In Noah's old home, a beam of light flashed, and Noah appeared in the living room. Looking at the familiar scene, he felt a sense of nostalgia, having lived there for over a decade. Noah placed his hand over his eye, releasing magic to recharge the vision ward's energy. Then Noah left to head to the agreed-upon exhibition meeting point.
"Hey! Noah, over here."
When Noah arrived at the scene, just as he was about to walk over, he heard someone calling him.
Noah looked over and saw Peter and Ned. He waved his hand and walked towards them.
"How long have you two been here? You haven't been waiting for me this whole time, have you?" Noah asked.
"No, we just got here too," Peter said, still carrying his camera, likely hoping to take pictures of Iron Man.
"Noah, your belt is really cool!" At this moment, Ned noticed Noah's belt, and Peter also noticed it after Ned's prompting.
"I just bought it. I thought it looked cool, so I got it," Noah said. He had set the belt's appearance to a cool, tech-inspired style, which was quite eye-catching. However, it was a relatively normal gaze; people certainly wouldn't associate the belt with actually transforming.
"Let's go inside. Although the most important exhibition doesn't start until tonight, let's go in and look around," Noah continued.
"OK, let's go."
The group entered the exhibition center together and began exploring and having fun until evening. They then went to the central area of the exhibition to watch the Stark Expo. However, as students there just to visit and look around, they could only watch from the periphery. Although it was relatively far, they could still clearly see the contents on the stage.
As music began, a man in a suit started tap-dancing on the stage. To Noah, it looked a bit comical and funny. Peter and Ned beside him also began to snicker.
"This guy is so narcissistic. Does he really think he's dancing well?" Peter mumbled.
"Yeah, yeah, what a narcissist!" Ned echoed.
Noah didn't speak, just watched Justin Hammer perform on stage. After finishing his dance, Justin Hammer began to diss Iron Man, saying he had an Armor but wouldn't hand it over to the U.S. government to protect the U.S. people and so on. Pepper, in the audience, covered her head, looking utterly speechless. She really didn't want to hear Justin spouting nonsense up there.
After a passionate speech, the main event began. Hammer started introducing his Hammer Drones.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you, the U.S. Military's! Latest weapon!"
"Hammer Drones!"
The stage floor opened to reveal several rows of tall robots rising and lining up on the stage. Hammer excitedly introduced the names of each drone model. After all four models had appeared, Hammer then began to introduce his secret weapon.
"Next, I will show you a new weapon prototype, the Variable Threat Response Combat Suit, and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes!"
Amidst a passionate background music, Rhodes, wearing a modified Iron Man Suit, rose from beneath the stage. The originally silver Iron Man Suit had now been modified to a black and silver color scheme, with machine guns mounted on its back and arms, making it look heavily armed. After the lift fully ascended, Rhodes saluted the audience, and the drones behind him also saluted. The audience cheered enthusiastically.
"What the heck? This looks exactly like Iron Man! Is this Hammer guy plagiarizing Iron Man?" From the viewing railing in the back, Peter saw the new weapon prototype that the arrogant Hammer had introduced and felt that it was clearly Iron Man's Suit. Then, this guy actually claimed it was his own invention. As a fan of Iron Man, Peter was very angry.
"I don't think it's plagiarism; this IS an Iron Man Suit."
Just then, a whistling sound came from the sky, and everyone looked up. Ned also tugged at the still-chattering Peter, pulling him to look in that direction.
In the dark night sky, a streak of fire flew from above towards the stage. This streak of fire was none other than Iron Man, who had just installed a new type of arc reactor. Iron Man flew in front of Rhodes, adjusted his posture, and landed steadily.
Seeing the cool Iron Man appear, the entire audience stood up and cheered. Peter and Ned also cheered together. Noah felt a strange sensation in his heart seeing this scene; this was his first time seeing Iron Man in Reality.
"We've got trouble." Tony walked closer, put his arm around Rhodes's shoulder, and waved to the audience.
Rhodes thought Tony was there to cause trouble and tried to persuade Tony not to make a scene, saying he was just following orders and didn't want to play along with that Joker, Hammer.
Tony didn't respond to Rhodes, then told him he suspected Hammer was collaborating with Ivan Vanko. Rhodes was somewhat surprised, as he thought Ivan Vanko was already dead. After all, news from the prison where Ivan Vanko was held reported that an explosion had occurred in his cell, and Ivan Vanko's body had been found.
"Where's Ivan?!"
Tony walked up to Hammer, demanding to know where Ivan Vanko was. Hammer, of course, wouldn't say, feigning ignorance and claiming he didn't know what Tony was talking about.
"Tony?!"
Just then, Rhodes noticed several red codes flashing across his Armor's display. Then, the Armor went out of his control. On stage, the black and silver Armor raised its arm, aiming its machine gun at Tony, and dozens of drones behind it also aimed at Tony.
"Rhodes? What are you doing?"
"No, Tony, it's not me! Get out of here, the entire system has been compromised!"
Tony knew Ivan was definitely behind this. He turned, spewed Fire, and immediately ascended, wanting to take these Armors outside to avoid harming civilians. War Machine and all the drones fired at Iron Man, bullets pouring out, shattering the ceiling glass, and scaring the civilians below into fleeing.
