When Tony and the other person rushed to Stark Industries, Obadiah, who was controlling the iron monger armor, was wreaking havoc inside.
Or rather, he was bouncing around on the ruins.
As a manufacturing department that once supplied weapons to the military, even though it had been shut down, it still had a considerable amount of weaponry.
Using these weapons, Obadiah single-handedly blew up one-ninth of the Stark Industries area!
Seeing this, coupled with Pepper's unanswerable calls, Tony's eyes immediately turned red.
Without slowing down, he directly transformed into a cannonball, smashing heavily into the iron monger. The immense gravitational potential energy combined with the inherent mass of the iron monger far exceeded the bearing limit of the ground.
The two crashed through the ground, entangled, falling into the underground space, their whereabouts unknown. Frequent loud noises emanated from below, suggesting the battle was fierce.
Victor, who had anticipated this, wisely disconnected his telekinetic link midway. He now floated above the crater, his red cape fluttering in the wind, truly looking exactly like Superman.
Unfortunately, there was no audience to cheer him on.
With Obadiah causing such a commotion, who would dare to come looking for death?
The few police officers who dared to meddle were now lying in the ruins, while other civilians had long since slipped away at this opportune moment.
From Obadiah's attack until now, only 15 minutes had passed. Even if the Los Angeles SWAT team reacted promptly, they couldn't have arrived and set up defenses so quickly.
However, some bolder youths in the distance were using various telescopic devices to look this way, and a few even crept closer with their phone cameras, looking thrilled.
Someone actually dared to come looking for death!
There's a reason why the total population of America is small.
Luckily.
Obadiah was only causing destruction within Stark Industries, as if intentionally luring Tony. He didn't specifically try to cause casualties, which is why these thrill-seekers were able to survive until now.
Victor's gaze swept over these 'explorers,' searching the vicinity, while also lifting the restrictions of his Super Vision, attempting to locate Pepper.
This was the main reason Tony brought him along; protecting civilians was just an arrogant excuse.
To be honest.
If he had X-ray Vision at this moment, things would be much simpler.
But... 'Superman Bloodline - Super Vision - X-ray Vision': c-class vouchers x 5, plane points x 50000;
The Platform balance was insufficient; he couldn't afford it.
He could only rely on Super Hearing to search.
As the restrictions were lifted, a flood of information rushed into his brain.
"Stan, why are you doing this? Where is Pepper?"
"Hahaha, Tony, it's been 30 years! I've always been helping you. This company was built by me from scratch. Now that I'm gone, it naturally has to be destroyed!"
"Boom—bang bang—clank—tat tat tat tat tat—"
...This was Obadiah and Tony's battle, the closest one.
Ignore.
"Help!"
"My leg is trapped! Someone help me!"
"Is anyone there? Come quickly and save me! I'm on B1, 2nd basement level!"
"Help!"
"Damn it! Why haven't those fat pigs arrived yet! Did the taxes we usually pay get eaten by dogs?"
"Wuwuwu—my Edward, you can't just leave me like this!"
...As the Super Hearing coverage expanded, there was a large number of cries for help and weeping, making Victor's brows furrow tightly.
But he didn't act charitably to rescue them; instead, he slowly flew past.
Although he could save many of them, his current telekinetic power was limited, and his physique could only endure; he didn't possess Super Strength, so he couldn't save everyone.
In comparison.
Whether for emotional reasons or for future strategic planning, rescuing Pepper was the top priority.
He could only harden his heart and bypass the rescue of these people, but he orally conveyed their locations to Alice, asking her to relay the information to the rescue teams.
After that, it was up to fate.
The search continued, but due to too much information, Victor was unable to find Pepper's location for a long time.
Just as Victor thought Pepper might have met with an accident, he finally detected Pepper's cry for help.
The situation was not very optimistic.
The sound source was in the ruins of a building, and judging by the location, it seemed to be in a corner, where a triangular space might have been created when the building collapsed.
At the same time, not far from Pepper, a phone was stubbornly ringing, which was Alice repeatedly calling. It seemed to have been dropped in the chaos and, being stuck, naturally couldn't be answered.
The only good news was that while Pepper's voice was very shaky, there was no pain or anything else, suggesting she hadn't sustained serious injuries.
To be the woman of Iron Man, her life truly isn't ordinarily tough.
In contrast.
Other people who luckily survived under the ruins weren't so fortunate. There were quite a few whose voices were weak, intermittent, or abruptly ceased.
