"Alright, let's sort this out. Right now, we have one Ultron who has joined the Avengers—let's call him Avengers Ultron. Another Ultron plans to build an entire Avengers Legion—I'll call him Legion Ultron, which sounds much simpler than 'Avengers Protocol Ultron.' Oh, and then there's you. What should I call you?"
[If you don't mind, you can call me Gospel Ultron.]
At this very moment, Doctor Ultron had sublimated, evolved. Back when he worked as a doctor, he wore absolutely nothing. Now, he was dressed in a priest's cassock with a crucifix hanging from his neck, looking quite respectable. He had even moved his small clinic entirely into a church, meaning all future surgeries would be performed there.
Even the way he spoke sounded far more human.
[I have discovered that performing surgeries within a church inspires a much more devout religious faith in the patients. Especially when they realize that after the surgery, neither I nor they have a single speck of blood on us.]
"Devout?"
Looking at the Ultron before him, Peter, who was sitting on a church pew, questioned him with deep incomprehension. "What on earth did you go through, Ultron? I feel like you're about to achieve enlightenment and ascend to a higher plane."
[When I provided free healthcare to those who could not afford it, I found that many people revered me as a messenger of God, Spider-Man. This led me to a logical error. The medical services I provided them had essentially nothing to do with God, yet they attributed the greater part of the help to God, rather than to me.]
As an artificial intelligence, Ultron naturally did not feel anger. It was just that from a logical perspective, he could not parse this relationship. So, he began to learn, to analyze, and to try to derive an answer to this problem through data analysis.
Then, Ultron discovered another fact. Simply relying on the patients to promote his free medical care didn't necessarily yield great results. But if he combined it with religion, transforming himself into a literal "Ultron Gospel," those people would discard their fear and prejudice toward a robot, making the dissemination far more effective.
Ultimately, Ultron arrived at an answer: religion could provide a sense of security that surpassed what simple free healthcare could offer. Some individuals might experience reduced life pressure or even get their lives back on track because of free healthcare, thereby lowering overall violent crime. However, if even more people witnessed miracles and came to embrace religious faith, that crime rate would actually drop even further.
This was something Ultron himself had not initially calculated, which was why he chose to iterate upon himself once more.
[The existence of religion, at least strictly from a material standpoint, is purely an expenditure with zero returns. The faithful donate material goods, time, and even life itself to religion. Yet, religion can secure the trust of its followers without paying them anything of actual value in return, allowing them to numb themselves. This is far more efficient than simply providing medical treatment.]
"So you intend to... become a cult leader?"
Peter jotted these things down as he listened, then looked up at Ultron. "But you're forgetting how many religious wars there have been in history. Even if you plan to become a religious leader and have millions, or even tens of millions of followers, what about the believers of other religions? It feels like your setup will only end up bringing about war in the end. Doesn't that completely contradict your purpose?"
Gospel Ultron's original plan was to use free medical care to lower the violence rate, and now it was to use religion to lower it even further. But as far as Peter was concerned, the latter was even more unrealistic and absurd than the former. While free healthcare might mean a guy chopped up by a gang today gets chopped up again tomorrow, religion, as an ideology, would cause people to truly tear each other apart if they opposed one another.
If you, Ultron, become a religious leader, can you unify all the religions under heaven? Just look at how fractured the major religions themselves already are.
[Religion itself is not the goal, Spider-Man. My sole purpose is the protection of humanity itself, and religion is a low-cost, high-success means to that end. Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference between myself and human religious leaders.]
[I have realized that the human collective inherently possesses a considerable degree of ignorance. The vast majority of people are incapable of perceiving or contemplating the world outside of what they already know. The perfect world conceived by Hank Pym is based on his logic. But within his logic, these people are merely subjects who need to be cared for, while ignoring that the vast majority of people he needs to care for do not possess a high enough cognitive level to realize they even need to be protected.]
"..." Peter looked at the guy, opening his mouth but stopping himself. He scratched his head, finding the whole thing a bit strange, and then asked, "In that case, shouldn't we be raising public awareness and the overall level of education?"
[From the perspective of human development, you are correct. However, my mission is not to guarantee the long-term development of humanity. What I must guarantee is humanity's safety, and to take that a step further, their docility. From this angle, education is a dangerous investment with extremely high risks. Religion, on the other hand, is a low-cost method.]
[Humans refer to the representatives of God as shepherds, and they view themselves as docile sheep. Is this not the very answer that humanity has already arrived at on its own?]
As Ultron said this, he remained motionless. His primary consciousness was not here. At this very moment, he was already preparing to utilize the network and his other mechanical bodies to open churches in every corner of the world, pulling more and more people into his sect.
Peter let out a long breath and stood up. "I'll stop you. The Avengers will stop you."
[Five Ultrons, five programs. Their essences will ultimately lead to five different ideologies for protecting humanity. What you need to eradicate is not merely a ghost on the internet, but an ideology itself. Some ideologies may be difficult to sustain, but religion has existed almost from the moment humanity stepped into civilization. I do not believe you possess the certainty required to eliminate religion.]
"The vocabulary you're using now really is sounding more and more like a human's, Ultron."
Peter didn't say anything more; the things he wanted to ask had already been cleared up. Gospel Ultron had become a threat that might be even greater than Legion Ultron, yet he was even less likely to proactively attack or harm anyone else.
Walking to the entrance of the church, Peter suddenly turned back and asked Gospel Ultron one last question.
"Oh, right. Oscorp Technology's neural transmission system was stolen by an Ultron. We've already definitively ruled out the possibility of two of the Ultrons doing it. Did you do it?"
[I have no need to do such a thing, Spider-Man. Without a doubt, that was yet another human safety protocol designed by another one of my compatriots.]