Overwhelming Superiority

[S.H.I.E.L.D.]

There were noticeably fewer busy agents in the Triskelion at the moment.

Director Nick Fury wearily pinched the bridge of his nose.

Mutant activity had been growing more frequent lately. They seemed to be brewing something big.

"Ugh..."

He had sent out so many people, yet none had brought back any useful information.

It left this veteran of World War II feeling rather frustrated.

He had planned to complete that initiative before the unstable factors and crisis erupted, but now it seemed his thinking had been too naive.

The tangled and complicated state of affairs simply did not allow him to steadily advance the Avengers Initiative step by step.

"It's time to begin..."

Several candidates flashed through his mind, but the one he favored most was still the Crimson Silver Baron who had turned the tide in New York.

He wondered how those guys at the New York branch were doing with the task he had assigned them. Could they at least send me a reply?

Young people these days... so unreliable.

With that thought, Nick Fury pressed the intercom.

Before long, Agent Hill appeared briskly before old Nick, dressed in a fitted uniform.

"Any news on the Crimson Silver Baron?"

Agent Hill knew that the director before her had special expectations for the Crimson Silver Baron. She herself was equally curious about him...

Recalling the news she had just received, Agent Hill gave a wry smile.

"Director Fury, New York sent word that they learned through the Underground Exchange that the Crimson Silver Baron's codename is [Destiny].

They also obtained his contact information and called more than once to express their intention to meet him, but received no response."

Nick Fury rotated his one eye as he pondered. There was nothing wrong with that line of investigation, so where was the problem?

A thought stirred in his mind, and he asked,

"How did they contact him? I mean, how did they ask to meet him over the phone?"

Agent Hill wore an expression caught between laughter and tears.

"They... uh... invited him to dinner... and told him he could name his price."

Although Agent Hill also found this approach absurd, that was what had happened, and she could only report it truthfully.

As Nick Fury listened to Hill's report, several veins stood out on his smooth scalp, throbbing fiercely.

A few seconds later, an enraged roar exploded from his spacious office.

"Are you kidding me?!...!!"

Afghanistan, Gamila.

As Su Ming and Tony competed to see who could kill more bandits, the cries of women and children drifted over from a nearby town.

They exchanged a glance, their competitive gazes colliding in midair.

Without a word, the two shot toward the town like streaks of light.

"JARVIS, count the kills!"

While flying, Tony issued an order to his AI assistant.

When designing this armor, Tony had spared no effort. He had fully displayed his genius for engineering and expanded the armor's functions to the limit.

This armor possessed over a hundred functions, including combat recording and statistical tracking.

"Yes, Mr. Stark. According to the statistics, your current kill count is—54. Congratulations on achieving excellent results."

A confident smile appeared at the corner of Tony's bearded mouth.

As the number of dead bandits rose, the anger in Tony's heart had gradually subsided. What remained was the unyielding fighting spirit of a science-minded man who refused to admit defeat.

He had suffered at Su Ming's hands before. This time, no matter what, he had to beat him!

Glancing at Su Ming, who was also flying through the air, Tony had a thought.

"JARVIS, count the Crimson Silver Baron's kills!"

JARVIS's slightly mechanical voice sounded inside the helmet.

"Yes, Mr. Stark. According to the statistics, Mr. Crimson Silver Baron's current kill count is—136. He truly is a combat genius."

Tony's confident smile instantly froze.

Since childhood, he had been called a genius countless times, yet the genius label from the AI assistant he had personally developed had been bestowed on someone else.

It made Tony Stark extremely unhappy. His pride refused to accept it.

Taking a deep breath, Tony looked seriously toward the town ahead and silently increased the power.

Flames blasting from the Iron Armor's hands and feet suddenly erupted. The metallic figure accelerated sharply, leaving Su Ming far behind.

Su Ming could easily have put in more effort and pushed his flying speed to the limit, allowing him to leave Tony far behind and arrive first.

But he did not. Instead, he chose to keep pace with Tony, purely out of curiosity.

What man could escape the damn allure of a combat mech?

Su Ming was no exception.

When he saw Tony transform into Iron Man, he had wanted to get a good close-up look at the armor.

But no amount of interest could interfere with Su Ming making money, especially when there was someone annoying stealing his kills.

"I can't just take him out with a Fiery Blade, can I? This isn't Legend of Mir..."

Once Su Ming had entered combat, he had not had any time to carefully examine the cool armor. Now, he finally had the chance.

"Mm... Tony really is a genius. This design, these functions, this look... it really is cool!"

Watching the armor beside him spew flames from its hands and feet, Su Ming quietly swallowed.

He had checked before. The System Shop really did not sell pure technological products like this; it only had superpowers.

What one could not have was always the most alluring.

Su Ming wondered whether he could find a chance to ask Tony for a set of armor to play with someday.

Tony would have plenty of these things in the future.

When he suddenly noticed Tony accelerating, Su Ming hurriedly flung more flying knives to catch up. However, he accidentally used too much force, and his body shot toward the town at a speed far beyond Tony's.

Tony felt the pressure on his body and knew his speed had reached its limit.

That hateful red figure was nowhere to be seen in his field of vision, and Tony unconsciously revealed a smile.

Just as Tony was preparing to lock onto the enemies ahead and attack, a blurry figure howled past him.

It was so fast that even JARVIS's cameras had difficulty capturing it.

But from that flash of red, Tony knew it was Su Ming. His eyes widened slightly.

"What the hell?..."

He stared blankly as the figure destroyed a row of houses upon landing, sending up a huge cloud of dust.

Tony broke into a delighted smile.

"Hehe, messed up, huh?"

He completely forgot about having been utterly outpaced.

Su Ming admitted that after his physical abilities had been upgraded, he still could not control them perfectly. On top of that, he had only mastered flight in the past few days, so this landing was a little awkward.

By the time he crawled out of the rubble, Tony had already rescued several civilians who had been pressed against a wall and were about to be executed by bandits.

"This won't do!"

It was not that he cared much about whether those refugees lived or died. It was that kill-stealing—had touched Su Ming's bottom line.

After all, he was a bounty hunter with no feelings.

He turned to look at the bandits beneath a truck, who were holding women and children hostage.

"Stop! Otherwise, we'll kill them!"

Tony's movements immediately stopped.

Stopping for real was impossible, Tony thought.

He only paused so JARVIS could more easily scan and lock onto the enemies.

Just as JARVIS scanned the final enemy, several flashes of cold light swept past.

A tiny, nearly imperceptible fatal wound appeared on the forehead of every bandit holding a hostage.

Their eyes instantly lost focus, their weapons slipped from their hands, and in the blink of an eye, they became corpses on the ground.

[Bounty leader of the Freedom Fighters killed, bounty +$50,000]

[Bounty leader of the Freedom Fighters killed, bounty +$40,000]

[Bounty leader of the Freedom Fighters killed, bounty +$40,000]

As the system notifications sounded, Su Ming happily discovered that there seemed to be several minor leaders among them, whose bounties were clearly much higher. Sweet.

Tony, beneath his iron mask, pouted.

He watched targets that had clearly been locked on gradually be classified as harmless by JARVIS.

Though unwilling to admit it, Tony still gave Su Ming a thumbs-up out of courtesy.

"Brother! You move... pretty fast!"