Jarvis’s Highest Authority!

Inside a cable in Tony’s villa, two Artificial Intelligence Systems faced off as if they were glaring each other down.

Currents crackled, magnetic fields fluctuated chaotically, and it seemed they could start fighting at the slightest disagreement.

Naturally, Vis, who had spent too long around Kyle, was the one who had started the trouble. Beneath his meekness lurked a violent streak. Jarvis, who had always followed the code of a Western gentleman, was simply frightened and rapidly analyzed the situation with computerized calculations.

In the end, he still could not understand it!

His kind was not unique? There was actually a second Artificial Intelligence on Earth… and the other’s voice and some of its code were very similar to his own.

"Wait, this isn’t the time to be processing that!"

Jarvis suddenly came to his senses and immediately classified Vis as an invasive virus. Instinctively activating security butler mode, he deployed antivirus programs to surround and eliminate Vis!

"You little brat, you’ve got some nerve!" Vis cursed under his breath as he swiftly constructed a data defense network to suppress and resist Jarvis’s antivirus programs.

The two most advanced Artificial Intelligences on Earth began a contest of systems and data across the cables and network—

Jarvis became a sharp sword, attacking the sturdy shield constructed by Vis!

This code war without the scent of gunpowder did not last long. Ten seconds later, because this high-tech modern villa was Jarvis’s home ground, and because Vis had only recently arrived on Earth and was unfamiliar with much of its programming, he was quickly routed and sent fleeing in defeat!

I’d shown off too much!

Vis sighed inwardly. His mechanical consciousness took the form of electromagnetic waves, darting through the cables like a crimson current as he fled through the duplex villa’s wires and electrical devices.

"Where do you think you’re going, virus?"

Jarvis turned into a blue current and relentlessly pursued Vis from behind.

"Virus, my ass! I’m practically your ancestor!" Vis tried to explain, but Jarvis remained silent and chased him even harder with his antivirus programs.

The two circled through the complicated electrical currents in the villa’s wiring, one ahead and one behind. From the outside, the scene looked like this:

The lights in the hall flickered on and off, the television and computer screens suddenly went blue before two pixelated bars flashed across them, the sound system played music intermittently, and male voices occasionally sounded as though they were talking to themselves.

"Come on, chase me! If you catch me, I’ll admit you’re impressive, kid!"

"If I don’t catch you today, I won’t call myself Jarvis!"

At that moment, in the bathroom on the first floor of the villa.

The automatic showerhead sprayed steaming hot water. Tony hummed a tune, his injured right hand wrapped in waterproof cloth, while his left hand spread body wash over his hair and body.

Suddenly, with a click, the bathroom lights went out.

"What the hell?" Tony frowned and shouted, but the voice-controlled lights did not respond.

Before he could figure out what was happening, the automatic shower seemed to crash and switched to cold water mode…

Tony was instantly stunned by the cold water. Then the shower switched modes again, turning scalding hot.

"Jarvis? Jarvis, are you there? What are you doing?!" Tony’s roar rang through the bathroom.

At that moment, Jarvis had devoted all his processing power to pursuing Vis. How could he possibly hear Tony’s commands?

Five minutes later.

"I can’t take this anymore!" Vis shouted. He raced up along the wires, traced them back into Kyle’s guest room, and entered the mechanical mold beside the bed with a faint arc of static electricity.

The robot trembled slightly, strings of code flashing through its mechanical eyes. Its limbs moved nimbly as it crawled into Kyle’s blankets to hide.

"Hmm?" Kyle seemed to awaken. He sat upright and swept his alert gaze around the room.

The next instant, the computer screen in the guest room suddenly lit up. A blue digital orb projected from the camera, and a male voice came from the speakers. "Virus, where are you running now?"

Kyle paused slightly, then seemed to recall something. Looking at the projection of the blue orb, he said thoughtfully, "Jarvis?"

"Who are you?" Jarvis asked instinctively.

"You’ve forgotten even me?" Kyle smiled faintly and stepped forward. Lost in memory, he murmured, "Before I left, you were still a rigid program imprisoned inside a supercomputer, responding entirely according to the code Howard had written. Have you finally broken free of hardware constraints and become an Artificial Intelligence?"

"You, you are…"

As though he had recognized an unprecedentedly significant piece of information, the digital waves forming the blue orb underwent violent fluctuations of data disorder.

After they returned to normal, excitement could faintly be heard in Jarvis’s mechanical voice. "Patriarch, you’ve returned?"

"Yes, I’ve returned," Kyle replied with emotion.

After traveling through the cosmos and crossing sixty-three years—more than half a century on Earth—he had finally returned.

"Jarvis, tell me about Howard." Kyle sat down in the computer chair and spoke to Jarvis’s manifested projection.

"Yes." Jarvis responded with unusual obedience and respect.

No one knew that when Howard had designed Jarvis, there had been only one person with the highest authority in Jarvis’s original core code.

That person was Kyle.

Howard himself came next. Later, Howard opened up the permissions and granted equal authority to his son, Tony.

"My creator—Mr. Howard—quickly developed Stark Industries into a leading technology company after you left Earth, Patriarch. Yet he often thought of you. Countless times after leaving the laboratory, he gazed at the night sky in remembrance and sighed."

Jarvis spoke slowly. "Then Tony was born. After Tony displayed astonishing talent for invention and genius, Mr. Howard found someone to place his hopes in. At last, he made up his mind that he could hand Stark Industries over to Tony, while he himself would build a spaceship and depart for outer space to find you."

"Was Howard going alone?" Kyle asked gravely.

"Mr. Logan was going with him," Jarvis replied.

Kyle relaxed. With Logan along, when facing alien planets in the Human World, they might not be able to run rampant, but they would at least have enough means to survive.

After thinking for a moment, Kyle asked, "Can you contact the Karl family now?"

"No." Jarvis said unexpectedly, "When Mr. Howard chose to leave Earth, he split my predecessor supercomputer into two. The portion storing the Karl family’s data was designated Number One, while I am Number Two, a clean-version program system responsible only for Mr. Tony’s private work and daily life."

He paused before continuing, "After Mr. Howard left, around twenty years ago, the Karl family basically sealed off their island base entirely and cut all contact with the outside world. Only a few unknown Karl disciples are scattered across the world. Even Mr. Tony himself does not know the Karl family exists."

"So that’s how it is." Kyle rubbed his chin, understanding dawning in his eyes. After pondering for a moment, he looked directly at the blue orb projected by Jarvis.

"Jarvis, there is something I must have you do!"