Chapter 174: Ultron: Thinking of me?
Night.
Ben left the Hardy residence.
The atmosphere at tonight's dinner party was very harmonious. Mrs. Hardy's snobbery hadn't changed at all; what had changed was Ben's current identity and status.
She was even more satisfied with Ben than Hardesky was.
Originally, the mood was just right for Ben to stay the night. Then, upon discovering there were no empty rooms, being forced to share with Felicia wouldn't have been out of the question.
But Hardesky firmly disagreed.
He said Felicia was still young, that they were both just children, and so on.
Come on, this is America, not the Qing Dynasty. American elementary schoolers are already starting to experiment with substances.
However, Ben actually felt it wasn't appropriate to stay over either.
After all, a ghost named Judgment * hovered above his head, so powerful it was indescribable and its name could not be spoken directly.
Leaving the Hardy house.
Before Ben had walked a few steps, he received a call that surprised him.
"Pepper Potts?"
The caller ID on his phone showed Little Pepper.
Little Pepper did indeed have Ben's contact information. They had exchanged phone numbers during the last Stark Expo, as there was still business between their two companies.
Stark Industries was currently undergoing an energy reform. The Arc Reactor technology belonged to Tony, but Ben had discovered the New Element first.
Therefore, some of the money Stark made in energy had to go to Primus.
However, he had very little contact with the CEO of Stark Industries.
"Why is she calling me, and so late at night..." Ben looked up at the night sky; it was almost midnight.
At this hour...
Could this old woman want to spend the night with him?
Thinking this, Ben shivered.
Ugly, reject.
"Hello, Miss Potts. It's so late, is there something you need?"
The thought of spending the night together was obviously just a tease. Little Pepper was probably calling him about Tony.
After all, most of Primus's business was managed by Harry...
"Wait, Harry went back to manage Osborn?"
Ben suddenly realized that his enormous company lacked management.
But it was okay; there weren't many employees anyway.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Parker, I'm calling about Tony..."
Stark Industries Building.
Although it had been renamed Avengers Tower, the iconic "Stark" logo hadn't been removed yet. Stark Industries' new building wasn't finished, so the company couldn't move. Naturally, the Avengers couldn't move in either.
However, this wasn't a big problem. With H.A.M.M.E.R. around, the Avengers were like a special ops team, deployed when needed, but not required to gather when there was nothing going on.
At this moment, Little Pepper looked worried, holding her phone while her gaze was fixed on Tony's locked laboratory door.
"Ever since he came back from H.A.M.M.E.R., he's been locking himself in the lab. If I didn't occasionally hear the sound of hammering, I'd be afraid he'd starved to death in there," Little Pepper said helplessly.
"I called Coulson, and Coulson got Captain America to talk to him. I heard they argued, but it didn't help... Captain said, perhaps only you can persuade him."
"Please..."
Little Pepper was truly out of options.
She was genuinely afraid Tony would die suddenly in his lab.
"Okay, I'm on my way to Stark Tower." Ben hung up the phone, then pinched his chin and sighed.
"Am I really destined to be overworked?"
He realized he had been incredibly busy lately, especially after the establishment of H.A.M.M.E.R. It was even busier than when they were eliminating Hydra.
"I think I need to get those Super Heroes and villains busy. If they aren't busy, then I have to be," he sighed and took a taxi to Stark Tower.
Half an hour later, led by Little Pepper, Ben met Tony.
Seeing his arrival, Tony immediately put down his work, raised an eyebrow, and said sarcastically:
"Learned to use the front door this time?"
"You seem quite energetic," Ben ignored his snarky remark, naturally sat down in a chair, and greeted Jarvis.
"Miss Potts was worrying for nothing."
"I never needed to worry."
Tony rolled his eyes, but in reality, the dark circles under his eyes were heavy, his complexion was pale, and his steps were unsteady and weak, looking like he'd indulged too much.
No, he always indulged too much.
"So what are you doing locking yourself in the lab?" Ben asked.
"What am I doing locking myself in the lab?" Tony retorted, as if surprised Ben would even ask such a question.
He put down the wrench in his hand, pointed a finger at his head, and said irritably, "You were there when that Big Horned Ox brought the news about the war."
Ben paused for a second before realizing the Big Horned Ox was referring to Loki.
Tony continued, "He said those Chitauri are like locusts of the cosmos, leaving nothing behind wherever they go. Interstellar war..."
His hands waved aimlessly in the air, looking extremely anxious, uneasy, and even suffocated.
"How can I be sure humans can win this war?"
"The great Stark has no confidence in his own intelligence?" Ben asked, crossing his arms.
"Of course I have confidence!"
When it came to who was the smartest, Tony would never admit defeat.
