“Enemy attack!
Enemy attack!”
*Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!*
“Aaargh!”
“He’s not human!
He’s a monster!”
“Bullets don’t do a thing to him!”
“Where the hell is my heavy artillery?!”
“Screw artillery—even anti-tank guns are useless against him!”
Tony and Yinsen were wringing their hands over how to don the armor when dense gunfire, explosions, and screams suddenly echoed from outside the cave.
*Whoosh!*
After a blinding flash of light, the world suddenly fell silent again.
Lying on a bed, Tony and Yinsen exchanged a look.
The latter hurriedly got up and went to the door, peering out through the small observation slit to check the situation outside.
“Now’s our chance, Tony!”
Yinsen turned back excitedly.
“There’s not a single guard outside!”
“Really?”
“Oh, damn!”
Excited, Tony tried to kip up, but failed and flopped off the bed.
Taking advantage of the fall, he reached under the bed and pulled out a stick of dynamite strapped together with duct tape.
After verifying that the outside was indeed momentarily unguarded, he taped the bomb to the cave’s iron door handle.
If anyone pushed the door open from outside, the bomb would detonate instantly, buying them time.
“Yinsen, quick, quick!
Hurry up and help me get into the suit!”
“Right!”
Rewinding the clock slightly.
The Ten Rings encampment.
Leon intended to unlock a “Perfect Stealth” achievement by relying on his supernaturally durable body and an infinite-ammo Desert Eagle to hack and slash his way through.
It was just that his marksmanship was downright abysmal—it usually took seven bullets just to take down one guy.
After all, he had never bothered to practice.
Not long ago, he was still a useless playboy who had spent far less time holding a gun than holding his…
well, other things.
Luckily, boosted by infinite ammo, Leon managed to spam the Desert Eagle’s trigger fast enough to make the handgun roar like a machine gun.
Seeing things go south, the bald leader of the Ten Rings hastily barked orders at a bearded sub-leader beside him.
“This guy’s tough!
I’ll catch up shortly!”
“Yes, Boss!”
Accepting the order, the bearded henchman immediately led a squad toward the cave.
Seeing this, Leon—who was constantly keeping an eye on the cave—missed a few shots and decided to drop the act.
A blinding, fiery light began gathering in his chest.
After three brief seconds of charging, *BOOM!* A terrifying beam of light as thick as a water barrel erupted from Leon’s chest!
Spinning on the spot, he swept his chest blast along, obliterating everything in its fan-shaped arc like snapping dry twigs!
“Phew…”
Exhaling deeply, Leon clenched his fist.
“Honestly, firing one of those leaves me feeling a bit drained.
Not great as a standard attack.”
“Though the power…”
Leon looked out over the Ten Rings base, which now looked as if it had been washed in lava, and clicked his tongue in approval.
“Is there anyone else?”
“…”
A gust of wind blew past, leaving only silence.
The stench of charred flesh remnants scorched by the high heat drifted into his nostrils, making him grimace in disgust.
The Ten Rings militia seemed completely wiped out by that single sweeping blast.
Inside the cave.
Tony and Yinsen’s work putting on the armor was reaching its final stage.
*Thump!
Thump!
Thump!*
“Yinsen, faster!
I think I hear footsteps!” Tony urged anxiously.
“Almost done!
What do I do now?”
Yinsen tightened the last screw for Tony, then sprinted over to the nearby computer desk and called back.
“Only the power supply command left!
Press F11, and once you see the progress bar, press Ctrl plus I, then Enter!”
*Thump!
Thump!
Thump!*
The approaching footsteps pounded against Tony’s heart like a death knell.
Sweating buckets, his nerves were stretched to the limit.
“Got it, Tony!”
Yinsen slammed the Enter key, and the boot-up progress bar for the Iron Man armor began filling rapidly at 10% per second.
“Great!”
“Yinsen, hurry up and hide in a corner!
Watch me tear these guys apart, and then we’re busting out of this hellhole together!” Tony urged him.
“You might not know this, but hide-and-seek is my specialty.”
With hope of escape in sight, the normally refined and gentle Yinsen cracked a rare joke.
Taking advantage of his slender frame, he slipped right inside an emptied missile shell.
“Perfect.”
Relief washed over Tony.
Splitting his attention, he kept one eye on the computer’s loading bar and the other on the door as the heavy footsteps drew closer.
*Come on, I’m not afraid of you!*
Tony shouted internally to steel his nerves just as the armor’s boot bar reached 100%.
The cave lights flickered violently before plunging the room into darkness.
Everything went quiet.
*BANG!*
A sound like a battering ram echoed from the doorway.
The thick iron door dented inward violently, leaving a clear fist imprint.
Outside the door.
Leon pulled back his fist and looked at the dented imprint, spitting in annoyance.
“Damn, this door is squishy!
How did it not break in one hit?”
He followed up with a kick, sending the iron door flying!
*BOOM!*
Tony’s makeshift bomb detonated with a roar, sending the unprepared Leon flying backward.
“What the fuck!”
“Forgot about this damn tripwire!”
*Cough, cough, cough!*
Scrambling up covered in dust, Leon dusted himself off and strolled over completely unharmed.
Leaning casually against the cave entryway with arms crossed, he greeted them in a tone that was three parts melancholic, three parts teasing, and four parts nonchalant:
“Hey, skinny old guys.
Ready to get out of here?”
However.
What greeted Leon was a fist made of iron the size of a sandbag.
*CLANG!*
Leon’s lips twitched as he caught it effortlessly with one hand.
“Hey!”
“Tony, it’s me!”
“Your beloved younger brother, Leon!”
Rolling his eyes, Leon exasperatedly tried to clarify his identity.
“Bullshit!”
“I know that kid better than anyone!”
“Leon doesn’t have the strength to dent a door this thick with one punch!”
Due to crude conditions, the Mark 1 suit’s helmet lacked night vision.
In the dim lighting of the cave, Tony couldn’t recognize the dirt-covered Leon at all, and his hearing was temporarily muffled from the explosion going off right in front of him.
Desperate to escape, Tony piloted the Iron Man armor and unloaded a wild flurry of punches at Leon.
“Well, if you won’t listen to reason…”
“…guess I’ll have to speak with force.”
Leon sighed, dodging Tony’s left and right hooks before delivering an unadorned, no-special-effects uppercut that launched Tony straight into the ceiling.
By the time he crashed back down, peace had once again returned to the cave.