Chapter 727 - Abilities Refresh, Armor Skills for Version 1.5

As Jarvis spoke, he ran film clips on the screen.

“I’m an American, and a superhero…”

“You’re not too stupid…”

“I’m still in the lead…”

After Jarvis made the adjustments, the character lines from the film and TV clips turned into Batman’s recorded words.

After listening to a few sentences, Tony realized what was going on. “Sh*t! This guy even uses the same tempo and script!”

Jarvis said, “Yes; that’s why in his conversations with you, only one out of a countless number of lines might be his own.”

Tony rubbed his chin. “Is there something wrong with this guy? Does he have to guard his identity so tightly?! Forget it. What about the armor materials and components? Can you find the source?”

Jarvis said, “I found some leads. He may have used some of the materials from these batches, but when I checked the files and removed those whose origins are very clear, a lot were reported as defective and there’s no way to continue investigating.”

Tony asked, “Defective?”

“Stolen, lost, accidentally damaged, discarded, and so on,” Jarvis explained.

Tony narrowed his eyes. “So, he’s using contraband materials? Hmph, no wonder he’s all black.”

“That should be the case. I followed up on the reportedly defective materials and found possible connections to gangs that loot or fence them. The leads ended there,” said Jarvis.

Tony asked, “What happened?” Since the leads led directly to the gangs themselves, it was impossible that there wouldn’t be any more clues.

“There have been a lot of changes with the gangs in Los Angeles recently. They’ve been disappearing, or annexed or integrated by other gangs. If we want to find out exactly where those contraband goods go, we can only send someone to ask them,” said Jarvis.

Tony understood.

This was the weakness of an A.I. system.

It was very hard for Jarvis to investigate underground transactions for which there were no electronic records.

“I’ll send someone. Any other leads?” Tony asked.

Jarvis said, “This is the only verified lead, sir.”

Tony finished his burger and clapped his hands. “Just send Pepper an email to investigate. I think it’s more fun to catch this guy myself and unmask him.”

Jarvis said, “Sir, it doesn’t seem interesting to me.”

Tony chuckled. “Think about it. Isn’t it interesting for a guy who goes to so much trouble to hide his identity to look on helplessly while I expose him?”

Jarvis said, “Sir, you’ve exposed at least thirty ladies. It seems you really like doing this.”

Tony: “…No, that’s different! Batman is a man, okay? Hm, wait. Is he really a man and not a woman? Jarvis, analyze it. What are the chances that Batman is a woman?”

Jarvis said, “I can’t be sure. While my programming has determined that his mode of operation is more like a man’s, I have my reservations.”

After a brief silence, Tony nodded. “That’s right. This guy is hiding his identity so deeply that this could be a deliberate smokescreen, no matter if he acts more like a man or a woman.”

At this point, he slapped his forehead in frustration. “This guy is definitely doing it on purpose. Making random guesses won’t get us anywhere. Forget it, back to work.”

…

At that moment, a certain someone who had been hiding in the shadows wasn’t sleeping. Instead, he was reviewing last night’s operation as he read the news.

The baby Iron Man’s appearance last night had shocked him.

But not long after, he felt that this was simply a gift from God.

The competition to beat up hooligans ended in a draw. Provoked by Luke’s parting words, Tony decided to run away because of an issue with his armor’s stability.

Their competition thus officially ended.

In the first bet to save lives which Tony had tacitly agreed to, he lost to Luke.

So now, Luke was one up on Tony.

In the system, Tony’s abilities lit up again.

This time, they were different!

No matter how calm Luke was, his heart trembled.

This was the ability to create an Ironman suit!

Luke had once possessed Tony’s abilities, but hadn’t been able to make a complete Ironman suit since the most important thing that was lacking — was inspiration.

Without that sort of explosive inspiration, nobody could make a metal suit without a design plan in one month and even launch it straight into battle.

From what the smart program recorded last night, this metal armor of Tony’s should be… Mark 1.5?

It was much better than the Mark 1 model that he had cobbled together in the cave, but it wasn’t like the Mark 2 model since its thrusters had malfunctioned after just a few minutes of hard work.

Thus, it could only be considered a 1.5 version.

This also meant that the suit’s stability issue wasn’t a small one, and not enough consideration had been given to the overall situation.

Tony also didn’t have time to consider the overall situation. The suit had been built to clash with Batman, an extraordinary human being; Tony’s thought was that the stronger, the better.

Last night, Luke had taken the initiative first and made use of Tony’s pride to convince him to tacitly agree to save people first before their competition.

On this point, Luke felt a little apologetic toward the tycoon.

But in the face of experience and credit points, he had no time to waste on the man, and took decisive action.

Moreover, since Tony had already made a Mark 1.5 suit, whether or not he would still suffer that critical turning point in his life was another problem.

Luke didn’t really care.

Tony had the potential to be a hero.

Thus, his mistakes were always earth-shattering, and he would improve even faster in the future.

He was always someone who stood in the limelight.

Without this kidnapping, he would still have other trials.

As the savior of the world, he would eventually choose that path; that wouldn’t change.

Even if something really did happen to Tony, Luke didn’t mind lending a hand.

The tricky thing was that it was only 2004, and there were still three to five years until Tony was attacked.

It was impossible for Luke to keep an eye on the tycoon’s movements for that long.

This was Tony Stark, a super magnate and national weapons supplier.

As long as there was the slightest hint that Tony was being monitored, a lot of people would investigate, including S.H.I.E.L.D.

The certain black baldie’s attention on Tony had never once wavered.

Even if that person technically was a good guy, Luke didn’t want to provoke him beforehand.

Suppressing the urge to upgrade his suit immediately, he entered the basement and used the smart program to go over his last operation and ensure that he hadn’t missed anything.

Tony Stark’s abilities weren’t going anywhere.

Controlling one’s irrational impulses was also an important lesson.

It couldn’t be any better to hone his patience with the manufacturing technology for the metal suit.