Seaside villa.
After leaving Stark Tower, Leon found a secluded corner, took off into the air, and quickly flew back home.
“Welcome back, Master Leon.”
“Where’s Tony?”
“He is in the workshop below, performing final preparations on the Mark 3 Iron Man armor.”
“Mark 3?”
“He finished it that quickly?”
Leon was somewhat surprised by Tony’s efficiency.
After all, Tony had barely worn the Mark 2—which served as the official prototype armor—a handful of times.
It seemed to prove the quote Leon had cited earlier—
Human desire is like a boulder rolling down a mountain; once it starts, it never stops.
Once he had one suit of armor, Tony would want two.
Once he had two, he’d want a third…
The same applied to Leon.
Mess around with one woman, and he’d want a second.
Finish with the second, and he’d want a third…
Chuckling, Leon shook his head and took the elevator down to Tony’s “clubhouse.”
The first thing that caught his eye was a gold-and-red, insanely stylish suit of Iron Man armor.
“Phew, you made it back pretty fast, Student Leon.”
“I thought Teacher Pepper would make you stand in the corner as punishment.”
Seeing Leon return, Tony set down the screwdriver he was tinkering with, wiped the sweat from his forehead, grabbed a glass of green juice handed to him by the robotic arm Dum-E, and walked toward Leon with a tease.
“Heh.”
“Right back at you.”
Although he had already seen all the Mark 3 upgrades in the movies, Leon decided to indulge Tony’s vanity and desire to show off.
Pointing at the Mark 3, he asked, “What’s this?”
“The Mark 3.”
“The upgraded model of the Mark 2.”
The moment armor came up, Tony immediately perked up.
He downed the green juice in his hand and continued:
“To handle high-altitude environments, I gave its electronic sensors a comprehensive upgrade.
The pressurization and exhaust systems are also being modified so it can operate seamlessly in space.”
“Plus, the shell material was switched to the gold-titanium alloy from the Seraphim satellite.
It’s lighter overall, and the armor’s strength is drastically increased—it can take a tank shell hit virtually unscathed.”
“How did you solve the acceleration G-force problem?”
“And dampening shocks.
You’re the one wearing this armor, not me.
If it takes a massive impact, the instantaneous G-forces would turn your internal organs into absolute mush, wouldn’t they?”
This was the question Leon cared about most—and the exact mystery Marvel fans in his past life were most curious about, yet comic authors and movie directors never clearly explained.
“Leon, you hit the nail on the head!”
Tony snapped his fingers excitedly.
Then he gestured for the robotic arm Dum-E to hold up a touchscreen.
Pointing at a dense cluster of schematics on the screen that Leon couldn’t make heads or tails of, he explained with relish:
“The issue you raised isn’t just a problem for the Iron Man armor—it’s also a problem for the Jet Glider.
The insane speeds of both generate load forces that normal humans simply can’t survive.”
“I have to admit, even for a genius like me, this was quite a challenge.”
“Fortunately, I’ve perfectly overcome it.”
“By using an anti-inertial field generated by this device to cancel out the extreme acceleration loads.”
“An anti-inertial field?”
*Is this crap even science anymore?*
Even with Tony shoving the blueprints right in Leon’s face, Leon still couldn’t fathom how inertia could be canceled out like that.
It felt like having the answer key in hand and a master professor explaining it right beside him, yet he still couldn’t get it—not a single bit.
“Tony, you really are a freaking genius!” Leon exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.
“Hmph~ Who do you think I am?”
“I’m Tony Stark, the greatest mechanic of this century!”
Tony’s face was full of pride, thoroughly enjoying his younger brother’s admiration and praise.
“Come with me.”
“I gave your Jet Glider a comprehensive upgrade, too.”
Saying that, Tony led Leon down another floor in the elevator, passing through a one-meter-thick coded blast door into the Jet Glider’s modification bay and helipad.
Because of various delays, this was only Leon’s second time stepping inside since activating the Jet Glider.
JARVIS seemed to have properly passed along Leon’s renovation suggestions to Tony.
