Chapter 1730 - It's All the Tycoon's Fault

Listening to Dr. Hansen, both Luke and Tony got strange expressions on their faces.

By the time she was done, Luke had already been staring at the tycoon with a complicated expression for a long while. He finally said, "Hm… this is why you need to be a decent person."

Tony's expression changed, and he cursed several seconds later. "F*ck you!"

As for who the "you" referred to, that was a matter of opinion.

What made them react this way was Dr. Hansen's explanation of Killian's love-hate relationship with Tony.

It was 1999 in Bern, Switzerland, on Christmas Eve. Tony slept with Dr. Hansen, and also took a look at her research project – Project Extremis.

Using dendritic cells to recode the human body could allow a person to " regrow" missing parts, like a plant.

After sleeping with Dr. Hansen, Tony casually wrote down an equation after a flash of inspiration, solved a key problem with Project Extremis, and left.

This was nothing more than a hookup more than ten years ago, when he had still been fooling around.

Thus, Tony completely forgot that he had maliciously stood someone up before he returned to his room with Dr. Hansen.

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It was none other than Killian.

Killian spent the night in the cold wind on the rooftop waiting for his idol, Tony Stark, before he fell into deep despair.

But he then inadvertently found out about Dr. Hansen's Project Extremis, struck a deal with her, and then looked for investments for the project.

Killian succeeded, which was why he now had AIM.

But in a sense, it wasn't a complete success.

Project Extremis still wasn't perfect, and Dr. Hansen couldn't resolve the problem with the virus.

A person injected with the Extremis virus might inexplicably lose control and regenerate swiftly until they exploded.

This was the truth behind the explosions which Tony had investigated.

They hadn't died from anything else; they were living bombs that could explode at any time.

Dr. Hansen had gone to Tony because she wanted Tony to help fix the flaws in the virus.

But unlike a researcher like her, Killian's feelings about the tycoon were engraved into his bones, and he simply played it tough; he wanted to use Pepper to force Tony to perfect the virus.

Even if his plan failed, he would kill Tony.

According to Dr. Hansen, those who exploded easily were just at the first stage, and couldn't be considered a success.

At the second stage, the explosions basically didn't happen, and could be considered a success.

Killian, on the other hand, was at the third stage. Not only did he not self-destruct, he also had perfect control over the virus.

For Killian, who had been lame back then, this was already a perfect outcome.

Furthermore, after the SHIELD incident in D.C., it seemed he had found a bigger patron, and AIM got plenty of funding and manpower.

With all this support, Dr. Hansen created a suppressant which could suppress the explosive element of the virus to a certain extent.

Thus, whether or not Killian could get a solution out of the tycoon, he still wouldn't let him live.

In any case, there were so many people with disabilities in the world; there were enough potential targets to choose from. At most, they could use human lives to increase the chances of success.

That was the difference between R&D scientists and capitalists.

Dr. Hansen was pursuing a perfect product that would go down in history.

Killian, on the other hand, only needed a product that suited his needs. If there were flaws, it would conversely make it easier for him to control his subordinates.

As long as people who had been injected with the Extremis virus couldn't be sure if they would explode or not, Killian, who had the suppressant, could control them.

Thus, this was all completely Tony's fault.

Without the key equation he had left behind, Dr. Hansen wouldn't have been able to create an experimental Extremis virus in such a short period of time.

If he hadn't stood Killian up, the man might not have run into Dr. Hansen.

Even if they had met, Killian might not necessarily have waited for the virus to be completed.

As for Killian finding fault with Tony, there was nothing to say about that.

Based on Dr. Hansen's description of Killian's personality, he would have still dealt with Tony even if Tony had paid attention to him back then.

Capitalists weren't about feelings, but interests.

They could turn against each other over power and money, let alone a good project like Project Extremis.

After figuring out what was going on, Luke had Tony leave before he put the two androids that were in the kitchen back into Space 1.

Then, he sedated Dr. Hansen and put her in Space 2.

This was to protect her.

Who knew if Killian would silence her?

He wasn't a science nerd like Dr. Hansen, and wasn't that naive.

Given the technology that Killian currently had, Dr. Hansen was the biggest weakness in Project Extremis.

If she kept her head down, she could continue being a researcher.

But if she jumped ship, she would be able to create a second AIM in a matter of minutes, and her suppressant would pose a huge danger to Killian.

Not to mention, she had come to let Tony know what was going on.

If Killian really caught her, she would either be locked up as a research slave for the rest of her life or shot dead to avoid future trouble.

After settling Dr. Hansen down, Luke drove Tony back to the seaside villa.

Stark Industries' engineering team had already dug out the basement. Tony had to find his armor and take Luke to Killian.

Ten minutes later, a sports car drove to a small farm on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Opening the door of an old warehouse on the farm, Tony looked inside and couldn't help but exclaim, "Are you kidding me?"

That was because there was actually a fighter plane parked in this very old farm warehouse.

Tony could tell at a glance that it was a Quinjet.

However, from its various components, the fighter plane wasn't brand new, but was a modified secondhand model.

Tony got out and walked into the warehouse. "You left it here?"

Luke drove the sports car into the warehouse and parked on the side. "Why not? In any case, it's a secondhand product from Nick Fury's clearance sale. Do I need to hire dozens of service technicians for it?"

Tony was lost for words.

Of course he wouldn't, since he looked down on secondhand products like these.

Of course, Luke wouldn't tell him that he had thrown the plane into this safe house in passing.

It had been in his inventory all this time, and he hadn't needed to think about daily maintenance.

They got into the fighter plane, and Luke activated the stealth function and left the warehouse in hover mode.

The massive wind pressure was too much for the old warehouse. As soon as the fighter plane took off, it collapsed.

Tony: "…Let me guess. The bigshot helped you dump it here, right?"

Luke chuckled. "Hehe."

Amidst Luke's warm laughter, the Quinjet quickly took off, switched to cruise mode, and flew toward Miami, Florida.

…

Miami in July would suit Selina to a tee.

The sun was bright and the temperature often reached 25 to 32 degrees Celsius, which made anyone who came here feel extremely "warm."

Tony looked away from the sleek girls on the beach and was a little curious. "Do… you usually carry out missions like this?"

Luke calmly sailed the yacht in the direction of their target. "Otherwise? If I flew around in armor like you every day, I would be annoyed to death."

Tony was lost for words.

For someone who would rather fly a Quinjet over than use a suit for the sake of secrecy, there was really nothing to say.

This paranoia was truly a hopeless case.