At this moment, Hong Fei almost buried half his face in the soil. Under the mask, his face was slightly distorted. His legs were stretched straight, and his body trembled gently, as if he'd been struck by electricity. Clear drool unconsciously leaked from the corner of his mouth.
The power surging out of thin air enhanced Hong Fei's physical fitness once again. However, this time it wasn't as comfortable as before. Instead, it released a sensation of soreness, numbness, and swelling from the inside out.
The sound of cannon fire from the outskirts soon reached the nearby city. The rising flames were eye-catching. Within just one minute, the lights of countless buildings were turned on one after another. The police helicopters had already taken off. Frank, having fired three rounds, had long since abandoned the mortar and charged into the mountain forest.
Hong Fei slowly raised his head, looking at the blue glowing skill card amidst the flames. With a slurping sound, he sucked the drool back into the corner of his mouth. Enduring his trembling body, he quickly crossed the distance of several hundred meters and then plunged into the sea of fire without hesitation. After putting away the skill card, he rolled continuously on the spot to extinguish the flames. When he stood up again, the magnitude of Hong Fei's body tremors had greatly decreased, and a mysterious power began to surge and grow rapidly. Taking a step forward, his speed suddenly exploded. With a swish, he rushed into the dense forest like a swift cheetah. A few seconds later, a light like a comet arrived above the explosion site first.
Inside the silver humanoid armor, Tony frowned deeply. Seeing that the police helicopters were about to arrive, the armor took to the sky again and flew into the distance. His direction was exactly the same as the direction Hong Fei had left. Within the jungle, rustling sounds were incessant. Hong Fei's black figure moved quickly; the dense shrubs and dim light had no effect on his speed at all. With an all-around improvement of nearly double, Hong Fei had gained an unprecedentedly powerful body.
Killing a Kingpin naturally wouldn't yield such a large reward, but physical strengthening clearly had stages. Previous improvements could be seen as the progress bar inching forward within a fixed stage, but this improvement was equivalent to filling the last gap in the progress bar, causing his physical fitness to enter a second, completely different stage. With a forceful stomp, his body instantly leaped three meters high into the air. Using both hands and feet, the black shadow swung and moved through the branches, as light and agile as an ape.
A rumbling sound of breaking air rang out behind him. Hong Fei looked back and locked onto the silver armor several hundred meters away.
In the sky, Tony also discovered Hong Fei. "Ha, haha, hahahaha! My god, look what I've found! This is only my first time out testing the armor! Jarvis, mark today as my lucky day."
After saying that, he dove down excitedly. Hong Fei jumped to the ground, watching intently as the armor flew from high altitude to right before his eyes.
The familiar black combat suit, the familiar pure white mask—this undoubtedly triggered extremely unpleasant memories in Tony's heart. He opened his hands, his Pulse Cannon locking onto Hong Fei, before speaking playfully. "Do you remember what I said before?"
Hong Fei tilted his head. "Did you even have a chance to speak?"
Tony's face darkened; it seemed he really hadn't been able to make a sound back then. "I said that if I saw you again, I would definitely make you taste the hardships I suffered ten times over!"
"You want to stick a knife in my shoulder too?"
With a whoosh, the Pulse Cannon fired, and the intense light arrived in an instant. Hong Fei leaned slightly to the side, and Tony's attack grazed past him. "An attack like that seems a bit slow. Why not come down for some hand-to-hand combat?"
Tony remained motionless; Jarvis was rapidly performing data analysis.
Hong Fei added, "Don't be afraid, I didn't bring a knife this time. And your newly made armor seems to have no gaps; it's quite good. As expected of Tony Stark."
Two more attacks whooshed out, and Hong Fei used his Eyes of Death to dodge them quickly.
Tony followed closely, his Iron Fist striking rapidly toward Hong Fei's head. This time, Hong Fei didn't use any techniques to redirect the force, because techniques have limits, and the power the armor could burst forth was clearly greater than Hong Fei's current physical body. He dodged the fist directly, stepped back, and then quickly tapped his toes on the ground. Then, his entire strength exploded as his right arm slammed directly into the armor's chest.
Clang! The armor's flight path was suddenly changed by the external force, and it tumbled backward violently.
Meanwhile, Hong Fei also retreated repeatedly under the reaction force until his back hit a large tree with a thud. Leaves drifted down. Hong Fei only felt a sharp pain deep in the bones of his arm, and his back also felt a stinging numbness. At this moment, even he had to say to himself: "What a Brute!" Fortunately, Tony's silver armor should have just been assembled—it was the first test version after the Tin Can—otherwise, Hong Fei wouldn't have been able to escape today no matter what. Tony, who had rolled away, soon flew up again.
He didn't get close to Hong Fei again. The data provided by Jarvis had shocked him. Nearly ten thousand pounds of impact force. And the opponent seemed to have done it instinctively, after an instantaneous reaction, rather than preparing in advance. This was clearly data that surpassed the limits of an ordinary person. Tony hovered in mid-air, ready for anything. If Hong Fei made even the slightest move, he would take to the sky without hesitation. Aside from the Pulse Cannon in his palms, no other weapons were installed on this armor.
Tonight, he really just wanted to come out and test the new armor while experiencing the thrill of flying.
Hong Fei shook his arm and spoke again: "Are you scared again?"
"Tch, I'm never afraid of anyone. I admit your strength exceeds my imagination, but unfortunately, you can't fly." As he spoke, Tony deliberately moved up and down in the air. "I've already called the police. SWAT will be here soon, so my only task now is to keep an eye on you at all times."
"Hmm, great. The famous Tony Stark still needs to call the police to catch someone even when wearing Iron Man Armor. What a law-abiding citizen."
"Say whatever you want. Today, I will definitely not let you lea—"
Bang!
A sudden bullet instantly struck a cluster of sparks on the face of Tony's armor. At the same time, Hong Fei's legs bent slightly, and he suddenly exerted force to leap up to a height of about three meters. He locked his elbow around the armor's neck, twisted his waist, his veins bulging, and with a roar, Hong Fei actually dragged the armor down headfirst by force. Just before hitting the ground, Hong Fei let go and rolled to the side.
The top of the armor's head slammed directly into a protruding boulder on the ground. Sparks flew and fragments scattered, but only a few scratches were left on the surface of the armor. Such hard material was truly extraordinary. However, although the armor was intact, Tony inside was a bit dazed from the impact. Hong Fei immediately rushed forward, picked up a large rock with both hands, and smashed it repeatedly against the face. The light on the armor's chest began to dim. Sparks flew, and the rock in Hong Fei's hand soon shattered.
A rumbling sound suddenly rang out as the armor started up again and broke free from Hong Fei. Five meters up, it extended its hands: "Please drop your weapon and surrender, or face the consequences."
Hearing this voice, Hong Fei couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Because the one speaking was Jarvis. He threw away the stone in his hand and patted the dust off his palms, saying, "If I were you, I wouldn't stubbornly hold out here. If we keep fighting, how much energy do you have left?"
"Enough to last until your arrest."
"By then, Tony Stark will be exposed."
Jarvis was silent for a moment.
Hong Fei struck while the iron was hot: "Besides, you don't have time to go look for the person who just fired the shot, do you? If something happens to me today, the person who fired won't go after Tony Stark; he'll first go after the people around Tony. Do you think Tony can accept such a result?"
Jarvis was silent for a moment. Hong Fei struck while the ir...