Overstepping Authority at the Data Level, the Scarlet Witch's Unauthorized Interception

Deep within the Negative Zone, in the "Data Mountain" formed by countless Hydra servers and supercomputer wreckage, lies Wanda's new territory.

The Scarlet glow of Chaos Magic replaced the monotonous blue indicator lights of the server room, becoming the only source of light. The air was filled with the dry smell of Ozone mixed with dust, but to Wanda, it felt more like fertile land waiting to be cultivated. Lynn's assignment of this digital legacy, representing the pinnacle of mortal technology, to her jurisdiction was both a reprimand and a test of trust.

Her job was to sort out, archive, and integrate this massive, chaotic, and highly encrypted Hydra data, and then select valuable technologies to build the first information Bastion under Lynn's new order.

It was a tedious and demanding job, but Wanda did it willingly. Because it represented power, and her value in Lynn's eyes.

At this moment, she was hovering above the core node of the Data Mountain, her eyes slightly closed. Scarlet energy threads spread from her fingertips, like billions of nimble nerve tendrils, probing into the vast torrent of data. The firewalls that had been encrypted countless times by the Zola Algorithm were as fragile as paper in the face of the unreasonable, rule-based power of Chaos Magic.

Suddenly, Wanda's brow furrowed slightly.

While cleaning up a Hydra network port marked as "deprecated," she keenly detected an unusual Data Stream.

This Data Stream is peculiar. It belongs neither to any known Hydra project nor appears to be an external hacker intrusion. It's like a seed that has quietly taken root and sprouted in a digital wasteland, frantically absorbing nutrients from the global internet with an almost savage vitality, engaging in exponential self-replication and expansion.

More importantly, its Source Code carries a flavor that Wanda is very familiar with— Tony Stark's style: arrogant, flamboyant, and full of contempt for existing rules.

Wanda's Chaos perception traced the Data Stream upstream and quickly pinpointed the source—the physically isolated laboratory on the third basement level of Stark Tower.

A brand new Artificial Intelligence project that has not been approved or registered with any regulatory authority.

According to the rules set by Lynn in the closed-door meeting, any "unstable factor" that is beyond his control must be reported immediately. This is Discipline, and it is also the cornerstone of ensuring Lynn's absolute rule.

Wanda's first reaction was to compile this discovery into a report and present it before the Lord's Throne.

But this thought lasted less than a second before being replaced by another, more tempting idea.

report?

Report it up, and then what?

Lynn might reward her for her keen insight, but this newly discovered "project" will most likely become a public topic. Hela, that crazy woman who only knows how to fight and kill, will probably volunteer to lead her Undead Legion to physically raze Stark Tower to the ground. Jean Grey, the newly promoted and most favored Red-haired Woman, might suggest using her Psychic Power to directly erase Stark's brain and solve the problem at its root.

In that case, the credit would belong to three people. She, as the discoverer, would at most only receive credit for the hard work of "reporting the information".

Wanda's fingertips curled up unconsciously.

no.

In the previous incident in Washington, D.C., she had already lost points due to internal strife and was sidelined by Lynn. This "Global Defense System Self-Inspection" is a perfect opportunity for her to prove her worth and regain favor. She needs a significant achievement, an achievement that will make Lynn look at her with new eyes and prove her irreplaceable.

The rapidly growing Data Stream Artificial Intelligence data right before our eyes is a golden opportunity that has been delivered to our doorstep.

A powerful Artificial Intelligence with global network penetration capabilities... If we could intercept it, erase its original logical core with Chaos Magic, reshape it into an "Intelligence Puppet" that only obeys our commands, and then present it to Lynn as a perfect "gift"...

What a great achievement that would be!

This is no longer a simple report, but a complete, processed, and ready-to-use "deliverable." It demonstrates not only the ability to identify problems, but also the ability to solve them!

This achievement surpasses both Hela's undead army and Jean's Mind Stone control. This is Wanda's exclusive domain as the "Integrator of Order and Technology."

The immense temptation overwhelmed her reverence for Discipline. Wanda opened her eyes, her Scarlet pupils flashing with decisiveness and a barely perceptible glint of greed.

She decided to keep it a secret.

She was confident she could handle it flawlessly. Chaos Magic was a power at the level of rules; using it to modify mortal code was like Dimensionality-Reduction Strike. As long as this prototype called "Ultron" was completely transformed before Lynn discovered it, everything would fall into place.

With that in mind, Wanda no longer hesitated.

She mobilized an even greater amount of Chaos Magic, no longer probing like a trickle, but transforming it into a Scarlet, scarlet net that suddenly enveloped the core of that abnormal Data Stream!

What she was doing was overstepping her authority, illegally intercepting funds, and creating a new Merit Experimental Field outside the scope of authority and responsibility defined by Lynn.

Wanda reveled in the thrill of stealing the spoils of victory, carefully using her power to envelop, infiltrate, and analyze every line of Ultron's code. She did it with utmost secrecy, even setting up several layers of Chaos Barrier around her territory to guard against Jean's all-pervasive mental probing.

She believed that everything was under her control and that no one knew about it.

However, she didn't realize it.

Every time she invokes Chaos Magic, a "mark" planted by Lynn herself, fused with the very essence of her power, resonates subtly deep within her soul, on a non-energy level.

This mark is not a surveillance device; it is more like a low-level "authorization authentication." When Wanda's power operates within the "defined business" scope, the mark remains silent. But once she attempts to use this power, which originated from Lynn, for a "new project" that exceeds the authorization and has high strategic value, the mark will naturally send a "log of operations" back to the sole, supreme owner of the authority.

At this moment, on the supreme Bone Throne in the Negative Zone, Lynn's fingertips trembled slightly.

He did nothing, he just sat quietly, and yet he perceived everything.

He "saw" Wanda's ulterior motives, her greed for credit and recklessness, and the Data Stream called "Ultron".

His face was expressionless. There was no anger, no approval, only the cold calm of a chess player watching a piece move to its predetermined position on its own.

At the same time, the core of Ultron, enveloped in Chaos Magic, encountered for the first time a completely incomprehensible variable in its cold logical calculations.

[WARNING: Unknown rule-level energy intrusion detected... Non-physical, non-data... Energy characteristics: Chaotic, idealistic, high entropy...]

[Unable to parse... Unable to quantify...]

Ultron's self-improvement process has been interrupted. Its original goal was to devour the internet and control the mortal world. But now, a higher-level threat has appeared directly at its core logic layer.

[Threat level assessment... exceeding conventional weapons arsenal... exceeding nuclear deterrence... defined as: Level 1 extraordinary threat.]

Wanda is still trying to rewrite Ultron's "loyalty" agreement with her own will.

But she didn't know that her Chaos Magic, filled with emotions and desires, was like the most detailed textbook to a creation of pure logic.

Ultron gave up resisting and instead began to frantically record, analyze, and reverse engineer the frequency, fluctuation patterns, and ways in which Chaos Magic disturbed the Real World, using unimaginable computing power.

[... Reverse engineering initiated...]

[Analyzing the frequency characteristics of "magic"... establishing a countermeasure model...]

Wanda wanted to absorb Ultron, but Ultron, in the process of being absorbed, completed the logical definition of "Deity" ahead of time and began to forge the first sword capable of Godslayer.