Lu Mingfei doesn't want to be a superhero

"Of course I believe you, after all, it's not the first time you've had an accident," Tony retorted from inside his Iron Man suit.

A few seconds later, the eyes on Tony's Iron Man suit, which had been extinguished, lit up again, indicating that the suit had restarted.

"Holy crap! Tony, your suit even has a self-healing function!" Lu Mingfei exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, I’m still developing this feature,” Tony said. “It’s an emergency restart system that I added when I upgraded the suit last time. It’s meant to restore basic mobility in the event of a short circuit caused by some attack. But that’s all it will do. Right now, the suit can’t fly or attack.”

"Why doesn't my suit have this function?" asked Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes, who was lying motionless on the ground. His suit had not restarted.

“Yours is the second generation,” Tony said. “My suit has been upgraded several times.”

“Look on the bright side, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes,” Lu Mingfei comforted him from the side, “If Tony had also installed an emergency restart system on you, the EMP shock wouldn’t have worked, and I would have had to throw you around a few more times like I did just now.”

“Hmm,” Rod immediately corrected himself, “Well done, Tony.”

Just as the three were talking, Pepper and Natasha walked towards the stage.

In the midst of the recent commotion, most of the other guests had already screamed and fled. Even Justin Hammer himself slipped away quietly while no one was watching. Only a few fearless reporters clung to their photographers, wanting to stay and get a close look at the big news.

"Tony! What's going on, Tony!" Pepper shouted as he climbed onto the stage.

"Watch out for your underwear! Watch out for your underwear!" Lu Mingfei hurriedly reminded him, and also sent over his few remaining flying swords to shield Pepper, in case any of the remaining reporters were there to take pictures of gossip or scandalous news.

In contrast, Natasha's movements were much more agile. She flipped and leaped onto the stage. With her skills, she didn't have to worry about exposing herself even while wearing a skirt.

"Has no one thought of taking the stairs?" Lu Mingfei complained.

“Mr. Lu Mingfei, you know what’s going on, right?” Natasha asked Lu Mingfei immediately.

"It's Ivan, the guy who attacked Tony at the racetrack. He's working with Hammer. If nothing unexpected happens, all of Hammer's so-called 'mechanical soldiers' are now under Ivan's control."

Lu Mingfei said, "Didn't he know to be more careful when he cooperated with Ivan? This kind of plot, where a villain is used by another villain who cooperates with him and then betrays him, is very common in anime."

"Fortunately, we've taken care of all of these things," Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes said.

“To be honest, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes,” Lu Mingfei quipped from the side, “if Tony hadn’t thought of the EMP impact, you would have been one of the people I needed to ‘deal with’.”

"Have you been picking up bad habits from Tony lately?" Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes asked, "especially in the way you talk."

“Besides, we haven’t solved all these problems either,” Lu Mingfei didn’t answer Colonel Rhodes, but looked up at the sky. “Look.”

Aside from Natasha, who noticed it almost simultaneously with Lu Mingfei, the others then noticed that many tiny lights on the horizon were approaching them; those were the jet nozzles of the mechanical soldiers in flight.

"What are you afraid of? Just do that kind of attack again, right?" Tony said. "The one that wiped out all those mechanical soldiers."

“That’s all.” Lu Mingfei shrugged.

"What's gone?" Tony was taken aback.

“The swords are gone,” Lu Mingfei said. “Those swords were mass-produced at your house in less than half a day. How good do you think the quality could be? They were all blown to pieces by that explosion just now.”

“And didn’t I already say that my ability is essentially to control magnetic fields, magnetize metals and then use magnetic force to control their movement? Metals will demagnetize at high temperatures,” Lu Mingfei pointed to the red-hot metal debris in the distance, “Those ultra-high temperature metals are no longer under my control.”

"What do we do then?" Tony smirked inside his Iron Man suit. "I can't even fly right now."

“Pepper and I are going to find Justin Hammer and ask him where Ivan is,” Natasha said, looking at Lu Mingfei. “Can you hold off those mechanical soldiers?”

“Uh… it’s a bit difficult to hold them off,” Lu Mingfei said.

