The armor's appearance drew a chorus of startled cries from the people nearby.
Steve stood off to the side, his jaw hanging open. This world was simply too crazy.
Planes used to need propellers to fly, and now people could fly just by putting on a layer of metal?
After he woke up, Nick Fury had explained the Avengers Initiative to him, and he had agreed to join.
He had also read some of the information Nick Fury had provided.
He was still willing to give something to this somewhat unfamiliar world.
"Tony Stark!" Ivan Vanko gave Li Ang no time to react, bringing his whip down toward the armor's arm!
The whip whistled through the air, charged with energy and electricity. Even ordinary steel would have been sliced apart by that lash.
Unexpectedly, the armor neither dodged nor moved aside. It simply raised a hand and caught the whip!
Crackling arcs of electricity and sparks erupted across the armor's arm!
Inside the armor, Li Ang sighed inwardly. Old habits really get you in trouble!
Ivan Vanko's attack couldn't hurt him, so he had instinctively reached out to grab it, but the armor couldn't take it!
"Fuck, this armor is expensive!" Li Ang's irritable voice came from inside the armor.
Hearing a voice that wasn't Tony Stark's, Ivan Vanko froze.
The next second, the armor folded open piece by piece, and Li Ang stepped out.
Seeing Ivan Vanko's dumbfounded expression, Li Ang remembered the mission in his mind. He smiled at Ivan Vanko. "Hi, Whip Boy."
Steve recognized Li Ang from where he stood nearby.
He remembered several people being prominently flagged in the files, and Li Ang was one of them. His designation was simple: extremely dangerous, no spirit of self-sacrifice, but open to deals.
The files included some footage of Li Ang fighting.
Watching Li Ang catch his steel whip barehanded even after shedding the armor, Ivan Vanko moved his mouth but couldn't get a single word out!
Was this guy human?!
The electricity flowed along his arm and through his entire body, but Li Ang didn't feel anything in particular.
Seeing Ivan Vanko about to move his other hand, Captain America immediately shouted from nearby, "Watch out!"
Li Ang didn't even give Ivan Vanko a chance to act. He exerted a sudden burst of force with his other hand, trying to yank Ivan Vanko over!
Ivan Vanko still intended to resist. As he braced his feet, the exoskeleton behind him creaked.
But when Li Ang's strength traveled through the steel whip and reached his body, he realized just how wrong he had been.
He had actually thought an exoskeleton could withstand Li Ang's strength!
Ivan Vanko had no control at all as his entire body flew toward Li Ang. His face drained of color, and before he could react, he slammed down at Li Ang's feet.
The impact left him utterly dazed.
Li Ang stared down at Ivan Vanko, who was still struggling to stand, and said coldly, "Attacking people in the street? You're pretty brazen!"
Hearing Li Ang's words, Ivan Vanko spat. "Ptooey! Stark's lapdog!"
Li Ang wasn't angry. He reached out, grabbed Ivan Vanko's exoskeleton, and yanked hard!
In Li Ang's hands, the cast-iron exoskeleton was no different from foam.
After ripping it straight off, Li Ang didn't kill Ivan Vanko immediately.
It wasn't because he was softhearted or some bleeding-heart saint.
If he really were a bleeding-heart saint, Obadiah and Abomination wouldn't have had to die.
He was thinking about the mission.
Li Ang opened the mission panel, which appeared before his eyes.
[Mission nine: The sins of the fathers] [His father secretly sold military secrets and engaged in espionage, yet twisted the truth, leaving Ivan Vanko burdened with hatred. But this is no excuse for his wanton revenge! Innocent lives cannot be brushed aside with a single sentence. Kill Ivan Vanko. Killing Ivan Vanko will grant an extra reward.] [Mission rewards: 10 attribute points, one ten-pull. Extra reward: Compound V5 × 3]
V5 was pretty good stuff, and he was tempted.
The problem was, he already had the Homelander panel, so V5 would offer him a negligible improvement. Was it worth taking that risk?
What if his butterfly effect led to Whiplash killing more people after building his armor, or even killing someone important?
At that thought, Li Ang suddenly had an idea.
Looking down at Ivan Vanko, who lay at his feet like a dead dog, Li Ang asked, "What's your name?"
"Heh..." Ivan Vanko chose death over submission.
In response, Li Ang narrowed his eyes, scarlet light filling them. "I said, what's your name?"
Sensing death approaching, Ivan Vanko finally showed fear in his eyes. He didn't want to die, because he hadn't avenged his father yet. He couldn't die!
"Did you build that exoskeleton armor?"
At the mention of the exoskeleton armor, Ivan Vanko sneered and glanced at the Iron Man Armor standing a short distance away.
"Yes, and this too!" Ivan Vanko pointed at the reactor on his chest.
"This is a miniature tokamak reactor based on palladium-catalyzed cold fusion. The energy density generated by fusion is tens of millions of times that of chemical fuels! Tony is nothing but a thief. He stole my father's invention!"
As Ivan Vanko spoke, he looked at Li Ang as though he were looking at a hairless monkey.
"Fuck you! I can't read, so quit telling me useless shit!" Li Ang pressed down with his foot, and a sharp pain immediately shot through Ivan Vanko's chest.
"Ah!" Ivan Vanko howled.
"What bullshit reactor? A guy who plays with whips is getting into all this too." Li Ang curled his lips in a cold sneer.
Hearing Li Ang call him that again, Ivan Vanko was visibly enraged. "Whip Boy? I'm Whiplash!"
"What?" A flash of delighted surprise crossed Li Ang's eyes, hidden by the scarlet light.
"I said, my name is Whiplash!" The reactor on Ivan Vanko's chest rapidly heated up. Yes, he was going to self-destruct!
Even if he couldn't kill Tony, Happy and Pepper wouldn't escape this blast radius!
In the distance, Steve was alarmed. "This isn't a good sign!"
As he spoke, he raised his shield and ran toward Pepper and Happy, shielding them behind him.
Holding back his laughter, Li Ang said to the system, "If I kill him now, that counts as killing Whiplash, right?"
[~%?...;#*'☆&℃$︿★?]
The system was already in disarray.
"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes?" With that, Li Ang reached out and grabbed the portion of the exoskeleton on Whiplash's chest that hadn't been torn off, then shot into the sky with a whoosh!
Now, high in the air.
More and more energy accumulated in the reactor on Whiplash's chest. Li Ang smiled as he watched the reactor begin to glow red.
"You think you can blow me up?"
Whiplash knew he couldn't blow up Pepper and Happy and had already fallen into despair, but he refused to believe the blast wouldn't kill Li Ang.
"An overload explosion has the power of two hundred and fifty kilograms of TNT. I refuse to believe that won't kill you!"
"Two hundred and fifty kilograms!" Li Ang's expression changed drastically, his previous look replaced by fear.
Seeing this, Whiplash burst out laughing.
"I'm so scared!" Li Ang couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed aloud. Then... boom!
The violent explosion reduced Whiplash straight to ash, but in his final moments, he saw Li Ang's fearful expression turn into mockery.
How was that possible? Two hundred and fifty kilograms was enough to bring down a building!