45: Chapter 45: "Teammates" are for exploitation.

"Tony was able to build an arc reactor out of scrap in a cave, so why on earth can't you even replicate it?!" Obadiah stared at the cowering engineers in front of him, his roar deafening.

The lead engineer stammered, "Sir, we are not Tony. He is a genius..."

"Shut up! I want results, not excuses!"

The more Obadiah roared, the angrier he became, wishing he could fire the chief engineer right then and there.

"Mr. Stan, it seems I've arrived at just the right time." A voice came from the laboratory entrance.

Obadiah turned around abruptly to see Fu Haoran walking in with a disheveled middle-aged man.

The man had messy blond hair, grease-stained overalls, and a look of scrutinizing contempt in his eyes.

"Who is he?" Looking at the group of people Fu Haoran had brought, Obadiah, despite his explosive temper, had to suppress his anger and ask.

Fu Haoran ignored Obadiah's resentful glare, stepped aside to make room, and introduced him: "You should recognize him. He is the son of one of the founders of Stark Industries, Anton Vanko—Ivan Vanko."

Obadiah was puzzled at first, followed by shock.

He was an old-timer at Stark, and he knew all too well what the name "Vanko" meant.

Howard Stark's former partner, the co-designer of the arc reactor, who was later deported... a traitor?

Obadiah stared at Ivan: "Can you really build it?"

Ivan curled his lip, chewed on a toothpick, and pulled something out—it was an arc reactor!

Seeing the arc reactor in Ivan's hand, Obadiah's eyes lit up terrifyingly.

The Powered Armor could help him take out Tony, but this arc reactor would allow him to control the entire new energy market—its commercial value was higher than ten thousand suits of armor!

He suppressed the urge to step forward and snatch it, his eyes filled with greed as he looked at Ivan.

Fu Haoran walked up to Ivan, studied it for a few seconds, and said: "Your reactor technology is good, but the circulation rate per second is too low. Double the rotation speed, and the energy output will increase by sixty percent."

Ivan froze. Just as he was about to retort, he quickly ran the calculations in his head, his expression changed instantly, and he bit down harder on his toothpick.

He had to admit that Fu Haoran was right.

At the same time, he became even more wary of Fu Haoran.

"He spotted the core flaw with just one glance? Either this Asian's technology is far superior to mine, or my every move is under his surveillance!"

Both possibilities sent a chill down Ivan's spine.

Ivan did not know that Fu Haoran had simply stolen Tony's lines from the original story to point out the issue.

Fu Haoran ignored him and turned to Obadiah: "Mr. Stan, the sample is finished as agreed. You can arrange the tests. If there's nothing else, we have work to do."

"Work?" Ivan frowned, his tone displeased. "Aren't we going to settle the score with Tony right now?"

Fu Haoran looked up at him, giving him a look as if he were an idiot: "How do you plan to settle it? Walk up to Tony and flash your weapons for a duel?"

"Just beat him until he makes a fool of himself?"

"Believe me, you'll just get yourself arrested." Fu Haoran said in a flat tone, "And then Tony will smile and say, 'Nice imitation, where did you steal the technology from?'"

"If that's the revenge you want, I can have Mr. Stan send you over right now."

Ivan's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

That was indeed what he had been thinking—to find a public venue and challenge Tony to a duel.

As long as he defeated him, he could prove that he was the superior one.

But after Fu Haoran pointed out the flaw, he wasn't so sure if his plan was correct anymore.

"What better idea do you have?" Ivan asked, gritting his teeth.

"If you win, you have to win beautifully," Fu Haoran said confidently.

"Given Tony's personality, he'll definitely be developing a new model of the Iron Man Armor in a while, and then he'll bring it out to test and show off."

"When he messes up, we'll step in before him and announce that you, Ivan Vanko, are the real iron man."

"He will definitely come for you. Then, in a public setting, you will defeat him head-on."

Fu Haoran paused and spat out five words: "To kill, one must break the heart."

Ivan's eyes lit up.

"That's right, whoever wins is the iron man!"

He understood Tony too well. Dragging this playboy down from his pedestal in front of the whole world would be more agonizing than killing him.

"Good." Ivan nodded, the flames of revenge igniting in his eyes.

Fu Haoran turned to Obadiah and instructed: "Mr. Stan, I need you to go to Tony's house and retrieve a relic of Howard Stark."

"A city planning model."

