In Hell's Kitchen, a window suddenly opened, a cold wind rushed in, and a silver-white Mark 2 quickly flew in, circling rapidly around the room before landing with a jet blast.
With a hum, the Mark 2's mask lifted, and Stark stood before the table, surveying the room. He said with a hint of disdain, "This place of yours is really rundown."
Schiller looked at his hot coffee, instantly cooled by the cold wind, and rolled his eyes.
From a character design perspective, Stark was supposed to have turned over a new leaf after being kidnapped, transforming from an annoying playboy into a Super Hero.
But from Schiller's current perspective, he had merely transformed from a very annoying playboy into a regular annoying playboy.
Unlike Bruce, who also disguised himself as a playboy—Bruce might be faux leather, but Stark was definitely genuine leather.
However, through his interactions with Stark, Schiller had already figured out three topics that would make him explode on the spot: money, male virility, and the idea that he was not as good as his father.
Schiller took a sip of coffee and said unhurriedly:
"I know my consultation fee is expensive, but it's fine; you can complain a bit longer. As long as I haven't gotten to the main point, there's no charge."
"Also, do you know? The look of disgust you just showed when wiping dust off my table with your hand was more effeminate than a cherry on a cream cake."
"I admit the environment here is indeed not good. After all, I'm not like you, a billionaire. But then again, Mr. Howard probably started from scratch in a dilapidated house like this back then. This is probably a hardship you can't experience, which is why Miss Pepper worried about you for so long after you were kidnapped…"
After Schiller stacked all three buffs, Stark indeed exploded on the spot.
The silver-white Mark 2 let out a 'bang,' clearly indicating that Stark had just slammed something inside.
Oh, Schiller remembered. Two other things would make Stark explode: questioning Stark's intelligence and calling Stark Industries' products trash.
"Poor Mark 2, and poor Jarvis, with all due respect, the quality of Stark Industries' products is just 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 flew straight out of the window he had burst through. Clearly, if he stayed any longer, the Mark 2 would probably truly explode in Hell's Kitchen.
Schiller sighed, feeling refreshed, his depressive mood brought on by Gotham and Batman completely dispelled.
However, Stark soon flew back. He said grumpily, "You didn't answer my calls, so I had to fly to this dump."
"You broke my Jarvis last time. Today, when I tried to upgrade him, I found he was completely broken, completely frozen. You have to fix him."
Just as Schiller was about to say something, Stark interrupted him, saying, "Don't think I'll pay you a single cent for consultation. You're the one who broke him, and it delayed the development of my new Mark. You absolutely have to fix him, or I'll have Pepper fire you."
Schiller thought about it. Indeed, the Mark 5 hadn't come out yet, so Jarvis might genuinely be out of commission. Although Stark didn't rely on Jarvis for research and development, he did rely on Jarvis to take care of him; he was helpless in daily life, especially in the laboratory.
Schiller knew Stark was still angry. He was in a good mood now, so a free consultation wasn't out of the question.
So Schiller put his hands on his hips and said, "Alright, this one's free. Let's go."
Stark snapped his fingers, and another Mark flew in. Schiller and he stared at each other, Schiller pointing at the Mark and saying, "You're not seriously expecting me to ride that, are you?"
"Otherwise? How do you plan to get there?"
A few minutes later, Stark and Schiller appeared under a dilapidated bus stop sign in Hell's Kitchen. Stark said, "I can't believe the premiere of my groundbreaking battle suit is on a dilapidated, smoke-belching bus…"
As he spoke, the smoke-belching, dilapidated bus arrived. Schiller greeted the driver, and Stark laboriously made the Mark 2 move its legs to climb on. Schiller said, "Actually, you could just lift the whole bus and fly over."
"Then why can't you just fly over in the battle suit? Is there any damn difference?" Stark asked.
Schiller spread his hands and said, "Because the image of Iron Man carrying a Hell's Kitchen bus in flight would be beautiful."
Upon arriving at Stark's laboratory, Stark stood before a stack of panels and said, "I don't know what you did, but Jarvis crashed, or maybe not crashed. His hardware is perfectly intact, but he refuses to work."
"I'm planning a major upgrade for him, but I don't want this situation to happen again. After all, if he crashes every time someone asks him a few questions, he won't be able to participate in combat missions at all, and 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 life form. He can be an all-around butler, even the best butler in the World."
