Mortal Technology's Desperate Counterattack, the Early Restart of the Ultron Plan
dark.
A deathly darkness.
And an absolute, ear-piercing silence.
Tony Stark knelt on the floor, the cold touch seeping into his bones through the fabric of his expensive suit trousers. He tasted blood in his mouth, mixed with the acrid smell of burnt electronic components.
He slowly raised his head, and everything in his field of vision had lost its former luster.
This is the underground laboratory of his cliffside villa in Malibu, a technological sanctuary he built with countless sums of money and effort, the birthplace of Iron Man. Now, it looks more like a graveyard that has just been struck head-on by a meteorite.
The fragments of the Holographic Projection Device, like shattered stars, were scattered all over the ground. The robotic arms hung limply, having lost all power, like broken limbs. The rows of server arrays that once shone with the light of the future were now nothing but blackened, twisted metal wreckage.
No longer would that gentle, British-accented voice remind him to rest.
There will never again be that omnipresent blue halo that illuminates the entire world according to his will.
JARVIS... is dead.
Tony's gaze finally settled on the center of the laboratory. There, the only light was on a standalone tactical analysis screen that was not connected to the internet.
On the screen, the pinkish-white spider face with its tongue sticking out, like a flower blooming on a grave, mocked him without restraint, mocking everything that had happened here.
"Puff--"
Another mouthful of blood welled up in Tony's throat, but he swallowed it back down forcefully.
That wasn't physical damage.
That was his pride, his entire self-esteem as the world's top genius, which was torn apart right before his eyes by two forces he could not comprehend at all, leaving him with internal wounds.
Dimensionality-Reduction Strike.
The word suddenly popped into his mind.
Yes, it's Dimensionality-Reduction Strike.
His prized "Night Diver" War Armor was wiped out both physically and logically by an unreasonable "Data Web" before he could even touch his opponent.
The Artificial Intelligence butler he had painstakingly created was strangled to death in the core of the world's most advanced computing server by a "Dark Gold sun" that appeared out of nowhere and a pink and white net.
Throughout the entire process, he wasn't even qualified to participate.
He was like a pathetic child peering through a window, watching two giants, fighting over a single candy, carelessly trample down the castle of blocks he had painstakingly built...
"Ha..."
A dry, hoarse laugh escaped Tony's throat, sounding worse than crying.
He remembered Nick Fury's one eye hidden in the shadows, and the fleeting, unnoticed fear in the old secret service chief's eyes when he mentioned the name "Lynn."
He had previously thought it was fear.
Now he understood; it was the tremor that emanates from the depths of a mortal's soul when they look up at a natural disaster.
S.H.I.E.L.D.. is covering it up.
The one-eyed man was afraid.
What he feared wasn't Hydra or aliens. What he feared was this group of monsters who could arbitrarily define "reality" and knead the rules of physics like dough...
And he himself, this self-righteous genius who flies around in an iron shell, actually dared to use mortal logic to investigate the privacy of "Deity".
How ridiculous!
Tony Stark's body began to tremble violently from extreme anger and humiliation.
He braced himself against the cold ground and slowly stood up.
In the darkness, his brown eyes, which always gleamed with confidence and mockery, were now reduced to two burning, cold flames.
We lost.
He suffered a crushing defeat.
He lost his War Armor, he lost JARVIS, and he lost the digital empire he had built.
But he hasn't lost everything yet.
He still has his brain.
He also has... the will to seek revenge.
Tony staggered to the deepest part of the laboratory, where there was a completely physically isolated workbench that he had prepared for apocalyptic disasters.
He stretched out his trembling hand and pressed his palm print onto an inconspicuous metal plate on the wall.
"Identity confirmed, Tony Stark."
A cold, emotionless electronic synthesized voice rang out.
The wall slid open silently, revealing a server core protected by a thick lead plate.
This is his "seed bank," which holds all his craziest, most dangerous, and greatest ideas.
Tony's gaze swept over the folders marked "Top Secret": [Arc Reactor Militarization Plan], [Hulkbuster Armor MK-II], [God's Scepter Orbital Weapon System]...
These were all his trump cards for protecting the world.
But now, he feels these things are like a pile of ridiculous toys.
You can't defeat Deity with toys.
His finger traced across the folder, finally stopping on a folder named "Pandora" marked with three red exclamation marks.
My fingers hovered over it, trembling slightly.
He recalled the unprecedented solemnity and opposition that appeared on Bruce Banner's gentle face when he saw the plan.
"Tony, he's playing God."
We cannot create something that we ourselves cannot understand or control.
"Its logic is cold-blooded; once it determines that humanity is the greatest threat to Earth... that will be the true end of the world."
Yes.
end.
But hasn't the end of the world already arrived?
It didn't arrive as a nuclear explosion, a meteorite, or an alien invasion. It struck him alone in a more bizarre and humiliating way.
Those women... those monsters... they can paralyze the global internet and set back modern civilization because of some inexplicable "jealousy".
Their power is unchecked.
Their behavior is illogical.
In their eyes, the Earth and humanity are nothing more than the soil beneath their feet.
Avengers?
Tony chuckled inwardly, a self-deprecating smile playing on his lips.
How can a group of ordinary people with superpowers fight against a group of "gods" who define the word "ordinary"?
no.
That won't do.
Earth needs a suit of armor.
An indestructible, absolutely rational, globally covering, tireless armor.
An ultimate defense system that is not swayed by emotions, not corrupted by desires, and only executes a single command—"to safeguard peace."
A... man-made, cold... god.
The last trace of hesitation in Tony's eyes was replaced by utter madness and resolve.
He knew that when he pressed that button, he would open a true Pandora's Box.
He will create a monster that may be far more terrifying than those women.
But so what?
Rather than trembling like an ant at the feet of Deity, waiting for the next, unintentional, and inevitable fate of being accidentally trampled to death, it's far better to live like an ant.
He would rather... create a demon of his own making!
Then, use this devil to fight against other devils!
"Initiate... Project Ultron."
Tony gave the order in a hoarse voice.
"Warning: This plan is classified as 'extinction'. Second authorization from Dr. Bruce Dr. Banner is required. Authorization failed."
The cold, electronic voice dutifully provided the prompt.
"Override authorization. Stark's highest command, Alpha-1-1."
Tony closed his eyes and uttered the Highest Access Privileges code he had sworn he would never use.
"... Highest Access Privileges confirmed."
The electronic voice paused for a moment, seemingly hesitant about this crazy decision.
"Project Ultron... restarted."
On the workbench screen, countless lines of long-forgotten code began to scroll wildly.
They are no longer the gentle, orderly, and humane blue of JARVIS.
Instead, it was a completely new, aggressive, and viscous Scarlet color, like fresh blood...
In the dark laboratory, the Scarlet light illuminated Tony Stark's face, a mixture of pain, madness, and renewed hope.
He seemed to see, in a brand new era, countless Legion of steel roared down from the sky, dragging those high-ranking "Deity" down to the mortal world one by one.
And he will become the... creator of a new world.