At the beginning of the new year, construction is about to begin on the land at 200 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York, which was auctioned by Tony Stark to beat out a group of competitors. The construction project is said to have Stark himself design the drawings and supervise it – in his 'spare time' when he's not partying, of course. The playboy also threatened to build the most distinctive building in New York and the world for Stark Industries!

However, not long after the construction began, an accident occurred at the site. Construction workers are digging in the ground to build the foundation for the future Stark Building when they discover a strange boulder. The stone of this boulder is not at all the same as the gravel and sediment around it, and it has an extraordinary hardness. What's even more special is that, although rather rough, it does look a bit like an adult human.

This incident alarmed the general leader of the project, Tony Stark, on the same day. Stark also immediately gave instructions - to cordon off the scene and let him handle it personally. Obviously, this guy who has the attribute of a technological genius in addition to a playboy was also aroused by that special humanoid boulder.

"Harpy, bring this boulder home. Also, I don't want to see things like 'Tony Stark excavated a magical stone' on the news. ”

Harpy Hogan, Stark's chauffeur and bodyguard, immediately nodded: "Yes, sir." ”

So more than ten hours later, the location of the magical boulder crossed a distance of more than 4,000 kilometers from New York, the northeast of the Atlantic coast of the United States, to Villa 10880 Malibu in Los Angeles, southwest of California. And a few hours later, Stark, who had just had a romantic encounter with a certain Victoria's Secret supermodel, finally saw the magical boulder in his studio.

Little did he know at the time that this boulder would leave him sexless for more than two months!

It may seem strange to say this, but it's true. For more than two months, he spent almost all of his time studying the boulder, except for an average of less than four hours of sleep a day.

"No wonder the construction site said that two excavators collapsed when they dug it, and the high-pressure waterjet on my side didn't work. Looks like it's going to have to be replaced with a more aggressive one. ”

A few days later.

"Both sonic cutting and laser cutting have failed? Jarvis, is there anything more powerful...... Well, you're right, maybe cutting isn't a good idea. Not...... Jarvis, prepare me files of various sizes and other drilling and grinding tools, and see if you can get some stone chips from them to analyze. ”

Another few days passed.

"Well, now that we know that cutting, drilling, and grinding can't handle this stone, let's change something else. Fire, heat, freezing, acid etching, these are the next projects. ”

This time it was more than ten days.

"That's not scientific. Jarvis, we seem to be exposed to something amazing. This level of hardness is certainly not something that comes naturally from the earth's environment. I want to think about it...... Maybe a single property can't destroy its inert structure, or maybe the single property we use hasn't reached its maximum endurance? By the way, there's also the aspect of duration. Hmm, I'm going to try it with explosives missiles or something. Jarvis, what do you think? By the way, inform Pepper for me and ask her to arrange for me, and I will use the No. 3 missile test base later. ”

Twenty days......

At first, Stark was just curious, but later on, he was completely angry with himself and the big rock - with his far beyond ordinary intelligence, plus the knowledge he could obtain by connecting the entire Internet through his intelligent butler named Jarvis, and spending so much time, he still couldn't study the secret of this big stone...... No, he couldn't even find a way to cut the boulder! That's impossible!

Stark's stay in the villa's workshop to fight against Magical Boulder without leaving the house at all soon caused concern for Harpy Hogan, a bodyguard and driver, and Pepper Potts, another of Stark's most trusted people, his life and work assistant. Well, and Obadiah Stein, one of the elders of Stark Industries, also knew about the existence of the Magical Stone; and James Rodez, Stark's good friend. More than once, they had come to care about Stark's situation, and more than once they had expressed their concern and disgust at him burying his head on that strange rock. For this reason, Stark also lost his temper with them more than once, and the result was naturally not very pleasant for both parties.

Then on this day, Stark suddenly decided to throw the boulder into the deepest part of the workshop and never look at it again, and then officially left the villa for the first time in two months, and once again basked in the sun. He called in Harpy Hogan and asked his driver friend to take him around town, where he ended up eating a burger at a small shop for most of the day.

In the meantime, the people closest to him came.

"Thank goodness. You've finally figured it out, Mr. Stark. ”

These are the words of Pepper Potts, in a tone that is not without complaints. Obadestin, by contrast, looked very happy: "Hey Tony, you're finally in the public eye again after a two-month absence. You wouldn't have thought that in just one afternoon, the company's stock price rose by 30 percent! Can you imagine it! ”

Stark was still dealing with the fourth burger in his hand. As he chewed, he replied lightly, "Oh unbelievable, I didn't expect me to have so much influence." ”

This made Obadi very helpless. He also prepared a number of rhetoric to deal with Stark's counter-words, but they didn't fight back at all. Apparently, Stark, the CEO who has been missing from the public eye for more than two months, doesn't care at all about the company's situation.

