Across the Pacific Ocean, over the calm, glassy sea, the Jet Glider carrying Leon streaked low across the water at a top speed of Mach 2.04.
“Doesn’t feel like much pressure at all.”
Sitting in the cockpit, Leon felt relaxed enough to catch a quick nap.
A load of ten or twenty Gs was nothing once the machine reached a steady, linear cruise; it felt no different from driving a regular car.
Having fused with the Soldier Boy template, enduring this level of acceleration was a walk in the park.
“Young Master Leon, should I inform Miss Pepper and Colonel Rhodes of your safe return?”
“Hmm…
hold off on telling them for now.
We’ll talk after I pull Tony out.”
“Very well.”
“JARVIS, how much longer until we reach Afghanistan?”
“At our current velocity, we are projected to reach the Afghan border in five hours.
Estimated arrival time is 2:50 AM tomorrow morning.”
“Got it.
I’ll take a nap.
Wake me when we get there.”
“Understood.
Good night, Young Master Leon.”
“Good night, JARVIS.”
JARVIS dimmed the Jet Glider’s dashboard display to its lowest brightness, leaving only a tiny green arrow creeping along a predetermined flight path toward a red zone representing danger and their destination.
Leon slowly closed his eyes.
Yet sleep eluded him.
His mind began to wander, drifting into random thoughts.
For instance—
What kind of dramatic pose should he strike when he appeared before a battered, miserable Tony?
Or another thought—
The reason he hadn’t told Pepper about his movements in advance was that he didn’t want her worrying unnecessarily.
It was better to let her keep assuming he might be dead for now.
As for Rhodes, while the colonel was trustworthy, the military officers around him weren’t guaranteed to be.
There was every chance Obadiah had moles planted in the armed forces.
Rather than relying on a scattered, compromised military search party, Leon preferred doing it himself!
And then…
“…Young Master Leon.
Young Master Leon.”
“Hmm?”
“We have arrived.”
JARVIS’s voice echoed in Leon’s ears.
He slowly opened his eyes to see faint starlight casting a dim glow over the barren wasteland ahead.
In this silent, pitch-black world, the Jet Glider carrying Leon was the sole beacon of light.
“JARVIS, what were we here to do again?”
Leon was still half-asleep.
“Rescue Mr.
Stark, Young Master Leon,” JARVIS answered patiently.
“Oh, right.
Pulling Tony out.”
Leon’s hazy mind gradually clicked back into gear.
He muttered under his breath, then suddenly snapped his eyes wide open as a massive flaw dawned on him!
“JARVIS…
“We do not, Young Master Leon.”
“Uh…”
Awkward.
Extremely awkward.
He had left in such a rush that Leon had subconsciously assumed his meta-knowledge and Soldier Boy’s overwhelming physical power would allow him to breeze through the rescue.
However, reality slammed down hard—
Relying solely on fragmented scenes from the movie he had watched in his past life, Leon had no idea where Tony was specifically located.
He only remembered it was a cave held by the Ten Rings.
But it didn’t matter.
Leon had plenty of raw strength and methods at his disposal.
Since Tony had departed from Bagram Airfield, Leon could simply use that airbase as ground zero and purge every terrorist cell in the surrounding territory.
He was bound to stumble upon him eventually.
Isn’t that how Minesweeper worked anyway?
If you step on every single tile, you clear the field.
“I am a goddamn genius!”
Leon considered himself a man of supreme intellect.
Now, his supreme intellect was telling him it was time to use supreme force.
Just as Leon was admiring the sheer brilliance of his plan, the system’s prompt echoed in his mind.
[Query: Perform daily check-in?]
*System, don’t let me down!*
[Ding!
Daily check-in complete.
Congratulations, Host, on receiving the “Desert Eagle with Infinite Ammo”.]
[Desert Eagle with Infinite Ammo: Capable of firing an infinite supply of high-power .50 AE pistol rounds.]
[Quality: Indestructible]
[Description: The first shot announces my arrival, the second announces your departure.
But think carefully—is it really just a pistol?]
“Huh?”
“Why is there a quality tab all of a sudden?
And ‘Indestructible’?”
Leon refused to believe it blindly.
Reaching into his system storage, he drew out the so-called “Desert Eagle with Infinite Ammo.” *BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!* He dumped several hundred rounds in a single burst before stopping.
Well, damned if it didn’t work.
Aside from wisps of smoke curling from the barrel, the gun didn’t show a single sign of wear or malfunction.
But he wasn’t done testing.
Leon pulled out Soldier Boy’s tungsten-steel alloy shield and slammed the Desert Eagle brutally against the metallic face!
*CLANG!!!!!*
A deafening ring echoed out.
The pistol emerged completely unscathed.
The shield, on the other hand, fractured and shattered into pieces on the spot.
Clinking sound!*
Leon looked down at the tungsten shield fragments scattered across the ground around his feet, then back at the pristine, mirror-polished Desert Eagle in his hand.
His eyes filled with utter shock and delight.
“Holy shit!”
“Is this a conceptual weapon or what?!” Leon marvelled.
“Pity about my shield, though.
I’m definitely making Tony compensate me with a sheet of Vibranium.”
“JARVIS, write that down in your notes so we don’t forget to bill him when we get back.”
“Understood, Young Master Leon.”
Sweeping the shattered shield fragments back into his system storage, Leon planned to melt them down later.
A piece of gear that could be summoned and dismissed at will was too valuable to toss, and he already had an idea for it.
…
A Ten Rings outpost.
“The guys from the Zhatian Gang next door called earlier, saying some lunatic wiped out their entire camp single-handed and said he was coming to cause trouble for us next.
Hilarious, isn’t it?”
“One guy?
Ha!
Talking out of his ass.
Probably high off his rocker.
If they got wiped out, who was left to call us?”
“Makes sense!”
“Why are you yelling so loud?!”
“Just get some sleep.
Nobody’s supervising us anyway.
Day in, day out, we’re just making a living—why pull an all-nighter for this garbage?”
“Makes sense!”
“Shut up and go to sleep!”
“Oh…”
The two Ten Rings sentries had barely closed their eyes when a ghostly, demonic voice drifted lazily into their ears: “Still sleeping?
Time to reap your souls~~~”
“!!!” ×2
“Enem—”
*SQUISH!
SQUISH!*
Leon grabbed both their heads, one in each hand, and popped them like overripe watermelons.
Brains and blood splattered everywhere as he muttered to himself, “Didn’t believe it, huh?
Heh~ look who’s here.”
Standing at the edge of the ridge, Leon looked down into the artificial cavern carved into the cliff face of the basin below.
The corners of his mouth curled into a wide grin.
“Bingo.
Hit the jackpot.”
Meanwhile, at the eastern horizon, massive clouds flushed pale pink as the warm morning glow began to light up the sky.
On the other side of the rock face, inside the cavern where Tony and Yinsen were imprisoned—
Driven by wild anticipation, neither man could sleep a wink.
Lying on their cots, they were whispering back and forth, finalizing their escape plan for the day.
Although the armor was fully assembled, putting it on presented a massive hurdle.
The Ten Rings had installed surveillance cameras inside the cave; the moment they made a suspicious move, the terrorists would spot and stop them immediately.