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He had just confirmed it in the monitoring room; fortunately, his fifty million hadn't been "liquidated" yet.
Thus, he was currently in a very pleasant mood.
It had been almost exactly five days since he set out. Earning fifty million in five days meant he could be considered someone who earned ten million a day!
Meanwhile, Tony and Ethan had no idea that their savior had already arrived.
Even though it was already dark outside, inside the cave where they couldn't tell day from night, they were still diligently modifying their suicide Incendiary Bomb.
It wasn't until the sound of knocking on the iron door rang out that the two, who had lost track of time in their work, stopped what they were doing and exchanged looks.
Tony: "Is it the next day already?"
Ethan: "I don't know either..."
Tony: "Go say something, stall them. I'm about to finish modifying the Incendiary Bomb!"
Ethan:..."Damn it!"
Ethan cursed under his breath, and holding a wrench, he braced himself and walked to the iron door.
"No... nobody's home!"
Ryan at the door:..."Open up, I'm here to save you."
Ethan was stunned for a moment, then peeked out through the only small window in the iron door.
This glance was enough to startle him; he immediately saw Ryan wearing a black hood with scarlet-red eyes.
This scared Ethan so much that he staggered back two steps.
I'll be damned if I believe you! What kind of good person comes to save someone dressed like that!
Therefore, Ethan hid by the side of the door and shouted, "I don't believe you!"
Ryan, who didn't have much patience to begin with, completely lost it upon hearing this.
Stepping back two paces, he delivered a front kick straight at the iron door!
Under Ryan's nearly hundred-ton kick, the iron door boomed and went flying, eventually embedding itself deep into the wall.
Fortunately, Ethan was afraid the person outside would see the guilt on his face and was hiding against the wall to the side of the door; otherwise, he would have been turned into a sandwich between the iron door and the wall.
Ethan clearly hadn't expected Ryan to break in in such an unexpected manner, and he stood there blankly with his wrench, staring at the entering Ryan.
Ryan was top-tier when it came to killing, but when it came to comforting people, forget about it.
So, after patting Ethan on the shoulder, Ryan walked toward Tony, who was still facing away and busy with something despite the massive commotion.
As he approached Tony and was about to reach out to pat his shoulder, Ryan's Spider-Sense suddenly went off!
And the direction the danger warning was coming from was Tony himself!
Realizing something was wrong, Ryan didn't care if Tony was his fifty million anymore; he delivered a side kick to Tony's waist, sending him flying!
Once Tony was out of the way, Ryan could clearly see that there was a bomb the size of a basketball on the table!
The bomb was only one step away from completion; Tony was about to install the trigger and set it off!
Holy crap, with a bomb this big, is this guy planning to blow up the entire cave?
While Ryan was surprised by the size of the bomb, a faint Spider-Sense tingle came from behind him.
This time, Ryan didn't even turn his head as he reached out and caught the wrench aimed at the back of his head. He yanked the wrench, swinging Ethan—who had tried to sneak attack him—right next to Tony, who was clutching his stomach and gasping for air.
After falling to the ground, Ethan saw that although Tony's face was flushed, he was at least still breathing. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank God, Tony! I thought you'd been embedded in the wall like our iron door by that guy!"
Tony, in too much pain to speak:?
What do you mean embedded in the wall?
In that emergency state of final assembly, Tony had been exceptionally focused, blocking out all external interference, and had no idea what had happened behind him.
His only thought was to immediately finish assembling the Incendiary Bomb and take out a bunch of those damn Terrorists!
As a result, just as he was about to finish the final step, someone kicked him in the kidney, sending him flying three meters away. The pain was so intense he couldn't even speak... and that was even with Ryan holding back his strength.
Otherwise, Tony would have ended up just like Ethan said, embedded in the wall like the iron door.
Seeing that Tony and Ethan had been physically calmed down by him, Ryan walked over to them and held out his hand.
"Gentlemen, I really am here to save you. So please, don't overreact, lest I have a stress response and cause you to get injured again, okay?"
Finally catching his breath, Tony twitched the corner of his mouth. "You're here to save us? Then why didn't you say so sooner..."
Ryan shrugged. "I said so from the start, but that Bald Buddy over there didn't believe me."
Hearing this, Tony looked at Ethan in surprise.
It was as if he was saying, 'We're in this situation, why didn't you believe him?'
Ethan felt wronged too, and pointed at the suspicious-looking hood on Ryan's face. "You can't blame me! What kind of good person dresses like him, wearing a mask and covering his face..."
Tony laughed upon hearing this and patted Ethan's shoulder.
"Ethan, you're behind the times. These so-called Superheroes are very popular in America right now. Most of those Superheroes are like this guy, they like to cover their faces and do good deeds..."
Ethan was stunned and asked in surprise, "So now, it's not just Terrorists and robbers who wear masks, but Superheroes too?"
You really do live and learn...
Seeing the two of them starting to chat, Ryan couldn't help but interrupt.
"Alright, gentlemen. Small talk can wait until we're in the car. For now, let's get out of this godforsaken place first, shall we?"
Tony and Ethan liked the sound of that, so they immediately shut their mouths and nodded frantically at Ryan.
Ethan, realizing he had misunderstood earlier, no longer held any hostility toward Ryan. He took Ryan's outstretched hand and used the leverage to stand up.
Tony, however, didn't take Ryan's other hand. Instead, he endured the pain in his kidney and leaned against the wall to get up himself.
After climbing up the wall to stand, Tony didn't forget to explain to Ryan.
"Don't get me wrong, buddy. It's not that I have an issue with you. I just don't like being touched by strangers. It's a quirk, you know..."
To this, Ryan couldn't help but tease.
"A quirk? I imagine this quirk of not liking contact with people automatically disappears when you meet a beautiful woman. You might even want to have 'negative-distance' contact with them, right?"
Tony didn't deny Ryan's words. Instead, he winked and gave a playful smile. "Who wouldn't?"
Women and wine are always a man's best tools for bonding.
Thus, after chatting a bit about women, Tony's instinctive resistance toward Ryan lessened significantly. He smiled and asked,
"By the way, buddy, who sent you to save me? The Military, or Stark Industries?"
Ryan slowly shook his head. "Neither. It was your personal assistant, Ms. Pepper Potts. She used all of her savings to commission me to save you, you dissolute playboy..."
Hearing this, Tony was instantly stunned, standing in place for a long time, unable to snap out of it.
He hadn't expected that in the end, in his moment of greatest need, the one who brought him light wasn't the company he had painstakingly built, nor the Military that had caused him to fall into such a predicament, but simply his personal assistant.
After a long while, a genuine and warm smile appeared on the corner of Tony's mouth. "Spending a lifetime's savings on a man whose fate is unknown... you're so silly, Pepper..."
"But I won't let you spend that money for nothing. Once I get back, I will definitely compensate you tenfold, a hundredfold!"
Tenfold, a hundredfold?
Wouldn't that be five hundred million, or five billion?
There's such a good deal?
Hearing Tony's words, Ryan couldn't help but chime in.
"Since you mentioned compensating Ms. Pepper Potts, I'll mention in passing that your net worth is worth more than just fifty million. Ms. Pepper Potts also said when she commissioned me that if you were still alive, you'd have to add an extra commission for me."
Tony smiled confidently upon hearing this. "I'll give you five hundred million too!"
Under his mask, Ryan sucked in a breath of cold air.
Five hundred million?
For fifty million, you're just a mission objective; for five hundred million, you're my good Brother!