Now, not only was there a blast door, but all surrounding walls were replaced with one-meter-thick single-cast titanium steel plates.
Once completely sealed off from the outside, short of superhumans at Leon’s level, even Homelander would have to sit in the corner and reflect on his life choices.
At this moment, the Jet Glider stood in the center of the bay like an aloof beauty, quietly waiting for Leon’s touch.
“Woohoo!
So damn cool!”
Leon’s fingertips danced across the Jet Glider’s genuine leather seat like playing a piano.
“Jet Glider 2.0—”
“Energy, propulsion, defense, and electronic systems fully upgraded.
Besides the gold-titanium alloy and anti-inertial field generator I mentioned earlier on the Mark 3…”
“…I also installed a pretty kickass weapon system for her.
That includes thirty-two NTR ‘Ex-Wife’ missiles—each sacrificed ‘Ex-Wife’ packs the punch of a cruiser’s main cannon—plus two plasma beam cannons equivalent in output to the Mark 3’s full-power chest repulsor.”
The NTR “Ex-Wife” missile was, true to its name, an upgraded NTR variant specially designed for Leon after Tony deconstructed Hammer Industries’ Ex-Wife.
From the outside, the caliber was stretched wider by the NTR treatment, but its power, range, and controllability were night and day.
Plus, the upgraded medium Arc Reactor can power her at maximum output for a full month straight.”
“She’s the ultimate super-bike!”
“Well, how do you like her?”
Tony smirked at Leon.
“Tony, I’m giving up an entire year’s worth of cover girls to you!”
“Having this beauty is enough for me!”
Unable to hide his excitement, Leon made a decision against his ancestors…
oh wait, voiced a heartfelt thanks.
“You kid!”
“You said it!”
“I’ll wait for you outside the launch silo!”
Giving Leon no chance to back out, Tony punched him hard in the chest and hurried off to put on his armor.
“Shoot!”
“Did I act too impulsively?”
Once rationality returned, Leon felt a bit of regret.
But remembering there were plenty of top-tier female characters with plotlines waiting for him to win over, his mind quickly found peace.
Taking the repaired Soldier Boy uniform from the system inventory, Leon put it on.
This time, he even strapped on that slightly sleazy-looking helmet.
Yet, elevated by his absurdly high handsome stats, it actually carried a unique charm.
In short: thrilling, with a hint of sneaky scandal.
Leon wanted that exact contrast—low-key first, impressive later.
“Oh, right, there’s this.”
Having changed into his combat suit, Leon suddenly recalled something and walked over to a metal workbench cluttered with mechanical parts.
Resting quietly on top was a silver-black metal shield strikingly resembling the Dongpeng Energy Drink logo.
It was Soldier Boy’s shield, which Tony had repaired and customized at Leon’s request.
Stuck onto the shield was a note reading: *For my Shield Kid.*
The overall design retained almost all of its factory settings.
The biggest change was that it had been thickened from two finger-widths to three, making it look much bulkier from the side—definitely impossible for a normal human to lift.
Leon’s request to Tony regarding this shield had been simple:
Melt down the shattered tungsten-steel alloy fragments Leon had accidentally smashed, reforge them into the original shape, and then seamlessly overlay a half-centimeter-thick protective coating of Vibranium on the outside.
Of course—if a half-centimeter layer could still be called a “coating.”
That way, Leon’s shield retained its handy weight while acquiring Vibranium’s kinetic and energy absorption and deflection properties.
And at half a centimeter thick, it was far more solid material-wise than Captain America’s “ultra-thin, ultra-fitted” Vibranium shield.
Although Cap’s shield was rumored to have been accidentally mixed with a bit of Adamantium by Leon’s dad, Leon’s entire skeleton was made of Adamantium, so he wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.
Worst-case scenario, Leon could harden his heart, knock off some of his own bone splinters, and melt them in—Super Self-Healing would regenerate them effortlessly anyway.
It was just that Leon was afraid of pain, and Adamantium was ridiculously durable, so he had never dared to try it.