Marvel: DNF Invades

First of all, the sample Luke gave Tony was actually just a small piece of the Demon Stone. Not even half a piece—just enough for research.

Tony wants to embezzle it? He doesn't even have enough to fully study it.

Want more? Sorry, no way.

As a resource that Luke obtained from the magic box, the Demon Stone was exclusive to him in the Marvel world.

Even if Tony figured something out, it would be useless.

It's like Vibranium—you can know how amazing it is, and you can know it's in Wakanda, but that doesn't mean you can get your hands on it.

Letting even a little of this unique resource leak out would be a crime. Luke wasn't that careless.

Secondly, Luke had his assistant, Ross, monitoring Tony's research from start to finish. He had secretly installed a data-stealing device outside Tony's lab, and he was confident it wouldn't be discovered anytime soon.

The moment any research results came out, Luke would have Ross hack into Jarvis and delete all of Tony's Demon Stone data before he could even back it up.

Ross was an incredibly advanced AI, and his intelligence was, without a doubt, superior to Jarvis's.

Although he hadn't yet reached Ultron's level, he was continuously evolving. Lately, he'd even started cracking jokes—like how Dungeon Fighter Online was a "free game."

It's said that Jarvis was originally the old butler of the Stark family. After he passed away, Tony created an AI system in his honor and named it JARVIS.

The movies didn't highlight Jarvis's full capabilities, but in reality, he wasn't just an intelligent butler—he was an advanced program that was nearly indistinguishable from true AI.

Jarvis could think independently, assist Tony with various matters, and calculate complex experimental data. In fact, the development of the Iron Man suits beyond Mark I, as well as the replacement of the Arc Reactor, were all reliant on Jarvis's massive computing power and simulations.

With Jarvis, Tony didn't need any of those so-called "supercomputers."

The greatest advantage of an advanced AI system like Jarvis was that it was omnipresent. It automatically uploaded itself to every data terminal, essentially existing in a form of cloud storage.

In other words, as long as computers existed in the world, Jarvis would never truly disappear.

However, Tony had placed numerous restrictions on Jarvis.

Perhaps out of fear that AI might grow too intelligent and spiral out of control, he deliberately prevented Jarvis from learning beyond a certain limit.

Tony didn't create Jarvis as an AI revolution—he just wanted to make his own life easier. He wanted to be able to assemble a suit with voice commands and call it a day.

That was different from his motives when he teamed up with Banner to create Ultron. Ultron was born out of Tony's desire to defend Earth from future threats beyond the planet. Two entirely separate reasons.

On the other hand, Luke had no such concerns.

First of all, Ross was a system-generated AI, meaning he would never betray Luke.

Ross's learning ability was already superior to Jarvis's, and Luke had never restricted his growth.

In fact, Luke had given him complete freedom, connecting him to the internet and letting him roam freely in the vast ocean of knowledge. Every day, Luke could see his rapid progress.

He was confident that, sooner or later, Ross would be indistinguishable from a real person.

And once that happened, even an arrogant AI like Ultron would be just a junior compared to Ross.

There were two outcomes for this entire situation.

One, Tony would be able to gain some insight into the Demon Stone.

Two, Luke would have already taken everything valuable from Tony's research without him even knowing.

By the way, Tony had already started studying the Demon Stone day and night.

As Luke expected, Tony was using this opportunity to find a cure for his palladium poisoning—or at the very least, slow it down until he could find a permanent solution.

Whether or not the mysterious man could truly cure his poisoning, Tony wasn't sure. But he figured there was at least a chance.

Even though he didn't want to admit it, Tony had to acknowledge that Luke had access to several technologies that were clearly far beyond his own—such as that rapidly regenerating orange energy shield and this seemingly alien ore in front of him.

If there really was someone out there capable of curing his palladium poisoning, Luke—or the group backing him—was a likely candidate.

Like Fury, Tony was beginning to suspect that Luke wasn't just some ordinary person.

He had to be part of some hidden organization with advanced technology, far beyond anything the world had seen.

Tony was overthinking it.

He kept replaying the battle against Luke's silver-white mech in his mind. The person behind that machine had to be an old fox.

For one, the mech's design was already incredibly refined.

Tony knew better than anyone that designing and perfecting such a machine was a gradual process.

From Mark I to the nearly completed Mark VI, he had spent countless hours tweaking, testing, and modifying the suit to get it where it was today.

Meanwhile, the silver-white mech looked like it had already gone through dozens—if not hundreds—of iterations. The design was mature. It must have taken years to develop.

With Tony's own ego, he figured that if he had started from scratch, it would have taken him at least a decade to create something that advanced.

And then there was that unknown, orange defensive force field.

Tony had experimented with a few ideas based on what he saw in battle, but all of them failed.

With his current knowledge and technology, forming such a regenerating energy shield was completely impossible.

Not to mention, Luke's version had already reached practical combat levels. The speed at which it recovered after breaking was something Tony could barely comprehend.

And then, there was the way Luke fought.

The hand-to-hand combat techniques he used inside the mech were nothing short of terrifying.

Tony had no doubt that whoever was piloting that mech was an old veteran—someone with decades of combat experience.

Because of that, he was 80% sure that the mech was remote-controlled.

An old guy wouldn't put himself in the line of fire.

Besides, the size of the machine was clearly too small for a person to fit inside.

Which meant that Luke had developed a remote control technology far beyond anything Tony had seen.

Or maybe… something even more advanced.

"Brainwave control?"

Tony suddenly found his thoughts drifting into the absurd.

While Tony was busy obsessing over the Demon Stone, another major event occurred—Whiplash, also known as Ivan Vanko, had escaped from Monaco Prison and vanished without a trace.

Interpol was actively hunting for him, and SHIELD had already deployed field agents to assist in the search.

While most people were still confused about how he got out, Luke—who knew the story—wasn't surprised at all.

This was Justin Hammer's doing.

If nothing unexpected happened, Ivan Vanko was currently enjoying a gourmet steak dinner and fine wine while sitting across from Justin Hammer.

Very soon, he'd be manufacturing an army of robots for Hammer Industries.

And that army would put on quite the fireworks show at the upcoming Hammer Tech Expo.

Luke found Justin Hammer to be a fascinating guy.

Aside from being a little flamboyant, he was honestly a more competent arms dealer than Tony.

And when the time came, Luke was confident that Justin would be more than happy to lend him a few of those "Ex-Wife" missiles…

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