Chapter Fifty-One: Arrival (Third Update—Whimper)

"Where did you pitch your tent?"
Peter followed behind Gwen, watching her slightly petite figure skillfully carve a path through the dense forest. Suddenly, he spoke up.
Gwen paused, turned to the side, and those eyes of hers—so brilliant, like blue sapphires—briefly swept over Peter as she replied, "Why? What are you asking for?"
"Just... just curious," Peter muttered. Seeing those blue eyes, he immediately thought of Zhong Shenyu, and his confidence faltered. He shrank his neck back, remembering he'd been thoroughly beaten for nearly a month...
How baffling, Gwen thought to herself. She then pointed ahead with a slender finger and said, "By the stream just ahead of the woods. It's a bit damp, but it's convenient for fetching water every day."
"And you? Where are you planning to camp?"
Still a step too late... Peter thought. After pondering for a moment, he suggested, "Maybe... I'll camp next to you?"
Gwen shot Peter a disdainful glance and walked off.
Hey, hey, hey, what are you thinking!
In the past, Peter would have simply hung his head and quietly walked off in another direction. But he was no longer the old Peter Parker—he was a brand new Peter Parker now!
Shenyu had once told him, "If a girl looks down on you, don't be timid—just go for it!"
So, Peter chose to lift his head and stride boldly after her.
He followed Gwen all the way to the edge of a gentle stream, where the water was clear and the riverbed of smooth, rounded stones was visible beneath its surface.
The saying goes, 'Clear waters hold no fish,' but that didn’t seem to apply to the Osborne Indoor Ecological Zone. Peter could easily see plenty of fish, large and small, darting and playing in the water.
Grilled fish with crispy skin would surely taste amazing... Peter mused.
About ten meters from the stream, on a patch of flat, muddy ground, stood a neatly pitched camouflage tent.
Four sturdy ropes, looped around thick stakes, were hammered firmly into the earth, making the small tent stand tall and unmoving in the breeze.
This, of course, was Gwen’s tent.
One had to admit, Gwen hadn’t wasted her month here. Judging by her tent alone, she had already adopted the air of a seasoned survivalist.
Gwen was somewhat surprised that Peter had actually followed her. This was quite a departure from the timid Peter Parker she remembered.
But when she saw him carefully inspecting the tent she’d spent so long constructing, her face brightened, and she asked with a touch of pride,
"So, what do you think?"
Her pretty face, still carrying a trace of baby fat, was written all over with "Praise me, praise me, praise me..."
"Heh, it’s decent," Peter, the Iron King, replied solemnly.
Gwen’s expression froze immediately.
"You... hmph!"
She lifted her chin, ducked into the tent, and zipped it shut behind her, refusing to say another word to Peter.
Peter scratched his head, puzzled at Gwen’s sudden reaction. After all, he was only ten years old, and silently grumbled in his mind—
Girls... so troublesome.
——
When the English broadcast—tinged with a heavy Russian accent—announced, "The plane will soon land in Saint Petersburg...", Zhong Shenyu finally opened his eyes, no longer sleeping.
At that moment, he had taken on the appearance of a slender, middle-aged white man, about forty years old.
He'd picked a random unfortunate soul from Fifth Avenue near Queens and used his personal information to purchase a direct flight ticket from Queens to Saint Petersburg, Russia.
He intended to operate in Russia for the next three days using this identity.
His primary objective was simple: find Ivan Vanko and, by any means necessary, turn him into a loyal hound serving Zhong Shenyu.
He would have Ivan build machines and seek information about the Space Stone.
As the villain of Iron Man 2, Ivan had managed to cobble together a reactor and a rudimentary suit of armor from a heap of scrap, and later, effortlessly hacked Justin Industries’ firewalls, among other feats.
Compared to Tony Stark, Ivan was certainly no match, but he was far superior to the average researcher.
Thus, Zhong Shenyu believed Ivan could fulfill his demands.
The movie’s plot went like this: Ivan Vanko’s father, Anton Vanko, was originally a Soviet scientist who later moved to the United States and became Howard Stark’s assistant, working together to develop the Arc Reactor.
Anton Vanko was apparently accused of treason or something similar—it hardly mattered. The point was, Howard Stark had him deported back to the Soviet Union, where he lived in misery, accompanied only by alcohol.
But he imparted all his knowledge to his son, Ivan Vanko.
Ivan was a rare technical genius, though likely due to his upbringing, he ended up selling weapons-grade plutonium to Pakistan and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
I wonder if he’s out yet... Zhong Shenyu mused.
If he remembered correctly, Ivan Vanko was imprisoned in a facility called Kopesk, located on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg.
So Zhong Shenyu planned to start there, to see if Ivan was still inside.
He expected Ivan would be there.
Because the plot of Iron Man 2 began with Ivan’s release from prison, his father’s death from years of alcoholism and depression, and Tony Stark’s public declaration that he was Iron Man, basking in glory.
That drove Ivan to seek revenge for his father, leading him to the United States for his showdown with Tony.
Recalling this storyline, Zhong Shenyu began to craft a plan: how to keep this slippery old fox, who could never be trusted, firmly under his control.
But his first priority was to help Ivan break out of prison.
Zhong Shenyu hailed a car and headed to the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, where there was nothing but vast wilderness and dense woods.
In the distance, he could see Kopesk Prison, lying quietly on the earth like a colossal dragon.
The entire structure was made of ancient gray stone, not as resilient as the monstrous buildings like Xingge Prison, which even Rhino Man struggled to damage, but the thick stone walls would still be tough to breach.
Watchtowers surrounded the facility; while Zhong Shenyu was safe standing far away, he knew that if he got any closer, merciless bullets would surely be fired at him.
Moreover, sneaking in to rescue just Ivan wouldn’t be ideal.
If the prison lost only Ivan, with today’s technology, tracking him down would be quite feasible, and any connection to Zhong Shenyu would risk exposing him as well.
Therefore...
He needed to bring a wild celebration to this ancient prison!