155: Chapter 155 Stunned, are we protecting this kind of monster?

The call ended.

Lu Li tossed his phone back onto the coffee table, and the screen went completely dark.

He leaned his head back against the sofa.

He didn't care at all about the user volume of Tencent Group.

Guanghui Technology wasn't a shipbuilder; it was a rule-maker.

As long as the rules were set, all future internet giants would have to pay tolls along this route.

As for purely online social software like WeChat.

Once the "Skynet" system was rolled out, Beining City would completely transform into a smart city.

A brand-new social ecosystem based on holographic projection and neural linking would naturally emerge.

Products of the old era wouldn't even have a chance to struggle.

Just then.

A pale blue system screen suddenly popped up before his eyes.

[Side Mission Triggered!]

[Background: The remnants of Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment are attempting to seek asylum from foreign forces at the cost of treason, and are launching a final counterattack against the host.]

[Objective: Completely erase the existence of Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment within the country.]

[Rewards: 1. Blueprints for a personal Anti-gravity flying vehicle. 2. A finished fully intelligent autonomous vehicle. 3. A complete set of blueprints for controllable Nuclear Fusion technology!]

Lu Li's gaze froze instantly.

He stared fixedly at the last line on the screen.

Controllable Nuclear Fusion.

These five words were heavy enough to crush the entire edifice of modern human physics.

In his previous life, he had drained his life's blood in the laboratory.

He had watched countless top scholars cheer until their deaths for that extra second of sustained time.

It was the ultimate key to human civilization.

Once mastered, the energy crisis would become a term of history.

The Space Elevator would have a constant source of power.

Interstellar travel would no longer be the ramblings of science fiction novels.

And now, the complete set of blueprints was laid out before him.

All he had to do was erase a death-seeking game company.

Lu Li stood up and walked to the corner of the study.

There sat that unassuming black briefcase.

Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment wanted to play a fight to the death.

Well, he would show them what a true dimensional strike was.

Mingzhu City, headquarters of Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment.

The president's office on the top floor was in shambles.

Chairman Fan Jianguo's eyes were bloodshot.

On the screen, the stock price of Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment was locked at the daily limit down.

Tencent Group had just issued a total ban across the entire network.

Countless scandals were being frantically pushed by major media outlets.

He was finished.

The company was finished too.

Chairman Fan Jianguo walked to the safe.

He entered three extremely complex passwords.

Inside lay a satellite phone with no markings.

He pressed the only button.

The call connected.

A mechanical voice, processed through a voice changer, came from the other side.

"Speak."

Chairman Fan Jianguo gritted his teeth.

"I have the high-precision geological survey data of thirty-seven key cities in China, illegally collected by Tianqiong Interactive Entertainment over the years through AR augmented reality games."

"It even includes the coordinates of two secret military industrial bases."

The other end of the line fell into a dead silence.

The value of this data was enough to make any country's military go crazy.

"Conditions."

"Give me a plane ticket to the United States and a green card, plus fifty million US dollars."

Chairman Fan Jianguo paused, his eyes full of malice.

"And Lu Li's life."

"I want you to send the top people to kill him."

The mechanical voice only replied with two words.

"Deal."

...

The night grew deeper.

The skyline of Mingzhu City was outlined in a blurred golden edge by the lights of ten thousand homes, and the traffic on the elevated bridge was like red blood cells in blood vessels, never stopping.

Lu Li and Su Qingxue finished dinner.

That pot of braised pork ribs was indeed stewed well; Su Qingxue ate three bowls of rice—of course, she refused to admit that she had served the third bowl herself.

After clearing the dishes, Lu Li picked up his car keys.

"Going out for a bit, there's something I need to test."

Su Qingxue leaned against the kitchen doorframe, her apron still on.

"What thing?"

"A toy."

"..."

Su Qingxue stared at him for two seconds.

Based on what she knew about this man, the "toy" he spoke of was highly likely to be something that could make global militaries collectively lose sleep.

"Come back early."

"Hmm."

Lu Li drove the low-key black sedan and drove alone onto the road leading to the suburbs.

The city lights faded bit by bit in the rearview mirror.

The road gradually changed from six lanes to four, then to two, and finally became a country concrete road with edges eroded by weeds.

Half an hour later.

The car stopped in Huang County, in the remote suburbs of Mingzhu City.

