"Tony, what's wrong?"
It was Yinsen who spoke, looking confused and at a loss. They were just about to get out, and suddenly, Tony had his gun pointed inward.
Arthur grinned, "Yeah, what's wrong with you? Did you go crazy on the way?"
"The one who's crazy isn't me. Looking at you, I think the world has gone mad!" Tony's voice was full of disbelief. "Why would someone who's been dead for almost seventy years suddenly appear in front of me?"
Yinsen felt a shiver run down his spine at these words and instinctively took two steps away from Arthur.
Arthur looked out of the cave. The "bandits" inside were mostly dead, but there were still guards outside. "Now is not the time to talk about this. I don't know what you know and what you have misunderstood, but how about we discuss it in detail once we're out of here?"
Arthur smiled slightly. "Know this for the time being that I at least have no ill intentions towards you."
Tony gave Arthur a long look before turning around. At that moment, gunfire erupted.
Arthur turned to hide behind Tony, pulling Yinsen with him. "Remember, be careful."
"I should be careful…what about you?" Yinsen shouted.
Arthur grinned, "Of course, I'm running away!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Arthur took off running. He moved quickly, like lightning, across the flat ground, with no obstacles to stop him.
Most of the armed rebels were focused on Tony, so Arthur didn't attract much attention. The occasional stray bullets didn't pose any threat to him.
Once he was out of sight, Arthur began to use his ability to move through space, getting to a vantage point as quickly as possible. It was the first time he had used this ability to travel, and he found that the maximum distance he could cross was only ten meters!
"A short-range teleportation?"
Once on high ground, Arthur took out a sniper rifle from his Disassembler space. This was the equipment he had requested from Pepper. He set up the weapon, aimed, and fired.
Although it shouldn't be difficult for Tony to leave this place, his real goal was to destroy all the weapons outside. Those boxes under the canopies with the 'Stark Industries' logo on them were a constant, unbearable pain to Tony.
So, before leaving, he needed to destroy them all!
In this situation, Yinsen could hardly move forward and had to hide in the cave. Arthur kept firing, taking out any rebels with oversized weapons to prevent them from being overwhelmed.
Despite Arthur's help, Tony's armor was nearly torn to shreds in the hail of bullets. After Arthur took out the last rebel, Tony finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Arthur… he wasn't moving. Lying on the sand, he waited silently.
He wasn't waiting for Tony, but for Tony to remove his armor. In fact, he was waiting for that armor!
This suit, while incredibly powerful, lacked the agility of Tony's later creations. It was a superbly tough shield in battle, but after battle it was cumbersome to run within the desert.
Of course, Arthur also knew that the armor had a rudimentary flying device. If Yinsen wasn't around, Tony would undoubtedly fly away without hesitation. But since Yinsen was still alive, Arthur believed that Tony wouldn't leave him behind.
Therefore, Arthur had reason to believe that Tony would most likely take off the armor and flee with Yinsen. As it turned out, Arthur was correct.
Ten minutes later, Arthur watched as the two disheveled men found a working car and drove off. They also shamelessly destroyed the remaining cars to stop any poor soul, namely him, from chasing them!
Arthur's face darkened as he saw this scene. "Damn, are they trying to screw me?"
"Greed is the greatest root of all evil!"
Arthur got up from his high vantage point, grabbed the sniper rifle, and made his way to the cave. The armor was left there, almost completely destroyed.
Even putting it into the Disassembler Space took several steps— evidently, the Disassembler space no longer recognized it as a single entity.
"Speaking of which, the villain in the first Iron Man movie used this thing to create an ugly monster and barely managed to become Iron Man's main antagonist. After all, he was the only candidate…"
Arthur shrugged before removing this thought from his mind. It didn't matter to him! Even if taking this armor meant that the villain had no suit and couldn't become the final boss, it had nothing to do with Arthur!
He took it without hesitation. Not only that, but after collecting the armor, Arthur also went around and made sure to kill any survivors.
He didn't want those guys coming back to cause trouble. While Tony might miss out on some heroics, it was for the same reason – it had nothing to do with Arthur!
After eliminating every last one of them, Arthur looked out at the vast desert and couldn't help but stomp his foot and curse, "That bastard Howard should have thrown you up against the wall back when you were born! How could you trick your uncle like that? Even though you're older than me now, you weren't even born when I was with your father, you little shit!"
But cursing was useless. Arthur could only go on foot. At best, he still had plenty of water and food in his Disassembler room.
At worst, he still had a bald Yinsen and a dozen or so freedom fighters in there…
Though Arthur didn't know what use they could be.
As he left, Arthur thought about Tony's last words. Obviously, Tony had recognized him.
It wasn't clear when that had happened – maybe at their first meeting, or maybe later?
But regardless, Tony's ability to keep his cool and wait for the right moment proved that he was a tough guy.
"Speaking of which… Could he have said those words then just to leave me stranded in this desert?"
Arthur suddenly considered the possibility and gritted his teeth. "I should have given Howard a universal kick in the groin!"