Ho Yinsen tapped the center of the chest armor, immediately producing a dull metallic sound.
The main body of the armor was very thick. Even after replacing materials with lighter alternatives per Tony Stark's suggestions, the weight was not something an ordinary person could support.
"Good. As long as it protects my vital organs, it's enough. The slanted design on the limbs should deflect some bullets, and it's much lighter than I expected. This significantly increases our success rate."
Tony was momentarily stunned, his lips twitching. "Yinsen, you're not actually planning on wearing that to try it out, are you?"
Stop joking around, you'll get yourself killed!
"Of course. Armor is made to be worn." Yinsen knew what Tony was worried about, but explaining it was too complicated and carried the risk of exposure. Who knew if the people behind the monitors understood English? So, he didn't speak plainly, instead saying with a mysterious expression, "Just stay in bed tonight. No matter what sounds you hear, do not come out. Remember, you must not leave this room under any circumstances."
Tony suspected that Yinsen had been imprisoned for so long that his mind had finally snapped.
When Origin Continent and virtual reality games first became famous, Tony was busy partying with flight attendants on his private plane with Colonel Rhodes. It was normal for him to be out of the loop regarding such things.
That night, everything was silent.
The guards at the entrance were already leaning against the wall, snoring. The person monitoring the screens had long since drifted into dreams. The only sound in the entire cave was the crackling of the burning torches.
Yinsen slipped out of bed, carefully donning the heavy armor piece by piece. He looked like a heavy knight from the Middle Ages. Beneath the cold visor, his eyes projected a chilling light.
He had made up his mind to send these scumbags to hell.
Carefully pulling out a long blade he had forged earlier from under the bed, Yinsen walked to the door. He extended his internal power through his fingers, the pure white energy acting like a sharp blade as it sliced through the door lock along the gap.
Creak...
The rusty lock made a harsh, grating sound. Two gang members guarding the door shivered and groggily opened their bleary eyes, only to see a knight who seemed to have stepped out of a medieval castle standing silently before them.
"You—ugh!"
Before they could make a sound, the blade in Yinsen's hand pierced through their necks. Blood sprayed instantly, staining the silver-gray armor with a startling, hideous crimson.
"They are all scum. They all deserve to rot in hell!"
This was his first time killing in reality. After actually striking the killing blow, Yinsen couldn't help but feel his heart tremble. He quickly warned himself in his mind not to be soft-hearted.
The blood-stained armor moved through the cave, the blade swinging to harvest lives one by one. Soon, a piercing scream woke the gang members from their sleep, and they rushed out of their rooms clutching their guns.
Rat-tat-tat!
"Ghost! Help!"
"Please, don't kill me!"
"What are you afraid of? Bullets can hit him! Give it everything you've got! Fire! Full fire!"
Boom!
The sounds of gunfire, screams, and explosions were incessant. The entire base woke up in an instant, the shrill howls making the cave feel like a living purgatory.
Tony jerked awake, quickly wrapping himself in his blanket and hiding under the bed frame. "Yinsen, hide! These terrorists seem to be under attack. Maybe the military is here to rescue me!"
He waited for two seconds, but there was no response.
"Yinsen?" Tony cautiously poked his head out to look at Yinsen's bed. The blanket had been tossed aside, and the bed was empty.
He swallowed hard, his gaze sweeping toward the forge used to build the armor. Sure enough, the finished set had vanished.
"Could it be that Yinsen really..." Tony's heart pounded violently. It turned out Yinsen hadn't been lying; he really had made the armor for himself to wear.
Just who was he?
The structure of the cave amplified the screams. Tony waited for a while, holding a makeshift flamethrower and hiding quietly behind the door. If any terrorists entered the room, he could strike first.
Ten minutes later, the screams drifted further away.
Twenty minutes later, a massive tremor shook the entire cave. Explosions echoed from the entrance all the way to the depths, the loud bangs reverberating in the room.
Thirty minutes later, everything fell quiet. The screams, gunfire, and explosions all vanished, as if the world had been muted.
Just as Tony was debating whether he should go out and look, heavy footsteps sounded in the cave passage.
Clang, clang, clang...
The footsteps drew closer and closer, finally stopping at the room's entrance.
"Tony?" Yinsen's voice came from outside.
Tony let out a long breath and stepped out from behind the door with his flamethrower. "I'm here—ugh!"
The pungent smell of blood hit him in the face. The silver-gray armor was now completely stained red, with bits of flesh and internal organs clinging to it.
