Iron Monger

A blue sedan sped down the highway. Fortunately, there were far fewer cars on the road at night, or it would definitely have caused an accident. Meng Zu drove expressionlessly. Being ambushed by the Ten Rings had truly enraged him. Though the Ten Rings were terrorists, they were not much of a threat to him.

He spent most of his time in the United States, while the Ten Rings mainly stirred up trouble in the chaotic regions of the Middle East. He did not need to worry about being attacked by them. This time, it was entirely because of Obadiah that the Ten Rings had learned his whereabouts. Obadiah had already set his sights on him, and he was a far greater threat than the Ten Rings. Meng Zu decided to strike first and eliminate Obadiah directly.

Meng Zu did not have JARVIS like Tony Stark, allowing him to easily obtain Obadiah's location. However, he possessed the Clue Guidance skill. Following the direction indicated by Clue Guidance, he could naturally find Obadiah.

Following Clue Guidance, Meng Zu arrived at Stark Industries. After getting out of the car, he found a spot that avoided the cameras and vaulted over the wall. As soon as he entered, Meng Zu, standing in the darkness, saw Pepper standing alone not far ahead.

"Why is Pepper here?"

A sudden commotion rang out. The ground behind Pepper split open, and a massive steel robot emerged from within. Meng Zu immediately understood. It seemed Obadiah had still obtained Mark One, and had even taken Tony's Miniature Reactor to power his own Iron Monger. He had probably only sent the Ten Rings after Meng Zu as an afterthought.

"Where do you think you're running?"

Seeing the terrified, helpless Pepper, Obadiah Stane's voice came through Iron Monger's loudspeaker.

"You're no longer of any use!"

Iron Monger raised the Gatling gun on its right arm and aimed it at Pepper. The gun began spinning as it warmed up. At that critical moment, a gunshot rang out with a bang. Sparks burst from Iron Monger's head, making it tilt slightly to the left.

Seeing the display show five percent damage to the head, Obadiah was startled. What kind of bullet could inflict that sort of damage? He hurriedly turned toward where the bullet had come from, but the moment he turned, another round struck Iron Monger's head. The impact made its head jerk back slightly, and the display once again showed five percent damage.

"It was you!" Through an electronic scan, Obadiah discovered Meng Zu standing in the darkness with a sniper rifle in his hands. He recognized him as the one who had rescued Tony.

Without another word, Obadiah opened fire. "Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat..." The machine gun sprayed bullets at Meng Zu. The instant Iron Monger raised its arm to fire, Meng Zu spun around and ran to the side, bullets streaking after his heels.

Meng Zu did not dare stop, because Danger Sense kept warning him. Just then, a familiar voice came from the sky. "Stan!"

Iron Monger looked up at the sound. Its electronic eyes saw a red suit of armor rapidly flying toward it through the air. Obadiah could not help saying in surprise, "Tony! You're still alive?"

Iron Monger abandoned Meng Zu. With a swing of its arm, it aimed its machine gun at Tony in the sky and opened fire. But before it could hit Tony, the Mark III Tony piloted had already charged in front of it.

Worried about Pepper's safety, Tony had Mark III directly grab Iron Monger and charge away. The two smashed through the perimeter wall of Stark Industries and vanished from sight.

When Iron Monger turned to attack Mark III, Meng Zu decisively threw himself to the ground. Bullets swept over his head. Now that Tony had taken Iron Monger away, Meng Zu stood up, returned his gun to the Storage Space, and dusted himself off.

Meng Zu's expression was grim in the darkness. He reflected on what had just happened. What was wrong with me? Did my brain short-circuit? I actually fired at Obadiah without even finding somewhere to hide. If Tony Stark hadn't arrived in time, I definitely would have been hit.

Pepper cautiously walked toward the darkness beside the wall and called out, "Are you all right?"

Though she did not know who was in the darkness, she would already be dead if that person had not suddenly opened fire on Obadiah. Obadiah had fired in this direction earlier, and she did not know whether the person was still alive. But no matter what, she needed to check on them. If they were alive, perhaps she could help somehow.

Pepper's call brought Meng Zu back to his senses. Seeing Pepper walking toward him, he simply stepped out of the darkness.

Meng Zu's sudden appearance from the darkness startled Pepper. Once she saw his face clearly, she recognized him at once. "You're Evan!"

"Good evening, Ms. Pepper!"

Seeing that Meng Zu appeared uninjured, Pepper let out a sigh of relief. "Evan, thank you for saving me just now."

Meng Zu shook his head slightly. "It was nothing. Just a small favor."

Looking at Meng Zu, Pepper asked curiously, "Evan, why are you here?"

Meng Zu looked at Pepper calmly. "I came to kill Obadiah."

"Huh?" Pepper froze at that answer.

Meng Zu explained, "When I returned home tonight, I was attacked by the Ten Rings. After interrogating them, I learned Obadiah had sent them to kill me. Since he wanted to kill me, I had no choice but to come kill him."

Although she knew Obadiah had gone mad, Pepper could not help asking, "Why would he do that?"

"Because I rescued Tony Stark."

Pepper understood then. When she copied files from Obadiah's office computer today, she had discovered that three months ago, Obadiah had hired the Ten Rings to kill Tony. But the Ten Rings had not followed his orders to kill Tony. They had merely imprisoned him and made him build weapons until Meng Zu rescued Tony. That was why Obadiah had come to resent Meng Zu.

If she had not sought out Meng Zu, Obadiah would not have sent people to kill him. Thinking of this, Pepper said apologetically, "Evan, I'm sorry for dragging you into this."

"This has nothing to do with you. It was my job."

At that moment, two trails of fire shot into the sky, one after the other. Meng Zu looked up and saw that Mark III and Iron Monger had flown high into the air. Watching them climb higher and higher, Meng Zu, who knew what would happen, knew they would both fall shortly. He said to Pepper, "Pepper, find somewhere to hide. Those two will be coming down soon."

Hearing that, Pepper hurriedly ran toward Sector 16, while Meng Zu ran toward another building. The door was locked, and Meng Zu did not have an employee card, but that was not a problem. He pulled out his pistol, aimed at the lock, and used the Multifunctional Bullets skill to turn the rounds into armor-piercing bullets. With two bangs, he destroyed the lock, pushed the door open, and quickly climbed the stairs to the top floor.

After hiding in a corner on the top floor, Meng Zu took out the M99 sniper rifle. He found Iron Monger unbelievably sturdy and had no idea what material it was made of. When he had attacked Iron Monger with the M99 earlier, he had used his skill to turn both rounds into armor-piercing bullets. Yet after two shots, he had not only failed to penetrate it, he had not even left a deep dent.

But that did not mean Meng Zu had no way to deal with Iron Monger. He remembered that Iron Monger apparently had not solved the problem of its armor freezing. If armor-piercing rounds would not work, he could use freezing bullets to freeze it, then deal with it afterward.

Soon, Meng Zu saw Iron Monger falling from the distant sky. He had thought Obadiah would simply fall to his death, but when Iron Monger was about ten meters above the ground, a burst of fire suddenly appeared and halted its descent. The fire immediately went out, however, and Iron Monger ultimately crashed onto the ground in the distance.

(Happy Year of the Ox, everyone! May your fortunes soar!)

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