1 Chapter 1: Prologue and The Protagonist

At 7.30 AM, with a light white mist still hanging over the Potomac River, Ethan, wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, paddled hard in his rented rubber boat. The mist drenched his clothes, but he was unaware of it.

After an hour or so of paddling, the white mist cleared completely before Ethan slowly paddled his kayak to the shore and then carried it to the shop a short distance away.

"No more paddling, Mr Hunt?" The gym owner's wife leaned over the counter and smiled as she watched Ethan walk into the shop and place the kayak into the empty space.

"Yeah, time to get to work, after all, you can't feed your stomach with just exercise!" Ethan laughed and walked into the locker room next door.

"I can feed you just fine!" The owner's wife whispered as she looked at Ethan's back.

"Feed me?" In the locker room, Ethan had a smile. The owner's rental shop could rent out hundreds of kayaks a day, and at $10 for 45 minutes, the income could be thousands of dollars a day, and during the tourist season it could be over $10,000, which sounded like a lot, but this is not some willy dilly place. It is Washington DC, the heart of the United States of America, though not as expensive as New York, the cost of living was still very high, so the owner's wife's income comes down to just a middle-class person in a year.

Taking off his damp short sleeves, Ethan looked at himself in the mirror topless, how long had it been? Over twenty years, he'd forgotten what he once looked like.

After standing frozen in place for over ten seconds, Ethan responded by looking at his toned body in the mirror, then smiled, pulled a towel from his locker and headed for the bathroom. Ten minutes later, Ethan, dressed in a straight suit and carrying a large bag, walked out of the changing room left saying goodbye; he was a regular customer of the shop so the charges were settled quarterly.

Walking out of the shop, Ethan stood, looking at the road for a short while before a black Mercedes pulled up to the curb and a slender brunette jumped out of the passenger side, wearing a white shirt and white suit on top and an equally white straight sheath skirt on the bottom half, she skilfully opened the back door for Ethan to get in while she herself took the bag.

"Morning, boss!"

"Good morning, Kate!"

"Got anything planned for today?" Ethan asked after getting into the car and taking the mineral water Kate handed over.

"Just two things in total, at 9.30 you're meeting with Colonel Rhodes from the Air Force, he's here to press us on that drone order with the Air Force, and then at 3.00 pm the first anniversary of the rebuilding of the new city of Baghdad, you're giving a speech!"

"A year since the new Baghdad was built? That's a lot of time!" Ethan was a little surprised.

"It's all thanks to you!" The female secretary's complimented.

"No, it belongs to each and every one of us!" Ethan leaned back in his leather seat, his eyes full of memories, how time flies!

The Mercedes drove across Pennsylvania Avenue and finally slowed down in front of a building that was only about thirty storeys high, before turning into an underground car parking lot to the side.

In the middle of the building was a large string of black letters, ATLAS, with the letter A being the largest and red in colour.

Atlas, in Greek mythology, was a god from the Titan race, punished by Zeus for holding up the heavens on his shoulders, hence Atlas Corporation was also known to outsiders as the Titan Corporation, and Ethan himself felt that Titan was a better name than Atlas.

Unlike most groups that have their headquarters in New York or Los Angeles, Atlas is headquartered in Washington, D.C. One of the big reasons for this is due to the people that they do business with.

As a committed, acting security contractor and defence services company, Ethan's biggest clients are the US Department of Defense and the US Joint Special Operations Command and, of course, the occasional National Guard, so it is much more convenient to be in Washington than in New York.

After walking into his office, Ethan first brewed himself a cup of protein powder and took a long, refreshing sip before sitting leisurely back down at his computer, mousing over dozens of classified documents before finally stopping at Google Chrome.

"It's still early, let's go to YouTube and watch the sand sculpture video first!" Looking at the time, well, it was almost half-past nine, and Colonel Rhodes wouldn't be there until after ten anyway.

Around 10:45 AM Kate pushed open the door to his office and then an officer in an Air Force uniform clutching a briefcase strutted in.

