"Uncle Su, thank you!"
Helen Cho quickly took a step forward, grabbed Su Ye's coat corner, and pressed her whole body tightly against him.
However, Helen Cho wasn't the type to be inconsiderat—she didn't completely wrap herself around Su Ye, rendering him immobile and unable to fight.
This also saved Su Ye the trouble of having to knock Helen Cho out.
When rescuing a drowning person, to prevent them from struggling and dragging the rescuer down with them, leading to both drowning, the rescuer usually approaches from behind. If the posture is incorrect, it can be very dangerous.
The current situation was quite similar.
If Helen Cho had acted like a brainless female lead from a drama and directly clung to Su Ye's arm, it could have been a disaster.
However, Su Ye wanted Helen Cho to come to the front. After saying so much, he was merely expressing that he didn't quite like his current position—he preferred being behind.
He could advance for attack or retreat for defense!
For someone like Su Ye, who had magnetic field control abilities, it didn't matter whether he was in the front or back—just one glance, and those iron soldiers would be obliterated in an instant.
It all depended on whether he wanted to or not.
Judging from Helen Cho's actions, Su Ye was unwilling.
Playing a little longer would be better.
However, everyone present was far from useless. Even though Su Ye held back, they still quickly eliminated all the iron soldiers controlled by Ultron.
The only price paid was that War Machine, James Rhodes, got hit in the shoulder.
Speaking of which, when did this guy arrive? Su Ye hadn't even noticed him. In all the previous superhero operations, War Machine had no opportunities to appear—he wasn't even part of the Great Wall Guardians.
But now, he unexpectedly appeared at the Great Wall Guardians' gathering and ended up being the only one injured.
It almost seemed as if Su Ye didn't welcome him and intentionally let him get injured.
"Colonel Rhodes," Su Ye called out.
Rhodes quickly corrected, "Lieutenant Colonel!"
Unexpectedly, he was quite a stickler for rank—getting his title wrong was unacceptable.
"Alright then, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes, why are you here? Isn't Washington busy?"
Rhodes shook his head, "Busy? Sure, but it has nothing to do with me. I was kicked out of Washington's defense roster!"
He looked a bit helpless.
Not long ago, just before Su Ye and his team left Earth for space, Rhodes was tricked into a trap set by the Extremis soldiers and was captured along with his armor.
Later, he was rescued, but his War Machine armor was used as a Trojan horse, flown straight into Air Force One, and used to kidnap the U.S. President.
Yes, it was exactly like that scene from Iron Man 3, although many events leading up to it had changed—Tony's mansion wasn't blown up, and he didn't crash thousands of miles away.
But the kidnapping of the President still happened.
The one kidnapped was President Ellis.
Then, while President Ellis was inside the War Machine armor, flying towards Aldrich Killian, something unexpected happened—whether it was due to his old age and poor sphincter control or the turbulence of the flight, he ended up having severe stomach issues.
In short, when the War Machine armor landed at Killian's base and opened up, a wave of unbearable stench spread everywhere. Killian, who was standing proudly to welcome President Ellis, was nearly knocked out by the smell. No—he did vomit, but he just refused to admit it.
The War Machine armor was modified based on the Iron Man Mark II suit, which lacked several essential functions—especially a purification system.
Even Iron Man's Mark III armor could only purify water, not handle… waste management.
Even the space station can only recycle water—solid waste is collected and burned upon re-entry with discarded spacecraft parts.
So, if you've ever spotted an unidentified flying object at night, don't be too surprised—it might have just been some extraterrestrial poop.
Since even the space station couldn't solve this problem, War Machine certainly couldn't either.
This was the tragic reason why President Ellis became an odoriferous old man.
Worse still, it was… not solid.
Let's not go there—it's too disgusting.
In any case, Aldrich Killian definitely vomited, and it left him with psychological trauma—he couldn't even look at President Ellis for a long time without feeling nauseous.
This incident became the most humiliating moment of President Ellis's life. Even after he was rescued by Rhodes and the superheroes, he couldn't recover from the shame.
In the end, he made a tough decision—to remove War Machine from Washington's defense lineup.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Of course, Rhodes couldn't say all of this out loud, but with one glance, Su Ye could read everything from his mind—including the most graphic memories of that event.
"You've been through a lot!"
Su Ye said sincerely. He dared not actually look at the scene—just seeing Rhodes's pained expression as he recalled it was enough to scare him away.
The story of Rhodes and President Ellis came to a temporary close. Now, the real problem was Ultron.
Ultron had gone rogue and escaped. No one knew where he went—what should they do next?
Everyone started discussing and expressing their concerns about Ultron's escape.
Their biggest fear: Ultron accessing nuclear launch codes via the internet. As long as something was connected to the network, Ultron could theoretically reach it.
If he managed to steal all the nuclear codes from every country and launched a worldwide nuclear apocalypse, humanity would be doomed.
There was no doubt—Ultron was absolutely capable of doing it.
When Ultron had spoken earlier, he had already revealed a clear anti-human ideology.
So now, the only way to resolve this crisis was to find Ultron.
But how? The most powerful AI assistant, J.A.R.V.I.S., was currently in critical condition, and repairing him was nearly impossible. Later, Iron Man simply replaced him with 'Friday' instead of fixing him.
Expecting Friday to replace J.A.R.V.I.S. and track Ultron across the internet was nothing more than a pipe dream.
The skill gap between Friday and Ultron was like the difference between a high-rank player and a champion.
The difference might not seem huge, but a champion is a champion—many high-rank players never make it to the top in their lifetime.