"Ugh... bleh!" Tony forced down the urge to vomit, looking at the armored Yinsen in shock. "Are there any terrorists left? I mean, did you just take them all out by yourself?"
"Of course." Yinsen nodded, his right arm dangling weakly. He looked badly injured, but there was no time for that now. He began stripping off the heavy armor while walking to the bed to pull out a pack. "That was too much noise. We need to get out of here quickly."
The pack contained food, water, and a helmet—supplies Yinsen had prepared in advance for their escape.
"Oh, right. Okay." Tony nodded quickly and followed Yinsen out of the cave.
The scenes along the way shook his soul. A deep blade mark on the rock wall caught his attention. Recalling the blade Yinsen had been holding, he realized Yinsen had carved it.
But how could human power cause such destruction? Yinsen wasn't some super-soldier experiment or a mutant. How did he do it?
The two of them ran out of the stronghold. Before leaving, Yinsen blew up the last pile of weapons, the flames of the explosion shooting into the sky, extremely conspicuous.
The Ten Rings had surely received the news, and their main force would be on the way. Yinsen didn't dare delay. He picked Tony up like a small chick and sprinted through the desert, their silhouettes disappearing into the vast sea of sand.
With his current strength, facing gang members with firearms was still a bit taxing. He had relied on the terrain for ambushes and their carelessness to achieve this result. In a head-on battle, Yinsen was certain he would have lost.
After sprinting for half an hour, Yinsen finally set Tony down and collapsed into the sand, gasping for breath while checking the bullet holes in his right arm.
Two bullets had pierced through the armor and hit his arm, causing continuous bleeding.
Yinsen circulated his internal power and lightly tapped his left hand near the bullet holes.
Pop! Pop!
With two soft sounds, the bullets popped out of his arm, followed by a spurt of blood.
Yinsen tore a piece of his clothing to bandage the wound while Tony watched, dumbfounded.
"Yinsen... how... how did you just do that?"
Yinsen tilted his head. "This is medicine. Amazing, isn't it?"
Tony said, "...Is it too late for me to learn?"
Recently, Makiya had been troubled. He was being pestered by someone quite shameless, yet since the person was extremely polite, he found it difficult to take action.
"Master, Matt Murdock is here again," Iris said as she slowly landed in the lab, speaking softly to Makiya, who was busy with an experiment.
"I know. I'll be up in a moment." Makiya sighed, entering parameters into the machine one by one. Once it started running, he left a clone to watch over it while his original self flew up to the ground level.
Outside the door, Matt, dressed as the Asura, was kneeling respectfully on the ground. Seeing Makiya emerge, he looked delighted. "Chairman, have you agreed to take me as your disciple?"
"No," Makiya rejected him instantly. "Go back where you came from. I have no intention of taking disciples."
Matt showed no sign of defeat. He respectfully handed over the tea behind him. "Chairman, this is premium tea I had someone buy from China. Just a small token of my appreciation. Please enjoy it."
After speaking, he immediately bowed and retreated, then leaped onto the roof and vanished right before Makiya's eyes.
Makiya's lips twitched. Where on earth did this guy learn these tricks?
Since finding the address of Future Technology, Matt would come every day to pay his respects and deliver "specialties" he had someone buy. He was never overly persistent, making it hard to actually dislike him.
"Fine, let's see how long he can keep this up." Makiya's gaze drifted over several nearby apartment buildings. He smirked, waved his hand, and walked back inside, the tea leaves floating along behind him.
Inside a nearby building, a large number of fully armed agents were on standby, their gazes fierce and expressions cold.
A burly man in a special uniform carefully drew back the curtain, watching Makiya's back disappear into the building. He lowered his head and noted a series of details in his logbook.
His uniform was much more unique than the others, with two white crossed bones on the chest. Because of this, he was known as Crossbones. He was a member of Hydra and once the right-hand man of the Red Skull.
"Boss, target locked," Crossbones said into his communication device.
"You've done well, Crossbones," a male voice replied from the other end. "Keep a close watch on the target's movements. Find an opportunity to capture him. If necessary, you may terminate him. Hail Hydra!"
"Understood. Hail Hydra." Crossbones hung up, a savage grin naturally forming on his face.
Just then, a slender palm lightly rested on his shoulder. A familiar voice came from behind him: "The target you guys were talking about... is it me?"
Makiya blinked curiously. Behind him, the highly trained agents had all collapsed silently to the ground, unconscious.
Crossbones: "..."
Something was wrong, very wrong. This wasn't how the script was supposed to go. How did it feel like their movements were completely compromised? Just who was the prey here?