Jarvis's words were like a clap of thunder, leaving Tony Stark dumbfounded, thinking he had misheard.
"What did you say? How fast was the other party flying?"
"The last detected flight speed was 4.3 Mach, but this should not be the limit. Based on the acceleration estimate, it should be able to go faster."
"What the f*ck, 4.3 Mach!
This is already close to the threshold of a hypersonic aircraft. How could a human withstand such overload?
Was that an unmanned aerial vehicle?"
"No, from the scan just now, there is a humanoid heat source inside. It can be confirmed that it was piloted."
"Piloted! How strong must their physical fitness be! Is this a monster?
Damn it, when did our World get such freaks? This is hell!"
"Mr. Stark, now is not the time to think about these things.
The Iron Man Suit's stability is rapidly decreasing due to flying overloaded for too long.
Furthermore, the Ark Reactor's energy is already less than 10%. You must quickly decelerate and descend.
Otherwise, there is a risk of disintegration or stalling. Once these risks occur, they will threaten your life safety."
Hearing Jarvis's warning, Tony did not continue to stubbornly hold on for the sake of face this time.
After all, in the technology competition with Lauren, he had already lost.
And it wasn't just an ordinary loss, but a complete crushing by the opponent.
This dealt him a heavy blow, but he was not someone who would easily admit defeat.
Such a blow would only make him work harder to improve the performance of the Iron Man Suit.
And he had already secretly vowed in his heart that he must find Lauren and surpass the opponent in their next meeting!
With this thought, he immediately ordered Jarvis to start decelerating and lowering the flight altitude.
But just then, an extremely urgent warning sounded in his ears.
"Warning, warning! The shoulder connection of the suit is loose due to high-frequency vibration, and the left arm of the suit is starting to disintegrate!"
"F*ck, immediately shut down the engines and reduce the flight speed to the minimum."
The moment Jarvis issued the warning, Tony was horrified to find that the left arm of the Iron Man Suit had directly detached.
Immediately, his left hand felt a bone-chilling coldness. He was currently at an altitude of 25,000 meters.
At this altitude, the air is thin, the temperature is extremely low, even around minus 50 degrees Celsius.
Once you are at this altitude without proper insulation, frostbite is a matter of minutes.
"Engines have been shut down!
But due to the effect of gravitational acceleration, the flight speed of the Iron Man Suit cannot immediately drop to the appropriate range, and the suit is still disintegrating.
Mr. Stark, you need to be mentally prepared.
Once the power system is damaged, you will leave this World in a free fall!"
"...."
"Jarvis, at this time, you should be thinking about how to save me, not telling me how I'm going to die."
"Mr. Stark, I am not intentionally scaring you. In this situation, without external assistance, your survival rate is only 10%."
"Alright, alright, you better shut your crow's mouth quickly!"
"Since there's still 10%, let's fight for that 10%! Immediately restart the engines and activate reverse thrust mode."
"Warning, warning! The engines have frozen due to the ultra-low temperature environment and cannot be restarted temporarily."
"What??"
"Mr. Stark, I regret to inform you that your survival rate is now only 5%."
"....."
Listening to Jarvis, the artificial intelligence system, continuously lowering his survival rate, Tony Stark was almost angered into laughter.
He had always been proud of Jarvis, this artificial intelligence system, thinking he had created the most advanced AI system in the World, but now he just wanted to slap himself.
What kind of artificial intelligence is this? This is simply artificial retardation!
At such a critical moment, it's reporting his survival rate? Even if he doesn't fall to his death, he'll be scared to death by it!
"Shut up, you shut up! Quickly restart the engines."
"Engines are severely frozen and cannot be started temporarily."
"F*ck!!!"
Hearing Jarvis say the engines were frozen, Tony was truly disheartened.
Falling from this altitude would turn him directly into a pile of mush.
Naturally, saying he wasn't afraid was impossible.
"Warning, warning! You are currently 18,000 meters above the ground.
And you are falling rapidly at a speed of 330 meters per second. According to calculations, you will land in 54 seconds!
Please immediately attempt to manually restart the engines, please immediately attempt to manually restart the engines!"
Hearing Jarvis tell him to attempt a manual restart, Tony Stark didn't hesitate for a moment. He immediately used his remaining Iron Man right arm to strike the thrusters on the soles of his feet, attempting to restart the power system, but after more than ten seconds of effort, he still didn't succeed.
This instead consumed a large amount of his physical strength, making his situation worse and worse.
His left arm, due to prolonged exposure to the low temperature environment, had already suffered frostbite.
Now his physical strength was also almost depleted, which was simply adding insult to injury.
Facing such a situation, he couldn't help but start to despair.
However, just then, a black figure descended from the sky and grabbed his arm.
This couldn't help but startle him. He instinctively looked up and found that the black figure that suddenly appeared above him was actually a humanoid creature wearing a black mechanical battle suit. The reason he called it a humanoid creature was because he wasn't sure if this guy in front of him was actually human.
The mechanical battle suit worn by this humanoid creature was entirely black, with light yellow glowing strips on the surface, looking very cool.
In addition, there was a bat symbol emitting a light yellow glow on his chest.
Seeing this bat symbol, he immediately froze for a moment, then seemed to think of something.
So, he immediately looked up towards the higher sky.
As expected, he saw the batplane again, which had already left him miles behind.
Yes, the person who suddenly appeared and saved Tony Stark at this moment was none other than Lauren, wearing the bat suit.
After easily grabbing Tony Stark, Lauren didn't hesitate. He quickly melted the ice layer on the Iron Man Suit.
As the ice melted, Tony Stark immediately began the restart process.
And this time, he succeeded.
With the power system restored, Tony Stark's descent speed significantly decreased, and before long, he stabilized himself at an altitude of 5,000 meters.
"Who are you? Why did you save me?"
After being rescued, Tony immediately looked at Lauren, who was hovering not far away, with a face full of questions.
Upon hearing this, Lauren ignored him.
Instead, he turned into a black afterimage and soared upwards, then quickly returned to the batplane.
It wasn't until all this was done that a synthesized electronic voice suddenly sounded inside Tony Stark's helmet.
"Remember, you owe me a favor, and it needs to be repaid. We will meet again."
"????"
Note:
Dear readers,
The Lunar New Year is approaching, and I wish you all a new year filled with success, good fortune, and prosperity!
Holiday Announcement:
I'm writing this to announce that I will be taking a short break from posting to celebrate the holiday from February 15th to February 22nd, 2026. I will officially return to work on February 23rd.
Don't worry though! During this break, I'll be busy prepping a bunch of new chapters so I can post them consistently once I'm back. I promise the upcoming parts will be even more exciting, so please stay tuned!
Thank you so much for your understanding and for always being such a supportive community.
Happy Lunar New Year!