"Holy crap, this is awesome!" Aetheris's eyes sparkled with excitement, while Dr. Ethan stood frozen in place.
The menacing, mechanical steel Hellfire armor was visually overwhelming, fiercely stimulating Aetheris's senses.
Anyone who saw such a massive chunk of metal suddenly appear out of nowhere would undoubtedly have the same question:
Where did this thing come from?
"Dr. Ethan! Don't stop working!" Aetheris noticed Ethan standing dumbfounded at the doorway and quickly called out to him.
"Oh, right, right!"
Ethan replied absentmindedly, though his eyes kept drifting toward the Hellfire Armor.
Aetheris reached out and touched the Arc Reactor on the chest of the Mark II Hellfire Armor.
"Ding. Host detected. Proceed with activation?"
"Obviously! Do it already!"
In an instant, the Mark II armor began to disassemble, revealing an internal compartment large enough to accommodate Aetheris.
Aetheris felt like he had become the Lightbringer from Shinzo Warriors. Suppressing his excitement and nerves, he stepped into the Iron Man suit.
"Click-click-click—" a sequence of graceful mechanical shifting sounds echoed.
Because of Dr. Ethan's momentary pause, a guard from the armed group caught a glimpse of the Mark II armor inside the secret chamber.
However, this particular guard was clever. Instead of sounding the alarm, he quickly used his walkie-talkie to contact the bearded man still stationed inside the base.
"What? A robot? Appeared out of nowhere? Got it. Hold your position—I'm coming with reinforcements!" The bearded man had been resting, but the report from the cave snapped him wide awake.
This Tony Stark wannabe really came to stir up trouble the moment he arrived!
He gathered a group of subordinates, grabbed an AK-47, and charged straight into the cave.
Meanwhile, Aetheris had fully suited up in the Hellfire Armor. The golden helmet locked into place, and a pair of glowing blue eyes lit up within the visor.
"Ding. Please assign a name to the mech system."
"Let's go with Paul."
Aetheris figured Paul could lead a team to the championship this year. The NBA owes Paul a ring!
"Naming successful!"
Bang!
The heavy iron door was flung open from the outside, shaking loose dirt and debris from the cave walls.
"What the hell is that thing?" The armed intruders stood there, utterly dumbfounded.
Cosplay?
Before they could react, Aetheris issued his command.
"Paul, precision strike!"
Faced with these cold-blooded killers, Aetheris didn't waste time with pointless mercy or attempts at redemption like some naive protagonist might.
Redemption is God's job. Mine is to send them to meet Him.
Small missile pods rose from both of Aetheris's shoulders.
In the next instant, a volley of bullets shredded the incoming armed personnel.
Blood blossomed in mid-air.
It was so fast that the attackers had no chance to react.
"Dr. Ethan, stay here. I'll come back for you!"
Aetheris didn't foolishly risk Ethan's life by bringing him along.
He had the indestructible Hellfire Armor, while Ethan was just flesh and blood.
If a stray bullet took out his soon-to-be top scientist, that would be a devastating loss.
Commanding the armor, Aetheris charged out of the cave—only to be met by a sea of gun barrels aimed straight at him.
"I don't care what you are—get out of that big hunk of metal right now!" The bearded man's eyes burned with desire as he laid eyes on the Hellfire Armor.
This had to be one of Tony Sh*t-Stark's hidden weapons. Damn, it was slick. Could it be meant for me?
Every man has a dream of becoming Iron Man!
Aetheris smirked as he faced the bewildered armed group.
"Heh. Listen up, hillbillies from the Central Wastelands of this world—you're already surrounded. If you lay down your weapons now, I'll only execute the ringleaders. The rest of you will be given a chance to repent and become my subordinates."
He also felt a wave of sorrow for them in his heart.
They weren't born to be militants—they had simply been born in the wrong place.
"Hahahaha—"
Laughter erupted around him, with everyone giving him the kind of look one reserves for mentally challenged children.
"Stubborn to the end. Paul, indiscriminate attack!"
Paul executed Aetheris's command without mercy.
As Aetheris watched the screen before him—blood spraying, severed limbs scattered across the ground—
a surge of nausea washed over him.
But he forced himself to keep watching. In the future, he would have to endure even more brutal wars like this.
Wars between humans, between humans and aliens, or even between humans and gods.
In less than five seconds, the entire military base fell silent, as quiet as a graveyard.
Paul's calculations were flawless. Aetheris had ordered no survivors.
It was done. Time to notify the U.S. military garrison to come clean up the bodies.
He checked the Hellfire Armor's energy level—still at 80%.
Damn this system. Would it kill you to toss in a few extra Arc Reactors at random?
Now he had to pinch pennies and conserve power. When he got back, he'd have Old Ethan build him at least a hundred.
Retracting the Hellfire Armor, Aetheris found a satellite phone on the bearded man's corpse and called the U.S. base stationed in the central region of this world.
"Hello? Dinner's ready. Come down to Mississippi."
After notifying the military, Aetheris couldn't stand the overwhelming stench of blood any longer and hurried back to deepen his bond with Old Ethan.
"Mr. Tony Sh*t-Stark, how did you escape? And who killed all those militants?" a garrison officer asked.
"Oh, Captain, I have no idea. I was in the cave with Dr. Ethan the whole time. When I came out… it was already like this."
Sh*t-Stark shrugged, glancing at the vast desert stretching beyond the helicopter window.
Dr. Ethan had already rehearsed the story with him, and he'd even agreed to take a position at Stark Industries once they returned.
After all, who could turn down a job with a ten-million-dollar annual salary?
No one could.
And so, Aetheris experienced what it truly felt like to be rich and reckless.
When hiring people, he never asked how much they wanted—he had money, and it wasn't even his.
"Respected Mr. Tony Sh*t-Stark, may I offer you something to drink?"
Aetheris opened his sleepy eyes—and instantly lit up.
Before him stood a stunning woman of obvious Arabian descent. She had long, jet-black hair that fell to her waist, a full and graceful face, radiant white teeth, and eyes that sparkled like the morning star in the night sky.
"Oh, lovely lady, perhaps you should ask Mr. Ethan over there first," he said, deciding to be "generously human" in an effort to win hearts.
"I'll just have a bottle of Nongfu Spring," Ethan replied.
The woman was beautiful—stunning, even—but Ethan already had a wife.
And as a devout man, he couldn't bring himself to betray her.
"Hey! Why are you always serving them? We want service too!"
A grating voice shouted from the back.
This was a commercial Boeing 747. Originally, the military had planned to prepare a private jet for Aetheris.
But when he heard it would take two more days, he refused to wait. He couldn't bear another second of this arid air.
More importantly, he was desperate to return to the United States and breathe that legendary air of freedom, to see whether it was truly as sweet as that flirty woman from his past life had claimed.
And of course, his personal assistant, Little Pepper, had nearly turned into a "husband-waiting rock" by now.
(End of Chapter)
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