[Tony was completely paralyzed after being hit by Obadiah's sonic weapon.]
[In addition, his Arc Reactor had been taken away, so the shrapnel in his body was no longer being held back by the magnetic field and could enter his heart through the blood vessels at any moment!]
[Faced with a deadly crisis, Tony finally squeezed out the very last bit of strength from himself.]
["Boom!"]
[Tony staggered out of the elevator. His face looked almost like that of a dead man, and his clothes were completely soaked with cold sweat.]
[But in order to survive, he continued forcing his still partially paralyzed body to move and desperately headed toward the underground workshop.]
[Earlier, Tony had asked Pepper Potts to remove the original Arc Reactor and replace it with a new one.]
[But Pepper had not thrown away the original reactor as he had told her to. Instead, she placed it in a box and gave it to Tony as a keepsake.]
[That reactor, which until then had only been a souvenir, had now become Tony's only lifeline.]
"Damn it! Did I really end up this miserable?"
Watching himself on the screen crawling across the floor and desperately reaching toward the Arc Reactor on the table, Tony felt his heart tighten.
[Fortunately, in the end, DUM-E, the artificial-intelligence robotic arm Tony himself had developed, helped him reach the original reactor.]
[On the other side, the miniature Arc Reactor Obadiah had stolen from Tony was installed in the chest of the Iron Monger armor he had built based on the Mark I.]
Seeing this, Tony was not the only one who breathed a sigh of relief.
The others in the live broadcast room were also surprised.
Peter Parker opened his eyes wide and asked:
"Mr. Stark, is that robotic arm artificial intelligence?"
On the screen, Tony had just fallen to the floor because of a lack of energy and could almost only wait for death.
But in that deadly situation, the robotic arm had taken the Arc Reactor from the table by itself and handed it to Tony.
Such behavior was almost no different from that of an intelligent living being.
Tony took a deep breath, tried to calm himself, and then said:
"That is a byproduct I developed while working on J.A.R.V.I.S. I did not expect it to save my life at the critical moment."
At that moment, Tony became even more determined in his heart to continue developing artificial intelligence!
One day, he would create an intelligent robot with an independent personality like Megatron!
After all, people would betray a person, but robots would not!
[The image continues.]
[After some time, Colonel James Rhodes broke into Tony's underground laboratory.]
[Seeing Tony lying on the floor, his face pale as paper, Rhodes was shocked and quickly approached to help him.]
["Where is Pepper?"]
[Grabbing Rhodes by the arm, Tony persistently asked.]
["She is fine. She has gone with five agents to arrest Obadiah."]
[Tony's expression immediately changed.]
["Five agents? That is not enough!"]
[With Rhodes's help, Tony reached the middle of the workshop and, with the help of robotic arms, put on the Mark III.]
["This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen."]
[Rhodes stood to the side and looked at the armor on Tony in amazement.]
["Not bad, right?"]
[Tony blew apart the wreckage of a car in the underground garage with a repulsor.]
[Seeing that he was preparing to leave, Rhodes asked him: "Can I help you somehow?"]
["Keep the skies clear for me."]
[After those words, the jet engines of the Iron Man armor activated. Iron Man shot through the opening above the underground garage and instantly flew straight toward the sky!]
["Damn!"]
[Watching Iron Man disappear in an instant, Colonel Rhodes turned toward another armor prototype in the workshop, and undisguised admiration and envy appeared in his eyes.]
[The image changed.]
[Pepper Potts led five agents into Obadiah's underground experimental facility.]
[And the man leading those agents was the well-known bald middle-aged man — Phil Coulson.]
Seeing Phil Coulson, little Wanda exclaimed again:
"Is this not the agent we saw in Thor's recording? Why has he appeared here again?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D., huh."
Tony sneered mockingly, then gave Natasha Romanoff one last hostile look.
"I did not know so many spies were freely running around our country!"
Stephen Strange looked at him and said:
"I remember now. When Loki first ended up in the TVA, Mobius showed him a series of scenes from his life."
"Among them was also a scene in which Loki kills this Phil Coulson from behind!"
"What?"
Hearing this, both Natasha Romanoff in the live broadcast room and Nick Fury in the S.H.I.E.L.D. office were stunned.
