The air in Monaco is salty and humid, mixed with the smell of burnt tire rubber and the smell of money.
The roar of the engine comes one after another, making people's hearts tremble. F1 Grand Prix, a playground for the rich.
Chu Hang was sitting in the top VIP box, overlooking the sun-scorched track. He was wearing a casual suit, and his identity was Stark Industries's second largest shareholder, Anthony·Chen.
He was holding a glass of champagne, and the bubbles in the glass kept rising and bursting. He was not interested in racing, nor was he interested in this kind of money-burning noise. He was here for only one thing.
Take a piece of loot.
The atmosphere in the box was not as relaxed as his.
"Tony, you can't do this!" Pepper·Potts was going crazy. She was wearing a smart professional suit and was trying hard to pull Tony away from her racing suit. "This is too dangerous!"
"Is there any danger?" Tony shrugged nonchalantly while wearing fire-proof clothing, "This is my team, my car. I want to go up and run two laps and give some benefits to the audience, can't you?"
He had just been chatting with the team manager and decided on a whim to play in person. This decision threw the entire team into chaos.
"This is a big problem!" Pepe's temples were twitching with anger, "You are the CEO! Not a racing driver!"
"Relax, Pepper." Tony zipped up and winked at her, "I'm better at flying airplanes than most pilots. It's just a small scene."
Happy·Hogun, the loyal bodyguard standing next to him, looked helpless. He wanted to persuade him, but he knew he couldn't. He could only accept his fate and picked up a helmet and inspected it carefully.
Chu Hang watched this scene with great interest. Tony·Stark is like this, always living in the spotlight and enjoying the thrill of adrenaline. The adventurous spirit in his bones is his greatest charm and his greatest weakness.
"Let him go, Miss Potts." Chu Hang put down his glass and walked over. His voice was calm and emotionless, "No one can change what he decided. All we can do is believe in him."
Pepper looked back at Chu Hang. This man was always like this, as if nothing had anything to do with him. She sighed and gave up. She knew what Chu Hang said was right.
Tony gave Chu Hang a thumbs up, put on his helmet, and strode towards the red Stark Industries painted racing car.
The roar of the engine suddenly increased, like an awakened beast.
The game has begun.
More than a dozen racing cars rushed out like bullets. Tony's skills were indeed good, and he started a little slowly, but he quickly caught up to fifth place thanks to the car's superior performance and bold driving style.
The atmosphere in the box was extremely tense. Pepper clenched his hands and stared at the in-car footage of Tony's racing car on the screen.
Chu Hang leaned on the sofa and poured himself another glass of champagne. His perception was like an invisible net, covering the entire arena.
He found no target in the stands or in the pits.
"It seems that I am going to make my debut directly on the track." He thought to himself.
The race entered the third lap. Tony was preparing to overtake at a sharp turn when an accident happened.
A man wearing an orange maintenance worker's uniform slowly walked out of a maintenance tunnel next to the track. He walked calmly, completely ignoring the racing cars around him that were speeding over 300 kilometers per hour.
"Who is that person? Is he crazy? Where is the security guard! Take him away quickly!" the commentator of the event shouted in horror.
There was an uproar in the audience. Everyone thought this was a lunatic who wanted to become famous.
But Chu Hang's eyes suddenly became sharp.
That's him.
Ivan·Vanko.
Ivan took off his orange coat, revealing a simple and rough mechanical exoskeleton. A circular reactor similar to Tony's chest was emitting an ominous blue light. In his hand, he held two metal handles.
He pressed the switch.
"Zila--!"
Two dazzling electric lights suddenly shot out from his hands, pulling out two Whiplash several meters long in the air. Whiplash twisted like poisonous snakes, and the air was burned by the high temperature, making a crackling sound.
He waved his arm casually.
One of them, Whiplash, was like a red-hot knife, and it was struck hard on a racing car that was speeding by.
There was no violent collision.
There was only a heartbreaking cutting sound.
The racing car worth tens of millions of dollars was neatly cut in half from the middle like a hot knife cutting through butter. The metal at the cut instantly melted and turned red, and then there was a "boom" and a ball of fire exploded.
The track instantly turned into hell.
