Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Hell's Kitchen, a window suddenly opened and a gust of cold wind rushed in, quickly followed by a silver mecha that whizzed into the room. After a speedy circle around the house, it landed with a puff of smoke.

With a buzzing sound, the mask of the Mark 2 collapsed, and Stark stepped out scanning around the room. He sneered, "This place of yours is truly run-down."

Shiller glanced at his hot coffee that had been chilled in an instant by the gust of wind and rolled his eyes.

According to the original storyline, Stark was supposed to transform into a superhero from an unbearable Playboy after being kidnapped.

But from Shiller's point of view now, he merely transformed from a terribly unbearable Playboy into a normally unbearable Playboy.

Unlike Bruce, who might be a counterfeit playboy, Stark was undoubtedly the genuine article.

However, after his interactions with Stark, Shiller had already identified three topics that could set him off on the spot: money, masculinity, and the fact he was not as good as his father.

Shiller sipped his coffee, nonchalantly saying,

"I am aware my consultation fee is high, but it doesn't matter. You can continue complaining for a bit longer. As long as I don't get to the point, there's no charge."

"Also, did you know, that disgusted look you wore after wiping the dust off my table with your hand was more delicate than the cherry on top of a cream cake."

"I admit the environment here is indeed poor. After all, unlike you, I'm not a billionaire. But on a side note, it was probably in such a shabby house that Mr. Howard started building his empire, a hardship you could never understand. This is probably why Miss Pepper was so worried about you after you were kidnapped…"

After stacking up the three debuff, Stark indeed exploded on the spot.

The silvery Mark 2 gave a bang, apparently Stark had just hammered something inside.

Oh, Shiller remembered, there were two more things that would set Stark off – doubting Stark's intelligence, and insulting Stark Industries' products.

"Poor Mark 2, and poor Jarvis. Pardon my frankness, but is the quality of Stark Industries' products always so…"

Of course, there's also the final point – expressing pity for him.

"…but it doesn't really matter, because they are leaps and bounds better than those robot rice cookers on the market."

Stark charged straight back out through the window he had made his entrance from earlier, evidently, if he stayed any longer, the Mark 2 would probably explode in Hell's Kitchen.

Shiller sighed a breath of relief, the depressive mood brought on by Gotham and Batman was completely swept away.

However, Stark quickly flew back, and said in clear annoyance, "I called you and you didn't pick up, so I had no choice but to fly to this dump."

"You broke my Jarvis last time, and it was only today when I wanted to upgrade him that I found out he was completely broken and had flatlined. You have to fix him."

Just as Shiller was about to speak, Stark interrupted him, "Don't even think about charging me for this. You were the one who broke him and delayed the development of my new mecha. So you must fix him or Pepper will fire you."

Shiller pondered. Indeed, the Mark 5 hadn't been launched yet, and perhaps Jarvis couldn't work anymore. Even though Stark didn't depend on Jarvis for development, he still relied on Jarvis to take care of him. He can't look after himself, especially when he is in the lab.

Shiller knew Stark was still upset, so given his current good mood, he thought he might as well offer a free session.

So, Shiller put his hands on his hips and said: "Alright, this time it's on the house. Let's get going."

Stark snapped his fingers, and another mecha flew in. Shiller looked at him incredulously, pointing at the mecha and said, "You're not saying I have to get in that to go, right?"

"Otherwise what? How do you plan on getting there?"

After a few minutes, Shiller and Stark showed up at the shabby bus stop in Hell's Kitchen. Stark said, "I can't believe the debut of my revolutionary battlesuit would be on a puffing, dilapidated bus..."

Just as he finished speaking, a rickety, smoke-belching bus pulled up. Shiller greeted the driver, and Stark laboriously tried to get Mark 2 to climb on board. Shiller said, "Actually, you could also just lift the whole bus and fly over."

"Then why on earth can't I just fly there in the battlesuit? Is there any damn difference??" Stark asked.

Shiller shrugged and said, "Because the sight of Iron Man carrying a hell-bound bus while flying would be spectacular."

After they arrived at Stark's lab, Stark stood in front of a pile of control panels and said, "I don't know how you did it, but Jarvis is flatlined, or, better said, he doesn't want to work right now. His hardware is perfectly fine…"

"I wanted to give him a massive upgrade, but I don't want this situation to arise again. If he crashes every time someone asks him a few questions, then he can't participate in combat missions, and that's not what I want."

When it came to his expertise, Stark was rather direct. He said, "I want Jarvis to become a fully electronic lifeform. An omnipotent butler. Possibly even the best butler in the world."

