Courtyard House: Initial Donation of 50 Million

Stark Estate, top-floor private laboratory.

The cold, white lights of precision instruments illuminated the entire control panel, where metal robotic arms moved in an orderly fashion, and holographic projections floated in mid-air, displaying densely packed data on the armor and energy formulas. Following the previous forceful pressure from Congress and the military, the entire American leadership had relentlessly pressured Tony Stark. Public opinion attacks, industry audits, qualification inquiries, and supply chain negotiations piled up, attempting to use the heavy weight of the state apparatus to force this rebellious genius to bow down and hand over the core technologies of the Iron Man armor and the Arc Reactor.

But what frustrated all the politicians and military leaders was that their overwhelming pressure tactics were like punches hitting cotton, with little effect whatsoever on Tony.

Unbeknownst to many, Tony's willingness to confront the entire American military and political system head-on stemmed not only from his own genius and the sheer size of Stark Industries, but also from the complete awakening and unleashing of the Stark family's dormant heritage, which had been dormant for decades.

Howard Stark's family connections, Wall Street's top capital circles, and the hidden network of relationships cultivated over many years in the political arena were all fully activated and quietly put into operation during this period.

Those veteran members of Congress who had been clamoring for control over Stark technology were suddenly exposed overnight for long-standing tax loopholes, irregularities in campaign contributions, and shady dealings. Those high-ranking military officers who had frequently challenged Tony were reassigned to sinecure positions, placed under investigation, and stripped of their real power. Wall Street capital coordinated its efforts, precisely targeting the financial groups behind the arms monopoly, effectively thwarting the schemes of various forces to profit from suppressing Tony.

On the unseen battlefield of strategic maneuvering, the century-old heritage of the Stark family is laid bare.

These politicians and military forces, who only coveted cutting-edge technology and sought to reap the benefits without effort, finally realized that trying to control a top family that had been deeply rooted in the American military, capital, and political circles for decades was pure wishful thinking. The layers of pressure crumbled instantly; all sanctions, controls, and suppression measures against Tony proved ineffective. The forces coveting the Iron Man armor technology were helpless and could only passively lie low and endure in silence.

In the center of the laboratory, two figures stood side by side, intently gazing at the optimized model of the Mark III battle armor.

Having shed the shadow of despair, Dr. Ethan has now become Tony's most core and reliable research partner, and the only top scientist in the world who can keep up with Tony's thinking and resonate with his spirit.

In terms of boundless creativity, disruptive technological concepts, and forward-looking predictions of future technologies, Tony is unparalleled, a ceiling no one can match. But when it comes to precise implementation, engineering verification, material adaptation, stability optimization, and risk mitigation, Ethan is the epitome of perfection. His research foundation is solid and profound, his thinking rigorous and meticulous. He excels at transforming Tony's advanced, bold, and seemingly far-fetched ideas into mature technologies that are mass-producible, practical, and iterative.

Today, Ethan is a top engineer and research master, second only to Tony, and also a rare close friend of Tony.

Having endured kidnapping in the desert and facing life-or-death situations, the two have long since transcended a simple cooperative relationship. Tony is inherently rebellious and solitary, always disdaining to associate with the mediocre. No one has ever truly understood his initial passion for technology, his commitment to peace, and his aversion to the proliferation of weapons. Only Ethan knows his tenderness and bottom line, understands his resolute decision to shut down the weapons department, and agrees with his ideal of using technology to benefit humanity, rather than to create killing.

One is a genius and unrestrained, the other is calm and reliable. The two complement each other, live together in harmony, and become the most solid core pillar for the iterative upgrade of the Iron Man armor.

"The cryogenic endurance defect of the Mark III has been completely fixed, the energy conversion efficiency of the Arc Reactor has been improved by another seven percentage points, and its operational stability has fully met the standards."

Ethan stared at the holographic data, his tone calm and gentle, his eyes filled with sincere admiration, "Tony, your energy architecture design has completely overturned our understanding of physics in this era. This is technology of the future."

