Many of Tony Stark's high-tech devices require an intelligent system to assist in their operation. Without such assistance, the performance of the Iron Man armor would be directly affected.
However, for artificial intelligence to function, or rather, to truly exert its capabilities, it's not enough to just find any computer.
An intelligent program like Jarvis might have its core program on a very small chip, but to fully utilize all the capabilities within that core program, the required hardware could fill a football field.
For easier use of Jarvis, Tony Stark not only has a dedicated hardware setup in his mansion but also prepared a separate set at Stark Tower in New York.
Stark Industries also has a supercomputer cluster, but strictly speaking, this equipment is not Tony Stark's personal property, and Jarvis does not have unrestricted access to the databases within Stark Industries. In fact, many pieces of information must be kept away from Jarvis.
However, this has nothing to do with Tony needing Jarvis's assistance. Getting back to Jarvis, such a massive hardware facility cannot possibly be carried around everywhere. While it might seem like Tony can contact Jarvis anywhere and carries many devices that can connect to Jarvis, Jarvis's core unit has actually never moved from its location.
It might seem unrestricted, but in reality, once outside satellite coverage, it becomes very difficult to contact. This is why Tony loses intelligent system support when he leaves Earth, as current satellites cannot cover the entire galaxy, let alone the entire universe, without obstruction or delay.
As for other universal planes...
This time, Tony was going to meet Bruce Wayne. Regardless of the purpose, how could Jarvis, his crucial assistant, be left behind in this universe?
Tony's initial idea was to integrate Jarvis into the nanotech armor as an independent sub-program, but such a sub-program, without the hardware support of the computer cluster, would have extremely limited effectiveness. If it consumed too many resources, it would affect the armor's performance, so this method did not satisfy Tony.
Therefore, he specially modified the storage bracelet specifically to house Jarvis's hardware equipment, leaving some gaps for Jarvis inside to communicate with him in real time.
This way, no matter where Tony goes, Jarvis can support him at full power.
"You really went to great lengths just to show off!"
Tony looked smug. Although this method seemed rather clunky, it was currently the best solution.
He was incredibly grateful that he had learned magic. If he had relied solely on technological means to achieve this, he would have needed to acquire Hank Pym's Pym Particle technology to shrink the massive computer cluster to a portable size.
But even that would be far less convenient than using the abilities he now possessed.
"Don't worry about that. Let's go quickly."
"Why the rush?"
"Sir, Ms. Potts is on her way..."
"Go, go, go!"
"... "
Now Ethan understood why Tony was in such a hurry. It turned out he was afraid of being caught by Pepper.
Seeing that guy had already put on his armor and was ready to traverse to any environment at any moment, Ethan waved his hand and cast the teleportation magic.
After the familiar teleportation light dissipated, the two had arrived on that desolate planet.
Just as Ethan was about to set off directly, Tony gestured for Ethan to wait, as he needed to perform some simple tests first.
After leaving the Marvel Universe, Tony needed to test how Jarvis was doing and whether it was running perfectly.
"Everything is normal, except for being unable to connect to the previous mainframes."
Tony nodded, then used his armor to scan the surroundings, seemingly recording various data, before nodding at Ethan.
"We can go now."
Ethan was curious about what data Tony had collected, but he trusted that Tony would tell him voluntarily once he had the results. For now, he should think about which Batman world to go to.
Tony said he wanted to meet them all, but Ethan couldn't possibly visit every world where Batman existed. He only planned to visit the few movie worlds.
And he decided to visit them one by one in chronological order, with the first stop being that old film, Batman.
As a film produced in the 1980s, many things in this Batman world seemed very backward in the eyes of Ethan and Tony. Some so-called high-tech devices were like antiques to Tony, completely failing to pique his interest.
The only thing that caught Tony's eye this time was the beautiful reporter Vicki Vale, but his relationship with Pepper was very stable now, and even though he had traveled to another world, he didn't indulge freely with the thought of "Anyway, Pepper doesn't know, it's okay to have some fun!"
Instead, he followed and observed all the interactions between Bruce Wayne and that beautiful woman like a peeping tom, occasionally making sarcastic remarks.
"Are you planning to just watch the whole time and do nothing?"
