At Last, a Glimpse of Civilization

"Quick! We need shelter!" After pressing the final button to launch the missile, Tony frantically shoved the two people beside him.

"Why?" Fang Bie asked, not quite understanding. They were on the verge of a great success, so what was this about?

"That was a Jericho Missile we just activated. It'll release countless tiny shrapnel fragments when it launches, tearing through the entire area. If you don't want to be blown to pieces, you'd better hurry!" Tony said, his face trembling.

"What!" Fang Bie and Yinsen panicked at once. They had no time to finish building their defenses. They pulled out their Iron Pickaxes and began digging downward as fast as they could.

Tony did the same. He had made the weapon himself, so he knew just how terrifying it was. He swung his pick even harder than the two beside him.

Soon, thanks to their frantic efforts, a hole five or six meters deep opened up beside them. At that moment, the missile's countdown abruptly stopped.

The gunfire had fallen silent. Noisy footsteps rang in their ears. Fang Bie was still placing the last block of Stone when Tony grabbed him and yanked him down.

"Cover your ears!" Tony said, clamping his hands over his own ears before crouching tightly in a corner.

Fang Bie followed suit and crouched beside him. The three of them covered their ears in the cramped, four-square-meter space, looking rather ridiculous.

Above them, a group of strange-looking people stormed into the defensive structure they had just built. They first swept the area with gunfire. When they saw no one, they looked up—and spotted the missile mounted on the Stone.

"Bang!" Someone couldn't resist firing at the missile. It was supposed to be precisely guided toward the valley, but the bullet struck it and it suddenly exploded!

There were no screams—not even one. It was as if everyone had been muted. All they could hear was the dust raised by the blast billowing across the desert.

The entire space had been sealed off, leaving not a sliver of light. They could only hear the endless, deafening rumble outside.

Fang Bie trembled. He hadn't felt the earlier, wave-like power of heaven and earth, but down in the underground space, he could feel the surrounding ground shaking without pause.

After that missile was destroyed, the remaining ones launched successfully. Following their preset paths, they ricocheted through the valley again and again.

Jericho Missiles had been created to wipe everything off the map. Tony had said that under an attack like this, no one could survive.

That was why this stretch of desert, already scoured by a flood, had now endured another round of missile strikes. Those men had been pulverized in the violent clouds of dust, leaving not even a trace of their bodies.

"Tony, you nearly got us killed!" Fang Bie said angrily. His ears were still ringing, and he clearly wasn't feeling too well.

Tony looked at them apologetically. "I'm sorry. I should've explained."

The three of them waited until the rumbling had completely died down before daring to emerge from the foul air.

The holes in Minecraft wouldn't suffocate them, but the air from the three of them breathing was enough to make the already small space unbearably stale.

The heavy stench of blood and gunpowder hit them. It was even worse than before. The armed bandits and their guns had all been reduced to scattered fragments by the massive bombardment.

"All right, mission accomplished. Let's go!" Tony said, giving his trademark shrug.

He was wearing a jacket that those men had apparently found somewhere. It didn't fit him particularly well, but somehow gave him a roguish air.

"Where do we go now?" Fang Bie might have been a master of theory, but when it came to the real situation, he knew nothing. The other two knew he wasn't a native of this world, so they gave his question some thought.

"Hm?" Tony merely glanced at Yinsen, and the bald doctor quickly began explaining.

"We're in the Central African desert. If we go north, we'll come across some villages and towns. If we go south, there are some American military bases. As for which way we go, you'll have to ask Tony."

Yinsen pointed out the directions, then passed the question back to Tony.

"Do we even have to ask? We're going south!" Tony immediately chose their direction. Given his relationship with the military, he didn't need to worry about being treated unfairly like those refugees.

"Don't look at me. I'll go wherever you two go." Seeing that the other two seemed to want his opinion, Fang Bie shrugged just like Tony. "I don't know a soul here, and I don't have any family or anything. I can only tag along with you guys!"

"Hahaha! No problem. Stick with me, and you'll be safe through any storm!" Tony laughed and patted his shoulder, seeming quite pleased with his answer.

The three of them were now walking across the endless desert. If they hadn't known the road ahead was definitely the right one, and had no unlimited supply of water and enough food, anyone would have felt hopeless in their situation.

Those who had never been to the desert would find it hard to understand the despair of looking around and finding nowhere to rest, or the loneliness that grew out of that despair.

There was no wind or water in a place like this, only light and heat. But at night, the icy cold would seep into your body, making you even more fragile when you were already exhausted from the dryness.

Unlike the original story, Iron Man, who should have spent three months in the cave, had disappeared from this world for only a month and a half in total, counting the month he spent recovering from his injuries.

So after the three of them had walked through the desert for half a day, they could already faintly hear the sound of vehicles.

The American soldiers hadn't given up searching for him. Tony even spotted a familiar vehicle in the distance: a military jeep. He recognized it because of the people sitting inside.

"Hey!!!" He shouted at the vehicle, quickly catching the attention of the people there. Fang Bie and Yinsen stood beside him, shouting and waving along with him.

Their long-lost civilized world—their billionaire was back!

Tony's lips curled into a smile. The playboy charm that had faded somewhat during his hardships began to return in the warm atmosphere.

He hadn't experienced life-and-death farewells, after all, so his mindset was nothing like the one in the original story. Now he was simply a traveler, weather-beaten and road-worn, returning after enduring danger and hardship!