"I'm not some superhero, so why am I doing superhero work now! This is truly bizarre."
With no clues from Tony and no help from Gaea, Artoria decided that relying on her Saturday was the most dependable option. If Saturday were a real person, she'd probably be worked to Death. Such a lazy Master, who keeps dumping work on her. After giving Saturday her orders, Artoria sighed at the benefits of AI while complaining about her own behavior. There was no helping it! She hadn't intended to be a hero, yet sometimes she subconsciously did things superheroes do, or coincidentally solved troubles that were beyond superheroes. Artoria thought about it carefully; this shouldn't count as being 'duplicitous,' right? It would be better if such face-slapping things didn't happen to her.
"Perhaps that is just your personality, Master."
No one else was around, but these words suddenly came from the computer. It was definitely Saturday, who had heard Artoria's complaining. The moment she heard Artoria's grumbling, Saturday, who had become an artificial intelligence life form, developed her own thoughts. Having followed her Master for so many years, no one understood her better. In internet terms, Master was a 'tsundere' who was unwilling to admit the good things she did and didn't want others to pay attention to her, but she would never abandon those she was connected to and would always help them.
"Why are you suddenly complaining about me, Saturday?"
Hearing Saturday's remark, Artoria's expression froze. She hadn't expected the AI to learn so quickly, even picking up the skill of teasing. It was quite unexpected. Unprepared, Artoria was momentarily stunned. When she came to, she realized she had actually been teased by this girl, Saturday. Although she sounded a bit complain-y, Artoria was actually very happy in her heart. Seeing Saturday become more and more like a real person gave Artoria a great sense of accomplishment.
"Fine, I won't hold it against you. Just keep doing a good job investigating those guys with the suspicious movements."
Feeling that her emotions were a bit off today, Artoria stretched lazily. After saying that to Saturday, she left the computer. She needed to rest. Sometimes, when a person is idle, they tend to overthink. Artoria hadn't moved much in a long time. Ever since being pestered by Galacta, she had been too lazy even to release her clones for training. Now it was time to exercise; otherwise, she would start overthinking again. As she walked toward the training room, Artoria lamented that being idle led to too much thinking and too many sighs. Instead of sitting there waiting for results, it was better to do something beneficial for herself.
"This file is a bit old! It's from decades ago."
Unlike Artoria's lack of progress, Tony had already found some traces. No matter how much the early S.H.I.E.L.D. used its influence to hide things, once something has happened, it cannot be hidden forever. Through his network and the Superpower of Wealth, Tony obtained reports from decades ago and some partially destroyed files. For example, a Golden meteor flying through the sky, a woman in strange clothes hitting an old man on a subway, and two identical people appearing at the same time. Although the records were quite chaotic, Tony still managed to uncover the major event from decades ago: Captain Marvel's first appearance on Earth.
"Were reporters back then really that bored? Making up stuff like this to lower people's IQ?"
Although he had clues, Tony had more than just clues; he had a lot of other junk. People maliciously hopping on trends to publish fake news had muddied the waters. Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time also played a part. After all, the Kree invasion and the Skrull incident weren't things the higher-ups wanted the general public to know. The internet wasn't developed back then, so they could easily gloss over things. But because of the work they did, Tony was now facing a pile of fake documents and was in a very passive position. He had a headache over this, but he was a playboy and a scientist. The most important trait of a scientist is persistence—a determination to see things through to the end. After a brief complaint, Tony began to work on distinguishing which were fake reports and which were true. This was going to be a massive undertaking.
"My omnipotent Jarvis, come and help me!"
After only an hour, Tony collapsed from dizziness and turned to Jarvis for help. Some of these papers had yellowed, and the handwriting was very blurry. Tony had to stare intently and use his imagination to fill in the gaps while reading, which was extremely uncomfortable. Eventually, he couldn't help but ask Jarvis for assistance. Seeing his boss acting so foolishly, Jarvis wanted to tease him but decided to help Tony first.
Without a word, Jarvis immediately began scanning the pile of materials on the table. With the help of mechanical arms, the stack of documents was quickly scanned, and sets of data appeared in Jarvis's memory. After completing the illegible text, the information was presented before Tony.
"Nice job, Jarvis."
Tony couldn't help but praise his self-made intelligent butler for being so efficient. This meant the subsequent data analysis would be faster, saving a lot of time and sparing him from wasting immense energy trying to distinguish truth from falsehood among all this messy information.
"With all due respect, Sir, why don't you ask your sister, Miss Artoria Stark, to help you?"
While Tony was browsing the organized materials, Jarvis's words surprised him. Had Jarvis evolved? Otherwise, how could he offer his own suggestion? Thinking of this, Tony slowed down his analysis of the materials; clearly, Jarvis's change interested him more now. Feeling excited, Tony wasn't in a hurry to inspect Jarvis. After finishing one report, he paused temporarily.
"Jarvis, if I suddenly went missing right now, what would you do?"
Instead of using technical means to investigate, Tony directly gave Jarvis an open-ended question: what would Jarvis do if he suddenly vanished? The answer wasn't fixed. As long as Jarvis gave an answer, it could determine whether Jarvis had evolved into 'human' thinking. Tony's eyes held high expectations; he hoped Jarvis could give him an answer, one that would make him very happy.
"...Sir, I would notify Pepper and Miss Artoria."
After a brief hesitation caused by Tony's sudden question, Jarvis fell silent for a moment and then gave a very sensible answer. This answer clearly disappointed Tony. The answer Tony hoped for was that Jarvis would want to make 'his own' decisions—for example, applying for the right to use the armor—rather than seeking help from others. However, this answer still proved that Jarvis had progressed, even if he was still a bit far from Tony's hopes.
"The road must be taken step by step. Jarvis, continue analyzing this data."
Though a bit let down, Tony wasn't angry. The emergence of an artificial intelligence lifeform wasn't something that happened overnight; it required a massive accumulation of data, time, and luck—mostly luck. After comforting himself this way, Tony continued distinguishing the data.
"What on Earth is this guy doing?"
Tony's actions had clearly caught the attention of a certain black-hearted Nick Fury. Looking at the intelligence gathered by his subordinates, Nick Fury learned that Tony was actually collecting things from decades ago. This sparked great curiosity in the Nick Fury because he knew Tony; if it weren't something interesting, he wouldn't bother with such things. So, Director Egg was now very confused about what Tony was trying to do.
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