Victor's brows were tightly furrowed as he opened the Platform to search for disaster relief items.
Suddenly.
The ground trembled violently, and the ruins in front of him also swayed incessantly. A large amount of rubble and debris rolled down, and the wails from under the ruins immediately decreased by more than half.
This was a complete disaster.
However, Pepper, though also screaming in fright, had a strong voice and was still unharmed.
But.
Around Pepper's location, Victor heard a faint tearing sound, which was the collapse of the support point of the triangular area.
Above it was the ruins of an entire building!
If it lasted any longer, or if there were one or two more tremors, Pepper might only be able to return via the 'resurrection' route.
Time was not an issue; Victor could immediately purchase items for rescue.
But that violent tremor... "Alice, hack Tony's communication," Victor commanded while searching for suitable items.
With practiced ease, the communication was connected after 2 seconds. What entered his ears was a series of rapid breaths, the sound of steel impact, and the roar of cannons.
"Damn it! You hacked in again! I pulled you off the blacklist!" Even in a tough battle, Tony didn't forget his sharp tongue: "When I get back this time, I'm definitely going to..."
"Pepper is trapped under the ruins," Victor's single sentence cut off Tony's threats.
"What!" Tony's voice rose by eight octaves, roaring in anger: "I'm going to..."
"But she's not dead yet," Victor's next sentence again cut Tony off.
Tony, cut off, choked and coughed violently, followed by a series of tight metallic clashes and Tony's muffled grunts.
It seemed he had been thoroughly beaten by Obadiah.
Tony, having suffered a loss, was furious and angrily commanded Jarvis to prepare a chest repulsor blast for another powerful shot at his opponent.
Victor immediately interjected: "Pepper's support point is very unstable. One or two more violent movements from your side, and it could collapse at any moment."
"Stop! Jarvis, stop!" Tony hastily shouted: "Damn it! Why didn't you..."
Clang, jingle-jangle, tat tat tat tat—
This time it wasn't Victor who interrupted him, but Obadiah's offensive, forcing him to concentrate on the enemy.
Tens of seconds later.
Tony got a brief respite and said fiercely: "So what's your suggestion!"
For Pepper, Tony decisively put aside his pride, giving up the initiative for the first time—though he had never truly held it before.
But this was a matter of attitude.
He, Tony Stark, playboy, Genius scientist, the richest man in America, had yielded to Victor.
He inexplicably felt a little thrilled inside!
Victor didn't bother with pleasantries and directly said, "You're so capable, why don't you go to the sky!"
No matter how you heard it, this sentence sounded a bit like teasing.
But Tony reacted instantly, though his words were still sharp: "Hey, I thought you had some brilliant idea. I was already planning to do that!"
The low temperature at high altitudes would cause the Iron Man Suit to freeze!
Tony had crashed onto Victor precisely because of this oversight, which was the second time he had taken advantage of Victor—the first, of course, being the word "Dad."
In the original plot, that's how he had tricked Obadiah.
It was just that worry clouded his judgment.
Pepper being in danger prevented him from fully concentrating on fighting Obadiah, to the point where Victor had to remind him.
Victor just smiled, not exposing Tony's arrogance.
Taking advantage of the gap, he also found a suitable item.
— — — — — —
Item Name: 'Victor's Hextech Gravity Device':
Item Category: [Technology]
Item Compatibility: [94%];
Origin Plane: 'league of legends';
Rank Rating: [F±];
Item Price: f-rank vouchers x 6, plane points x 88;
Function Description: Install the Hextech Gravity Device to control the gravity index within a certain range. The range is inversely proportional to time until the Hextech Core energy is depleted;
Slogan: The quality of this thing is that the energy supply is very stingy, at most it can levitate a city for 3 seconds:
— — — — — —
Levitate a city for 3 seconds, levitate this area of ruins, no, even all the bombed areas, it should last for at least 1 minute, right?
1 minute would be enough for him to save Pepper.
Buy!
Victor originally thought this gravity device would be very large, so he specifically found an empty space to land and extract it, just in case it got damaged before he could even use it.
He didn't expect.
A purple metallic sphere the size of a fist floated in front of him.
At the same time.
The purple metallic sphere actually spoke on its own: "Steel ~ can repair all your flaws! Victor at your service, what are your needs?"
The voice was full of mechanical... stiffness.
Victor looked at the sphere with a strange expression, its surface reflecting like a mirror, unable to figure out where the sound was coming from.
This was also black technology!
