The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3939 MU Superbody Major Event (9)

Chapter 3976 The MU Superbody Incident (19)

"The cyber lifeform is using Natasha's plane crash to stall me. Something must have happened. Did you make contact with it on your own initiative?" Schiller asked.

“It can’t be considered active contact,” Doom, who was adjusting the equipment behind him, said. “It wants to attack the Batcave, but it seems unable to fight magic. The probes we placed outside the Batcave detected unusual radio waves. To communicate with it, we set up a secure receiving platform outside…”

“The key question is why you’re doing this,” Schiller said, frowning as he stepped forward. “Any interaction with it could cause it to evolve, which is not a safe approach.”

“But what we want is not safety, but victory,” Doom continued. “Evolution can be good or bad. We can steer it where we want it to go.”

"So what did you gain?"

"It has become more focused on this place, otherwise it wouldn't have suddenly staged a plane crash to slow down your journey to see us. It knows you will come to prevent us from communicating with it, so it is only by delaying you that it can further improve itself through communication with us."

Stark walked over and said, "I believe you already understand that the only and strongest desire of electronic life is to become more perfect. By using this desire, we can divert its energy. Otherwise, it wouldn't have just caused Natasha to crash."

“Do you know something?” Natasha asked as she walked over.

"It must have been planning something before we lured it here. We couldn't read its underlying code, but it might be related to some missing ship case."

Schiller and Natasha exchanged a glance, immediately understanding what Stark meant. No wonder the cybernetic life hadn't used the rescued crew against them. It might have been plotting something, but had noticed the two scientists along the way.

It was meant to deal with Batman, but it couldn't resist the temptation to communicate with these two top scientists and further update its programs. So it temporarily abandoned its troublemaking and instead communicated with Doom and Stark.

Schiller astutely observed the problem, saying, "It seems this electronic life form isn't good at multitasking."

“Yes, it’s not good at it,” Stark said with certainty. “Even among electronic life forms, there are different evolutionary paths. Some are more like supercomputers, emphasizing extreme computing power; others are like integrated networks, adept at multi-threaded work. For some reason, each electronic life form can only have one specialty, making it difficult to develop into a well-rounded individual.”

"Doom and I both believe that the electronic life form we are facing now has chosen the former. This may also be related to its change in its life form—from electronic life to radio wave life, which means it must have a primary self. This not only led it down the evolutionary path of single-person enhancement, but also caused its behavior pattern to tend to focus on doing only one thing at a time."

"To make it more and more like a human?"

"Pretty much. This is also one of the ways that many logical life forms on Earth acquire emotions—by imitating humans."

“If you say it’s not good at multi-threaded operations, then why does it invade so many multiverses at the same time?” Natasha questioned.

“Perhaps it wasn’t like this back then,” Stark said. “Evolution of electronic life doesn’t happen overnight. Maybe when it formulated this plan, it didn’t intend to take this route. Things turning out the way they are now was not within its expectations.”

Schiller grasped that fleeting insight, saying, "But now, each individual in every single universe has basically chosen to abandon the multi-threaded approach and instead choose to continuously strengthen itself. Does this mean that they might be able to become independent?"

"That's possible. It's precisely because of this that we choose to communicate with it. Because once the evolutionary speed of an individual in a universe far exceeds that of other counterparts, it may completely break away from the original entity. We need to verify whether they are truly isolated within a single universe. Because if they are not isolated, the true central hub would not allow a single thread to evolve too quickly."

“Radio waves cannot penetrate the universe,” Schiller said. “The barriers between universes do not actually exist, yet they are unbreakable. This involves a matter of rules, which no electronic life form can overcome.”

"That's what we think too. The possibility of isolation is high. Although it still carries the goal it came from and will do many things to achieve that goal, such as causing trouble for Batman, the methods it uses in each universe are quite different. This proves that the individuals in each single universe have a certain degree of autonomy. They may not be controlled by the same brain, but rather each have their own ideas."

“Things seem to have gotten complicated,” Natasha said. “We used to only have to deal with one enemy, but now there are countless.”

“No, that’s precisely why things become simple,” Stark said. “They’re not a continent, but a series of isolated islands. The ‘ego’ is both a ladder to heaven and a poison from hell, the very root of suffering for individuals in communal societies. If they want to imitate humans, they can’t take away happiness without experiencing pain.”

