"Has Obadiah been dealt with?"
"As expected of Tony. That old man Obadiah really walked down a dead-end road. Why not just enjoy retirement instead of always messing around with flashy tricks? Serves him right."
After that, Blaine learned about the series of actions Tony took afterward.
After Tony announced he was Iron Man, almost all wars around the world came to a halt—because they realized their military forces were no match for Iron Man.
Just like that, Tony, with his strength alone, actually brought about a brief period of world peace.
And Tony truly lived up to the title of genius.
Riding the wave of attention, he launched the Stark Expo.
Thanks to him alone, the somewhat declining Stark Industries experienced an unbelievable and rapid resurgence.
He appeared to be incredibly strong.
But Blaine understood—Iron Man had his troubles too. At the very least, Tony was currently facing a serious obstacle.
If he couldn't overcome it, what awaited him would be death.
Palladium poisoning.
At present, he could only slightly, very slightly slow down the poisoning with vegetable juice.
Tony himself wasn't sure if he could make it. There was sorrow, fear—after all, in the face of death, no matter who he was, he was still just a regular person.
But his personality wouldn't allow him to expose his weakness to others. So, without revealing a thing, Tony began preparing his legacy.
First, he handed over the CEO position of Stark Industries to Pepper Potts. That wasn't much of a problem—she had already been handling most of the company's affairs anyway.
During this time, Tony also hired a female secretary named "Natalie."
…
…
After learning all of this,
Blaine turned on the television.
It was broadcasting live coverage of the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.
Everything was going very well at first.
The surrounding spectators were wildly cheering for their favorite racers, and the atmosphere was electric.
But then, something unexpected happened.
A long-haired, bearded middle-aged man wearing a work suit and holding two whips suddenly stepped onto the track.
Right before everyone's eyes, his work suit was gradually shredded to pieces by terrifying energy, revealing the energy armor beneath it.
Wielding energy whips charged with frightening power, arcs of electricity danced along them.
With a single strike, he smashed several unlucky race cars out of the competition.
As for Tony, he stopped his car.
He had a feeling this whip-wielding man was coming for him.
Sure enough, after spotting Tony, the man began chasing him around the racetrack, causing massive chaos.
But Tony was always tough. He managed to hold out until Pepper Potts and his driver Happy arrived, handing him the portable Mark V armor inside a suitcase.
In front of everyone's eyes, Tony donned the Mark V suit and began battling the whip man.
Facing a fairly strong opponent who also used high-tech weapons, the Mark V didn't last long. After a few lashes, various parts of it were damaged.
But with protagonist-level plot armor, just as the Mark V was about to run out of power, Tony finally subdued the whip man.
Before being taken away by agents sent by S.H.I.E.L.D., the whip man shouted that Tony was already dead.
But no one paid him any mind. The entire audience was cheering for Iron Man.
However, amid the cheers, no one noticed that Tony's expression behind the Iron Man suit looked quite grim.
The palladium poisoning had already progressed deeply, and the overuse of the Iron Man armor was putting a tremendous burden on his body.
But who cared? They only cared about Iron Man, not Tony.
And so, another crisis ended.
Blaine turned off the television. Thinking about Tony's condition earlier, another money-making idea popped into his head.
Palladium poisoning might seem like an incurable disease to Tony, but to Blaine, it wasn't even a problem. In the system's store, he could casually exchange for a blueprint of a new energy source to solve it.
In Iron Man 2, it was shown that Tony couldn't find a replacement energy source for palladium on Earth, which is why he became so hopeless.
Blaine thought this was a perfect chance to make some money.
He believed Tony would be very willing to "hire" him to help find a "new energy source."
'Heh heh heh, you really are a sly one.' Blaine looked at himself in the mirror and let out a mischievous cackle.
But he still needed to wait a while.
Tony was still in Monaco and wouldn't return for a few more days.
Blaine also needed rest.
There was no need to rush all the way to Monaco.
*************************************
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