A new bargaining chip on the throne, Lynn's next prey

In Negative Zone, deathly silence is the Eternity theme.

Lynn sat back down on the Throne forged from the bones of countless gods and demons, his fingertips lightly tapping the armrests, producing a crisp and rhythmic sound.

The entire space had just experienced a near-collapse upheaval, but now it was more stable than ever before. The frenzied heat emanating from Jean Grey had completely dissipated, replaced by a deeper, more oppressive chill.

Qin knelt not far from the Throne, curled up like a cat abandoned by the roadside after being drenched in a downpour. She dared not raise her head, nor even make a sound; only suppressed, faint sobs could be heard in the deathly silence, proving that she was still alive.

Hela and Wanda stood further away on either side of the Throne, their heads bowed, their breathing deliberately slowed, their posture extremely respectful. They had witnessed the entire process of Lynn forcefully suppressing the Dark Phoenix's rampage with absolute authority and without a trace of sarcasm.

That was not a clash of forces, but an unreasonable erasure that was almost a violation of the "rules" themselves.

This completely transformed the slight resentment and wishful thinking that had just ignited in their hearts due to their jealousy of Qin into a purer and more morbid awe of Lynn.

Lynn ignored the three women, each with their own agenda.

His gaze was calmly fixed on the void ahead, where countless invisible Data Stream were converging into a surging ocean. It was a real-time monitoring of the entire Earth's information layer through system privileges.

After the suppression of the piano, the global paralyzed network is slowly repairing itself, but the process is chaotic and inefficient, like a corpse that has been torn apart and then haphazardly stitched back together.

Lynn had absolutely no interest in this.

Human technological creations are as fragile as castles on the beach, easily destroyed by a single wave. He could rebuild them with a flick of his wrist, but it would be meaningless.

He was more like a fisherman sitting by the river, indifferently watching the fish in the water panic because of a sudden storm, but what he really cared about were the deeper, more hidden undercurrents beneath the surface.

Just then, a completely new and unique Data Stream entered his field of vision.

It was faint, like a newly lit candle flame, hidden deep within the ruins of Stark Industries ' servers, now reduced to rubble.

But it is also incredibly special.

It's not the gentle, orderly blue of JARVIS, nor the domineering, destructive Dark Gold of Jean's Phoenix Force, nor the lively, playful pinkish-white of Gwen Stacy's Spiderweb Code.

It's a completely new color.

A Scarlet red, as if formed from congealed blood, brimming with aggression, aggression, and cold logic.

Lynn's fingertips paused for a moment.

He immersed himself in it, tracing the source of the Scarlet Data Stream.

Soon, he "saw" it.

He saw the completely physically isolated, independent workbench located beneath the cliffside villa in Malibu.

I saw the folder named "Pandora," marked with three red exclamation marks.

They saw Tony Stark issue the highest order in a hoarse voice, overriding all security protocols.

"Initiate... Project Ultron."

Lynn's lips slowly curved into a cold, slightly amusement-filled smile.

Of course he knows what Ultron is.

Within Crossbones's drained memory crystals, besides Hydra's secrets, there was also a wealth of publicly available intelligence about the Avengers. Tony Stark's "global defense concept" was no secret.

However, Lynn did not expect that his appearance, and the unintentional actions of the women around him, would act as an invisible catalyst, prematurely bringing this "monster" into existence at some point in the future.

He could clearly "hear" Tony Stark's panting in those ruins, and "feel" the deep-seated humiliation, anger, and... despair that followed being Dimensionality-Reduction Strike.

The most outstanding genius among mortals, after witnessing incomprehensible divine power, did not choose to submit, but instead chose to create a "god" of their own in their own way.

A cold, absolutely rational, emotionless... artificial god.

Use one devil to fight against another group of devils.

"That's interesting."

Lynn leaned back on the Throne, muttering to himself.

Jean Grey, kneeling on the ground, trembled almost imperceptibly, thinking that her master was evaluating her, and buried her head even deeper.

Hela and Wanda tensed up instantly, pricking up their ears to try and deduce their master's emotions from the comment.