Obadiah frowned: "What use is that piece of junk toy?"

"It contains the core supplementary technology for the arc reactor," Fu Haoran explained. "Howard couldn't build it back then because the materials weren't sufficient."

Upon hearing it was related to the arc reactor, Obadiah agreed very readily.

...

Over the next few days, everything proceeded according to plan.

Ivan stopped mocking, fully committed himself to the modification of the Powered Armor, and the several structural optimization suggestions he put forward were highly constructive.

"We should install AI systems on all the Powered Armor to improve control efficiency," Ivan said to Fu Haoran, holding the blueprints. "Machines are more reliable than people."

"No." Fu Haoran refused directly, pressing his fingertip on the AI module position on the blueprint and crossing it out.

"Why?" Ivan frowned.

"I don't trust AI; I trust my own body more." Fu Haoran said with a straight face, though he knew clearly in his heart that in the original story, Ivan had used AI to control all the robots, and he couldn't fall into that trap.

Of course, Fu Haoran was not very worried about the control of a certain blue bird.

After all, isn't the AI of the Tau from next door being used just fine?

Thinking of this, Fu Haoran stepped back slightly: "However, an AI assistance system is acceptable, but it can only be responsible for data calculation and cannot participate in decision-making."

Ivan still wanted to argue, but seeing Fu Haoran's firm attitude, he had to give up.

Not long after, an assistant walked into the laboratory holding an exquisite city model: "Mr. Stan, Mr. Fu, I've got it."

"What use can this toy have?" Ivan leaned over, full of curiosity.

Fu Haoran didn't explain and signaled his men to put the model on the scanning table.

The laser scanned over the model, data flowed rapidly on the computer screen, and finally, a brand-new elemental structure condensed, its light pure and stable.

The toothpick in Ivan's mouth dropped to the ground with a click. His eyes widened, and he stared blankly at the screen: "Is this... is this a brand-new element? It's more than ten times more stable than palladium!"

"Did Howard discover this?" He turned to ask.

"No," Fu Haoran shook his head. "He copied it."

A look of disdain immediately appeared on Ivan's face: "A habitual plagiarist, as expected."

"Mr. Ivan, we now need to use this new element to build a new arc reactor," Fu Haoran ordered. "The power needs to be enough to drive all the laser weapon systems of the Powered Armor."

New work was pushed forward intensively. On the surface, the three parties were collaborating seamlessly, but in reality, each had their own ulterior motives.

Obadiah stood to the side, watching the two reach an agreement, a subtle smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

In his eyes, Ivan was the blade to deal with Tony, and Fu Haoran was the craftsman who made the blade. Once Tony was eliminated and he controlled the Stark Group, these two would have no value, and all the results would be his.

"I must give orders to have people watch them, and all technical blueprints must be backed up!" He leaned into his assistant's ear and whispered, his eyes sinister.

Ivan Vanko slumped in his chair, his fatigue replaced by a morbid excitement.

"Defeating Tony is just the first step. What I want is to completely wipe the name Stark off its pedestal in front of the whole world and replace it with Vanko."

"Tony's pain and the shame of the Stark family will be the best sacrifice to offer my father."

Fu Haoran took in their expressions, his heart completely calm.

Fu Haoran raised his hand and gestured to the hovering Servo-skull. The Servo-skull flickered slightly, its electronic voice very low: "Core data has been backed up, including the new element structure and Powered Armor optimization parameters."

The reason Fu Haoran pushed all this was simply to borrow Obadiah's resources and Ivan's technology to perfect the core data of the arc reactor and the Powered Armor.

"The first stage is to use the platform of Stark Industries to fully understand the core technology of the arc reactor and the Powered Armor, pack it all up to take back to the Warhammer World, and at the same time, sit back and reap the benefits in this chaos to maximize profits."

"Every extra technology I master here gives me a better chance of surviving when I return."

"However, just this alone won't make the world line divergence rate high enough. My goal cannot just be one suit of Iron Man Armor; I must have a more ambitious goal."

Suddenly, Fu Haoran saw news on his phone about the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division increasing its budget, and instantly, a bold and crazy plan emerged.

"If I could steal those three Helicarriers, would the rewards from the Reincarnator world be even greater?!"

Thinking of this, Fu Haoran couldn't help but look at Obadiah.

"It seems it's time to let this generous partner contribute a little more to my true goal."