Cave

"Ding!"

"Gained Iron Man's initial favorability. Shared luck: 10%."

Apocalypse hadn't expected that his casual question would inspire Tony.

Ten percent luck wasn't much, but at least Tony had developed some goodwill toward him.

After Tony and Yinsen finished the hamburgers, cola, and roast chicken, Tony burped and said, "Next time, I want champagne and Australian lobster. Name your delivery fee, uh... uh..."

"I'll see what I can do. There might not be any."

Apocalypse was noncommittal. He had bought this food from a city over a hundred kilometers away. The round trip required several huge leaps, each spanning dozens of kilometers. He also had to wait for opportunities to sneak past the soldiers. It took quite a bit of time.

He certainly wasn't going to satisfy Tony's cravings by going to an even farther city just to look for lobster. If he happened to find some, he would bring it along. If not, so be it.

After Apocalypse left, soldiers came to deliver food the next morning.

Looking at the mush-like food, Tony and Yinsen didn't even spare it a glance.

The two soldiers caught the scent again and entered to inspect the room suspiciously.

Soldier A said, "There's no mistake. It's definitely the smell of roast chicken."

Soldier B said, "I smelled it too. Tell us, where did you hide the food?"

The soldiers interrogated Yinsen. He looked flustered, not knowing how to answer.

Afraid that Yinsen would let something slip, Tony stepped forward. "We're locked up in here, with a huge battery hanging from our chests. Where would we get roast chicken and hamburgers? If someone was eating them, who do you think it would be?"

As he spoke, he winked in the direction of the Ten Rings leader's quarters.

The cave had several branching passages. The Ten Rings leader lived on the other side of the cave. The conditions weren't exactly great, but they were at least much more comfortable than being exposed to the wind and rain outside.

The soldiers instantly "understood."

These two prisoners naturally couldn't possibly have roast chicken, so the only one living in the cave who could have it was the boss in that room.

The cave was cramped, and the airflow connected throughout it. It wasn't strange for the smell to drift over.

If the boss was the one eating it, they would never dare question why he was keeping the good food all to himself!

The two soldiers exchanged glances and wisely fell silent.

With that single hint, Tony not only resolved his own crisis but also shifted the blame onto the Ten Rings leader.

That way, the soldiers definitely wouldn't dare report it and would pretend not to know.

In just a few words, Tony's genius-level intelligence was fully displayed.

He had also planted a seed of doubt in the soldiers' hearts—how could a leader who hogged all the good food win his soldiers' support?

Their faith might be unshakable, but that didn't mean their leader was.

Every few days, Apocalypse brought food over and checked on Tony's progress.

In just over a month, the armor had basically taken shape. Because of the surveillance, however, they didn't dare assemble it.

Over that month, Tony and Yinsen ate and drank well but couldn't go outside to exercise, so they both visibly put on weight.

The soldiers became increasingly suspicious, and even the Ten Rings leader came over.

The leader demanded furiously, "You don't eat anything all day, so why have you gotten fatter?"

Tony said, "This isn't fat. It's edema. This lousy battery in my chest is keeping me alive, but my body is infected. I probably won't live much longer."

The leader snorted angrily. "You have edema. What about Yinsen?"

Without batting an eye, Tony said, "He caught it from me. We're in the same room all day, breathing the same air, so he got infected too."

Yinsen nearly laughed. Tony was taking advantage of the Ten Rings leader's lack of education. He fought back his laughter so hard that his face twisted, then hurriedly turned it into coughing.

Seeing this, the leader thought Yinsen was having an episode. Afraid of infection, he threw out a few words and retreated.

It seemed he had suffered from his lack of education. He even declared, "Finish the missile quickly. Once it's done, I'll take you to the hospital and save your lives."

However, Tony and Yinsen both knew that if they really finished the missile, the day it was completed would be the day they died.

The days passed one by one, each as long as a year.

They had planned to make a few more parts to perfect it, but one oversight ruined everything.

Yinsen had boldly hidden a chicken leg to eat slowly. After all, Apocalypse only came once every few days, and he got cravings in between.

Unexpectedly, the Ten Rings discovered it during an inspection. The leader was enraged and dragged Yinsen outside for interrogation.

Before Yinsen was dragged out of the cell, he hurriedly told Tony, "Hurry. I don't know how long I can hold out."

"Smack... Where did the chicken leg come from? Talk!"

"Ah... smack, are you talking or not... ah... smack... ah..."

Every crack of the whip was accompanied by Yinsen's scream, but he stubbornly refused to speak.

