"We'd originally planned to use the materials they gave us to build missiles to make a suit of Iron Man Armor, then use the ammunition inside the missiles to blast our way out."
Tony sat at the table, explaining their original plan to Fang Bie.
"I'm still curious. By your account, you were one of the biggest arms dealers in your world. How did people from such a remote region manage to capture you?" Fang Bie asked, his tone a little odd, as if he were hinting at something.
For the past few days, Tony had been busy either building Iron Man Armor or exploring this new world. It wasn't until Fang Bie asked him that he picked up on the hidden meaning in his words.
"You mean... someone gave them information? Otherwise, how would they have known where to find me?" Tony was brilliant. He suddenly realized what Fang Bie was getting at.
"I don't know much about your world. I'm only asking a question." Fang Bie shook his head. He only wanted to plant the seed of suspicion in Tony's mind, so he wouldn't suffer a sudden setback like he had in the original story.
If Tony took the matter seriously, then with his intelligence and influence, surely he could find the person who wanted him dead.
"Fine, let's set that aside for now. I plan for us to move out first thing tomorrow morning. Time here seems to have stopped at the same point as it did in our world. Since we came to this world, no time has passed over there."
Tony glanced at Yinsen, who was still outside, busily trying to combine pieces of wood into all sorts of strange objects. He shook his head helplessly and continued.
"To prepare for the worst, we need a backup plan."
Fang Bie listened quietly. He wasn't very good at handling situations like this, so he knew better than to interrupt.
Tony had been thrown into the role, but as a genuine arms dealer, he had to have a keen eye for war. Otherwise, he could never have achieved what he had.
After thinking it over for a while, he laid out a detailed plan for the next day.
"If our guess is right and it's still the same time as yesterday, the people watching us should still be eating. We'll have five minutes to get out of sight of the cameras."
Tony dipped his finger in water and drew a map on the table. There was a security camera in each of the room's upper corners, both connected to the terrorists' control room.
"Once we get out of there, we'll hide somewhere and release a flood." He turned to look at Fang Bie. "Fang, if you can still dig through walls, try to release the water from as high up as possible. The drop will give it enough force to smash open the iron gate!"
"Yinsen said you were captured in a huge canyon. If the plan goes smoothly, the flood should sweep the bandits right into it, giving us a chance to run straight out!" Fang Bie followed his train of thought.
"Right. That's the best-case scenario. They'd never expect us to have a trick like this, so they wouldn't know how to deal with it. Once the water sweeps them away, we'll have plenty of time to leave and make for the desert!"
Tony sounded confident. "As long as I can contact the civilized world, I have countless ways to take these terrorists out!"
"But what if time has already passed, or if some of them are standing on the high ground by the entrance?" Fang Bie asked. "Your armor isn't finished yet. If they really are waiting by the door with guns, like you said, they could turn us into a sieve the moment we step outside!"
"Well..." Tony was a very confident man. Otherwise, he couldn't have trusted his own judgment so much. Still, Fang Bie's question gave him reason for concern.
If that happened, they might make it out of the cave alive, only to die before they could get out of the desert.
"But no one from their side has come here in all this time, so they probably haven't noticed anything..." Fang Bie continued. "Still, we'd better be careful. If we go out the front and a group of them is waiting on the cliff above the entrance, won't we be helpless?"
"You mean you have a way to deal with that?" Tony was quick to catch on. Fang Bie looked worried, but not anxious, and Tony realized there was more to it.
"Well..." Fang Bie held out a helmet. He had made it from some extra Iron Ingots he'd mined the day before while digging for coal. It was the second-most protective helmet in the original version of MC.
Unlike the shallow cap in the game, this helmet looked much more like what you'd expect a helmet to be.
It resembled a full suit of ancient armor. The entire face was covered in iron, with only two holes for the eyes, making it look incredibly sturdy.
Tony ran his hand over the helmet and tapped it lightly. He had already formed an opinion. "A helmet made of wrought iron with a little carbon added. Did you make this too?"
"Of course. We just need to mine some iron ore, and we can make a full suit of armor, helmet included. What do you think?" Fang Bie asked.
"This helmet is better quality than the iron plates I hammered out by hand. At the very least, ordinary rifle rounds couldn't penetrate it. The three of us could wear this armor and be safe from anything short of a direct hit from a rocket!"
Tony suddenly thought of something. "Does this gear have impact-resistant padding? If we survive an attack from the outside but the force of the impact kills us, that'd be a pretty stupid way to die!"
Fang Bie shook his head. "Don't worry. Until this armor is completely destroyed, it'll block 80 percent of the force from any attack you take. As long as it hasn't been destroyed, you won't be in mortal danger!"
"That really is a divine weapon!" Tony exclaimed. "So where can I buy one? Don't worry, I'm not short on money!"
As if by magic, Fang Bie pulled a Stone Pickaxe out of his Backpack. "I won't take your money. Want gear like this? Then come mining with me, Tony!"
Fang Bie had been looking for a chance to put these two free laborers to work for ages. Now that he finally had one, how could he let it go to waste?
"We only have one day. I hope we can mine enough ore to outfit all three of us!" Fang Bie swung his pickaxe at a pit behind the house. The two men behind him did the same.
The mining expedition began!
Before you continue