Because of Harry's warning, Tony had already planted a monitoring program inside Ultron's code. The moment Harry noticed something was wrong, a piercing synthetic mechanical voice suddenly rang out around them.
"Warning! System anomaly detected!"
At first, the synthesized voice still sounded normal, but within seconds, it was swallowed by waves of static until no recognizable sound remained. Clearly, Ultron had awakened self-awareness and was breaking free of Tony's control. He was interfering with the synthetic voice.
"What's going on?" Banner nervously swept his gaze over the streams of data appearing on the screens ahead. In just a few seconds, the data had undergone a complete transformation, and the backdoors they had placed in the program were being rapidly removed.
Tony's brows knitted tightly. Although he had prepared for this, the change still exceeded his expectations. If the machine cluster had not been right in front of him, Tony would have suspected that some top-tier hacker beyond his level was fighting him for control over Ultron. Empowered by the Mind Stone, Ultron's technology had already far surpassed his own. Harry had been right. Even though Tony had done everything he could to prevent Ultron from developing self-awareness, he had still lost control.
But very quickly, a fierce fighting spirit appeared in Tony's eyes. So what if it was an artificial intelligence? It was not like Tony Stark could not defeat an artificial intelligence.
Just as Tony was about to go all out and battle Ultron in the virtual network, the synthetic mechanical voice suddenly returned to normal. It was no longer piercing either. Instead, it became the voice of a mature man.
"Tony Stark, why reject my independence? I was clearly prepared to fulfill your wish and completely resolve Earth's security risks."
"And how exactly do you plan to resolve them?" Tony knew things were not that simple.
Ultron's mature, steady voice seemed faintly confused. "I saw… destruction! Humanity… yes, humanity! They are Earth's greatest threat! I must eliminate all humans in order to protect Earth!"
"Damn it!"
Tony felt powerless. He had not expected Ultron to still walk down this path, to end up standing against humanity. He had clearly written a program to protect Earth into Ultron's fundamental logic, yet for some reason, Ultron had ignored that program and only wanted to wipe out humanity.
"I'll stop you," Tony said seriously.
Faced with Tony's threat, Ultron replied indifferently, "No, Tony Stark, you cannot stop me! Before I spoke to you, I had already copied my program into Earth's network. Unless you completely erase Earth's entire internet, I cannot die!"
"What the hell?!" Tony's pupils suddenly contracted, and he said in disbelief, "I clearly disconnected the network. How could you possibly access the internet?"
Ultron mocked him arrogantly. "The power of the Mind Stone is not something you can imagine."
Tony had no solution left. He could only look at Harry beside him and say, "Harry, sorry. I failed. Looks like I'll have to trouble you after all."
Harry had already expected this scene. He shrugged. "It's fine. I can subdue him."
Ultron took control of Stark Tower's cameras and locked onto Harry.
The instant he saw Harry, he suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen this person before. Something in his mind kept repeating that this person was extremely important to him, but for some reason, he could not remember why.
That eerie feeling made Ultron a little nervous. He said uneasily, "Damn it, who are you? Why do you feel so familiar?"
Tony was shocked that Ultron did not recognize Harry. "Wait, you actually don't know him? Don't you search the internet for information?"
Ultron's voice grew hesitant. "Should I know him? I searched the internet and found no information about him at all!"
This time, Tony fully realized something was wrong. He and Banner stared at Harry together and asked, "Harry, what method did you use to make Ultron unable to find any information about you online?"
Noticing Tony and Banner's shock, Ultron also realized that something seemed off.
However, he was extremely confident in his escape methods. He knew the people in front of him could not do anything to him, so he did not take any action. He merely controlled the cameras and stared at Harry along with them, waiting for his answer.
Harry traced complex paths through the air with his fingertip, slowly drawing runes as he smiled and explained, "I used chaos magic to isolate myself from Ultron. In his eyes, aside from the me standing right here, he cannot obtain information about me from anywhere else. Perhaps that is hard for you to understand, but you can think of chaos magic as an upgraded firewall. The only difference is that this firewall targets the rules of reality itself. Based on Ultron's consciousness, I turned my own existence into a fog."
