The Genius Who Stacks Buffs

In Hell's Kitchen, the window suddenly flew open. A blast of cold wind rushed in, and a silver-white suit of armor shot inside. After making a quick circuit around the room, it landed with a burst of thrusters.

With a hum, the Mark II's faceplate lifted. Mr. Stark stood before the table, looked around the room, and said with faint disgust, "This place is really a dump."

Schiller looked at his hot coffee, instantly chilled by the wind, and rolled his eyes.

Going by his character setup, Stark had turned over a new leaf after being kidnapped, changing from an obnoxious playboy into a superhero.

But from Schiller's perspective, he had clearly changed from an extremely obnoxious playboy into an ordinarily obnoxious playboy.

Unlike Bruce, who also pretended to be a playboy, Bruce might have been synthetic leather, but Stark was definitely genuine leather.

But through his interactions with Stark, Schiller had already figured out the three topics that could make him explode on the spot: money, male virility, and being inferior to his father.

Schiller took a sip of coffee and said unhurriedly:

"I know my consultation fees are expensive, but that's fine. You can complain a little longer. As long as I haven't gotten to the main topic, it's free."

"Also, you know that disgusted expression you made after wiping the dust off my table with your hand? It was more girly than the cherry on top of a cream cake."

"I admit the environment here is terrible. After all, unlike you, I'm not a billionaire. But then again, Mr. Howard probably started from nothing in some run-down room like this. That kind of hardship is probably beyond your understanding, which is why Miss Pepper worried about you for so long after you were kidnapped..."

After Schiller stacked all three buffs, Stark predictably exploded on the spot.

The silver-white Mark II gave a loud bang. Apparently, Stark had punched something inside it.

Oh, Schiller remembered. There were two more things that could make Stark explode: questioning his intelligence and saying Stark Industries products were trash.

"Poor Mark II, and poor Jarvis. Frankly speaking, the quality of Stark Industries products is always so..."

Of course, there was one final thing: expressing sympathy for him.

"...But it's fine. It's much better than those robotic rice cookers on the market. That's already a qualitative leap."

Stark shot straight back out through the window he had entered through. Clearly, if he stayed any longer, the Mark II might really explode in Hell's Kitchen.

Schiller let out a refreshed sigh, and the depression brought on by Gotham and Batman was swept away.

But Stark soon flew back. He said irritably, "I called you, but you didn't answer. I had no choice but to fly to this garbage heap."

"You broke my Jarvis last time. When I tried to upgrade him today, I found out he was broken badly—completely crashed. You have to fix him."

Just as Schiller was about to say something, Stark cut him off. "Don't even think about charging me a cent. You were the one who broke him, and it even delayed the development of my new armor. You have to fix him, or I'll have Pepper fire you."

Schiller thought about it. Mark V had not come out yet, so perhaps Jarvis truly could not work. Though Stark did not rely on Jarvis for research and development, he relied on Jarvis to take care of him. He could barely take care of himself, especially in the lab.

Schiller knew Stark was still angry. Since he was in a good mood now, it was not impossible to give him one free consultation.

So Schiller put his hands on his hips and said, "Fine, this one's free. Let's go."

Stark snapped his fingers, and another suit of armor flew in. Schiller stared at him, then pointed at the armor and said, "Don't tell me you expect me to ride that."

"What else? How were you planning to get there?"

A few minutes later, Stark and Schiller appeared beneath a dilapidated bus stop sign in Hell's Kitchen. Stark said, "I can't believe the debut of my era-defining armor is going to be on a rundown bus belching black smoke..."

As he spoke, the rundown bus belching black smoke arrived. Schiller greeted the driver, while Stark laboriously made the Mark II move its legs and climb aboard. Schiller said, "Actually, you could lift the whole bus and fly there."

"Then why the hell can't you just fly there in the armor? Is there any fucking difference?" Stark asked.

Schiller shrugged. "Because Iron Man carrying a Hell's Kitchen bus through the sky would be a beautiful sight."

After arriving at Stark's lab, Stark stood in front of a bank of panels and said, "I don't know what you did, but Jarvis crashed. Or maybe he didn't crash. His hardware is completely intact, but he refuses to work."

"I was planning to give him a major upgrade, but I don't want this happening again. If someone asks him a few questions and he crashes, then he can't participate in combat missions at all. That's not what I want."

When it came to his specialty, Stark was straightforward. He said, "I want Jarvis to become a real Electronic Life. He can become an all-purpose butler, maybe even the best butler in the world."

"But he seems to be trapped by your emotional logic problem. I clearly gave him a way to think with emotions..."

