A Kick That Levels the Forest
After spending my time reading comic books and such, I realized this was a modern-world setting. Using my hacking skills, I quietly amassed a fortune without getting caught. The total came to a whopping 10 billion dollars! With that kind of money, I could enjoy the story without any worries.
Time passed, and eventually the breaking news broke: Tony Stark had been kidnapped. His life or death was unconfirmed. All sorts of reports started flooding in. Not long after, Tony barely escaped and began building his suit in the basement workshop of his home. I watched from afar as he tested it, flew around the city, nearly crashed, and so on—right up until the day of his battle with Obadiah.
On the day of the fight, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Pepper were fleeing from the massive Iron Suit known as Iron Monger. Obadiah, piloting the suit, caught up to Pepper and aimed the weapon on his arm at her.
"Where do you think you're going? As of this moment, you're fired."
"Stane!!"
At that moment, Iron Man flew in, slammed into Obadiah, and sent him crashing through the floor and out onto the road. The fight between the two continued.
"Jarvis! Focus all power into the chest!"
Tony gathered energy into the Arc Reactor in his chest and fired a Unibeam at Obadiah.
"Fweeeeee—BOOM!!"
Obadiah was blasted away by the Repulsors but got back up, used the thrusters on his feet to close in on Tony at high speed, grabbed a passing motorcycle, and swung it at him.
"Ugh!"
Obadiah approached the groaning Tony, kicked him, grabbed the fallen hero, lifted him high, and slammed him into the ground.
"For thirty years I've been cleaning up after you! This company was built with my own two hands! No one can stop me!"
With those words, Obadiah hurled Tony toward a bus. As Tony lay embedded in the vehicle, Obadiah aimed the missiles built into Iron Monger at him.
"Especially you!"
Ziiing! Clack! Beep~~~~~ BOOM!!!
CRASH!!!!
The bus exploded from the missile impact, sending Tony flying into the sky. At that instant, Tony activated his Iron Man suit's thrusters and soared upward. Obadiah, seeing this, sneered.
"Impressive! You've upgraded the armor. But so have I!"
Ziiing!
Thrusters fired from Iron Monger's feet as well, and Obadiah rocketed after Tony. Recalling the accident during his test flight, Tony flew even higher. Obadiah's Iron Monger followed, but at high altitude the suit froze over and its systems shut down—unlike the perfectly fine Iron Man. Obadiah plummeted. Tony's output was also weakening, so he used short bursts of thrust to slow his descent and landed safely.
Thinking it was over, Tony tried to remove the suit, knowing the Arc Reactor's power was nearly depleted. Just then Obadiah reappeared and swung a fist at him. I used Renewed Taekwondo [Homi Hook] to knock the incoming arm aside, then followed up with Renewed Taekwondo [Triple Spinning Axe]—kicking the Iron Monger's face from left, right, and behind in rapid succession. The helmet of the suit burst apart from the impact. The shock knocked Obadiah unconscious; he collapsed backward as the ceiling caved in and fell on top of him. Beneath it was a massive Arc Reactor, which exploded from the impact of Iron Monger's fall.
In that moment, I grabbed Tony and escaped outside. Once we were safely out, Pepper ran over and hugged him. After calming down, she pulled away from Tony and looked at me with a dazed expression.
"Thanks for the help, but who are you? Your mask covers your face, but from your hair you look Asian. Was that ninja martial arts?"
"Ninja...? I'm Korean. What I used was Taekwondo."
"Really? Does learning that martial art give you monstrous strength like yours?"
"It'll make you pretty strong. Not quite at my level, though."
"Anyway, thanks, Asian friend! If you have time, come visit my place sometime."
"See you later, Tony! Pepper!"
Tony clicked his tongue as I vanished.
"So he took the helmet off. I wanted to analyze that guy's movements."
Beep! Beep!
The sirens of police cars and fire trucks finally echoed in the distance. Agent Phil of S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived, said he'd handle the cleanup, and sent Tony and Pepper home.
Back at my place, I jumped onto the bed.
"He'll probably be a bit wary, but for a first impression, that wasn't bad, right?"
"If I visit Tony's house later, maybe I can give him a hint about a new Arc Reactor?"
Seeing a suit even cooler than I'd imagined made me greedy. I figured having one wouldn't hurt, so I planned to hack one and steal it if the chance came.
