Darkness swallowed the entire control room, and the flickering holograms cut off abruptly. The final image seemed to freeze there, and Digital Tony did not show what happened after that.
But at this point, Ian did not care about Marvel's history anymore. The thought of the kind of powers Sentry's blood might grant him had him so worked up that he threw himself into pestering Tony with everything he had.
"Just let me touch it once. Can you crack open Sentry's corpse for me? If you can't, that's fine too. Let me touch one of his hemorrhoids or something. I bet he definitely had more than one!"
"I'll do anything you want afterward!" If Ian hadn't known Digital Tony had no physical body, he would probably have latched onto him like an octopus by now.
There was no helping it.
Who could resist the temptation of Sentry?
Omni-Man had already made him jealous, but Sentry was on a whole different level. Of course, if he could get his hands on Omni-Man too, that would be even better. Ian firmly believed that Homelander plus Omni-Man plus Sentry would finally let him fit perfectly into the family.
Maybe then he could even let his old man experience what it felt like to have his son chasing him from behind while Superman flew ahead. Surely his father would be moved to see that his child had finally grown up.
That was what this filial son was thinking.
And the more he thought about it, the more desperate he became.
"How about this? I'll make my good partner, Abyssal Trash Can, bow to you twice. If that still isn't enough, I can go home and beg my two brothers too."
"They both love me a lot, and I love them too, so when they kneel, I'll even put down a cushion for them." He had even started copying other people's negotiating tactics, laying out terms and conditions.
"..."
Digital Tony's projection couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth when he saw that.
"Some versions of Deadpool, and some versions of Peter Parker, would probably like you a lot."
He could not help commenting.
"In my eyes, Deadpool and Peter aren't important. I just hope you can like me too. Of course, only in the pure way adults like children."
"Not in a weird way where you build some creepy island for little boys and drag me there."
Ian used the kind of sugary, manipulative tone he had picked up from Madison, though after a short pause he still added that last clarification.
His tone made it sound like he genuinely felt the need to be careful.
"????"
Digital Tony glanced at what he was wearing. It wasn't a priest's robe. He really could not follow Ian's logic at all. In the end, he only let out a tired sigh and spoke softly.
"That will take some time."
It was obvious.
Digital Tony had agreed to Ian's request.
"Praise be to Tony, God of Machinery!"
Ian lit up with delight and thanked him sincerely. At the same time, Tony's answer also confirmed something for him. It wasn't just Hulk and Homelander whose bodies had been preserved intact.
Other people might think Ian's way of thinking was strange, but he had always just had his own ideas. And most of the time, those ideas led to a win-win. Just like now, Ian had won twice again, and could naturally follow up with another question.
"So where are all those bodies being kept?"
Don't get the wrong idea. This wasn't a rat trying to find its way into the grain store. It was just that some treasures really shouldn't stay buried.
"That's a dimension beyond reality. Robert helped me complete the final part." Digital Tony gave Ian a wary look and revealed absolutely nothing more.
Ian seriously suspected Tony was only using that so-called dimension beyond reality to feed him nonsense.
"Man, this really is a day for understanding what a machine uprising would feel like."
Ian's clumsy attempt at provoking him, still very much at beginner level, naturally achieved nothing.
"I was human once."
Digital Tony's expression did not change.
"Like I showed you, I foresaw that this might happen very early on. And once I confirmed it was unavoidable..."
He paused slightly.
"I chose to upload my consciousness and abandon my soul. I believed only a machine could avoid being affected by this disaster."
It really was exactly what Ian expected from the smartest mind in Marvel. It matched his whole image of Iron Man perfectly.
"So were you affected in the end?" Ian was very curious about what happened after the scene Tony had just shown him. He looked at the complicated expression on Digital Tony's face and asked in a low voice.
"You can just tell me quietly. I promise I won't tell anyone outside."
Ian's sneaky expression made Digital Tony fall silent for quite a while.
A moment later,
"You'll see Robert's corpse in two days. I'll divert part of my processing power to extract it."
Digital Tony shook his head, looking mentally exhausted.
He had not answered the question at all.
Ian thought for a moment and nodded.
"Divert part of your processing power? So you do have limits. Most of your processing power is being used to guide the Infinity Stones back to Earth?"
He shifted the topic at the right moment, though the question also came from real confusion. Ian still didn't fully understand the extent of AI Tony's abilities.
"Guiding the Infinity Stones back to Earth is a minor task."
Digital Tony, honest as ever, once again answered the boy he had already labeled in his internal database as a pest.
"The main task consuming my processing power is exactly what all the people you can see in this base are for. I am separating every affected soul back into its original form."
"Gwen, Betty, and everyone else can all be viewed as test runs."
"It's a massive project. Every fused soul has to go through extremely precise calculations before it can be correctly divided back into thousands upon thousands of individual people."
"In the end, all of those soul-fragments will return to their original lives under my guidance."
Tony summarized his work in a few concise lines.
Ian was stunned.
Even with the imagination of a future bestselling author, he had never dared to think in that direction.
"I thought Gwen and the others were special kinds of souls..."
Ian clicked his tongue inwardly. Maybe Marvel's true central theme really was that Tony Stark would always end up as its savior.
No.
He wasn't just a savior anymore.
This time, Tony was basically stepping in as the Creator.
"You're planning to reboot the multiverse with the Infinity Stones? Can the Infinity Stones even do something like that?" Of course Ian was able to connect the new information with what he had already learned.
If Tony wasn't lying,
then Ian felt like he finally understood what Digital Tony existed for.
"It doesn't need to be done all at once. We have infinite time. Enough to restart an infinite number of universes."
Against the dark holographic backdrop, Tony raised a hand.
"My existence is for the sake of attempting it, whether it succeeds or not."
As soon as he finished speaking,
four brilliant stones appeared in his palm.
The purple Power Stone.
The blue Space Stone.
The red Reality Stone.
And the green Time Stone.
Only the Soul Stone and the Mind Stone were missing.
(End of Chapter)
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