"You killed Phil Coulson?"
Natasha Romanoff frowned and looked at Loki, and a trace of caution appeared in her eyes.
"Woman, what does that look mean?"
As though sensing the hostility in Natasha's eyes, Loki suddenly sneered mockingly.
"By now, you should already understand that the recordings shown here come from another parallel universe and have nothing to do with me."
Looking at the God of Mischief before her with his cunning smile, Natasha Romanoff suddenly exhaled and calmed down again:
"That is true. After all, Phil Coulson is still alive."
"But if you really do something like that in the future..."
"And what if I do?"
Loki's face suddenly changed, and a cold gleam burst from his eyes.
"An ordinary mortal woman dares tell a god what he may and may not do?"
Just as the atmosphere in the live broadcast room became extremely tense, the events on the screen also reached their climax.
[Faced with the approaching agents, Obadiah climbed into the Iron Monger and activated that terrifying machine.]
[At the same time, Iron Man arrived at the highest possible speed, but J.A.R.V.I.S., connected to the armor's system, warned him that because he was using the original Arc Reactor, the Mark III would not be able to endure the fight for long.]
Seeing that Natasha Romanoff had moved to the side and stopped speaking, Loki looked at the screen and smiled slightly.
"Although I do not understand much of your backward human technology, the power source used by that large armor must be the latest one, right?"
"And you..."
Loki looked at Tony.
"You are using an outdated power source. Besides that, the difference in the size of the armor is enormous. No matter how I look at it, you have no chance of defeating him, do you?"
Faced with Loki's mockery, Tony frowned slightly, but surprisingly did not respond.
As a scientist, he did not like talking nonsense when it came to technology and engineering.
"Unless this armor carries a large number of high-explosive missiles capable of destroying heavy tanks, I am afraid I will truly lose this battle."
Thinking about it, Tony's expression suddenly tightened, and his eyes became serious.
So what if the chances of victory were small?
The opponent was Obadiah, the man who wanted him dead!
And Pepper was still there.
[The image continues.]
[Pepper was trying to call Tony when Iron Monger suddenly burst out from underground.]
[At the critical moment, Iron Man arrived and once again knocked Iron Monger to the ground, after which they smashed through the wall and flew out into the street.]
[Faced with the extremely durable Iron Monger, Tony directed all of his remaining energy into the chest section of the armor and fired the most powerful blast from the Arc Reactor.]
[Even that strongest attack, carried out at full power, only managed to blast Iron Monger into the air. It could not inflict a fatal injury on him.]
[Energy dropped to 19%.]
Hearing the system warning from the screen, Loki shrugged and smiled slightly:
"It seems that unless a miracle happens, the outcome has already been decided."
Tony's expression at that moment also became ugly.
He clearly saw that Iron Man still had not used that small anti-tank missile.
Perhaps he had only had one example of that weapon and had not managed to obtain another after using it earlier.
"Damn it. Does the me from that universe have no sense of danger at all?"
Cursing inwardly, Tony unconsciously clenched his fists.
[The situation became increasingly worse.]
[Because of the lack of energy, Iron Man was repeatedly knocked away by Iron Monger's blows, and Iron Monger even grabbed him and violently slammed him into the ground.]
["I helped you for thirty years."]
[From inside Iron Monger, Obadiah loudly released all of his accumulated anger.]
[Iron Monger lifted Iron Man, then slammed him into the ground with all his strength.]
["I built this company, and in the end I got nothing."]
[Iron Monger raised his enormous foot and stepped down hard on Iron Man's body, causing the sound of grinding metal to immediately come from the armor.]
"This is terrible. I cannot watch anymore."
Little Wanda quietly exclaimed and could not resist covering her eyes with her hands.
Although Tony also had an ugly expression, when he heard Wanda's words, a trace of joy appeared in his eyes.
It seemed that the girl had finally begun letting go of her hatred toward him.
In other words, she had realized that the true culprit was someone else.
At that moment, the image in the live broadcast room suddenly froze, after which the system's emotionless voice sounded.
[A single-person question begins.]
[Since this broadcast was ordered for one user, the right to answer is limited to Tony Stark.]
[Question: How can Iron Man defeat Iron Monger?]
