Tony Stark

Tony Stark

A murky cave.

"Where is this?"

Rimuru, having reverted to Slime form, was deeply confused. According to the original plot, after leaving the cave, he should have reached the surface.

But now, after exiting one cavern, he had entered another cave.

The moment he appeared here, Rimuru felt extremely uncomfortable, as though he had gone from a clear river to a muddy puddle. The entire world felt strangely hazy.

It was not merely because of the darkness. More importantly, the Magicules here were incredibly sparse, utterly incomparable to those in the Sealed Cave.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A burst of hammering sounds came from nearby. Following the noise, Rimuru saw a middle-aged man in a tank top, with messy hair and a small mustache, repeatedly striking something with an iron hammer.

The instant he saw the mustached man, the Slime's eyes turned into spirals.

That face was simply too familiar.

Even if he was face-blind when it came to Westerners, he would never forget that face—especially not with that incredibly distinctive "lightbulb" on his chest.

[Tony Stark? Did I transmigrate into the Marvel Universe?]

Great Sage: "Yes."

Even after receiving Great Sage's confirmation, Rimuru still felt as though he were dreaming.

He wanted the world of anime, and he wanted Marvel too, but he had never expected that one second he would be in the otherworld where Slime lived, and the next he would be in a cave in Afghanistan, happening to meet the kidnapped Iron Man.

Before Rimuru could make another move, a hurried set of footsteps rang out.

Through the skill [Heat Source Detection], he clearly saw more than a dozen people carrying weapons and rushing toward the cave.

Had he been discovered?

Rimuru instinctively hopped aside and hid deep in the darkness, only to feel speechless a moment later.

[What the hell am I scared of? All kinds of monsters get one-shot by me, let alone these trash mobs!]

As it turned out, Rimuru had overthought things.

After entering the cave, the bald man immediately seized Yinsen, then used fire tongs to pick up a glowing piece of charcoal, pretending that he was about to shove it into Yinsen's mouth as he repeatedly demanded to know what Yinsen and Tony were doing.

Seeing this, Rimuru suddenly felt as though he had suffered Aqua's Intelligence Reduction Strike.

He remembered now. In the plot, Tony's testing of the Mecha's leg transmission system had made those terrorists suspicious, leading to this scene of torture and interrogation.

Yinsen kept his mouth tightly shut. Even facing death, he refused to say anything, which was truly admirable.

It had to be said that Tony's luck—or perhaps his protagonist halo—was incredibly powerful.

Even after being kidnapped, the writers had specifically arranged such a strong assistant for him.

Then again, without Yinsen, Tony probably would have been dead long ago.

Not only had he operated on Tony and saved his life, but he had also acted as a mediator between Tony and the kidnappers. He had even been the one to guide Tony onto the path of becoming a hero.

At first, when Tony learned that he only had a week left to live, he had been utterly devastated. It was Yinsen who helped him regain his confidence.

It could be said that Yinsen was to Iron Man what Uncle Ben was to Spidey.

It was just a pity that, as guides, under the "will of the greater universe," they were destined to die.

Seeing that the bald man was about to shove the burning charcoal into Yinsen's mouth, Tony was forced to set his plan in motion early in order to save Yinsen, promising that he would deliver the goods within twenty-four hours.

And just like that, the crisis was resolved.

Rimuru had only one thought about it—these terrorists were suffering from a lack of education!

Especially the terrorists assigned to watch the cave. Holding a picture of the Jericho Missile, they kept comparing it with the parts of the Mecha Tony was making.

One of them stared wide-eyed and said that what Tony was making did not look anything like a missile.

The other teased, "Turn it upside down, and it does."

Rimuru: "Ψ(￣?￣)Ψ"

With time running short, Tony and Yinsen were still hammering away well into the latter half of the night, racing against time to make their final preparations.

Rimuru quietly moved into a blind spot of the surveillance cameras, then used Mimicry to take on human form.

Tony and Yinsen were both startled by Rimuru's sudden appearance.

Both men were extremely tense. They had reached the most critical stage, and any mistake could cause all their efforts to come to nothing.

Besides, Rimuru's appearance had been far too strange. There had been no warning whatsoever.

If they had not seen that Rimuru was a harmless little girl rather than a vicious-looking terrorist, their hearts might have leaped out of their chests.

Even so, the atmosphere remained tense to the extreme. Yinsen even swallowed several times, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

The flickering firelight made Rimuru's blue hair and golden eyes appear exceptionally beautiful, further confirming Tony's suspicions.

Tony raised both hands in a friendly, harmless gesture. "Hey, girl, are you another victim captured by the terrorists? Your blue hair is beautiful. Are you a Mutant? I don't have any prejudice against Mutants. Maybe we could even be friends!"

Tony had phrased that very skillfully, immediately identifying Rimuru as a victim just like himself.

Second, he specifically stated that he had no prejudice against Mutants, minimizing Rimuru's hostility as much as possible.

Of course, it would be best if he could win him over. Even if he failed, there was nothing to lose, right?

Rimuru shook his head. "Wrong. I'm neither a victim captured by terrorists nor a Mutant. And let me make one thing especially clear: I'm male!"

"Male?"

After Tony and Yinsen gave Rimuru a thorough once-over, though they did not show it too openly, both wore expressions that clearly said, "You've got to be kidding me."

The cave was dark, but they were not blind. They could still tell men from women.

But now, their lives were in the hands of this little girl who had suddenly appeared. How could they dare to contradict him? Naturally, soothing him took priority.

"Okay! Okay! Little man, that spot of yours is pretty good. The cameras can't see it. Can you stay there and play for a while first, so Uncle Yinsen and I can get some work done?"

Tony coaxed him while trying to fool him.

As long as they could stall for a while and finish the armor completely, they could turn this hopeless situation around.

Even if this little girl was a Mutant hostile toward them, they would at least have some means of protecting themselves.

Instead of being like they were now—like weak children with no ability to resist at all.

Hearing Tony's words, Rimuru could not help rolling his eyes. Was Tony trying to fool him like one of those uneducated terrorists?

Rimuru said directly, "You aren't making Jericho Missiles. You're making Iron Man Armor to escape, aren't you?"

In an instant, dense beads of sweat began to seep from Tony and Yinsen's foreheads, and the air nearly froze solid.

Seeing the tense Iron Man, Rimuru smiled. Messing with people really was fun.

When Tony and Yinsen saw the smile on Rimuru's face, how could they not realize that Rimuru had played them? Both immediately felt the urge to give Rimuru a good beating.

But they truly did not dare now. Even if Rimuru slapped their left cheeks, they could only offer their right cheeks for him to keep hitting.

A dragon trapped in shallow waters was mocked by shrimp; a tiger fallen to the plains was bullied by dogs. Brats really were the worst!

Clang, clang, clang!

Yinsen picked up a hammer and began hammering away, while Tony faced the computer and wrote various programs.

Watching all this, Rimuru could not help marveling that Tony truly deserved to be one of the biggest cheaters in the Marvel Universe. His skill tree was absurdly extensive.

Especially during the Extremis Virus incident—Maya Hansen had researched it for over a decade, yet she still could not compare to Tony's one night of research.

And that had only been an improvised creation after Tony slept with Maya Hansen!

Watching Tony's fingers fly across the keyboard, Rimuru could not help becoming more alert. There were too many overpowered people in the Marvel Universe. He still needed to be more careful.

Keeping a low profile and developing steadily was the true path to greatness!