A Steel Man Fell from the Sky

Clack, clack!

The jeep’s wipers began to move, clearing the parts and sand that had landed on the windshield. Painful groans from a man came from where the humanoid aircraft had crashed.

Without a moment of hesitation, Kyle looked toward Weiss on the dashboard and reached out.

Understanding what he meant, Weiss’s mechanical body rapidly transformed, shrinking and folding into an ordinary pair of sunglasses.

Putting on the sunglasses, Kyle opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle, his gaze falling on the small sandpit ahead.

A damaged Iron Machine lay in the pit. Its steel shell had fallen away, revealing a pair of gloved male hands. Broken and scattered steel parts surrounded his body, mixed with wires, some of them still spewing sparks and black smoke.

"Hah." With a pained intake of breath, the man removed the Steel Helmet and metal mask from his head, revealing a mature, gentlemanly face. His black hair was dry, and he wore a slightly weathered mustache. He looked to be in his thirties.

His face was full of exhaustion. His casual long-sleeved shirt was stained with blood and carried the smell of gunpowder. His chest rose and fell as he panted rapidly, while his right arm seemed broken and was cradled by his other hand.

The man looked as though he had just gone through a fierce battle and barely escaped here.

When he saw the jeep parked before him and Kyle getting out, he urgently pleaded, "Save me! Please, take me away from here!"

"Save you? What’s in it for me?" Kyle looked down coldly at the gentleman lying on the ground, considering it with complete seriousness.

Tony froze, then instinctively said, "I have money! Take me away, and I’ll pay you!"

"Fine. The fare is one hundred billion dollars. Fast and safe, guaranteed." Kyle lightly snapped his fingers.

"One hundred billion?!" Tony’s mouth fell open. Even a billionaire like him was stunned by that outrageous price.

Taking advantage of someone’s peril and naming whatever price he wanted? Robbing a bank wasn’t even this outrageous!

"You don’t want to? Forget it, then." Kyle spread his hands, decisively turning back toward the driver’s seat of the jeep. He muttered, "I have a habit of honking while I drive. I wonder if that’ll attract anyone over here later."

"Hey, hey, don’t!" Tony had clearly suffered enough at the terrorists’ hands. Terrified, he struggled up from the ground, his face pale as he pressed his dry lips together. "One hundred billion, then! Let me get in, quickly!"

A short while later, the jeep slowly started up, leaving behind a field of ruined, discarded Iron Man Armor parts.

Tony sat in the passenger seat, watching the desert recede beyond the window. Only then did he let out a breath of relief and slump weakly into the soft leather seat.

"Oh, right. Remember to write me an IOU in the car." Kyle’s voice suddenly came from beside him.

Hearing that, Tony sprang upright as though he had been insulted and provoked, snapping irritably, "You bastard, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?! You definitely know who I am!"

"You? Who are you?" Kyle asked expressionlessly, adjusting his sunglasses.

"I’m Tony Stark!" Tony emphasized every word, gritting his teeth. "I said I’ll give you the one hundred billion, and I absolutely will! I’ve never written an IOU in my life!"

"You won’t write one? Then I’ll turn around and go back." Kyle shrugged.

"I don’t believe—"

Tony had barely gotten halfway through his sentence when the jeep really did turn around, accelerating back in the direction they had come from.

"You bastard, you’re serious?"

"I’ll write it, all right?!"

Three seconds later, Tony completely gave in, his scalp tingling. He picked up the pen and paper on the dashboard and resignedly lowered his head to write with one hand.

In all his life, apart from his father, no one had ever been able to control his fiery temper.

Yet now, he had encountered a silver-haired young man who looked more than a decade younger than him, and somehow he was completely at the other man’s mercy, being toyed with in the palm of his hand.

Kyle laughed outright at the sight. Weiss, transformed into sunglasses, flashed a green thumbs-up icon on the inside, while Venom, disguised as his coat, let out a strange laugh in his mind.

In fact, before the aircraft crashed in front of the jeep, Kyle, Weiss, and Venom had all recognized Tony’s identity almost at the same time.

There was no need to mention Kyle. Tony was the old gentleman Howard’s son, and with Kyle’s knowledge as a transmigrator, how could he possibly fail to recognize the future Iron Man, Tony?

Weiss had connected to Earth’s network, where information on Tony was simply too abundant to ignore. Moreover, Weiss’s very existence had an immense connection to the Stark family.

As for Venom, it relied entirely on its extraordinarily sharp biological senses.

In its words, "This kid looks exactly like that Howard guy. Weak!"

With all three in agreement, Kyle naturally took care of his "big nephew." After all, family was family.

Tony sat gloomily in the car. He had just lost the close friend who had helped him build the first Iron Man Armor, then narrowly escaped death after fighting terrorists, only to run into a guy who was gouging him for money.

"This junker costs one hundred billion in fare?"

Tony glanced over the interior decorations, then suddenly froze. He carefully felt around with his hands, saying in surprise, "This jeep is a limited edition from 1945? It even looks brand-new."

"Just a high-quality imitation." Kyle smiled calmly.

Tony fell silent and examined Kyle beside him again.

He was a genius engineer and an avid collector of famous cars. How could he possibly fail to tell whether the vehicle was real or fake?

More importantly, there were only three of these limited-edition jeeps in the world. One of them had long been gathering dust in his father’s old garage.

Looking at the silver-haired young man before him, Tony somehow thought of his father. His expression immediately dimmed. After hesitating, he asked, "Who are you? Why are you in a place like this?"

"Me?" Kyle thought for a moment, then said calmly, "Just call me ‘Ka.’ As for why I’m here, if you can fall from the sky wearing a suit of steel, why can’t I drive past here?"

"Ka." Tony murmured the name to himself. For some reason, despite being swindled out of a fortune, he still felt an indescribable sense of closeness from the young man beside him.

Had he developed some unknown masochistic tendency during the weeks he had been imprisoned in the terrorists’ basement?

Half an hour later.

As the jeep neared the edge of the desert, a large fighter jet roared past at low altitude, broadcasting a warning for them to stop.

The American military insignia painted on the fighter’s exterior made Tony excitedly stretch one hand out the window, shouting and waving nonstop.

"Ka, come back to New York with me! I won’t give you a cent less than one hundred billion dollars!" Tony said to Kyle, full of excitement and joy.

"You haven’t paid me yet. Of course I’m going with you." Kyle slowly brought the jeep to a stop and said coolly, "But remember this: don’t let anyone investigate my identity."

"No problem." Tony agreed immediately.

Right now, the person who most wanted to investigate and learn Kyle’s identity was him!

The place name has been changed. Let it just be the Middle East; I couldn’t find the earlier one.

Today I went to see the newly released Venom movie. It was pretty good, and Venom’s personality wasn’t too different from some of my settings in the book. I’ll lean more toward the movie’s characterization in the future.

Tomorrow is Singles’ Day, so I should add another chapter. Please support me with monthly votes.