In these past two months, what he uncovered in secret was truly shocking. Obadiah Stane was not only embezzling company funds behind his back. If it were just embezzlement, to be honest, Tony Stark wouldn’t have cared much—at most, he’d just give him a warning.

But Obadiah Stane had also secretly established routes to sell Stark Industries’ weapons to those Middle Eastern warlords. This was something Tony Stark absolutely could not tolerate.

In his view, the weapons he created were meant to protect the people of this country, not to be sold to his enemies. Even though they were all merchants of death, Tony Stark considered himself to still have a bit of conscience. And with his intelligence and talent, he could easily make money without compromising his principles.

Clean money, too—there was no need to dirty his own hands.

But Obadiah Stane’s actions made Tony Stark’s years of pride and persistence seem like the work of a fool.

Of course, what worried Tony Stark the most was still that massive suit of iron armor he’d seen in the video earlier. He was concerned that Obadiah Stane had already started developing it, but after investigating, he found that wasn’t the case.

This indicated that Obadiah Stane’s suit of armor was likely built using some of his own technology. Given the relationship he and Obadiah Stane once had, it was entirely possible that Obadiah Stane could have gotten his hands on it—or perhaps, he himself might have granted him certain permissions.

But regardless of how Obadiah Stane obtained it in the original timeline, now he no longer had the chance.

Tony Stark had no interest in listening to Obadiah Stane’s excuses and had the FBI agents take him away, along with several shareholders who were close to Obadiah Stane. In the end, the charges they faced were far more than just this—there were also tax issues, smuggling, and a whole series of other problems, enough to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives.

Of course, that’s assuming they didn’t die in there.

“Tony, you’ll regret this! With your dictatorship and reckless ways, you’ll ruin Stark Industries sooner or later! You’ll regret it!” Obadiah Stane’s furious roar echoed through the entire conference room, but he was already being dragged away.

After all this, Tony Stark finally relaxed completely. Then he said, “I appoint Pepper Potts as the new acting CEO of the group. For anything else, go to her. I have something to do today, so I’m leaving first. Send me a summary of the meeting results!”

With that, Tony Stark left without looking back.

Pepper Potts was still in shock. She hadn’t received any word about such a dramatic upheaval beforehand. Clearly, while she was unaware, Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane had already clashed, and Tony Stark had delivered a decisive blow, completely resolving Obadiah Stane.

This outcome was naturally the best for her. If Obadiah Stane had won, as Tony Stark’s confidante, she would have been purged. But this boss was really unreliable—so many shareholders had been taken away, and who knew if they’d ever return. The company was about to descend into chaos, and Tony Stark just ran off, leaving her to clean up the mess.

Damn capitalist!

Chapter 16: Do you think Iron Man is the only superhero?

Tony Stark certainly didn’t know that Pepper was cursing him as a capitalist behind his back. In fact, she’d said it to his face plenty of times, but he just didn’t care and pretended not to hear. What could he do? He was born rich, after all.

He drove his Audi all the way back to his mansion in New York, entered the underground secret room, and inside was a red-and-gold suit of armor—one of his achievements from the past two months: the Mark armor.

In fact, these two months weren’t spent solely on gathering evidence against Obadiah Stane. He had also, based on the suit he saw himself wearing in the future in the diary video, developed the first generation of armor: Mark I.

Because he hadn’t been kidnapped, and with the video as a reference, this Mark I suit skipped the prototype developed in the cave and was essentially the Mark II.

“The truth is, I am Iron Man. Not a bad declaration!”

Suddenly, a teasing voice rang out.

“Who’s there?” Tony Stark immediately turned to look, only to see a black man in a leather coat with a bald head and an eye patch.

His heart raced with alarm. This man had suddenly appeared in the secret room of his office, and even Jarvis hadn’t issued a warning.

“Nick Fury!” The bald black man shrugged and said, “You know, artificial intelligence is useful most of the time, but not always. There are always loopholes!”

Tony Stark glanced at Nick Fury and realized something: this person probably wasn’t here to kill him. Otherwise, he would have acted immediately.

At this moment, only one thought filled his mind: he didn’t know how the other party had gotten in, but he definitely needed to fix this loophole next time. Even though this person wasn’t here to kill him, this incident was a real wake-up call.

Obadiah Stane had been able to get close so easily, and now Nick Fury could do it too!

He wasn’t wrong—he really couldn’t rely on Jarvis completely.

In such a short time, Jarvis had already made two mistakes in his eyes.