When Pikachu saw Stark, he was building a mecha on the spot. From a distance, you could already hear him swearing:
"Weren't we supposed to be playing a game?! Shouldn't it be that after gathering enough parts, the mecha just goes 'shush' and appears? Why do I have to hammer it myself???"
"This game does have some realistic parts," Steve advised, "Besides, if you hammer it yourself, the quality will be better. Would you dare to drive one if it just appeared for you?"
Stark sighed, still mumbling, but his hands didn't stop. After clanking and banging for a long time, he only managed to fashion an iron shell similar to the first-generation mecha.
"Oh my God, I feel like I've aged backwards, remembering the glorious days back in Afghanistan..."
"Looks like you'll never shake off the identity of an arms dealer."
Stark moved to the side of the mecha to inspect the parts, and saw Pikachu coming towards him. Startled, he quickly moved to the front, ready to put on the mecha at any moment.
"Hey, don't be nervous! I'm here for business!" Pikachu shouted, "Have you found the key item?"
"Key item?" Stark asked.
"Yes, haven't you heard? Everyone has a special item that pairs with their skills, significantly boosting combat power."
"I haven't found it," Stark said, "I've been too busy scavenging parts, you wouldn't believe how many buildings I raided just to gather the most basic mecha components. Let me know which jerk wrote this set of skills. How can technology be such an inconvenience?!"
"I have a question," Pikachu said, "Since you're ultimately the one hammering the mecha, can't you optimize the design to use fewer parts? Or have you come across any tech-style buildings you could dismantle to combine things?"
Stark's expression was blank, while Steve was in the command room laughing uncontrollably.
Pikachu waved his little paw and said, "On the surface, this looks like a strategy game, but in reality, we all know this is the Battleworld. The universe administrators' coding skills are not something Earth game developers can match. This is a real world, and we are real beings. This means there must be many opportunities to think outside the rules, right?"
"Damn it, damn it!" Stark cursed twice, pursing his lips, looking a bit embarrassed, he said, "I haven't played video games much, I didn't know this!"
"Alright, Tony," Steve said, "Even though you usually appear rebellious, we all know deep down, you're actually a rule-abiding person. You tend to follow the rules rather than break them. In that regard, I'm even more unconventional than you."
Peter, listening to their conversation in the command room, also nodded. In many people's stereotypes, Iron Man is the kind of wealthy guy with a bad temper who wants to stand out and gain others' attention as his life's purpose; while Captain America is the kind of rule-following, kind and tolerant person.
But the truth is quite the opposite. Many times, Captain America's temper is rather strong and irritable. Part of it stems from his military experience. The U.S. military is all about macho culture; if you don't act tough enough, you can't control the people below you, and even have to act tough and irritable, or else someone will walk all over you.
Another part is the credit to genetic modification. Again, physical modification affects hormones, and hormones partially affect the mind. Over the years, it also affects personality. Modified people like Steve and Natasha are very energetic due to the hormone impact, and when people are mentally high, they tend to be more aggressive.
Moreover, Captain America is not the rule-abiding person many think he is. He grew up during America's wildest golden age, equipped with an old-era pioneering spirit. As long as he could achieve his goals, he could disregard reputation and face; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many funny stories about him in recruitment propaganda.
And Iron Man, even though he appears to be a playboy, carefree on the surface, internally he's actually conservative, even extremely restricted by social morals.
His personal romantic experience is quite rich, which is just the American context. Let's put it this way: him dating models or taking beauties on yacht trips, changing girlfriends more often than magazines change covers, places him among the most rule-abiding homebodies among America's wealthy.
After all, he doesn't have any perverted hobbies, missing ex-girlfriends for no reason, illegitimate children all over the world, or suddenly disappearing from public view during annual island openings. Even when Natasha always jokes about his "poor performance," he only complains a bit among friends. If he sued Natasha, Nick would have to pay through the nose.
Another evidence is when others said he was harming people by selling arms, so he decided to close the arms department. This shows he is constrained by social morals. Additionally, in the Superhero Registration Act, Iron Man was also in favor. He believed superheroes had an obligation to accept supervision from the government and the public, which shows he is a rule follower.
Moreover, Stark is someone who dreams of a perfect family. The so-called perfect family involves marrying and having children with someone you love, being a good husband and father, and then living a happy and fulfilling life. In modern times, this is actually a very conservative idea.
