Chapter 24 / Chapter 25

After Su Chen, in his darkened state, grew somewhat irritable, that elusive, invisible power immediately acted upon the real world, directly altering reality.

People in this world had always wondered how reality could be altered.

Someone had offered a good answer: by changing probabilities that already existed in nature.

For example...

A fighter jet's engines could fail, even if proper maintenance made the probability extremely low.

But like a god, the cold, unfeeling boy rolled the dice of probability and led reality to the worst possible outcome.

And so...

"Oh no! Why did the engines suddenly fail?"

At least several fighter pilots cried out in desperation at the same time.

Under the influence of an invisible force, they all met the same worst-case outcome: both engines on their fighter jets failed simultaneously and refused to start.

For a moment.

One expensive Raptor fighter jet after another plunged toward the ground. Within seconds, explosions rang out across the city and over the sea, and orange-red flames burst into full bloom.

"I'm still not skilled enough."

Su Chen glanced at the fighters in the sky. Only half remained. Clearly, the nearly impossible-to-counter reality alteration just now had not fully taken effect on every jet.

Still, he wasn't discouraged, because this ability was simply too impossible to counter and too much of a bug.

Even though he had already gained considerable insight into it, he would still need some time to master it completely.

P.S.: Thanks to "Imfziy" for the 100 tip, thanks to "Morisha" for the 100 tip, and thanks to "Sanzhilaoshu" for the 100 tip!!

Chapter 24

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!"

The Raptor pilots immediately shouted.

For unknown reasons, the engines of six fighters soaring high in the sky had failed at the same time, sending them crashing to the ground.

It had happened so suddenly that three pilots hadn't ejected in time.

But even so, the pilots floating through the air under their parachutes didn't meet their deaths.

"Aah!!!"

A surge of telekinetic force swept straight toward the slowly floating targets, closing around them like an invisible giant hand.

Bang!!

A cloud of blood burst into the air.

Su Chen didn't even need to use much force. He only had to puncture their parachutes, giving them a full package of vertically accelerated descent.

"Damn it!"

The remaining fighters, having narrowly escaped death, didn't dare look back. They flew straight back toward the aircraft carrier far out at sea.

The inexplicable crashes had left them breaking out in a cold sweat.

This definitely wasn't an accident.

It had to have been caused by the boy who had emerged from the nuclear blast.

"Sir, perhaps the enemy you are about to face possesses some sort of mystical ability."

"JARVIS, that doesn't sound like your usual rigorous logic."

Tony Stark soared through the air in his latest Mark Armor. It would take him little more than a minute to travel from the Stark Industries building in Manhattan to Washington, D.C.

Using satellites in low Earth orbit, the artificial intelligence JARVIS monitored the boy at the scene in real time.

But after the pursuit, even the rigorous and scientific JARVIS system couldn't explain what had caused it.

"It was as if provoking his irritation led to the inexplicable crashes."

"Hey, buddy..."

Tony chuckled at that. "The way you put it, I'd think he was a god, making heaven and earth collapse whenever he got angry."

JARVIS continued without a trace of emotion. "A disaster that brings heaven and earth crashing down would at least be visible. But there was no obvious sign of energy in the crashes just now. Something invisible simply caused the engines to fail completely."

The underlying code of an artificial intelligence was built on logic.

Now, faced with an attack that interfered with reality, it really was a little baffled.

It was invisible and left no trace, and none of the various forms of external energy could be detected. This presented JARVIS with an enormous problem.

"Five seconds until arrival at the battlefield."

JARVIS issued the warning.

Powered by an Arc Reactor, the Mark Armor flew far faster than the Raptor fighters had.

Soon.

The dazzling gold-and-red suit flew across the skies above Washington, D.C.

"Wow!!"

"It's Iron Man!"

"He's finally here! I love you, Tony Stark!!"

"Iron Man! A god forever!"

For a moment.

