By the time Kingpin got the news, he was dumbfounded. He had ruled New York's underworld for so many years. What hadn't he seen? This. He really had never seen anything like this.
"What do you mean Hell's Kitchen was wiped out? What the fuck do you mean the whole of Hell's Kitchen was wiped out? Do you know how many people are in Hell's Kitchen? This fucking..."
Nick Fury was just as stunned. He looked at the robots in the video: their indestructible metal skeletons, the bizarre liquid robots, and the lifelike artificial skin that made them look no different from ordinary people. What was Rimuru planning to do with so many of those things? Stage a coup? Declare independence and become the king of New York? That huge sum of extra funding suddenly seemed a lot less appealing.
"This is technology from another world? Coulson, go ask Rimuru if he'll sell this technology, or buy a few of these robots and bring them back." Nick Fury sat in his chair, looking thoroughly exasperated. He felt like saying, That's it. Let it all be destroyed. If he didn't still have Captain Marvel's pager, he would have seriously considered quitting on the spot.
Meanwhile, Rimuru was thinking about how to take out Kingpin. If he knew what Nick Fury was thinking, he would have scoffed. What was a king of New York? This was a robot army that had nearly wiped out all of humanity. Even if Ultron showed up, Rimuru would dare to take him on now.
A few days later, news reports showed that Kingpin's underworld kingdom had been violently severed in two by Rimuru, and the empire he had built was beginning to collapse. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s crackdown followed close behind. He had now been charged with multiple crimes and had almost no chance of turning things around, unless those politicians protected him at all costs. Clearly, that was impossible.
Lying with his head in 715's lap, Rimuru watched the news. It felt a little regrettable that he couldn't personally deal with the underworld emperor. "Come to think of it, isn't he supposed to be Spider-Man's nemesis? I've already dealt with him ahead of time, just like that. What happens later? Will Uncle Ben still die?"
Just as Rimuru was sprawled across the sofa and 715, enjoying the peaceful moment, Tony called. Evidently, he knew what had happened last night.
The moment the call connected, Tony bombarded him with questions. "Rimuru, what's going on with those robots of yours? When did you put together a robot army like that? Did you bring them from another world too? ..."
"Tony, I know you're anxious, but calm down first."
On the other end, Tony clearly took a deep breath. Through the static came JARVIS's quiet reminder, "Sir, your heart rate..." before the voice was abruptly cut off.
Rimuru shifted into a more comfortable position and rubbed his cheek against 715's slightly cool artificial skin before answering leisurely, "Those Terminators? Some are local specialties I brought from home. Most of them, though... if I said I made them over the past few days from scraps picked up at an abandoned Stark Industries warehouse, plus a biological coating formula Oscorp accidentally leaked, would you believe me?" He deliberately paused and heard a muffled, strangled cough from the other end. "Relax, I'm much more reliable than you. Their core programming is locked in protection mode. They only beat people up, not kill them. Wasn't the casualty report from last night zero?"
"Nick Fury called and told me you'd put together an army. Do you know what that means? You scared me half to death." Tony sounded just as anxious over the phone.
Rimuru still didn't care. A whole night had passed, and they still hadn't made much of a move. What could happen? "Calm down, Tony. How can you call that an army? They're just metal frames that can move. I didn't equip them with any weapons. At most, they're just for civilian use. You even call your armor a high-tech prosthesis."
"Civilian use? Look at those robots of yours. What about them looks civilian? Especially the liquid ones. You call those damn things civilian?"
Tony raised his voice, sounding utterly helpless and beside himself. Even over the phone, Rimuru could imagine him standing with his brow tightly furrowed and his hands on his hips.
"Liquid metal robots can instantly reshape themselves, pass through iron doors, crush safes with their bare hands, and coordinate automatically in combat to overwhelm all the armed gangs in Hell's Kitchen. Rimuru, is your understanding of civilian technology the exact opposite of everyone else's?"
Rimuru yawned lazily, his head still resting on 715's thigh. His fingertips traced the other's cool, smooth artificial skin in idle boredom, and his tone was casual and innocent. "They are civilian models. I didn't install Gatling guns, laser cannons, or lethal firearms. All they did was subdue, restrain, and control people, with zero deaths and zero serious injuries the whole time. If that isn't civilian security, is it military slaughter mecha?"
He paused, remembering how the robots had uniformly kept the situation under "gentle" control last night, with even the gang thugs merely tied up like zongzi and left squatting by the roadside. Completely self-assured, he said, "Tony, you've worked with technology for so many years. You should know the difference better than anyone. My robot army is all about civilized law enforcement. They're a hundred times more reliable than the New York police."
There was silence on the other end for two seconds, followed by Tony's utterly speechless laugh, angry and incredulous, with a heavy note of exhaustion.
"All right, I give up. Everything you say is right."
Tony leaned against a floor-to-ceiling window on the top floor of Stark Tower, looking down at the bustling city of New York City, where undercurrents churned beneath the surface. JARVIS's virtual screen floated before him, densely covered with footage of the entire operation in Hell's Kitchen the previous night, robot performance analyses, and combat capability assessments. The final line, in red warning text, was glaring: the overall combat capability of an individual model exceeded that of standard police equipment; operating in groups, they were capable of overwhelming small and medium-sized armed forces and breaking through conventional urban defenses.
