Iron Monger's Arrogance!

"No, how could this happen?"

"Our army was just wiped out?"

"Obadiah Stane, he's a demon! A complete and utter madman!"

In front of their televisions, countless viewers felt as though invisible hands had clenched around their hearts, making it extraordinarily difficult to breathe.

Through their screens, people watched the battlefield's hellish scene, their hearts turning cold as a chill rose from their spines to the tops of their heads.

On the television screen, tank wreckage littered the ground. Their armor plates had all twisted out of shape, and their gun barrels hung limply toward the earth.

Fighter jets had been sliced in half, their fuselages engulfed in blazing flames, their wreckage embedded at an angle in the scorched soil.

Countless armored vehicles had turned into burning fireballs. Thick smoke billowed through the air, which reeked of scorched metal and blood.

Some soldiers were dead, others wounded. Corpses lay everywhere, severed limbs scattered across the ground, and anguished cries filled the air.

This apocalyptic scene stabbed deeply into every viewer's nerves, leaving everyone with profound despair and helplessness.

No one had expected the battle to end in less than half an hour from the moment the army appeared.

The black steel mech on the screen was like the Grim Reaper, powerful enough to make people suffocate.

The soldiers' weapons were completely ineffective against it. Bullets could only throw up tiny sparks when they struck its armor.

Tanks and armored vehicles were nothing more than oversized toys before it. Even shell explosions could not shake the mech in the slightest.

Instead, every attack from the black mech carried devastating power, easily tearing tanks and fighter jets into pieces.

Punches, kicks, mech missiles...

In only a brief moment, those war machines that normally inspired fear had been utterly destroyed.

Everyone watching television felt as though they had awakened from a dream.

They stared intently at the black mech hovering in the sky—I​​ron Monger!

"It's over. Everything is over..."

"Mommy, I'm scared..."

"God, please save us..."

"What do we do? What are we supposed to do?"

"Damn it, this guy..."

Police Chief Joe Ferguson slammed his fist onto the desk.

His eyes were fixed on the television screen, on the black mech rampaging through everything as if no one could stop it.

That thing was simply beyond anything humans could contend with.

Who could possibly save them now?

Joe Ferguson had been a police officer for years and had seen countless vicious criminals, yet he had never felt as powerless as he did today.

He paced anxiously back and forth through his office, thought after thought racing through his mind.

The army was clearly no longer something they could rely on, so...

"Wait, Stark..."

Joe Ferguson abruptly stopped, a glimmer appearing in his eyes.

Something this major had happened to Stark Industries. There was no reason that man could still be so calm.

Besides, he did not believe Tony Stark had nothing to do with this.

"Damn it, I can only treat a dead horse like it's alive now!"

Joe Ferguson muttered to himself, quickly picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

"Beep... Beep..."

The phone rang again and again, but no one answered.

"No answer? Did something happen?"

No, he had to personally go to Tony Stark's residence and take a look.

"Yu Xian, I really have to thank you!"

"Without your help, how could I have experienced the joy of possessing power?"

"I imagine those people up there can't sit still anymore, can they?"

"This display of the Iron Legion's value should already have made them understand the importance of absolute force."

Obadiah Stane remained unmoved as he looked upon the hellish scene around him.

This was merely a small game.

He wanted those people above to clearly recognize the value of the steel army he had developed, so he could sell it for a good price.

Obadiah Stane had thought it through clearly. By destroying the city's power supply system and creating chaos, he would force the government and the public to submit to his energy supply—the Arc Reactor technology of Stark Industries.

First control energy, then control the military, and finally control everything.

Those politicians, generals, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. would all kneel at his feet.

At its core, he was establishing hegemony through his own dual energy-military system.

Obadiah Stane recalled the scene at the press conference when Tony announced the closure of the weapons division. "You think you're seeking redemption? No, you're only trampling on our empire."

For all these years, he had been the true power behind Stark Industries, while Tony had merely been a playboy addicted to pleasure.

And now this ungrateful brat actually dared to threaten his position?

Close the weapons division?

It was utterly laughable!!!

Obadiah Stane looked at the Arc Reactor in his chest, excitement showing in his eyes.

This technology should have belonged to him from the start.

Only he could bring out its greatest value.

Who could have imagined that that wastrel, who spent all day drowning himself in wine and women, could build a reactor in a cave?

Yet his own research team had spent enormous amounts of time and still could not replicate it.

Fortunately, that mysterious agent had eventually appeared, bringing a complete reactor and its blueprints.

Only then had the idea in his heart become reality.

The black Iron Monger mech hovered in the air as Obadiah Stane looked down at the wreckage of the destroyed army below.

Flames slithered through the ruins like fire serpents, thick smoke blanketed the sky, and blood dyed the ground red.

"This is what power tastes like,"

"It truly is... intoxicating."

"Foolish Tony, you have talent, yet you don't know how to use it."

"The world doesn't need pacifists. It needs guardians of order."

"Tony, your idealism is dragging us into the abyss."

"Energy is power."

"With energy, you have everything."

Rather than be an arms dealer rich enough to rival nations, it was better to become a god who decided who lived.

That was the ultimate form of power.

Tony did not understand. He was shackled by those boring morals.

If he had not prepared in advance, Stark Industries would have long since been destroyed by Tony's bleeding heart.

"Sir, the final three energy nodes in the eastern region have been taken over."

A subordinate's voice came through the mech's communication system.

At present, seventy percent of the nation's energy nodes had been transferred into Stark Industries' control network.

The new Arc Reactor's energy was enough to supply the entire nation's electricity needs, and only he controlled the switch.

"Very good. Begin phase two."

Obadiah ordered, "I want people to see what true order is."

Obadiah raised the mech's arm and activated its energy cannon. Blue light gathered in its palm. "From today onward, only those who obey deserve to have light. Any region that refuses me will remain in darkness forever."

Boom!

The energy beam shot toward an unoccupied building, and the entire structure collapsed in the explosion.

The shocking footage spread across the nation through the live broadcast.

He had already sent a special team to Malibu. Tony's so-called "improved reactor version" would soon belong to him as well.

When that time came, Iron Man would become Iron Monger's stepping stone.

"Sir, we have detected signs of S.H.I.E.L.D. activity."

The communication system sounded again.

"No need to worry!"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. or the military, they are merely guardians of the old order."

"And I will create a new order. I am destined to become the king of this new era."

"This world will ultimately submit to the perfect union of technology and power."

"No one can stop me from moving forward!!!"