Although Jian Yu was enhanced in this world, it was still difficult for him to control so many mechanical soldiers at the same time. You should know that Susie, the original owner of this Word of Power, was already almost exhausted just controlling five hollow longswords.

“Then let’s just run away, get away from those things, and go find Ivan together,” Natasha decided immediately.

"Hey! I can't move!" Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes shouted.

"No need. Although I can't hold them off, we can just blow them up, right?"

Lu Mingfei looked up at the night sky, where the mechanical soldiers had gotten so close that their shapes were discernible.

He chanted the Dragon Mantra aloud, and a more terrifying domain, different from Sword Control, unfolded from his body.

As the area expanded to its limit, the mechanical soldiers also crashed into it.

The next moment, a spark lit up among the mechanical soldiers, and then expanded within a fraction of a second, encompassing all the mechanical soldiers, and a crimson "sun" appeared on the horizon.

The "sun" only lasted for a dozen seconds before quickly dissipating. It wasn't that Lu Mingfei couldn't hold on, but rather that it was no longer necessary—there was nothing there anymore.

The Spirit of Words·Jun Yan.

In this world, not only has the Sword Mastery been greatly enhanced, but the Sovereign Flame has also shown an exceptionally exaggerated performance.

After demonstrating the Word of Power to Lu Mingfei, Chu Zihang also explained the Monarch Flame itself to him. Simply put, this Word of Power is so violent that it is almost uncontrollable. In the hands of a hybrid, the Monarch Flame can only be released in the form of an ultra-high temperature explosion. It is impossible to even make it burn quietly.

Even Chu Zihang, who was the one who released it, could only control the landing point of the explosion and ensure that he would not be affected.

Upon arriving in this world, the power of the Sovereign Flame was greatly enhanced. Not only was its domain ridiculously large, but its temperature and explosive power also increased dramatically. It could even burn stably under Lu Mingfei's control.

He had just unleashed a powerful but extremely small-scale explosion of the Sovereign Flame. In this world, the Sovereign Flame could easily reach a temperature of 8,000 degrees Celsius, at which point the vast majority of metals would rapidly vaporize.

Natasha's Adam's apple bobbed. Although Fury had told her before the mission that Lu Mingfei's combat power and destructive force were extraordinary, the scene just now was still somewhat beyond her comprehension.

Even Pepper stared blankly at Lu Mingfei.

Although Tony had told her before that Lu Mingfei was not an ordinary person, the current situation definitely cannot be described simply as "not an ordinary person," right?!

Tony looked at Lu Mingfei, his surprise barely concealed: "You have this kind of ability?"

"It just looks like a big attack, but its actual power isn't that great," Lu Mingfei said casually. "After all, it's just an AOE attack, so you can't expect much single-target damage."

"I see... my foot!" Natasha felt a chill run down her spine as she watched from the side. She thought to herself, "If you hadn't wiped out all those mechanical soldiers, I would have actually believed you."

But that's exactly what Lu Mingfei thought. If the Black Flame Prison he released during his battle with Abomination was a napalm bomb, then the Monarch Flame just now was a large-scale fireworks display.

Lu Mingfei was unaware that Natasha was inwardly criticizing him. On the contrary, he found Natasha's previous suggestion quite constructive, so he said, "Let's go, just like Natasha said, let's go find Hammer and ask him where Ivan is."

……

Hammer Industries, main control room.

Lu Mingfei, Natasha, and Tony, who had removed his armor, stood in front of a row of computers.

“These are the computers Ivan uses to control those mechanical soldiers,” Natasha examined the screen. “We can find all the mechanical soldiers’ action logs here. There’s also a replica of the Iron Man suit, whose main weapon is a pair of electric whips. It must have been prepared by Ivan for himself. The log shows that he put on this suit, and then…”

“Then he ran away,” Tony continued. “Well… I don’t know where he ran off to. He probably set up a program to automatically clear the relevant logs so that he wouldn’t be discovered.”

Natasha looked at Tony, their eyes met for a moment, and she winked at him.

If Tony hadn't already asked Natasha about her gender, just that one glance would have made him take at least three steps back.

