Chapter 1071

Inside the empty, echoing corridor of Stark Tower, Rhodes walked quickly toward the laboratory entrance, followed by another Black man; the two of them stopped together at the laboratory door.

Rhodes straightened his back and opened his eyes wide; after the scanner at the laboratory entrance swept over his facial and pupillary features, it opened the door.

Just as they walked in, they saw Stark, bare-chested, debugging a new type of combat suit; the faceplate on his head hadn't been removed yet, so he looked a bit strange. Seeing Rhodes enter, he turned around with his hands on his hips and said, "Oh, you're here. Look, I upgraded the power system of the new suit a bit; it should be pretty good, right?"

After finishing, Stark took off the faceplate, tilted his body, glanced at the Black man behind Rhodes, then returned his gaze to Rhodes's face and asked, "Is this the new tester you found for me? He looks a bit like you; are you two brothers?"

"That joke isn't funny at all." Rhodes shook his head and said, "However, I know you have racial prosopagnosia, so I won't hold it against you."

After saying that, he patted the back of the Black man behind him and said, "Sam Wilson, a former member of the U. S. Air Force Pararescue team, though he has retired now and currently resides in Washington."

Stark widened his eyes, stared at Rhodes with an incredulous look, and said, "I asked you to find me a mecha tester, and you found me a member of the Pararescue team??!!"

"I think this is very necessary." Rhodes said very seriously. He glanced at the suit by Stark's side and said, "In the last three days, you have crashed in various ways and postures more than 80 times, even exceeding the number of parachute jumps of the Pararescue team during their peak training period. I feel that, apart from a member of the Pararescue team, no one will be able to handle your testing requirements."

Stark pursed his lips, closed his eyes, and sighed. Just as he was about to explain, Sam Wilson stepped forward, reached out, shook his hand, and said, "Hello, Mr. Stark, I've long admired your name."

Stark squinted one eye, looked him up and down, and said, "It's not that I don't trust Rhodes's recommendation, but you have to understand, this isn't the Pararescue team..."

"But I have rich falling experience." Sam smiled and said, "More than 80 parachute jumps in three days is absolutely no problem for me."

Stark shook his finger, pointed at him, then walked to the side of the mecha and said, "Very good, you successfully grasped the point. Tony Stark's genius brain shouldn't be destroyed in endless free fall. Come on, put it on and try it."

"Although there were quite a few accidents before, you can believe that the safety of this mecha has improved significantly now; perhaps there won't be a chance for you to display your falling talent."

Rhodes stepped aside, and Sam, who was stronger than him, stepped forward, turned around, and stood in front of the mecha. When the mecha was armed onto his body, it seemed a bit ill-fitting, so Stark adjusted the positions of the various parts again until Sam could control the mecha and walk flexibly indoors.

"Now, the main problem I'm facing is that the anti-gravity system I added to this heavy armor affects the operating efficiency of the propulsion system, and it's prone to stalling when flying at high speeds."

"But if I lower the operating efficiency of the anti-gravity system, the power required for propulsion exceeds the safety range, which may cause the heavy suit to injure the pilot from the inside when facing an impact."

Stark explained a pile of theories, neither Rhodes nor Sam understood much of it. Finally, he reached a conclusion: "Actually, the flight function of this suit isn't important. I need someone with combat experience to test its close-quarters combat capability."

Rhodes rolled his eyes, looked at Stark, and said, "If the previous theories aren't important, then you don't need to talk about them. Since you built this suit for close-quarters combat, why do you wear it to go for a spin over New York every day? Is this another form of your skydiving hobby?"

"What flight posture can test isn't just flight... Forget it, no matter how much I say, you won't understand." Stark turned his head away.

"Could it be because... you don't know how to fight?" Rhodes narrowed his eyes and stared at Stark, saying, "I remember when we met, you were still a rookie. Have you practiced since then?"

Stark just wanted to refute, but Rhodes suddenly realized something and snapped his fingers, saying, "Oh, I know! Jarvis is broken, the intelligent combat system isn't working, so you can only wear it and fly to the sky to test it, and you also hope I find you a professional tester..."

"My God!" Rhodes opened his palms, pushed forward forcefully, and then said, "Don't tell me that in these few years, you haven't practiced fighting at all? You, with an ordinary person's balance and flexibility, piloting such a complex mecha against such dangerous opponents... Tony Stark! I don't know whether to call you big-hearted or brave!"

"Of course it's brave." Stark put the tools in his hand aside and emphasized, but then he shook his head and said, "You can't expect a modern person, while having an almost omnipotent intelligent butler, to still think about practicing any fighting..."

Stark stood on the spot, covered his mouth, and sighed. Obviously, he also discovered his own problem; in these few years, he had relied too much on Jarvis.

