Under the resentful gazes of the workers, Daniel strode confidently towards the elevator. The guards, seeing him with Stane's face, naturally didn't dare to question or stop him, allowing him to swipe his access card and enter the elevator unimpeded.
With Stane's identity providing perfect cover, Daniel had a smooth journey and quickly arrived at Tony's luxurious office.
He walked straight to the desk, opened the computer, and inserted the silver USB drive Tony had given him into the host port.
A prompt immediately appeared on the screen.
"Cracking security protocol."
"Cracking successful, searching for hidden drives."
Soon, a deeply encrypted hidden drive was unlocked, and a large number of confidential files popped up.
One video was particularly conspicuous; it was footage of Tony being kidnapped by Terrorists in the Middle East.
According to the narration in the video, the mastermind was none other than Tony's uncle, Stane. He had not only been involved in long-term arms dealings with Terrorists but had also directly orchestrated the attack on Tony.
"Good heavens, is this the unpretentious workplace struggle of America?"
Daniel exclaimed, finding it brilliant, but even more brilliant things were yet to come.
Stane, by some unknown means, had managed to collect the Mark I wreckage created in the Middle East and secretly mobilized Stark Industries' top engineering team to reverse-engineer it, with the goal of building a steel armor named 'Iron Monger'!
From the project progress and blueprints in the files, the development of this steel armor was nearing completion.
After browsing through them, Daniel reported it to Fury.
Fury was silent for a moment, then said seriously, "The strategic significance and potential threat of steel armor technology are too great. We absolutely cannot let it fall into the hands of an ambitious person like Stane, or any other force with ulterior motives. I will immediately dispatch Coulson to lead a team to Stane's research and development factory. S.H.I.E.L.D. will take over and protect the facility and all its technology."
As for the place of protection, although Fury didn't explicitly say it, his intention was clear: to bring it back to S.H.I.E.L.D.!
Nowhere was safer than S.H.I.E.L.D.!
Whether others believed this or not, Daniel certainly did, after all, HYDRA was not to be trifled with either.
Following Fury's instructions, Daniel copied all the hidden files twice, then pulled out the USB drive and left the office.
As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a sexy woman in office attire walking towards him.
"Mr. Stane, I heard you're back. There's an urgent appropriation request for an important research project here that needs your signature and approval."
Daniel, seeing her attire, guessed she might be Stane's assistant. He took the document she handed him and looked at it.
Good heavens, a full fifty million U.S. dollars.
"Ahem!"
Daniel said sternly with a straight face, "This research project is temporarily shelved. Transfer all the money to this account; I have a new project that needs funding even more."
As he spoke, he pulled out paper and pen, quickly wrote down his bank card number, and handed it to the beautiful assistant.
The beautiful assistant was clearly stunned, and asked doubtfully, "Shelved? Mr. Stane, this project has a very high priority. What is your new project then?"
"Research into hair growth technology."
"...Okay."
The beautiful assistant looked at Daniel's bald head and understood completely. She then said, "Oh, right, you haven't forgotten about tonight, have you?"
"What about tonight?"
"Our date, of course. Didn't we agree to have dinner together tonight?"
The sexy woman licked her lips, revealing a seductive expression, clearly implying that tonight's meal was a lavish seafood feast.
Daniel inwardly exclaimed, "Good heavens!"
Did the executives of Stark Industries have some special tradition? Why did they all like to have office romances with their female assistants?
Daniel said perfunctorily, "Another day. My wife is coming home tonight."
"You're lying! Mom clearly told me she's on vacation in Hawaii this week!"
"???"
Is your circle really that chaotic?
After a great deal of effort, Daniel finally shook off Stane's female assistant, or rather, his daughter.
Afterward, he returned to Tony's seaside mansion.
"Jarvis, open the door!" Daniel arrived at the mansion gate and habitually called out.
However, Jarvis did not respond.
Daniel immediately felt something was amiss and quickly pulled out a diamond pickaxe from his game inventory, striking the nearby wall several times.
The hard wall shattered like tofu before the diamond pickaxe, instantly creating a square hole.
Daniel climbed through the hole into the hall and saw a bloodless figure crawling dimly on the ground, his chest hollow, which was quite frightening.
"Holy crap, Kayako?" Daniel was startled.
The figure on the ground heard the sound and weakly spoke: "It's... it's me... hurry... help me get the arc reactor from the lab..."
"Tony?"
Daniel recognized the voice: "Alright, wait for me."
He immediately used the diamond pickaxe to break through the floor and jumped directly into the laboratory below.
Soon, he found the old-style Arc Reactor that Tony had initially used, immediately returned the way he came, and jumped back into the living room through the hole.
"Here! Catch!" Daniel tossed the arc reactor to Tony.
Tony caught it with his last ounce of strength, as if grasping a lifeline, and with trembling hands, pressed the arc reactor into the hollow in his chest.
Light shone from his chest once more, and a trace of color finally returned to Tony's pale face. His breathing gradually steadied, and he collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air, his clothes soaked with cold sweat.
"Phew... Thanks, buddy, you saved my life again." Tony said gratefully.
"No big deal."
Daniel waved his hand dismissively and asked curiously, "By the way, how did you get into this ghostly state? Where's your arc reactor?"
Tony's eyes instantly turned cold and angry, and he gnashed his teeth, saying, "It was Stane! He broke into my house and stole my new arc reactor!"
Daniel then asked, "Then why didn't you put on your armor?"
"I didn't have time."
A hint of embarrassment flashed across Tony's face. This was the second time he had been attacked without wearing his steel armor.
Thinking of this, he said bitterly, "Damn it! I'll develop an armor that can be worn close to the body and activated at any time, sooner or later!"
"Perfect, I've also completed your mission."
Daniel pulled out the silver USB drive and threw it onto Tony: "Everything was done by Stane, including instigating the Terrorists to kidnap you. The evidence is all in there."
"Mission 'Stark Industries' Insider' settlement complete!"
"Reward obtained: Experience Points +500, Tony's Favorability +10, Item 'Honesty Beanbag'"
"Item: Honesty Beanbag (After eating the Honesty Beanbag, you will uncontrollably speak the truth for one minute)"
"That bastard! I'll make him pay!"
Tony took the USB drive, his face showing uncontrollable rage.
He immediately reactivated the Jarvis system that Stane had shut down, then struggled to his feet and quickly walked to the underground laboratory, preparing to don his Mark III armor.
At the same time, the system's voice rang in Daniel's mind.
"Player, please note, the BOSS event has officially begun!"
"Objective: Defeat 'Iron Monger' Obadiah Stane!"
"Reward: Depends on the damage dealt to the BOSS by the player. The higher the damage, the richer the reward!"
"BOSS event!?"
Daniel's eyes lit up, and he immediately became excited.
Having played this game for so long, and fought so many minor enemies, was he finally going to face a true BOSS battle?