The move quickly alerted the flaming monster. He sneered at Luo Xia. The Extremis Virus made him immune to most firearms. Bullets melted into molten droplets when they hit his body, bursting apart like drops of water splashing against him and greatly reducing the damage. And the virus's extraordinary regenerative ability let him completely ignore those injuries.
At the same time, his far-superior physical abilities allowed him to close in on his opponent with great speed.
Once he got close, even a spit of his could burn someone to death.
Unfortunately for him, the Pulse Pistol in Luo Xia's hand didn't fire metal bullets. Luo Xia aimed at the flaming figure and pulled the trigger. A series of faint whooshes rang out.
Pale blue pulses of energy cut straight through the air, unaffected by gravity or wind, and struck the man squarely in the chest.
The injury he expected never came. Instead, it felt as though a heavy hammer had smashed into his chest. The heat inside his body did nothing to lessen the impact of the energy. The pulse energy converted from the AllSpark wasn't some electromagnetic weapon from modern technology designed to burn out electronic components. It was a solid mass of energy that could physically damage matter.
It was like a tiny grenade going off in the man's chest, blasting a huge hole in it and exposing his glowing red ribs. That would have been a fatal wound for an ordinary person, but his flesh was already healing at a visible speed.
What kind of pistol is this? It's so powerful! I can take five shots at most... That thought had barely formed in his mind when it became the last one he would ever have.
The next instant, he was swallowed by the pulse rounds.
The Pulse Pistol was fully automatic, after all!
Without hesitation, Luo Xia emptied the magazine. He knew it wouldn't be easy to hit someone with the speed and agility of an enhanced human. His first shot had caught the man off guard. Once he was prepared, it would be hard to land a second hit.
Forty pulse rounds blasted a huge crater into the spot where the man stood. Not only was his body gone; even the weathered rocks exposed beneath the ground had been reduced to rubble.
As the dust settled, Luo Xia saw the man's mangled corpse. Only his head was more or less intact. The rest had melted together with the gravel and sand in the heat.
Luo Xia and Tony walked over to the body, stepping onto the half-vitrified sand and feeling the terrifying heat rolling toward them.
"What the hell was that?" Tony asked Luo Xia.
"Who knows? Maybe he ate too much fast food and got overheated."
Tony couldn't help rolling his eyes. If any fast-food brand offered that kind of effect, he'd have Pepper buy it out at once.
"By the way, can I take a look at that pistol?" Tony stared at Luo Xia's weapon, eyes shining.
Luo Xia was generous enough to toss it to him. "It's yours. But you have to keep it a secret."
"Keep it secret? Did you steal it?" Tony asked, puzzled.
For a show-off like Tony, any outstanding invention or advanced technology ought to be known to the whole world as his own creation. He wanted people to look at him with admiration.
Luo Xia couldn't be bothered to explain. He simply reached out to take the Pulse Pistol back.
"Come on, my friend. I promise I'll keep it secret," Tony hastily assured him.
The scientific genius called out to Luo Fei, then took his temporary robot assistant into the cave to study the weapon. Luo Xia found Yinsen and asked him, "Now that we've taken out this group of terrorists, even the U.S. military should be able to find us, no matter how useless they are. Do you really plan to stay here?"
"My people need me. That's the only reason I have to live as a doctor," Yinsen said with a smile.
"That's a noble ideal. But even as a doctor, how many people can you save? There isn't a single righteous side in the wars on this land. The people who can solve this problem aren't the Americans or those so-called freedom fighters. For all you know, the Americans might be the ones persecuting you next time," Luo Xia urged him.
As a former soldier, Luo Xia always hoped that his comrades-in-arms could live safer, longer lives.
"Do you know, there's a legend in my village? If we never give up in the face of hardship, an emissary of God will descend. She'll be more beautiful than the most beautiful woman in the world, and she'll cure anyone's pain or illness. She can even bring someone who's just died back to life. So I want to hold on and see whether the story is true," Yinsen said with deep reverence.
Seeing how determined Yinsen was, Luo Xia stopped trying to persuade him. Great people always had their own convictions. They deserved admiration, and there was no need to interfere in their lives. All he could do was quietly wish them well.
After Luo Xia and the others wiped out the terrorists, the U.S. military suddenly seemed to gain a buff that doubled its efficiency. It took them only three hours to send a request to communicate.
After confirming Tony's identity, they sent a military helicopter to pick up all three of them. At Tony's insistence, Luo Fei, who had turned into an off-road vehicle, was also transported to the nearest U.S. military base in a military cargo plane.
Luo Xia and Yinsen had no known identities. Although Tony vouched for them, they were still detained in the base's holding rooms for questioning.
Sitting in the isolation room, Luo Xia studied the short agent across from him, whose hairline was painfully high. Could this unremarkable-looking man really be the legendary agent Coulson, the future Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
All Luo Xia could do was marvel that appearances were deceiving.
After spending several days at the military base, Luo Xia still wasn't free. Instead, he was questioned repeatedly to verify his identity.
What Luo Xia hadn't expected was that even S.H.I.E.L.D. had been drawn into this.
"Mr. Luo Xia, is there something on my face?" Phil Coulson asked, puzzled.
"Oh, no. I was just wondering what S.H.I.E.L.D. is exactly. Some kind of federal secret service?" Luo Xia changed the subject.
"An international intelligence and security organization. It's not the same as your federal secret service. Anyway, let's get back to business. According to the information you provided earlier, we couldn't find any matching identity records in China. Could you explain that?" Phil Coulson said to Luo Xia.
"You couldn't find anything?" Luo Xia said, sounding neither disappointed nor relieved.
The identity he'd given them was his real identity from his previous life. Deep down, he'd still held on to a tiny hope that he hadn't left his old world, and that his family and friends were still alive. He wouldn't have minded the trouble, either.
But from Coulson's answer, it was clear this was no longer the world he'd come from.
"Mr. Luo Xia, we need to confirm your identity so we can assess you accurately. Can you tell me who you are now?" Coulson prompted him, seeing that Luo Xia had drifted off.
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