บท 18: Rescued
It was important to note that the border was very close, and there was a military base on the Afghan side.
He couldn't believe that someone as important as Tony Stark wouldn't have military support. Once they reached the border, it would mean they had forever lost Tony Stark, the mobile super armory.
So, upon hearing that there was no one left, his first reaction was that as soon as they started moving, the others must have begun to retreat.
He quickly ordered everyone to pursue in the northwest direction.
Meanwhile, Blake, who had been delaying for over ten minutes, wanted to call and check if Tony and the others had escaped danger.
Unfortunately, the satellite phone Black Widow had left was on the ground, and at some point, it had been hit by a bullet.
It must have been from the sporadic shots fired by the two vehicles earlier.
"Damn it!"
Blake cursed under his breath, deciding to go all the way and got into an off-road vehicle, flooring it toward the northwest.
As for the bearded man, he received a report from his men.
A convoy of vehicles sped towards the northwest.
After four or five minutes, the bearded man's phone rang again.
This time, who knows who was calling. After answering, he wore a serious expression.
He spoke into the radio, "Retreat, the target has been taken by the U.S. military. Retreat immediately!"
In the desert, a dozen vehicles turned around simultaneously, heading back the way they came.
Blake, despite hearing the conversation on the vehicle's radio, couldn't understand a word because they were speaking in some Arabic dialect.
Fortunately, the system prompt sounded in time.
[Congratulations, host, for completing the mission to rescue Tony Stark, earning 1000 points.]
[Congratulations, host, for befriending the original Avenger, Hawkeye, and leaving a deep impression, earning 500 points.]
[Congratulations, host, for greatly increasing Black Widow's favorability towards you, earning 200 points.]
[Congratulations, host, for greatly increasing Iron Man's favorability towards you, earning 200 points.]
[Congratulations, host, for increasing Hawkeye's favorability towards you, earning 100 points.]
The prompts kept coming. Completing the mission and unexpectedly improving relationships with key figures, earning extra points, seemed like hidden rewards.
It seemed that going through life and death together boosted favorability quickly.
However, Blake wondered why he only got 100 points from Hawkeye. Was it because he wasn't as familiar with him, or because Hawkeye had less presence?
But Blake didn't have time to think too much. With the mission completed, chasing the Ten Rings was unnecessary.
If he advanced further, he might encounter them again. Although he was now a super soldier wearing system-provided protective gear, he wasn't invincible. A headshot from a high-caliber bullet or an encounter with heavy weaponry, like a few rockets, would still be fatal.
Risking his life was one thing, but unnecessary risks were not worth it.
With no other choice, he decided to avoid them and wait for Tony's rescue. It would have been better if the satellite phone hadn't been destroyed.
After a moment's thought, Blake turned back in the direction he came from.
On the other side, the bearded man, who had ordered the retreat, began to feel something was wrong.
The number of vehicles didn't match. He had checked the numbers initially.
Besides the two vehicles that were destroyed upfront, there hadn't been any other casualties later on.
But if those two were destroyed, how did they escape his net?
It didn't make sense that after all the chasing, they were just taken by the U.S. military.
If that were the case, he should have encountered the Americans too.
The more he thought about it, the more it didn't add up. Considering the sharpshooter in the opposing team, the last wave only had gunfire, and he didn't see the archer again.
Something wasn't right!
They were tricked! They left someone behind to cover their retreat!
Otherwise, the number of vehicles would match. The two vehicles that went past must have been ambushed.
Damn it!
So many of his men were killed, and so much effort was wasted, all for nothing.
To top it off, he was played for a fool.
The more the bearded man thought about it, the angrier he became. He picked up the radio and issued orders to his men.
Meanwhile, Blake had no idea that the bearded man had started hunting him in this desert.
Blake, thinking only of minimizing risk, was heading back the way he came.
In Blake's mind, regardless of when support would arrive, it was safer to backtrack for now. Once he had covered some distance, he planned to head south towards Pakistan.
As long as he entered a Pakistani city, he would be completely safe.
However, Blake overlooked one detail: the bald man who kidnapped Tony had his base within Pakistan.
Although that base had been destroyed, the bald man was still alive and had more than one team in the area.
Blake didn't know about these complexities, including the various factions within the Ten Rings. He only knew that the mission was completed.
He had also gained a lot of points, bringing his total to three thousand.
He was now only two thousand points away from unlocking the level-two store.
The vehicle had plenty of fuel, and he even found a pack of cigarettes inside, which he was happily smoking while driving south.
As he drove, he suddenly noticed a small black dot ahead.
It looked like a person.
A single person posed no threat to Blake, so he drove towards them casually.
To his surprise, when the person heard the sound of the engine, they turned around and made a hitchhiking gesture towards Blake.
"Pretty gutsy, stopping a vehicle that clearly belongs to armed militants in such a chaotic place," Blake thought, noticing the heavy machine gun mounted on the vehicle.
Feeling confident that his pursuers wouldn't catch up in the vast desert and not wanting to leave this person to potentially be killed by terrorists, he decided to do a good deed.
With a stylish maneuver, Blake brought the off-road vehicle to a stop beside the traveler.
"Need a ride?"
The traveler wore baggy suit pants, a blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and had a dirty scarf wrapped around their face to protect against the sand. They looked quite down-and-out.
Seeing Blake stop, the person was delighted and quickly pulled off the scarf.
"Can you take me to the nearest town? Thanks!"
The person smiled warmly, but Blake, upon seeing their face, reacted as if he had seen a ghost.
"It's you???"
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