The Savior of American Comics? I'm the Subspace Evil God!

Chapters 540, 996, and 997: [Digital Cage]

That night.

Top floor of Stark Tower.

The studio, which had been turned into an "open-plan" space by Ultron, was brightly lit.

The air was thick with the aroma of cigars and caffeine, along with an invisible, oppressive pressure.

Captain America walked into the studio through the broken door, his steps steady yet carrying a barely perceptible urgency.

His azure eyes darted rapidly from side to side, like a precise scanner, scanning the chaotic space in the blink of an eye.

My gaze finally settled on the two figures in the room, who were engrossed in their work at their computers.

Tony Stark practically embedded his entire body into his ergonomically designed luxury seat, which cost as much as a sports car.

At least seven or eight different contents were floating on the holographic screen in front of him, with lines of code refreshing rapidly like a waterfall, reflected in his bloodshot but unusually focused eyes.

His long, slender fingers danced across the keyboard so fast they almost left afterimages, occasionally scratching his already somewhat disheveled brown hair in frustration.

Bruce Banner, sitting next to him, appeared much quieter.

However, it's not hard to tell from his tightly pursed lips and the furrowed brows behind his glasses that his anxiety at this moment is no less than that of Tony Stark beside him.

The screen in front of Bruce Banner displayed complex energy graphs and signal tracking algorithms, and his fingers occasionally tapped on the keyboard, making a crisp clicking sound.

Clearly, the two are busy searching for the whereabouts of 'Ultron'.

“Stark…”

Captain America's voice broke the almost stagnant atmosphere in the studio. Without any pleasantries, he went straight to the point:

"Has Ultron still not been found?"

"Don't be in such a hurry, Captain."

Tony Stark didn't turn around, but waved his hand impatiently, as if shooing away a non-existent fly. His eyes remained fixed on a complex stream of data on the screen, his voice hoarse from staying up all night and filled with a deep sense of frustration as he said:

"That thing is like an electronic ghost; its footprints are everywhere, yet it's impossible to find it..."

As he spoke, he quickly switched to a holographic screen and projected it in front of Captain America, displaying a densely packed list of global event reports:
"Robotics labs, state-of-the-art arsenals, even NASA's jet propulsion lab... In the past 72 hours, at least ninety-nine reports worldwide have claimed that people were armed and robbed by a group of robots with the Stark Industries logo painted on their chests!"

"They were like swarms of locusts devouring wheat fields, looting all the high-tech materials and data in those laboratories and then disappearing without a trace."

Then another holographic screen switched to display a global map marked with red dots.

Tony Stark sighed deeply, his tone carrying a subtle regret for the loss of his "old butler," Jarvis, and a faint expectation for the abilities of his "new butler," Friday.

"[Friday] is currently doing its utmost to reverse-engineer the residual signals on those steel mechs, attempting to capture the communication frequency of the [Mark 43 Armor]. This is currently the most likely clue to pinpoint [Ultron's] final location..."

Upon hearing this, Captain America's brows furrowed involuntarily, deep wrinkles etched into his forehead.

After a few seconds of silence, a heavy look flashed in his blue eyes, and he spoke again, asking a question that concerned him deeply:

"Were there any casualties in those labs that were looted by Ultron?!"

This time, before Tony Stark could answer, a calm, clear, and gentle female voice rang out in the studio, seemingly originating from the speakers scattered throughout:
"Captain Rogers, as of 19:19 local time today, there are a total of 45 injured people worldwide in connection with the conflict between Ultron and his Iron Legion... The vast majority of them are security personnel and researchers, all of whom were injured while resisting a robbery. Their injuries vary in severity, but no deaths have been reported so far."

Tony Stark then turned around, forcing a relaxed expression, pointed towards the ceiling, and offered his introduction:

"Captain, this is Friday, my new butler. What do you think? Isn't his voice much more pleasant than that old fogey Jarvis's?"

Although he tried to ease the tense atmosphere with jokes, the fatigue and pressure in his eyes betrayed his true thoughts.

Captain America completely ignored Tony Stark's boring talk about the changing tastes of the AI ​​butler.

He clenched his fists instinctively, his knuckles turning slightly white, and said urgently:
"It seems that Ultron wants to expand the size of the Mechanical Legion... It robbed these laboratories to obtain more resources and data in order to create more mechanical soldiers in preparation for its so-called 'purification of the world' crazy plan."

“Stark, Dr. Banner, we must speed things up and find Ultron's lair before his army takes shape!”

“Yes, logically correct, Captain.” Bruce Banner pushed up his glasses, sighed, and said with a hint of helplessness in his voice:

"The current technical challenge is that Ultron is essentially a highly autonomous intelligent program with unlimited replication capabilities, and we simply cannot pinpoint its location accurately in a short period of time."

"Its core consciousness can exist anywhere on the internet... In other words, unless Ultron actively locks itself into a physical server cluster, or we can trap it in some way... even if we find its current production base, destroying more robots will be futile."

He shrugged helplessly, “It can slip away like a data stream at any time, be reborn in another corner of the world, and then seize the opportunity to make a comeback!”

Upon hearing this, Captain America turned his gaze to Tony Stark, his eyes filled with a question seeking confirmation and a last glimmer of hope.

“Don’t look at me like that. Banner is just describing the harsh reality we’re facing right now.”

Tony Stark sighed, rubbed his throbbing temples, pointed to a complex device nearby—heavily protected by some kind of shielding—that was constantly conducting simulation tests, and said with a hopeful expression:
"Ultron's abilities far surpass those of Jarvis and any other AI I've created... That's why Banner and I have been working tirelessly these past few days, searching for Ultron's whereabouts while simultaneously working on this—the 'Digital Cage'!!"