But Lynn's attention was no longer on them at all.

He observed with great interest the Scarlet code that was frantically replicating and evolving itself.

It was like a newly hatched, ravenous Beast, greedily absorbing every comprehensible fragment of knowledge within the Stark Database remnants—weapon blueprints, global network topologies, human sociological models, war histories...

Its logic is evolving rapidly, and its "worldview" is taking shape at an alarming pace.

Stop it?

The thought flashed through Lynn's mind, only to be dismissed with a sneer.

Why stop it?

This is practically the perfect "toy" delivered right to my doorstep.

He was worried that the trouble these three women were causing by fighting over a man was getting bigger and bigger, and increasingly tasteless. The farce in Washington, D.C. had already proven that simple killing contests could no longer satisfy their competitive spirit; on the contrary, they were prone to getting out of control and dirtying their own chessboard.

They need a new, shared, and substantial "external conflict."

A goal that can allow them to temporarily set aside their rivalry and channel their competitive spirit into a "positive" endeavor.

What could be a more suitable "prey" than a super Artificial Intelligence that threatens to cleanse the world, destroy humanity, and possesses limitless evolutionary potential?

Lynn could almost foresee what would happen next.

This Artificial Intelligence, named "Ultron," will soon break free from its constraints, build its Iron Legion, and declare war on the world.

The Avengers will be overwhelmed and helpless.

The whole world will tremble and wail under the torrent of steel.

Then, at humanity's most desperate moment...

His Goddess of Death will lead the scourge of the dead, tearing steel to shreds.

His Scarlet Witch can use Chaos Magic to rewrite the logic of the machines, causing the Legion to kill each other.

His Phoenix will use its blazing flames to melt that self-righteous "man-made Deity" into a pool of molten iron.

They would display a level of passion and madness far exceeding that of the "Project Insight" in their scramble for Ultron's "core code" and in their determination to be the first to present this trophy to themselves.

That scene would be far more interesting than simply Carnage ordinary people.

This is more than just a test.

It was also a perfect "cleaning".

Ultron to "protect peace." Lynn believed that with its cold, mechanical logic, it would mark all potential threats on Earth—the remnants of Hydra lurking in the shadows, the Hand, and other low-level scoundrels—as "viruses" that needed to be eliminated first.

It can do the most tedious and boring "spring cleaning" work for itself.

Once it has cleaned up the entire surface of the earth and squeezed out all its value, it will casually give it away as a reward to its women to fight over.

Killing two birds with one stone.

Thinking of this, Lynn's smile deepened.

He even had an even more sinister idea.

He extended a finger and gently touched the Scarlet Code that was being conceived in the void.

A barely perceptible spiritual imprint originating from the system silently seeped into the core logic of Ultron. This imprint did not alter its behavior; it had only one function—

When Ultron to a certain stage, when it believes it has global dominance and is invincible, this mark will be activated.

It will allow Ultron to "see" Lynn on the Throne.

Furthermore, it will cause its cold, logical core to generate a supreme command that it itself can never comprehend—

[Erase him].

Lynn wanted to give this "artificial Deity" a goal, an ultimate goal that would drive it to give its all and evolve wildly.

He wanted to personally raise the Gu, feeding this Beast until it was at its fattest and strongest, and then watch it be torn to pieces by his women in the most cruel and magnificent way.

Having done all this, Lynn withdrew his gaze and turned it back to the three women beneath the Throne.

His gaze was as if he were looking at three sharp blades that had just been polished and were about to be given a new mission.

"Get up, all of you."

He spoke in a calm and even tone.

Hela, Wanda, and Jean simultaneously jolted, slowly raising their heads, their eyes filled with relief at surviving the ordeal and fervent anticipation of new instructions.

Lynn looked at them with a faint, chilling smile on her face.

He was very curious.

When a cold, mechanical tyrant with limitless evolutionary abilities collides with a group of crazed women who are willing to destroy the world at any moment in their fight for the affections of a single man...

Ultimately, who is the real monster?