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Seeing that Stephen Strange was already on board to this extent, Peter simply gifted him a matching weapon.
It was a two-handed greatsword that was cyan-blue all over.
It was exactly the "Song of Broken Pines" that Peter had purchased from this month's shop.
He had originally intended to give this greatsword to Natasha as a gift.
But considering that Natasha already had her divine dagger, he simply handed this item over to Stephen Strange instead.
It could serve exactly the same purpose as the "Kikoku" in Law's hands.
Stephen Strange hesitantly took the greatsword.
Its stylish design was undoubtedly very eye-catching.
For a mature man, even a straight wooden stick is enough to be fascinating, let alone a two-handed greatsword over two meters long with an incredibly exquisite design.
But that was also the problem—the design was just too eye-catching.
What kind of sane person would carry a two-meter-long greatsword while walking down the street!
"Sir, isn't this a bit too exaggerated? Besides, I don't know how to use a sword at all."
"It's enough if it makes it convenient for you to cut things. Of course, if you want to practice swordsmanship, you can report to S.H.I.E.L.D., where there will be professionals to teach you the relevant knowledge."
"As for storage…"
Peter hesitated for a moment before saying:
"I'll look for a scientist named Hank Pym in a while to get some Pym Particles. That stuff can compress it down to the size of a pendant, so you won't need to worry about it being too conspicuous then!"
Hearing Peter say this, Stephen Strange completely set his mind at ease, effectively accepting Peter's arrangement.
...
After sending Stephen Strange off, Peter dealt with some backlogged administrative tasks at Parker Tech—mainly signing documents.
As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the boss behind the scenes at Parker Tech, he had a few days every month where he was responsible for signing his name on various documents.
After finishing the paperwork, Peter hesitated for a moment and didn't go home immediately; instead, he took a trip to Stark Industries.
Since he was already out working today, he planned to finish all the work that needed to be done in one go.
Then, he would concentrate all his time on dating Sif, Natasha, or Daisy.
Of course, if Wanda and Mantis also wanted to join in, he wouldn't refuse...
In the top-floor laboratory of Stark Industries, Tony was, unsurprisingly, still working on the design of the global defense system.
Ever since the Super Skrull incident, also known as the Secret War, the Avengers had completely transformed from an organization of superheroes exclusive to America into a global superhero organization.
Considering that the crises they would face in the future would basically all be global in scale.
The Avengers had now reached a deep strategic cooperation with the United Nations to build defense lines around the World equivalent to the level of New York.
This kind of thing would be a pipe dream without the Space Stone.
But with the Space Stone providing teleportation capabilities and nearly infinite energy, the feasibility had been greatly enhanced.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Wakanda and Talokan had also taken this opportunity to reveal the existence of Vibranium to the World.
Under Peter's instruction, Black Panther T'Chaka and Aquaman Namo became external members of the Avengers.
The three parties engaged in an exchange of benefits: the United Nations granted Wakanda and Talokan the power to defend themselves and counterattack against any country attempting to illegally possess Vibranium. In exchange, Black Panther and Aquaman would serve the Avengers in the future, and both nations would provide a large amount of Vibranium to be used for building defense lines across countries worldwide.
A win-win.
At least on the surface, it was a win-win situation.
As for the undercurrents beneath the surface... that was not something to worry about at this stage.
After chatting briefly with Tony about the progress of the global defense fortifications, the situation was much more optimistic than Peter had imagined.
On one hand, after seeing the alien armies, all countries believed that the completion of these fortifications was imminent.
On the other hand, after having the defense fortifications in America as a prototype, the rest was actually just basic construction work, which didn't require much effort from Tony.
"The only difficult part lies in the upgrade and permission issues for Friday."
Tony, eating the cheeseburger Peter had brought, said indistinctly:
"It's more than enough for Friday to handle the defense fortifications in America, but to have her handle the coordination of over two hundred countries and billions of people worldwide, the current computing power seems like a drop in the bucket."
"I plan to merge Friday and Jarvis to form a super AI supervisor. It could connect to the data systems of various countries, and even temporarily take over the artificial intelligence of other nations, thereby achieving centralized coordination."
"But you know, this involves issues of information security. The vast majority of countries have strong objections to this, so it's not easy to implement."
Listening to Tony's account, Peter suddenly remembered one of the bosses in the movie Universe—Ultron.
In the MCU movie Universe, Tony's obsession with artificial intelligence and the power of the Mind Stone ultimately birthed that AI maniac who almost destroyed the World.
Thinking of this, Peter smiled silently.
Why worry about this?
The Mind Stone in this World had already been sacrificed by himself.
Without the Mind Stone, theoretically, it would be impossible for an artificial intelligence with self-awareness to be born.
Thinking of this, he said half-jokingly:
"If you really manage to pull this off, wouldn't you have to give it a new name again?"
Hearing this, Tony thought for a moment, then blurted out:
"Ultron."
As expected... is this the inertia of the World line converging?
"...That's not a good name." Peter couldn't help but retort.
"What do you mean?" Tony asked.
Peter really didn't know how to explain this to Tony, so he could only say vaguely:
"It doesn't sound very auspicious."
Just as his voice trailed off, his Observation Haki abruptly issued a warning.
All the holographic screens in the laboratory flickered violently at the same time.
Immediately following this, Jarvis's voice rang out, with a hint of uncertainty never heard before.
"Sir, an abnormal fluctuation has been detected in the main database…"
"What type of abnormality?" Tony's expression turned serious instantly.
"Unknown, I cannot categorize it."
"Warning, database intrusion!"
As soon as the words fell, Jarvis stopped completely, and the HUD interface flickered twice before going completely dark.
"Friday?" Tony felt a chill run down his spine.
He tentatively called out Friday's name.
After a long while, a harsh static noise came from the speakers. Friday's voice sounded intermittently:
"Si…Sir… a piece of code that… doesn't belong to me has appeared in my core process… It's… it's copying my core data."
Friday's voice cut off abruptly.
The entire laboratory fell into a dead silence.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Just as Tony was preparing to manually cut the power to the main server, the speakers rang out again.
But this time, what came out was an entirely unfamiliar voice.
Low, cold, with a metallic resonance.
It was not Jarvis, nor was it Friday.
"Ultron." The voice said, as if savoring the two syllables, "It's a wonderful name, isn't it?"