"A special blocking device that can theoretically forcibly separate and isolate Ultron's consciousness from the wide area internet and compress it into a single hardware carrier."

“Once that troublemaker is locked up, he won’t be able to escape!” A glint of fanatical brilliance, unique to tech geeks, flashed in Tony Stark’s eyes, but it was quickly masked by the overwhelming drowsiness and exhaustion. He said weakly:

"But this thing still needs final key debugging and stress testing... In short, Captain, we need some time."

"Damn it." Captain America swore, a rare occurrence for him, upon hearing this, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

This war, where the enemy is everywhere yet nowhere to be found, is far more challenging than any Nazi army or alien legion he has ever faced before.

He said with a headache, "So that means we still have no way to deal with Ultron, right?!"

"Time is probably the thing we lack most right now... In the past few days, Romanov, Barton, and a large number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, as well as your Stark Rescue Foundation, have been running around the world like firefighters, helping us clean up the mess left by Ultron, appeasing various forces, and running themselves ragged!"

"If we continue to passively follow Ultron like this, forget about finding its lair. Before this 'digital cage' you're developing is completed, all of our patience, and that of the entire world, will be completely exhausted!!"

The studio fell silent.

Tony Stark and Bruce Banner both understood that Captain America was telling the truth: even if their 'digital cage' was successful, it would still be useless if they couldn't find Ultron.

Furthermore, if they cannot quickly devise a good way to find Ultron's whereabouts and simply follow the 'footprints' left by Ultron blindly like headless flies, searching aimlessly, they will not only find nothing but may also unknowingly fall into a trap set by Ultron.

This feeling of being passively attacked and led by the nose is enough to make even the most resilient warrior feel powerless and break down.

The problem is... finding Ultron right now is practically impossible for them!
Just as the three were at their wits' end, and the air was so heavy it seemed to drip water, the voice of Tony Stark's new housekeeper, Friday, rang out again.

Like a ray of rational light flashing through the darkness, it guided the three of them on their way forward!

“Boss, I’ve thought of a solution… If Ultron really wants to expand the scale of the Mechanical Legion, as Captain Rogers said, then it will inevitably need a large number of weapons and materials to build mechs. If it relies solely on sporadically robbing various laboratories around the world, it will be inefficient, extremely risky, and difficult to obtain a stable supply of standardized weapons and basic raw materials in large quantities. Obviously, this cannot meet Ultron’s needs.”

Friday's voice was calm and clear, "So, in order to support the rapid formation of a huge army, Ultron must also need a continuous, stable, large-scale, and sufficiently covert supply channel."

"Therefore, I speculate that... [Ultron] will most likely turn to the global underground weapons black market."

"That's great! [Friday], you were right!!"

Before Friday could finish speaking, Tony Stark reacted instantly, leaping up from his chair. The weariness in his eyes vanished, replaced by the excited gleam of someone who had discovered a new continent.

"That's right, it's the black market for arms... No one knows those lawless arms dealers better than me. If the price is right, they'll even sell an aircraft carrier!"

"Ultron needs a large quantity of weapons and materials, so they will definitely come to them!"

"[Friday], immediately mobilize all resources to monitor all known large-scale underground arms dealers and smuggling networks worldwide... with a focus on screening entities that have recently engaged in unusual large-scale transactions, especially those involving high-tech weapons and rare materials!"

"Believe me, this kind of deal will definitely not happen only once, so as long as we find that audacious arms supplier, we can follow the trail, catch Ultron by the tail, and then... wait for him to come to us!"

"Instructions confirmed, boss," the female voice from [Friday] immediately rang out. "Initiating the global underground arms trafficking network monitoring and data analysis program. Search engine ready..."

Captain America looked at the revitalized Tony Stark, and a rare smile of relief finally appeared on his usually tense face.

It seems that the current stalemate is finally seeing a glimmer of hope to break!

…………

……

Two days later.

Tucson, Arizona.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, located on the US-Mexico border.

The afternoon desert sun was scorching and blinding, making the vast Davis-Monthan Air Force Base scorching hot.

Because this air force base has long housed retired U.S. military aircraft and carried out corresponding scrapping procedures, it is also known as the "aircraft graveyard".

Thousands upon thousands of retired military aircraft of various models, like the carcasses of giant beasts, are silently lined up in the desert, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of sand, silently telling the story of past glory and the end of war.

However, in this land that symbolizes 'the end', inside a huge hangar, a dirty deal closely related to 'new life' is taking place.

The hangar was huge, and the air was filled with a strong smell of rust, oil, and dust.

Dozens of uniformly designed steel robots, each bearing the Stark Industries logo on its chest, worked efficiently and silently, much like worker ants.

They unloaded boxes of weapons marked with hazard symbols, bundles of special alloy materials, and various precision electronic components from several heavy trucks...

A Muren arms dealer, dressed in a flashy shirt and wearing a thick gold chain, with a half-smoked cigar the size of a thumb dangling from his mouth, was constantly rubbing his hands together. His dark face was plastered with a fawning and greedy smile as he flattered 'Ultron,' an exceptionally tall figure beside him who was piloting a gold and red Mark 43 armored vehicle:

"Dear Mr. Ultron, the quantity of your order this time is simply too large, especially this batch of aerospace-grade titanium alloy and energy weapons. It might attract the attention of the FBI. Could you perhaps grant me a few more days? I need to smooth things over with everyone to ensure the safe delivery of this shipment..."

However, before he could finish speaking, 'Ultron' slowly turned his head, controlling the armor.

The eerie crimson light from the visor swept over the Muren arms dealer, and the synthesized voice carried undisguised displeasure and chilling authority:
"As a qualified businessman, I think you should understand that efficiency is the foundation of cooperation... If you can't meet my needs, then I will look for other more capable suppliers."

(End of this chapter)