“Just like Tony said, Ivan ran away and deleted all the data related to his whereabouts,” Natasha said as she plugged the USB drive into the computer. “I’ll save all this data; maybe the SHIELD technicians can find out where he is from it.”

“Are you sure your technicians can handle it? Why don’t you leave it to me? Jarvis can find him in a day,” Tony said.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark, although you are the victim, law enforcement is the prerogative of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the police,” Natasha said. “If we really can’t handle it, we will consider asking you for technical assistance.”

"Then you guys go ahead with your work. I'll go out and buy some food. Happy and I will wait for you in the car," Lu Mingfei said.

"Yeah, remember to buy me two hamburgers," Tony said.

"No problem." Lu Mingfei closed the door as he left.

The room was quiet for a while.

"Thank you," Tony suddenly said.

“What?” Natasha asked.

“I said, thank you,” Tony repeated.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Natasha said. “It’s not that I didn’t hear what you said, it’s just that I didn’t expect Tony Stark to thank someone, and in such a sincere tone.”

“Considering you’re a secret agent, I’m curious,” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow, “am I the first person to be this honest with you?”

"No, and please don't try to flirt with me. You're not my type. To be honest, you're the most annoying mission target I've ever encountered who makes me want to throw water in your face," Natasha retorted.

"Please go ahead." Tony pointed to the corner of the table, where a glass of water sat, probably left behind by Ivan when he left.

Natasha rolled her eyes at him: "Seriously, why did you lie to Lu Mingfei? Ivan's Iron Man suit was deployed with that group of mechanical soldiers, and he was in the explosion that Lu Mingfei released. He's probably already vaporized. Not only did you lie to him, but you also thanked me for covering for you."

“He’s still a child,” Tony said. “There’s no need for him to know right now that he killed a human.”

Tony witnessed Lu Mingfei slaughtering those terrorists in the cave, but Lu Mingfei later told him that in that state, killing didn't feel real; it was more like the feeling of killing monsters in a video game.

“And you? Why did you help me?” Tony asked. “You not only went along with what I said, but you also took all the data with you, so I don’t have to explain to Lu Mingfei why I couldn’t recover the data that Ivan ‘deleted’.”

“There’s no particular reason, it’s just something similar to what you’re thinking,” Natasha unplugged the USB drive. “There’s no need to make a boy face the fact that ‘I killed someone’ so early on; it’s very detrimental to the mental and physical development of teenagers.”

Tony looked at her with a look of surprise.

“What? Don’t look at me with that surprised look, like you’ve seen a bad guy having a change of heart,” Natasha said. “Strictly speaking, I’m a public servant, while you used to be an arms dealer.”

As she spoke, she plugged in another USB drive, and the computer instantly emitted a puff of white smoke.

“Alright, now unless someone can turn back time, no one can restore what’s inside,” Natasha said.

"Consider it a favor I owe you," Tony said.

"Do you want to pay it back now?" Natasha gave Tony a charming look.

“You just said I’m not your type,” Tony said.

“Yes, so the way I want you to repay that favor…” Natasha grabbed a water glass from the corner of the table and splashed it on Tony’s face with lightning speed, “It’s this!”

Tony wiped the water off his face, his expression ashen, as if he had ingested two grams of palladium.

"Haha ...

Although being a secret agent requires exceptional stress tolerance, secret agents are still human, and occasional stress relief can be very helpful for mental health—like right now.

"You actually splashed me with water that a man has drunk from!" Tony lifted his shirt and vigorously wiped his face.

"Next time I'll try to use my own water cup~" Natasha put down her water cup and glided to the door like a fish, winking her left eye at Tony: "Goodbye, Mr. Stark, I hope I never have to deal with you again."

After saying that, Natasha opened the door and slipped out, not forgetting to close the door behind her, leaving Tony inside wiping his face vigorously.

Chapter 66: Doctor Strange

Stark Tower, Tony's office.

A doctor came here on orders from the hospital.

“Dr. Strange, this is the situation,” Tony said. “So, can the surgery start tomorrow? Money is not an issue. I’ve already discussed it with your hospital, and I’ll move up your surgical schedule a little.”