"Welcome, Colonel Rhodes, what can I get you to drink?" Ethan's heart filled with emotion as he looked at the other man's unmistakably familiar face.

"Mineral water would be fine!" Colonel Rhodes sat across from Ethan and after a few pleasantries got to the point.

"It's like this, Mr Hunt, regarding that new batch of MQ drones we've procured, the Air Force hopes to have the goods within three months!"

"Ah, that!"

"Uh, I know the time is tight, we can add more money, but time is a constrain!"

"Is it that the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated again?"

"Yes, a very powerful local army has suddenly appeared over there, their equipment is much more advanced than those tribes, and the fight is a mess, and we still have to help those tribal forces, so, you understand!"

"Yes, I understand, I will immediately ask them to hurry up and try to complete the order in the shortest possible time!"

"Thank you very much, I'll take my leave then!" Having solved the problem, Rhodes was about to leave.

"Won't you stay for lunch? Our company canteen is very good!"

"No, I've to go to New York and check out Stark Industries!" Rhodes waved his hand as he was about to leave the house when he suddenly stopped in his tracks again.

"What's the matter, Colonel? Changed your mind?"

"No, Mr Hunt, there's a party in New York next Sunday for Mr Stark, would you like to come?"

"With pleasure, speaking of which, I've met Mr Stark quite a few times, but haven't had much of a conversation!"

"He's a man that basically no one can have a few conversations with other than beautiful women and good wine, don't take it to heart!"

After watching Colonel Rhodes leave, Ethan looked at the wall calendar, the time was 2008, it had been so long since he had come to this world, the exciting story was only slowly unfolding, and the thought of it actually made Ethan jump at the chance.

"So, superheroes and Thanos and all that, just let it rip!"

After seeing Colonel Rhodes off, Kate, the female secretary, walked into the office carrying a newly ordered suit.

"BOSS, your suit!"

"Thanks!" Ethan didn't squirm, he took off his jacket and changed on the spot. The thousands of dollars custom-made suit made his already tall figure even more heroic, and with the tough face he had cultivated from his military career, a standard tough guy in a suit appeared.

"How's that? It'll do!" Ethan asked the secretary, shrugging off his sleeves and looking at himself in the mirror.

"Great, just like a professional male model! Hollywood made a big mistake by not hiring you as an actor!" The female secretary couldn't help but whisper a compliment.

"I'm not a professional actor, but it's good to have a perfect image, after all, I'll probably have a lot of people coming to see me, so I can't embarrass our company!" Ethan fixed his hazelnut hairs, then looked at the time, "Well, the ceremony is about to start!"

The reconstruction of the new Baghdad was the largest order that Atlas had ever taken on, involving hundreds of billions of dollars, and it had taken a lot of effort on Ethan's part to get the order in the first place.

The war in Iraq had not long ended, and in order to promote the US seed oil plutonium, the US President and Congress launched a Baghdad reconstruction plan, aimed at rebuilding the war-torn city of Baghdad into a cosmopolitan city, as a means of buying hearts and minds.

The programme appeared to be an act of American goodwill, but in fact, the reconstruction of industrial goods and technicians came from within the United States, revitalising the American economy and filling the pockets of large and medium-sized enterprises.

The Iraqi government, satisfied with the reconstruction work, even wanted to sign a series of follow-up contracts with Atlas Corporation, including the ordering of weapons and equipment, the training of military officers and the National Guards, and even the extraction of oil and minerals, and a series of other cooperation.

The Congress was also happy to see domestic capital expanding abroad and gave Atlas Corporation a lot of preferential policies. Even the military ordered a lot of advanced equipment from Atlas Corporation, and all sorts of generous treatment made other consortia and companies red in the eyes, but they did not have the ability to do so, and those that did, like Stark Industries, could not intervene, after all, many of their products were banned from export.

....................................