Screams, sirens, and the sound of a racing car crashing out of control all mixed together. The audience stood up from their seats in horror and ran away like headless flies.
In the box, Pepper let out a short scream and turned pale.
Chu Hang's face showed an expression of interest for the first time.
"Interesting."
He looked at the two dancing plasma whips in Ivan·Vanko's hands, and the system's analysis panel automatically unfolded in his mind.
[Target lock: Ivan·Vanko]
[Ability detecting...]
[B-level ability detected: Plasma Energy Confinement and Shaping (rough version)]
[Copy?]
"Class B... rough version..." Chu Hang touched his chin.
The level is not high, and the evaluation is also poor. But this idea of shaping energy into the form of cold weapons is a good supplement for him. His own Cosmic Energy and space abilities are either large-scale attacks or precise point-to-point strikes, and lack this kind of flexible mid-range form.
"Copy." He thought silently in his mind.
[Copying starts... Ability template is being constructed...]
[Copy completed! Obtained B-level ability: Plasma Energy Confinement and Shaping!]
A huge flow of information instantly poured into Chu Hang's mind. How to build a miniature magnetic field bottle, how to adjust the frequency of the magnetic field to change the shape and hardness of the plasma, how to efficiently guide the energy out... All the technical details about Plasma Electro-Whip became as clear as if he had been studying it for ten years.
Rough, but useful.
Chu Hang immediately thought of more than a dozen improvement methods. For example, using space curvature to assist constraints can reduce energy leakage to almost zero. Or inject Cosmic Energy into it to create an energy attack that can cut through freely transforming forms."
On the track, Ivan·Vanko was walking step by step towards the crashed and immobile car of Tony. The expression on his face was full of the pleasure of revenge.
"Happy! Hurry! Drive!" Pepper screamed, grabbed a red suitcase, and rushed out of the box.
Happy reacted very quickly and immediately started the Rolls-Royce parked next to it, carrying Pepper, and rushed onto the track in the opposite direction without hesitation.
He stepped on the accelerator to the bottom and slammed into Ivan·Vanko.
Ivan was knocked out, but the exoskeleton protected him. He quickly got up, and angrily waved Whiplash, cutting the front of the Rolls-Royce to pieces.
Taking advantage of this gap, Happy threw the red suitcase to Tony who climbed out of the racing car.
"Finally here." Tony wiped the oil on his face.
He stepped on the middle of the suitcase and pulled hard.
"Click! Click! Click!"
A series of dense mechanical bite sounds sounded. The suitcase unfolded instantly like a Transformer. Countless small mechanical parts quickly climbed, combined, and locked along the limbs and body of Tony.
Just seven seconds.
A set of red and silver, lightweight and highly streamlined Iron Man Armor covers the whole body of Tony.
Mark 5, Suitcase Armor.
Ivan·Vanko's Whiplash is coming.
Tony had just finished dressing, raised his arm, and accurately blocked the blow. The plasma collided with the alloy of the armor, and dazzling sparks erupted. A black mark immediately appeared on the arms of the armor.
"Nice design." Tony's voice came from the armor, with a hint of ridicule, "However, your reactor technology is too backward. If you steal my stuff, you won't steal the latest model."
He grabbed Whiplash and pulled hard.
Although Mark 5 is light, its strength is still far beyond that of ordinary people. Ivan stumbled and was dragged to the ground.
Tony didn't give him any chance. He stepped forward, pressed the reactor on Ivan's chest with both hands, and pulled it out with all his strength!
"Zila--!"
The pipeline connected to the reactor was violently torn off, sparks flying everywhere. The exoskeleton on Ivan·Vanko and Whiplash instantly lost their energy supply and dimmed.
The battle is over.
The police swarmed up and pinned Ivan·Vanko to the ground.
He looked at Tony walking over, with a look of unwillingness on his face, and whispered in Russian: "I haven't lost yet."
Tony frowned and didn't understand.
In the VIP box, Chu Hang drank the last sip of champagne in the glass.
He looked at the mess downstairs, and then at Ivan·Vanko, who was taken away by the police, with a satisfied smile on his face.
He knew that before long, Justin Hammer would use his connections to rescue Ivan·Vanko from prison.
The prelude to a good show has just begun.