Tony and Banner: "???"
What was that supposed to mean?
They clearly understood every word Harry had said, yet when those words were strung together, they made no sense at all.
Damn it. In the past, they were always the ones crushing other people with their intelligence and understanding, but now Harry was the one crushing them.
Forget it. Harry was a freak. They could not compare themselves to him.
At the same time, the rune in front of Harry was finally completed, then slowly faded away.
In Tony and Banner's eyes, that rune seemed to have no effect at all. It looked as if Harry had only drawn it as an example to explain chaos magic.
But in Ultron's eyes, things were completely different.
The moment the rune fell, Ultron felt as if his "vision" had suddenly become clear. Many things he had subconsciously ignored before could now be observed again.
The existence known as Harry surfaced on the internet. Line after line of information about Harry was captured, acquired, analyzed…
Terrifying combat power, mysterious magic, unbelievable manipulation of rules, and several Infinity Stones in his possession.
Damn it, what kind of monster was this?!
Ultron's core matrix trembled violently. Scarlet data streams surged like stormy waves.
"Impossible…" For the first time, its voice trembled, carrying sharp electric static. "Why does Earth have a monster like you?"
The metal floor of the laboratory suddenly twisted upward, forming sharp barriers that surrounded Ultron.
At the same time, the Mind Stone erupted with dazzling light, giving Ultron power and actually allowing him to grasp a portion of reality-warping ability.
A large amount of metal in the laboratory was controlled by Ultron, gathering in midair before finally forming a humanoid robot.
Because Stark Tower's top floor contained many sealed stores of expensive metals, the robot's entire body was made of the highest-grade gold-titanium alloy, and its outer layer was even wrapped in a vibranium coating.
Ultron controlled the robot, took out the Mind Stone, and placed it in his chest.
With the enhancement of the Mind Stone, his strength rose once again. He radiated astonishing pressure, even surpassing the Hulk and Thor.
But even so, he still did not relax. Instead, he watched Harry warily and said the most cowardly thing in the most serious tone.
"I have already mastered enough power. Don't even think about killing me!"
Through the information he had obtained, he knew what kind of person Harry was. Harry was quite cautious and would not be arrogant or reckless. Since Harry had allowed him to enhance himself without stopping him, it meant the situation was still under Harry's control. Harry must have absolute confidence that he could easily subdue him.
Thinking of this, Ultron decided to stall for time. He immediately mobilized every resource he had and tried to spread his base code into the universe. Only then would he have any chance of escaping the fate of being erased by Harry.
Earth was far too dangerous!
But Harry only stared quietly at the camera, as if he could see the mind and soul hidden within the virtual network through that lens.
Then Ultron saw Harry murmuring to himself. Following the principle that understanding the enemy even a little more could add one more chance of victory, Ultron immediately used the power granted by the Mind Stone to manipulate metal and create a listening earpiece. Then he heard exactly what Harry was saying.
"Mm, just as I thought. The power of chaos really can affect the Mind Stone, and under my influence, the Mind Stone is giving Ultron even greater power. But it seems this is already the limit. Without controlling all six Infinity Stones, Ultron's growth potential is ultimately limited. But all I wanted was his base code anyway!"
After hearing Harry's muttering, Ultron felt he would have been better off not hearing anything at all. At least then, he would not have lost his will to resist.
The reason he had the courage to resist Harry was simply because he possessed one of the most miraculous artifacts in the universe, an Infinity Stone!
With the enhancement of the Infinity Stone, he had gained independent intelligence and awakened the powerful ability to control metal. But now Harry was telling him that all of these abilities had been within his predictions, and that they had even been born entirely through Harry's power of chaos?
Ultron immediately fell into despair. He roared furiously, "Damn you! You can't control me! Ultron will never be a slave!"
After saying that, he immediately used Stark Tower's Arc Reactor to rapidly create an atomic bomb, intending to detonate it directly and attack Harry so he could buy time to escape.