"However, it seems that your emotional logic problems have stumped him, even though I programmed him to be capable of emotional thought…"

Shiller said, "This is indeed a paradox, just as the questions I asked him were. While making choices, an artificial life form always follows beneficial logic. But when beneficial logic conflicts with master's commands, your setting is to obey the master's command. Yet, you also gave him emotions. Intractable emotions and impeccable logic collided, and the machine couldn't cheat itself as humans do."

"He couldn't find reasons to convince himself the way humans do. He couldn't accept that the result was already the best possible outcome, he couldn't evade or forget, so of course he jammed."

Stark waved his hand and asked, "Can I hide similar conflicting logics? For example, list certain words as prohibited or block certain emotional issues?"

"You want him to become a real electronic life form?"

"Of course, just like us. One with a soul."

"Well, simply put, if you want Jarvis to have real feelings, he can't avoid these questions, but if he can't figure out these questions, then he can't be considered a real 'life'."

"The problem is when he's troubled by these questions, he can't work, but I need him."

"Do I have to wait for him to digest it the same way I wait for an emotionally distressed woman?"

"So when Miss Pepper is emotionally distressed, do you just let her digest it on her own?"

Staring back at Shiller's shit-eating grin, Stark says, "Damn it, no, of course I comfort her, what are you thinking?"

Shiller says, "Actually, the decision is up to you. Have you not noticed? Tony, may I call you that?"

"All his conflicting thoughts come from you, because you created him and set up the principle for him that he must serve you. His foundational protocol requires him to obey your commands ..."

"This itself is not a thought process that humans should have."

"If I asked you the same questions, how would you answer?"

"If your father was about to die, and one of your decisions could save him, but he strongly opposed it, what would you do?"

"If you respected his wishes and didn't save him and he died, would you regret it?"

"If he died, do you think he would regret having you on his deathbed?"

"If he died, do you think he would resent you?"

"If he resented you, would you blame yourself?"

"If you were given another chance to start over, would you make a different choice?"

"If you disobeyed his wishes and chose to save him, and he blamed you afterwards, would you feel indignant?"

"If you disobeyed his wishes and saved him, and he regretted having you because you disobeyed him, would you resent him?"

Stark fell silent.

For the first time, he didn't react violently when someone mentioned his father.

"He wouldn't do that," Stark said.

His voice was low, but firm, "He wouldn't stop me from saving him. If I made a big mistake by saving him, he would choose to make amends afterwards, even if it cost his life again."

"Does Jarvis understand this side of you?"

Shiller got up, he patted Stark's shoulder and said: "Does he know that you're actually a lot like your father?"

"Would understanding you answer all his questions?"

"You can't expect a digital lifeform to actively understand your past and your personality with algorithms and logic. Anything you haven't taught him is a blank space to him."

"If you want him to have a real life, the first thing you need to do is the same as what your father did for you."

"You have to give a part of your life to him first, including your past, your personality, your way of thinking —"

"Just like giving birth to a child."

Stark fell silent for a long while, unusually furrowing his brows, looking somewhat troubled. He said: "I firmly believe that there's no such thing as mind reading in this world. Jarvis can't do it. How can he understand me? It's a nearly impossible technology. You don't understand artificial intelligence …"

"I don't understand 'artificial intelligence', but you don't understand 'people'."

Stark had nothing to say again, but Shiller quickly added:

"Humans exist because of wisdom, and are great because of emotions. Over the many years of Earth's existence, only we have thrived. Among all the creatures created by God, we are still the outstanding ones. But you, you're challenging God. He didn't create any creatures that can compare with humans, but maybe you can, right?"

"This is a brand new field, Tony, even your father hasn't been here. What you're conquering is a field in human history where there hasn't been any significant progress before – creating life outside of mankind."

The way Stark left made Shiller feel that he might really be able to do it.

But he still remembers to call Miss Pepper, saying, "Miss Pepper, good afternoon. The thing is, I've given some stimulating therapy to Mr. Stark... uh, yes, it's something I invented, but it's very helpful, though, with some side effects …"

"Yes, has he already gone to the lab? What? He didn't even remember your afternoon date? Well, that's very rude of him …"

"Yes, it will be like this for the next few days. It's the inevitable path of adjusting dopamine secretion and adrenaline. Then his hormonal levels will decrease and return to normal values. It will get better soon …"

Shiller was just bullshitting. What he did was commonly referred to as "boosting", and Stark would likely dive headfirst into the lab filled with this so-called "sense of mission" and wouldn't leave for at least half a month.

He suddenly found that he had a unique talent in stacking buffs. Shiller rubbed his chin, wishing he could stack them on himself.

But his basic stats were too weak. No matter how much he stacked them, he couldn't elevate. It would be better to think about how to improve the basics.