War Machine chased Iron Man out, and a line of Air Force drones also took off, locking onto Iron Man and continuously firing.
"What's happening?!" Peter yelled, almost hit by falling glass.
"Whatever's happening, let's find a safe place first," Noah said. He knew the plot had begun. He wanted to see if the mission had refreshed, but he needed to find a safe place first to hide these two guys.
"Come on, let's go over there." Noah led the two into a building. This place was relatively safe, and the two nervously followed Noah. Many people were also hiding inside this building. Once they were there, Noah finally had a chance to check his missions.
After opening the mission panel, a mission had indeed refreshed.
[B-rank Mission: Eliminate Drones, Whiplash Ivan Vanko. Note: Eliminating drones can increase the reward upon completion.]
"Hmm? There's also a mechanism to increase mission rewards? Alright, a new feature has been added." Noah saw the mission description. This time, a new mechanism to increase mission rewards had been added, which surprised him. He then accepted the mission and secretly left this 'shelter' without attracting anyone's attention, including Peter and Ned.
"Ned, where did Noah go?" "I don't know, maybe he went to the bathroom?"
In an empty restroom, Noah pressed the transformation button on his waist, transforming into a Kamen Rider... No, he put on the Project Armor. Noah took out the Project Yasuo's plasma blade, hung it on his belt, and then disappeared from the spot.
The exhibition was now in chaos because Ivan had activated the automatic attack mode for all drones. Those drones that hadn't taken off yet automatically walked off the stage, preparing to go outside and lock onto Iron Man. Many people in the venue had not yet evacuated to a safe place. Seeing the drones start to move, they thought they were about to be attacked and screamed.
After the Navy drones walked out of the exhibition entrance, Iron Man flew across the sky, followed by a swarm of Air Force drones. The Navy drones launched missiles from their shoulders, attacking Iron Man. People continued to emerge from inside, and some drones also began to attack humans.
A Ground Force drone looked at the crowd in front of it, extended its machine gun, and prepared to open fire. Some of the fleeing crowd saw this and screamed.
Just as they thought they were about to be shot, an orange light flashed, and a sword mark appeared on the drone. Its upper body then slid to the ground as if cut by a hot knife through cheese.
After the drone was split in half, a figure stood holding a sword. The surrounding crowd stopped and looked at this figure, which was Noah, wearing the Project Armor.
"Is that Iron Man?"
"No, it doesn't look like him."
"So cool!"
"I think I've seen him online, something like Swift Wind?"
"Swift Wind Swordsman!"
"Yes, yes, that's it."
The surrounding crowd seemed to have forgotten they were fleeing, stopping to look at this newly appeared character. Some even recognized Noah. Earlier, when he saved his classmate, she filmed Noah and uploaded the video online. However, the popularity wasn't very high; people just thought he was a cosplayer cosplaying Iron Man, and that it was all special effects. But some people here had seen that video and recognized Noah.
Noah looked at these people. Human nature is to love a good show, especially people here in America. So dangerous, and they still want to watch the excitement, huh?
Noah charged towards another drone in the field, swinging his sword down. The drone was cut open as easily as if it were made of paper. The wreckage fell to the ground, sparking, and the crowd in the field cheered at the sight.
"Get out of here quickly, go forward." Seeing these powerful and influential people, Noah spoke up, telling them to evacuate. As he called out, he extended his arm, and his armguard changed, firing several Hextech missiles. Several drones in front were directly hit and then exploded.
When Noah fired the missiles, he had already asked Lissandra to temporarily adjust the power of the missiles, otherwise the explosion radius would definitely have injured civilians.
The people in the field heard Noah's words and realized they were still in this dangerous place, so they quickly ran out.
Seeing the crowd leave, Noah also began to harvest the drones in the field. These drones' material was not as hard as the material used by Iron Man, and they were harvested by Noah like cutting melons and vegetables.
The people fleeing in the field also noticed the figure in the high-tech Armor attacking the frenzied drones.
Inside the building where Peter and Ned were hiding, the two, having found no trace of Noah, reunited. They had just searched all the restrooms in the room but couldn't find Noah.
"Where did Noah go?" Peter wondered.
Just then, a sudden noise came from the sealed large door. First, there was a pounding sound, and the door trembled. Then, a burst of machine gun fire erupted, and this commotion caused the people inside the room to scream.
A drone had discovered them and began to spray the large door with the machine gun on its arm. Bullets poured out, tearing into the door. The people inside began to panic, and Peter and Ned were also very nervous.
With a bang, the large door fell to the ground. The drone prepared to burst into this shelter to attack the humans. Just as its back machine gun rose, a sword wind cut down from above, directly shattering the drone on the spot.
Some people inside heard the noise and thought the drones had started attacking, so they screamed, believing they were going to hell. But after screaming for a while, they realized they seemed fine and opened their eyes to look at the doorway. The drone had already become a pile of debris.
"What happened?"
Many people began to move closer to the doorway, wanting to see what was happening outside. Peter and Ned were the first to approach, leaning over by the door and slowly looking outside.