Chapter Sixty-Six: Tony, Provoked (Please Vote for Recommendations)

After chasing along the route Viktor had taken for quite some time, Jayce had to admit he had lost him.

His tracking methods relied mostly on the various devices he carried, but Viktor, once his close friend, knew him all too well and had prepared countermeasures in advance. With a thud, Jayce slammed the Mercury Hammer onto the ground, looking around in dejection.

Now, he had no idea what to do next. He had already broken the rules—publicly displaying magical powers in the surface world without authorization. In the past, the Clock Tower enforcers would have hauled him away for this, but now that the Clock Tower had decided to re-establish contact with the surface, Jayce was able to stand here unscathed.

Yet he also knew that if he went back to find Gennomi now, he would certainly be sent back to the Hextech Research Facility to await disciplinary action. In other words, he was now in the same situation as Viktor—forced to hide himself.

Thinking it over, Jayce took out the remaining ammunition from his pocket. He had less than two boxes of concentrated rounds left; the rest had been left at Gennomi’s house. He only had three of his custom crystal batteries left as well, so he’d have to ration them for the time being.

He let out a long sigh, shrank the Mercury Hammer back to palm size, and walked into the nearby grove. He still wasn’t ready to give up. He figured Viktor hadn’t abandoned his pursuit of the miniature reactor, so if he lingered near here, he’d surely run into Viktor again.

Meanwhile, outside the devastated research lab, once everything had quieted down, Pepper lifted her head from Tony’s embrace.

She looked around anxiously, still shaken. “Tony, what on earth just happened?”

“I don’t know. JARVIS couldn’t find any information on these people online either,” Tony replied heavily. The flood of information lately was so overwhelming that he’d almost forgotten about the shrapnel in his own body.

After returning from the desert, Tony had investigated the name Kim Bradley, but found almost nothing—just some encrypted files in a Russian database that turned out to be worthless. The truly useful information was likely all on paper, a precaution against people like Tony.

As for Ivan Vanko, Tony had found some similar information, but the records only described him as an above-average individual; it was his father who had a less-than-stellar reputation. In short, the Ivan Vanko in the files was a completely different person from the one Tony had met.

As for the Hextech researchers and Jayce, Tony had never stopped JARVIS from searching, but to no avail. According to JARVIS, it seemed some powerful force had completely wiped their information from the internet.

“So what do we do now? Can we leave? Or should we call the police?” Pepper asked by instinct.

“Call the police?” Tony chuckled. “Just wait. Those ‘special agencies’ who contacted you before will surely come back.”

As they spoke, a crackling sound came from behind them.

Turning around, Tony saw a figure wreathed in arcs of electricity approaching swiftly.

It was Gennomi, who had lost contact with Jayce. After Jayce had destroyed his communicator, Gennomi had rushed over as quickly as he could, but the distance was too great—even stimulating his cells with electricity couldn’t make him fast enough.

Looking at the ruined new energy lab, Gennomi felt a heavy weight in his heart. Had that arrogant fool done something reckless?

“I need to ask you something. Do you know where the people who did all this went?” Gennomi asked, stopping a short distance in front of Tony.

Pepper shook her head, while Tony pointed inside the lab. “Maybe someone in there knows.”

Gennomi nodded and leapt straight into the lab.

Inside, the remaining people were administering first aid to the collapsed Stane. The moment Gennomi entered, everyone scattered to hide.

Before he could ask anything, Gennomi spotted the breach that had been completely melted by a death ray. He immediately slipped out through the opening and caught sight of the massive crater outside.

He gestured helplessly—this pit was large enough to bury an entire small town. At this point, he could no longer conceal anything from his superiors.

He recorded the scene, then sent the relevant information up through his Ouroboros mark. As for the cleanup crew that would come later, he couldn’t be bothered to care. Were all these scientists out of their minds? How could a minor assignment cause such chaos?

After reporting, Gennomi began tracing the tracks left by Jayce and Viktor on the road, determined to bring at least one of them back—so that when the time came to answer for this mess, he’d have something to say.

A dozen minutes later, several ambulances screeched onto the scene.

The doctors immediately began examining Pepper. As for Tony, he knew he hadn’t been hurt, having retreated quickly enough, and saw no need for any medical checkup.

Tony slowly walked over to one of the ambulances where the unconscious Obadiah Stane lay on a stretcher.

Seeing Stane, who had opposed him for so long, lying there like this, Tony felt oddly empty. What had he been doing all this time? All those days had been wasted.

I am Tony Stark, a scientist—not a businessman.

Muttering this to himself, Tony strode to the back of the research lab, where the wreckage of drones was scattered everywhere.

Using a stick to sift through the debris, Tony squatted down to study the structures.

There were similarities between these constructions and the devices he’d seen in those two videos—perhaps one of the Hextech researcher’s universal technologies.

How did they manage it?

Tony was frustrated. His mood was just like that of ordinary researchers when confronted with his own inventions—a crisis of confidence.

After squatting for a while, his head spinning, Tony stood up, glanced at the miniature reactor embedded in his chest, and steadied himself. He couldn’t decipher their technology, but they hadn’t cracked his either. This encounter was, at best, a draw.

But only in terms of technology—there was a huge gap in combat power.

In his mind, Tony imagined what it would be like to fight Jayce and Viktor while wearing the Mark II suit he was building—it would be a completely one-sided battle.

No! He needed to develop specialized suits to counter both of them.

As Tony pondered, blueprints for anti-Jayce and anti-Viktor armors began to take shape in his mind.