The next two weeks were incredibly busy for Kagura Hitomi.
On one hand, she had to help Tony Stark develop the second-generation Iron Man suit, Mark II, at his workshop, all while juggling her daily tasks.
On the other hand, she also had to follow Obadiah Stane's orders, secretly working in the hidden Stark weapons division to develop copies of the first Mark I Iron Man suit.
She then had to report the progress back to Tony.
Ugh—!
I'm so tired!
I could collapse!
Between work, Kagura Hitomi would flop onto her bed, completely drained, wishing she could sleep for three days straight.
Looking back on the past two weeks of nonstop work, she wanted to strangle the version of herself from two weeks ago.
Even an automaton can get exhausted!
Sigh… well, no choice. I made a plan, so I have to finish it—even if it means crying.
Thanks to Kagura's assistance, the development of Mark II was going smoothly.
Using her holographic UI system, she connected supercomputers from around the world, tapping into the collective computing power of humanity to push the energy efficiency of Mark II close to its theoretical limit.
As for Obadiah Stane…
Heh-heh-heh!
She still had to mess with him.
While pretending to help Obadiah, she was secretly sabotaging the project.
Tinkering with performance parameters, compressing data—small changes.
Even planting a few bugs in the drivers? A minor detail.
She'd also deliberately used less efficient algorithms for the core and added redundant data to slow things down.
All in a day's work.
When Obadiah excitedly handed the design documents she provided to his team, only to be told there was no hardware structure—just software architecture—his face was priceless.
She couldn't help but laugh.
"Hitomi, do you have the design drawings Tony made?"
"Nope."
"Can you remember the basic system architecture?"
"Not really… I was just coding non-stop."
...
He wanted the Mark I blueprints? He could go ask the Ten Rings for them. And while he's at it, maybe he could arrest them too!
No matter what happened, Obadiah's progress on the Iron Man suit was "decent," though the crucial energy issue was still unsolved.
When the research team stood before the experimental Ark Reactor, and one of them muttered, "Sorry, I'm not Tony Stark," Obadiah was about to lose it.
But, honestly? That had nothing to do with me.
I'm not Tony Stark, either.
Kagura Hitomi wasn't concerned at all whether Obadiah would succeed in building the suit.
Whether he managed to make it and get defeated by Tony or whether he was caught for plotting to murder Tony didn't matter to her.
In the original timeline, Obadiah stole Tony's Ark Reactor from his chest to power the suit, but here, Tony's heart wasn't injured, so he didn't need to wear it.
In fact, to keep the technology secret, Tony had hidden all his Ark Reactors—old and new—in a place even Kagura didn't know about.
Kagura couldn't even guess where Obadiah would find an Ark Reactor, but she didn't care.
Lost in these thoughts, Kagura rolled over in bed, wrapped herself in the covers, and picked a more comfortable position to relax.
No matter what, Obadiah's downfall was inevitable. After that, she'd need to figure out how to build up the new company as "Bruce Wayne."
She'd considered not selling weapons and turning the new company toward other businesses.
But Tony's words had sealed her resolve to bring the arms trade under control.
"Whoever is good enough, let them do it."
I'll be that person. I won't let you down, Tony.
Sigh, though… if only I had an AI assistant like Jarvis!
Kagura muttered to herself, "It could help with work, and also pretend to be 'Bruce Wayne.'"
[A new item has been added to the shop]
[AI-assisted management system / 10QP]
...
Wow, the system really gets me!
Kagura grumbled, "Too bad I don't have any QP right now!"
And Jarvis costs 10 QP? Either the system's generous or Jarvis is just cheap.
She browsed her skills menu, flipping through her available abilities.
Lately, she hadn't been relying much on memory scans to unlock new skills.
She was too busy and didn't have any spare QP to spend.
Sigh, gacha got me good.
But even though she couldn't activate any new skills right now, preparing for the future wouldn't hurt.
Concentrating, she began recalling her memories.
Memory scan request, key parameters: Batman, Bruce Wayne, ability to manage large businesses.
While she could use an AI to assist with management, it would be even better to have a passive ability like that.
[Deep memory scan completed, fragments confirmed]
[Existing skill connections confirmed]
[Conceptual skill combo successful]
[New support skill unlocked: Business Management Expertise]
[New defense skill unlocked: Toughness]
Huh?
What's this "Toughness"?
[Toughness / 0: Increases resistance to damage]
Kagura blinked in confusion.
It was great to get two skills based on Batman memories, but this "Toughness" one seemed a little strange.
Did Batman get beaten up so much that it became a passive skill?
Well, Superman's job is to dish out the hits, and Batman's is to take them, right?
Ugh… my bed is so comfortable. I don't want to work anymore...
The girl rolled back and forth...
"Beep beep, beep beep!"
Then her alarm went off.
Good times always fly by, and her lunch break was over.
Aaaaahhhhhhh!
I… want… to… sleep…
Reluctantly, Kagura got up from bed with a long sigh.
She grabbed her phone and checked her schedule for the afternoon.
Today, she was heading to the hidden Stark weapons division for some weapons system development work.
Weapons systems, huh...
Well, I guess I'll make it interesting today!
[TL Note]
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