Then we have to mention why many think Iron Man in Illuminati behaves outrageously. This is because there's a difference between his movie and comic images. The comic version of Iron Man is more outrageous, initially a pure arms dealer, later never fully moral, with parts of his personality 'anthropomorphized.' In the Illuminati, he was more outlandish, while the movie version is relatively tamer.
However, the many outrageous decisions made by the Illuminati, like exiling the Hulk, were actually due to their emphasis on strengthening their own rules. It's just that these rules were self-made, and they felt qualified to judge others, which is essentially a form of authoritarianism.
In this cosmos, Iron Man, who Shiller knows, actually follows the rules. Back then, when Shiller asked him to prepare a speech, he was so nervous, having never imagined anyone could provide backstage guidance, proving he had never done so before. You might not find such an honest rich second generation in the entire Federation.
So when he joined this game, the first thing he wanted to do was play by the rules. The idea was to gather enough parts to assemble a mech, so he diligently collected them, completed the collection, and then manually assembled them, instead of trying to remove something from somewhere to assemble right from the start. This option had never even crossed his mind.
Stark discouragedly threw the wrench aside, sat beside the mech, and started sulking. Pikachu waved his hand, saying, "Alright, you're not the only one playing by the rules; we didn't do anything else either."
"But you guys have already got the key tools! And I'm still hammering away at this lousy first generation mech!" Stark said, his voice trembling with anger, "It's simply impossible to win this way!"
"No, no, no," Steve said, "You've gathered 60 parts as per the System's requirements and built a normal mech. This is actually the easiest process. If you were to find materials and hammer them yourself, the quality wouldn't necessarily be as good, and you'd have to test what you made, wouldn't you? After testing, you'd need modifications, right? If a part went wrong, you'd have to search everywhere, which would be a waste of time. This way is actually the safest approach."
Stark sat there for a while, feeling angry, soon stood up again, and said, "This better be a good mech; otherwise, I'm definitely going to beat up those administrators!"
Having said that, he stood beside the completed mech, took a deep breath, and then put on the mech. All Steve in the command room could do was gasp.
"What's wrong?" Stark asked.
"Just look at your health bar; there's a super long armor bar on it. Oh my God, who could possibly kill you?"
Stark glanced at his health bar, finding it entirely covered by a silver armor bar, doubling his blood volume, plus a permanent 20% damage reduction.
"What's the point of only having armor?" Stark said somewhat unsatisfied, "On the battlefield, wouldn't I still get beaten up?"
"No, no, no, your skills have also changed. My God, this mech can even be upgraded…"
"Don't tell me I have to search for some damned parts again!"
"Of course not; this time it's based on skill upgrades. You have a complete skill tree. Let me see what the end is… Oh, here, one path is Nano Mecha, which seems to allow switching different models of Nano Mecha; the other is Heavy Mecha, which can summon different engineering robots…"
"Which path is more combat-oriented?"
"I think it should be the former. Your Nano Mecha is pretty good at fighting, right? This latter one looks a bit like support, but can't be certain. What do these mechs actually do?"
Stark sighed deeply, saying, "I should have found Reed or Doom as teammates! You're practically illiterate!"
Steve was not at all angry; he nodded and said, "Indeed, I don't understand mechanical engineering at all; I don't even know how a door lock works. It's a bit too difficult for you to have me distinguish the uses of these mechs. However, this path seems to be modifiable; our primary goal now is upgrading the mech."
"How exactly do you upgrade it?"
"Releasing skills can yield parts, which are used for upgrades. Likewise, winning battles can also earn parts. But it shouldn't be limited to fighting players; defeating monsters should work too."
"So we should go monster hunting?" Stark said, "I've got this iron shell, those monsters couldn't possibly hit me."
"Let's go."
"Wait," Pikachu said, "Let's go together. Peter and I have the least blood volume; if isolated, we can easily be knocked out. Moreover, my skills aren't suited for defeating monsters. How about we go do the monster hunting together? If exclusive equipment for us appears, it's ours; if not, all spoils belong to you guys."
"If we search together, can there be two portions?"
"As for containers in the room, they shouldn't yield two portions of spoils, but defeating monsters can drop two portions," Pikachu said.
Steve thought for a while and said, "I think there's no harm in taking them. Peter is clearly not the type to stab us from behind; we came to hunt monsters anyway, two portions of loot is good profit."
"Peter indeed is a good kid, but this yellow fur mouse is another story." Stark snorted coldly and said, "Fine, given those two poor fellows, let's go."