Chapter 1129 - Private Meeting, and Life 1

Luke wasn’t Tony.

His physique was very strong, so the armor’s protection wasn’t as important. However, being able to put it on quickly was very practical.

Another piece of good news was that Tony had made a bit of progress in the nanotechnology research on his armor.

Although it wasn’t a major development, Luke could still try to use this new technology to make an extremely simple version of the “Thousand Faces Armor.”

If he could make something where a person’s external appearance didn’t change, but they had part of the armor’s abilities, his family would benefit from it.

This was far easier than Sentinel Services trying to seize superpowers and strengthen the human body.

As long as his technical skills met the requirements, the rest was just a matter of money. Money wasn’t a big problem for him now.

At the same time, the American news media exploded once again.

Iron Man, who had just gone through a hearing at Congress, was caught by the paparazzi on camera in a “private night meeting” with Batman.

This was explosive news.

After the California earthquake, Batman seemed to have disappeared, and there were no signs of this number one superhero in Los Angeles.

In the last few months, Batman had switched from being the main character in media reports to being Iron Man’s sidekick. Most of the time, he was mentioned in relation to Iron Man.

In the end, this superhero suddenly appeared again, and he had gone to Stark Tower, proving that whatever happened before wasn’t unfounded.

But that wasn’t what certain bigshots cared about.

What they cared about was that in the video taken by the paparazzi, Batman was also wearing a brand new Batman suit that looked 50 to 60% like the Iron Man suit.

After they met, they flew out of Manhattan one after another.

As the paparazzi tailed them, everybody now knew that the two had probably gotten into a fight on the beach on Staten Island.

Even though Tony Stark showed up at a business gathering the next day like nothing was out of the ordinary, the news media used their pro skills at bullsh*tting and misrepresentation to create all sorts of drama.

“Batman steals Iron Man’s armor technology, a huge falling out and a fight,” and “Shock! After not meeting for half a year, surprising cracks in Iron Man and Batman’s relationship,” and “Bat/Iron CP in danger, and here’s why…” Numerous headlines bred like flies.

Of course, that last headline on some Internet website was followed by a huge bunch of eager women.

This news was a party for the general public.

Many of the higher-ups started to get restless again.

For example, the members of Congress who had just been slapped in the face were probably thinking something along the lines of, “He can touch it, but we can’t?”

Tony would rather give the armor technology to an unknown like Batman than to America.

This was different from what Tony had said in Congress yesterday.

For a moment, the private phone lines of many bigshots rang nonstop, and each conversation often took more than ten minutes.

Their private meetings also increased significantly, and another round of schemes against the Iron Man suit began.

Tony Stark didn’t care about that at all. He returned to the tower and got to work.

Although Batman had taught him another lesson, Tony’s unwillingness to admit defeat didn’t discourage him. Instead, he was inspired again, and came up with a lot of ideas for improving his armor.

In a sense, Tony and Luke felt pretty much the same way whenever they met; they couldn’t sleep if they didn’t test their new ideas right away after that.

On this point, who knew if it was Tony who had led Luke astray, or vice versa.

…

After tinkering around in the workshop in high spirits, Luke went to Stark Tower the following night with the first batch of the Blood Orchid drug he had just created.

This time, he directly hacked into Stark Tower’s security system to let Jarvis know when he was coming.

Jarvis immediately notified Tony, who had just woken up and was working.

At Tony’s instruction, Jarvis opened the elevator doors in the underground parking lot for Luke, who was invisible.

Looking at the Batman suit after Luke canceled the stealth mode, Tony’s tech side couldn’t help but act up.

He projected the image from Jarvis’s surveillance feed and said, “There are a lot of issues with your stealth technology. The heat emissions are a problem, and the light distortions it creates can’t fool Jarvis. It’s only good enough to get by electronic surveillance…”

Luke was too lazy to listen to him.

The list of the tycoon’s abilities had only just been refreshed in the system; Luke could do the modifications himself after this. “Alright, my armor only has some minor shortcomings, but there’s a huge hole in your chest. Who do you think has the bigger problem?”

Tony choked.

He could comfort himself with the words, “Although I have a hole in my chest, my armor is strong.”

But in front of Batman, it could only be said that everybody had their own strength.

He would rather believe that it was because the other party had a stronger physique.

This could be seen from the fact that the first generation Batman suit didn’t have any supporting propulsion system; Batman had relied completely on his physical strength to move like normal.

After interrupting the tycoon’s rambling, Luke didn’t waste any time. He simply opened the small silver cooler he was holding. Twelve glass test tubes lay in recesses, each of which contained 100mm of light red liquid.

Tony stepped forward. “What’s this?”

“I call it Life 1.” Luke casually came up with a product name. “More specifically, it should allow external injuries to recover very well, and most fractures and cuts will heal in three to five days.”

Tony was surprised. “Are you serious?”

If an ordinary person was accidentally cut by a kitchen knife, it would take about five days to make a full recovery.

The cuts Luke was referring to had to be from a battle; it would already be pretty good to recover from something like that in a month or two.

Bone fractures took even longer to heal, around two to three months.

Luke nodded. “But this was stolen. I don’t have any information on the components. You should do an analysis and test it first.”

Saying that, he took out a USB. “This is some information on a similar drug used by that underworld force. It’s for you. Any more questions?”

Tony frowned. “What do you want?”

He was a businessman, and his first reaction when he ran into a situation was always, “What’s the catch?”

Why would Batman give Life 1 away for nothing if it had such miraculous effects?

If it were anyone else, Tony would immediately suspect that there was something wrong with the drug.

But in front of Batman, he would rather first consider what the other party wanted in exchange.

Luke chuckled. “It’s simple: As long as you figure out the functions and side effects of Life 1 and share the research with me, I can continue doing more tests for you.”

Tony’s heart jumped. “It’s that simple?”

Luke said, “Of course. If there are no unacceptable side effects, it’s a life-saving drug that can save lives in an emergency. I need something like that.”

Tony felt that he was being looked down on again.

He was thinking about a business transaction, while Batman was thinking about saving lives.