After leaving Tony Stark with a parting word, Loren steered the Batwing away, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Watching the Batwing streak across the sky like a rainbow before vanishing over the horizon, Tony Stark’s face grew increasingly clouded with suspicion.
“This guy knows me, but I don’t know him.
Who on earth is he?
He actually has an armor suit too.
That’s bizarre!” Tony Stark muttered to himself.
Countless questions flooded his mind, but at this moment, there was no one to give him answers.
“Jarvis, search the net immediately for any news about a Batwing or a Batsuit.
I want to know who that guy is!” “Understood, sir.
Initiating search.
The codename for this task is provisionally set as: Operation Search for Batman.
How does that sound?” “Batman?” “That moniker actually fits his look perfectly.
Sure, let’s call him Batman from now on!” Loren, of course, had no idea that Tony and Jarvis had already dubbed him Batman.
If he did, he would probably give them a thumbs-up and say, “You guys are some goddamn geniuses!” “Boss, why did you save him?” inside the Batwing, 2B looked at Loren with curiosity.
“Didn’t you say he’s your strongest competitor in this world?
Wouldn’t it be better if he died?” Because Loren’s actions contradicted the logical behavior patterns calculated by her AI brain, she found it very difficult to understand.
“In the field of technology, Tony Stark is indeed my fiercest competitor in this world.
But precisely because of that, he can’t be allowed to die so easily!” “Why is that, Boss?
I don’t understand.” 2B tilted her head, her face filled with confusion.
“Because masters are often lonely and isolated.
It’s lonely at the top, and a true kindred spirit is hard to find.
If the field of technology lacked someone like Tony Stark, this world would be far more boring.
Remember what I said about joy?
Humans need joy, and competition is one of the avenues to finding it.” “Boss, I still don’t understand.” “It’s fine.
You’ll understand eventually.” Loren gave a faint smile and slowly closed his eyes.
In truth, his decision to save Tony Stark wasn’t just because he didn’t want to lose an exceptional rival.
The primary reason was that whenever he participated in any event within the Marvel world, he would receive a corresponding reward.
This time was no exception.
As soon as he rescued Tony Stark, a system notification chimed in his mind.
[Congratulations to the host for participating in the rescue of Iron Man.
Reward: Improved Arc Reactor Technology!] Hearing the system notification echo in his head, the corners of Loren’s mouth curled upward in a quiet smirk.
Just as he had guessed.
After experimenting with the system during this period, he had basically grasped its pattern.
Most of the system’s rewards were related to the characters involved in the events.
For instance, when Kingpin possessed the enhancement serum, the system rewarded him with the Perfect Super Soldier Serum.
Since this event involved Tony Stark, the system rewarded him with the Improved Arc Reactor Technology.
It was all highly consistent.
Of course, not all events were like this.
If the characters involved in an event weren’t particularly outstanding, the system would randomly draw a reward from either the Marvel universe or the NieR: Automata world he had unlocked.
Along with the system notification, a wave of knowledge regarding the Arc Reactor instantly integrated into his brain.
Within a mere breath, he completely understood how the Arc Reactor worked.
Moreover, the system’s reward was the improved version of the Arc Reactor.
It was important to note that the improved Arc Reactor technology utilized a completely new element—one inspired by the Space Stone.
In the timeline of *Iron Man 2*, Tony Stark would only create this new element later.
Thanks to this new element, Tony was able to escape the agony of palladium poisoning.
Not only that, but it also boosted the Arc Reactor’s performance by twenty percent compared to the original, which was nothing short of a qualitative leap.
Now, this technology—which had yet to appear in this world—had fallen right into his hands.
Naturally, he was thrilled.
In truth, he had been struggling lately to find suitable energy sources for 2B, his anti-gravity drones, and the Batsuit.
Although the system had rewarded him with the manufacturing technology for the multipurpose battle androids, the technological level of this world placed limits on him.
Consequently, he had been using solid-state batteries for their power source.
Even though he was using the most advanced solid-state batteries this world had to offer, the battery life was still far from ideal.
For instance, 2B’s maximum operating time was eight hours.
The anti-gravity drones, being smaller, lasted slightly longer at twenty-four hours.
As for his Batsuit, it went without saying.
Its operating time was a measly four hours.
Furthermore, once he activated the anti-gravity flight systems, the battery life would plummet drastically to a mere half-hour.
This was one of the reasons why, right after saving Tony Stark, he had quickly retreated back to the Batwing.
Because of this, they had to be recharged every single day, or they would slip into standby mode and become completely useless.
Under normal circumstances, daily charging wasn’t a big deal—no different from plugging in a smartphone.
But in a crisis, such limited battery life would be a fatal flaw.
For example, if your robot or your armor suddenly shut down and entered standby mode in the middle of a battle because of a dead battery, wouldn’t that be infuriating?
Because of this bottleneck, he had been wracking his brain lately, trying to find a superior energy source to meet his requirements.
He had considered nuclear power, but due to technical limitations, he hadn’t yet figured out a way to miniaturize it.
Who would have thought that at this critical juncture, the system would directly reward him with the Arc Reactor technology, solving his urgent crisis in one fell swoop!
This was the very definition of a timely blessing!
How could he not be ecstatic?
According to his calculations, once he installed the improved Arc Reactor inside 2B, she wouldn’t need to recharge for at least a month.
Moreover, the reactor’s abundant energy output would vastly increase her combat prowess.
At the very least, her physical strength would be roughly three times its current output.
This would also be of massive help to his Batsuit.
The Arc Reactor would allow him to fly continuously for twenty hours.
If he wasn’t flying, it could power the Batsuit’s standard operations for an entire month.
Thus, the Arc Reactor technology would completely revolutionize the current state of both 2B and the Batsuit, elevating their capabilities to a whole new level.
With this thought, Loren didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately threw himself into manufacturing…