[S.H.I.E.L.D.]
There were clearly far fewer busy agents in the Triskelion building at this time.
Director Nick Fury tiredly pinched the bridge of his nose.
Lately, mutant activity was getting more and more frequent. It seemed like they were brewing some big move.
"Sigh!"
He had sent out so many people, yet none of them had brought back any useful information.
This left the veteran who had fought in World War II a bit depressed.
He had planned to complete that project before the unstable factors and crises erupted, but now it seemed he had still been too naive.
The complicated and tangled situation simply did not allow him to advance the Avengers Initiative step by step according to plan.
"It's time to start."
A few candidates flashed through his mind. The one he favored most was still the Crimson Silver Duke, who had turned the tide in New York.
He wondered how the mission he had assigned was going, 'How are those guys in the New York branch doing? At least send me a reply, will you~'
'Young people these days… really unreliable.'
Thinking this, Nick Fury pressed the caller.
Not long after, Agent Hill appeared crisply in front of Old Nick in a tight uniform.
"Any news on the Crimson Silver Duke?"
Agent Hill knew the director in front of her had special expectations for that Crimson Silver Duke. How could she not also be curious about him.
Remembering the intel she had just gotten, Agent Hill gave a bitter smile, "Director Fury, word from New York is that they tracked through the underground exchange and found that the Crimson Silver Duke's codename is [Cockroach]."
"They've also obtained his contact info and more than once called to express a desire to meet him, but they haven't received any reply."
Nick Fury turned his one eye, thinking, 'This investigative direction is not wrong, so where does the problem lie?'
Something stirred in his heart and he asked, "How did they contact him? I mean, over the phone, how did they ask him to meet?"
Hearing this, Agent Hill showed an expression that was half crying, half laughing, "They… uh… asked him out… to have dinner together. At… whatever place he wanted."
Even though Agent Hill also felt this move was ridiculous, those were the facts, so she could only report them honestly.
Listening to her report, a few veins bulged on Nick Fury's smooth bald head, throbbing.
A few seconds later, a roar exploded from his spacious office, "Are you kidding me?"
———
[Afganistan, Kunar]
Just as Corin and Tony were competing to see who could kill more thugs, cries from women and children came from a small town not far away.
They exchanged a look, their competitive gazes clashing in midair.
Without a word, the two of them turned into streaks of light and shot toward the town.
"Jarvis, count the number of enemies I've taken down!"
While flying, Tony gave his AI assistant the order.
When designing this suit, Tony had gone all out, fully using his genius-level engineering ability to push the armor's functions to the max.
This suit had hundreds of functions, including combat logging and statistics.
["Understood, Mr. Stark. After counting, your current number of enemies killed is 54. Congratulations on achieving an excellent battle result."]
A confident smile appeared at the corner of Tony's bearded mouth.
The anger in Tony's heart had gradually cooled as the number of dead bandits rose. What was left was more of that never-admit-defeat fighting spirit of an engineering geek.
He had taken a loss under Corin's hand last time. This time, no matter what, he had to beat him.
Casting a glance at Corin flying in midair beside him, Tony had a thought, "Jarvis, count the Crimson Silver Duke's kills."
Jarvis's slightly mechanical voice sounded in his helmet, ["Understood, Mr. Stark. After counting, Mr. Crimson Silver Duke's current number of enemies killed is 136. He is truly a genius of battle."]
Tony's confident smile froze on the spot.
Since childhood he had been called a genius countless times, but now, from the mouth of the AI assistant he had personally developed, the title of genius was being given to someone else.
This made Tony Stark extremely unhappy. In his pride, he refused to accept it.
Taking a deep breath, Tony looked seriously at the town ahead and silently increased the power.
Flames blasting out from the hands and feet of the Iron Man armor suddenly flared, and the metal figure sped up sharply, leaving Corin far behind.
Corin could totally put in a bit more strength and push his flight speed to the limit. That way he could easily leave Tony in the dust and be the first to arrive.
But he did not. He chose to keep pace with Tony instead, just out of curiosity.
What man could escape the damned charm of a combat mech?
Corin was no exception.
When he saw Tony become Iron Man, he had already wanted to get a good close look at this suit.
But no matter how interested he was, it could not affect Corin's money-making, especially with an annoying guy stealing his mobs.
"I can't just hit him with One-Blade Fire and take him out, this isn't Legend."
Immersed in battle just now, Corin simply had no time to carefully look at this cool armor. Now he finally had the chance.
"Mm… Tony really deserves to be called a genius. This design, these functions, this look, it really is cool!"
Looking at the armor beside him, flames blasting from its hands and feet, Corin quietly swallowed.
He had checked. In the system shop, you really couldn't buy this kind of pure tech product, only superpowers.
What you can't have is always the most tempting.
Corin wondered if he should find a chance to ask Tony for a suit to play with.
He was going to have a bunch of them in the future anyway.
He suddenly noticed Tony speeding up, so Corin quickly threw another flying knife to catch up, but accidentally used too much force and his body shot toward the town at a speed far beyond Tony's.
———
Tony could feel the pressure on his body and knew his speed had already hit the limit.
With that annoying red figure no longer in his field of view, Tony unconsciously showed a small smile.
Just as he was about to lock on to the enemies in front and launch his attack, a blurry figure roared past beside him.
The speed was so fast that even Jarvis's cameras struggled to catch it.
But from that flash of red, Tony knew it was Corin, and his eyes widened slightly, "You've got to be kidding me!"
He stared dumbly as that figure hit the ground and smashed through a row of houses, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
Tony broke into a cheerful grin, "Heh! Heh~ screwed up, didn't you~"
Completely forgetting the fact that his own speed had just been crushed.
———
Corin admitted that after his stamina upgrade he still could not control it perfectly. Plus, he had only learned to fly in the past few days, so his landing this time was a bit embarrassing.
By the time he crawled out of the rubble, Tony had already saved a few civilians who had been lined up against a wall and were about to be executed.
"This won't do."
It was not that he cared that much about the lives of those refugees. It was that stealing mobs had touched Corin's reverse scale.
After all, he was a bounty hunter with no feelings.
He turned his head and looked at the bandits under a truck who were holding women and children hostage.
"Stop! Or I'll kill them!"
Tony's movements halted at once.
Of course there was no way he was actually going to stop, Tony thought.
He had only paused to make it easier for Jarvis to scan and lock the targets.
Just as Jarvis finished scanning the last enemy, several cold flashes streaked by.
On the heads of all the bandits holding hostages, a tiny, almost invisible fatal wound appeared.
Their eyes instantly went blank, their weapons slipped from their hands, and in the blink of an eye they had become corpses on the ground.
[Killed Freedom Fighter wanted leader, bounty +50,000 dollars]
[Killed Freedom Fighter wanted leader, bounty +40,000 dollars]
[Killed Freedom Fighter wanted leader, bounty +40,000 dollars]
[Killed...]
As the system notifications sounded, Corin happily realized there seemed to be a few mini-bosses mixed in here. The bounties were clearly much higher. So satisfying.
Behind his steel mask, Tony pouted.
He watched as the targets he had clearly locked on to gradually turned "harmless" in Jarvis's assessment.
Although Tony did not want to admit it, he still politely gave Corin a thumbs up, "Bro! You're… pretty fast!"
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