"I won't ask where you got the technology, and I won't dwell on how you cobbled together technology that outclasses the world's entire military industry from scraps you picked up." Tony rubbed his throbbing temples. His tone turned serious, the earlier agitation fading until only profound concern remained. "Rimuru, do you know that a robot army outside any organization's control, with technology superior to the rest of the world's and capable of unlimited mass production, would be the number one threat to every government in the world, no matter whose hands it was in?"
"Fury's suppressing the news right now, keeping it from Congress, the lawmakers, and the military. He's barely managed to keep this underground. But you can't hide a fire in paper. Hell's Kitchen has been completely reshuffled, and more than a hundred gangs were wiped out overnight. An upheaval this big will spread across the entire United States sooner or later, maybe even the whole world."
"Then everyone will fear you. Suspicion, wariness, attacks, pressure from public opinion-one after another. You think being a superhero can protect you? Faced with an absolutely unknown power, humanity's first response will always be fear and exclusion."
Tony spoke plainly and perceptively, every sentence striking at the heart of the matter.
Hearing this, Rimuru finally set aside some of his casual air. A faint trace of helplessness appeared in his clear eyes.
Of course he understood.
In his previous life, he had seen countless power struggles and understood that weakness was a crime, and excessive power was the original sin.
It was just that he no longer cared about those things.
"Fear me?" Rimuru gave a soft, derisive laugh. His tone was mild, but carried absolute confidence. "Tony, they can fear me, they can be wary of me, and they can even join forces against me."
"But first-they have to be capable of it."
It was a short sentence, spoken without a single arrogant shout, yet it radiated the absolute confidence of someone looking down on everything.
The mere suspicions and suppression of ordinary human society were as insignificant as ants stirring before his power to overturn a planet.
715 sat quietly, his eyes calm and undisturbed. He raised a hand and gently stroked Rimuru's soft hair, the movement tender and obedient as he silently soothed Rimuru's suddenly cold aura.
Tony was caught off guard and, for a moment, had no response.
That was right.
He had almost forgotten that this otherworldly traveler, who seemed lazy and easygoing, loved food, and liked to slack off, had never been part of Earth's system of rules to begin with.
Humanity's wariness, government sanctions, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance would spell disaster for others, but to Rimuru, they were nothing more than inconsequential nuisances.
"All right, I worried for nothing." Tony sighed helplessly and gave up on lecturing him altogether. His tone grew grave. "But there's something you need to know. With Kingpin down, there's a power vacuum in Hell's Kitchen. New York's underworld is in complete chaos."
"And although Kingpin has fallen, his political connections and underground networks are tangled and complex. Quite a few high-ranking people have been implicated, and to protect themselves, they've already made you their number one target."
Tony's voice grew completely somber. "They want your liquid metal bionic technology and your swarm intelligence system. They even want to replicate your robot army. These lunatics are crazier than the authorities, and they'll stop at even less."
Rimuru raised an eyebrow. Far from growing nervous, he curled his lips into a playful smile. Why are politicians like this in every world? They always like to play with fire and burn themselves, insisting on trying powers they shouldn't touch. Don't they know that one try can mean goodbye?
What could those politicians do? At most, they would use the same tricks they used against Tony on him. In the end, he would make some token concession, and that would be the end of it. With what he had in his hands, would they really dare push him too far?
Just then, Gillvalis's report rang out.
"Sir, twelve sets of covert infrared detection signals detected. Source unknown. Suspected high-precision spy equipment has locked onto the entire villa."
Under Gillvalis's direction, 715 also entered combat mode.
Warning: three groups of unidentified armed vehicles detected approaching at high speed twenty kilometers away. They are carrying heavy weapons and have locked onto your residence!
Hearing the voices on Rimuru's end, Tony instantly grew nervous. "Rimuru, can you handle it over there? Do you need me to come help?"
Rimuru slowly sat up from the sofa, faint ripples of magic quietly gathering around him. Calm and composed, he said, "No need, Tony. With their abilities, if they can even get close to the estate, I'll call it my loss."
A portal opened, and the lead vehicle fell straight through. Gillvalis released a large group of Terminators, who swarmed forward and engulfed the convoy in an instant. There wasn't even the slightest resistance. A huge white portal opened and swallowed everything.
The commander hiding behind the scenes froze on the spot. His entire force had been wiped out without even seeing the target? How the hell was he supposed to play this?
"Boring. Those uniforms look like S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, but S.H.I.E.L.D. probably didn't do this. This should be Hydra. And you dare come after me with just that?" Rimuru lay back down on the sofa, returning to his lazy posture. "Tony, I've taken care of it. Go on."
"That fast?" Tony fell silent. Then what had his worry just now amounted to? Had he been worrying for nothing? "Forget it, forget it. As long as you can protect yourself. Oh, right, send me a few of your robots so I can study them."
"OK, be careful. Those batteries are dangerous. I don't want to see on the news that you got blown up." Rimuru grinned mischievously. It was perfectly normal for Tony to want to study them. Whether he could figure them out was another question.
Tony's face darkened. "Damn it! What a nasty little brat."