The people in the city below erupted into cheers. Ever since his spectacular debut and the public revelation of his identity, the arrogant, confident Iron Man had consistently remained the most popular superhero.

Many children wearing clothes bearing the Iron Man logo ran out of their homes, raised both hands, and shouted to Tony as he soared overhead.

"JARVIS, how about measuring how loud the citizens are cheering for me? Oh, and while you're at it, measure their happiness index."

Even on the battlefield, Tony was as humorous and witty as ever.

JARVIS was used to his master's style and didn't play along, demonstrating his high intelligence.

"All right, back to business."

Tony's expression beneath his mask immediately turned serious.

Whoosh!!

He swept diagonally past the mushroom cloud left by the nuclear blast. Using the nuclear haze as cover, he launched a barrage of miniature missiles from the compartments on his shoulders.

Like bees pouring out of a hive, a mass of miniature missiles swept through the smoke in a torrential rain, all shooting toward the target on the ground.

Boom!!

In the blink of an eye, the ground looked as though it had been bombarded by an entire army. The earth split apart, and orange-red explosive flames raged.

"Sir, thermal energy, kinetic energy, and all impact energy are rapidly disappearing."

From Tony's aerial vantage point, the flames on the ground could be seen rapidly dissipating. As if time were rewinding, the surging flames and even the blast waves swiftly vanished without a trace.

"Just as I thought."

"The target's energy readings are rising exponentially. It has been confirmed that the boy can absorb and release external energy. Please proceed with caution, sir."

This probe also reinforced Tony's suspicions.

As a highly intelligent genius, he would naturally have considered how the boy had brought the energy of a nuclear blast to the Defense Headquarters building and detonated it. Energy manipulation was the best answer.

"This Mutant seems to have quite a few abilities."

That made things somewhat tricky for Tony.

Counting the telekinesis he had just displayed and that strange, inexplicable ability, the boy before him had at least three abilities.

Hmm...

Since when did Mutants have so many unrelated powers?!

But another huge exclamation mark appeared in his mind.

How had the boy absorbed a nuclear blast?

After all, that was something the state strictly controlled. Ordinary people had no access to it.

"I have successfully brute-forced my way into the defense database through a back-end program."

The intuitive JARVIS had naturally set about arranging this.

It was child's play for Tony, whose hacking skills were maxed out. Besides, Howard had built the security systems for many defense agencies, so leaving a backdoor in secret was only natural.

What he found left Tony somewhat speechless.

"Well, I didn't expect that."

The boy had escaped from a large laboratory, where he had nearly become a guinea pig for human experimentation.

Clearly, the official claim that he was an extremist Mutant had been fabricated.

Tony was somewhat speechless.

He had long been unhappy with those military representatives, but he hadn't expected them to indirectly cause this tragedy as well.

"No matter what, the boy ultimately took the wrong path."

The bombing of the Defense Headquarters building was already an established fact.

No matter what, the boy had to answer for it.

Arrest was the least he could expect.

At most...

He could be spared the death penalty.

Whew!!

Tony took a deep breath, easing the guilt in his heart a little, then immediately called on JARVIS.

"I'll hire the best lawyer afterward."

"But..."

"Activate the House Party Protocol for me now. Let's give this boy a final party for his curtain call!"

P.S.: Here's the question: what is the party protocol?

Chapter 25

Iron Man Tony's House Party Protocol had officially begun!

Under JARVIS's remote control, the suits of Mark Armor housed in the Stark Industries building had already begun activating themselves.

Whoosh!!!

In an instant, more than twenty iron robots soared into the sky, streaked across the land, and flew straight toward the nuclear blast zone.

Lively and clamorous, this was Tony Stark's House Party Protocol.

And it was the curtain call for the last party he was throwing for Su Chen!

"Since the target absorbs external energy, we can only bind him and imprison him. We can't give him the chance to absorb even a little energy."

"Plan B is now in effect."

At that moment.