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Ryan and the Big Beard walked toward the man's car with smiles, looking as familiar as if they were going to a friend's house as guests.
If not for the AK pressed against the back of Ryan's head, the two would have looked even more like friends.
But upon reaching his car, the Big Beard's previously gentle smile instantly vanished.
"Now, hand over your bank card and tell me the password, or the guy behind you will blow your head off!"
"Speak up, and I might consider sparing you, you America idiot!"
As the Big Beard gave a look, the henchman pressing the muzzle against Ryan's head immediately chambered a round, showing they were serious.
Click—
Hearing the sound of death behind his head, Ryan showed no sign of fear. He said calmly, "We both know that's impossible. Even if I give you the password, you'll never let me go, will you?"
The Big Beard grinned at his words. "True, but you have no choice, do you?"
"Is that so? But I think... I actually do!"
Slap—
With a speed the Big Beard couldn't even track, Ryan swung a backhand slap. The force was so immense that it instantly pulverized half the face of the henchman pointing the gun at him and sent his head spinning several times around his neck!
Big Beard:!
Without waiting for the Big Beard or his other subordinates to fire, Ryan, who had already memorized the positions of all the Terrorists, crossed his arms and shot several strands of webbing from both sides of his body. He accurately bound every Terrorist surrounding him, except for the Big Beard!
Immediately after, his left hand grabbed all the webbing and yanked back violently, sending all the bound Terrorists flying toward him. Simultaneously, his right hand curled into a fist and swung in a massive haymaker!
Thud, thud, thud, thud—
After a series of piercing sounds, the Terrorists Ryan had pulled back were skewered onto his arm like pieces of candied fruit on a stick!
The only difference was that candied fruit dripped with syrup, while they dripped with fresh blood.
Casually shaking off the "attachments" clinging to his arm, Ryan raised a blood-stained hand, gripped the Big Beard's hairy neck, and lifted him up, smiling.
"Now, I ask, you answer, OK?"
The Big Beard kicked his legs frantically in mid-air. He glanced behind Ryan and squeezed words through his teeth: "OK my ass! Go to hell, American!"
Clack!
A crisp sound of a gun being cocked rang out. Without turning around, Ryan knew it was the sound of a machine gun on a jeep being readied.
Ryan, of course, hadn't failed to notice that they still had a driver left in the jeep.
It was just that to him, it simply didn't qualify as a threat.
Ryan held the Big Beard with one hand and hooked his other hand into the chassis of the Big Beard's jeep. With an explosion of strength three times that of an ordinary Spider-Man, Ryan actually threw the entire jeep faster than the Terrorist on the other jeep could pull the trigger!
Boom—
The two vehicles collided with a thunderous roar, instantly erupting into a pillar of fire!
Being a real man, Ryan naturally had no intention of looking back at the explosion.
Instead, he grinned at the dazed Big Beard, whose eyes were filled with the reflection of the explosion's flames. "Now, tell me what I want to know. Maybe I'll still consider sparing you."
Hearing this, the Big Beard couldn't help but fall deeper into despair.
Weren't those the exact words he had just said?
Had he intended to spare the other person just now?
Obviously not... so now that the other person was saying this, could they possibly spare him?
Obviously not as well... In the end, Ryan still obtained the coordinates of the Ten Rings Gang's territory from the Big Beard.
Initially, the Big Beard hadn't planned on talking. Since he was dead either way, why should he answer the questions before dying?
So, facing Ryan's questions, the Big Beard acted tough and told Ryan to eat shit!
But as it happened, Ryan had read about the Ten Great Tortures of the Ancient Empires of his past life, which were specifically designed to deal with stubborn mouths.
While he certainly didn't have the conditions to perform all ten tortures here, a few simple ones were still achievable.
For example, the simplest ones: Death by Degrees and Crushing Pain.
So, after Ryan slowly sliced the meat on one of the Big Beard's arms into over a hundred thin strips and used exquisite knife skills to completely peel the skin off the other arm, even this tough guy with several bullet holes in him couldn't take the torture anymore. Forget the Ten Rings Gang, he would have sold out his own mother.
Ryan wasn't as untrustworthy as the Big Beard; he truly didn't kill him.
He simply left the Big Beard—one arm sliced like a Squirrel fish and the other with skinless muscles completely exposed—on the vast yellow sands, coating him in a layer of "breadcrumbs."
In this sparsely populated Afghanistan desert with its scorching sun and backward medical conditions, whether he could last until someone found him and got him treatment was none of Ryan's business.
However, judging by how the Big Beard was rolling around happily in the sand as Ryan drove away, he likely wouldn't last until help arrived...
Two days later... It must be said that the Ten Rings Gang had kidnapped Tony quite a distance away. Ryan had to drive through this damn, difficult desert in Afghanistan for two full days before he found that cursed cave!
No wonder the U.S. military had searched for so long without finding Tony.
However, Ryan didn't act immediately. Instead, he sat on a high hill, observing the Ten Rings Gang's situation through binoculars while waiting quietly.
He was, of course, observing the number of people in the Ten Rings Gang and their sentry positions.
The Ten Rings Gang wasn't like the small-time brawls between gangs in Hells Kitchen. The Terrorists in Afghanistan were much more ferocious. Their weaponry ranged from rifles to Rocket launchers, and it was all high-end Stark merchandise!
Ryan didn't want to test just how powerful Stark Industries' weaponry was.
After all, there was a saying in Marvel: "Stark-made, must be top-tier!"
Based on Ryan's tests of his current physical strength, without wearing his suit, he could stop small-caliber bullets between his skin and muscle, resulting only in superficial wounds.
But rifles could already lodge themselves into his muscles, and if he were hit repeatedly, there was even a risk of muscle tearing.
Anything higher—large-caliber anti-material sniper rifles, high-powered bombs, or Rockets—could very likely pose a fatal threat to him.
Although wearing his high-tech suit could increase his defense significantly, Ryan still didn't plan on risking a hit from a shell. He intended to wait until dark, when it would be his time to shine, before taking action.
Once night fell, with his speed and the suit's thermal vision, he was confident he could take them all out without the Ten Rings Gang even touching a hair on his head!
So, after determining the approximate number of people in the Ten Rings Gang and the distribution of sentry positions, Ryan put away his binoculars and leaned against the hill to take a short nap.
With his Spider-Sense, even in such an unstable environment, Ryan didn't have to worry about danger at all and could sleep peacefully.
But while Ryan was enjoying a peaceful nap, things were going miserably for Tony...