Many 30 Million Dollars

More than a month later.

Los Angeles.

Tony's seaside mansion.

Roy glanced around Tony's workshop and garage, his gaze finally settling on the Mark 3 Armor Tony was repairing.

Just as he remembered, the Mark 3 Armor had the classic red-and-gold color scheme.

Roy said to Tony, "You didn't specifically call me here just to watch you repair your armor, did you?"

"Of course not."

Tony stopped repairing the armor, walked over to the workbench, and set down his tools. "Did you know I was kicked off the board?"

"The directors thought I'd suffered psychological trauma and forced me off the board through an injunction!"

Roy shook his head and replied, "No. I only know that Stark Industries' stock price dropped by more than 50%."

Hearing him mention the stock price, Tony quickly said, "I had JARVIS look into you, and he found something very interesting."

Roy smiled and asked, "What was it?"

Tony frowned and slowly said, "Before I held the press conference, your stockbroker was already shorting Stark Industries stock."

"Based on the information JARVIS gathered, your profits from this short sale won't be less than 150 million dollars."

Roy said calmly, "Whether it's shorting or going long, it's all standard practice in the stock market. There's nothing special about it."

"You weren't the first person to short Stark Industries stock, and you won't be the last."

"I'm just curious. How did you know that I'd announce the closure of the weapons division after I came back?"

Tony stared at Roy with a serious expression.

Roy shrugged and said unhurriedly, "Intuition."

Of course, he wasn't about to tell Tony that he possessed the "inside information" that came with being a transmigrator.

"You dared to spend that much money shorting Stark Industries stock based on intuition alone?"

"Weren't you afraid you'd guessed wrong and suffered massive losses?"

Tony asked with a frown.

"Let me correct you. Even if I'd guessed wrong, I wouldn't have suffered massive losses."

"I may not be as rich as you, but I can still come up with a few hundred million in cash."

"Enough about that. What exactly did you call me here for?"

Roy pulled over a chair beside him and sat down.

Tony didn't answer immediately. He picked up the whiskey on the table and poured two glasses.

After handing one to Roy, he drained his own glass in one gulp.

Then he slowly said, "A few days ago, I attended a Firefighter Family Fund charity gala at Walt Disney Concert Hall..."

He paused, then poured himself another drink.

After taking a sip, he continued, "At the gala, I ran into a reporter I'd dealt with before..."

Before he could finish, Roy cut him off with a smile. "If I'm not mistaken, that reporter was definitely a woman, and a very beautiful one at that."

Tony glared at him and said seriously, "That's not important. What's important is that she showed me several photographs."

"The photos were taken the day before the gala, in a small town in Afghanistan called Gemira."

"They showed someone selling weapons manufactured by Stark Industries to terrorists in Afghanistan."

"That included Jericho Missiles!"

"When I was kidnapped, those terrorists demanded that I make Jericho Missiles for them."

"And now, someone has directly sold Jericho Missiles to them."

"What I never expected was that the person who joined the other directors to force me off the board and sold Jericho Missiles to terrorists was Obadiah!"

Although he had personally flown to Gemira in the Mark 3 Armor and destroyed the terrorists' Jericho Missiles,

whenever he thought of what Obadiah had done, he couldn't suppress the fury in his heart.

"And then?"

Roy picked up his glass and took a sip.

"I want you to do something for me. Go to my office, hack into the main computer, copy the latest Jericho Missile production records, and obtain proof that Obadiah sold weapons to terrorists."

"This USB drive contains a hacking program I designed myself. Plug it in, and it will automatically complete the intrusion."

"The production records should be in the administrative files."

"If they aren't, they'll be on a hidden drive. Just find the one with the lowest number."

"If you can't find it, copy everything."

Tony picked up a black USB drive and held it out to Roy.

Roy didn't take it. He slowly said, "I accepted your commission, but it was to protect you and Pepper. It didn't include doing corporate espionage for you."

Tony had already guessed he would say that and quickly replied, "Name your price. How much extra?"

"This time, I don't want more money. I want that!"

Roy raised his right hand and pointed at the Mark 3 Armor.

"Do you know how much it costs to make a suit of armor like that?"

Tony said with a frown.

Although he was rich, Roy's price hike was still beyond what he could accept.

"I don't know the exact amount, but it has to be many 30 million dollars at the very least."

Roy looked at Tony calmly.

"If you know that, why would you make such an outrageous demand?"

Tony said quickly.

"It doesn't hurt to try."

"If you agreed, I'd strike it rich."

Roy said with a smile.

"Stop wasting time. Give me a reasonable price."

Tony continued.

"Same as last time. Five hundred thousand."

Roy replied.

"Fine!"

Tony agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Roy drained the whiskey in his glass, picked up the USB drive, and slowly said, "Pepper could do this too. Why not let her handle it?"

"She's different from you. She's just an ordinary person. I don't want her to be in danger."

Tony replied.

Roy said nothing more. He activated the Flying Thunder God technique and vanished from Tony's sight, appearing on the rooftop of the Stark Industries Headquarters Building.

The last time he had come here, he had left a Flying Thunder God formula on the rooftop.

After teleporting over, he didn't hesitate and immediately used the Transformation Technique.

Bang!

As the white smoke dispersed, he transformed into Obadiah's appearance.

Using Obadiah's face, he made his way to Tony's office without obstruction.

More precisely, it was now Obadiah's office.

After turning on the computer, a login page appeared on the screen.

He inserted Tony's personally made hacking USB drive into the main unit, and a system intrusion warning popped up on the screen.

In just a few seconds, the hacking program cracked the login system and found an encrypted hidden drive.

Without any action from him, the files on the drive opened one after another.

Jericho Missile production records, the Iron Monger Armor Project in Sector 16, a video sent by the Afghanistan branch of the Ten Rings...

Roy couldn't understand Afghan Pashto, so he entered a translation command.

Before long, the language in the video was translated into English.

"You never said the person you wanted dead was Tony Stark, so Obadiah Stane, you will pay a heavy price for your concealment and lies. The price for killing Tony Stark has gone up..."

Roy wasn't surprised that the Afghanistan branch of the Ten Rings had sent Obadiah a video demanding a higher price.

Likewise, he wasn't surprised that Obadiah had found the Mark 1 Parts left behind in the cave and launched the Iron Monger Armor Project.

After closing the video, he began copying all the files from the hidden drive.

Until the copying was complete, he never encountered Obadiah.

After returning to Tony's seaside mansion, he understood why he hadn't run into Obadiah like Pepper had.

In the first-floor living room, Tony sat slumped motionlessly on the sofa, his face pale and his chest hollow.