Meanwhile, not long ago in Afghanistan.
In the desert, Stark had been walking with his head down for over two hours, his head covered by a piece of clothing whose color was no longer recognizable, and a bulging bundle tied with a red cape on his back.
In the last glow of the setting Sun, as he was struggling to stumble over the top of a small sand dune.
Suddenly, the buzzing sound of helicopter engines came from behind him.
With a roar, two helicopters flew past him, one to his left and one to his right above.
The rich guy, who had been away from the civilized World for three months, immediately got excited upon seeing the U.S.
military helicopters.
He jumped and shouted at the planes in the sky, waving his arms and legs frantically.
Laughing loudly on the dune, he both waved and yelled, attempting to catch the pilots’ attention.
Fortunately, the people on the helicopters, who were already searching this area, were sharp-eyed.
Moreover, they had indeed searched all the way along the tracks in the desert from the terrorist camp that had just exploded and the place where Tony’s armor had fallen.
So, after the helicopters made a small circle in the sky, they landed in front of Stark, who was already so exhausted he was kneeling on the ground.
As the helicopters landed, five fully armed American soldiers ran down from one of the aircraft.
The leader was an old acquaintance of Tony’s—the future superhero War Machine of the Marvel Universe, his best friend Colonel James Rhodes, who had come to Afghanistan with him to give weapons demonstrations for the U.S.
military.
As soon as he reached Tony, Colonel Rhodes said to him, “Still prefer the ‘Fun Vee,’ Tony?”
“Next time, ride with me, okay…
Uh!~” Colonel Rhodes, who had placed his hand on Tony Stark’s shoulder, suddenly seemed to choke up and couldn’t speak, because he seemed to have discovered something incredible on Tony’s back.
“Do the terrorist camps provide Coca-Cola now, Tony?”
“Hehehe!~”
Seeing Rhodes looking at the bottle of ‘Happy Water’ in the bundle, Tony Stark, kneeling on the ground, couldn’t help but laugh as well.
However, he didn’t explain whether the terrorists drank Coke or where the thing came from; instead, he said to Rhodes with a chuckle, “This is the savior who helped me out of the desert, Colonel Rhodes.”
Finally, with a smile, Stark added with a look of certainty to Rhodes, referring to that small half-bottle of ‘Fat Otaku Happy Water’ he hadn’t touched a drop of and had carefully tucked away, along with the bottle and the golden hair he had collected beside it: “And it is also the future of the Earth…”
“I can understand it being the savior that got you out of the desert…
after all, it really could help you get out.”
After hearing Tony’s words, Rhodes was a bit bewildered: “But isn’t saying it’s the future of the Earth a bit much, Tony?
“Haha!
You’ll find out later…”
Hearing Rhodes’ doubt, Tony Stark didn’t explain further.
He just stood up with a smile and walked toward the helicopter with Colonel Rhodes and the American soldiers.
Having escaped from the cave and obtained a super ‘harvest,’ he had already decided how many mechanical and biological DNA research projects he would start after returning home.
In fact, because of these projects he was going to start…
The things he bought from the little girl—except for the carton of milk he tried at the very beginning—the rest, like the ‘Big Mac’ kids’ meal, the oranges from the train station, the purple potato chips, the dried small fish, the lollipops, the Happy Water, and so on…
He hadn’t touched a single one of those things.
…
…
Twenty-five hours later.
California, USA, San Die—
Ah, no!
It’s Edwards Air Force Base.
After Tony was rescued, he stayed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan for a few hours.
He first took a good bath at the Base and tidied up his personal hygiene.
He preliminarily treated the ‘wounds’ on his body that didn’t actually exist after being healed by the heart-shaped herb, pretending to be seriously injured.
After changing into a full custom-tailored suit and freshening himself up until he looked brand new.
Tony Stark, with his arm in a sling—which was perfectly fine and could even punch out a brat—finally boarded a U.S.
military C-17 transport plane and returned to the United States after more than ten hours of flight.
With the’support’ of Colonel Rhodes, the wealthy tycoon finally set foot on U.S.
soil once again.
However, upon seeing the stretcher pushed over by the medical staff and the ambulance nearby, Tony, that drama queen, immediately put on the willful temper of his usual playboy persona, waving his hand at the medical staff with a look of annoyance: “Are you kidding me?
Get these away…
get them away…”
“I’m perfectly fine!” You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
As Tony shooed away the medical staff at the air Base, he secretly thought to himself how close that was.
Because if he didn’t get rid of the Doctors, he wouldn’t be able to explain why his body was so healthy right now.
Since the reason for his kidnapping hadn’t been investigated yet, he didn’t want anyone to know that his body was currently as strong as an ox.
Of course, what Stark said now was the truth.
After being treated by Anna’s Heart-Shaped Herb, although there was still a large hole in his chest and the Arc Reactor inside hadn’t been removed, making it look like his health was in critical condition, in reality, he was perfectly fine.
And this body was even healthier than those shut-ins who stayed home all day playing video games and calling out to their ‘waifus’.
But the others at the airport didn’t believe he was perfectly fine.
Especially when combined with the image of his arm hanging in a sling under his suit…
And the wheelchair left on the plane.
In others’ eyes, Tony now looked like he was just trying to save face by toughing it out.
The injuries on this guy must be incredibly severe; perhaps as soon as he returned to his home in Malibu, he would be shouting for his private Doctor and emergency medical services.
Just like Pepper now, after seeing Tony say he was ‘perfectly fine’, although she seemed to be smiling.
It looked like she was forcing a smile.
With those red-rimmed eyes and the expression of someone forcing herself not to sob, Tony, watching from the side, felt like she was about to cry.
“Hmm~ Your eyes are red.
Did you miss your missing boss?”
Seeing Pepper’s expression, Tony didn’t forget to tease his personal assistant.
“I’m Happy.
Because I don’t have to look for a new job…”
Upon hearing her boss’s words, regardless of her true inner thoughts, Pepper wouldn’t show weakness verbally.
“Yeah, so your vacation is over!”
The two of them, standing in front of the transport plane with arrogant looks, cautiously probing each other.
These two, the overbearing boss and the little secretary interacting, were gradually regaining their old dynamic.
But just how much of Tony’s act of hanging his arm in his suit to look pitiful was meant to paralyze his enemies, and how much was meant to cater to the emotions of his secretary, Pepper, no one knew.