An extremely vast manor was hidden among low hills and dense forests.

This was a gift from Su Qingxue's grandfather, Founder Su Zhenguo, to Lu Li during this year's New Year, and it was written directly under his name.

There were almost no residents within a few kilometers around this manor; the nearest village was in a mountain hollow three kilometers away.

It was so quiet all around that only the chirping of insects and the occasional cry of night birds from the distant mountains could be heard.

It was perfect for testing that little toy.

Lu Li got out of the car, carrying the small black briefcase, and walked to the large lawn in the center of the manor.

He placed the briefcase on the grass and pressed a hidden button on the side.

The briefcase unfolded silently.

A set of metal structures, folded and compressed to the extreme, ejected from the inside and quickly self-assembled on the lawn.

Twelve seconds.

A complete Steel Battle Suit stood there under the moonlight.

The streamlined shell shimmered with a cold, eerie metallic luster in the night.

The red and gold paint looked both stern and gorgeous under the reflection of the moonlight.

The miniature arc reactor on its chest emitted a steady, pale blue glow, like a star encapsulated within a steel chest cavity.

Mark 45.

The pinnacle of Iron Man's work.

Lu Li walked slowly around the Battle Armor once.

"Activate."

At Lu Li's command, the Battle Armor split open from the middle and wrapped around him in a highly technological manner.

"Welcome back, sir."

A soft female voice rang in his ears.

"Are you Jarvis?" Lu Li asked subconsciously; why was it still a female voice?

"Sir, my name is 'Friday'."

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

He remembered that by the time of Mark 45, Jarvis had already become Vision.

Inside the Battle Armor, countless data streams flashed before his eyes, and every subtle movement of his body was precisely captured.

An unprecedented sense of control made the blood in his body begin to boil.

He moved his mind.

"Boom!"

Soft blue flames erupted from the soles of his feet, and his entire body instantly broke free from gravity and shot into the sky!

The wind whistled in his ears!

The ground shrank rapidly beneath his feet!

The brilliant lights of the city connected into a galaxy in the distance.

This sense of freedom, breaking free from constraints and soaring through the sky, made him want to let out a long howl.

He skillfully performed various high-difficulty maneuvers in the air, testing the performance of the Battle Armor.

Finally, he hovered at an altitude of a hundred meters, raised his right hand, and aimed at a huge rock in the distance outside the manor.

The energy concentrator in his palm lit up.

A blazing white beam of light shot out silently!

There was no earth-shattering loud noise, only a flash of light that vanished in an instant.

The huge rock in the distance instantly turned into powder.

Meanwhile, in the dense forest on the outskirts of the manor.

Several special forces soldiers responsible for guarding and protecting Lu Li were staring, dumbfounded, through high-powered binoculars at the red and gold figure in the sky.

Seven men, all elite soldiers carefully selected from the special forces of the three armed services.

The youngest had six years of combat experience.

They had seen missiles carpet-bombing, seen armed helicopter formations attacking, and seen the most advanced stealth fighters passing overhead.

They had seen everything.

But they had never seen a person put on a suit of iron shells like putting on clothes, then fly into the sky, and use their fingers to erase a piece of granite.

"Cap... Captain... wha... what is that?" A young team member's voice was trembling.

The captain put down the binoculars, rubbed his eyes, and picked them up again.

After a long while, he swallowed hard.

"We know Chief Engineer Lu is a genius..."

"But can someone tell me why he even built an Iron Man Armor?!"

Another team member, "Hedgehog," squatted beside a tree root, silently hugging his gun tighter.

"Captain, I have a serious question."

"Speak."

"The seven of us, armed with rifles and grenades, are here to protect someone who can evaporate rocks with one hand."

"..."

"Is he protecting us, or are we protecting him?"

"..."

The entire squad fell into a collective silence.

...

Meanwhile.

Two ghostly figures had already silently infiltrated Mingzhu City.

One of them took out a long object wrapped tightly in oilcloth from an abandoned air-raid shelter.

Opening the oilcloth, it was unexpectedly a well-maintained American-made M16 assault rifle.

"To use a 'seed' planted in the nineties for a Chinese scientist, the higher-ups have really paid a heavy price this time."

"No choice." The other person's voice was hoarse, "This man named Lu Li is no longer just a threat."

"He is a living, moving, constantly miracle-creating... nuclear threat."