All the weapons at Stark Industries were designed by me, what do you think I did?" Tony was not one to admit defeat: "I hold the core technology, Stark Industries can't do without me!"
"Haha! Who do you think you are? God?"
"In many people's eyes, yes. Besides that, I'm also a Genius scientist, a playboy, and America's richest man."
"That was in the past! Since you closed the weapons division, that's no longer the case!"
"I'm still richer than you."
"Damn it! I really regret not giving them enough money back then, otherwise you would have died in Afghanistan long ago!"
"Ha—so you're too poor, you even have to save money on things like that?"
Victor rolled his eyes at their childish conversation.
At a time like this, were they still concerned about winning a verbal spat?
Just as he was about to interject and end this farcical conversation, he thought, just throw Obadiah into prison or something.
He believed that after suffering two losses in a row, Tony would not let Obadiah easily rise again.
However.
An unexpected situation occurred.
He didn't know if it was because Tony's sharp tongue had provoked him too much, but as Obadiah spoke, he suddenly foamed at the mouth, rolled his eyes, and fell to the ground, his body twitching as if he was having an epileptic seizure.
Tony looked at Obadiah in shock, quickly took a step back, and asked Victor for confirmation: "I didn't touch him, is this caused by your abilities?"
Victor rolled his eyes, ignored Tony, and turned to fly towards Stark Industries.
Obadiah was dead.
The moment he fell, his heartbeat had also stopped simultaneously. The suddenness of the event made it seem as if he had been overcome with anger, literally angered to death by Tony?
But Victor suspected that it was likely not the case.
It should be HYDRA's doing.
They had given Obadiah poison in advance to prevent him from being captured alive and thus exposing HYDRA's whereabouts.
Obadiah was just a scapegoat put forward by HYDRA to divert attention.
Now, the only clue was probably those 12 mercenaries, but Victor felt that either they were genuine mercenaries with no connection to HYDRA, or they were all dead.
But no matter what.
Anyway, Victor also didn't want HYDRA to be exposed now, and Obadiah, that potential trouble, was also dead, and he hadn't even done it himself.
The matter was perfectly resolved, wasn't it?
As for the subsequent mess... Tony was already very experienced, so he would leave it to Pepper to handle.
He leisurely flew back to Stark Industries. His Qi was almost depleted. He landed in the ruins, deactivated his Superman template to return to normal, and restricted the use of Super Hearing.
As soon as he relaxed, a wave of fatigue washed over him. The heat radiating from the sun in the sky made him miss his beach chair.
Yawning widely, Victor followed the glow of the purple hemisphere and found Pepper guarding the purple metal sphere.
"Hey, Victor Sir... Victor, you're back." Pepper's tired face showed anxiety: "It's great you're back, um, how is Tony?"
Before Victor left, he had Alice teach Pepper how to use the gravity device. The clever Pepper naturally guessed Victor's identity.
"He's fine, in fact, he angered Obadiah to death." Victor glanced at the purple metal sphere: "I'm here to retrieve this. How are the rescue efforts going?"
If the purple metal sphere fell into the hands of outsiders, its operating principles might be reverse-engineered, which had to be prevented.
Although Pepper was very curious about the details of "angering Obadiah to death," she tried her best to suppress her curiosity and instead made a subtle plea.
"This gravity device is very useful, but in the zero-gravity area, it's very difficult for us to carry out rescues, you know, because we don't have professional equipment."
As soon as Pepper explained, Victor immediately understood.
While the zero-gravity field prevented deaths from secondary collapses, it also restricted external rescue efforts, as even astronauts needed equipment to move in space.
Fortunately.
With the scorching sun now, Victor was wearing a "Qi recovery N+1 times" BUFF. The Qi that had been completely depleted earlier had already recovered by a small half.
The sun was the source of his power!
With the assistance of Qi, Victor's movements in the zero-gravity area were even more agile than in a gravity area. He didn't need to waste Qi to lift his body, consuming less.
Coupled with the assistance of Super Hearing, he could accurately locate the survivors.
After bustling around for more than twenty minutes, Victor rescued approximately thirty more survivors. Only after confirming that there were no more living people in the ruins did he retrieve the gravity device.
This thing still had 14% energy left; perhaps it could be used again in the future.
Amid Pepper's repeated thanks, Victor finally got into the special car arranged by Pepper, ready to go back to the beach by the villa for a good sleep.
Unexpectedly.
Tony had also temporarily dealt with the scene and happened to run into Victor's car.
He directly got into the other side of the back seat, preparing to rush back to the villa with Victor to avoid the limelight—mainly to quickly build a new Arc Reactor, as the one in his chest was running out of energy.
Victor was half-asleep and didn't want to bother with Tony.
But Tony wouldn't stop chattering.
"Stane wasn't angered to death by me. His blood contains a potent biological toxin that dissolves in the bloodstream after ingestion. I've never seen this kind of toxin before. Do you have any information?"
Victor: [(one_one).zZ]
"Hey, since you don't want to talk about that, let's change the subject. That gravity device of yours is quite good. I've seen it at the old man's place. Don't tell me my father and my father are colleagues."
Victor: [(one_one).zZ]
"Alright, given that you saved Pepper today, I can overlook this, but you have to give me a sample of your blood. I can definitely give you some friendly advice!"
Victor: [(one_one).zZ]
"Are you afraid of blood? That's fine too. You can come to my villa. There's a full set of medical examination equipment there. Kind Tony can give you a free check-up."
Victor: [(one_one).zZ]
"Buddy, are you listening to me? You actually fell asleep?! Alright, I'll take that as your consent."
Victor: [(one_one).zZ]
...After today's battle side-by-side, Tony considered Victor a friend.
Therefore.
His attitude was no longer so arrogant; on the contrary, he had a potential for being talkative, no wonder he would get along with Parker in the future.
Victor, however, completely ignored him.
Whatever Tony wanted to say had nothing to do with him; he just wanted a good sleep.
When Victor woke up, he was sitting up in the big bed in his bedroom. It was already evening, just as the sun was setting.
He rubbed his head, a little dazed, completely unable to remember how he got back into bed.
He remembered earlier.
In a daze, Tony said he had agreed to something?
Agreed to what?
He couldn't remember at all!