Ivan Vanko would never forget the name "Stark."
Up until now, Ivan Vanko's life could be described as a tragedy, ever since his childhood.
He didn't have many memories of his childhood, only vaguely remembering that it seemed to be in a dilapidated house. The wretched shack often lost power, usually choosing days when heavy snow was falling to do so.
Little Ivan would often shiver from the cold inside the house back then. He could only wrap his father's tattered cotton coat tightly around himself, trying his best to retain what little body heat remained.
And the physical cold was actually one of the relatively easier hardships he had to face.
Ivan's mother seemed to have passed away very early; he didn't have a deep impression of her. From the time he could remember, his father was an alcoholic, always drunk. When drunk, he became temperamental, loved to shout abuse, and even beat Ivan, leaving him black and blue.
But Ivan didn't hold a grudge against his father because he knew it wasn't his father's fault. Whenever he was sober, he was still a good father. Usually, after hitting Ivan and sobering up, he would sincerely apologize to him.
It was just a pity that later on, the times his father was sober became fewer and fewer.
However, from his father's drunken curses every time, Ivan memorized a name from a very young age.
Stark.
The damned Stark family, everything was their fault. His father said they didn't deserve a life like this. They should have been living in a big house, leading a life of debauchery and luxury like those rich people in the upper districts.
His father often said he was a genius who once had a great invention capable of changing the world. But the Starks were a family of thieves who stole his creation to build their fortune, while he and his son were forced to squeeze miserably into this broken shack.
Just earlier this year, his father died.
Despite being an alcoholic and temperamental father, he was the only family Ivan had to depend on. Ivan was heartbroken and, for a time, could almost not face reality. The only thing that forced him to prop himself up and continue living was hatred.
It was the deep-seated hatred for the Stark family that he had accumulated over a lifetime.
This is why he used the blueprints left by his father, along with parts gathered from theft and scavenging, to complete his "Arc Reactor."
He also built himself a simple exoskeleton armor, worn on his body and driven by the power of the "Arc Reactor." Although not as advanced or fully covering as Iron Man's armor, it was enough to provide him with superhuman arm strength.
The main weapon he chose for himself was the whip, because Ivan had learned some martial arts, and the weapon he was most skilled with was the long whip. The Arc Reactor powered his twin whips through the exoskeleton armor, giving the pair of whips energy capable of slicing through steel.
This was a weapon entrusted by his deceased father and completed by his own hands; it was the killer move for the revenge of two generations of father and son.
Ivan arrived here a week before the Monaco Grand Prix. He knew Stark would attend this race. This place was far from New York and wasn't Stark's home turf, making it much easier to strike.
Two days ago, Ivan saw the news on TV stating that Stark had high-profiledly rented out a local hotel, which caused quite a controversy.
This only made Ivan despise Stark even more. He thought of the miserable days he and his father spent in that broken house, while this person lived a life of luxury, booking an entire building as a temporary dormitory with a wave of his hand. And this wealth was all plundered from him and his father; the more he thought about it, the more he hated him to the bone.
However, Ivan had certainly never considered in his life that what he heard was always his father's one-sided story, and he knew nothing about the entanglement between his father and Howard Stark back then.
Whether the Arc Reactor was truly created by his father, and whether the facts were entirely the Stark family's fault as his father claimed, actually had no proof. But Ivan had hated the Starks since childhood and naturally didn't doubt his father's words, only wishing he could skin the entire Stark family alive to relieve the hatred in his heart.
Now, the Stark family only had Tony Stark left. He could only seek revenge on this one person, which was letting that thief off easy.
However, thanks to Stark's high profile, it saved him the trouble of investigation and staking out.
If he couldn't grasp the other party's whereabouts, Ivan's original plan might have been to wait until the day of the race to officially make his move. Because only on the race day could Ivan be sure that Stark would definitely be present.
Now, media reports gave him a new option. He could break directly into the hotel late at night when the other party was least defenseless and take Stark's worthless life.
He pondered and felt this plan was more reliable than the original one. On the day of the race, there would be many people and mixed eyes, and the scene would already have a large police and security deployment. If he acted at the race venue according to the original plan, Ivan was mentally prepared that he definitely wouldn't be able to escape even if he succeeded. Even if he killed Stark, he would surely be arrested.
So acting at the scene was originally a suicide mission.
But now, going directly to the hotel where the other party was staying, getting in and out quickly, and leaving after the job was done—it wasn't impossible to come out alive.
The plan went even more smoothly than Ivan imagined. During the day, he posed as a plumber to sneak into the hotel and hid until late at night without coming out.
When the night was deep and quiet, he secretly went to the floor he had investigated in advance and found the room where Stark was—thanks to that rich lunatic renting all the rooms, only the window of this room was lit in the whole building in the middle of the night, making it naturally very easy to determine the specific room number.
Ivan walked in the empty corridor and activated the core on his chest. The Arc Reactor lit up with a beautiful yet dangerous white light, releasing energy that turned into high heat flowing through the exoskeleton veins throughout his body. Dancing white electric arcs melted his plumber's jacket into fragments.
Ivan strode forward, dragging the light whips with both hands, and walked straight to the room door.
He struck out with a whip, and the door was easily split open like a thin sheet of cardboard.
Ivan broke in. As soon as he entered, he saw Tony Stark coming out wearing a bath towel. Seeing this scene, Stark couldn't help but look panicked and shouted: "Who are you? How did you get in? Security... Happy! Where is Happy?"
But no one responded.
A ferocious and satisfied smile appeared at the corner of Ivan's mouth.
Too long, he had waited far too long. All the endurance over so many years seemed to be for this moment. Others simply couldn't imagine what kind of satisfaction seeing that look of panic and fear on Tony Stark's arrogant face could bring him.
He even thought for a moment about waiting for the other party to beg for mercy and not rushing to strike, because ending it too quickly would mean this pleasure would have to end.
But Ivan knew that delays could lead to trouble. He suppressed this thought and only said: "Your grim reaper is here. Say hello, Stark."
Saying that, the light whip lashed out.
However, the instant that whip sliced through the bath-robe-clad Tony, Tony's image flickered as if distorted. That heavy and powerful whip passed straight through the other party, slicing a table behind him in two.
It was as if he was just a ghost, visible but untouchable.
Ivan Vanko's expression changed instantly.
Holographic projection!
I've been tricked!