[Answer A: Use himself as bait, lure Iron Monger high into the atmosphere, and then freeze him with the low temperature at high altitude.]
[Answer B: Find a way to detonate the arsenal of weapons on Iron Monger and destroy him with his own weapons.]
[Answer C: Lure Iron Monger to the large Arc Reactor, then order Pepper to overload the reactor and destroy him.]
[Answer D: Deliberately cause his own armor to explode and die together with Iron Monger.]
[Since there is only one participant, Tony Stark has only one opportunity to answer.]
[Random rewards may come from countless dimensional worlds.]
[An incorrect answer will trigger an unknown punishment!]
Seeing the new individual question, an expression of dissatisfaction appeared in Loki's eyes.
"What is this now? Why does he get another question all to himself? Last time it was only because my broadcast went beyond a certain amount of time that the right to answer was extended to everyone."
"This is far too unfair."
Tony did not care at all about Loki's ugly expression.
Looking at the four offered answers on the screen, he thought deeply for a moment.
He immediately ruled out Answer D.
Not because he was that afraid of death.
But Tony knew very well that the original version of the Arc Reactor would not produce enough energy even if it exploded.
It would be completely impossible to use it to destroy both himself and Iron Monger.
"Answer A sounds reasonable."
Tony immediately remembered the earlier recording, when he had wanted to test the limits of the armor and had flown higher and higher toward the upper layers of the atmosphere.
As a result, the entire armor had frozen, and even the jet engines had stopped working.
He had almost fallen to the ground and shattered into pieces.
"But my armor thawed before I hit the ground."
"Perhaps the same thing would happen to Iron Monger."
After thinking for a long time, Tony directed his gaze toward Answer C.
"Lure Iron Monger to the large Arc Reactor, then order Pepper to overload the reactor?"
Carefully looking at that option, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of Tony's lips.
If that was the correct answer, then who had actually defeated Iron Monger in the end?
Him?
Or Pepper?
At that moment, little Wanda's laughter sounded again.
"Hahaha!"
Little Wanda pointed toward the screen and laughed cheerfully:
"If Answer C is correct, then that would really be interesting."
"The magnificent Iron Man ultimately has to be saved by a woman in order to survive."
"What could be funnier than that? Hahaha!"
Looking at little Wanda bending back and forth with laughter, black lines almost appeared across Tony's forehead.
It seemed that this girl might no longer hate him as much, but she still greatly enjoyed mocking him.
After long and careful thought, Tony finally exhaled deeply, as though gathering his courage, raised his head, and answered:
"I choose C. Lure Iron Monger to the large Arc Reactor, then order Pepper to overload the reactor and destroy him!"
If he had a choice, Tony actually did not want to select an option that somewhat insulted his pride.
But after careful thought, that option seemed the most reasonable.
The reason was very simple.
Judging from what was shown on the screen, the durability of the Iron Monger armor was almost unimaginable.
Ordinary weapons could not inflict fatal damage on it.
According to Tony's engineering knowledge, it did not take him long to conclude that detonating the large Arc Reactor would probably be the most effective way to truly destroy that monster.
"Only... this looks somewhat dangerous for Pepper."
As soon as that thought passed through his mind, the system's voice sounded again.
[Ding! Tony Stark has finished answering. The question-and-answer system begins verification.]
[Ding! Tony Stark answered correctly.]
Hearing the confirmation of the correct answer, there was no joy on Tony's face.
It seemed that if he created new combat armor in the future, he would have to increase its destructive power and lethality as much as possible!
Otherwise, if he faced that purple monster again in the future, Tony did not want to fight with all his strength just to manage to draw a single drop of blood from his opponent!
[Tony Stark receives 100 live broadcast points, which can be used to display his past or future.]
[Tony Stark receives a random reward — one ton of Dark Alloy!]
"Dark Alloy?"
Before Tony could react, a series of information suddenly flooded his mind.
["Dark Alloy" is a special alloy from another universe that includes "Dark Iron."]
[Armor made from Dark Alloy is not only extremely durable, but no technologically inferior civilization can locate it through technological means.]
"Extremely durable! Impossible to locate!"
Feeling those two pieces of information in his mind, Tony's pupils instantly contracted, and his heart began beating faster.
Was that not an almost perfect metallic material for creating combat armor?
