Tony could tell that as soon as he said those words, the entire project team looked like they were about to pop champagne to celebrate.
The supervisor, in particular, immediately began to express his profuse gratitude, spewing flattery and pledging his loyalty, saying things like he would work himself to the bone to ensure Mr. Stark was not disappointed.
But Tony had no interest in these words, nor did he care much about this supervisor. He waved his hand to interrupt the other party, then said, "I haven't finished yet. You might not have fully understood what I meant. Let me see..."
Tony deliberated on his wording and said, "First, starting today, the virtual reality holographic projection project will be included in the 'New Frontier' plan, effective immediately."
The supervisor, who was already quite excited, now began to feel suffocated, even suspecting he had heard wrong.
The New Frontier plan!
He knew this plan. It was a plan personally launched by Mr. Stark last month. All projects included in the plan would receive focused attention from the group and Mr. Stark personally. The resources and investment they would receive were incomparable to what they had now. For everyone in their project team, this was an opportunity for rapid advancement, quite possibly a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
How could this not be exciting?
"Second, from now on, a new independent business division will be established, directly upgraded from your original project team. Maybe I'll transfer some other experts over... but we'll talk about that later. The division will report directly to the CEO—that is, me. Understood?"
"Understood! Understood!"
The supervisor nodded repeatedly. The others in the project team also had looks of surprise on their faces, as if they had been hit by a winning lottery ticket, unable to believe that such a life-changing opportunity had suddenly fallen upon them.
"Of course, investment will be increased, a very large investment, but this is by no means without cost. To get the capital investment, I want to see results, and I want them immediately in the short term. In addition..."
Tony gestured to Quentin Beck, who had been standing to the side.
"I want to talk to your engineer. Alone."
"..."
Half an hour later, after conducting some in-depth discussions with Quentin Beck on technical issues, Tony left the department quite satisfied.
Currently, Quentin did not seem to show any supervillain traits. In fact, judging from today's conversation, he even appeared to worship Tony quite a bit, and this person was indeed a complete genius in the holographic field—even by Tony's standards, he wasn't bad.
He discussed the "B.A.R.F." (Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing) technology from the movies with Quentin. Unsurprisingly, at this stage, although Quentin Beck already had this concept and had achieved certain results, it was still far from the level in the movie Spider-Man: Far From Home where it could broadcast massive-scale virtual reality movies.
However, Tony also learned that although the "B.A.R.F." technology was not as mature as in the later stages, it was actually no problem to create some holographic illusions of small unit targets at this stage; the difficulty was not high.
Although far less amazing than in the later movies, Tony felt that this was still a technology with considerable practical value, and it belonged to the category of technology that had already been developed and could be put into use immediately.
If nothing else, Tony could absolutely mount a small drone equipped with this technology on his armor. Using this holographic camouflage, the drone could easily be projected to look like the armor, confusing the fake with the real and making the enemy mistakenly think it was him.
If combined with the stealth technology he was currently developing, the effect would undoubtedly be even better—using stealth technology to hide the armor's main body, releasing the drone to create a clone using holographic technology, the main body could easily approach the unsuspecting opponent and deal a fatal blow.
Just thinking about it was powerful.
Leaving the building, the chubby driver and bodyguard, Happy, was already waiting outside. Seeing the boss come out, Happy skillfully opened the car door for him, and after Tony got in, he sat in the driver's seat.
The front and rear seats of the private car were soundproofed so that Tony could rest assured giving instructions in the back seat without worrying about being heard by the driver.
And if he wished to talk to Happy, including giving instructions such as stopping or changing destinations, he only needed to use the communication button in the back seat.
Tony sat in the back seat, and the sedan began to move. He added the "holographic drone integration" concept to the Mark VI armor he had been designing recently.
After thinking about it, he then said to J.A.R.V.I.S., "By the way, J, remember to remind me later when we get back to arrange to pay special attention to this Quentin Beck. He is indeed a talent, and I need his technology now, but I don't trust him."
Although this person seemed quite normal at the moment and was respectful enough to him, he was, after all, a reserve supervillain in the original timeline, so he couldn't let his guard down.
Although he needed this person's technology for now, Tony was already considering arranging twenty-four-hour uninterrupted surveillance on him in the future.
Quentin Beck's every phone call, every email, his browser history, the people he contacted...
In fact, Tony already had such an item on his to-do list.
Design a dedicated AI, similar to J.A.R.V.I.S., but with responsibilities much more specific than J.A.R.V.I.S.—responsible for monitoring and eavesdropping.
Bring all people, companies, and institutions that he judged might turn into villains in the future but couldn't be dealt with yet into the scope of monitoring, ensuring that if the other party showed even a tiny hint of evolving into a supervillain, it would be nipped in the bud in advance.
Not very legal? Perhaps.
But at least this would allow him to sleep a little more peacefully.
After all, he didn't want to give some growth-type supervillains room to develop—as often happened in the original Marvel works.
"Very well, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. quipped. "You have always been a good judge of character."
Tony was noncommittal.
Rather than being a good judge of character, it was more like he had read the script.
This was his advantage, but at the same time, it was his nightmare.
He suddenly thought about how high-spirited and arrogant Tony was during this period in the original movie. Because Tony had just developed the Iron Man suit not long ago, he felt that he was the top combat power on this planet, and even often boasted that he "privatized world peace."
But Tony felt that if the Iron Man in the original movie knew what would happen in the future just like him, the original body would definitely not be able to sleep either.
Whenever he thought of this, he would involuntarily throw himself back into the laboratory, working on technology and hammering out armor.
Strength. Only greater strength, more advanced technology, and harder armor could bring him a little sense of security.
"Alright, there are still a few days before the Monaco race, let's hurry up."
Tony leaned back into the leather seat in the back, closing his eyes to nap.
"When we get back, let's equip the Mark VI with a holographic drone and test it out first."