"Next, let's have the president of Atlas Group, Mr Ethan Hunt!" As the beautiful host exited the stage, the camera that had just been set up was aimed at Ethan who was sitting upright at his desk.

"First of all, I have to apologise to the residents of New Baghdad, today is the first anniversary of the New Baghdad and I am not there for this event!" With that, Ethan stood up and gave a deep bow to the camera.

"In addition, I would like to wish that all other cities in Iraq can be as alive and prosperous as new Baghdad! Over the past few years, countless engineers, workers, soldiers and even farmers have worked day in and day out to make new Baghdad what it is today, and the Atlas Corporations are but a small part of that mammoth force!" As Ethan waxed eloquent for the cameras, there were a number of people watching his speech.

In a very tawdry skyscraper in New York, a bearded, middle-aged man was repairing the motorbike in front of him with a spanner while listening to Ethan's speech, mumbling under his breath.

"Conscience? Who would believe it, an arms company that provides private mercenaries and ends up running a big charity here, Jarvis, do you believe there is such a company?"

"Excuse me sir, but as far as the figures on the internet are concerned, Atlas Corporation's operation in Iraq has provided tens of thousands of jobs there!"

A stupid, dumb robotic arm turned up carrying a box of tools.

"Shut up, what do you know about broken machines, and hand me the spanner!"

As Stark busied himself with fixing his beloved locomotive, the door to the workroom dripped open and then Pepper Potts, in a brown bodysuit waving a long ponytail, walked in.

"Mr Stark, Colonel Rhodes just called, he said he wants you to make a special time out in a couple of days to present you with a trophy! Also, there's a pile of papers here for you to sign!"

"An award? What award? I'd rather have a private party in Las Vegas, full of champagne and beautiful women, that's what I like best! Instead of waxing eloquent about some contribution in front of a bunch of people like someone!"

"Oh, you're jealous?" Pepper saw Ethan, who was speaking on the screen, which would be talking about the Atlas Corporation's future plans for expansion posts in Iraq.

"Jealous of him? What's there to be jealous of, Rodey wants to give me an award right, tell him no problem, but make sure you invite that guy over!" Stark scowled and changed the subject without a trace.

"Yes Mr Stark, I'll deliver the invitation myself!" Pepper didn't expose Stark's final bravado either, after all, compared to Ethan, Stark really didn't have a good reputation at this point.

You know that in the eyes of the common man, the criterion for evaluating someone good or bad is entirely based on how good the person's reputation is, he doesn't care if you're a millionaire or what. When you mention Stark, for example, people will say, "Oh, the playboy who chartered a cruise ship and took dozens of beautiful women to have fun, not the inventor who built so-and-so technology products. And when Ethan was mentioned, people would say he was a technological pioneer working on new industries with new energy sources, not a mercenary leader with blood on his hands, a comment that, unfortunately, Stark himself heard.

"To be honest, I think Mr Hunt is quite nice in person, at least better than that Justin Hammer who likes to be shady!"

"Of course, none of them can compare to Mr Stark!" Pepper hastily added when he saw his own boss's unconvincing face.

"Good, that's my good assistant!" Stark nodded in satisfaction at this.

On the other side, after a full hour or so of speaking, the part of the ceremony that belonged to Ethan was over; after all, the establishment of the new Baghdad had theoretically involved the US government, so the official bigwig had to come out at the end to close the proceedings.

The news that Tony Stark, the leading figure in Stark Industries, was to be awarded the Apogee Award soon spread through the capital.

Under the glittering lights of the street, a caravan of limousines slowly drove up to the front door of the hotel, where waiters dressed in red rushed forward to wait.

Then, amidst a flurry of flashing lights, a large, bald man in a stiff suit and white beard stepped out of the Lincoln stretch limousine in the centre of the motorcade.

"Tony, Tony!" A crowd of celebrities frantically surged forward as they pushed past the bald man and the bodyguards around him and clustered in front of the car doors shouting frantically.

"Sir, should we get rid of them?" The bodyguard took one look at the frantic crowd and asked Baldy for instructions.

