True Heroes

"Whenever Chinese soldiers face danger, they stand in front of the people. To me, they are the true heroes."

Seeing Tony remain silent, Chen Mu continued, "You know that a massive earthquake struck my hometown in the first half of the year. Chinese soldiers charged forward without hesitation and saved countless civilians. The sacrifices they made were beyond compare. Many soldiers even gave their lives because of it."

"So tell me, what is wrong with giving the armor to these true heroes?"

Hearing Chen Mu's words, Tony could only smile bitterly.

Indeed, he had no way to refute him.

If American soldiers were demons who struck fear into people's hearts, then Chinese soldiers were angels who truly gave ordinary people peace of mind.

The gap was simply too great, and Tony felt rather embarrassed.

"When Chinese soldiers put on the armor, they will be able to protect us Chinese people better—and even protect this world!"

Just imagine it: if Chen Mu equipped several million Chinese soldiers with armor, would alien armies still dare invade? Wouldn't they just get pinned to the ground and crushed?

Even if Thanos came to Earth, he would be smashed to pieces by an endless army of Iron Soldiers.

"Besides, my armor is not your Mark Armor. How I deal with it is my business."

At that, Chen Mu gave a cold smile.

My armor is far more advanced than yours. What, are you going to accuse me of copying your armor? Infringement?

Pretty infuriating, isn't it?

"True enough. That is your business."

Tony smiled bitterly.

He could easily imagine that once the American military learned that the Chinese army had been equipped with armor, they would definitely come looking for trouble. That would give him a terrible headache.

In any case, Tony would stand by his original principles and never hand his armor over to the American military.

Perhaps I can give them some consolation?

Give the military one or two sets for them to study slowly? Delay them for as long as possible?

However, not just anyone could use this armor, so it would be better to give it to an old friend he knew well.

He immediately settled on a candidate: Colonel Rhodes.

"Then let's talk about what comes next—the Xiao Mu Phone."

Tony sighed. He did not continue discussing the armor with Chen Mu and instead turned to other matters.

"We have successfully developed the operating system, and the launch event is ready. When are you coming to America? We can decide on a release date together."

The Xiao Mu Phone had essentially copied Apple's appearance, while Stark Industries had developed its system. It presumably would not be any worse than Apple had been in his previous life. Once released, this phone would definitely revolutionize the mobile phone industry.

It was a money-making venture, and Tony did not want to delay it.

Super Heroes needed to make money to support themselves too, didn't they?

"These are minor matters. I'll fly over tomorrow, and we can discuss the armor together."

Aside from being proud and arrogant, Tony was not actually all that unlikeable.

Moreover, merely showing off over the phone was far from satisfying for Chen Mu. At this moment, he could not wait to personally wear his armor and show it off in front of Tony.

His armor had been made by the Huaqiangbei production space and was forged entirely from vibranium. Its durability was surely more than a level above Tony's!

"Minor matters... all right..."

Tony's face darkened, but he nodded nonetheless.

At this point, Tony had not yet truly realized just how staggering the profits in the mobile phone industry would be.

Besides, Tony was also impatient to see Chen Mu's armor. It would be of no small help to his own progress.

"Fine, I'll come directly to see you tomorrow. But give me an opinion—what color scheme should this prototype use?"

As he spoke, Chen Mu looked with satisfaction at the armor beside him. Pitch-black as ink and sharply angular, it was already exceptionally beautiful. He was quite pleased with its black color in the first place. The reason he asked was still simply to show off...

"See you tomorrow..."

Tony was far too smart not to understand Chen Mu's intentions. Rolling his eyes, he knew Chen Mu simply wanted to keep showing off. Without another word, he ended the call. He needed to upgrade his own armor.

He had just gotten some excellent ideas. He could not lose to Chen Mu tomorrow!

Tony was indeed proud, but he was not jealous.

Since someone else had already developed armor, he regarded Chen Mu as his equal and no longer had any reason to look down on him.

People as "smart" as him had always felt rather lonely. Now that there was someone who was no worse than himself, it was actually good news for him. At the very least, it meant he would no longer feel so alone on the path of scientific research.

In Tony's eyes, Chen Mu was now very much worth befriending. The two of them could not only cooperate on mobile phones, but also collaborate in other areas as well—for example, armor.

Tony did not have much so-called patriotism. After all, how many years had America even existed? A country without history naturally did not inspire much patriotic passion in its people.

Especially in a capitalist society, where the country was controlled by capitalists. What was there to be patriotic about? From top to bottom, the nation put profit first. As long as you offered enough benefits, naturally, that was patriotism!

Furthermore, as the head of Stark Industries, Tony was coincidentally one of the people in the country who had some say. That was also the main reason the American military could do nothing when Tony refused to give them the armor.

Want armor? Ask the capitalists whether they were willing!

Today, it was Tony's armor technology. Tomorrow, if the government wanted something else, it would seize it by force as well. Then what would be the point of capitalists even existing?

Therefore, on this matter, the capitalists would all stand on Tony's side, leaving the American military gritting their teeth in hatred yet utterly powerless.

They truly could not afford to provoke him!

The reason Tony had wanted to give Mark 2 to Rhodes was partly to give the military an explanation and make a token gesture. The other reason was that he felt his Palladium poisoning was nearing the point of no return. He did not want the Iron Man he had created to disappear just like that, which was why he gave the armor to Rhodes. He hoped Rhodes could inherit the identity of Iron Man, so that Iron Man would not vanish after only a brief flash of brilliance.

But now, because of Chen Mu, Tony would likely hand Mark 2 over to the military ahead of time and let them tinker with it themselves, allowing War Machine to make an early appearance.