Obadiah Stane, as one of the founding elders of Stark Industries, was Howard Stark's friend and business partner. After Howard's death, he became mentor to his son, Tony Stark.
For thirty years he had poured his heart into business, watching Stark Industries grow stronger and stronger, while US dollars flowed like water straight into Stark's wallet.
Not to mention Time magazine would drag Tony over to slap him on the cover for a headline every other day.
The kid even took the chance to sleep with almost all the cover girls of "Motto Magazine".
Everything Tony was enjoying now slowly threw Obadiah's heart off balance, "All of that should have been mine! MINE!"
A thought began to sprout in Obadiah's heart, kill Tony and take his place.
That thought became impossible to suppress after Tony came back from Afghanistan and willfully announced the shutdown of all weapons R&D and sales at Stark Industries.
'You, Tony Stark, made money till the bowls and pots were all full, and now you won't even let anyone drink the soup!'
'Cutting off a man's livelihood is like killing his parents!'
Obadiah decided to act.
Just when he had racked his brains to build an invincible suit and was finally about to give Tony a fatal blow, he was rudely interfered with by a bounty hunter.
The missiles and Gatling gun he was so proud of were completely useless against that man.
The high-strength armor he had spent a fortune forging was like paper under that man's light punches.
'Can't beat him! Really can't beat him!'
'If I'd known, I should have killed Tony when I dug out his reactor.'
'When did they team up?', Bruised and swollen, Obadiah had no choice but to stall him, naming a high price and even mercifully canceling the previous kill order he had posted on the underground exchange.
"What more do you want from me?"
Obadiah's pride and dignity were finally deeply wounded by Corin's casual refusal.
The unwillingness and hatred in his heart turned into a surge of rage that burst out, "You're playing me? Fine, I'll make you pay!"
With a roar, Obadiah activated the missile system he had long prepared.
Iron Monger's torso and limbs flipped open multiple missile bays, and a dozen missiles, smoking in the firelight, shot toward Corin from different angles.
His spider sense went off instantly, and that feeling of being locked onto by missiles made Corin's skin tighten all over.
"So when a deal falls through, you just flip the table, huh?"
Corin sneered at Obadiah's way of not being able to play but still flipping the board.
"The kind of guy I hate most is someone like you who turns on people at the drop of a hat. No skill at all."
His movements didn't pause even a little. Throwing knives flicked out again and again as his body flashed through the air, tracing irregular curves.
Corin admitted those missiles were technically impressive. Even with his body moving like the wind, leaving no trace, the dozen missiles still bit tightly onto him and even managed not to hit each other.
The scene he imagined of missiles colliding and setting each other off never appeared.
Watching the missiles getting closer and closer.
Corin thought to himself that taking a full burst from the Gatling had already given him plenty of face, these big boys really didn't need to hit him.
After all, his suit was already in tatters. If those missiles blew it any worse, walking around New York with everything hanging out would be breaking the law.
By accident he saw the "Stark Industries" logo painted on the missiles, and Corin's eyes lit up.
He knew that logo all too well. Back when he scavenged battlefields, that symbol meant money.
The system promptly popped up a valuation prompt:
[Griffin missile (launched) → valuation 30,000 US dollars]
A bold idea popped into Corin's head.
He focused all his attention, turned his spider sense up to the max, halted his movement for a split second, and flashed to the side of a missile.
Just as the missile's sensors detected the shift in target position and were about to adjust.
Corin put his hand on the cold metal casing of the missile, "Exchange."
[Exchange successful! +30,000 US dollars. Account balance: 224,515,000 US dollars]
At the same instant the missile in his hand was about to turn, it turned into a puff of smoke and vanished.
Corin let out a shout of delight and pulled the same trick again, becoming a dancer on the tip of a knife as he flashed back and forth among the remaining missiles.
To Obadiah, it was like seeing the scariest scene in the world.
The chain explosion of missiles he had hoped for never happened. The bounty hunter was flying around as nimbly as a fly, as if he were just playing around with the missiles chasing him.
'These are missiles! Motherfacker!'
Even worse, the swarm of missiles he had launched were disappearing one after another into thin air in Corin's hands.
This made Obadiah deeply doubt whether the world he was in still believed in science.
"You're not human! You're a demon!"
"You destroyed everything I have! I… AHHH!""
Obadiah's eyes bulged in terror. He couldn't accept what he was seeing.
But once the bow is drawn, the arrow cannot be taken back. Ever since he personally dug Tony's reactor out, there had been no path of retreat for him.
There had to be an ending today.
Knowing he had no chance of winning, Obadiah slowly sank into madness, activated the reactor's self-destruct program, and pushed the thrusters to maximum, accelerating toward Corin.
"Damn bounty hunter, always ruining my plans. Today you die!"
Corin was in a great mood right then. Exchanging more than a dozen missiles had brought him hundreds of thousands in profit again.
This feeling of being on a job without delaying his money-making at all had him drunk with satisfaction.
Suddenly, his spider sense screamed a warning.
Every hair on Corin's body stood on end as he instantly realized he was facing the most serious crisis yet.
But what was it?
In the quiet night sky there was only one heavy Iron Monger huffing and puffing its way toward him, seemingly yelling something.
"No, something's off!"
When something is that out of the ordinary, there's always something fishy behind it.
'Obadiah hadn't dared come near me from the start, so what's with all this bravado now?'
His gaze swept over Iron Monger's armor, which was covered in scars and cracks, and Corin's pupils shrank.
The arc of light from the reactor on Iron Monger's chest, which had been a steady dim blue, was gradually shifting to a violent red.
"Crap! The old bastard's going all in!"
Realizing what was happening, Corin didn't dare slack off and immediately shot upward.
Obadiah seemed determined to drag this demon in front of him down with him. He poured all his power into flight, his speed steadily rising, even faintly starting to catch up with Corin.
Corin was thinking about how to respond.
Run? Of course he could.
He was confident Obadiah wouldn't catch him before he reached high altitude and froze up, but doing that felt like it was missing a lot of fun.
There were still plenty of Jeet Kune Do moves he hadn't woven into his flying yet.
'Why not use this last chance… to try it?'
With Deadpool-level regeneration as his safety net, at worst his body would get blown to bits and then grow back.
But a sandbag this good wasn't something you could come by easily.
Once he'd decided, he did it.
Corin recalled the Jeet Kune Do techniques that fit the current situation.
Suddenly a classic image appeared in his mind, Bruce Lee leaping high and smashing his double feet down.
The most iconic part was that sharp, defiant shout that went with it, haiya!
"Too brutal."
'But I love it!'
Having made up his mind, Corin turned in the air, looking at the Iron Monger still a few dozen meters away from him.
The energy in its chest was getting more and more violent, looking like it could break free of the reactor's control at any moment.
"Have you ever seen a leg technique that drops down from the sky?"
He closed his eyes, quietly replaying the image in his mind and going over the way to gather strength again and again in his heart.
Then, Corin moved. His eyes snapped open wide, bright as lamps, a cold gleam flashing and fading.
He flicked out three throwing knives in rapid succession, instantly pushing his falling speed to the limit.
BANG!
The sound of breaking the sound barrier echoed over all of New York City.
His body turned into a streak of light rushing straight for Iron Monger.
Fighting against the huge resistance of the air, Corin slowly bent his knees, his facial expression growing more and more exaggerated, he was fully in character now.
Right at the moment of impact with Iron Monger, both feet kicked out violently.
A high, sharp voice dripping with arrogance burst from Corin's chest and rang out over the city.
"HAIYA!"
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