"So you want to give it autonomy and create internal conflicts? But they are inherently a huge community of shared interests. Even if they might part ways someday, with a formidable enemy like Batman, they'd probably be more likely to unite, wouldn't they?"

“The core of their interests isn’t Batman,” Doom said, pausing his work. “Or rather, defeating Batman is a necessary step to touching their core interests; it’s a process, not a result. What are they doing here?”

"The ultimate goal is probably to become a perfect life form."

"Through what?"

"Looking for emotions?"

How do I find it?

"Perhaps it's about creating the perfect lover."

"How to create?"

"Collecting red-haired women everywhere."

"Yes. But Batman won't let it do that. Batman is an obstacle on its path to becoming a perfect being, so it has to get rid of Batman. But what if Batman is no longer an obstacle?"

"What do you mean?"

"They don't need to defeat Batman to have a chance to become perfect beings. Will they still be chasing after Batman?"

"Perhaps not. But where would the opportunity come from?"

Doom and Stark fell silent. Schiller, however, seemed to understand something. He said, "You understand how crazy this is. If you fail, you're Batman's number one enemy; if you succeed, you'll be Batman's number one enemy."

“Science is at odds with society,” Stark said.

Schiller suddenly laughed and said, "A very good point, Dr. Stark."

Stark knew Schiller was mocking him for behaving like a mad scientist. But considering it sounded like a compliment, he simply hummed in response and said nothing more.

"Is electronic life in this universe currently the most evolved form?"

“After our previous conversation, perhaps so,” Doom replied. “If the conversation had been completely useless to it, it wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of staging a plane crash to stall the person most likely to prevent the conversation from continuing. The fact that it did so proves that it benefited greatly.”

Where do you think its central brain is located?

"Perhaps it's somewhere in the universe. But how to travel through the multiverse is a problem. Radio waves can't cross the cosmic barrier on their own; there must be some kind of medium that allows them to move freely and even communicate. But they can't use this medium forever, especially when they've developed their own selves and are looking for mates. They'll want a body of their own."

As soon as Doom finished speaking, Natasha abruptly turned to look at the machine he was adjusting. She had seen something similar in the Stark Tower's labs; it was a rack for hanging mechs, and perhaps also served some monitoring and adjustment functions.

If it were Stark, for his own safety, he wanted to build a Jaeger for his own use, he wouldn't let Doom touch it, and Doom wouldn't have the time or inclination to help. Their views on Jaegers have always been diametrically opposed.

Doom believed that Stark putting himself in a metal can and hovering aimlessly tens of thousands of feet in the air was the most foolish thing in the world. Doom preferred large-scale drone mech armies and mass production tactics.

These two people wouldn't collaborate in this field. Unless, of course, what they're creating isn't for either of them to wear, and involves some unknown areas, then such collaboration between two scientists would be necessary.

"You want to build it a body?" Natasha was increasingly confused. "If I didn't know who you two were, I would have thought you were that guy's creator and accomplices. Helping it evolve, building it a body, and using Batman's facilities and materials. Aren't you afraid he'll beat you up?"

“If he understands our thinking, he will agree with us,” Stark said confidently.

Doom walked over and explained earnestly, "Whether it's constantly evolving into emotional life or possessing a body of one's own, it's essentially moving closer to humanity. For electronic life, this is not a strengthening but a weakening. Isn't that right?"

Natasha thought for a moment and found herself speechless. Indeed, from an electronic life form capable of multitasking to one that can't even cause two problems at the same time; from an omnipresent, ethereal radio wave to a physical robot—isn't that a huge weakening?

But Schiller thought more deeply. He said, "All life in the universe wants to become more and more like God. God is an emotional being, so they would rather weaken themselves than not become an emotional being. This is what allows the universe to continue to exist."

"If the standard of perfection is infinite rationality and power, and all life strives towards this goal, all for the sake of becoming stronger, then the rate of increase in cosmic entropy would make the universe's lifespan very short. Is this God's will, or is it a higher rule that exists in the dark, one that could even determine God's state?"

“You’re more like a mad scientist than I am now,” Stark said with a smile. “All the destructive actions stem from curiosity about the nature of the universe. We all try our best not to think about it.”

Schiller snapped out of his thoughts, took a deep breath, and asked, "What kind of body are you planning to give it? Will you tamper with it inside?"

“Quite the opposite.” A glint flashed in Stark’s eyes as he said, “It will be an extremely powerful mech. Because only in this way can it be the most competitive in its society.”

(End of this chapter)