Schiller said, "This is actually a paradox, just like the questions I asked him. When machine life makes choices, it always follows beneficial logic. But when beneficial logic conflicts with the master's orders, your programming tells him to obey the master's orders. Yet you also gave him emotions. When emotion and reason conflict, a machine can't deceive itself the way a human can."

"He can't find excuses to persuade himself. He can't admit that this is already the best outcome. He can't escape or forget. So naturally, he freezes."

Stark waved a hand. "Can't I hide this kind of contradictory logic? For example, make certain words forbidden, or block certain emotional questions?"

"You want him to become a real Electronic Life?"

"Of course. Like us, the kind with a soul."

"Fine. Simply put, if you want Jarvis to have real emotions, then he can't avoid these problems. But if he can't reason through them, then he can't be considered a true 'life.'"

"But if these problems trouble him, then he can't work, and I need him badly."

"Am I supposed to wait for him to work through it on his own like I'm waiting for an emotional woman to recover from a breakdown?"

"When Miss Pepper has an emotional breakdown, do you just leave her to work through it herself?"

Seeing Schiller look at him as if he were dog shit, Stark said, "Damn it, no. Of course I comfort her. What the hell are you thinking?"

Schiller said, "The decision is actually yours. Haven't you noticed, Tony? I can call you that, right?"

"All the contradictions in his thinking come from you. You created him and programmed the principle that he must serve you. His underlying protocol requires him to obey your orders—"

"That itself is not the way humans think."

"I'll ask you the same question. How would you answer?"

"If your father were about to die, and one decision of yours could save him, but he strongly opposed it, what would you do?"

"If you respected his wishes and did not save him, and he died, would you regret it?"

"If he died, do you think he would regret having you before he died?"

"If he died, do you think he would resent you?"

"If he resented you, would you blame yourself?"

"If you were given another chance, would you make a different choice?"

"If you defied his wishes and chose to save him, and he blamed you afterward, would you feel wronged and indignant?"

"If you defied his wishes and saved him, but he regretted having you because you defied him, would you resent him?"

Stark fell silent.

For the first time, he did not react fiercely when someone mentioned his father.

"He wouldn't do that," Stark said.

His voice was low but firm. "He wouldn't stop me from saving him. If I made a terrible mistake by saving him, then after he came back to life, he would do everything he could to make up for it, even if it cost him his life again."

"Does Jarvis understand that about you?"

Schiller stood up and patted Stark on the shoulder. "Does he know that you're actually a lot like your father?"

"Could everything be answered if he understood you?"

"You can't expect an Electronic Life that operates through algorithms and logic to proactively understand your past or your personality. Anything you haven't given him is a blank space to him."

"If you want him to have real life, then the first thing you need to do is what your father did for you."

"Your past, your personality, your way of thinking—you have to give him a part of your own life first—"

"Just like the birth of a child."

Stark was silent for a long time. Rarely, he furrowed his brows tightly and showed an expression of genuine difficulty. He said, "I firmly believe there's no such thing as mind reading in this world, and Jarvis can't possibly do it either. So how is he supposed to understand me? This is an almost impossible technology. You don't understand artificial intelligence..."

"I don't understand 'artificial intelligence,' but you don't understand 'people.'"

Stark was left speechless again, but Schiller immediately continued:

"Humans exist because of wisdom and are great because of emotion. For all these years, only we have sustained prosperity. God created so many creatures, yet we are still the finest among them. And you are challenging God. He did not create a creature comparable to humanity, but perhaps you can, can't you?"

"This is a completely new field, Tony. Your father never reached this place. What you are tackling is a field where humanity has never made any meaningful progress—creating people beyond people."

The momentum Stark had when he left made Schiller feel that he might really be able to do it.

But he still remembered to call Miss Pepper. "Good afternoon, Miss Pepper. It's like this: I administered some stimulation therapy to Mr. Stark... Uh, yes, I invented it myself, but it's very effective. There are some side effects, though..."

"Yes, has he already gone to the lab? What? He didn't even remember your date this afternoon? That's terribly rude of him..."

"That's right, he'll be like this for the next few days. It's a necessary stage in regulating dopamine secretion and adrenaline. Then his hormone levels will drop and return to normal. Yes, he'll recover soon..."

Schiller was talking complete nonsense. What he had done was commonly known as giving someone a shot of adrenaline, except this was a fully stacked buff shot of adrenaline. Stark would definitely charge headfirst into the lab with a buff called "sense of mission" on him. He would not leave for at least half a month.

He suddenly realized that he had a unique talent for stacking buffs. Schiller rubbed his chin. It would be nice if he could stack them on himself.

But his base stats were too weak. No matter how many buffs he stacked, his numbers still would not rise. He might as well think about how to improve his foundation first.