Obadiah's Suffering Begins, Don't Ask How He Got Here

Obadiah rushed to the armor in three strides, his fingers brushing over the plating. The rough sheet metal scraped his fingertips raw, but he didn't even notice.

The sheet metal work was crude, but the structural thinking was genius.

"Reverse-engineer it, improve it, and mass-produce it!"

"Even if I can't restart the weapons line, I can plug every hole—and even turn the tables on Tony!"

Suddenly, his fingers stopped at the armor's chest.

Empty.

"Without a power core, this is just scrap metal." Obadiah's face twisted with anger.

Fu Haoran sat motionless in his chair, his tone flat: "The only stable miniature arc reactor in existence right now is in Tony Stark's chest. You know that, don't you?"

A flicker of unease crossed Obadiah's face. Of course he knew where the power core was—he'd said that deliberately to probe the other man's hand and seize the upper hand in negotiations.

Fu Haoran paid no mind to his petty scheming and continued, "But the power core you need? I can handle it."

Obadiah narrowed his eyes: "Who are you? Where's Raza?"

"Mr. Raza and his team, due to a sudden armed conflict, unfortunately perished to a man." Fu Haoran's tone was as casual as reciting a menu. "I'm the one taking over his legacy. You can call me Mr. Fu."

Obadiah was silent for two seconds.

He swept his gaze over the soldiers standing at attention, Fu Haoran's calm face, then glanced at the disarmed bodyguards under watch. He knew clearly that he had no leverage to negotiate now.

"What do you want? Money?"

"Money, yes, but it's not the main thing."

Fu Haoran raised a hand, and Wade handed over a document.

Obadiah took it, scanned it quickly, and his expression soured like he'd eaten shit.

It was a collection of photos and audio recordings of him secretly meeting with Raza at the camp, betraying Tony's escape route.

Clearly, this was leverage Raza had left behind to blackmail him!

"Mr. Obadiah, the Stark Industries board—and those nobles hounding you for debt—would be very interested in this."

Obadiah's face cycled through shades of green and white. He forced down his anger and asked, "What level of access do you want?"

Fu Haoran held up two fingers and said:

"First, I want a Stark Industries field agent identity, with three high-level clearances."

Obadiah frowned: "You want to steal materials?"

"Legally requisition them." Fu Haoran corrected flatly.

Obadiah hesitated for a few seconds. This meant Fu Haoran would infiltrate Stark's core areas—a considerable risk.

But thinking of his debt crisis and those damning pieces of evidence, he had no choice.

"I can give you the ID, but access only goes up to the Materials Laboratory and the Scrap Yard. Absolutely no touching core R&D data!"

Fu Haoran nodded: "Deal."

"Second, I want an outsourced security contract with Stark Industries."

"Also, wire 500 million dollars as startup capital. I need to procure basic supplies."

Obadiah's brow furrowed tightly, and he pressed warily: "What do you need that money for?"

Fu Haoran looked up calmly: "Moving things. Don't worry—no contraband, no trouble for you."

Obadiah breathed a sigh of relief.

No demand for power, just resources and access?

Easy enough.

Once he got the power core and armor tech, he had plenty of ways to make these outsiders disappear without a trace.

"Fine. But don't keep me waiting too long!"

Obadiah turned and got into the car. The moment the door closed, the smile vanished from his face. He growled at the head bodyguard in the front seat:

"Immediately dig into these people's backgrounds. Once we have the power core and the tech, get rid of all of them."

At the same time, inside the tent.

Lucifer voiced the doubt in her mind: "Are you really going to cooperate with that fat man? His stupidity can't even be hidden."

"Cooperate?" Fu Haoran let out a scornful laugh. "We're here for resources, not to make friends."

"He provides the lab, the access, the parts. As for who ends up using what we build—that's no longer up to him."

"Then what do you do next?" Lucifer pressed.

"No rush. First, we put on a show." Fu Haoran's smile faded, his tone turning serious.

"I'll use his lab, his parts, and his energy tech to feed back into the Hive City. I never bet my chips on an outsider destined to fail."