"No, it's not like Stark is there anyway, let's go in!" Baldy waved his hand and straightened his suit, which was a little distorted from the crush of the crowd, then with a smile on his face, he waved at the ever-flashing camera.

Obadiah Stan, the CEO of Stark Industries, the majority shareholder, the close partner and colleague of Tony Stark's father Howard Stark, he and Howard worked together to make Stark Industries bigger and stronger, and after Howard Stark's accident, he alone supported Stark Industries until Tony Stark became an adult, such a tireless old man, but in the end, the ungrateful Tony Stark threw him into the reactor and he unfortunately died.

Of course, Obadiah Stan hadn't ripped off his disguise at this point, and he still acted as if he was covering for Stark.

"Sorry, girls, Tony's not here, you're going to be disappointed!" Obadiah rolled up his sleeves and turned to walk into the hotel, a wail ringing out behind him.

They could not blame the celebrities for being snobbish, as a guy like Tony Stark was a real diamond in their eyes, and if they were to get involved with him in any way, they would be on their way to the top, especially the magazine cover girls, whose value would immediately multiply with one phone call from Stark, but now the fact that the Stark they had been waiting for did not show up was a cold shower.

But some of the ladies were also very happy, Stark didn't show up, but Obadiah was still there and the old man was over 60 years old, so they could marry him and have anything they wanted.

Obadiah also happily walked into the hotel's casino with two beautiful women clinging on his arm, the award ceremony and all that was still a while away, so he could play a few games.

Some were happy and some were sad, like Colonel Rhodes whose face was sulking. Not a bit happy about Stark not being here.

The Colonel in his Air Force uniform looked at his Atlas Corporation's Precision Series Tactical watch and sighed.

"Damn Stark!" The Colonel vowed to kick Stark's ass the next time they met, for once again Stark had stood him up.

"Who else didn't show up?" The Colonel asked the staff member to the side.

"Only Mr Stark and Mr Ethan!" The staff member swiped around on the PDA.

"Don't all these guys like to show up late?" Rhodes pulled out his phone ready to rush the pair again when suddenly there was a loud noise in the sky.

"What's that?" Rhodes looked up and saw a black and red painted Bell 429 twin-engine helicopter lazily landing in the clearing in front of the hotel.

The gust of wind from the helicopter's rotors spinning suddenly blew away a number of beaded skirts, while a chorus of shouts as well as gulping sounds arose.

"I hope I'm not late, Colonel Rhodes!" A fully dressed Ethan jumped out of the plane and extended his right hand at Rhodes.

"Just in time, everyone's almost here already!"

"That's good, after all, punctuality is the courtesy of kings!" Ethan waved his hand at the pilot and gestured for him to take off.

"That's true, you're no worse than a king with this entry!"

"That's still no match, after all, we're only two!" Ethan gestured to the other bigwigs, all of whom were followed by a dozen bodyguards on their asses, while he had just one secretary with him.

"Let's go, Kate!" Ethan held out his right hand to the young secretary, gesturing for her to put her hand in the crook of her arm.

The young secretary was dressed equally as incomparably gorgeous today, with a new Italian-style hairdo and a face that matched dark eye shadow and bright red lipstick, a long, pure white knitted dress that revealed her bare backside, and crystal heels on her feet, a stern queenly aura that instantly overshadowed many of the celebrities who leapt on the scene.

After all, in the United States of America, there are two kinds of people you can't mess with: those with money and those with guns, the former controlling every aspect of society, and the latter, serving the former.

The moment Ethan entered the hall, a bunch of entrepreneurs who were as old as his father gathered around him, what with Mr Ethan being young and talented and a pillar of the nation and all sorts of ass-kissing, and when Obadiah saw this, he grunted in disdain, "A bunch of ass-kissers, if Tony was here, you'd all be here!" With that, Obadiah put on a smile as well and squeezed into the crowd to climb in with Ethan.

"Where's Mr Stark, why isn't he here, I'm a big fan of his!"

