After the Flood

As a highly educated man, he knew all too well how terrifying water could be. Especially after personally experiencing a flood, the horror of that natural disaster had left an impression he would never forget.

The bald man watched the water pour down like a waterfall, its torrent growing more powerful under the surging pressure. He knew that if they didn't run now, it would soon be too late!

Led by him, the group ran in a panic out of the cave, to the other side of the iron door.

Only then did they remember that, in order to capture a man named Tony Stark, they had deliberately chosen this exceptionally deep cave to keep him from escaping.

Now, the passage they had chosen to prevent him from getting away had become a road to their deaths. The winding, twisting cave, full of strange turns, had become their greatest obstacle to escape.

Outside the cave, the roaring water did not slow down. Instead, it grew even heavier and louder!

"Rumble!" The muffled thunder of the water sounded like a death knell, echoing constantly in their ears. For the men guarding the cave, their fates had already become impossible to see, know, fathom, or touch beneath the relentless flood!

"Boom!" An explosion rang out from the highest cave. The roaring water seemed capable of swallowing every voice and burying everything in its path!

"I should've killed them all when I had the chance!" Looking back at the water in the Dark Dimension, black as a demon, the bald man could only leave them with those regretful final words.

In the end, they still couldn't escape the pursuing flood. Under its immense pressure, a single wave swept them off their feet.

"Whoosh!" After the torrent swept through, the desert, which should have been utterly dry, was now filled with precious water that would be difficult to come by again.

But beneath this precious water lay rows of lives that had been alive moments ago, the munitions produced by Stark Industries, which was like an ammunition factory, and all the evil that had been buried with them!

Fang Bie looked at the scene, which resembled a lake in the desert, and sighed. He thought of the enemies buried beneath the water and couldn't help feeling a little melancholy.

His melancholy didn't last long. Thanks to the wooden door's mysterious power, the three of them could move freely through the vast flood, and they had also collected a large quantity of weapons.

In the words of Tony, who had now returned to his usual arrogant self, "Every piece of military equipment made by Stark Industries has undergone rigorous waterproof testing. This kind of flood is nothing. Even at the bottom of the deep sea, it can stay perfectly preserved without taking on water for at least two days!"

The weapons were free for the taking, so the three of them sorted them by type, organized them, and crammed them into their Backpacks.

Unlike the weapons that had been officially declared and registered for a long time, this batch that Fang Bie and the others now had was completely untraceable.

That meant no one could find out where they came from. They could use the weapons whenever they wanted without drawing attention, and the weapons that had disappeared into the desert would leave no trace.

"Do you think something this big will attract anyone's attention?" Fang Bie asked with some concern.

"In a densely populated area or a city, maybe. But..." The expression on Yinsen's face was hard to read. "This is the Central Asian Desert. All kinds of armies roam around here, and ordinary people don't come to this place."

Tony was even more blunt. "I've been missing for more than ten days. If this were just an ordinary valley, the military would've found me by now. This valley's so well hidden, they might not even have anyone to collect the bodies!"

Fang Bie thought about it and realized Tony had a point. He recalled the movie he had once watched. Tony seemed to have flown a long way in the Iron Man Armor, then traveled on foot for a long time before encountering the helicopter that had been searching for him.

And according to the fans' theories, that helicopter had probably been sent by his close friend Rhodey without authorization. Otherwise, there was no way Tony would've happened to be on that particular aircraft.

Being missing in the desert for more than half a month was practically the same as being declared dead. He hadn't gone missing for some other reason; he'd been attacked by bandits. Given how vicious the people in this region were, no one should've expected him to survive.

Now Fang Bie had collected all the water in a bucket. He only needed two buckets. He filled in the rest with stone blocks, and the torrent that had been pouring down vanished right before their eyes.

Once the massive flood below lost its source, it drained away even faster than it had poured in. That was one of the strange things about infinite water.

Where a water source existed, the water would keep flowing, never running out.

But once the source disappeared, the water itself vanished at incredible speed. To the eye, it seemed as though it had seeped into the ground. Yet even the water flowing over steel or directly down the cliff walls seemed to meet some kind of strange resistance, then disappeared inch by inch.

"We've been in the water for two hours. Shall we go down and take a look?" Fang Bie suggested. Each of the three carried an assault rifle as they cautiously descended. The name Stark Industries was engraved on the guns.

Tony noticed the two of them looking at the rifles, and his expression turned cold. "I'll find the traitor in my company sooner or later!"

That person was responsible for everything that had happened to him. Even though he was basically safe now, he couldn't forget what he had been through when his life was on the line.

Still, Tony was quick to regain control of himself. He soon settled his emotions and followed the other two down into the valley.

The three of them descended using the same stairs that had been dug out earlier. This time, though, they carefully sealed every opening with stone. Once they emerged, the cave was completely closed off, turning this entire space into a sealed cavern that no outsider could imagine existed.

No one could have guessed that, inside a wall more than a meter thick, there was an artificial passage carved out like a stonework corridor. The portal Fang Bie had buried earlier was at the far end of that passage, and the area where the two of them had once rested had now been completely filled with stone, without a single gap.

The water had completely receded, but the dampness left behind by the droplets would not disappear from the cave so easily.

A damp, fishy, stale smell hung in the air, making the three of them even more cautious as they walked slowly.

They all carried guns and wore the silver armor. The water had flooded the valley for more than an hour, but no one could be sure whether anyone had survived the disaster.

In the silent valley of death, only their footsteps and breathing could be heard.