Tony twirled a precision screwdriver between his fingers, leaning against the control panel, a smug, irritating smile playing on his lips. He said casually, "Not bad. At least you don't have to explain the basic logic from beginning to end, saving me a lot of breath. With the engineers at the company, they'd be stuck on just the energy transfer section for half a month."

Having gone through life and death together and worked side by side on research and development, Tony, who is usually sharp-tongued and outspoken, has long since fully recognized and genuinely trusted Ethan. However, he is used to expressing his affirmation in a tough way and never speaks softly or directly.

Meanwhile, Stark Industries' industrial transformation is shocking the entire United States and even the world.

Previously, Tony publicly announced the permanent closure of the weapons manufacturing division, abandoning the century-old military industry, which directly led to a precipitous drop in Stark Industries' stock price. Wall Street investment banks were collectively pessimistic, and countless financial media outlets predicted that the Stark empire was about to come to an end and that the former military giant would eventually decline.

But everyone underestimated Tony's ambition and vision, as well as the true value of the Arc Reactor.

With Ethan's full assistance and dual technical support, Stark Industries has officially entered the civilian clean energy and power industry by relying on its small arc reactor technology.

Compared to traditional thermal power, hydropower, and nuclear power technologies of this era, Ark Clean Energy has overwhelming advantages: zero pollution, zero emissions, maximum safety, extremely low energy consumption, long-lasting operation, and unparalleled stability, completely avoiding all the drawbacks of nuclear power leakage, thermal power pollution, and hydropower limitation due to terrain.

In just a few months, Stark Clean Energy power plants have been launched in major cities across the United States, and small-scale residential power generation equipment has been widely deployed. With its absolute technological monopoly, safety advantages, and cost-effectiveness advantages, it has rapidly seized the global electricity market.

The former top military industrial giant has perfectly transformed into a world-leading clean energy leader, firmly controlling the energy lifeline of the new era.

When the news spread, Wall Street was in an uproar.

Stark Industries' stock price, which had been plummeting, experienced an epic surge, soaring against the trend and breaking through historical peaks. This not only completely reversed the losses from closing the weapons division, but also propelled Stark Industries' business size and industry status to unprecedented new heights.

Those capitalists and industry rivals who were waiting for Stark to decline were all dumbfounded and finally understood Tony's strategy: abandoning the bloody profits from weapons and embracing the infinitely vast and world-benefiting future of clean energy.

The military and political factions, having failed in their attempts to seize power and watching helplessly as Tony grew stronger, felt increasingly resentful and jealous, yet dared not directly confront him due to the Stark family's immense influence. Left with no other option, the US military and Congress secretly reached a consensus, channeling all resources and support into Tony's arch-rival—Hammer Industries.

Justin Hammer, the owner of Hammer Industries, is ambitious, opportunistic, narrow-minded, and short-sighted. He lives in Stark's shadow for many years and is insanely jealous of Tony's genius and industry status.

After receiving huge funding, technical support, and resources from the military, Hammer became arrogant and launched a high-profile project to develop individual combat armor, claiming that he would create a steel armor that surpasses the Mark III, completely crush Stark, and reach the top of the US military industry.

Not only in the United States, but also in other major powers and military giants around the world, after learning of the existence and terrifying combat power of individual combat armor, have followed suit and launched their own domestic individual combat armor development programs. They have mobilized the entire nation and focused their efforts on achieving this goal, attempting to replicate or even surpass Tony Stark's Iron Man armor technology and seize the commanding heights of future individual combat.

No matter how much money, talent, and resources countries poured into it, the final result was always the same – complete failure.

Iron Man suits may seem like just mechanically assembled, power-driven exoskeleton equipment, but their core Ark energy system, micro-precision transmission structure, intelligent balance system, alloy proportioning process, and human-machine interaction logic are all unique, genius-level designs by Tony.

Without a disruptive energy core, without a wildly imaginative overall architectural concept, and without extremely precise engineering implementation capabilities, all imitations are merely poor imitations.

