At this moment, Loki's voice broke his contemplation: "Honestly, you guys might as well not have come. Can you know more about computers than we do?"
As he finished speaking, he picked up a piece of electrical wire. At that moment, Doctor Strange pressed a button on the side, and a burst of electric light sprang from the center of the wire. Loki yelled out, involuntarily twitching as he tossed the wire away.
"Damn it! My magic is not working! Do I really have to rewind time? But if anything else happens…" Doctor Strange muttered to himself in a quandary.
This Doctor Strange has had a very different journey from the Supreme Magician in the comics. He didn't have to pass the tests of The Ancient One. He became the Supreme Magician when The Ancient One hadn't fully yielded her title and was exhilaratingly scavenging in the cosmos.
At the Holy Sanctuary's member gift distribution, Doctor Strange has faced The Ancient One's formidable power, recognizing the magnitude of his own deficiency in magic. Even now, his powers aren't remotely comparable to The Ancient One's, and his understanding and control of magic greatly falls behind hers.
The Ancient One had spent far more time with Doctor Strange, imparting more teachings to him than to previous disciples. In this universe, Doctor Strange firmly remembered and embodied her adage: "Those who manipulate time will inevitably get mired in the quagmire of it."
This resulted in Doctor Strange becoming even more cautiously emergent about the few pieces of equipment left by The Ancient One, especially the Time Gem, The Eye of Agomoto. Under ordinary circumstances, he would avoid using it unless necessary, limiting its use to a minimum. If he did have to use it, it would only be within a small range, resetting minor characters' time without affecting any significant figures.
Holding the Time Gem, Doctor Strange stood up and sighed: "If you don't have any better ideas, I have to try to rewind time to reset Jarvis and restore him to normal. He cannot disappear."
Doctor Strange glanced out of the window and spoke: "Death won't let Stark go that easily. We cannot gamble on him arriving on time to fix Jarvis. Things will fall into chaos if anything happens to Jarvis in the Solar System Development Project."
He looked up at the sun hanging high in the New York sky and articulated, "All the construction projects on Mercury Base are under Jarvis's control. The real-time computation of interstellar transport routes within the Solar System is also his task. Our few spacecraft also have his AI assistance. Without Jarvis, relying on human scientists and their primitive methods to calculate routes, we wouldn't even be able to launch the ships."
Thor with arms akimbo commented helplessly: "Aren't you humans afraid that he will fail since you have entrusted your fate to an AI?"
Doctor Strange shook his head and retorted: "You're getting the cause and effect wrong. It's not that Jarvis took on so many tasks because he is powerful, but that the developing human race, in its extreme pursuit of efficiency and speed, had to use AI to process the massive data that humans cannot handle."
"It is precisely because of the human demand for endless efficiency that Jarvis has become more and more instrumental and powerful."
Doctor Strange turned around to lay his sight on Jarvis's robotic figure, saying, "To give Tony a tether, Jarvis sacrifices himself. Now, we have to pull him back to ensure that this golden duo continues contributing to human progress."
After he finished speaking, Loki and Doctor Strange both turned their heads to look at Shiller. Loki voluntarily walked up, put his arm around Shiller's shoulder, and said to him: "I am so sorry for what you've been going through lately. But you must know that everything is under Tony's control, you won't be in danger. We all hope to treat you and make you feel better."
Shiller slowly brushed Loki's hand away but turned to look at him, saying, "You're doing great. I'm not kidding."
After saying that, he walked before Jarvis's body, craned his neck to peer at the giant mechanical figure. Still, everyone present, including him, could barely figure anything out other than the fact that this thing just died.
They lacked even basic hardware knowledge, let alone software. Any problem occurring in an AI as sophisticated as Jarvis surpassed these people's understanding, let alone fix it.
"Now it seems that rewinding time is the best solution." Doctor Strange said with a frown. "Even though we don't understand the principle, as long as we can restore him to his original state, there should be no problem."
However, Shiller thought of something else. He turned to Thor and asked, "Does Asgard have an Infinity Gem?"
Thor was taken aback, puzzled, he asked, "Infinity Gem? What is that? Asgard has quite a lot of gemstones..."
Loki smacked his forehead, remembering what he had seen in the cosmos, he reminded Thor, "It's the Aether. The one that you had embedded in your crown. Have you forgotten?"
Thor suddenly realized what Loki was talking about. He conjured his crown and held it out. Besides Loki, it was the first time for the others to see Thor's crown, so they all gathered around to inspect it.
It was a very Asgardian styled crown, inheriting the traditional Northern Europe style. There were nine spikes on the circular crown. The tallest spike was in the center with two shorter ones on either side, and the next ones sticking out were even shorter, following a pattern of the highest in the middle and lower on both sides.
On the tallest spike, there was a glowing red gemstone, and each of the remaining spikes held several, all shimmering brightly, seemingly symbolizing different meanings.
Thor introduced, "This is the 'All-Nations Crown' that I crafted upon my ascension to the throne. It incorporates unique metals from Asgard and the other Nine Major Kingdoms, as well as the Vibranium that represents Midgard."
Doctor Strange, however, focused his attention on the most important gemstone on the crown and pulled out the Eye of Agomoto.
Doctor Strange and Thor both confirmed then that these two gemstones were of the same kind.
"Asgard has always kept the Aether, but we have never used this gemstone. The Father of All Gods stored it in the warehouse of the Fairy Palace... Yes, in the same warehouse where The Destroyer was once kept."
When Thor said this, Doctor Strange's eyes widened, "You actually kept such a powerful artifact in a warehouse with such low security???!!!"
Subsequently, he looked even more shocked at Loki, "And when given the choice between stealing this gemstone and The Destroyer, you actually chose The Destroyer???!!!"