That Bald Man with Bad Intentions

The next morning, Stark Industries Tower.

This magnificent building standing in the heart of Manhattan was like a colossal obelisk, proclaiming the Stark family's dominance in energy and military manufacturing.

A brand-new silver Audi R8—a welcome gift from Tony for new employees—pulled smoothly up to the tower entrance with a low roar.

The door opened, and Jiang Li stepped out in a casual suit. He raised his wrist, glanced at the still plain black-and-green watch, then at the imposing building before him, a faint smile curling his lips.

"Yesterday, I was an undocumented fugitive. Today, I'm the chief consultant. Life really is more thrilling than a roller coaster."

The moment he entered the lobby, a blonde beauty in a professional skirt suit with a capable air approached him.

"Mr. Jiang? I'm Pepper Potts, Tony's personal assistant."

"Pepper" looked at the overly young boy before her, surprise flashing through her eyes. Tony had suddenly asked her to draft an employment contract with an astronomical annual salary last night, and the intended hire was only a sixteen-year-old boy?

"Hello, Ms. Potts." Jiang Li smiled and extended a hand. "Looks like Tony has already prepared my contract of indenture?"

"It's an employment contract." Maintaining her professional composure, Pepper handed him a gold magnetic card. "This is your ID card. Its access level is second only to Tony's."

"Thanks."

Jiang Li took the card and was about to head for the private elevator.

"Wait."

A deep voice with a trace of coldness suddenly came from the side.

Jiang Li stopped.

An elderly man with a burly build, a bald head, and a gray-white beard strode over with several bodyguards in black suits. His presence was imposing, the pressure of someone long accustomed to power.

Obadiah Stane.

A veteran of Stark Industries, and the man who currently held real power in this building.

"Potts, who is this?"

Obadiah walked up to them, completely ignoring Jiang Li as he questioned Pepper directly. "How come I didn't know the company hired a... high school student? This is Stark Industries, not a daycare center."

Pepper looked somewhat nervous. "Mr. Obadiah, he's the chief technical consultant personally hired by Tony..."

"A consultant? Hmph. Tony hasn't been thinking clearly lately, bringing every stray cat and dog into the company."

Obadiah snorted before finally looking Jiang Li in the eye, his gaze filled with contempt. "Kid, take your severance pay and get out of this building. Before I call security."

An ordinary person would probably have been trembling under the death stare of such a top financial tycoon.

But Jiang Li merely looked at him quietly, then suddenly smiled.

He stepped forward and naturally adjusted Obadiah's slightly crooked tie. It was an extremely provocative gesture, and the surrounding bodyguards immediately reached for their waists.

"Don't be nervous, Uncle Stane."

Jiang Li leaned close to his ear and spoke softly, in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"I just wanted to remind you that the secret laboratory in Area 16 consumes far too much power. If you want to secretly build that 'big hunk of iron,' Iron Monger, you'd better smooth out Stark Industries' internal power grid records first. Otherwise... it'll be easy to trace."

Obadiah's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints.

The expression on his once-arrogant face froze instantly.

Area 16? Reverse engineering?

This was his greatest secret, one even Tony didn't know about! How could this boy possibly know?

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Obadiah lowered his voice, but he could no longer conceal the bone-chilling killing intent within it.

"I'm a technical consultant. It's normal for me to be a little sensitive to data."

Jiang Li took a step back, flashed a radiant smile, and waved the access card in his hand.

"Don't look at me like that. Going bald makes you prone to cerebral hemorrhages. I belong to Tony now. Want to touch me? You'll have to ask him first."

With that, Jiang Li ignored Obadiah's nearly cannibalistic glare and entered the elevator with a whistle.

Only after the elevator doors closed did Obadiah take a sharp breath, veins bulging across the back of his hand.

"Investigate!" he snarled at the bodyguards behind him. "Find out everything about that brat! Before tonight's operation... I want him to disappear completely!"

On the top floor, Stark Laboratory.

Tony Stark was tearing at his hair in front of a pile of holographic projections.

"Hey, boss." Jiang Li walked in as if it were his own home. "Still working on that gravity formula?"

"You're here!" Tony looked as though he had seen his savior. "Tell me, why is this variable negative? It violates the laws of thermodynamics!"

"Because it's antigravity mechanics." Jiang Li casually corrected several parameters.

"Genius..." Tony sighed.

"Tony, save the admiration for later."

Jiang Li pulled over a chair and sat down. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he brought up the energy monitoring map for Stark Tower. "Look at this."

On the screen, an abnormal spike in energy consumption stood out in glaring red.

"This is the energy graph for the lower levels of the tower." Jiang Li pointed at the spike. "Someone has secretly diverted a massive amount of power to charge some kind of large-scale equipment. Based on waveform analysis, its design is very similar to your Mark I prototype, but it's three times larger."

Tony's smile vanished.

As a top engineer, he understood at once what that meant.

"Reverse engineering... Someone is secretly copying my armor technology." Tony's expression darkened. "And they're doing it inside my company."

"Who in this building, besides you, has the authority to access energy at this level?" Jiang Li asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Obadiah..." Tony uttered the name, pain flashing through his eyes.

"And he's been pushing you for the miniaturized reactor technology lately, right?"

Jiang Li rose to his feet and looked out at the gloomy sky. "Tony, admit it. That uncle who saved you from the terrorists is actually the one selling weapons to them."

Tony was silent for a long time before finally slamming his fist onto the table.

"What does he want? To build an army?"

"No. He wants to build an Iron Monger to replace you."

Jiang Li looked at Tony. "If I were him, and I couldn't overcome the technology, the simplest solution would be—just take a finished product. For example... the one in your chest."

Tony instinctively covered the reactor in his chest, his gaze gradually sharpening.

"You mean he'll make his move tonight?"

"Most likely. He can't wait any longer." Jiang Li's lips curved upward. "So, boss? Want to throw him a surprise party?"

Tony took a deep breath and pulled a mechanical gauntlet from beneath the workbench.

"JARVIS, prepare combat mode. Also... warm up the new armor that hasn't been painted yet."

At that moment, a long-absent system notification sounded in Jiang Li's mind.

[Emergency mission triggered: Night of Steel's Fall.]

[Mission objective: Assist Iron Man in defeating Iron Monger.]

[Special challenge: Use the "Way Big" form to give the villain the most despairing sense of oppression.]

[Mission reward: Unlock trial access to the "Master Control Mode" function (no cooldown, mentally switch forms, limited to 10 minutes).]

Jiang Li's eyes lit up instantly.

Master Control Mode? That was the Omnitrix's most overpowered function! With it, he would become the true king of transformations!

"Looks like tonight," Jiang Li said, watching the neon lights gradually illuminate outside the window, his smile turning increasingly sinister, "someone is going to experience what a dimensionality reduction strike feels like."