Tony: Can You Imagine Seeing Hope, Then Suddenly Falling into Despair?

Chapter 35: Tony: Can You Imagine Seeing hope, Then Suddenly Falling into Despair?

As a genius officially recognized by Marvel, known as "the man cursed by knowledge," Tony Stark had often felt that his IQ wasn't enough over the past month.

Why?

Why had that guy in the black mask knocked him out?

What grudge did I have against him? What did I ever do to him?

He had clearly been on the verge of escaping, only to be dragged back and locked up for another month.

Most bizarrely, he was still being watched by the same group of armed men during that month. It was just that those guys no longer had weapons, while another group, obviously much better equipped, had them blockaded outside the valley.

From the look of it, the original armed group had become hostages too!

Every day, those hostages had to obediently line up at the valley entrance to collect their meals from the cafeteria. Then they would send someone into the cave to bring food to Tony and Yinsen.

Whenever the weather was good enough for them to get some fresh air, Tony was astonished to discover that the people outside the valley had ordered those hostages to keep the valley clean.

Their tents had to be pitched neatly, drainage ditches had to be dug around them, and they had to use the newly built toilets for shit and piss. Anyone who dared relieve themselves wherever they pleased would be tied to the flagpole and baked in the sun for a day, with no food.

The tents couldn't be dirty or messy either. They had to be cleaned every day, and even the blankets had to be folded perfectly.

Failing any of those requirements meant punishment—and no food.

Were these kidnapped hostages, or new recruits attending military training?

When Tony Stark asked for the cave to be cleaned as well, he was refused. The reason was actually this: he was not the hostage of the people outside the valley, but the hostage of the people inside the valley, so he had no right to make demands of them.

Fine, so my vassal's vassal isn't my vassal?

You people really understood that medieval feudal lord nonsense!

No matter how Tony Stark thought about it, he couldn't make sense of it. So, as usual, he asked Yinsen, who spoke several languages, "Who exactly are those people outside the valley?"

With a numb expression, Yinsen answered mechanically, "You've asked me that one hundred and thirty-seven times."

The people outside the valley all wore gray combat uniforms and black masks with no markings. The few who entered and exited the valley never communicated, and Tony couldn't go outside, so he had no way to learn anything about them.

What made it worse was that they looked highly trained and well-equipped. By the time Tony woke up, his armor had vanished. Unarmed and empty-handed, he had no chance of breaking out.

Life in the valley was just the same day repeated over and over.

Just when Tony Stark thought he would be imprisoned like this forever, on the morning of the thirtieth day, the people outside the valley began dismantling their camp.

Once the camp had been cleared away, Sabre, wearing his black mask, led his action team into the valley. The team members carried crates of weapons over to the Ten Rings Gang, while Sabre personally led people to return the armor to Tony Stark.

"Put it on!" Sabre ordered coldly in English.

"What?" Tony Stark was dumbfounded.

Sabre ignored him and turned toward the Ten Rings Gang members. In the same cold tone, he said, "Pick up your weapons. Once he puts on the armor, you will..."

Taking a deep breath, Sabre delivered the Great Demon Lord's personal instruction: "Continue the battle from a month ago!"

Although he couldn't understand the Great Demon Lord's bizarre demand, he had to carry it out without hesitation if he didn't want to be remembered by that petty man again.

Over the years, the Great Demon Lord had done plenty of crazy... ahem, things ordinary people couldn't understand.

"..." XN

After Sabre finished speaking, the valley fell deathly silent.

What kind of operation was this?

Like loading an old save in a single-player game?

When they saw the leader finish speaking and raise his wrist to check the time, Tony and the Ten Rings Gang finally realized that they were serious.

"Yinsen, help me!" Tony hurriedly called for assistance.

The Ten Rings Gang members quickly picked up the light weapons from the crates, but when facing the people Sabre had brought, they didn't even have the courage to put a finger on the trigger. Over the past month, those armed men had truly been tamed like raw recruits.

In a fluster, Yinsen helped Tony put on the armor, even using the hoist Sabre had provided.

"You too. Take the submachine gun." Sabre pointed at the unarmed Yinsen.

