Tony followed Xu Dan with a dazed expression as they headed to a rare Chinese restaurant in New York for breakfast.
For the first time in his life, he discovered there was a food even better than hamburgers—meat dumplings.
"Dan, are you sure you're really going after Obadiah? He has a suit!"
"Yeah."
After lunch…
"Dan, are you sure you're going after Obadiah? He has a suit!"
"Mm."
In the afternoon, as they worked on tasks for the hardware technology department…
"Dan, are you certain you're going after Obadiah? He has a suit!"
"That's right."
At night…
"Dan, are you really going after Obadiah? He has a suit!"
This was the fourth time he'd asked.
This time, Xu Dan finally lost patience. "All he has is a suit and nothing else. He doesn't even have a battery!"
But the moment the words left his mouth, Tony's phone rang in his pocket.
The caller wasn't a person—it was Jarvis.
"What is it, Jarvis?"
"Sir, Obadiah just broke into the room and stole the reactor you had replaced."
Tony: …
Xu Dan: …
"Amazing," Xu Dan said with a cold laugh. "Did you leave any traces when you checked on Obadiah yesterday?"
"Huh? Can you hack someone without leaving traces?"
"Unbelievable."
"In other words, how did he know I put the old Arc Reactor in the workshop?"
"Blind luck. And he knows you investigated him—how would he not panic?"
"So what do we do? I don't have a suit ready!"
After Tony returned, he had been rushing to build a proper new suit.But today he'd been 'working' at Antarctica Company all day, leaving him no time to continue.
"Didn't I already say it?" Xu Dan set down his barbecue, lifted his beer, and took a sip. "I'll handle it."
Tony didn't trust Xu Dan's confidence one bit. Tony had at least seen combat—how could Xu Dan fight something like that suit alone?
But Xu Dan ignored his protests and drove straight to Obadiah's location.
Boom! Clang! Clang!
As soon as they arrived, they heard heavy footsteps approaching from afar.
The Iron Monger—massive armor, incredible defense.
Just looking at it made one feel suffocated.
"I think we should leave. Quickly," Tony said nervously.
But Xu Dan only stared coldly at the Iron Monger's dim reactor.
The thing was already enormous—its energy consumption was severe. Add to that an old reactor? What was there to fear?
"You stay in the car. I'll go."
Xu Dan unbuckled his seatbelt, pushed the door open, and stepped out without hesitation.
Once outside, he opened his system's points mall.
To deal with the Iron Monger's steel bulk, he couldn't rely on bare hands. He needed a real weapon.
[Equipment List][Blade of Ogom] — 500,000 points[Dragon's Tooth Blade] — 500,000 points[Corpse Reaper] — 300,000 points…
"Buy the Blade of Ogom."
Ding!
"Purchase successful."
The Blade of Ogom was a blue-quality one-handed sword, boosting strength, agility, and stamina, with a passive effect that allowed melee attacks to corrode targets.
Perfect for dealing with the Iron Monger's steel shell.
Meanwhile…
After Obadiah completed the suit's startup sequence, he immediately climbed inside.
He wanted to use the cover of night to kill Tony Stark as quickly as possible.
So long as Tony was alive, he remained a threat—he knew too much.Those incompetent terrorists had failed to kill him, so now Obadiah had to do it himself.
But as he strode out in the Iron Monger, he spotted headlights in the distance and saw a car stop. A young man stepped out.
He watched the youth make strange gestures in the air, like he was offering prayers to heaven…
Then his eyes widened.
The young man conjured a longsword out of thin air.
"Heh… guess the kid's still half-asleep, daring to challenge my Iron Monger with a cheap sword—wait… this looks familiar… Xu Dan?!"
Recognizing him, Obadiah's mockery grew even more smug.
"So you're still playing your stupid little games, and now you want to chop me with a toy sword? I'll stand right here and let you try!"
Xu Dan didn't waste words. Gripping the blade, he planted his foot and launched himself upward.
After intermediate strengthening, his body was like forged metal—his power explosive.
His leap stunned not only Obadiah, but even Tony watching from the car.
That jump wasn't something a human of this era should be capable of!
His silhouette blurred into a black streak, soaring more than ten meters into the air.
The blade shimmered with cold light as he swung it down toward the Iron Monger's head.
Boom!
Normally, steel clashing with steel would ring sharply—but this impact produced a deep, heavy sound.
Because the sword had carved a large gash into the Iron Monger's helmet.
The blade was just a level-50 blue weapon—not some legendary artifact—and yet it cleaved straight through the Iron Monger's turtle-shell armor.
The head was the most fatal spot on any humanoid shape.
Unfortunately, Obadiah's bald head wasn't directly against the helmet plating. Otherwise, Xu Dan's first strike would've ended it.
The Iron Monger was huge—its skull housing only targeting equipment. Almost all of Obadiah's body was actually inside the torso section.
"Monster!"
Staring at the crack above him, Obadiah panicked and immediately swung the Iron Monger's arm to fire at Xu Dan.
But with Xu Dan's current speed, how could that lumbering steel turtle ever touch him?
He didn't even bother dodging. Instead, he pressed the tip of his sword against the incoming fist, twisted his body, and slipped behind the Iron Monger.
BOOM!!
Another strike—but this time, Xu Dan didn't aim for the reinforced armor.He aimed for the joint.
Machines were always weakest at the joints.
No matter how thick the Iron Monger's shell was, its joints couldn't use the same materials—or it wouldn't be able to move at all.
The strike severed the delicate hydraulic line in the Iron Monger's arm, instantly disabling the entire right limb.