Funding Ivan Vanko? Tony Was Half Your Friend, After All!

In Russia.

Anton Vanko watched Iron Man Tony Stark bask in boundless glory, fighting for justice everywhere and enjoying the cheers of the people, and his heart ached beyond measure!

This should have belonged to his son!!

"My child, all of this should have been yours!"

"Don't listen to that trash." Ivan, the filial son, clenched his father's hand.

"But all I can leave you is my knowledge..."

With that, tears of regret streamed down Anton Vanko's face. Carrying endless remorse, he ended his frustrated and unfulfilled life...

Watching his father pass away, Ivan Vanko let out a grief-stricken roar. He had regarded his father as his role model all his life!

Yet as a son, he could not even let his father leave this world in glory!!

His father, Anton Vanko, had been Howard's partner. They had researched Ark Energy together, but Howard not only claimed it for himself, he had also kicked Anton out of the company. That was what led to his father dying in depression.

Now, looking at Tony, that playboy, indulging in a luxurious life, then looking at his own poverty and ruin, the seeds of hatred quickly broke through the soil and grew into a towering tree.

"Aah!!"

Roaring, Ivan Vanko gulped down a mouthful of liquor and smashed his fist into the table. Even when glass shards pierced his palm and turned it into a bloody mess, he felt nothing.

Hatred! Hatred! Hatred!

The power of hatred was truly immense. This ruthless man immediately began building an Arc Reactor according to his father's designs.

He wanted to personally kill Iron Man Tony Stark and seek justice for his father and their family!

"What's the point of making such a crude electric whip? Tony's fully armed. With your mortal body, wouldn't one blast take you out?"

Ivan Vanko, who had been hammering metal, suddenly turned toward the doorway.

At that moment, a pretentious guy wearing sunglasses appeared before him, seriously lecturing as though he commanded the world.

"Who are you?!"

Ivan Vanko demanded sharply, tense. This man knew so much about him—how could he not be nervous?

"Me? Who I am isn't important. But I can provide you with everything you need for revenge. Interested in working together?"

"Heh, there's no such thing as a free lunch. What do you want from me? I have nothing."

Ivan Vanko laughed at himself.

"Ivan, do you understand investing in dreams? Please call me an angel investor, thank you."

Wasn't the newcomer Chen Xi? Wherever there were villains, there was his shadow. Please call him a scoundrel investor.

Tony refused to share the Iron Armor with him, but as the old saying went, if there were no guns or cannons, couldn't he just build his own?

"Fine. What kind of help can you offer me?"

Ivan Vanko stared deeply at the face hidden behind the sunglasses. He felt an unprecedented pressure.

It was like the indifference of a higher life-form looking down upon a lower one!

"Money!"

Chen Xi spoke calmly, then tossed several sacks of U.S. dollars from his system storage space. There were more than ten million dollars in total.

Ivan Vanko was numb as he watched this man casually throw out mountains of cash without even blinking...

It wasn't as though Ivan Vanko had never considered building Iron Armor himself.

He did not want to wear a pile of junk either. He simply had no money.

Building a set of Iron Armor would cost at least seven or eight million dollars.

For a poor bastard like him, building an Arc Reactor alone was enough to bankrupt him, alright...

"You're not afraid I'll take the money and run?"

Ivan Vanko asked tentatively.

"Run? If you run, you'll die."

Chen Xi gave him a mocking glance, then turned and punched his massive pickup truck apart with one blow...

Hiss!!

Ivan Vanko's eyelids twitched violently several times, and cold sweat broke out all over his body...

So Iron Armor was not invincible after all? He was already this powerful, so why did he need Iron Armor, a "toy," at all?

Yes, Ivan Vanko felt that the Iron Armor he considered so awesome was probably just an interesting toy in this big shot's eyes.

Chen Xi left, leaving Ivan Vanko staring fervently at the banknotes scattered across the ground. This time, he could finally do something huge with his life!

"Tony, Tony, do you understand that the gun shoots the bird that sticks its head out? You were so arrogant and overbearing—now you've offended someone, haven't you?"

"Host, you really are a little genius..."

"Really? I think so too. I'm a genius."

Chen Xi pretended not to understand that the system was mocking him and took it as genuine praise instead.

"The system's mission was to intercept and kill the villain Ivan Vanko, yet you chose to fund the villain and massively increase his villainous attributes..."

No wonder the system complained that his morals were rotten and that he was not even human. It turned out the system had generated a mission for him to defeat Ivan Vanko, the villain from Iron Man 2.

But Chen Xi felt that the mission reward was far too low, only thirty thousand Justice Points. [The destruction and deaths Ivan caused truly could not compare to Red Hulk's, and his own strength was nothing special.]

Dissatisfied, Chen Xi immediately increased the difficulty of his own mission. Even the system had to admire how this guy was exploiting bugs here.

And now, the system mission had completely crashed. Because of his interference, the future had changed, making it impossible to calculate.

"Sigh, you know it isn't easy for me to support a family. If I don't earn more formula money, how am I supposed to feed them?"

"You'll cause even more people to die this way. Doesn't your conscience hurt?" The system despised him!!

"I think they'll understand me. After all, I'm thinking about the future too. Before victory arrives, people have to make sacrifices. Let them sacrifice themselves to fulfill me, and I'll stop Thanos!!"

"Besides, death is just death. It's not like the people dying are my compatriots. Those not of our kind must have different hearts. I'm even helping the great and beautiful country reduce its population pressure."

Chen Xi shrugged indifferently and argued loudly. In his eyes, all that mattered was getting more Justice Points—who cared whether they came stained with blood or not?

"What if there are Xia Kingdom people among them?"

"Then they can only blame their own bad luck. Besides, there don't seem to be any Xia Kingdom people here. We're all Americans, after all. You chose your own idol, hahaha!"

"Tony was half your friend, after all. Isn't this too much of a setup?"

"Heh, you said it yourself. Half a friend!"

"..."

The system immediately fell silent. It felt that no one could rival Chen Xi in shamelessness and brazenness. He could make harming others for his own benefit sound so righteous!!