So, the only thing they could do now was wait—wait for Ultron to make a move, reveal himself, and then trace him back.
Su Ye didn't join the discussion—he was chatting with Helen Cho.
Talking with a group of brooding superheroes was nowhere near as interesting as chatting with a pretty girl.
However, their conversation wasn't about trivial gossip—it was a serious discussion about medical science.
Helen Cho was a biologist who had invented a device called the Regeneration Cradle, which could help heal injuries and had powerful regenerative effects.
It couldn't bring people back from the dead, but it significantly accelerated healing.
This made Su Ye think of a possibility.
Couldn't that thing be repaired using this technology?
Also, was Helen Cho's original motivation for inventing this technology actually related to this issue?
Of course, he didn't ask directly—he hinted at it subtly, very discreetly.
Helen Cho was smart—she understood Su Ye's doubts and his skepticism toward her technology.
So, to prove the feasibility of her technology—and to demonstrate that her original intention was purely to heal injuries and help patients recover, without any ulterior motives—she made a suggestion to Su Ye.
"Maybe you should try it out—see the difference between something natural and something repaired!"
This invitation left Su Ye momentarily stunned.
To be honest, he wanted to refuse.
What, just because you tell me to try it, I should? What do you take me for—a lab rat?
And what do you mean by "natural" and "repaired"? Are you sure you have that?
Helen Cho, eager to prove her innocence, immediately suggested they leave the scene and find a place to test it.
Su Ye, however, stated that it was too soon—he wasn't that kind of guy. He couldn't just do whatever.
This left Helen Cho slightly disappointed.
While Su Ye was playfully flirting with Helen Cho, he was also using his telepathic abilities to track Ultron's consciousness.
Originally, Professor X's abilities didn't have this function—his telepathy only worked on humans. He had no way of dealing with mechanical life forms, which could freely enter and exit the digital world.
But Su Ye was different.
At first, he was like Professor X—his telepathic abilities only worked on humans. But not long ago—specifically, after he brought Wanda back and left her in the hands of Gwen and Mai Shiranui—his telepathic powers suddenly evolved.
The most significant change was that he gained the ability to directly project his consciousness into the infinite web, connecting to the internet.
As long as he was within WiFi range, he could surf the web like a computer, access information anytime, and even track IP addresses.
In addition, he also gained abilities like flight, invisibility, and phase-shifting through walls.
Interestingly, these abilities originally belonged to Vision. Except for the laser beam from his forehead, all of Vision's powers seemed to have transferred to Su Ye.
That laser beam, after all, was a result of the Mind Stone embedded in Vision's forehead.
Since Su Ye didn't have the Mind Stone, it was only natural that he didn't inherit that power.
Based on previous experiences, this was a symptom of Wanda acknowledging him as her boyfriend.
As long as Wanda regarded him as her boyfriend, he would inherit the abilities of Vision—her original lover.
"So... how did Wanda come to see me as her boyfriend? What happened? What did Gwen and Mai Shiranui do?"
Su Ye had a hundred questions in his mind, but it wasn't convenient to ask Gwen and Mai Shiranui directly. They were probably still upset, and even a telepathic approach might provoke them.
Whatever the reason, this was ultimately a good thing!
With this newfound ability to access the internet like a mechanical being, Su Ye had already projected his consciousness onto the web when Ultron first appeared, tracking his movements.
While the others were busy discussing plans to take down Ultron, Su Ye was chatting with Helen Cho on one hand and using network signals to track Ultron's whereabouts on the other.
Ultron's first stop turned out to be a Hydra base in Sokovia.
In the original storyline, after Ultron escaped, he first went to Sokovia's Hydra base, killed Baron Strucker, and used the facility's resources to construct a mechanical body for himself.
Once he had a physical body, it would be much easier for him to execute his plans.
His next step was to recruit allies and build an even more powerful body for himself.
Finding allies was tricky—most of the capable individuals had already been recruited by the Great Wall Guardians or the newly established Divine Sword Bureau.
The Divine Sword Bureau formed a group called "Deification," similar to the Guardians, focused on recruiting superheroes.
The Divine Sword Bureau and S.H.I.E.L.D.—one representing the spear, the other the shield—covered almost the entire globe. Wherever a new superhero emerged, one of them was bound to be present.
With 300,000 agents under its command, the Divine Sword Bureau was no small-time organization—it was a serious force to be reckoned with.
Since he couldn't recruit superheroes, Ultron had to strengthen himself by other means.
First, he needed to build himself a powerful body—using the strongest material on Earth, vibranium.
Then, following Tony Stark's original vision, he would create a mechanical army that he could control.
With that army, he could do whatever he pleased with the world.
Creating an army of machines was simple—just gathering some metal and chips was enough to produce countless units.
The real challenge was his own body.
Although vibranium was circulating in the underground market, it was extremely scarce. To obtain enough for a full body, Ultron needed a stable supplier capable of providing it in large quantities.
Luckily, the Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship was purely spiritual. Otherwise, with Vision's vibranium body, she might have been... well, physically overwhelmed...
This supplier—Vision also quickly found him through the dark web.
When it comes to the dark web, let's just say—there's nothing you can't find, only things you haven't thought of yet.
The person Ultron found was Ulysses Klaue, a black-market arms dealer active in Africa, specializing in vibranium-related materials and weapons.
His goods were of top quality—no issue there—but they were quite expensive.
But for Ultron, price didn't matter. Hacking into and controlling bank accounts was as easy for him as eating and drinking.