Li Ang's arrival brought the situation under control.
The gangsters around him trembled, not daring to approach. Only after Li Ang waved a hand did a few underlings dare step forward and lift the little green man out of the crater.
Kingpin swallowed, realizing profoundly just how powerless he was before this man.
He was simply terrifying!
His men facing the little green man had been no different from sheep facing a wolf.
Yet this man had not only dealt with the little green man effortlessly, but had done it all in just a few minutes!
"Uh... Mr. Li Ang, leave the rest to us. The suit you wanted has already been delivered to the manor."
Kingpin spoke with extreme care, afraid that the slightest wrong mood might displease Li Ang.
He was New York's emperor of the underworld. Who had ever seen him speak to anyone so cautiously?
The underlings around them tactfully looked up at the moon.
They knew very well not to look at things they shouldn't.
"Well done." Li Ang was very satisfied with Kingpin's attitude, and equally satisfied with how quickly he transferred the money.
But he did not leave. Instead, he walked toward the little green man, who had been carried off to one side.
The little green man's arms had been severed. Because Heat Vision had cut them off, the wounds were charred, and no blood flowed out.
He leaned against a crate in a wretched state, looking half-dead.
Only after he reverted to a normal human could Li Ang tell that he was a white man.
Large tattoos also covered his body. They resembled a Western dragon, only incomplete.
"You even got a fucking crippled dragon tattoo?" Li Ang crouched before him. A nearby gangster immediately took the hint, grabbed a bottle of water, and splashed it straight into the man's face.
"Ugh..."
The little green man slowly woke up. The sight of Li Ang startled him, and his entire body shook.
"How did you become like this?"
The little green man hurriedly answered, "I'm from a small gang nearby. Someone said he could give me power, and I agreed..."
Hmm? Li Ang inexplicably had a bad feeling.
Could my arrival have triggered some sort of butterfly effect? Li Ang wondered, then asked the little green man, "What did that person look like?"
"Uh... a man, with a big beard. He was really tall, too, like Jesus!"
"He gave me a bottle of soda and said I'd gain power if I drank it. After I did, I turned into this."
The little green man still longed for how he had felt before. That power, enough to lift the world, had intoxicated him.
Hearing about the big beard and tall, thin build made Li Ang's heart lurch-not because he had guessed the man's identity, but because he hadn't.
"Oh, right, I remember. He said his name was Me..."
Before the little green man could finish, his entire body suddenly swelled like a balloon being inflated.
His dazed expression twisted, then froze, and he exploded!
Li Ang had thought he would burst into chunks of flesh. Instead, he turned into flower petals.
The petals burst outward like fireworks and swirled in the night breeze, indescribably poignant and beautiful. Li Ang watched the scene before him, his expression grim.
He had keenly caught the little green man's last word. Me... That left only one candidate: Mephisto.
What that lord of Hell enjoyed most was using all manner of appearances to tempt mortals into signing contracts and selling their souls.
This fellow had just exploded because he had tried to say the lord of Hell's name.
"This is trouble."
Then Li Ang reconsidered. Ancient One was not dead yet, so Mephisto probably would not be arrogant enough to act without restraint.
After all, the Sanctum's mission was to protect people from the Dark Dimension's incursions. Hell... probably counted too, right?
Whether it counts or not, I still need to hurry up and get stronger. Having strong fists of my own is what really matters. Li Ang made up his mind.
As if it had heard Li Ang's thoughts, the system issued another mission.
[Mission three: War pig] [Tony's uncle Obadiah intends to seize the company and will stop at nothing to do so. For a war profiteer with no bottom line, death is the best end! Killing Iron Monger will grant an additional reward.] [Mission reward: Conscientious Slot Machine. Additional reward: Gravity Capture Net. (Using this net creates a gravity well ten meters in diameter to suppress enemies. Enemies within it experience adaptive gravity to ensure they are restrained but not injured.)]
Li Ang glanced at the mission after hearing the system announcement. He really wanted to ask whether a slot machine with "conscientious" in its name was actually conscientious.
Li Ang had his doubts about that.
Still, since the mission had been issued and aligned perfectly with Li Ang’s own intentions, he would naturally complete it.
As for Iron Monger, Li Ang surmised that it meant killing Obadiah while he wore the Iron Monger armor. Killing an old man and killing an old man in powered armor were two missions of different difficulty.
"So, to get this extra reward, I need to wait until Obadiah puts on Iron Monger?"
Li Ang considered that no great problem.
He just wondered what changes his butterfly effect would bring to Obadiah's Iron Monger. With that build of his, he probably wouldn't fit into a suit custom-made for Tony.
Before leaving, he felt it necessary to give Kingpin a warning.
"All right, don't be late with this month's money. Otherwise, you know what I'm capable of. I'll squeeze your neck for all I'm worth and won't let a breath of air through."
After delivering his threat, Li Ang soared into the sky and flew toward Tony's villa.
On the ground, Kingpin shuddered. He looked at the petals covering the ground, his heart sinking like a stone. "How terrifying!"
He had thought this was Li Ang's doing.
"Is this the mysterious magic of the East?" Kingpin dared not imagine the fate of ending up like that himself.
"Sir, we tried your suggestion, but we've run into a small obstacle."
Inside the laboratory, a scientist was explaining the problem to Obadiah.
Obadiah, however, had no interest in listening. All his attention was drawn to the suit of armor before him.
Iron Monger.
It was not as huge and cumbersome as in the original story. On the contrary, it looked more like an upgraded War Machine, with heavier armament and greater firepower.
Its sturdier design allowed it to carry more weapons.
All of this was thanks to the mysterious Mandarin giving him the blueprints for the MK1 from the cave, as well as the researchers' continuous upgrades afterward.
This suit of armor could be said to have been custom-made for him.
Because of the butterfly effect, Obadiah had immediately sensed the threat Li Ang posed and begun to act.
He had also destroyed all information connecting him to the Ten Rings ahead of time, leaving no clues. As a result, Tony's investigation of the entire company after his return had failed to uncover the bald man.
Li Ang had warned Tony, but Tony did not believe that the uncle who had raised him would hurt him.
"Sir, at present, a miniature reactor like that cannot exist, so..."
Hearing that the reactor could not exist made Obadiah's face darken with anger.
It doesn't exist? Then what's in Tony's chest, a flashlight?
He angrily interrupted the researcher. "Listen! Tony built it in a cave, using a pile of scrap metal!"
At that, no one in the laboratory dared make a sound, until the scientist he was pointing at said weakly, "Sorry, I'm not Tony Stark."
At those words, Obadiah realized something, but he only grew angrier.
Looking at the armor before him, an even crazier plan emerged in Obadiah's mind.