The two boarded the Valkyrie transport, already waiting. The cabin door slowly closed, sealing out the camp's wind and sand.

"Fly north, to the Krasnoyarsk mining town in Siberia." Fu Haoran ordered the pilot.

"We need to find someone to bring in as a shareholder next."

Siberia. The bitter wind howled, heavy snowflakes swirling wildly, rattling the windows of the ramshackle hut as if they might shatter at any moment.

Ivan Vanko crouched by the bed, wearing a thick coat stained with grease, his hair plastered messily to his forehead, his face etched with frost and cracked wounds. A ragged, down-and-out aura clung to him, yet a spark of defiance burned in his eyes.

On the bed, Old Vanko's breathing was as faint as a candle flickering in the wind, too weak even to open his eyes.

The television played a public interview with Tony.

His face bore a confident, flamboyant smile: "The Arc Reactor is the future of Stark Industries, and the future of human energy!"

Old Vanko's eyes snapped open. His blood pressure spiked instantly, and he broke into violent coughing. His withered finger jabbed at the TV screen, his voice hoarse:

"That... is the work of my life!"

"Howard Stark stole it! Ivan, take revenge... destroy Stark... destroy everything they have!"

Ivan immediately grasped his father's thin, icy hand, his gaze filled with resolve: "Dad, I swear, I'll make the Stark family pay!"

"Bang!"

At that moment, the hut's wooden door was kicked open. Wind and snow surged in, making the dim light inside flicker precariously.

Ivan instinctively grabbed the welding torch beside him, his eyes fierce as a wolf's, and lunged at the nearest soldier.

But the moment he saw who had arrived, his movements froze, and the torch nearly slipped from his hand.

A dozen fully armed soldiers filed in, holding oddly shaped rifles, their muzzles all trained on him.

"Don't move!" the lead soldier barked, his tone icy.

Ivan's body went rigid, but he still gritted his teeth and glared at the newcomers, his voice harsh: "Who the hell are you?"

The soldiers parted silently. Fu Haoran stepped through the drifting snow, his gaze sweeping quickly across the room before landing on Old Vanko, who lay gasping on the bed. He tilted his chin back and said flatly, "I want him alive."

As the words fell, Ivan watched in astonishment as a servo-drone floated in. Its mechanical arm precisely extended a thin needle, quickly jabbed it into Old Vanko's arm, and slowly injected a pale green fluid.

Moments later, Old Vanko's breathing steadied. A trace of color returned to his face, his brow relaxed slightly, and he drifted into sleep.

Fu Haoran turned to Ivan and cut straight to the point: "Want revenge on Stark?"

Ivan didn't answer. There was no such thing as a free lunch; since this man had saved his father, he must want something in return.

"I can give you a top-tier lab and plenty of funding."

"The only requirement is to build an Arc Reactor stronger than the one Tony has in his chest now, and a set of power armor that can be mass-produced."

"In return, I'll give you the chance to take revenge on the Stark family."

Ivan stared at Fu Haoran for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed. The smile pulled at the cracked skin on his face, making it look somewhat savage, yet tinged with a hint of relief: "I don't have a choice, do I?"

He let go, dropping the welding torch to the ground, and accepted without hesitation: "Getting to take down Stark and keeping my dad alive... this deal isn't a loss."

Fu Haoran waved at the soldiers beside him and ordered, "Take everything, including the bed."

Five minutes later, the Valkyrie transport plane slowly lifted off from above the mining town, broke through the raging blizzard, and disappeared into the clouds to the north.

[Worldline Shift Rate: 3.5%]

[Key Technical Personnel Acquired: Ivan Vanko (Arc Reactor Technology)]

[Secondary Technical Personnel Acquired: Anton Vanko (Original Arc Reactor Designer)]

Fu Haoran leaned against the cabin wall, watching the endless snowy plains pass by outside the window, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

The first piece of the technical puzzle to feed back to the Hive City was finally in hand.

"Next, I'll play out this act with Obadiah, make him satisfied, and then it's time to start the real setup."