A Life Debt Must Be Repaid!

JARVIS's words struck like a thunderclap, leaving Tony Stark dumbfounded. He thought he had misheard.

"What did you say? How fast was the other party flying?"

"The last detected flight speed was Mach 4.3, but that likely was not its limit. Based on its acceleration, it should be capable of going even faster."

"What the fuck, Mach 4.3!

That was already nearing the threshold of a hypersonic vehicle. How could a human possibly withstand that kind of G-force?

Was that an unmanned aircraft?"

"No. Based on the scans just now, there was a humanoid heat source inside. It can be confirmed that it was piloted."

"Piloted! How strong would someone's body have to be for that? Is that fucking thing a monster?

When did our world get another freak like this? What the hell!"

"Mr. Stark, now is not the time to think about that.

The Iron Man Suit has been flying under excessive load for too long, and its stability is rapidly declining.

Furthermore, the Arc Reactor has less than 10% energy remaining. You must decelerate and descend immediately.

Otherwise, there is a risk of structural failure or stalling. Should either occur, your life will be in danger."

Hearing JARVIS's warning, Tony did not stubbornly force himself to keep going this time.

After all, he had already lost in this contest of technology against Loren.

And it had not been an ordinary loss. He had been completely crushed.

It dealt him a heavy blow, but he was not someone who gave up easily.

This setback would only drive him to work harder to improve the Iron Man Suit's performance.

He had even silently sworn that he would find Loren and defeat him the next time they met!

With that thought, he immediately ordered JARVIS to decelerate and lower his altitude.

But just then, an extremely urgent warning sounded in his ears.

"Warning! Warning! The suit's shoulder joint has loosened due to high-frequency vibrations. The suit's left arm is beginning to come apart!"

"Fuck, shut down the engines immediately and reduce the flight speed to the minimum."

The instant JARVIS issued the warning, Tony discovered in horror that the Iron Man Suit's left arm had actually fallen off.

At once, his left hand felt a bone-piercing chill. He was currently twenty-five thousand meters in the air.

At this altitude, the air was thin and the temperature was extremely low, even around minus fifty degrees Celsius.

Without proper insulation at this altitude, frostbite would set in within minutes.

"The engines have been shut down!

However, due to gravitational acceleration, the Iron Man Suit's flight speed cannot immediately drop to a suitable range. The suit is still coming apart.

Mr. Stark, you must prepare yourself mentally.

Once the propulsion system is damaged, you will leave this world in free fall!"

"..."

"JARVIS, this is the time you should be thinking about how to save me, not telling me how I'll die."

"Mr. Stark, I am not trying to scare you. Under these circumstances, without outside assistance, your survival probability is only 10%."

"Fine, fine, fine, shut your damn jinxed mouth already!"

"Since there's still 10%, then I'll bet on that 10%! Restart the engines immediately and activate reverse thrust mode."

"Warning! Warning! The engines have iced over due to the extremely low temperatures and cannot be restarted for the time being."

"What??"

"Mr. Stark, I regret to inform you that your survival probability is now only 5%."

"..."

Listening to this AI system constantly lower his chances of survival, Tony Stark was nearly pissed into laughing.

He had always taken pride in JARVIS, believing that he had created the most advanced AI system in the world. But now, he only wanted to slap himself.

What kind of artificial intelligence was this? It was fucking artificial stupidity!

At a life-or-death moment like this, it was reporting his survival odds to him. Even if he did not fall to his death, this thing would scare him to death!

"Shut up! Shut the hell up and restart the engines!"

"The engines are severely iced over and cannot be started for the time being."

"Fuck!!!"

When JARVIS said that even the engines had frozen over, Tony truly fell into despair.

If he fell from this altitude, he would be turned straight into a puddle of mush.

Of course, it was impossible for him not to be afraid.

"Warning! Warning! You are currently eighteen thousand meters above the ground.

You are falling rapidly at a speed of 330 meters per second. According to calculations, you will hit the ground in fifty-four seconds!

Please attempt to manually restart the engines immediately. Please attempt to manually restart the engines immediately!"

Hearing JARVIS tell him to try a manual restart, Tony Stark did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately used his remaining armored right arm to strike the propulsion jets beneath his feet, attempting to restart the propulsion system. But after more than ten seconds of effort, he still failed.

Instead, it drained a great deal of his strength, making his situation worse and worse.

His left arm had already suffered frostbite after being exposed to the low temperatures for so long.

Now that his strength was nearly spent as well, it was simply adding insult to injury.

Faced with such a situation, he could not help but begin to despair.

But at that moment, a black figure descended from the sky and grabbed his arm.

Tony was startled. He instinctively looked up, only to discover that the black figure that had suddenly appeared above him was a humanoid creature clad in black mechanical armor. He called it a humanoid creature because he was not sure whether this thing before him was actually human.

The mechanical armor worn by the humanoid creature was entirely black, with pale yellow glowing strips along its surface. It looked incredibly cool.

In addition, there was a bat emblem on its chest that glowed with a pale yellow light.

When he saw that bat emblem, he froze for a moment, then seemed to realize something.

He immediately looked toward the higher sky.

Sure enough, just as he expected, he saw the Batwing again—the one that had already left him far behind.

Yes, the one who had suddenly stepped in to save Tony Stark was none other than Loren, wearing the Batman Suit.

After effortlessly catching Tony Stark, Loren did not hesitate. He quickly melted the ice covering the Iron Man Suit.

As the ice thawed, Tony Stark immediately began the restart process.

This time, he succeeded.

With the propulsion system restored, Tony Stark's descent speed dropped sharply. Before long, he stabilized himself at an altitude of five thousand meters.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you save me?"

After being saved, Tony immediately looked at Loren, who was hovering not far away, with a face full of questions.

Loren ignored him.

Instead, he turned into a black afterimage and shot upward, quickly returning to the Batwing.

Only after all this was done did an electronically synthesized voice suddenly sound inside Tony Stark's helmet.

"Remember, you owe me a favor, and it must be repaid. We will meet again."

"????"