Obadiah, Full of Lies

When Obadiah saw a slipper-clad foot appear before him, then followed the trail of leg hair upward until he saw Tony's face, the shock in his heart was no less than what Takumi had felt when he saw Natsuki sitting in someone else's BMW!

"Tony, how... how did you..."

"How did I make it back, you mean? You damned traitor!" Tony sneered and kicked Obadiah squarely in the chest.

Obadiah instantly let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered!

Tony froze, then looked at Yinsen beside him and asked:

"Are we just ridiculously tough, or is this guy really that frail? We got kicked around in that cave and never screamed this badly. What the hell is he howling about?"

Yinsen, who had some medical knowledge, noticed something off about Obadiah. He pushed up his glasses, crouched down, and took a closer look.

"No, he doesn't seem to be screaming because of your kick. He already had serious injuries around his sternum and ribs."

"Look, it's caved in here..."

Hearing that, Tony couldn't help looking at Toby, who was sitting on the sofa as though nothing had happened.

Toby merely shrugged. "You only said you wanted him alive. You never said he had to be intact. A few bumps during transport are unavoidable, aren't they?"

Uh, that actually made a damn lot of sense!

Tony was speechless for a moment, but he didn't dwell on whether the "cargo" he had requested was intact.

It was disposable anyway. Once he was done with it, it would be destroyed. Who cared whether it was whole or not?

Tony used the tip of his shoe to flip Obadiah, who was still lying on the floor screaming, onto his back, then said coldly:

"Stop screaming, Stane. You only have a fractured sternum and a few broken ribs. Compared to what you did to me, that's nothing!"

As he spoke, Tony tore open the buttons of his shirt, exposing the bloody hole blasted into his chest by the missile, with a crude Arc Reactor embedded inside!

However, Obadiah's attention was not on the gaping wound in Tony's chest, but fixed firmly on the miniature reactor embedded within it!

The shock he felt was no less than if Takumi had discovered that not only was Natsuki riding in another man's car, but that man was driving Takumi's modified AE86!

It was a double cuckolding!

Obadiah swallowed, temporarily forgetting the pain in his chest as his breathing became rapid.

"An Arc Reactor? You actually succeeded. You took the technology Howard left behind—a technology that hadn't advanced in thirty years—and pushed it forward. Not just a little, but by a huge leap..."

After all, if Tony could miniaturize the Arc Reactor to this extent, then it could be used in the energy market. The profits it could bring Stark Industries...

Hiss—

The string of sky-high zeroes that flashed through Obadiah's mind made him suck in a sharp breath. Then his face immediately shifted into one of heartfelt anguish.

"Oh, Tony, I think you must have misunderstood something. I was your father Howard's closest friend, his brother in all but blood—your uncle! How could I possibly hurt you?"

"During the two months you were missing, no one was more anxious to find you than I was. I called the military almost every day and pressured them to find you at all costs!"

"If I hadn't needed to stay behind and protect Stark Industries, the company your father founded, I would have gone to Afghanistan to look for you myself!"

"Believe me, no one in this world loves you more than I do. I've always treated you as my own son!"

Even at this point, Obadiah could still keep such a sincere expression on his face. If Tony hadn't watched the video Toby had given him, he might really have believed his bullshit!

Unfortunately, facts always spoke louder than words!

Tony snapped his fingers. "JARVIS, show him."

[Yes, sir.]

As JARVIS's voice echoed through the empty living room, a blue holographic projection appeared before Obadiah.

The video naturally showed Tony tied to a chair by the Ten Rings, sending a threatening message to Obadiah on the other end.

In the video, the Ten Rings angrily accused Obadiah of deceiving them and failing to tell them the true target of the assassination.

If they had known the target was Tony Stark, the price would have been much higher!

That was why the Ten Rings recorded the video—to extort Obadiah for another hefty sum, forcing him to send them a large shipment of high-quality weapons produced by Stark Industries!

But unexpectedly, the Ten Rings had ultimately gone back on their word. They took the weapons but failed to kill Tony as promised!

Obadiah's face turned utterly grim as he watched the video. Knowing he could no longer argue his way out of it, he gritted his teeth and roared:

"I never should have trusted those damned terrorists! They're all a bunch of faithless bastards!!!"

Tony stepped on Obadiah's chest again and sneered.

"Heh, what right do you have to say that about them? Aren't you also a hypocrite who betrayed his friends, betrayed everyone, all for your own benefit?"

"Those who betray others will naturally be betrayed by everyone!"

"Now, I ask one question, and you answer one question. Understand?"

This time, with Tony's foot pressed against his chest, Obadiah did not scream repeatedly as before. Instead, he endured the pain and said disdainfully:

"It's been decades, Tony. How are you still as naive as you were when you were twenty-one, when your father Howard had just died? So naive it's almost pitiful!"

"What makes you think that, when I'm already doomed to die, I'll tell you anything you want to know?"

"So go eat shit, Tony. You won't learn anything from me!"

"And do you think I don't know? You'll still die—and in the end, you'll die a thousand times more painfully than I will! Hahahaha!"

At the end, Obadiah pointed at the Arc Reactor in Tony's chest and burst into maniacal laughter.

As the second-in-command of a major arms company, Obadiah was naturally no ignorant fool.

On the contrary, the man who had helped Howard Stark establish Stark Industries was actually quite intelligent.

And because he had always sought to replace Howard Stark, he paid especially close attention to everything Howard had left behind.

Including the Arc Reactor prototype!

So, naturally, he knew what the Arc Reactor's core material was: palladium!

And palladium was lethally harmful to the human body!

By embedding the miniature Arc Reactor in his chest, Tony had undoubtedly placed a slow-acting poison inside his own body!

As time passed, Tony's body would slowly be eroded by palladium poisoning until he finally died in agony!

Thus, the Arc Reactor was both the cure that kept the shrapnel near Tony's heart in place and a poison that could take his life at any moment!

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