"Tony, he's a bit shy as a person, he doesn't really like to attend such occasions, but he should be here, he's probably staying in some corner until it's time to give him his award!"

"Oh, so that's it, Mr Obadiah is really worried about Mr Stark, you have a relationship like father and son, that's touching!"

"Uh, yes, yes, I see Tony as if he was my own child!"

After a few moments of pleasantries, the conversation instantly turned to their respective businesses, "Mr Hunt, I would like to purchase a batch of desert specialised equipment from your side to be used with our Stark Industries mining division in the Middle East, you know, it's a harsh environment over there!"

"In that case, Mr Obadiah can approach the head of our company directly and for both our sakes, it's free for you!"

"That's very kind of you!" Obadiah was overjoyed, now he could kill two birds with one stone!

The evening ceremony was actually going to give awards to a lot of people, and Stark was just the finale.

As it was an official event, there would be some members of the Defence Council and military generals, so there was no red carpet or anything like that.

The first person to receive the award was a New York police officer, who took down six gangsters in Hell's Kitchen by himself, thanks, of course, to the KF5 submachine gun from Atlas Corporation, with 10mm subsonic bullets and a rate of fire of 550 per minute, this is the defender of American democracy.

Everyone in the room applauded as they watched the mounted policeman receive his medal with a red face, except for Obadiah and Rhodes who were looking left and right.

"What are they looking at?" Kate wondered.

"Waiting for a man who will haunt them!" Ethan whispered.

In fact, Tony Stark had already arrived on the scene, driving his Audi r8 sports car, getting out and going straight into the casino attached to the hotel, and as for the awards ceremony? A trophy is no better than a girl and a ticket.

"A martini, this one makes me a bit nervous!" Stark, who wore flashy red sunglasses even indoors, snapped his fingers and ordered a waiter who stepped aside.

"Yes, Mr Stark!" The waiter looked at the hundred dollar bill stretched out in front of him and immediately left the other customers in the casino behind as he trotted all the way to bring his drink order.

"That's nice, so someone blow my chips, it might bring good luck!" Taking a sip of the martini, Stark said flirtatiously to the two beautiful women beside him.

"Me me me me ......" the two beautiful women who hated to stick it right to Stark were on the verge of a fight.

"Fine, one of you blow!" Stark hastily discouraged.

Chips made of clear crystal were gurgled and tossed to the table, and upon seeing the count, the group of gamblers who had followed Stark's bet immediately cheered.

"Awesome babies, these are for you, so what about the next batch of challengers?" Stark gleefully grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them into the arms of the woman beside him, causing a chorus of screams, while the unlucky ones who had lost their chips could only curse and leave the table to try their luck elsewhere, and their vacancies were quickly filled by others.

....................................

While Stark himself was sounding off and enjoying a good night, unbeknownst to him there were two other people upstairs who were awkwardly trying to warm up the crowd because of him.

The ceremony had come down to the final step, awarding Tony Stark the most outstanding arms dealer in the United States of America, a symbol of freedom and democracy, and a defender of world peace, but Stark himself was still missing, leaving Colonel Rhodes dryly holding up the trophy on the stage, and at the moment Rhodes was in a state of grief and anger. He edited a small film to highlight Stark's own achievements, but he didn't cooperate at all, leaving Rhodes' rainbow farts in vain.

But those on the floor, including Ethan, were not surprised, that's what Tony Stark is, Ethan knows that even after becoming a superhero, Tony still has the same problem of having a spat with Captain America every now and then, let alone now, and originally Ethan wanted to give Tony Stark a heads up, but now that he thinks about it, there's nothing wrong with giving him a hard time.

As Rhodes was embarrassed and unsure of what to do, Obadiah got up and helped Rhodes off the stage.

"Actually Tony is really busy, as you know, the security of the United States of America and the world cannot be separated from him, for this reason, he often stays up late into the night, even forgetting to eat sometimes ..." said Obadiah while squeezing out a few tears. "I often advised him to take care of his health, after all, the world still needs him and the American people need him even more, but he just wouldn't listen!"