Tony understood. Yinsen was telling him to activate the armor. There was no more time.

Whether Yinsen endured the torture or not, once the Ten Rings leader came to his senses, he would definitely come in and take away the parts. Then all their efforts would have been wasted.

Tony was frantic. It was daytime, and that mysterious Easterner only came at night, with no fixed schedule. Even if he came tonight, it would be too late.

With that thought, Tony immediately connected the armor's control unit to the old laptop and began the startup sequence.

"Booting..."

The progress bar on the command line crawled along as though time itself had stopped, while Yinsen's screams and the leader's questioning continued outside.

"Beep! Startup complete."

Tony put on the armor, pulled the wires from his chest, and connected a round, glowing energy source—the first-generation Arc Reactor.

The armor looked incredibly crude at this point. Welding marks covered its entire body, and it was an ugly gray-black overall. The joints were connected with cheap rubber.

"Creak... creak... creak..."

The armor had no lubricant, and the gears and joints produced teeth-grating metallic scraping sounds.

Wearing the armor, Tony stepped forward and kicked the steel-plate cell door flying with a boom.

"Ah..."

A soldier outside was struck by it. His bones shattered on the spot, and he vomited blood. He probably wouldn't survive.

"Fire! Fire!"

The Ten Rings leader was both furious and panicked. Forgetting Yinsen, he raised his gun and unloaded a burst.

But the armor was made from missile casings. Ordinary bullets couldn't penetrate it. Its only weakness was the joints, which were made of rubber and cloth.

But how could those terrorists think of that in their haste?

With several heavy thuds, Tony strode forward and swung his iron fist at the soldiers.

"Bang... ah..."

Beneath those iron fists, the soldiers were like meat buns. One punch was enough to crush one flat.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat..."

At last, some soldiers reacted. They aimed their AKs at the armor's joints and unleashed a barrage. Tony crouched down, protecting his face and joints.

"Ah..." Yinsen suddenly screamed.

Several ricochets struck his chest, and blood immediately foamed from his mouth.

"Yinsen—"

Tony strode forward and shielded Yinsen with his body. With a press of his finger, two jets of flame burst from either side of his arms. They were his only weapons.

The flames shot more than ten meters, turning several soldiers into human torches. Screaming, they ran out of the cave.

Tony held Yinsen sorrowfully and said, "Hold on. Stay alive until that Easterner comes, then leave with me."

Yinsen's expression was peaceful. "Don't... worry about... me, cough cough... my family... is all dead... cough cough... I can finally... go... see them."

Tony burst into tears. "You saved my life. I haven't repaid you yet."

Earlier, when shrapnel had struck Tony's chest, Yinsen had performed a simple operation on him and made a crude battery to keep him alive.

During the armor's construction, he had helped immensely. Without him, Tony could never have built the armor so quickly.

Over these days, Yinsen's optimistic attitude had also deeply affected Tony.

In the original story, it could be said that Yinsen made Tony who he was, allowing him to transform from an ordinary man into a superhero.

At that moment, the Ten Rings leader's voice came from outside. "Use the RPG! Hurry, RPG!"

Yinsen smiled. "Go... If you want to repay... me, then... cherish it. Don't waste... your life."

"Boom..."

An RPG was fired into the cave. Fortunately, the entrance wasn't straight, and the RPG exploded around the bend. A shower of rocks came crashing down.

Seeing this, Tony knew that if he didn't leave now, both of them would die here. He could only painfully set Yinsen down and run outside.

Just as he reached the cave entrance, he saw more than a dozen RPG launchers aimed at him.

Tony was terrified. If that many RPGs hit him, even if they didn't blow through the armor, the shockwaves alone would kill him.

Just then, sharp whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sounds cut through the air.

Several small stones shot into the RPG soldiers' heads like bullets. Their heads instantly exploded, splattering white and red matter across the rock walls.

Apocalypse had arrived!

From far away, he had noticed something unusual here—the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Guessing that the Iron Man escape sequence had been triggered, he hurriedly leaped over and arrived just in time to see more than a dozen RPGs aimed at Tony.

A fallen soldier's body tilted, and his finger instinctively pulled the trigger. Several RPGs flew into the weapons pile outside the cave entrance.

"Boom... boom... boom..."

A chain of explosions immediately erupted, and flames shot into the sky.

"Get moving! What are you standing there for?"

Tony shouted, "Yinsen is still inside. If you save him, then no matter what your purpose is, I'll agree to it."