“Hey, relax.” Gao Ming casually waved his hand, indicating that he meant no harm.
“I’m just planning to save Dr. Yinsen’s life.”
Hearing this, Tony suddenly snapped back to reality.
He looked down and saw that Yinsen’s eyes had become unfocused, his breathing growing increasingly labored—a clear sign that he was on the verge of death.
Without time to think about how this stranger intended to save someone who was dying, Tony hurriedly shouted, “Quick! Come save Yinsen!”
Gao Ming paid no attention to the commanding tone in Tony’s voice.
He went over to Yinsen and crouched down.
Placing his left hand on Yinsen’s chest, he activated his healing ability and pulled Yinsen, who had one foot in the grave, back from the brink of death.
At the same time, his right hand began vibrating at high frequency before suddenly plunging into Yinsen’s wound!
“Ah!”
Yinsen had just felt a soothing, warm current flowing through his body when, in the next instant, an agonizing pain shot through him.
He couldn’t help but cry out.
“What are you doing!”
Seeing Yinsen being “tortured” by Gao Ming, Tony flew into a rage and immediately prepared to throw a punch.
Gao Ming frowned and shouted, “Don’t interrupt me! I need to get the bullets out of his body!”
Hearing this, Tony froze.
He stiffly lowered his raised arm, an awkward expression appearing on his face.
Although Tony, with his arrogant personality, was somewhat displeased by Gao Ming’s attitude, the man was saving Yinsen, so he couldn’t very well lose his temper.
Removing bullets from someone’s body was no easy task.
Gao Ming had never done anything like this before.
The sight of the mangled flesh in front of him was completely assaulting his worldview.
After all, Gao Ming wasn’t a professional medical worker.
He could only roughly tear open the wounded areas, quickly remove the bullets, and then immediately heal the wounds.
Even though Gao Ming moved quickly, his lack of experience, combined with the sheer number of bullets, meant that Yinsen could only tragically “enjoy” the excruciating experience, screaming again and again.
Tony, watching from the side, felt his scalp go numb, and a trace of fear appeared in his eyes when he looked at Gao Ming.
The “heavenly pleasure and hellish pain” experience didn’t last long.
After the final bullet was removed, the healing power rapidly closed the wounds, bringing waves of soothing relief.
Yinsen finally stopped screaming and, his expression relaxing, fell unconscious.
Yinsen’s wounds rapidly healed.
Before long, he had completely recovered, with not even a trace of injury remaining.
Tony couldn’t help praising him.
“Interesting ability. How about becoming my personal physician? I’ll pay you fifty million a year.”
The situation was clearly developing in a positive direction, allowing Tony to relax somewhat.
Naturally, his carefree and irreverent personality returned.
Hearing Tony’s arrogant tone, Gao Ming was speechless.
As expected, Tony Stark was always so full of himself.
No matter when or where, he simply couldn’t change his arrogance.
Gao Ming replied indifferently, “Sorry, not interested.”
To be honest, whether or not he became friends with Tony Stark was largely irrelevant to Gao Ming.
However, Tony’s technological talent was something he couldn’t afford to ignore.
Although the movies had toned down quite a bit, Avengers 2 had already shown the Hulkbuster armor that Tony invented specifically to deal with the Hulk.
And in Iron Man 3, all kinds of Iron Man suits appeared.
After coming to this world, Gao Ming was destined not to remain low-profile.
If he eventually became someone who needed to be countered, there was a good chance that an “Anti-Godfather Armor” might appear in the future.
Without a doubt, Tony Stark had both the brains and the resources for something like that.
Even the rich old man next door from DC had nearly accomplished the feat of killing a god and taking down Superman through sheer money and technology.
Tony Stark, whose wealth was not inferior to Batman’s, could likewise throw money at developing something capable of dealing with Gao Ming.
Faced with Gao Ming’s indifferent refusal, Tony’s expression darkened, and a trace of displeasure flashed through his eyes.
As the immensely influential heir to Stark Industries, Tony was accustomed to people treating him with respect.
Even the military and government officials showed him basic courtesy.
Where had he ever encountered someone like Gao Ming, who completely ignored his status and rejected his invitation outright?
However, Gao Ming’s displayed strength suppressed Tony’s impulse to teach him a lesson.
A speed invisible to the naked eye.
The ability to bring someone back from the brink of death.
Everything Gao Ming had demonstrated challenged Tony’s understanding of reality.
That could still be explained through technology.
What Gao Ming had displayed, however, was clearly a supernatural ability.
At present, Tony knew very little about this unexpected visitor.
With such a vast difference in strength, Tony could only suppress his dissatisfaction and avoid provoking a conflict.
But since the other party clearly had no interest in being friendly, there was no reason for Tony to keep trying to win him over.
He put on a grim expression and said, “Is that so? What a shame. You’ve missed a rare opportunity.”
Gao Ming couldn’t be bothered to respond.
He had come to save Tony mainly because he wanted to see Iron Man in person.
Now that he had, it seemed reality really was somewhat different from the movies.
As for gaining Tony Stark’s friendship, Gao Ming wasn’t going to force it.
He would simply let things develop naturally.
Even if their relationship eventually deteriorated to the point where they had to fight to the death, all Gao Ming would need to do was guard against Tony inventing some kind of armor specifically designed to counter him.
Although the charismatic character Tony had been on screen had left Gao Ming somewhat disappointed, he had at least managed to save Yinsen, a pretty decent person.
So this trip hadn’t been a waste.
His job was done.
“All right. Dr. Yinsen is fine now. You two should continue escaping from this place.”
Gao Ming stood up and walked out of the cave.
The next moment, all kinds of sounds erupted outside—screams, impacts, gunfire, and explosions one after another.
