"What the fuck?"
Tony and Yinsen's hearts practically stopped at the sudden, absurd sight.
Especially Tony. He hadn't shut his eyes in two days trying to meet their deadline, and the jump-scare nearly made him pass out on the spot.
Under their stunned gazes, Dean agilely hoisted himself out of the hole. He dusted himself off and casually slung a pixelated pickaxe over his shoulder.
——————————
[Item: Diamond Pickaxe]
[Effect: Massively increases mining efficiency. Can rapidly harvest/destroy most minerals and bedrock.]
[Description: If Andy Dufresne had this pickaxe, it would have saved him at least twenty-seven years of tunneling.]
——————————
"Who are you?"
Tony was the first to snap back to reality, glaring warily at the unidentified intruder.
Dean flashed a grin. "You must be Tony Stark. I'm here to break you out."
"Did the military send you?"
"Nope, I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Here's my card."
Tony snatched the card and glanced at it.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Senior Agent Dean.
"?"
"Uh, my bad. Wrong one."
Dean smoothly plucked the card back, then proceeded to pull a massive fistful of assorted business cards from his jacket.
Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, New York Police Department, Internal Revenue Service, ICE...
Tony: -...-
"Found it."
Dean finally dug out the right card and handed it over.
Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, Senior Agent Dean.
Tony stared at the obnoxiously long agency name, feeling like it was something a hack novelist made up just to pad their word count.
He eyed Dean suspiciously. "So, how many men did this Strategic Homeland... whatever, send with you?"
Dean smiled confidently. "Just me."
"???"
Tony's face instantly darkened.
Was this guy just here to screw with him?
Dean couldn't care less about Tony's reaction. His eyes were already glued to the crude, bulky suit of iron armor strapped to the billionaire's body.
——————————
[Item: Mark I Armor (Soulbound to Tony Stark)]
[Description: A power armor suit hand-crafted by Tony Stark in a cave using a box of scraps. Requires a massive power source to operate.]
——————————
"Sweet loot!"
Dean's eyes practically sparkled.
No man alive could resist the temptation of a mech suit, and he was certainly no exception. That was the ultimate male fantasy!
It was just a damn shame it was soulbound to Tony, a main storyline NPC. Otherwise, he absolutely would have tried to see if he could get it to drop as loot.
Dean sighed in disappointment.
He had already tested it out—NPCs in this game did not have a respawn mechanic.
Once an NPC died, they were permanently deleted. They would never respawn, and any questlines tied to them would instantly fail.
Therefore, it was probably best to avoid aggroing main storyline characters whenever possible.
But maybe he could try it out on his New Game Plus playthrough.
Dean schemed internally.
Tony felt his skin crawl under Dean's intensely covetous and dangerous stare. He was just about to say something when a sudden cacophony of noise erupted from outside the cave!
Tony's face fell. He snapped his head toward the security monitor in the corner.
It was obvious—the terrorists had noticed something was wrong on the cameras and were rushing their position.
"They're coming! Move faster!"
Tony completely ignored Dean, shouting urgently at Yinsen.
It didn't take long for the first wave of insurgents to reach the cave entrance, violently banging on the heavy iron door while screaming in a language they couldn't understand.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The exact second the terrorists wrenched the iron door open, a deafening explosion ripped through the tunnel!
The booby trap Tony and Yinsen had rigged at the entrance detonated flawlessly. Several charred bodies hit the floor amidst a thick cloud of dust and flying shrapnel.
But before the two of them could even breathe a sigh of relief, the heavy thud of even more boots rapidly approached from down the tunnel!
"Dammit!"
Tony was frantic. The terrorists had arrived way faster than he had anticipated.
"Yinsen, boot up the power sequence!"
"But the armor diagnostics aren't finished—"
"We don't have time! Just do it!"
Tony knew full well that force-booting the iron suit carried a massive risk of failure, but he had no other choice.
If they didn't power it up now, the terrorists would swarm the room before they even had a chance to fight back!
Yinsen gritted his teeth and initiated the boot sequence just as Tony ordered. On the computer monitor, a loading bar began to crawl forward at an agonizingly slow pace.
Outside the room, the furious shouts and trampling boots of the insurgents drew closer by the second.
"We're out of time!"
Yinsen took a deep breath. He snatched up a fallen rifle from one of the corpses, his eyes filled with absolute resolve. "I'll go buy you some time!"
Without a second of hesitation, he charged out of the room.
"Yinsen! Get back here! Stick to the plan!"
Tony screamed desperately, but Yinsen's figure had already vanished down the tunnel.
Crunch, crunch...
Right in the middle of this incredibly tense, tragic moment, a completely out-of-place sound echoed through the cave.
Dean was casually cracking sunflower seeds he had procured from God-knows-where, watching the tear-jerking farewell play out with rapt attention.
"The cutscene animation is pretty decent, but the plot is a little cliché."
Dean critiqued, spitting out a seed shell.
Based on his extensive, veteran experience with countless game storylines, this NPC named Yinsen was almost guaranteed to be a scripted sacrifice.
Wait a second. Why did this storyline feel so familiar?
Dean suddenly realized something was off, shooting Tony a suspicious look.
Come to think of it, hand-crafting a functional mech suit in a cave using literal scrap metal was completely unscientific. It was basically blatant hacking.
Combine that with the scripted sacrifice of a loyal companion...
That kind of plot armor was usually reserved exclusively for the main protagonist, wasn't it?
"System, you better not tell me this goatee-wearing guy is the main character, and I'm just a walking spectator camera."
——————————
[Please rest assured, Gamer. This game has no pre-determined protagonist. The system will not interfere with any of the Gamer's decisions. You are free to participate in the storyline as you see fit.]
[Whether you choose to be the protagonist, a supporting character, or a small bystander is entirely up to the Gamer.]
——————————
"Good to know..."
Dean breathed a sigh of relief.
There was no way in hell he was going to play as a mobile spectator camera, just logging in to watch other people do cool stuff.
Tony watched Dean leisurely cracking seeds, practically feeling his blood boiling with rage.
They were literally fighting for their lives, and this jackass was eating snacks and enjoying the show?
But on second thought, the guy claimed to be an agent. Surely he had some level of combat capability.
Clinging to his last shred of hope, Tony desperately shouted at Dean, "Hey, Agent whatever-your-name-is! Go stop Yinsen! Don't let him do anything stupid!"
Yinsen was a defenseless scientist. Going up against a horde of heavily armed, ruthless insurgents... the outcome was obvious.
He was totally dead meat!
Hearing Tony's plea, Dean let out a scoff. "Hah, who do you think you are? I'm a top-tier S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. If I just do whatever you bark at me, where's my pride?"
——————————
[NPC Tony Stark has offered you a new Quest!]
[Quest: Save Yinsen]
[Objective: Ensure Yinsen's survival.]
[Rewards: 1000 EXP, +20 Tony Stark Affinity, Random Rare Tier Item x1]
——————————
"But then again, as an upstanding citizen, how could I just stand by and watch a man die? Relax, I've got this quest entirely under control!"
The disdain on Dean's face vanished in an instant, immediately replaced by a look of absolute, righteous heroism.
The sheer speed of his attitude 180 left Tony completely dumbfounded.
As for a sense of shame?
Dean would argue: do Gamers even have that kind of thing?
...
Drop some powerstones~