“What is this thing?”
“A miniature Arc Reactor.
There’s another one at my house, but it’s the larger version.”
“What is it for?”
“It supplies power to our armor.
You don’t think the armor is going to be powered purely by my muscles, do you?
I’m not that strong.”
Inside the dimly lit cave, Tony and Yinsen were standing together, staring at a circular object on the table that emitted a soft white glow.
“If that’s the case, we already have the power source.
Can we start assembling it?”
“We haven’t reached the assembly stage yet.
You have to remember that they have surveillance cameras installed.
If we just start assembling it openly, they’ll notice us, and once that happens, we really won’t have any way out.”
Yinsen was a doctor who had been kidnapped by the terrorist group.
He was a genius just like Tony, except Tony was a genius in the field of physics, while the doctor named Yinsen was a genius in linguistics.
He knew many languages, so after being kidnapped by the terrorist group, he was made into their translator and was also forced to treat injured members of the terrorist group.
The reason he had been assigned to watch over Tony was because he could speak English and also understood technical matters like this.
Among the terrorists, there were not many people who understood delicate and complicated work.
“Then what should we do next?
We don’t have much time left.
They only gave us seven days, and four days have already passed.”
“It’s fine.
We still have enough time.
If we speed up our work, we can forge all the components tonight.
After that, all we’ll have to do is assemble them.
But before we assemble them, we first need to build a support frame for the assembly.
We need the frame to block the surveillance camera’s view.”
Tony spoke while signaling with his eyes toward the surveillance camera, and Yinsen slowly nodded in agreement.
After being here for several days, they had realized that it was not a problem to tinker with anything because the terrorists did not understand what they were doing.
Therefore, when they made the combat equipment, they could forge the components openly.
However, when it came time to assemble them, they could not do so openly.
If they assembled everything in plain sight and the terrorists noticed something strange, the consequences would be extremely bad.
Therefore, they had to build a support frame for the assembly and position the back of the frame toward the surveillance camera.
That way, whatever they did inside the support frame would not be a problem because the surveillance camera would not be able to see it.
Then, while they were out of sight, they could immediately assemble the armor, and everything would be settled.
Of course, before that, they also had to prevent anything unexpected from happening.
So Tony planned to place a bomb on the door as their first line of defense.
Just as Tony and Yinsen were installing the improvised explosives on the door, Lancelot suddenly appeared silently behind them.
“You actually don’t need to do this.”
“Oh, my God!!”
The explosive in their hands even slipped and fell toward the ground.
“Damn it, why are you here again?!”
Tony turned around and immediately recognized Lancelot, who had spoken to him, then shouted angrily.
“I told you, don’t suddenly speak behind someone!
You could give someone a heart attack!
Besides, don’t you know I’m installing a bomb?
If I accidentally attach something incorrectly, I’ll be the first one to blow myself up!”
“Tony, this man is…”
Although Yinsen had nearly been scared to death, Tony’s words made him realize that Tony knew the identity of this person who had suddenly appeared.
“This creature whose species I can’t even figure out—whether he’s human or a ghost!
He’s always suddenly appearing beside me, and he loves appearing from behind.
Because of him, I feel like my heart is going to develop heart disease!”
Tony pointed at Lancelot while grumbling fiercely.
“Greetings, Mr.
Yinsen.
I am an honest and just knight.
You may call me Saber.”
Lancelot introduced himself as well.
However, because he was carrying out a mission, he did not reveal his true name.
Yinsen, however, clearly did not simply believe Lancelot’s claim of being an “honest and just knight.” Still, considering the current situation, he chose not to say anything about it.
“Don’t listen to his nonsense!
Aside from the fact that this guy dresses like a medieval knight, there’s absolutely nothing honest about him!
The reason I’m here is because this guy pushed me straight toward those terrorists outside.
I could have escaped otherwise!”
Tony openly exposed Lancelot’s misdeeds.
“And this guy’s not even clearly human or a ghost!
Before they brought you in here, he had already come to see me once.
Then, right before my eyes, his body turned into little points of light and disappeared!”
“Oh, God, you know, at the time I thought I’d gone crazy and was hallucinating!
Especially because, before that, this guy actually told me to use my face to block three rockets!
Three!
My hair was practically burned off because of it!”
Whenever he talked about Lancelot, Tony’s chest seemed to fill with so much frustration that he started rambling nonstop, exactly like the chatterbox from New York.
Lancelot could only feel somewhat helpless because everything Tony said was true; Tony really had been pushed out by him.
“Mr.
Stark, I sincerely apologize for what happened before.
At that time, I truly did not have the ability to get you out of there, so I could only ensure your safety temporarily.
Now that you have found a way to escape, I will also help you.”
“Then tell me, how exactly are you going to help me?
“Of course not.
Mr.
Stark, don’t you need to hold this door for a while?
In that case, there is no need for something like a bomb at all.
Let me guard this door.”
“You’re going to guard this door?”
Tony looked at Lancelot skeptically.
He had absolutely no trust in the man who had pushed him out from behind the rocks and caused him to end up in this miserable place.
“Exactly.
Let me guard it!”
Lancelot raised his right hand.
The sword Arondight appeared in his grasp.
He drove the tip of the sword into the ground, instantly shattering the stone floor into pieces.
Yinsen stared in amazement at the enormous sword that had suddenly appeared, then turned to look at Tony.
He had no idea what was happening and could only leave the decision to Tony.
“If you think you can use that giant sword to guard this door, then go guard it outside!
I’m still going to install the bomb inside as a precaution!”
It was obvious that Tony was not going to easily trust someone who had once betrayed him.
“Very well.
I’ll guard the outside of the door.
Don’t worry, Mr.
Stark.
This bomb will never have to explode.”
Lancelot once again transformed into points of light and disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was already standing outside the door.
“Is he human or a ghost?”
Watching Lancelot disappear, Yinsen’s eyes widened in shock.
He even took off his glasses and wiped them before finally being unable to resist asking Tony.
Tony rolled his eyes upward.
“I’d like to know whether he’s human or a ghost too!
Right now, I just want to finish this bomb, assemble the armor, and go home together!”
“As for whether he can hold off the people outside, I don’t care at all.
It’ll be even better if those guys outside beat him to a pulp!”
“All right.
We’ll go home together.”
The two worked together to install the bomb, then went inside and began assembling the armor.
Because of their strange movements, the terrorists monitoring them noticed that something was wrong and sent people to investigate the situation.
However, when the investigators arrived at the door, they saw a man wearing a complete suit of armor slowly putting on his helmet.
Under the confused gazes of the two investigators, Lancelot raised the great sword in his hand and pointed it directly at them.
“No passage beyond this point!”