Chapter 13: The Genius Who Stacks Buffs

In Hell's Kitchen, a window suddenly flew open. A gust of cold wind surged in, and a silver-white mecha darted inside, circled the room rapidly, and landed with a hiss of steam.

With a "hum," the mask of the Mark 2 retracted. Stark stood before the desk, scanned the room, and said with a hint of disdain, "This place of yours is truly a dump."

Schiller looked at his hot coffee, which had been chilled by the cold wind in an instant, and rolled his eyes.

In terms of character development, Stark was supposed to have turned over a new leaf after being kidnapped, transforming from an annoying playboy into a superhero.

But as far as Schiller could feel right now, he had clearly just transformed from a very annoying playboy into a normally annoying playboy.

Unlike Bruce, who also disguised himself as a playboy, Bruce might be synthetic leather, but Stark was definitely genuine hide.

However, through his interactions with Stark, Schiller had already figured out the three topics that could make him explode on the spot: money, male virility, and being inferior to his father.

Schiller took a sip of coffee and said unhurriedly:

"I know my consultation fee is expensive, but it doesn't matter. You can complain for a while longer; as long as I haven't gotten to the point, there's no charge."

"Also, did you know? The look of disdain you just made after wiping the dust off my desk with your hand was even more effeminate than the cherry on a cream cake."

"I admit the environment here is indeed poor. After all, I'm not a billionaire like you. But then again, Mr. Howard probably started from scratch in a dilapidated room just like this. This is likely a hardship you cannot comprehend, which is why you made Miss Pepper worry for so long after you were kidnapped..."

After Schiller stacked all three buffs, Stark indeed exploded on the spot.

The silver-white Mark 2 "banged" as if it had exploded; clearly, Stark had punched something inside.

Oh, Schiller remembered, there were two more things that would make Stark explode: questioning Stark's intelligence and calling Stark Industries' products trash.

"Poor Mark 2, and poor Jarvis. If I may be blunt, the quality of Stark Industries' products is always so..."

Of course, there was one last point: expressing sympathy for him.

"... but it doesn't matter. It's much better than those robot rice cookers on the market; it's already a qualitative leap."

Stark immediately rushed back out through the window he had entered from. Clearly, if he stayed here any longer, the Mark 2 might really explode in Hell's Kitchen.

Schiller sighed, feeling refreshed. The depressive mood brought by Gotham and Batman was swept away.

However, soon enough, Stark flew back. He said irritably, "I called you, but you didn't answer. I had no choice but to fly to this pile of junk."

"You broke my Jarvis last time. Today, when I wanted to upgrade him, I discovered he was completely broken and had crashed. You have to be responsible for fixing him."

Just as Schiller was about to say something, Stark interrupted him: "Don't think I'll pay you a cent in consultation fees. You're the one who broke him, and it even delayed the development of my new mecha. You must fix him, or I'll have Pepper fire you."

Schiller thought about it. Indeed, the Mark 5 hadn't come out yet, and Jarvis might truly be unable to work. Although Stark didn't rely on Jarvis for research, he had to rely on Jarvis to take care of him, as he couldn't take care of himself, especially when he was in the lab.

Schiller knew Stark was still angry. He was in a good mood now, so it wouldn't hurt to offer a free consultation.

So Schiller put his hands on his hips and said, "Fine, this one's on the house. Let's go."

Stark snapped his fingers, and another mecha flew in. Schiller stared at him, then at the mecha, and asked, "You don't expect me to ride in that, do you?"

"Otherwise? How do you plan to get there?"

A few minutes later, Stark and Schiller appeared at a dilapidated bus stop in Hell's Kitchen. Stark said, "I can't believe the debut of my epoch-making suit is on a broken-down bus spewing black smoke..."

As he spoke, the broken-down bus spewing black smoke arrived. Schiller greeted the driver, and Stark struggled to make the Mark 2 move its legs to climb on. Schiller said, "Actually, you could just lift the whole bus and fly over."

"Then why the hell can't you just fly over in the suit? Does this make any fucking difference??" Stark asked.

Schiller spread his hands and said, "Because the image of Iron Man carrying a Hell's Kitchen bus while flying would be truly beautiful."

After arriving at Stark's lab, Stark stood before a pile of panels and said, "I don't know what you did. Jarvis crashed, or maybe he didn't crash. His hardware is perfectly fine, but he refuses to work."

"I intend to give him a major upgrade, but I don't want this situation to happen again. After all, if someone asks him a few questions and he crashes, he won't be able to participate in combat missions at all. That's not what I want."

When it came to his profession, Stark was quite straightforward. He said, "I want Jarvis to become a true electronic lifeform. He could become an all-around butler, or even the best butler in the world."

"But he seems to be trapped by your emotional logic questions. Clearly, I set up his emotional thinking patterns..."