And if the enemy could not locate it by any means, was that not almost the same as permanent invisibility?
But besides his excitement, the phrase "inferior civilization" used by the system also caused strong dissatisfaction in Tony.
"Inferior civilization? Does that mean our human civilization?"
Tony frowned slightly, and a trace of defiance appeared in his eyes.
[One ton of Dark Alloy has been placed in Tony Stark's exclusive Dark Plane.]
[As soon as Tony Stark leaves the live broadcast room, he will be able to retrieve it at any time using wormhole transport technology.]
Just as the system's voice sounded, the frozen image on the screen began moving again.
[As expected, Iron Man also tried to lure Iron Monger high into the atmosphere, but Iron Monger still automatically thawed.]
[When the situation became almost hopeless, Iron Man finally thought of the last possibility — ordering Pepper to overload the large Arc Reactor.]
[Iron Man used himself as bait and lured Iron Monger directly above the large Arc Reactor.]
[When the reactor overloaded, terrifying electrical energy transformed into an enormous pillar of lightning that struck Iron Monger and continued rising straight into the sky.]
[When the electrical light disappeared, Obadiah completely lost consciousness and fell into the large Arc Reactor together with Iron Monger.]
[With a powerful explosion, everything finally became calm.]
"Hmph, a superhero saved by a woman? Nothing special."
Loki coldly said from the side, his words filled with a sour tone.
He was obviously very uncomfortable that Tony had just received another reward from an individual question.
Tony only glanced toward Loki, but this time did not respond.
In fact, after seeing what had just happened, he himself realized that his Iron Man armor needed much stronger firepower.
[The image continues.]
[At S.H.I.E.L.D.'s request, Tony held a press conference to explain the previous night's conflict between Iron Man and Iron Monger.]
[But no one expected that Tony, standing behind the podium, would suddenly discard the prepared speech and calmly say:]
["I am Iron Man."]
[An enormous commotion instantly erupted among the audience.]
"Mr. Stark, are you serious?"
Seeing that scene, Peter Parker was stunned.
In the previous recordings of The Amazing Spider-Man, he had clearly seen that even after gaining superpowers, his other self still decided to use the identity of Spider-Man in order to prevent enemy forces from attacking his private life.
Then why was Tony Stark so bold?
Was he not afraid that doing this would bring trouble upon himself?
"Hahaha, just as expected of me."
Seeing his version on the screen publicly reveal his identity without hiding anything, Tony smiled with satisfaction and obviously approved of that action.
Of course, a person like him was born to stand beneath the spotlight and attract the attention of millions of people!
The method of hiding behind a mask might suit Peter Parker, but it definitely did not suit him, Tony Stark!
"Hmph, boring mortal vanity."
Loki stood to the side and continued grumbling sourly, but no one even looked at him.
Inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. office, Nick Fury watched the scene in the recording and secretly shook his head.
This Tony Stark was not only arrogant, but also had an extremely strong need to be the center of attention and did not accept other people's control at all.
Phil Coulson had obviously prepared a speech for him, but Tony decided at the last moment to completely ignore the plan and publicly reveal his identity.
If such a man gained the power of Iron Man, it seemed that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have a lot more work dealing with him in the future.
Just as Fury frowned and thought about how he would deal with Tony in the future, the image on the screen changed again.
[After publicly revealing his identity, Tony returned to his villa.]
[As soon as he entered through the door, he discovered a bald black man waiting for him in the living room.]
["'I am Iron Man'? You think you are the only superhero in the world?"]
[The man coldly turned around.]
["Mr. Stark, you have become part of a much larger universe. You just do not know it yet."]
[Looking at the uninvited guest before him, Tony asked unhappily:]
["Who the hell are you?"]
[The man slowly stepped out of the darkness and calmly replied:]
["I am Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."]
As soon as that bald black man appeared, a huge commotion echoed through the live broadcast room.
"Nick Fury!"
Tony was the first to shout in the chat group.
[Tony Stark: So it was you! Damn it! Hand over the Tesseract immediately!!!!]
————————
Every 50 PS: Extra Chapter,
Every 5 Reviews: 10 Bonus Chapters,
Enjoying the story? Read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon.
Check it out: patreon.com/IAmBoringGuy