Although Tony Stark had changed into a new suit of armor, it was mainly to intimidate outsiders. King Pin recognized him at a glance.
In this day and age, who else could develop armor to such a level except Tony Stark?
'Do you think I'm stupid?' Kingpin thought.
Although he recognized him, Kingpin had no effective way to deal with Iron Man. This guy's combat power was far stronger than that of Daredevil, Punisher, and the like. The shoddy gear Kingpin's men produced was no match for Iron Man at all.
And Kingpin didn't dare to kill him... Tony Stark was still a part of the Stark Industries. Stark was the golden goose! Unless absolutely forced to, Kingpin had no intention of killing him.
Moreover, just as Tony didn't dare to openly attack Kingpin, a fellow board member of Stark Industries, it would cause enormous trouble if Tony Stark were to die at Kingpin's hands.
Both sides feared the consequences and refrained from attempting to kill each other. Each wanted to capture the other alive, but that was far easier said than done.
Kingpin was cunning and powerful, especially within the safety of his own lair. Most of the time, Tony Stark couldn't even find him and often ended up embarrassed.
Similarly, although Tony lacked Kingpin's deviousness and was fighting away from home, he had the overwhelming advantage of technology.
After every encounter, Tony would rebuild and upgrade his armor. Though he was often mocked for being beaten up by anyone opposing Iron Man, the constant upgrading of his suits made him a formidable opponent against a gangster-like Kingpin.
The two tormented each other for over a month, and both were exhausted. In the end, it was Kingpin who couldn't endure it any longer, Iron Man wasn't his only enemy. Being tied up with Iron Man was delaying him elsewhere, and many of his strongholds were being raided by street-level superheroes.
What's more, Kingpin still had to keep an eye on the Hand. He didn't care about other small matters; he had even obtained Chi cultivation techniques from the Hand's Five Fingers. However, he couldn't afford to divert attention to matters like the dragon bone.
Ultimately, Kingpin had no choice but to seek help from Shin.
Since discovering that Kingpin's lair was becoming a "superhero check-in attraction," Shin had already relocated to Oscorp.
Despite Iron Man and Punisher searching Kingpin's building twice, they didn't find Shin.
"Master, please help me," Kingpin pleaded after arriving, detailing his recent string of bad luck, looking at Shin with desperation in his eyes.
Shin had been feeling somewhat bored lately. He was working on improving the super soldier serum, hoping it could also be effective on people from the ninja world, allowing him to harvest chakra fruits more quickly.
There were indeed some differences between the people of the Naruto world and those of this universe, but they weren't so great as to cause reproductive isolation. In theory, the super soldier serum should work on ordinary ninja-world inhabitants.
In reality, though, compared to this universe, where humans mutated easily, the ninja world's residents were much less prone to mutation. Thus, the original super soldier serum wouldn't be fully compatible unless modified.
After a period of research, Shin had made some progress. Just as he was refining the serum, Kingpin had come to him for help.
After listening to Kingpin's story, Shin spoke briefly with Dr. Connors, who was leading the serum research, and followed Kingpin back to his lair, ready to deal with Iron Man's next attack.
He didn't have to wait long. That very night, a streak of fire once again appeared above the Fisk Tower.
Iron Man's armor was entirely black this time, even the chest reactor was hidden, but the design unmistakably bore Tony Stark's signature style. It wouldn't fool anyone familiar with Stark's work.
Of course, it didn't matter if others could tell. This deception was aimed at the general public. Tony Stark simply needed to deny it publicly.
As the armor was about to crash into the building, dozens of machine guns popped out of the building's facade, firing wildly at the incoming suit.
Iron Man dodged nimbly, while the armor's laser cannons whirred to life, blasting apart the machine guns in seconds. Just as he was about to smash into the building, Shin appeared in front of him.
Iron Man was stunned on the spot. 'What the hell? How did someone just appear out of nowhere?'
Especially when he saw Shin floating in midair, Tony Stark couldn't help but swallow nervously. "Mutant?" he muttered under his breath.
Meanwhile, Shin was weighing his options. Beating Iron Man into submission would be easy enough, but what about afterward? Given Stark's personality, he would surely keep pestering Kingpin every day.
'Should I just erase his memory?' Shin considered. 'But that's useless. Tony Stark must have safeguards against mind control. Besides, his armor connects directly to Jarvis.'
Shin could erase memories from a living mind, but not from a computer system.
After thinking a moment longer, Shin came up with a plan. But first, he needed to subdue Iron Man.
He extended his hand, and a flash of lightning crackled forth. After several seconds of intense sparking, Iron Man's armor remained unscathed.
Anticipating this, Iron Man had already modified his armor to absorb electricity after learning what happened to Punisher.
"Hey, man, electric shocks don't work on me," Iron Man said, hovering in place. "You'd better get out of the way."
"No matter what Kingpin promised you," he continued, "you should probably reconsider, there's a serious gap in strength between us."
Even as Tony chattered, he watched Shin warily and prepared to attack.
He didn't dare fire his laser cannons directly, after all, unless mutants had enhanced physical durability, a direct laser strike could kill them outright.
While the Marvel universe didn't have a strict "no killing" rule like DC's heroes, Tony Stark avoided killing unless absolutely necessary.
Thus, against human opponents, Tony's default tactic was hand-to-hand combat, treating the Iron Man armor like a sophisticated exoskeleton.
Given the armor's immense strength and Jarvis's tactical assistance, even without much experience, Tony could overpower skilled fighters like Captain America.
Now, he crept closer, gauging the distance. When he judged it right, he suddenly accelerated and threw a punch at Shin's face.
Fearing he might use excessive force and accidentally kill the opponent, Tony deliberately held back. He calculated that this punch would be strong enough to knock the man unconscious... but not kill him.
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