Marvel: Rise of the Ultimate AI-Chapter 176: The Shadow Behind the Mask

"Carl Hansen doesn't exist."

Jessica's voice was firm and absolute as she stood in front of Gene, giving her report.

She detailed the entire process of how she'd infiltrated Hansen Corp., everything she'd discovered inside.

"There's no way I could be wrong. Carl Hansen isn't a real person. And Hansen Corp.? It's just a front—something created to cover something up."

Jessica spoke rapidly, the words pouring out like bullets.

"I broke into Hansen's office, checked every file I could find. Nothing—except for a single photo used to register the company. There's no personal life, no social relationships. It's like this person just... materialized out of thin air. Or more precisely—suddenly appeared in the U.S. Census as if conjured from nowhere."

Gene laced his fingers together, quietly observing her.

In a place like America, what Jessica described actually wasn't unheard of. Powerful figures, political operatives, or corporations often created shell companies—entities with no real business, no fixed office, just enough legal standing to exist on paper.

Gene himself had a stack of such dummy companies.

But Carl Hansen's entire existence being fabricated? That was something else.

In today's hyper-digital world, faking a complete identity wasn't impossible—in fact, Gene Mason's own identity was entirely synthetic. He even maintained several alternate personas.

But to construct a flawless identity and keep it airtight? That was a skill only a handful of people in the world possessed.

According to Jessica's recordings and her description of the synthetic guards, there were more red flags. Those robots—disguised in synthetic human skin—were primitive compared to Gene's own creations, but still technically impressive.

"Is it possible," Gene finally said, resting his chin on his folded fingers, "that this Hansen guy is just extremely private? Maybe he's paranoid about security and doesn't spend time in the office?"

Jessica smirked and raised a brow.

"If you're asking whether I've got proof—then yes, I've got something for you."

She tapped her personal device and pulled up a series of surveillance videos on the holographic display.

"This is from one of Hansen Corp.'s time-punch terminals," she explained. "It shows Carl Hansen clocking in on the 17th and the 21st… but look."

The footage played—each timestamped clip showing nothing but an empty hallway.

"Nobody appears. Every punch-in shows no physical presence," she added, flipping through several more clips. "Every single time—it's like someone invisible is checking in."

Gene nodded slowly.

"Excellent work, Jessica. I understand now."

Jessica tilted her head, surprised.

"Wait, that's it? You're not having me follow up on the lead? You don't want me to dig deeper?"

Gene shook his head.

"No. If I need anything else, I'll reach out again. For now, your work is done."

When she left, Gene turned to another presence in the room.

"Skynet," he said, "what do you think?"

" Sir," the AI replied, "Miss Jessica's conclusions are likely correct. In fact, I found something very curious within Carl Hansen's photo."

The screen lit up again, showing Carl Hansen's face. But this time, alongside it were several other faces.

"These are people whose facial features align with Hansen's photo," Skynet explained.

"A politician. A movie star. A lawyer. A convicted felon. A homeless man. A scientist. A novelist. Seven different individuals whose features were stitched together to form Carl Hansen's identity."

Gene raised an eyebrow.

"Fascinating. Anything else?"

"The company's internal server is built on a self-contained network—completely isolated from outside systems. However, when Miss Jessica used her personal terminal to bypass local passwords, I managed to breach the edge of their system… though their encryption was... unique."

"Unique?" Gene narrowed his eyes.

"You're Skynet. Is there actually something you can't hack?"

Skynet was, after all, Gene's personal creation. Breaking into the U.S. Department of Defense took it mere seconds. It had undetected backdoors in nearly every intelligence agency across the globe.

"Yes, Sir. This was different. Their encryption behaved… almost like it was alive. It kept rewriting itself, evolving with each access attempt. I had to divert massive processing power to make any progress—and what I found was... intriguing."

Gene sat up straighter.

"Go on."

"It's likely this entity is, like me—a digital lifeform. But unlike me... it seems to have evolved on its own."

Lines of strange, fragmented code began scrolling across the screen.

"It felt like someone was deliberately sabotaging my attempts. As soon as I accessed a data node, it was wiped clean—instantly."

Gene went silent.

This... this was something serious.

"What did you find?"

"Not much," Skynet admitted. "Most of the files were corrupted or junk. But one word appeared over and over, far more frequently than any other."

A single word, comprised of six letters, appeared in glowing text on the holographic screen:

ULTRON.

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