Obadiah's emotional account brought tears to the eyes of all the guests on stage, they didn't expect it, it looked so good for Stark, but it turned out that he had worked so hard.

Even Kate believed it, thinking that Stark is really a person who is out of this world, "Our boss, can't compare!"

"O woman, You know nothing!" Ethan made a face at the young secretary, then planned to take her to see what Stark really looked like once the ceremony was over.

Once the speech was over, the ceremony was pretty much over, and Ethan saw Obadiah leave with a scowl on his face and hurried to follow.

"Oh look, who's this, my good friend, Tony Stark, my good buddy who embarrassed me today!" It was evident that Colonel Rhodes valued his friendship with Stark, and after seeing Stark, who was having fun in the casino. The happiness was clearly evident on his face.

"Uh, hey, man, long time no see!" Tony was embarrassed when he saw Rhodes' furious look.

"Does that mean the ceremony isn't as important as gambling?"

"Actually, there's wine!" Stark reached for two glasses of wine and handed one to his good friend.

"Drink up, your favourite Old Tom Gin!"

"I'm not drinking it, I'm too stuffed up to drink anything!" Rhodes was about to push the glasses away when he immediately changed his tune after seeing the pale liquor in them.

"What kind?"

"Old Tom's Gin!" Stark repeated in an accented voice.

"That I can drink!"

With a glass of fine wine, Rhodes' anger was instantly quenched, and then he took the trophy that Obadiah was holding aside and examined it for a moment.

"Why isn't this trophy made of pure gold?"

"You can have one replicated in solid gold when you get back and put it on your locker!" Obadiah said as he took Stark's shoulder very intimately.

"Good idea, Happy put it away!" With that said Stark tossed the trophy to the driver and bodyguard who had stepped aside to prepare snacks.

After tossing the trophy, Obadiah wanted to say a few words, but it just so happened that Ethan appeared in the casino and Stark was immediately interested after seeing Kate beside Ethan.

"This beauty, haven't we met somewhere before!" Stark said as he pushed up his sunglasses and stepped forward to greet her.

"Of course Mr Stark, about two years ago, in Miami, I followed the boss to the beach and saw you having a party with seven or eight swimsuit babes, you were so drunk that you were puking!" Kate said with a smirk.

"Uh, that's a real treat!" The defeated Stark then turned his gaze back to Ethan who was staring at him from the side.

The two men shook hands and proceeded to exert themselves at the same time.

"You did that on purpose!" Ethan said with a leathery smile.

"That's right, on purpose!" Stark turned red, it would be like his hand was stuck in an iron hub, damn, why does this guy have such a strong hand, Stark thought to himself.

After almost thirty seconds of holding, when he saw that Stark was about to scream, Ethan let go of his palm.

"Look at that, young people are so energetic!" The silent contest between the two did not escape Obadiah, who was on the sidelines, and Rhodes, who was still happy to see Stark was at loss.

"I hear your company is doing well in Iraq, I'm sure there's quite a financial gap!" Since physical strength couldn't be beaten, it was time to switch to what he was good at, and Stark put on a show that he had money.

"Not that bad, the Iraqi government has handed over a few oil-producing areas to us and crude oil is now being produced there, the financial shortfall and all that is no longer enough to mention!" Ethan smiled faintly.

"Oh, so, that's good news, but, Happy, do you remember, it seems that Justin Hammer's company has copied a drone called it something, I think it's an MQ, right!" Stark saw that this breakthrough wasn't working and immediately switched to another one.

"Oh, you're talking about our MQ99 drones, it's okay even if Hammer Industries have copied it, we've taken a big order from the Air Force anyway, thanks to Colonel Rhodes!"

"It's all a small thing, it's not worth mentioning!" Rhodes excused himself very modestly.

"Shit!" Stark could only curse, giving up on his intention to find a way back and turning the conversation to normal business cooperation.