The next day, I watched the news where Tony made his shocking "I am Iron Man" announcement and walked off. I considered visiting his house.
"But I don't know the address. Should I go to the company?"
I stopped by Burger King, bought a cheeseburger, stored it in my inventory, took a taxi, and headed to the address the viewers had given me.
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
Tony didn't answer, but Jarvis's voice came through.
"Mr. Stark is currently out. Please come back another time."
Lots of reporters must have visited. Using Insight, I detected someone moving deep inside the house and spoke to Jarvis.
"Jarvis. I know Tony's home right now, so tell him to open the door. Also let him know I was invited yesterday."
A moment later the door opened and a surprised Tony Stark stepped out. I handed him the cheeseburger I'd taken from my inventory.
"Huh? Thanks for the burger. Didn't expect you to show up the very next day after the invitation, though. Asian friend!"
"I was bored. And my name isn't 'Asian friend'—it's Woojin."
"Woojin? Sounds like a moan or something. I'll just call you Jin. Come on in, friend—welcome!"
So I entered Tony's house and looked around. While eating his hamburger, Tony stared at me intently.
"You can ask if you have any questions."
"Then did you inject some special drug? Use chakra-like energy? Are you a special agent from the Korean military? A cyborg? Or—"
"W-wait! Slow down with the questions. You're not rapping—breathe while you talk."
"Ahem. I just have a lot of questions."
"First off, you got almost everything wrong. Well, everything except one."
"So you did get the Super Soldier Serum?"
"I didn't get anything like that! Chakra? Mana? Internal energy? I have something similar and can use it."
"Huh?? I was joking when I said that. So that stuff actually exists? How? Can you see it with your eyes?"
"If I show you, this house will get destroyed, you know?"
"That strong? Hmm... Friend, got time?"
"Yeah... not really anything else to do."
"Perfect. Let's go have some fun, friend."
He took me straight to the airport. I gave him a dumbfounded look at the sudden situation.
"Where are we going right now??"
"To see this chakra or mana or whatever power you have."
Thinking he really lived life on a whim, I shook my head. Once seated, Tony looked at me seriously.
"Friend... do you drink?"
Sticky music played as the previously prim flight attendants danced sexily around poles, half-undressed. One of them caught my eye and I considered making a move, but I just watched and drank while observing Tony, who was also drinking and chatting. In my heart I thought it was just eye candy and kept drinking.
We arrived at the runway of some island. Apparently this island was also Tony's private property. Damn, I made some money through hacking too, but this guy's on a whole different level. We drove inside the island and arrived at a large building that looked similar to the Avengers base from the movies.
"Is it okay to show it here?"
"Yeah, aim toward that empty lot over there. Even if it's a building we don't use much, it'd be a waste if it got destroyed."
"I'll try my best."
I stood still for a moment, wondering what to show him. The Death God Art wasn't really suitable for a demonstration without an opponent, so I decided on Renewed Taekwondo. There was one technique perfect for showing off.
Renewed Taekwondo [True Spinning Axe]
THUD! KWA-GWA-GWA-GWANG!!!!!!
With my left foot planted on the ground, I spun my waist and unleashed the True Spinning Axe. The forest and trees inside the island vanished, and the ground was scorched as if a giant had swept through it.
Tony, watching from the side, couldn't close his mouth in shock and dropped the glass in his hand.
"Uh... uh... Friend, I didn't say anything to offend you, did I?"
I chuckled at Tony's joke. Recalling the original Jin Tae-jin's True Spinning Axe, I realized my stats hadn't reached the level of Jin Mori or Grandpa Jin Tae-jin. Of course—if it were Grandpa Jin Tae-jin, a single kick would change the map. Still, even though I hadn't blown up the entire island, in the MCU this level should mean no one short of Thanos could be my opponent.
Staring at the devastation I'd created, Tony realized he had far more cleanup to deal with than expected. He started making calls everywhere while I chatted with the viewers in the meantime.
"From using True Spinning Axe just now, I feel like you need at least all stats at S-rank to reach the original's power level."
Once Tony finished his calls, I asked him to take me home, and we returned to New York.
"In a few months Iron Man 2 will start and Captain America will wake up, right?"
"Then during Iron Man 2 I should hack a few Hammer Drones and stash them away. Someday I'll need them."
After making my plan to steal drones amid the chaos, I waited for the Iron Man 2 timeline to arrive.