A time traveler arrives in the Multiverse with an ability that turns confident assumptions into reality. If he believes an ordinary object should perform an impossible task, the rules of the world may simply adjust to make it happen. A bicycle can rise into the sky, common equipment can behave far beyond its normal limits, and even the human body can ignore expectations that should be absolute. The power sounds convenient, but every new idea raises a larger question: if reality keeps obeying what he thinks is “scientific,” how long will it be before no one—including him—can tell where logic ends and imagination begins?
Chapter 42: 041: I Was Careless—I Didn’t Dodge
Lord Bota, or BON-ta, is an ultra-compact AS developed based on the concept of a human-enhanced combat suit. AS, short for “Armored Mobile Master-Slave System,” commonly known as ARM SLAVE (Assault Mech), is a general term for a type of, well… unscientific humanoid robot that Kraft dreamed about in his dreams. From the glimpse revealed in the dream, Kraft learned that this world contains a special group of humans called “Listeners,” who are inexplicably capable of mastering advanced technologies that lie beyond their own understanding. Doesn’t that sound a bit like Kraft’s dream? Most of the technology behind the AS, as well as the λ-DRIVER system mounted on it—which converts the pilot’s mental energy into weapon energy—was developed using cutting-edge technology that the Listeners had “heard.” The level of absurdity isn’t much better than Kraft’s dreams. Since Kraft managed to create Potai-kun, building ordinary AS units would naturally be a piece of cake. It’s just that Tony Stark uses exoskeleton armor, so he can’t very well pull out those giant robots to bully people. Plus, Kraft has stuffed Potai-kun with some other “dream” technologies, so even in a real fight, he wouldn’t be afraid of those giant mechs. As for inventions similar to exoskeleton armor, aside from Potai-kun, Kraft had only built one set of Ultraman armor. However, that thing not only revealed the wearer’s physique but also demanded extremely high physical fitness; in the “Dreams,” the only ones wearing such armor were either aliens or cyborgs. Although Kraft had no major trouble operating it with Angela and Haro’s assistance, it was still quite difficult to reach the level of performance demonstrated in the dream. Therefore, as long as Kraft hadn’t made up his mind to modify his own body, even if that armor were built, he wouldn’t be able to unleash much of its true potential. That said, the design and concept of the Ultraman armor are actually quite similar to the suit Tony Stark wears—it also has an LED light on the chest, though the face design… After taking a closer look at the mask on Tony Stark’s face, Kraft blurted out. “Benpo Ba?” “FUMOFUMO?” Kraft’s muttered words, converted by Botai-kun, came out as this strange sound again. Kraft couldn’t do anything about this strange glitch. Just like the illogical, fantastical technology found in dreams, no matter how much Kraft fiddled with it, Potai-kun’s voice synthesizer could only produce the sounds “FU” and “MO”—and as soon as the voice conversion was turned off, Potai-kun would crash. Fortunately, Kraft had no desire to converse with Tony Stark anyway, so he didn’t care whether he could speak or not. However, while he didn’t care, Tony Stark certainly couldn’t afford to be indifferent. “Wait a minute! Are you saying the test involves using this weird contraption? Are you serious?” Kraft pulled out the stun gun attached to Potai-kun, took a fighting stance, and made his intentions clear with his actions. “Oh, come on! I don’t have time to play house with a kid!” But Tony Stark had no intention of playing along. He shook his head, feeling a bit angry inside—he thought Red Queen’s creator was just toying with him. Seeing that Tony Stark was about to walk away, Kraft decided to take direct action. He let out a loud shout as a warning, then controlled Potai Jun to charge forward, swinging the stun gun in his hand toward Tony Stark’s head. “FUMO (Take that)!” “Watch out, sir!” Given the speed with which Potai-kun burst forward, Tony Stark had absolutely no time to react. So even though JARVIS warned him just in time, Stark couldn’t block Kraft’s attack. He had barely raised his arm a little when the stun baton already struck him on the head. “Thud—!” With a crisp clang of metal against metal, Tony Stark was sent flying by Kraft’s blow. “FUMOFUMOFU (Don’t ever underestimate me)!” Craft held the stun baton in one hand, pointing it at the flying Tony Stark, while making a throat-slitting gesture near his own neck with the other. “All right, looks like I underestimated you…” Stark shook his slightly dizzy head and scrambled to his feet. That blow hadn’t actually caused Stark much harm, but the loud “thud” had left his head buzzing. “Jarvis, remind me to optimize the Iron Man suit’s noise-canceling function when I get back.” “Yes, sir.” “Now then, let’s have some real fun, kid!” Stark raised his palm toward Kraft and said through gritted teeth. “Don’t go crying to your mommy if you lose!” “FUMOFUMOMO (We’ll see who loses)!” Kraft gave Stark the middle finger, but since Potai-kun had only a round, plump palm and no fingers, he couldn’t convey his meaning. Of course, with Tony Stark’s sharp mind, he could easily guess what Kraft had just been trying to say. “Jarvis, set the power output to 15 percent… no, make it 30 percent. It’s best to teach a kid a lesson properly.” Whether it was Potai-kun’s design or those slightly childish movements, everything suggested that the pilot wasn’t very old, so Stark didn’t plan on taking it too seriously. A white light flashed from the Mark II’s palm, releasing an arc pulse toward Kraft. Kraft reached behind him, pulled a miniature blast shield from Potai-kun’s tactical vest, and used the magnifying lamp mounted on Potai-kun to enlarge it, holding it up in front of him to block Stark’s electric arc pulse. “Hey! Where did he pull that shield from?” With Botai Jun’s chubby hand blocking his view, Stark couldn’t see how the blast shield had appeared—not even the cameras on the Iron Man suit managed to capture the exact moment—but the process of it being magnified was still recorded. “It seems the opponent has a way of enlarging and shrinking objects, sir.” “Enlarging and shrinking objects? I feel like I’ve heard of that technology somewhere…” Stark paused for a moment, but before he had time to recall anything, he saw the comically shaped puppet—a staff in one hand and a shield in the other—lunging toward him. “What an impatient little kid.” Putting that aside for the moment, Stark took control of the Iron Man suit and took to the air. “Can you still hit me like this?” Stark didn’t see any jet engines or similar devices on that floppy rag doll; if it couldn’t fly, it would be nothing more than a sitting duck. A mischievous grin spread across Tony Stark’s face. Unfortunately, his smile didn’t last two seconds before his expression froze—because that ridiculous ragdoll robot didn’t use any thrusters at all; it simply floated up into the air. “An antigravity device?!” So stunned was Tony Stark that he momentarily forgot to dodge Kraft’s attack. By the time he heard JARVIS’s warning and tried to get out of the way, Kraft’s stun baton had already smashed into Tony Stark’s head. “Thud—”
