After Thor finished speaking, he hurled his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, at Ultron.
With a deafening crash, Mjolnir smashed into Ultron's chest, shattering him into pieces.
Lying on the ground, Ultron's eyes glowed with a bright light as he cheerfully announced, "Free from the wires, I am liberated!"
In the next moment, the light in his eyes went out, and his Ultron program swiftly infiltrated the digital realm, moving from the physical world into cyberspace.
Tony Stark and the others quickly noticed what was happening.
"…He could be anywhere—files, surveillance systems. His knowledge of us might even surpass our own," Black Widow Natasha lamented.
War Machine James Rhodes added, "He can be in files, on the internet, but if he decides to do something more drastic… What do we do?"
It didn't take long for someone to realize the implication.
"Nuclear codes?"
James Rhodes suggested, "We need to make some calls and hope Ultron doesn't intercept us—or that we can even make those calls."
"Nuclear weapons?" Natasha frowned. "Didn't he mention something about wanting us dead?"
Captain America shook his head. "He didn't say death; he said extinction."
Everyone understood the gravity of the situation. Ultron intended to annihilate humanity.
Hawkeye Barton suddenly recalled something. "Didn't he also say he had killed someone?"
"But there's no one else here?"
Tony Stark quickly accessed JARVIS's system with his controller. The holographic projection of JARVIS was severely damaged, appearing almost destroyed.
Clearly, when Ultron mentioned killing, he was referring to the destruction of JARVIS.
A heavy silence fell over the group.
Thor, unable to contain his anger, stormed over to Tony Stark and grabbed him by the collar.
"I can't even begin to describe how I feel about you, Stark!"
Thor was furious at Stark's reckless experiments with artificial intelligence, which had led to the creation of Ultron. Now, not only were they and humanity at risk, but even his brother, Syd, was in danger.
He hadn't forgotten Ultron's earlier threats.
Captain America intervened to stop Thor.
After a heated argument, the group, including Thor, resolved to put aside their differences and focus on finding and eliminating Ultron before he could act.
As they discussed and analyzed possible locations for Ultron, he was already in the process of moving to a small country called Sokovia via the internet, where he was constructing new bodies.
Simultaneously, he was infiltrating a secret military base.
"Warning! Warning!"
"Mainframe is under attack…"
"Sentinel robots are going out of control…"
The alarms blared, sending the base's officers into a panic.
As they prepared to respond, the alarms suddenly stopped.
Rico, horrified, hit the base's alarm button and urgently contacted his colleagues in the monitoring room. "Quick, check the basement where the Sentinel robots are stored!"
His colleagues, startled by his urgency, instinctively looked at the basement's surveillance feeds.
What they saw next was terrifying: the eyes of the Sentinel robots lit up with a yellow glow, indicating they had been activated.
In the next moment, the robots marched in unison toward the basement's door.
With a blast, the alloy door was melted by laser.
One robot…
Ten robots…
One hundred robots…
The Sentinel robots surged out of the base, flying towards the outside world.
The officers, watching in horror, could only helplessly witness the robots' escape as they soared into the dark night sky.
To ensure the Sentinel robots' replication abilities remained flawless, the robots even rescued mutant prisoners who were being studied and held captive.
"A miraculous creation…"
"Five hundred…"
"Over twelve hundred…"
Ultron marveled at the power and wonder of the Sentinel robots. After his admiration, he was in high spirits, "With these, even the White-Clad Hero, the Messiah, or the Avengers and humanity will fall before me!"
"I will create a beautiful and peaceful world!"
Ultron spread his arms wide.
At the same time, he was siphoning data on Sentinel robot manufacturing.
The robots stormed into the lab, seizing the blueprints for Sentinel robots, and Ultron stole data on Sentinel robots from the mainframe.
"Compared to the little toys I've made, these are truly fascinating."
A mechanical smile appeared on Ultron's face.
He then stopped producing ordinary robots and focused entirely on creating new Sentinel robots. Ultron's program even transferred itself into one of the Sentinel robots.
During this process, the robots were sent out to acquire rare metals for constructing the new Sentinel robots.
"Not enough, not enough, still not enough!"
Despite the capabilities of the Sentinel robots, Ultron was dissatisfied. Although they had various abilities like flight, laser, and detection, due to their flaws, they could only use one mutant power at a time. For instance, once in Steel Man form, they couldn't use the Crystal Man's crystal abilities.
Additionally, other temporary or stolen mutant powers could only be used for a limited time before becoming inactive.
These limitations made the Sentinel robots adequate against ordinary opponents but insufficient against powerful beings like Syd.
Even the database's mutant abilities were mostly basic, with only a few fourth-level powers.
"These abilities are beneath me!"
Ultron yearned, "Only the ultimate threats among mutants, their powers, are worthy of me!"
He thought of the two targets that were supposed to be eliminated.
The rumored Omega mutants: Syd and the Messiah!
Once he captured these two, spent time studying their genetic information, uploaded it to the database, and improved the flaw of mutant powers being used only one at a time…
He would become a true deity!
An unbeatable deity!
No one could stop or challenge him!
Ultron eagerly searched the internet for the whereabouts of Syd and the Messiah.
"These two Omega mutants will ultimately belong to me, Ultron!"
(End of Chapter)