The first-generation individual armor developed by various countries were either cumbersome and slow, with extremely high energy consumption and poor endurance, or had unstable power, were prone to failure, had weak protection, and even posed fatal risks of self-destruction and shutdown. No matter how much they were optimized and iterated, they were far from reaching the overall level of the Mark III Iron Man armor, and could not even reach 70% of its combat capability.

As night deepened, the door to the manor laboratory was gently pushed open.

Colonel Rhodes, dressed in military uniform and looking exhausted, walked in slowly. As one of Tony's few close friends, he was in the core of the military and was the first to know all the inside stories and see the truth of the power struggle between the parties.

"Tony, the situation isn't looking good." Rhodes sighed, his tone tinged with helplessness. "The military has given Hammer Industries an unlimited R&D budget, mobilized a large number of retired military experts to tackle the problem head-on, and risked the military's reputation to replicate your armor. In addition, military industrial teams in Europe, Russia, and island nations have all started individual armor projects, and quite a few rough imitation prototypes have already appeared on the market."

Rhodes placed a thick stack of classified internal reports on the console. The reports detailed Hammer Industries' research and development progress, the defects of the armor copied by various countries, and the military's covert plans. Every word was a scheme to contain Tony.

Tony casually picked up the report, glanced at it, and tossed it back onto the table with a sneer after only flipping through three pages. He tapped the cold metal control panel with his fingertips, his tone full of nonchalant mockery: "Oh? Hammer finally brought out his cobbled-together shoddy plan? I thought he was just going to brag at press conferences and sell cheap rifles."

He swirled the iced coffee beside him, his usual arrogance and disdain evident in his eyes, without a trace of seriousness: "Those old foxes in the military really need to use their brains—armor isn't something you can just weld a few steel plates and install a couple of thrusters. The energy ratio of the miniature arc reactor, the dynamic balance algorithm for high-speed flight, the composition ratio of the gold-titanium alloy—none of these can be achieved by simply throwing money at it."

"You think you can replicate my technology by just throwing money and manpower at it?" Tony scoffed, his tone flippant and irritating. "Let them tinker away. By the time Hammer builds a prototype that can fly smoothly for three minutes without disintegrating in mid-air, my Mark series will already be in its tenth generation. Trying to ride my coattails? They might not even be able to catch up with my hot exhaust fumes."

Rhodes watched his old friend's usual arrogant and infuriating demeanor, shook his head helplessly, but knew perfectly well that Tony's genius was unparalleled and an unrepeatable miracle. His words might have been a bit arrogant, but every single one was true.

After finishing all the research and development work and hearing the inside stories from all sides brought by Rhodes, Tony shed his sharp edge as a scientific genius, walked out of the laboratory, and came to the open lawn of the manor.

The evening breeze was cool, and the moonlight was bright.

Following the Eastern martial arts mental techniques taught by Wang Huanbo, he firmly planted himself in a horse stance, lowered his shoulders and elbows, and regulated his breathing.

After a period of consistent practice, Tony has shed his initial awkwardness and confusion and has completely mastered the basics.

My previously restless and impatient temperament gradually calmed down through daily practice of stance training and breathing exercises. My blood and energy flowed more smoothly throughout my body, and my physical endurance, coordination, and reaction speed all showed visible improvement. The fatigue and strain from long hours of research and development in the past completely disappeared, and my energy and spirit became increasingly abundant.

He clearly felt that this ancient martial art originating from the East, though seemingly simple and unadorned, contained the ultimate wisdom of the human body, which not only strengthened the body but also honed the mind and stabilized the spirit.

At this moment, the evening breeze swept across the lawn, and the genius stood under the moonlight.

Domestically, he has Ethan by his side, cultivates himself through martial arts, and his businesses are booming; internationally, he has his family backing him up, capital protection, and overwhelming technological dominance.

Despite the changing winds, the bandwagon effect, and the presence of formidable enemies, Tony Stark remained steadfast, standing proudly at the pinnacle of his era.