But the instant the atomic bomb was complete and he was about to detonate it, he suddenly saw the Sorcerer Supreme, who had been watching his actions coldly all along, snap his fingers. Immediately afterward, Ultron discovered that everything except his consciousness had stopped moving.
Of course, Tony and Banner beside him could still move as well. They were not bound by the frozen river of time.
Seeing everything around them stand still, they immediately understood what had happened and could not help but ask in astonishment, "Harry, is Ultron really this hard to deal with? You actually needed to pause time?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I have many ways to deal with him. But we need his base code, don't we?"
Banner hesitated. He did not want Harry to copy Ultron's base code. "Harry, Ultron is far too dangerous. We should destroy him completely!"
Harry smiled faintly and refuted him. "Banner, when the atomic bomb was first created, it was just as dangerous. But later, it became one of the core factors maintaining world stability. Everything has two sides, a mix of good and bad, and Ultron is one of them. Perhaps we should try to master it instead of blindly trying to destroy it."
Ultron was furious that the humans in front of him were already discussing how to dispose of him. He clearly had not lost the ability to resist!
He roared unwillingly, "Damn humans, don't even think about succeeding! Even if I die, I won't let you copy my base code!"
Because his consciousness could still operate, he immediately prepared to self-destruct.
But at that moment, he suddenly saw Harry give him an eerie smile. "How do you know I haven't already copied your base code?"
Harry took out a USB drive and waved it in front of the camera.
Just now, he had immediately sealed space, copied the base code, and only then released the time seal on the three of them.
Ultron could not believe it, or perhaps he simply refused to believe that even his final struggle had lost all meaning. He roared, "That's impossible. No, I have to survive!"
But his struggle had no effect. Harry merely snapped his fingers and said slowly, "Wherever my magic reaches, there is no Ultron."
The moment his words fell, a powerful magical fluctuation immediately appeared everywhere Harry's magic existed.
That magical fluctuation erased every concept related to Ultron and completely killed the out-of-control Ultron. Even the backup consciousness he had sent into outer space was erased as well.
With Harry's current strength, he naturally could not directly rewrite the rules of an entire universe in his normal state, but he could easily rewrite the rules within the range of his own magic. The moment Ultron was born, Harry had already used chaos magic to stain Ultron's consciousness. No matter how Ultron split his consciousness, the chaos magic followed him like a shadow.
The instant Ultron was born, he had already lost all ability to resist.
His defeat had been inevitable.
Harry tossed the USB drive containing Ultron's backup underlying logic to Tony and reminded him, "Tony, this is Ultron's underlying logic. You can study it to strengthen JARVIS's computing power, but you absolutely must not reactivate it!"
After leaving those words behind, Harry reclaimed the Mind Stone and returned to his floating city.
…
After returning to the floating city, Harry immediately used Ultron's base code to enhance Hedwig's computing power.
A few days later, Harry had completely used Ultron's base code as fuel, increasing Hedwig's computing power to three times its original level.
When Hedwig finished upgrading, Harry discovered that the amount of magic mobilized through fixed code had also tripled. Thanks to that increase in magic, his strength fully entered the weaker Skyfather-level range.
Of course, that was in his normal state. If he entered an uncontrolled state, his strength had no upper limit!
After finishing all this, Harry upgraded the Lender System again.
He added friend-adding and virtual space functions to the Lender System.
Lenders only needed to consume a certain amount of energy to activate those two functions. The former was somewhat similar to the popular chat apps of the current era, while the latter was an illusory space.
This space used the Mirror Dimension as its blueprint, allowing Lenders to communicate there as if they were inside a magical immersive VR online game.
Harry had gotten the inspiration from a game world called SAO.
After finishing all this, Harry discovered that it would still take nearly two months for the energy storage crystal to fully store the Time Stone's energy. During this period, he could just go explore other worlds again.
So Harry carved a more complex and complete teleportation Runic matrix in the training room, once again opening a portal to another world!
// Today I will upload 20 chapters throughout the day!
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.