Tony sighed heavily. If this was the truth, he couldn't even complain about being targeted. He had inherited his father's vast empire, so naturally, he had inherited his father's enemies as well.
Tony reviewed the data J.A.R.V.I.S. had scraped from the internet. Bypassing international firewalls was child's play for the AI.
"A Russian, just as I thought," Tony muttered, scanning the file pulled from the Russian government database. There wasn't much information on Ivan Vanko, mostly just standard civilian records.
The real anomaly wasn't Ivan. It was his father. Anton Vanko's records showed that he had been deported from the United States back to Russia.
This confirmed Tony's earlier theory. The root of the problem wasn't him; it was Howard Stark.
His old man clearly had a massive falling out with Ivan's father, almost certainly regarding the Arc Reactor. After all, the bootleg reactor Ivan had built was functionally identical to Tony's design, differing only in manufacturing quality.
"Pull up everything you have on his father," Tony ordered.
Moments later, the files appeared on his phone. The truth was laid bare. Anton Vanko and Howard Stark had once been scientific partners. Later, Anton was deported under charges of espionage and treason.
The most glaring detail was that the charges included the theft of proprietary technology. Was this referring to the Arc Reactor blueprints?
Tony felt a massive headache coming on. Without a doubt, he was currently cleaning up his dead father's sins. But what could he do? That was the ultimate burden of being a son.
By the time evening arrived, Tony had barely finished dealing with the immediate fallout of the Monaco disaster.
His safety was a matter of global security. Causing such a massive public incident meant he had to provide a lot of explanations to a lot of powerful people. He had spent the entire day in exhausting, high-stakes meetings.
He had just rushed through a sit-down with a senator who had flown in specifically to deliver a message from the President.
But Tony had no patience for political posturing right now. Lucas's diary had just updated.
Tony casually brushed off the politicians and retreated to his luxury hotel suite. He immediately pulled out his magically bound copy of the diary.
Despite his bone-deep exhaustion, reading this took absolute priority. Nothing in the world was more important than the information contained within these pages.
What is a god's greatest fear?
Without a doubt, it is the moment people realize the god is not invincible. The moment the god bleeds.
To use gamer terminology, if you reveal a health bar, I don't care if it's a god, I can kill it!
Today, I watched a god bleed. Strictly speaking, Tony Stark isn't a literal god, but the concept remains the same. Under the watchful eyes of the entire world, he exposed his fatal weakness. He showed everyone that beneath the armor, he is just a fragile mortal.
As long as you plan and prepare, you can kill him anywhere. You can kill him in his home. You can kill him on a racetrack. Without his suit, he is just a regular guy.
If people hadn't realized this before today, they definitely know it now. Tony Stark's real troubles have only just begun!
The opening lines hit Tony like a thunderbolt. To say he wasn't panicking would be a lie.
At the end of the day, he really was just a normal guy in a metal suit. Sure, in the mundane world, he was a billionaire, a genius, and a celebrity.
But in the "Inner World"—the realm of the supernatural—those titles meant absolutely nothing.
In the world of gods and monsters, he was completely outmatched. Even in his armor, he was far from invincible. If he fought the Hulk, he would be curbstomped. If he faced Thor or the Asgardian Destroyer armor, he knew he would be completely annihilated.
As for Lucas? That guy was an absolute freak of nature.
Tony was arrogant and confident, but he wasn't delusional. He knew his limits perfectly well.
He was a supreme genius; he just hadn't had the time to fully process the implications of today's attack because he had been drowning in PR damage control.
More importantly, he had never experienced a public humiliation like this before. He hadn't yet realized the grim consequences of being beaten down in broad daylight.
Take Justin Hammer, for example. Normally, Hammer would only dare to play petty corporate tricks in the shadows. But now? Hammer might actually have the guts to challenge Tony directly.
In the realm of weapons development and science, Tony had always been an insurmountable god to his rivals. Now that the god had bled, mere mortals would finally dare to challenge him.
"Challenge me?" Tony frowned deeply.
He realized the "challenge" Lucas wrote about wasn't what he initially thought. It wasn't a scientific rivalry or a corporate competition.
They were going to try to kill him.
Obviously, this threat wouldn't come from supervillains or superhumans. To them, Tony was never an untouchable god in the first place.
The real threat would come from ordinary, mundane factions. The people who smiled at him at galas but secretly wished him dead. Rival weapons manufacturers, rogue military generals, underground syndicates.
It was almost laughable. These were the exact same people Tony usually never gave a second thought to. But now, they were the ones who posed the greatest lethal threat.
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