"But he seems to be stuck on your emotional logic problems, even though I set him up with emotional thinking…"
Schiller said, "This is actually a paradox, just like the questions I asked him. Machine life, when making choices, always follows beneficial logic. But when beneficial logic clashes with the Master's command, your setting for him is to follow the Master's command, yet you also gave him sensibility. When sensibility and rationality conflict, machines can't deceive themselves like humans."
"He can't find reasons to convince himself like a human, can't admit that this is already the best outcome, can't escape and forget, so of course he'll freeze up."
Stark waved his hand and said, "Can I hide similar contradictory logic? Like listing certain words as forbidden, or blocking certain emotional questions?"
"You want him to become a true electronic life?"
"Of course, like us, with a soul."
"Okay, simply put, if you want Jarvis to have real emotions, then he can't avoid these problems. But if he can't figure out these problems, then he can't be considered a true 'life.'"
"But the problem is, he's troubled by these issues, so he can't work, and I really need him."
"Do I have to wait for him to process it himself, like waiting for a woman having an emotional breakdown?"
Looking at Schiller's expression, which was like looking at dog shit, Stark said, "Damn it, I didn't! Of course, I'd comfort her! What are you thinking?"
Schiller said, "The decision is actually yours, haven't you noticed? Tony, I can call you that, right?"
"All the contradictions in his thinking come from you, because you created him, set the rule that he must serve you. His underlying protocol requires him to obey your commands—"
"This itself is not how humans should think."
"If I ask you the same questions, how would you answer?"
"If your father is about to die, and one of your decisions can save him, but he strongly opposes it, what do you do?"
"If you respect his wishes and don't save him, and he dies, will you regret it?"
"If he dies, do you think he'll regret having you before he dies?"
"If he dies, do you think he'll resent you?"
"If he resents you, will you blame yourself?"
"If you had another chance to start over, would you make a different choice?"
"If you defy his wishes and save him, and he blames you afterward, will you feel indignant?"
"If you defy his wishes and save him, but he regrets having you because you defied him, will you resent him?"
Stark fell silent.
For the first time, he didn't feign an exaggerated reaction to someone mentioning 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 big mistake by saving him, he would choose to live and then do his best to make amends, even if it meant sacrificing his life again."
"Does Jarvis understand you like that?"
Schiller stood up and patted Stark's shoulder, saying, "Does he know that you are actually very much like your father?"
"Does he know that understanding you can answer all these questions?"
"You can't expect an electronic life form that uses algorithms and logic to actively understand your past, your personality. What you haven't instilled in him is a blank slate to him."
"If you want him to have true life, the first thing you need to do is what your father gave you."
"Including your past, your personality, your way of thinking, you have to give him a part of your own life first—"
"Just like the birth of a child."
Stark was silent for a long time. He rarely furrowed his brow, showing a somewhat troubled expression. He said, "I firmly believe there's no such thing as mind-reading in this World, and Jarvis can't possibly do it. So how can he understand me? This is a nearly impossible technology. You don't understand artificial intelligence…"
"I don't understand 'artificial intelligence,' but you don't understand 'human.'"
Stark was again rendered speechless by him, but Schiller immediately continued:
"Humans exist by wisdom and are great by emotion. For so many years on Earth, only we have flourished. Among the many creatures God created, we are still the best. And you are challenging God; he hasn't created 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 made significant progress—creating a being beyond humans."
The aura Stark exuded when he left made Schiller feel that he could probably truly achieve it.
However, he still remembered to call Miss Pepper, saying, "Miss Pepper, good afternoon. It's like this, I performed some hyper-therapy on Mr. Stark… Uh, yes, it's my own invention, but it's very effective, though it has some side effects…"
"Yes, has he gone to the lab already? What? He didn't even remember your afternoon date? Well, that's quite rude of him…"
"That's right, it will be like this for the next few days. This is a necessary process for adjusting dopamine secretion and adrenaline, and then his hormone levels will come down and return to normal, yes, he'll be fine soon…"
Schiller was just spouting nonsense. His trick was commonly known as 'getting pumped up,' and it was a 'pump-up' with all buffs stacked. Stark would definitely dive into the laboratory with a buff called 'sense of mission' and wouldn't leave for at least half a month.
He suddenly realized he had a unique talent for stacking buffs. Schiller stroked his chin. It would be great if he could stack them on himself.
However, his base stats were too weak; no matter how many buffs he stacked, they still wouldn't make a difference. It would be better to think about how to improve his foundation.