But after only a couple of breaths, everything outside fell silent again.
Tony supported the unconscious Yinsen and cautiously walked out of the cave.
The sight outside made his pupils contract.
Gao Ming was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, dozens, even hundreds, of terrorists lay scattered across the ground.
Some were unconscious, while others were already dead.
All of them had lost their ability to fight and posed no threat to Tony.
What shocked Tony was that these terrorists had clearly been dealt with single-handedly by Gao Ming.
Tony could also have handled these terrorists with the armor he was wearing, but there was no way he could have done so with such ease and speed.
What the hell is this monster?
Tony Stark was utterly shaken.
The dissatisfaction he had felt toward Gao Ming moments ago vanished completely.
At the same time, he secretly made up his mind that once he returned, he would find a way to locate this mysterious man.
He had to find a way to establish a good relationship with this superhuman.
At the very least, he needed to learn Gao Ming’s true identity and the nature of his abilities so that he could prepare against him.
Coming back to his senses, Tony realized that they needed to hurry and escape.
There was no telling whether more terrorists would come after hearing the commotion.
With one arm wrapped around Yinsen, Tony activated the flame thrusters beneath his feet and flew into the air.
After hovering for a moment, he looked down.
Various weapons and pieces of military equipment were still scattered across the ground.
The words “Manufactured by Stark Industries” emblazoned on them were practically a blatant mockery of him.
Tony aimed at the pile of weapons below and launched all the missiles mounted on his arms, blowing up the place where he had been imprisoned for three months.
Amid the spectacular explosion, Tony flew away with Yinsen in his arms, completely satisfied.
This grand “fireworks display” could be considered a celebration.
The great Tony Stark was finally going home!
Unfortunately, it seemed even heaven couldn’t stand watching this playboy get so carried away.
Tony was soaring through the sky with incomparable excitement when, before he had even flown very far, his armor suddenly began making dangerous creak-creak noises.
Tony’s heart immediately sank.
He had a very bad feeling about this.
Then, the thrusters beneath his feet suddenly died.
What happened next was obvious.
The screws on the armor hadn’t even been properly tightened in the first place.
As Tony plummeted downward, the armor’s components began falling apart one after another, scattering heavily across the soft desert sand.
Yinsen was thrown off to the side as well.
“Waaaaah—!”
Fortunately, they were in the middle of a vast desert.
The soft sand greatly reduced the impact.
Tony lay painfully in the sand, his armor scattered all around him, with only a few broken components still hanging from his body.
He shook the ruined armor off both arms, lifted his faceplate, and tossed the cracked helmet aside.
A trace of blood hung from the corner of his mouth.
He comforted himself, “Not bad.”
The unconscious Yinsen was also jolted awake by the sudden fall.
He opened his eyes in confusion, then slowly struggled to sit up and looked around.
Yinsen was now covered in dust.
The glasses on his nose had been knocked crooked, and there was barely any glass left in the shattered lenses.
Although he hadn’t crashed hard enough to cough up blood like Tony, his entire body ached as though every bone had been shaken.
“What happened? I… wasn’t I dead…?”
Yinsen still hadn’t fully recovered.
He remembered being shot so many times that there was no way he should have survived.
And before losing consciousness, he seemed to have experienced something… rather unpleasant.
Yinsen had no memory of what happened immediately before he passed out.
But whenever he tried to recall it, his body trembled involuntarily, as though instinctively reacting to some source of fear.
Completely bewildered, Yinsen removed his broken glasses.
The twisted frames were extremely uncomfortable, so he narrowed his eyes and struggled to see Tony in the distance.
He immediately ran toward him in delight.
“Hey, Stark!”
Hearing Yinsen’s voice, Tony looked over.
Seeing Yinsen running toward him, full of energy, Tony was also extremely excited.
At the same time, his impression of Gao Ming deepened further.
After all, everyone valued their own life.
Who could guarantee that they would never encounter an accident in the future?
And someone who possessed such miraculous, life-saving abilities was more than enough to make countless people compete to establish a relationship with him.
Thinking of this, Tony suddenly remembered that he still had a huge hole in his chest.
Although he had installed a reactor to keep himself alive, the fragments of shrapnel still lodged inside his body remained a ticking time bomb.
How could he have forgotten to ask Gao Ming to treat him as well?
But then Tony remembered what Gao Ming’s treatment of Yinsen had looked like.
He wavered between “complete recovery” and “excruciating torture.”
In the end, he decided…
He’d better make do with the reactor for now.
Of course, that didn’t mean Tony had given up on the option entirely.
He definitely wanted to be healthy and completely intact.
But before he could mentally prepare himself for it, this matter would have to wait…
Once he got back, he would mobilize all his resources to find this mysterious and unfathomable “Godfather.”
At the thought of the title Godfather, Tony was speechless.
That guy really isn’t taking advantage of people with that title, is he…?
As he thought about it, Tony warmly embraced Yinsen, his companion who had survived alongside him.
“It’s good that you’re alive.”
“Eh? What’s going on?”
Being embraced by the famous Tony Stark left Yinsen somewhat flattered and overwhelmed.
In the distance, Gao Ming stood atop a hill with a good vantage point, watching Tony and Yinsen support each other as they searched for a direction.
He then shifted his gaze toward another patch of land covered in yellow sand.
Scattered pieces of armor lay exposed on the surface, seemingly waiting for someone with an ulterior motive to pick them up.
Looks like some things are still going to happen…
Gao Ming cast a meaningful glance at the disassembled Iron Man armor before silently concealing his presence.
Forget it.
What happened next had nothing to do with him.
It was better to go home and get a good night’s sleep.
These past few days had really worn him out.
Once he got back, he needed to have a proper meal.
(End of Chapter)