"Crash!"
Inside the office of Stark Industries' vice president, a sharp crash shattered the deathly silence.
Obadiah hurled his coffee cup at the wall. Porcelain shards scattered, and dark brown liquid trickled down the wall.
He had just returned from Tony's villa. No matter how earnestly he tried to persuade him, Tony stubbornly insisted on shutting down the weapons division.
Stark Industries' main business was selling weapons. If they stopped doing that, how would the company make money? How would he keep raking in enormous profits?
"Damn Tony Stark... damn the Ten Rings!"
Obadiah gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with venom.
He hated Tony to the core, but he hated the Ten Rings even more for breaking their word. Failing to kill Tony was one thing, but they had actually let him out alive!
"Ding!"
Just then, a crisp email notification sounded from his computer.
It was his private encrypted account.
Obadiah's expression shifted. He immediately sat back down and opened the message.
There on the screen were the Mark I blueprints Hamid had sent, with a note at the end of the email saying, "You're welcome."
Obadiah nearly spat blood in anger, but as he examined the blueprints closely, his breath suddenly caught-this was Tony's work!
"Tony... I have to admit, you really are a genius!"
Obadiah stared at the screen, a flicker of feverish delight crossing his eyes as he muttered to himself.
"All it needs is a miniature power source..."
Obadiah narrowed his eyes slightly, tapping his fingers gently against the desk.
He recalled the blue glow that had occasionally shone beneath the clothes over Tony's chest since his return. Looking again at the space reserved for the power source in the blueprints, he instantly understood.
Profound shock followed.
He had never imagined Tony could shrink that enormous reactor to such a size!
His hands trembled slightly with excitement. He immediately shut down the computer and drove back to Tony's mansion to ask about it.
To put his mind at ease, Tony did not hide anything.
However, when Obadiah wanted to use this technology to enter the energy market, Tony refused without hesitation.
Entering the energy market would inevitably offend governments around the world and energy giants. The military might also use it as a weapon to wage war.
He dealt with the military all the time. He knew their ways far too well!
But Obadiah cared nothing about any of that. He only felt that Tony was being stubborn, rejecting one thing after another.
As he looked at Tony's face, the jealousy and murderous intent within him grew even stronger!
Salia Base, equipment area.
"My lord, Dr. Connors has agreed to join the Star Ring Group, but Dr. Otto will only accept investment. He doesn't want to join," Hamid reported to Wenwu with a bow.
"Oh? Is that so?"
Wenwu lifted his teacup and took a sip, asking calmly, "Did you get his mechanical arm technology, then?"
"Yes. But it's still in the experimental stage. Dr. Otto hasn't completed a finished product yet," Hamid replied respectfully, lowering his head slightly.
"As long as we have it. That's all the value he has to offer. As for his controlled nuclear fusion project, we already have the Arc Reactor. We have no need for his. Since he doesn't want to join, there's no reason to waste money on his experiments."
Wenwu did not attach much importance to Dr. Otto. It would be best if he joined, but it did not matter to him if he refused.
"When you return after your enhancement this time, give Peter Parker's genetic data to Dr. Connors. See whether he can help develop anything from it," Wenwu instructed.
"Yes, my lord!" Hamid answered.
Wenwu nodded and took him to Dr. Burstein to undergo enhancement.
After Hamid was successfully enhanced, he clenched his fists, feeling the surging power within him, his face full of excitement.
He had gained extraordinary power just like that?
He had always deeply envied Mutants with extraordinary powers. He had never imagined that he would one day possess such terrifying strength himself!
And his lord had made all of this possible. His lord had actually bestowed something so wonderful upon him. Deeply moved, he silently swore to follow him to the death!
Two days later.
Star Ring Group laboratory.
When Dr. Connors saw the data on Peter Parker's mutated genes that Hamid had brought, his single eye widened, and his breathing quickened.
He had been researching cross-species genetic fusion day and night without finding a way forward. He had never expected that someone had successfully fused with mutated spider genes.
The more he read, the more excited he became. If he could master this fusion technology, his limb regeneration research could enter the experimental stage!
He had previously thought the Star Ring Group was an obscure little company. He had never expected it to possess mutation data of this caliber. Clearly, the backing behind this company was anything but ordinary!