"I saw the Atlas Corporation's new Baghdad on the news the other day, I'm going to set up an educational foundation to run a few schools in your city, I wonder what Mr Hunt thinks?"

"This is a good thing, although we have rebuilt New Baghdad, because of the war, the population loss there is still very serious, the Atlas Corporations can only guarantee the daily life of the city at present, such as education and business, we still need to bring in more enterprises, with Stark Industries as a leading effect, I think all aspects of New Baghdad will soon be restored to the pre-war state! !"

"Oh, if you say so, I think Stark Industries can also build a new industrial park there to help solve a large number of local employment problems, but also to expand the market in the Middle East!"

The more the two men talked the more excited they became, Ethan would by now have started to ramble on about how he planned to plan the new Baghdad city area, and Stark would also mention a couple of insights of his own every now and then, and now the two men were not at all like they had just been at the start.

"Tony, Tony!" Seeing Stark, who was arguing with Ethan, Colonel Rhodes, who was following behind, shouted several times in succession before he responded.

"What's wrong?" Stark wondered.

"Don't forget we're going to Afghanistan tomorrow!"

"Oh, of course, I won't forget, you'll be waiting for me at the airport then, I'll be absolutely on time!" Stark swore.

"You swear?"

"I swear!"

Looking at Stark's determined eyes, Rhodes chose to believe him once more. Then he got into his Hummer and left.

After watching Rhodes' car disappear across the street, Stark was about to continue his discussion with Ethan about the future of clean energy when he saw the other man staring at his chest.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, you're going to Afghanistan?" Ethan asked knowingly.

"Yes, to show off my new inventions over there!"

"Oh, well you'd better be careful, it's not very safe over there, After all, the big guns can't keep an eye on you 24/7!"

"Thanks for the kind words, but I'm sure the military won't go wrong!"

"Better so!"

The two men walked down the steps and Stark's car was already parked at the curb.

"If you're waiting for your car, I can lend you mine!" Stark said smugly.

"No thanks, my car's on its way! It'll drive itself over!" Ethan held up the keys in his hand and waved them off.

"Excuse me, can I interview you guys for a few minutes?" Just as Stark was about to see exactly what kind of car Ethan was driving, a female voice rang out behind him.

Stark turned to find a beautiful blonde in a women's suit.

"I'm Kristen, a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, Mr Stark as well as Mr Ethan, may I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course, dear, go ahead and ask!" Stark said with a straight face as he removed his sunglasses.

The female reporter then asked a few pointed questions about Stark's military industry, but Stark himself was right on the money and even overpowered the female reporter.

Ethan had the intention of ignoring the reporter, but the other party had already extended the tape recorder, and since he was indeed a bit bored while waiting for the car, Ethan agreed.

Only the first question from the female reporter made Ethan's face go icy cold.

"Mr Hunt, I understand that your Atlas Corporation has a private army of nearly 10,000 men and that they have carried out a number of offensive missions in the Middle East, causing a lot of casualties, while you have meanwhile won a considerable amount of prestige by rebuilding cities there!"

"That is not contradictory, there are countless innocent civilians in that land who just want to live in peace and the Atlas Corporations will protect them, at the same time there are many terrorists there who cause bombings and assassinations and the Atlas Corporations fight them, all to maintain the stability of the area!"

"But isn't it too inhumane that during the attacks, the Atlas Corporation's army often goes off beating and even slaughtering those captured militants, and there are even people who call you the executioner who stands full of blood?"

"Inhumane?" Ethan grinned, " Lady, you think war is too simple, we got our hands dirty for the peace of the world, the Atlas Corporations saved millions of lives in that land and kept them from death and war, if killing one person can save a hundred then that's our choice, what do you think you're doing here in your nice clothes now? The US government started the war, and all we did was end it!" As soon as the words left his mouth, two sci-fi driverless hoverbikes buzzed by.

"Sorry, the cars are here, we'll go first!"