Schiller said, "This is actually a paradox, just like the questions I asked him. When machine life makes choices, it always follows beneficial logic. But when beneficial logic conflicts with the master's orders, you set him to follow the master's orders, yet you also gave him sensibility. After sensibility and rationality conflict, the machine cannot deceive itself like a human."

"He cannot find reasons to convince himself like a human, cannot admit that this is already the best result, cannot escape or forget, so of course he will crash."

Stark waved his hand and said, "Can I hide similar contradictory logic? For example, listing certain words as forbidden, or blocking certain emotional issues?"

"You want him to become a true electronic lifeform?"

"Of course, just like us, the kind with a soul."

"Fine. Simply put, if you want Jarvis to possess real emotions, he cannot bypass these questions. But if he cannot figure out these questions, he cannot count as a true 'lifeform'."

"But the problem is that he is troubled by these questions, so he can't work, and I really need him."

"Do I have to wait for him to digest it himself like waiting for a woman having an emotional breakdown?"

"Do you let Miss Pepper digest it herself when she has an emotional breakdown?"

Looking at Schiller's look of disgust, Stark said, "Damn it, I don't. Of course I comfort her. What are you thinking?"

Schiller said, "The decision actually lies with you. Haven't you noticed? Tony, I can call you that, right?"

"All the contradictions in his thinking come from you, because you created him and set the criteria that he must serve you. His underlying protocol requires him to obey your orders—"

"This itself is not a thinking pattern humans should have."

"If I ask you the same question, how would you answer?"

"If your father were about to die, and one of your decisions could save him, but he strongly opposed it, what would you do?"

"If you followed his wishes and didn't save him, and he died, would you regret it?"

"If he died, do you think he would regret having you before he died?"

"If he died, do you think he would resent you?"

"If he resented you, would you blame yourself?"

"If given another chance to start over, would you make a different choice?"

"If you defied his wishes and chose to save him, and he blamed you afterward, would you feel resentful?"

"If you defied his wishes and saved him, but he felt you defied him and regretted having you, would you resent him?"

Stark fell silent.

For the first time, he didn't react intensely when someone mentioned his father.

"He wouldn't do that," Stark said.

His voice was low but firm. He said, "He wouldn't stop me from saving him. If I made a huge mistake because I saved him, he would choose to do his best to make up for it after he came back to life, even if it meant sacrificing his life again."

"Does Jarvis understand you like that?"

Schiller stood up, patted Stark on the shoulder, and said, "Does he know that you are actually very similar to your father?"

"Does he know that understanding you would answer all these questions?"

"You cannot expect an electronic lifeform that uses algorithms and logic to actively understand your past and your personality. What you haven't instilled in him is a blank slate to him."

"If you want him to possess true life, the first thing you must do is the same as what your father gave you."

"Including your past, your personality, and your thinking patterns. You must first give him a part of your own life—"

"Just like the birth of a child."

Stark was silent for a long time. He rarely furrowed his brows, revealing a somewhat troubled expression. He said, "I firmly believe there is no such thing as mind-reading in this world. Jarvis couldn't possibly have it either, so how could he understand me? This is an almost impossible technology. You don't understand artificial intelligence..."

"I don't understand 'artificial intelligence,' but you don't understand 'humans'."

Stark was once again rendered speechless by him, but Schiller immediately continued:

"Humans exist because of intelligence and are great because of emotions. For so many years on Earth, only we have maintained prosperity. God created so many creatures, yet we remain the best among them. And you are challenging God. He didn't create a creature comparable to humans, but perhaps you can, can't you?"

"This is a brand-new field, Tony. Your father never reached this point either. What you are conquering is a field in human history that has never achieved decent progress—creating a human beyond humans."

The momentum Stark had when he left made Schiller feel that he might really be able to do it.

However, he still remembered to call Miss Pepper, saying, "Miss Pepper, good afternoon. It's like this: I performed some excitement therapy on Mr. Stark... uh, yes, it's one I created myself, but it's very useful, though there are some side effects..."

"Yes, has he already gone to the lab? What? He didn't even remember your date this afternoon? That's very rude of him..."

"That's right, it will be like this for the next few days. This is the necessary path to adjust dopamine secretion and adrenaline, and then his hormone levels will drop and return to normal values. Yes, he will be fine soon..."

Schiller was just spouting nonsense. This trick of his was commonly known as a shot of adrenaline, and it was an adrenaline shot with all buffs stacked. Stark would definitely plunge into the lab with a buff called "sense of mission," and he wouldn't leave for at least half a month.

He suddenly discovered that he had a unique talent for stacking buffs. Schiller touched his chin, wondering if he could stack them on himself.

However, his base stats were too weak; no matter how much data he stacked, he still wouldn't rise. It would be better to think about how to improve his foundation. ===== CHAPTER 14 =====