Tony’s New Battle Armor (An Extra Chapter for FFF Regiment Chief 3/12)

Tony’s New Armor (An Extra Chapter for FFF Regiment Chief 312)

The military hadn’t placed all its hopes on Zhan Liu, either. They still trusted their own people more.

For example, Tony Stark.

Everyone knew where those Strong Magnetic Armors produced by Hammer Industries had come from. Hammer’s only contribution was adding a bit of Vibranium, making the armor’s material sturdier and more durable.

That was all!

The equipment from Hammer Industries had been good enough before, so the military had turned a blind eye and focused on purchasing those inexpensive, high-quality "counterfeits."

But now, those "dolls" had proven that the counterfeits were no longer enough. The military urgently needed better Strong Magnetic Armor.

Thus, Rhodey had once again been ordered to visit Tony’s mansion.

"What a rarity. I can’t believe I haven’t seen any women here." After sitting down on the sofa, Rhodey habitually jabbed at Tony.

Tony casually tossed him a can of beer, opened one for himself, took a swig, and said with a grin, "If you need them, beautiful women of every type can fill this place within an hour."

As they were speaking, someone flew in from outside. After landing, he opened his armor’s faceplate, revealing the face of an elderly Chinese man.

"Wow, so you’ve changed your tastes. Tony, I have to say, your tastes are getting heavier and heavier." Rhodey recognized him as the fourth disciple of the Ultimate Limit Hall, but still teased Tony.

"Then I should have picked you first, Rhodey. You know, you’ve got quite a nice physique." Tony wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by such vulgar jokes and immediately turned the teasing back on him.

"Let me introduce you. This is my fourth junior fellow disciple, Wang Yunxiang. This is my friend, Rhodey, an Air Force colonel."

"Nice to meet you."

After shaking hands and exchanging a few pleasantries, Rhodey walked around Old Wang once, looked him up and down, and examined the armor he was wearing. "Tony, is this the latest Strong Magnetic Armor you’ve invented?"

"That’s right! This Strong Magnetic Armor 4.0 can now allow a Magnetic Field Rotation martial artist to directly reach the strength of the Twenty-Five Heavens. That puts it on par with my master, Zhan Liu." Tony crossed his legs, idly swinging the beer can in his hand as he proudly showed off.

"More importantly, I installed an intelligent AI system in the armor, controlled by Jarvis."

"What use is that? Can it attack automatically?" Rhodey asked curiously.

"I entered some of the Ultimate Limit Sect’s martial arts techniques into the computer. During battle, Jarvis judges which techniques to use and controls the armor accordingly. This allows the armor to amplify the user’s Complete State."

"Take me, for example. I’ve never practiced any of those techniques, but after putting on this armor, I can use them with great proficiency."

Tony used himself as an example. He had to admit, it was very convincing.

Hearing this, Rhodey rolled his eyes and mocked him. "Oh, Tony, this is the first time I’ve seen someone take such pride in describing his own laziness. You’ve once again lowered my estimation of your bottom line."

"Laziness drives progress." Tony wasn’t bothered in the slightest. He shrugged and said, "Because we were too lazy to walk, we invented cars. Because we were too lazy to wash clothes, we made washing machines. Because we were too lazy to calculate, we created computers… The list goes on."

"Fine. I was too lazy to argue with you, so I invented playing dumb!" Rhodey spread his hands and changed the subject. "Can you mass-produce this thing?"

Tony glanced at him and shook his head. "I never intended to mass-produce it!"

"Why? If you don’t mass-produce it, people will have no choice but to buy Hammer Industries’ garbage!" Rhodey asked in astonishment.

"Isn’t that perfect? Garbage people deserve garbage armor. It’s a perfect match!" Tony sneered.

"Hey, Tony, don’t say things out of anger. We all know where Hammer’s armor blueprints came from. If possible, the military would of course rather buy the genuine products from you. But you clearly have something so good, yet you leave it unused in a warehouse and refuse to sell it. What do you expect the military to do?"

"The reason I abandoned this thing is that it’s completely useless in practice! Even this current armor still has a fatal weakness—it’s too fragile!"

Tony sighed, his mood sinking. He waved for Old Wang to remove the armor, then sat back down on the sofa.

"Of course, I’m not saying it’s actually that fragile. Its hardness can withstand missiles and explosives. It’s just that its material can’t meet the hardness requirements of a battle between Magnetic Field Rotation martial artists."

"The armor you just saw was already made from the most durable tungsten-steel alloy currently known, with a tiny amount of that Vibranium mixed in. Yet it still couldn’t withstand the recoil from a battle at the Twenty-Five Heavens level. It shattered after just a few punches."

He took a sip of beer and continued:

"I’ve studied that Vibranium. It’s an extremely miraculous metal. Its molecules barely vibrate at all, remaining almost completely still relative to one another. As a result, the metal doesn’t transmit energy. In principle, armor made entirely of Vibranium should be able to withstand the effects of a Twenty-Five Heavens battle using Magnetic Field Rotation."

"Then why don’t you make one and try it?" Rhodey asked.

Old Wang emerged from the armor, and Jarvis automatically controlled it as it flew away. He also took a bottle of beer, sat beside Tony, and picked up the conversation.

"There is some scattered Vibranium for sale on the market, but it’s incredibly expensive—around one hundred thousand dollars per gram. Of course, money isn’t a problem for Senior Apprentice-Brother. But the problem is that this is something you can’t buy even if you have the money."

"My master once said that Vibranium came from a country in Africa called Wakanda, where there was a great deal of it. But we tried investigating that country and discovered that it was simply an agricultural nation. They didn’t possess the technology or industrial foundation needed to smelt metals on an industrial scale."

"We estimate that some Western geological workers accidentally brought out a few mineral samples from there, then obtained the finished product through laboratory smelting."

"In other words, even if we bought up all the Vibranium on the market, it still wouldn’t be enough to make a single suit of armor."

"Wakanda?" Rhodey carefully committed the name to memory. "I understand. I’ll have the military find a way to contact their government and conduct mineral exploration and extraction there."

Tony cut in, "By the way, they don’t really have a government. It’s entirely tribal. Their highest leader is a king named T’Chaka. I chatted with him for a while, and all I can say is… his behavior perfectly matched my impression of a medieval European king."

Rhodey was stunned by this. Tongue-tied, he said, "There has to be a way."

Rhodey had arrived in a hurry, and left in a hurry.

His mission could only be considered partially complete. Tony did have better armor, but there simply wasn’t enough metal in the world that could serve as the material for producing it.

And the only way to break the deadlock lay within that agricultural nation, Wakanda.