"Originally, I wanted to find an opportunity to talk to him, but I found that this Batman seems a bit different from what I had previously imagined."
Ethan shrugged. It was Tony who wanted to see Batman, so he was just tagging along this time, treating it as a chance to experience what Gotham was like in the 1980s.
After just casually wandering for two days, Ethan discovered that the local customs were indeed simple and honest. In just two days, he didn't know how many robbers he had taken down.
Besides that, Tony continued to quietly observe Bruce Wayne until the Joker kidnapped Vicki Vale, the beauty who had caught Tony's eye. Tony decisively put on his Iron Man armor, rushed out, gave the Joker a good beating, rescued Batman's girlfriend right in front of him, then hovered in mid-air, looked down at Batman for a while, and then flew away.
Ethan was standing on a tall building at this time, watching Tony's actions unfold.
He had expected him to talk to Batman, but he didn't expect him to just come back.
"Why did you just come back? Aren't you going to talk to him?"
Tony had already removed his armor after landing, and then stood next to Ethan, also looking down below.
"This isn't the Batman I wanted to see."
"Oh?"
Tony briefly explained his thoughts. "Actually, I'm very curious about Bruce Wayne's insistence on the no-kill rule, and I wanted to talk to him about it."
"Why talk about that?"
Iron Man is not a soft-hearted superhero, especially the Iron Man from the movie universe. While he might not be a mass murderer, the number of villains who died at his hands is definitely not something you can count on your fingers.
Or rather, the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except for Spider-Man who is still a kid now and will grow into a friendly neighborhood hero in the future, none of the others are pushovers. They definitely fight with all their might and won't deliberately hold back or show mercy.
Perhaps it is precisely for this reason that Tony wants to meet Batman, who has adhered to the no-kill rule for decades.
"Pure curiosity."
"You should have said so earlier. If you want to see that kind of Batman, there's no need to go to these worlds."
These Batman films made in the late 1980s and early 1990s didn't particularly emphasize or portray the no-kill rule. In fact, in many combat scenes, it's impossible to tell that Batman has this principle.
It was only mentioned slightly in one of the films when he advised Robin to let go of hatred, but even then, he didn't seem to hold back during fights...
As for the Batman in Diana's world, he should have had it initially, but when he appeared in the film, he was an older Batman who had retired and then returned. This version of Batman should have already broken his vow.
In the movie universe, the no-kill principle was strongly emphasized in The Dark Knight trilogy, which can be seen as a prequel to Batman, focusing on the story of Batman's origin.
However, there were no special powers in that world. Batman was just a strong ordinary person who had undergone rigorous training.
The villains were also ordinary people, at most a bit mentally unstable...
"So there are worlds like that. That's quite suitable."
Tony rubbed his chin. He had originally planned to wait for the right time to go directly to Diana's world to see how Batman was born and grew up, but now that there was a pure ordinary world Batman, such a world seemed more interesting.
In Tony's view, although Batman seemingly had no superpowers, his abilities were no different from superpowers. Could an ordinary person learn so many fighting styles in such a short time and train all their physical attributes to the human limit? That's simply impossible.
For example, when an average person excessively trains for strength, their agility will inevitably be affected, but none of these problems exist for Batman.
From this perspective, Batman is actually a supernatural being. Coupled with his cheat-like intelligence, he possesses overwhelming strength against most criminals. In such situations, Tony can understand him appropriately holding back and showing mercy, just like he wouldn't directly fire missiles or unleash large-scale attack magic when dealing with ordinary criminals.
But a Batman in a world completely without supernatural powers, and still adhering to this principle, is quite interesting.
"Let's go there and take a look. I'm more interested in that Bruce Wayne."
As for the one below, he's just an ordinary superhero. There are more and more people like him in the Marvel Universe now, and Tony doesn't think he's fundamentally different from them.
"I thought you would use all sorts of means to snatch that beautiful woman and then ridicule Bruce Wayne thoroughly before leaving?"
"That's not a bad idea, but my relationship with Pepper is very good right now, and I won't casually hook up with other women."
"If you weren't staring at that beautiful woman the whole time you were saying that, I would believe you."
(To be continued.)