Victor didn't respond, and the purple metallic sphere repeated its previous words.
It seemed to be a simple program.
While he was thinking, two violent roars entered his ears, making Victor's eardrums tremble incessantly.
At the same time.
Tony's Mk-3, and Obadiah's iron monger, both rose into the sky with flames under their feet, looking as if they were going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun.
Without paying too much attention, Victor asked, "If I set the gravity to zero within a hundred-meter radius, how long can it last?"
"Calculating... Energy sufficient for 24 minutes and 6 seconds," the purple metallic sphere said word by word.
"What about a 2000-meter radius?" Victor pressed.
"Calculating... Energy sufficient for 0.14 seconds."
Victor: "?.?"
A 20-fold increase in area, and that's it... Oh, he was being stupid!
Was the consumption for a 100-meter radius and a 2000-meter radius really a 20-fold difference?
Moreover.
A 'radius' is generally understood as a planar radius, but what if in league of legends it referred to space? A 20-fold difference in three-dimensional diameter would mean a terrifyingly large area covered.
Victor had no time to slowly plan out the specific differences.
He directly commanded the purple metallic sphere to set the gravity to zero within a hundred-meter radius.
"Confirming command, executing command, energy output, constructing force field..."
As the command was confirmed, a large number of purple electric arcs burst forth from the purple metallic sphere. These arcs formed a hemisphere with a radius of 100 meters and a height of 50 meters.
Presumably, another 50 meters was underground.
Victor also felt very light, able to float in the air without telekinetic wrapping.
Similarly.
Within the hemisphere's coverage, all the ruins and debris floated lightly. A gentle breeze blew, and regardless of size, all the ruins and debris moved slightly.
Victor wanted to reach out and grab the purple metallic sphere, moving with it.
Unexpectedly, a circle of purple electric arcs blocked him. The sensation was like grasping a solid object, with no numbing feeling.
"Unable to move during force field activation. Do you wish to deactivate the force field?" the purple metallic sphere asked.
Victor used his Super Hearing to perceive Pepper's location.
Good, she was within the covered area.
"No need to deactivate."
"Deactivation command cancelled. Force field maintained. Energy currently 99% remaining. Please note."
Ignoring the need to study this thing, Victor propelled himself rapidly into the ruins using telekinetic power. Telekinetic tentacles easily pushed aside the debris blocking his path, and in just 9 seconds, he reached Pepper's side.
The Little Pepper was currently floating in mid-air, looking bewildered, tightly clutching a silver-white briefcase to her chest, which was even handcuffed to her right wrist.
No need to ask, it contained the two vials of medicine Victor had given her.
Seeing Victor appear, Pepper said with a somewhat strange expression: "Are you Superman? Is this also your ability?"
"If 'money power' counts, then yes." Victor cupped his hands: "Excuse me."
Before Pepper could react, telekinetic power transformed into ropes, coiling around Pepper's slender waist. Amidst her startled cries, Victor pulled her rapidly through the zero-gravity area, with individual telekinetic ropes precisely lassoing each survivor.
Finally.
When Victor burst out of the ruins, he had 8 lucky survivors, including Pepper, trailing behind him.
However.
Aside from Pepper, who only had some minor scrapes, the injuries of the other 7 people were much more severe. At best, they had broken arms or legs; at worst, collapsed chests, all looking on the verge of death.
This was no longer Victor's concern.
He looked up at the sky, his long-distance vision activated to its limit, faintly able to see two small black dots still climbing higher.
However.
For some reason, their trajectory had severely deviated from above Stark Industries. According to rough calculations, their crash site was near a shopping street 3000 meters away!
The battle had only lasted about 20 minutes, and with some distance, most of the thrill-seeking onlookers had gathered quite a bit in that area!
If they crashed down... whether Obadiah would die was unknown, but the area hit would definitely see many casualties!
Victor could not stand by and do nothing.
He immediately said to Pepper: "See that sphere? It can change the gravity in an area. Take it to the most crowded area and activate it; it should be able to save quite a few people. Alice, you guide her."
After speaking, Victor flew towards the vicinity of Tony and the other's crash site; he needed to evacuate the crowd first.
As for authorization and such, it was completely unnecessary.
The artificial intelligence in that purple metallic sphere had no concept of ownership or permissions; it only required simple, 'idiot-proof' operation.
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PS: 4200 words, two chapters combined, making up for yesterday's missed update. Another update and a bonus chapter will arrive shortly.