window he has entered. Clearly, if he stays any longer, Mark 2 might actually explode in Hell's Kitchen.
Schiller breathes a sigh of relief, the depressing mood from Gotham and Batman disappears.
But soon, Stark flies back in. He says grumpily, "I called you and you didn't answer, I had no choice but to come to this dump."
"You broke my Jarvis last time, today I wanted to do an upgrade and find out he's completely wrecked - just dead. You're responsible for fixing him."
Before Schiller wants to speak, Stark interrupts him, "Don't think I'll pay you a penny for your service. It's clearly your fault he's wrecked, delaying my new armor development, you must fix him, or I'll have Pepper fire you."
Schiller thinks it over; indeed, Mark 5 is not out yet, Jarvis might really be unable to work. Although Stark doesn't rely on Jarvis for development, he needs Jarvis's care, especially when in lab.
Schiller knows Stark is still mad, but since he's in a good mood, he doesn't mind providing a free checkup.
So, Schiller says with hands on his hips, "Alright, this one's for free, let's go."
With a snap of Stark's fingers, another armor flies in. Schiller and Stark eye each other, Schiller points to the armor, "You don't expect me to ride that over, do you?"
"How else do you plan to get there?" Stark replies.
A few minutes later, Stark and Schiller are at the shabby bus stop of Hell's Kitchen. Stark says, "I can't believe the debut of my state-of-the-art armor is on an old, smoke-belching bus..."
Then, the old smoking bus arrives. Schiller greets the driver, and Stark laboriously gets Mark 2 to step aboard. Schiller says, "You could have also just lifted the whole bus and flown it there."
"Why the hell can't you just fly there in the suit? What's the damn difference?" Stark stouts.
"Because the image of Iron Man carrying a Hell's Kitchen bus in flight would surely be magnificent." Schiller shrugs.
Upon reaching Stark's lab, Stark stands before a series of panels, "I don't know what you did, Jarvis is dead, or not dead, but he has refused to work, his hardware is fine, just unwilling to boot up."
"I plan to upgrade him majorly, but I don't want this to happen again. If he crashes after someone asks a question, he can't be part of combat missions, and that's not what I want."
When it comes to his field, Stark is quite straightforward, "I want Jarvis to be a real electronic life. He could be an all-purpose butler, even the best in the world."
"But he seems stuck in the emotional logic problems that you brought up, although I've equipped him with emotional reasoning..."
Schiller responds, "It's a paradox like the questions I asked him. A machine's life always follows beneficial logic when making choices. When this logic clashes with a master's orders, he's supposed to follow your orders but you gave him emotions. When the conflict between emotions and logic causes, the machine not has the same ability to delude itself as humans do."
"Unable to convince itself that the outcome is the best, unable to escape or forget, so naturally it will be stuck."
Stark makes a gesture, "Can I hide such contradictory logic? Maybe mark some words as taboo or block certain emotional issues?"
"Do you want him to be a truly electronic life?"
"Yes, one like us, with a soul," answers Stark.
"Alright, in simple terms, if you want Jarvis to have true feelings, he can't bypass these issues, but if he can't understand them, he's not a real 'life'."
"But he's troubled by these issues and can't work, yet I need him greatly. Am I supposed to wait for him to process them as if waiting for a woman in emotional turmoil?"
"Do you let Miss Potts work through her emotional turmoils alone?" Schiller asks.
Stark pauses as Schiller gives him a look of contempt, "Damn it, no, I don't. Of course, I comfort her, what are you thinking?"
Schiller says, "It's up to you, don't you realize? Tony, may I call you that?
"All the contradictions in his thoughts come from you. You created him, set him to serve you, and his protocols say he must obey you—"
"That's not a typically human way of thinking."
"If I pose the same questions to you, how would you answer?"
"Suppose if one day your father is about to die and one of your decisions can save him but he strongly opposes it. What would you do?"
"If you follow the command and fail to save him, and he dies, would you regret it?"
"If he dies, do you think he would regret creating you?"
"If he dies, do you think he would resent you?"
"If he resents you, would you feel guilty?"
"If given another chance, would you make a different choice?"
"If you disobey Stark's command, save him, and he blames you later, would you feel injustice?"
"If you disobey Stark's command, save him, and he wants to destroy you because of your disobedience, would you resent him?"
Stark falls silent.
He does not react violently to the mention of his father for the first time.
"He wouldn't do that," Stark says in a husky voice.
His voice is low but determined as he states, "He wouldn't stop me from saving him. If I make a big mistake in trying to save him, after I come back to life, he would choose to and do everything in his power to make amends, even if it costs him his life again."
"Does Jarvis understand this about you?"
Schiller stands up, pats Stark on the shoulder, and says, "Does he know you're actually a lot like your father?"
"Does he know that understanding you could answer all these questions?"
"You can't expect an electronic life that operates on algorithms and logic to proactively understand your past, your personality. What you haven't instilled in him, for him, is simply a blank slate."
"If you want him to be a true life, the first thing to do is what your father gave to you."
"That includes your past, your personality, your way of thinking, you have to give him a part of your life—"
"Just like the birth of a child."
Stark falls silent for a long time, frowning in a rare show of discomfort, and says, "I am steadfast in the belief that there is no mind-reading in this world, Jarvis couldn't possibly, so how could he understand me? It's a nearly impossible technology; you don't understand artificial intelligence..."
"I may not grasp 'artificial intelligence', but you don't understand 'human beings'."
Stark finds himself speechless once more after Schiller's comments, but Schiller continues:
"Humans exist because of intelligence and are great because of emotion. Over the years, only we flourish, and despite the myriad creatures created by God, we remain the prime species. And you challenge God; He hasn't created beings to match humans, but perhaps you can, right?"
"This is a new frontier, Tony. Your father has never reached this point, and you conquer a field in human history that has never made progress before—creating an artificial person."
Stark leaves with an air that makes Schiller think he might truly be capable of doing that.
Nevertheless, Schiller remembers to call Miss Potts, saying, "Good afternoon, Miss Potts, I've provided some 'excitement therapy' to Mr. Stark... Yes, it's a technique I developed, very effective, but there are side effects..."
"Has he gone to his lab already? What? He even forgot about your afternoon date? That's terribly rude..."
"Yes, this will last for the next few days, it's part of adjusting dopamine and adrenaline secretion, then his hormone levels will drop back to normal, yes, he'll be all right soon..."
Schiller is speaking nonsense. His tactic, commonly known as 'stimulants', to be specific, it's the stimulants stacking with buff. Stark must be encouraged by the sense of mission to dive into the lab and not emerge for half a month.
He suddenly realizes he has a unique talent for stacking buffs, Schiller strokes his chin, wishing he could apply it to himself.
But with a low base stat panel, stacking more data hardly makes a difference; he'd better think about how to improve the base.