"You two, go back to the cave entrance. You few, go surround him. Everyone else, take a few steps back."

"That's right. Back up to that spot."

Sabre looked like an on-site commander, meticulously carrying out the instructions of a master of micromanagement.

"Take your positions. Once we leave, start fighting!"

The group swiftly packed up and strode out of the valley, vanishing into the endless yellow sands.

The Ten Rings Gang members cautiously gathered at the valley entrance to peek outside. Only after confirming that they had left did they begin cheering and weeping tears of joy.

"They're gone! Those demons are finally gone!"

"Allah be praised."

"Eternal Heaven bless us."

"Amen."

Tony Stark's emotions had been thoroughly scrambled too, but he realized this was the perfect chance to escape and immediately opened fire on the Ten Rings Gang.

Though he had watched the Ten Rings Gang get punished badly over the past month, Tony hadn't forgotten how they had treated him a month ago.

There was still a magnet lodged in his chest.

The jubilant Ten Rings Gang members were suddenly attacked and hastily returned fire, but the light weapons in their hands couldn't do anything to Tony's armor.

The flamethrowers on either side spewed out dragons of fire, engulfing the valley in flames. Tony then grabbed Yinsen and shot into the sky.

The two flew a little farther than they had in the original story, but the armor still came apart in midair. After all, everything in the cave had been handmade, and the tools were inferior to those Tony normally used. There was no such thing as machining precision, so the joints were inevitably weak and couldn't withstand the immense pulling force.

Aboard a cloaked transport aircraft in the sky, Sabre watched Tony Stark escape successfully and saw that the U.S. military helicopters were about to arrive. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

"Director, mission complete. The target has escaped successfully."

Anyone hearing that would have thought his mission had been to rescue someone.

"Good. You can return to the team from now on." Lin Hao waved a hand from the video screen.

"Thank you, Director." Sabre was overjoyed.

The hard years were finally over.

Far away in New York, Lin Hao had already completed a bottom-fishing acquisition of Stark Industries.

Unfortunately, only 31% of the shares were circulating on the market. More than 42% were still in Tony Stark's hands, while that old fox Obadiah held another 20%. The remaining scattered shares were in the hands of stubborn retail investors and certain institutions or individuals who knew the inside story.

Obadiah was the mastermind behind it all, so naturally he would not sell his shares. He had originally planned to buy low as well, but over the past month, he had suddenly lost contact with the Ten Rings Gang. He was anxious, frightened, and uncertain, terrified that Tony Stark had already returned and was secretly gathering evidence. He had no mind to meddle in the stock market.

Not until today did he receive advance news that Tony had been rescued by the Air Force and was on his way to a base in Afghanistan.

Only then did Obadiah order his traders to start buying at the bottom.

"Sir, all the sell orders for Stark Industries have disappeared!" The trader was equally astonished.

Stark Industries' stock price had been falling for the past three months, falling so far that he had lost interest in even looking at it. But now that he looked, he discovered that all the sell orders had vanished.

If he still couldn't realize what had happened, he didn't deserve to work on Wall Street.

"Sir, is Tony Stark coming back?"

Naturally, Obadiah didn't answer him. Furious, the old fox smashed the phone in his hand.

"Who is it?" Obadiah couldn't help suspecting the Ten Rings Gang members he had lost contact with a month ago. Muttering to himself, he said, "Could it be those filthy worms?"

"Damn it! Taking the commission wasn't enough for them? They dared to come after my stock?"

Obadiah decided that after testing Tony's attitude, he would definitely go take a look in the desert. If those worms really were causing trouble, he swore he would kill them all.

Meanwhile, aboard the plane, Tony complained to Rhodey, his friend who had spent three months searching for him. "You have no idea what I've been through these past three months..."

Rhodey looked at the magnet in his friend's chest and sighed deeply. "I know."

"No, you don't!"

At that moment, Tony was starting to sound like a broken record. "I thought I could escape a month ago, but I never imagined a group of such freaks would show up!"

"They actually kept me imprisoned for another month... Can you imagine what it feels like to see hope, then suddenly fall into despair?"

"They're completely insane!"

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