In the time that followed, Wenwu also shared Dr. Sterns' research data on cross-species genetic fusion with Dr. Connors, then passed Dr. Connors' research theories to Dr. Sterns.
Combining the wisdom of the two biologists in their research produced immediate results.
Although Dr. Sterns' mutated brain allowed him to conduct research far faster than Dr. Connors, what mattered most in scientific research was that flash of inspiration. With the two offering different angles of analysis, progress became much faster!
Dr. Connors knew that the Star Ring Group was keeping another scientist, one more gifted than himself, hidden away. But despite his repeated questions, Star Ring would not tell him who it was, so he eventually had to let it go.
One day, Wenwu suddenly grew curious about Peter Parker's situation and had his subordinates investigate.
Afterward, a subordinate reported that Peter Parker had not come to the Star Ring Group. Instead, he had still gone to fight in underground matches to earn money for a car.
Peter Parker had successfully earned the money and bought a car, but that night, when he drove off to meet his dream girl,
two men broke into his home to rob it. Ben Parker tried to persuade the two criminals to turn over a new leaf, only to be shot when a gun accidentally went off!
By the time Peter Parker returned, efforts to save Ben Parker had failed, and he was dead!
"Does Ben Parker really have to die?"
Wenwu was quite speechless after hearing this. Peter's Spider-Man had died in many parallel universes, and very few Spider-Men got to live peaceful, happy lives with their families!
He shook his head and stopped concerning himself with it!
Time flew, and three months passed in a rush.
In those short ninety days, the Ten Rings' influence in Salia expanded rapidly like a rolling snowball.
Wenwu gathered the Ten Rings' entire main army in Salia and advanced inland from the coast with lightning speed, taking full control of five major provincial capitals and seizing more than a dozen small and medium-sized incorporated towns along the way.
Now, a full sixty thousand well-equipped troops held firm control over this vast expanse of land.
Among them, Amba City, a coastal hub with a deepwater port, had the densest troop deployment.
As their territory expanded, steel mills and arms factories rose one after another, and vast quantities of supplies were continually gathered.
Thanks to the almost unlimited clean energy supplied by the Arc Reactor, along with the mass production and deployment of various high-tech construction machines, the speed of factory construction was nothing short of miraculous.
All kinds of high-tech equipment and high-energy weapons were rapidly assembled and rolled off production lines. Large numbers of new missiles were among them, continually shipped to the five surrounding cities for installation, forming an impregnable defensive network.
As a vital route for supplies from the outside world, Amba City's defenses were undoubtedly the highest priority.
Over these three months, the vast majority of the new high-energy weapons mass-produced at headquarters had been allocated here first.
However, the enormous demands of infrastructure construction and military equipment drove steel consumption to a staggering level.
Ordinary structural steel could still be barely supplied through emergency purchases from steel mills across the Middle East and the remelting of scrap steel.
But local production capacity in the Middle East was woefully insufficient for the heat-resistant special alloys needed for plasma pulse cannons, electromagnetic cannons, and hover fighters.
To fill this shortfall, some of the special alloys could only be brought in through long and dangerous black-market smuggling routes.
The rest could only be smelted within the base itself, using small metallurgical furnaces built to draw on the vast electrical power supplied by the Arc Reactor.
Over these three months, more than a thousand top scientists and skilled technicians had been secretly transferred to the base. Mass production of various energy weapons, missile systems, and hover fighters was advancing at full speed.
But the pressure on the steel supply remained immense!
To solve this problem, Wenwu could only turn his attention underground around the base, sending people to locate ore deposits for mining and smelting.
Becky's miraculous ultrasonic ability played an enormous role at this point. He could precisely detect mineral density a hundred meters underground and had already helped the base locate quite a few hidden deposits during this time.
Meanwhile, some good news arrived as well.
Using the complete formula for the special alloy obtained from Dr. Otto, they had finally succeeded in synthesizing it.
This crucial material could finally be mass-produced within the base!
"My lord!"
At the base, Wenwu had just finished cultivating when Razor Fist jogged into the hall, bowed slightly, and reported urgently:
"Word has come from Los Angeles. Two iron men are fighting outside the gates of Stark Industries. It's already being broadcast live on the news!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Wenwu chuckled and had Razor Fist turn on the live television broadcast. "Looks like Iron Man's name is about to ring out across the world."