Leon's safety and even his life were a mystery. Anxiety gripped Tony, who refused to sit passively any longer, and his palm cannon charged, firing a blast at Arcee.
Bzz--
Arcee raised a hand to block the damaging beam. Vaguely, through the holographic projection, one could even see her actual metal arm scorched red.
After blocking several of Tony's palm cannons in succession, even Arcee's gold-titanium alloy body began to show signs of melting.
Although she did not want to hurt Tony, in order to maintain her operational capability, Arcee decided to take the initiative, beginning close-quarters hand-to-hand combat with Tony inside the Mark 4.
For a moment.
Even though his armor had been upgraded to the fourth generation, Tony was still completely suppressed by Arcee, a battle-hardened representative of the agility-type warriors among the Transformers.
The combat techniques and agility of both sides were entirely on different levels; Tony could not touch Arcee even once.
In this relatively cramped, artificially excavated space, Arcee displayed the stance of "one woman holding the pass, ten thousand men unable to open it."
Clang, clang, clang! The sound of metal collisions rang out endlessly!
Under Arcee's iron-fisted discipline and Prison Kick Barrage, the Mark 4 armor continuously showed indented marks, and Tony could even clearly feel the deforming armor pressing against his chest.
Yet Arcee was not dealing a fatal blow, so Tony could still barely manage to stay upright, relying on the armor's defense and JARVIS's real-time motion prediction.
"Shit!"
"How did I not know your close combat was this powerful?"
Tony could not help complaining; he had always thought that Arcee, who followed Leon and kept a low profile, was merely a glass cannon who only knew how to skirmish from a distance.
The result left him dumbfounded.
If he had the chance, he would definitely dismantle Arcee to see what kind of structure she had inside, Tony thought, but Leon would certainly be reluctant to part with her—tch!
"There are many things you don't know, Tony's older brother."
Arcee said proudly.
"Is that so?"
The eyebrows hidden beneath Tony's armor helmet twitched as he retorted to Arcee, "Then have you ever heard Leon say a sentence—one must know how to be flexible in both actions and conduct."
"What?"
Arcee was stunned.
"Right now, Pepper!"
Taking advantage of the moment Arcee was stunned, Tony grabbed her in a full-force suplex, then held on for dear life. Meanwhile, Pepper seized the opportunity to slip past the two of them and sneak into Leon's Wonderful Workshop.
After all.
Defeating Arcee was not their goal; making sure Leon was safe and sound was.
"You can't..."
Arcee struggled fiercely to break free from Tony's restraints, crawling toward the door to block Pepper, but it was already too late. She could only watch helplessly as Pepper went inside.
The next moment.
"Ah--"
A scream echoed from Leon's Wonderful Workshop.
Arcee and Tony, who had been entangled in a brawl, exchanged glances, instantly ending their standoff for a temporary truce, and then hurriedly ran into Leon's Wonderful Workshop.
There they saw.
Inside Leon's Wonderful Workshop.
Pepper stood in shock, covering her mouth with one hand and her eyes with the other, though the gaps between her fingers were wide open as she looked, with a self-deceiving attitude, at Leon, who had already put the Regeneration Cradle away into his system space but remained stark naked.
"Holy shit!"
With a look as if he had seen a ghost, Tony asked Leon, "During the time you disappeared, did you use protein powder as meals?"
"Huh?"
Just waking up, Leon had not yet figured out the current situation. Arcee walked over and, with extreme resignation, used one arm to barely block his vital parts.
Then, she projected Leon's current appearance into the air for him to see.
It was evident.
That was a male physique nearly as perfect as an ancient Greek sculpture; anyone who knew what to look for could tell at a single glance that this was practically Superman!
Point being—
The present Leon already possessed nine-tenths of Henry Cavill's aura.
He had evolved from his original "slim in clothes, muscular without" to now, regardless of whether he wore clothes or not, it was difficult to conceal those far-from-ordinary, god-like, perfectly exquisite, and robust muscular lines.
Without appearing bloated, the current Leon was handsome almost to an extreme.
To borrow a saying from a certain internet personality—handsomeness had never had a master, and Leon perhaps could fill that void.
After explanations from Tony, Pepper, and Arcee, Leon finally learned just how long he had slept this time.
--A full two and a half months!
Tony joked that Leon had set another Guinness World Records title.
As for Pepper, she was annoyed that Leon had such important matters without giving her and Tony a heads-up beforehand, which resulted in her and Tony misunderstanding Arcee, the dutiful girl guarding him.
Yes.
The explanation Leon gave Tony and Pepper was that—through sleeping this "disturbance-forbidden" sleep, he had grown stronger once again.
Leon even gave this process of awakening superpowers through sleep a high-end name paying homage to a certain god king, brimming with presence--
"Leon's Slumber".
After sending off Tony and Pepper.
Leon immediately began impatiently checking his harvest.
His defense was difficult to test.
But as for his strength—
That blast-proof alloy heavy door, on which Leon could originally only manage to dent a small indentation with a punch, he could now effortlessly punch right through.
As for his speed—
Leon and Arcee had also tested it out at sea.
In an all-out state, Leon's speed had broken the twenty-mach mark, and that was even while he was pushing hard against increasingly terrifying air resistance.
If he turned on his Biological Field or went into the vast expanse of outer space, he would only be faster.
In short—
Leon felt that he was practically terrifyingly strong right now!
Yet after his ego swelled for a brief moment, he quickly sobered up—with just this bit of strength, who could he actually beat?
Odin, The Ancient One, or Thanos?
Next.
Leon hurriedly chanted his version of the "mind-clearing mantra" in his heart—I shall examine myself thrice daily: I am handsome, I am rich, I am not strong enough.
After psychologically preparing himself that he was still very weak at present, Leon suddenly thought of an even more serious problem!
Homelander's role-playing was a minor issue, but he had just captured Helen Cho and then vanished for two and a half months. Would that innocent girl run into any problems?
"Arcee, has Helen Cho come looking for me during this period?"
Leon hurriedly asked.
"She came to look for you, but I rejected her in your name."
Arcee replied.
"What?!"
Leon's mouth twitched fiercely. Arcee gave him an eye-roll: "What else did you expect me to do? I can't leave this place!"
"She was relatively calm the first month, and I used your account to chat quite happily with her online."
"But after being rejected from meeting multiple times, she clearly grew much colder online during the second month."
"In the past half month, she hasn't sent a single message, and your account seems to have been blocked by her."
Resting one hand on her sexy waist-and-hip curve, Arcee waved her hand with a somewhat gloating expression.
Well.
Judging by this situation.
What should have been a warm and considerate little cotton-padded jacket had probably leaked so badly it reached the boondocks.
Leon thought to himself.
He had to remedy this as soon as possible.
Aside from anything else.
Helen Cho being his first was reason enough for Leon to treat her with more attentiveness than others.
"Right."
"I've been maintaining Homelander's activity levels for you, so don't you dare go out and blurt out stupid things like 'two and a half months no see, I've missed you so much' the moment you see fans."
Arcee suddenly reminded him.
"Woah~"
"Arcee, I just love you to death!"
Excitedly, Leon put his arm around Arcee's waist, seized the opportunity to peck the face of her virtual Tifa skin—simulated through holographic projection—and asked curiously, "How on earth did you pull that off?"
Pry-barring Leon's wandering hands away, Arcee wiped the damp mark off her face with queen-like disgust, then pointed a single finger at her own temple and rolled her eyes:
"With a brain."
Before you continue