The underground garage—or rather, Tony Stark's private battlefield—was so silent you could hear the low hum of the massive server fans.
A peculiar scent of burnt metal and lingering smoke hung in the air, the aftermath of the previous "battle."
Tony stood in the center of the space, his red-and-gold Mark armor gleaming brilliantly under the lights, a fusion of power and aesthetic grace. Opposite him stood the machine that had utterly humiliated him: the silver-white mech, Sideswipe.
It remained motionless, a sculpture of a panther poised to pounce, emanating a cold, murderous aura.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., integrate 'Accel World' into the suit's main system," Tony's voice broadcasted from the armor's speakers, tinged with a suppressed excitement and resolve.
"Sir, the neural signal overclocking device presents unknown risks. I would advise—"
"Execute the command," Tony interrupted impatiently.
Risk?
The biggest risk was losing twice in a row to his own teenage son!
Over by a lab bench, Paul sat leisurely on a high stool, swinging his legs, an ice-cold can of coke in his hand. He watched his fired-up old man in the center of the room, a mischievous grin playing on his lips, the kind that reveled in the unfolding drama.
With a faint electronic hum, Tony felt the thin wafer on the back of his neck warm slightly. An indescribable sensation flooded his brain.
On his retinal display, the data stream's refresh rate suddenly accelerated a hundredfold before stabilizing at a completely new frequency.
"Integration complete, Sir. Good luck." J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice seemed to be stretched out, becoming slow and deep.
Tony blinked.
The entire world had changed.
Paul's casual smile seemed to be stuck on slow motion, the upward curve of his lips crawling at a visibly glacial pace. In the distance, an indicator light on a robotic arm blinked, each pulse separated by what felt like an entire century.
The motes of dust floating in the air now looked like suspended stars, each one perfectly clear in his vision.
"This…"
A storm raged in Tony's mind. This wasn't just a simple speed boost. This was... mastery over time itself!
"Let the match begin!" Paul's voice seemed to come from a distant horizon, each syllable drawn out interminably.
But in Tony's world, the instant the sound landed, he was already moving!
BOOM—!
The thrusters erupted in a blinding blue flare, and the Mark armor transformed into a red-and-gold streak of light, vanishing from its spot in an instant!
Mach 15!
Empowered by 'Accel World', Tony had pushed the Mark armor's speed into this terrifying new realm for the first time!
The very space around him seemed to warp under his extreme velocity, the air shrieking as it was torn apart.
To Paul's eyes, Tony's figure merely flickered before dissolving into a blurry afterimage circling Sideswipe.
But in Tony's own perception, he was performing a graceful and leisurely dance of death around the 'stationary' Sideswipe.
"Little guy, let me show you what a saturation strike looks like!"
A confident smirk spread across Tony's face.
The micro-missile pods on his forearms opened, the shoulder-mounted scatter-shot cannons popped out, and the repulsors in his palms glowed with intense energy!
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT—!
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!—
A veritable storm of firepower was unleashed in less than a hundredth of a second!
Countless energy beams and physical munitions shot towards Sideswipe from every direction, a perfect 360-degree kill zone. The trajectory of every single projectile was precisely calculated by his hundred-times-faster brain, sealing off every possible escape route.
In his mind, this single volley was enough to level a mountaintop!
Victory was already in the bag!
However, just as the deadly 'fireworks' were about to reach Sideswipe, the unexpected happened.
The twelve wing-like funnels on Sideswipe's back detached from its frame without a sound.
They made no noise, yet with an uncanny speed that surpassed even Tony's accelerated perception, they fanned out and formed a perfect spherical energy shield around Sideswipe.
The shield was a pale blue, its surface covered in a flowing, honeycomb-like pattern of energy, radiating an aesthetic that was both sci-fi and mystical.
The next moment, Tony's proud saturation strike slammed into the shield.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no deafening roar.
All the energy and munitions, upon contact with the shield, were simply swallowed and neutralized without a trace, like a stone sinking into the ocean. The only sign of the impact was a series of insignificant ripples spreading across the shield's surface.