Master of Tactical Shifts

When Kraft woke from his dream, he did not rush to create the Red Queen as usual.

Although he could copy the operations from the dream whenever he encountered something he did not understand, just as he had when creating Haro, the Red Queen had ultimately been made by the black-hearted Umbrella Corporation to work for them. Kraft still did not know what dangerous things might have been buried in her code.

So, even though Kraft had witnessed the Red Queen’s powerful ability to control networks in his dream, he had not lost his head. No matter how badly he wanted her, he had to wait until he had analyzed all the code.

Of course, he first reproduced the supercomputer designed to house the Red Queen exactly as it had been.

With Haro’s assistance, analyzing the Red Queen’s source code was not as difficult as he had imagined. It simply consumed a great deal of computing power, and the computer he had been using was starting to struggle. Fortunately, Kraft had just acquired a supercomputer.

Even with a better computer and Haro’s assistance, it took Kraft two and a half days to fully analyze the Red Queen’s source code. Aside from the Red Queen AI itself, it indeed contained Umbrella’s experimental data and various plans. However, Kraft had already seen most of that material in his dream, so he deleted it all without hesitation.

Then came the Red Queen’s virtual appearance. Kraft immediately rejected the image of the little white girl. After thinking it over for a while, he simply used Dr. Dongyun’s appearance from the dream.

Furthermore, judging from the Red Queen’s behavior in the dream, her emotional system seemed even less developed than Haro’s, let alone Alice’s. Kraft had considered adding some emotional logic to her, but ultimately gave up on the idea.

For one thing, his skills had not yet reached the point where he could independently develop an artificial intelligence. If he crudely forced Haro’s or Alice’s emotional logic code into the Red Queen’s source code, who knew what uncontrollable changes might result?

For another, the Red Queen’s network intrusion abilities were far too powerful. The rigid, mechanical way of thinking she had displayed in the dream actually ensured she would not easily lose control. If she truly possessed a human emotional system and suddenly went through some rebellious phase, Kraft had no ability to discipline her.

So this would do.

Kraft entered the final line of code, then solemnly pressed the Enter key.

Green streams of data flowed rapidly across the screen before gradually forming the image of an adorable little girl. She had long golden hair, large blue eyes, and an Eastern face. She wore a slightly oversized white lab coat, its hem dragging all the way to her ankles, while the long sleeves hid nearly her entire arms, leaving only the faintest glimpse of her fingertips.

"Hello, Angela."

Kraft smiled and waved at the little girl on the screen. Though he had retained "Red Queen" as this new AI’s codename, he had not deleted the name Angela because of Alice.

Kraft would have preferred to use little Dr. Dongyun’s original name, but whether it was "Doctor," "hakase," or "doctor," it sounded more like a codename than a name. It was no better than "Red Queen." After much consideration, he chose the name of Dr. Charles’s daughter from the dream.

"Hello, Kraft."

Angela on the screen was nowhere near as cute as Dr. Dongyun had been in the dream. Her little face was icy, without the slightest expression.

"Then… let’s test the waters with the Stark family’s AI first."

Kraft licked his lips and gave the order excitedly.

"Haro, assist Angela!"

"Mission commencing. Mission commencing."

Although Angela was stronger at network infiltration, Haro was more flexible when it came to concealing information and evading tracking. This was related to the different focuses of the two AIs. With Haro’s assistance, Angela’s movements became even more elusive, while Angela’s support enhanced Haro’s computing power as well. The two complemented one another, creating an effect where one plus one was far greater than two.

"Beep beep beep—"

Tony Stark was sleeping in his own bed with the cover girl from the latest issue of Playboy in his arms when a shrill alarm jolted him awake. He sprang out of bed.

"What’s happening, Jarvis?"

"Your network is under attack, Mr. Stark."

While dealing with Angela’s attack, Jarvis still did not forget to answer Stark’s question immediately.

"Judging from the intrusion method, it appears to be that unidentified artificial intelligence from before, and it has grown stronger."

"Get out yourself. I don’t have time for you right now!"

Stark put on his pants, tossed a stack of cash onto the cover girl, who had only just woken up and had not yet figured out what was happening, then hurried toward the underground laboratory he had built, bare-chested.

The cover girl stared blankly at Stark’s retreating back. She grabbed the cash tossed in front of her and wanted to throw it at him, but after pausing with the bills raised beside her head, she slowly lowered her hand. Then, humming a tune to herself, she put the money into the limited-edition handbag Stark had given her yesterday before leisurely getting dressed.

Tony Stark entered his laboratory, sat before the computer Jarvis had already activated, and began rapidly typing on the keyboard.

"You got away by accident last time, but it won’t be so easy this time!"

Rather than getting angry at having his network invaded, Stark felt a long-lost thrill. With Jarvis around, ordinary hackers were no match for him at all. Even that Tidal Wave organization had been identified by Jarvis the moment they infiltrated his network. If Stark had not been too lazy to trouble himself with them, none of those people could have escaped based on the information Jarvis had hacked from their computers.

But this time was different. His opponent was an AI like Jarvis, and one that was continuously learning and evolving. For the first time in ages, Stark, who had long been lonely at the top, felt the urge to compete.

Although Mr. Tony Stark confidently charged in, reality was always cruel. With Angela and Haro working together, even Jarvis and Tony Stark could not hold them back.

Before long, Angela and Haro broke through Stark’s defensive network together, leaving the Stark household’s entire database exposed before Kraft.

Under normal circumstances, Stark should have immediately disconnected from the network and used physical means to protect the data on his computers from intrusion. But Kraft had chosen a frontal assault in order to test Angela’s abilities, and with Tony Stark’s pride, after being defeated head-on, he simply could not bring himself to surrender so pathetically by disconnecting from the network.

"Jarvis! Keep tracing the origins of this artificial intelligence!"

Tony Stark roared with bloodshot eyes, choosing to completely abandon the defense of his own systems and devote all his strength to counterattacking.

"Mr. Stark, I must remind you that if you do this, all the data on your computers will be leaked."

Jarvis followed Tony Stark’s command while dutifully reminding him.

"That doesn’t matter! I have to drag this sneaky bastard out into the open!"

Stark bellowed.

Tony Stark had never suffered such humiliation in his life!