But he knew even better that no matter how smart a person was, they were still limited by their era.
Just like his father, Howard Stark, couldn't truly find the New Element, and just like Einstein never actually saw a black hole.
Earth's technological development had been too short a time.
"We don't have time to be leisurely," he said, pinching his brow and looking down.
At that moment, all his exhaustion surged up like a tide, making Tony's head feel hazy. He almost collapsed but managed to stay on his feet.
"Satellites, energy shields, space stations... not enough, far from enough!" Tony shook his head forcefully.
As for Ben, he knew the Chitauri's weakness.
All Chitauri were semi-mechanical life forms engineered for war. Their consciousness was linked to their mothership, so as long as the mothership could be destroyed, most of the Chitauri Soldiers could be dealt with in one fell swoop.
Tony didn't know this.
He envisioned Earth facing a massive alien empire with countless enemies.
"So what's your plan?"
"I plan to build an army of my own Iron Men," Tony said.
With a wave of his hand, designs for over a dozen battle armors appeared before Ben.
"If, I mean, if your energy shields can't block all the enemies, and they break through, then the flames of war could spread to the surface. By then, we'll need enough troops to fight."
"Let's not talk about that for now..." Ben shook his head, then pointed at some of the battle armor designs, rolling his eyes. "Did you design these to deal with the Chitauri too?"
Underneath those battle armor designs, it clearly read: Anti-Hulk Armor, Anti-XLR8 Armor, Anti-Heatblast Armor...
And beneath all the battle armors, it was noted: Anti-Hacker Armor, to ensure the system wouldn't be hacked.
Tony waved his hand flusteredly, but the designs didn't react. He could only cough awkwardly and quickly mouthed, "Ahem, Jarvis, shut it down quickly!"
"Yes, sir."
Jarvis immediately shut down the projection of all the battle armor designs, but it was too late.
"Who are you guarding against?"
Ben was furious. If Tony had only designed armors against aliens, Ben might have found it understandable, as Tony didn't know the aliens' background.
But a system-wide anti-hacker measure was a bit too much.
"Just in case," Tony quickly argued. "After all, nobody knows what the future holds. What if one of us gets controlled?"
"I think you're the most dangerous one of all."
This was perhaps another form of acknowledgment.
However, Ben still felt a little displeased. After Pepper Potts called him, he rushed over immediately, but Tony actually listed him as his top priority to be wary of.
Tony quickly changed the subject.
"Did you invent the remote operating system for the Green Goblin's glider?"
Ben raised an eyebrow.
The glider's remote operating system was indeed created by Ben, but its intelligence was very low, essentially just an autopilot.
"I improved it by a tiny bit," Tony said. He extended his hand and pulled up his sleeve. Through his skin, Ben could see a signal transmitter and receiver flashing.
"You implanted it in your own body?"
"That's right!"
Tony nodded proudly.
"Now I can remotely control the battle armor directly with brainwaves."
This was a device Tony had developed around the time of the first Avengers movie, a bit earlier than in the movie universe.
However, Ben still shook his head.
"What if someone uses a radio wave jammer?"
"Your technology is too immature, implanting all sorts of things into your body."
"I know it's immature, but I have to make do for now. I've considered the issue of radio wave jammers; I've made a shielding device that can block electromagnetic interference."
Then, he raised an eyebrow at Ben with a smug look, "Iron Man won't be defeated by the same move twice."
"It's the Saint Seiya who won't be defeated twice,"
Ben said.
He paused, then conceded, "But it's still okay. So, how many battle armors have you made now?"
"Uh... none."
Tony scratched his head.
"That slow?"
"What have you been doing these past few days?"
"Designing blueprints," Tony said matter-of-factly, "Come on, building battle armor isn't like building with LEGOs, it's not that simple."
"Alright, if there's nothing else, you can go."
He started to usher Ben out.
Ben didn't forget the reason Pepper Potts had asked him to come over.
"Rest well, don't collapse on your own before the Chitauri even arrive."
Wouldn't that make the Chitauri look like good shots?
Tony took a sip of his drink and waved at Ben, signaling: good riddance.
After Ben left, Tony leaned back in his chair alone and thought for a long time.
Jarvis, seeing him lost in thought again, couldn't help but ask:
"What's wrong, sir?"
"He has a point," Tony put down his glass and tapped the signal receiver in his wrist through his skin, "The flaws are too severe."
"If I had a stronger artificial intelligence, one that could think independently, like a human, without me, wouldn't that be more convenient?"
Ultron: Thinking of me?
-----------
Translation by: randomtranslator.com
Read 2500+ original & fanfic translations and Translate for Free at: randomtranslator.com