Arrival and the Search

The Middle East, a US military base. A plane descended from the sky.

People were already waiting to receive it, and they were all military personnel.

Recently, the only people getting off planes from Stark Industries were lawless mercenaries. Letting them into a US military base without strict supervision—who knew what they might do here?

But this time, as the soldiers stood guard around the plane and watched the people step off, they were completely baffled.

Unlike what they'd expected, the people getting off the plane weren't a crowd of weird-looking misfits or exceptionally vicious mercenaries. There were only two of them: a man and a woman. And both seemed completely harmless.

"Excuse me, why are there only two of you on the plane? What about the other mercenaries? Where are they?" an officer couldn't help asking Saitama and Skye.

"The other mercenaries? They might have gotten a lead on the way here, so they decided to parachute out." Skye looked utterly perplexed, as if she had no idea what was going on. Women really were good at acting. Even a woman like Skye, who'd never learned how, could pull it off.

"They parachuted out on the way here?" The officer was stunned. He hadn't expected the mercenaries to pull a stunt like that.

"They must have gotten some kind of news. But what's really despicable is that they didn't even think to tell us. They're discriminating against us. They think we don't look like mercenaries at all, and even take us for con artists. It's outrageous." Skye began to complain.

Looking at Skye and Saitama, the officer also thought they didn't look like mercenaries at all. Con artists seemed much more likely.

They both looked so soft and well-groomed, with no calluses on their hands and no sign they'd ever trained. He even found himself doubting that either of them had used a gun much.

With an appearance like that, it was no wonder people would mistake them for con artists rather than mercenaries.

But it had nothing to do with him. Skye and Saitama had been hired by Stark Industries. Even if they were con artists, Stark Industries was the one getting swindled. Besides, mercenaries had been coming to their base every day lately, disrupting their routine and causing all sorts of trouble. Granted, it was because Stark Industries' boss, Tony Stark, had gone missing.

But Tony Stark wasn't exactly popular with the men to begin with. And since the mercenaries had made a mess of the base, the soldiers were actually happy to see Stark Industries get taken in by con artists.

"Come with me. This is where the mercenaries hired by Stark Industries can rest for now. We've also prepared plenty of equipment for your operations. Well, the two of you won't need much. A single Jeep should be enough for you. By the way, this is the same model of Happy Jeep that Tony Stark was riding before he went missing. It has plenty of water and food, so you won't have to worry about running out while you're searching for Tony Stark. If it's just the two of you, this Happy Jeep can hold enough water and food for more than half a month. But I don't recommend loading too much. The weather here is too hot. I think coming back at least once a week would be best. And then there's..."

The officer was certainly doing his duty, talking on and on at great length. Of course, it was also possible he was just a chatterbox. Or maybe it was because there was a woman here. Skye was quite beautiful, and after three years in the military, even a sow would look like Diao Chan. Finding a beautiful woman to his taste in a place like this was no easy thing.

Skye was quick to catch on. She realized the officer loved to talk—or, more accurately, loved talking to her. It seemed he'd tell her just about anything. So Skye started steering the conversation, drawing all kinds of information out of him.

When Tony Stark had gone missing, where it happened, how many people had searched for him, which places had already been checked—Skye asked about everything, useful or not.

"Let's go, Saitama. Come on, we're heading out! For a hundred million dollars!" Skye called to him, beaming with excitement.

"Oh, right." Saitama responded woodenly.

The two got into the Happy Jeep the officer had mentioned—the model Tony Stark had been riding before he went missing—and headed in the direction the officer said was most likely to lead them to Tony.

It looked like they were going to rely on the Happy Jeep to get around, but in reality, Skye only needed to keep up appearances. Once she'd driven it somewhere out of sight, Saitama would head out to search on his own.

At Saitama's speed, he probably wouldn't need long to cover the entire Middle East. Skye would keep track of his location. The two would stay in touch, so at least Saitama wouldn't get lost.

Endless yellow sand stretched in every direction, with the occasional speck of green. The place looked desolate.

"If it weren't for the hundred million dollars, I'd never come to a godforsaken place like this." Even with the air conditioning, Skye felt stuffy sitting in the car. The landscape was almost entirely one color, which only made her feel more depressed.

"A hundred million dollars. Hey, Skye, how much is a hundred million dollars?" Saitama had heard her say it again and again, and couldn't help asking.

"Hmm, a hundred million dollars is... a whole lot of money. More than enough to last us our entire lives, even if we ate, drank, and had fun as much as we wanted."

"Oh." Saitama blinked, still without a clear idea of what that meant.

"If we had a hundred million dollars, we wouldn't have to buy discounted food at the supermarket every time. We could buy fresh, top-quality ingredients." Seeing that Saitama didn't seem to grasp the concept, Skye thought for a moment and explained it in the way he'd understand best.

"Really!" Saitama's eyes widened in shock.

"Of course. That's assuming we get our hands on that hundred million. So whether we keep eating discounted food or get the freshest, best-quality ingredients from now on depends on you." Skye patted Saitama on the shoulder.

"No problem. Leave it to me." Saitama said, eagerly opening the car door and jumping out, ready to set off.

"Wait!" Skye hurriedly called after him.

"Huh?"

"Put this on. It's a tracking device, and it has a communication function too. That way we can keep in touch."

"Skye, you seem pretty impressive."

"Of course. I'm completely useless in a fight, but I'm a very skilled hacker. I'm confident I can handle logistics."