Over the next two days, the entire cave became a hive of activity.
At Tony’s request, numerous lighting rigs were installed throughout the cavern.
Tools were scattered everywhere.
Materials piled up like mountains.
Soon after, Tony began dismantling weapons and ammunition that he knew better than anyone else.
After all, he had designed them himself.
Yinsen worked beside him as an assistant.
Meanwhile, Rowan sat in the distance doing absolutely nothing.
Professional-level slacking.
“How many languages do you speak?” Tony asked while disassembling a rocket.
“A lot,” Yinsen replied.
“But not enough for this place.” “They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Persian, Russian…” “I understand every single one of those.” Rowan proudly raised a hand from the corner.
Neither man even looked at him.
Kids always exaggerated.
Tony continued pulling components out of the rocket.
“Who are these people?” “They’re your loyal customers.” Yinsen smiled bitterly.
“They call themselves the Ten Rings.” “They’re not my customers.” Tony immediately corrected him.
At the same time, he casually knocked the warhead off the rocket.
Outside the cave, one of the terrorists watching through a surveillance monitor couldn’t help muttering: “Is it really okay to handle explosives that roughly?” Even Yinsen’s eyelids twitched.
“If you tell me what we’re doing, I can help more efficiently.” Tony extracted a small component and tossed it onto a nearby table.
“Palladium.” “Point one five grams.” “We need at least one point six grams.” He pointed at another stack of rockets.
“Go dismantle eleven more.” Yinsen had no idea why Tony needed palladium.
Still, he followed instructions and began disassembling rockets.
The two worked quickly.
Once they had gathered enough palladium, Tony started building molds.
Rowan stayed far away and watched.
Not because he didn’t want to help.
The problem was that Tony and Yinsen wouldn’t let him touch anything.
And honestly?
Rowan was afraid he’d accidentally blow everyone up.
Besides…
Being lazy was pretty great.
Why give that up?
Soon afterward, Yinsen carefully poured the molten palladium into a mold.
Tony stood beside him nervously.
“Careful.” “We only get one shot at this.” “Relax.” Yinsen rolled his eyes.
“My hands are steady.” “Otherwise, how do you think you’ve survived this long?” Watching the molten metal fill the mold perfectly, Tony suddenly asked: “I still don’t know your name.” Yinsen stared at him.
Speechless.
We’ve been trapped together for days and NOW you’re asking?
“My name is Yinsen.” “Nice to meet you, Yinsen.” “How nice?” Tony paused.
“…” The conversation died immediately.
A short while later, Tony carefully removed the cooled palladium ring with a pair of tweezers and installed it into a device.
Over the next several days, Rowan witnessed something that felt completely ridiculous.
Using little more than scrap metal, scavenged electronics, and a cave full of junk…
Tony Stark built the world’s first miniature Arc Reactor.
Watching the process unfold, Rowan couldn’t stop himself from sighing in amazement.
“As expected of someone personally acknowledged by the Sweet Potato Head.” “This is insane.” “How the hell do you build something this ridiculous from a pile of trash?” As the reactor finally lit up with a mesmerizing blue glow, Tony let out a long breath.
Success.
Yinsen stared at it with wide eyes.
“That doesn’t look like a Jericho missile.” Tony looked at him as if he had just said something incredibly stupid.
“That’s because it isn’t.” “It’s a miniature Arc Reactor.” “My company has a giant one powering an entire facility.” “This version should generate enough energy to keep the shrapnel away from my heart.” Yinsen nearly dropped to his knees.
Idol!
My idol!
This is way too awesome!
“What’s its power output?” Tony immediately switched into full show-off mode.
“If my calculations are correct—” He smirked.
“Which they are.” “It should generate around three gigajoules per second.” Yinsen blinked.
Tony pointed to his chest.
“Enough to keep your heart running for several thousand years.” Then he grinned.
“Or power something much larger for about fifteen minutes.” Yinsen didn’t understand what that meant.
A few moments later, Tony pulled out a stack of blueprints.
Yinsen glanced at them and froze.
“When did you draw all of this?” “We’ve been together the entire time.” “How did I not notice?” Tony snorted.
“Genius business.” “Stay out of it.” Then he spread the blueprints across a table.
Rowan immediately squeezed in to look.
At first glance, Yinsen couldn’t make heads or tails of the drawings.
“What is this?” “I can’t understand any of it.” Tony smirked.
“This…” “…is our ticket out of here.” Then he grabbed a lamp and positioned it above the pages.
After arranging the blueprints properly, a complete image emerged.
A towering armored giant.
Every component was labeled.
Every measurement detailed.
Every part accounted for.
This wasn’t a rough sketch.
This was a complete engineering blueprint.
A fully functional design.
All that remained was building it.
Yinsen stared at it.
Then silently knelt in his heart.
Idol.
You’re freaking amazing.
With Yinsen’s help, Tony finally replaced the crude electromagnet in his chest.
As Rowan stared at the glowing blue Arc Reactor embedded in Tony’s torso, drool practically started leaking from the corner of his mouth.
“That’s so freaking cool.” “I want one too.” Then he thought about the giant hole that would need to be carved into his chest.
“…Actually, never mind.” “I’ll wait until Tony invents a version that doesn’t require surgery.” Now that the immediate threat of death had been postponed, Tony finally had time to breathe.
He and Yinsen began playing some kind of board game.
A board game Rowan couldn’t understand at all.
And he absolutely refused to admit that intelligence might be the reason.
“Scientists are weird.” “They even play games that normal people can’t understand.” Muttering to himself, Rowan wandered over to a corner and lay down.
Sigh.
Might as well sleep.
Nearby, Tony took a sip of water.
“I still don’t know much about you.” “Where are you from?” “A town called Gulmira.” Yinsen smiled softly.
“It’s beautiful.” “Is your family there?” “They are.” “When we escape, I’ll go back to them.” Then Yinsen looked up.
“What about you, Stark?” “Do you have family?” Tony paused.
Then shrugged.
“No.” “No?” A trace of mockery entered Yinsen’s voice.
“Stark.” “You have everything.” “But you also have nothing.” Tony smiled bitterly.
Then lowered his head.
The following days passed quietly.
Tony and Yinsen secretly began constructing armor components.
Whenever Rowan tried to help, Tony chased him away.
According to Tony: “Can you even understand the numbers on these blueprints?” Rowan immediately protested.
Then obediently went back to sleep in the corner.
Some battles weren’t worth fighting.
One day, Rowan was sleeping so deeply that a small puddle of drool had formed beneath him.
Then— Ding!
Skill Enhancement Complete!
Rowan’s eyes snapped open.
He launched himself off the ground like a startled rabbit.
The sudden movement scared both Tony and Yinsen.
“Rowan!” Yinsen jumped.
“What happened?” “Nothing!” “Nothing at all!” Rowan quickly waved his hands.
“You guys keep working.” Then he rushed into a corner and sat down.
His heart was pounding.
Finally.
After seven agonizing days…
The system’s upgrade was complete.
Without hesitation, Rowan summoned his status panel.