Fortunately, Obadiah is not without 'allies'. I don't know if it was out of anger at Stark, or if it was completely in Stark's interest, Pepperpotz mentioned it after Obadai was silent.

"Yes, you only showed up for one afternoon, and the stock price rose by 30%. But to be clear, that's after a total of 42 points in the previous two months. ”

This time Stark paused in the action of eating the burger, and then he let out an "oh".

That's all, gone!

Obaday felt he could give up.

Looking at Stark like this, Pepper was also helpless: "Roddy, you can also say a few words about him!" ”

"You can't help him, what's the use of me saying." Roddy, that is, Rodez, spread his hands and said. For Obadiah and Pepper to eat deflated Stark one after another, Roddy is not surprised. But before he left, he still left a word. And compared to the emotional Pepper and Obadai, who is accustomed to focusing on the interests of the company, this sentence is quite in line with his military liaison status and pragmatic style: "Okay, Tony, welcome back to the real world." I'm sorry you wasted so much time, but you should know that your Stark Industries rivals, including Hammer Industries and Osborne, have ramped up their stakes on this military weapons order. I've told Pepper the details, you can ask her. Besides, it's time for me to go, and I'm finally taking some time to meet with you, and I'm going back to follow up on this tender for weapons orders. And then ......"

Before Roddy could hurriedly finish this sentence, no, this paragraph, Stark suddenly came and interrupted it.

"Who says I'm wasting my time?"

Pepper and Roddy were stunned, as was Obadi, who didn't know what to think. The veteran of Stark Industries only noticed at this time that Stark's face had a look that could be said to be flying.

"Tony, what useful have you unearthed from that boulder?"

"What? No, nothing. Stark shook his mustache, his confidence growing unabated, "But I did gain something from this boulder." While I was trying to blast that boulder with a missile, I got some inspiration that allowed me to overcome a technical dilemma that had plagued all weapons engineers for decades. Well, let's put it this way, you just mentioned this time the army's weapons order bidding, I want to say that I will come up with a dominant-level weapon in the next half month. If you have to define it in layman's terms, it is a new type of cluster missile. High accuracy and reaction speed, greater strike range and greater lethality, the emphasis is that it also has a smaller size that is easier to transport and conceal, and this upcoming missile will not trigger all the United Nations arms ban treaties. By the way, I call it 'Jericho'. ”

Jericho is an important city in the Bible and the name of a movie about a sudden nuclear explosion. Stark, the master inventor of weapons, is obviously very confident in using this to name his new work.

You also have a certain understanding of the next story. Stark presented the Jericho missile, a stunning masterpiece at the army's weapons order bidding meeting, easily defeating all competitors and getting this weapon order. Later, at the request of the military and the company's board of directors represented by Obadai, he went to Afghanistan to demonstrate the power of Jericho missiles to American soldiers on the front line, but he was attacked and kidnapped by weapons from Stark Industries on the way back after the demonstration. Stark was mortally wounded, but he survived by improving the Ark reactor, and invented the Iron Suit under difficult circumstances, so he escaped from the clutches of the kidnappers and successfully returned to the United States, only to find that the terrorists who had been kidnapped and used the weapons produced by his family to burn and kill the plunder were actually his beloved Obadi's partners. It turned out that Obadai was already dissatisfied with him, and wanted to kill him after he first invented such a stunning masterpiece as the Jericho missile, but he did not expect that he would create a more powerful and valuable steel suit than the Jericho missile. Unguarded, Stark was given the original blueprints of the Iron Suit by Obadi, and the Ark Reactor, which he used to survive and function as a steel suit, was robbed.

The truth is revealed. As it stands, Obadai has created a more lethal suit of steel and has taken Pepper hostage. As for Stark's side, although the steel suit he had just upgraded in his hand was more balanced and perfect in all aspects, he had to fight Obadai in a decisive battle under the situation of insufficient power in the suit.

All the attention of everyone who knew anything about the situation was on the site of Stark Industries' headquarters, the battle between the two 'robots', including the scurry-in agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so no one noticed that just after Obadiah had snatched the Ark reactor and Stark chased after him, some indecently dressed guy with a masked face broke into 10880 Malibu, Stark's villa where Obadai's security system had been breached, and came to Stark's studio. He also found the magical boulder that Stark had thrown aside and was about to forget.

If Stark had been here at this time, he would have gone crazy when he saw the scene in front of him. Because just a few seconds after a palm pressed on the magical stone, this magical stone, which had rejected Stark thousands of times, actually responded to the mysterious intruder's 'caressing', and released a strong light in an instant!

(P.S.: New book for all kinds of support!) By the way, there has been a little adjustment in the past two days, and two shifts a day will start tomorrow. ）