Chapter 116: The Acquisition of Hammer Industries

"Haha, it's just the two of us now, baby!" the clone of Ivan Vanko laughed, snapping his two electric whips.

"Aren't you even a little curious about how he vanished into thin air?" Tony Stark asked, feeling awkward.

"Killing you is the only thing that matters now!" the clone of Ivan Vanko sneered, staring at Tony.

"Fine, regardless, I'll still put up a symbolic resistance." With that, Tony fired tracking bullets from his shoulder mount, aiming for Vanko's vital points. Unfortunately, they were all deflected by the clone's thick armor.

"My turn!" The clone lashed out with his thick electric whips, but Tony managed to dodge them. Tony retaliated with a palm repulsor blast, but it failed to inflict any damage and he was instead swatted away by a whip strike.

As Tony struggled to regain his balance in mid-air, he tried to fly higher, only to be snared by the long electric whips and dragged back down. The powerful current severely disrupted the armor's systems, crippling its mobility and causing the HUD in his mask to flicker erratically.

The clone retracted his whips, pulled Tony to his feet, and pinned him down, engaging his boot-locking mechanisms to hold him firmly in place. Just then, Wang Jing, now equipped with a railgun, returned to the Marvel plane, his weapon fully charged.

"Hey! Did you miss me, Tony?" Wang Jing's voice caused the clone to turn his head. A moment later, a railgun slug punched through the clone's armor and body, leaving a fist-sized hole. The Arc Reactor on his chest flickered a few times before extinguishing completely—a final sign of the clone's brief existence.

Tony broke free from the now-depowered whips and the locking mechanism. "You certainly have perfect timing. I was almost whipped to death."

"I think you should be more concerned about those remote-controlled robots that were blown up," Wang Jing reminded him. "If the Arc Reactors inside them fall into the wrong hands, you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands."

"You're right. I'll send people to collect them immediately. But what about Hammer Industries?" Tony asked.

"Don't worry, I've already made arrangements. I'll begin the acquisition of Hammer Industries first thing tomorrow morning." Wang Jing smiled.

"Aren't you afraid of someone causing trouble or obstructing your takeover?"

"The only ones who would try to compete with me are those few usual suspects. I’ve already handled the U.S. government, as well as the Hydra elements within it. As for other tech companies, do you really think their capital can compete with the resources of an entire world?" Wang Jing replied confidently.

"What about S.H.I.E.L.D.? I remember Nick Fury being quite interested in the Arc Reactor, not to mention the Hydra agents within S.H.I.E.L.D. They won't all take orders from that one-eyed egg," Tony noted.

"I've already planned for that. If Nick Fury doesn't give me the time of day, he shouldn't expect my help when he eventually needs it. As for those Hydra agents, if they dare to show their faces, I'll deal with them myself."

Speaking with murderous intent, Wang Jing walked over to the lifeless corpse of the Ivan Vanko clone, reached out, and transported it back to the main plane to be destroyed by Song Guohua and his team.

After the incident, once they returned to Stark's villa, Wang Jing brought in a group of top financial elites from Wall Street. After a night of preparation, Tony's basement lab was transformed into a financial war room. Rows of computers and temporary desks filled the space, while a small Transformer was used as a projector to display the overall situation and progress on the wall.

As the 10:00 AM bell rang for the opening of the stock market, everyone sprang into action. Hammer Industries' stock price plummeted instantly, like a car driving off a cliff.

"Quick, quick! Buy up all the available stock! Information dissemination team, ramp up the coverage. Send news of the crash to every browser and social media platform!"

"Shills, start hyping up the possibility that Hammer Industries' stock will continue to nosedive!"

The lab was a hive of activity, filled with the sounds of frantic typing, mouse clicking, and the high-pitched whirring of computer fans. Had Tony not forbidden Wang Jing from using his personal servers, the stock would have crashed even faster. However, the Wall Street elites soon realized that someone else was aggressively buying up Hammer Industries' stock, stabilizing the price just as it was about to hit its limit.

Seeing this, the elites initiated the second phase of their plan: identify the company buying up the shares, gather information, and leak rumors that a buyer was waiting in the wings, suggesting the stock might bottom out and rebound.

The stock, which had hit rock bottom, began to climb slowly, then with increasing speed. Ten minutes later, Hammer Industries' stock saw a massive surge. This spike disgusted those who had intended to buy out the company—they had planned to acquire all the shares at a rock-bottom price to become the majority shareholder, but now the price was even higher than before.

They didn't have enough capital to buy it all at this price. Just as the stock reached its pre-crash value, Wang Jing's team began dumping all their holdings. As they finished selling off their shares, the information team and the shills began spreading word that the acquiring company was abandoning the deal due to the sudden price surge and lack of funds. Simultaneously, a group of "pseudo-financial experts" appeared out of nowhere, urging everyone not to be greedy, to take their profits, and warning that the stock was highly unstable.

People looking to capitalize on the surge began selling off their holdings to cash out. The investors who had been trying to seize control of Hammer Industries were forced to buy up these dumped shares. Because of this, the stock stopped rising, causing those who were still on the fence to panic and start selling, which triggered another downward spiral.

The secondary crash triggered a chain reaction, with ordinary investors joining the sell-off. The price plummeted faster and faster, while the Wall Street elites quietly bought back everything that was being dumped.