Marvel: I am Iron Man

Having defeated Ivan Vanko and finished packing, Tony could finally cross one item off his to-do list.

Jarvis: "Congratulations, sir. It looks like your list of enemies has shrunk."

"It's not time to celebrate yet, Jarvis. There's still a lot to do, and the Vanke thing isn't over yet." Tony shook his head.

He has essentially booked the entire hotel, and there are no unauthorized personnel inside. Furthermore, he has completely soundproofed and blocked all signals from entering his room, so no one outside knows what has happened there.

Besides, it doesn't really matter even if someone saw it. Tony has already recorded the battle with his armor, and the video clearly proves that Ivan Vanko came with murderous intent, and that Ivan made the first move.

So even if the fight became known, Tony had everything he could have used to prove that he—or, judging from the video, that the “Stark bodyguard” in Iron Man armor—was acting in complete and legitimate self-defense.

However, the video evidence was only a precautionary measure; Tony didn't want anyone to know what happened here tonight.

In fact, booking the hotel in a high-profile manner and luring Ivan into the trap were just Plan A that Tony devised for this trip.

He put himself in Ivan's shoes and thought that if he could find out Stark's address in advance through the media, he probably wouldn't choose to strike on the day of the race like in the movie, but rather in the middle of the night when the other party was completely unprepared.

Of course, this plan was just a trial run. Even if Ivan didn't take the bait, there wouldn't be any loss... well, apart from spending a lot of money, it was practically no loss for Tony's financial resources.

He also prepared Plan B and Plan C, including contingency plans for how to deal with Ivan if he didn't take the bait and the match was officially held.

It seems that none of them are needed now.

If possible, Tony would actually like to take down Ivan before the game officially begins.

Because if he were to fight Ivan again in a competition like in the movies, the Iron Man armor would likely be witnessed by the public in public.

But Tony felt that compared to the original character in the movie, besides the advantage of being able to predict the future, another advantage he could call was his low profile.

He didn't claim to be Iron Man at the press conference, and even the Obadiah incident was resolved privately, so the final battle with "Iron Monger" in the city streets in the movie "Iron Man 1" never happened.

So, apart from S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been paying attention to him since Tony created the Mark I and emerged from the Middle Eastern cave, no one else knows about the existence of "Iron Man".

Tony hopes to continue doing this.

As long as his enemies remain unaware of the armor's existence, he can maintain an informational advantage. The enemy will have no idea what is targeting them.

Jarvis suggested, "Perhaps you could take a break. I've noticed you've been very tense; maybe this trip to Monaco can help you relax."

"That's too extravagant, Jarvis. Our enemies won't stop while I'm on vacation." Tony shook his head. "Cancel the trip, let's go back tonight."

Jarvis: "You mean you booked this entire hotel, made a big announcement about attending the Monaco Grand Prix, but were planning to leave the night before the opening ceremony?"

"Yeah, Ja, don't sound so surprising. You should know I have absolutely no interest in racing or anything like that," Tony said.

He came here for Ivan, and now that his mission is complete, he's naturally ready to leave.

Jarvis joked, "You're the boss, that's what you say."

While this behavior might once again highlight Tony Stark's unpredictable nature, his public image has always been pretty much the same, so it doesn't really matter. At most, it will only make people more envious of his incredible spending power at this hotel, despite his inability to control his own finances.

After delegating the task of explaining his inability to attend to the racing organizers to his team, Tony boarded his private jet that very night and flew back to New York.

I believe Stark's professional team will, as always, skillfully devise the excuse that "Mr. Stark has urgent business to attend to."

Tony took a nap on the plane and was fully refreshed when he returned to his accommodation, ready to continue his work.

First and foremost is the issue of Ivan Vanko's legacy.

Tony found an encrypted phone among Ivan Vanko's belongings and extracted the SIM card from it.

After cracking the code, Tony used the card to track the carrier's base station information and pinpointed a street in Russia.

He then used his connections and money to contact the Russian police in the nearby area and sent them a photo of Ivan Vanko in an attempt to find his address.

Once the scope has been narrowed down to a specific neighborhood, things become much easier.

Ivan Vanko could live in anonymity and keep a low profile, but it was impossible for him to remain in his neighborhood for over a decade without ever leaving. Someone in the neighborhood must have seen him and knew where he lived.

Thus, Detective Iron Man successfully tracked down Ivan's residence.

Tony chose a time in the early morning, put on his newly completed Mark VI armor, activated stealth mode, and flew directly to Russia, where he found Ivan's residence.

Further structural scanning revealed that the building had a hidden basement.

Tony broke through the floor and descended underground, where, unsurprisingly, he discovered Ivan's makeshift laboratory in the basement of the old, dilapidated house.

These were all pieces of equipment that Ivan had pieced together over the years, much of it probably stolen. Although they were old and worn, they were still usable.

Tony found the main computer that Ivan had left there.

He extended his right hand, and the armor plates automatically popped open, revealing a USB cable that connected to Ivan's work computer.

"Jarvis, download all the data from this computer," Tony said. "Take the data back; the device will have to be physically destroyed later."

Jarvis: "Of course, sir."

Jarvis was simultaneously downloading and analyzing the data. As an artificial intelligence, it possessed an astonishing information processing speed, able to quickly browse and filter out information it deemed important and present it to its owner.

Just two seconds later, a message pop-up appeared on Tony's screen.

"There's good news and bad news, sir," Jarvis said.

Tony sighed. "Of course there has to be bad news... Just tell me briefly, Jarvis."

Jarvis: "The good news is, this is indeed where Ivan Vanko stored the blueprints for the Arc Reactor. All we need to do is destroy the blueprints and all the data here."

Tony: "And the bad news?"

"The bad news is, besides the blueprints, I also found a transaction record, sir. Ivan Vanko seems to have a premonition that he might fail, so he prepared a backup plan."

Jarvis said, displaying the new information interface on the side of Tony's built-in display.

"He sold the blueprints for the arc reactor to someone else."