The far-reaching influence of the questions Schiller asked when he first met Jarvis went far beyond those mentioned before.

The consequence of Stark's extra interest in artificial intelligence was that this super genius upgraded Jarvis several times in just a year or two, to the point where this intelligent butler was too intelligent, possessed extremely high combat literacy, and could complete all combat requirements.

Coupled with the various things Schiller caused, Stark was busy with research in other areas, and in terms of combat, he basically relied entirely on the intelligent combat system provided by Jarvis.

Of course, to maintain a good figure, Stark also had a special fitness plan and would practice boxing and jiu-jitsu, but obviously, these techniques were far inferior to Jarvis's intelligent operation in real combat. Simply put, the one who knows how to fight is Jarvis, not Stark.

Stark stood beside the mecha, patted the mecha's arm, and said, "You're called Sam, right? How is your fighting ability?"

Before Sam could answer, Rhodes nodded and said, "It's definitely better than yours, anyway."

"I've only been exposed to the most basic combat training, and my close-quarters combat ability is definitely not as good as other special forces members. I'm better at flying. If you want to see it, I can control it and fly a circle outside now." Sam's steady voice came from the suit.

"Hey, buddy, don't brag!" Stark shook his head and said, "Not everyone can control my suit and fly."

Just as his voice fell, he saw the heavy new suit take off into the air. After the building glass used for flight experiments was lowered, the originally bulky suit turned into a stream of light and rushed straight into the New York sky.

Rhodes and Stark stood side by side in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching Sam draw one smooth arc after another with gorgeous flight movements. Rhodes turned his head, looked at Stark, and said, "The set of theories you explained before really isn't useful at all; it was completely because you didn't know how to fly that caused the crash."

"What nonsense are you talking about? I built the suit myself, how could I not know how to fly it?" Stark immediately denied it.

"Admit it, Jarvis knows you better than you know yourself." Rhodes turned his head back, looked into the distance, and said, "You're like a baby in his arms, needing him to worry about everything for you."

Stark was silent, but this was actually very rare. When it came to level issues in certain aspects, Stark always argued without giving an inch, and wouldn't even let others make jokes. This was the pride belonging to his genius, which he absolutely wouldn't allow anyone to violate.

But this time, Rhodes described Stark as a baby, and Stark didn't jump up and shout immediately, but stood on the spot silently with his arms crossed, as if he had fallen into memories.

"My friends all say that Jarvis is my child; I created him and taught him many things, but in my heart, he will always be that old butler who took care of me as I grew up, accommodating me, accompanying me, and solving all the troubles I don't want to solve for me."

Rhodes reached out and patted his shoulder without saying anything. Stark was silent for a while longer, then continued, "Actually, I don't have to be a mecha pilot; I understand better than you the principle of not taking risks with my genius brain, but at that time, I would never let anyone other than me wear the suit because I didn't trust them."

"Actually, I didn't trust myself either, so I left many things to Jarvis to do. Honestly..." Stark took a deep breath and said, "I didn't expect that he could really violate his underlying protocols."

"Perhaps, actually, much earlier, he had already started thinking about the meaning of his existence, but I was just as much of a jerk as before, not noticing his changes at all." Stark slowly shook his head.

"You know what? You've changed a lot too." Rhodes looked at Stark and said seriously, "You're finally not such a jerk, and even look like a serious and responsible good person."

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Stark laughed and cursed, pushed Rhodes's shoulder hard, patted his shoulder with his hand, and said, "You might not believe it, but I might have really been sick before; we're all the same."

Stark turned his head to look at the deep blue winter sky of New York. Looking far into the distance always makes people feel a different kind of emotion. He said:

"When you are immersed in some kind of entanglement and pain, you will feel that it is very normal, and feel that it is something you must accept from birth, so you don't want to seek treatment at all, feeling that it's fine to just die like this."

"However, when this disease is cured and you truly relax, looking back at the past, you really want to slap yourself. What exactly was I struggling with at that time?"

"But your illness isn't completely cured." Rhodes immediately said, "Otherwise, you should have called Steve Rogers directly and let him come over to test the mecha's close-quarters combat ability for you."

Stark shook his head and said, "The main reason I didn't call him is that I turned down the Christmas party, and he must be very sad now, drinking until he's a drunkard, maybe even shedding tears... but I really don't have time to go."

After finishing, Stark looked back at a certain computer in the laboratory and then said, "Fixing Jarvis isn't such a simple matter. What's even harder is that I hope he won't be trapped in the virtual network anymore, but can truly possess a body of his own."

"Not just simply controlling a mechanical body, but like a human, using vision, touch, hearing, smell, and taste to feel this world."

"Like you and me?"

"Like you and me."