"That's not true! The Ten Rings are terrorists! There's no evil they won't commit, and they train countless killers specifically to carry out assassinations!"
Inside a convenience store, an Asian teenager of sixteen or seventeen abruptly stood up, pointing at the television and shouting, his voice filled with irrepressible anger.
He was Shang-Chi. As the young master of the Ten Rings, he knew better than anyone what the Ten Rings had been like in the past.
They had slaughtered countless people and committed innumerable massacres. They were a truly bloody, evil organization.
Now the Ten Rings were openly whitewashing themselves and even confronting the United States he loved head-on. For someone who considered himself righteous and refused to wallow in the mire with them, it nearly made his lungs explode with rage.
"Xu, you seem to know a lot about the Ten Rings? What kind of organization is it? This is the first I've heard of them."
Seeing how agitated he was, his Black coworker beside him couldn't help asking out of curiosity.
The other coworkers also turned to look at him, their eyes inquisitive.
Shang-Chi took a deep breath and rapidly recounted the Ten Rings' past crimes, his tone urgent, as though he wanted to pour out all the anger in his heart.
But when someone asked, "How do you know so much?" he froze, opening his mouth but failing to say anything for a long while.
Seeing this, the others assumed he was merely making things up because he disliked the Ten Rings, and asked no further questions.
In a bar in Macau.
Xialing sat in a booth with a group of her underlings, likewise staring at the television mounted on the wall.
She hadn't expected the Ten Rings to step into the public eye after she left.
In her eyes and her brother's, the Ten Rings had always been an underground terrorist organization. Now they actually wanted to whitewash themselves and go legitimate, and had even pitted themselves against the United States.
It was simply unbelievable.
At that moment, the surge of online public opinion had not only failed to force back the aggressively advancing US military, but instead thoroughly ignited the fury of its senior commanders.
Inside the frontline command room, a group of battle-hardened, hawkish generals wore livid expressions, their eyes seething with utter fury.
They had operated across the globe for decades, yet no regional armed group had ever dared to challenge American authority so brazenly and slap them in the face in public.
"A mere Ten Rings dares to stand in our way like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, challenging American authority!"
The general clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white and roared furiously, "If we don't eliminate this force, the United States will lose all face! Prepare for battle immediately! Crush the Ten Rings, no matter the cost!"
The flames of war had been fully kindled, and a major battle could erupt at any moment.
While the US military prepared for battle, the Ten Rings' livestream continued.
Two figures slowly walked into the frame, instantly drawing the eyes of the entire world.
They were Anton Vanko and his son, Ivan Vanko.
Old and stooped, Anton Vanko stood before the camera, endless resentment and wistfulness hidden in eyes weathered by the years.
He slowly spoke, his voice hoarse and heavy, carrying grievances and grief-stricken anger suppressed for years. "Today, I will reveal to the public a piece of history that was deliberately buried."
"In 1963, I came to the United States and joined Howard Stark's energy research project. The two of us devoted ourselves to researching Arc Reactor technology. After countless days and nights, pouring our life's work into it, we finally overcame the core challenges and completed the full theoretical framework and the prototype of the large-scale equipment for the first-generation Arc Reactor."
Anton lowered his eyes slightly, a trace of pain flashing through them. "But it was a critical period when the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was at its tensest. On the day we succeeded, Howard Stark suddenly turned on me. Betraying my trust, he accused me of espionage without cause, forcibly deported me, and stole the fruits of our joint research."
He took a deep breath, his tone growing heavier. "I returned to my country in disgrace, filled with exhaustion and resentment. But my country didn't trust me. They were suspicious of my identity and restricted me at every turn. Decades of hard work went down the drain. I spent my days depressed and dispirited, never recovering from the setback, squandering half my life."
"Then, not long ago, after Tony Stark escaped captivity, the Ten Rings approached my son and me. They offered us generous payment and courteous treatment to return to work, hoping we would reproduce and optimize Arc Reactor technology, improving the enormous first-generation Arc Reactor into a small, portable form like Stark's Arc Reactor."
At this point, Anton turned to look at his son Ivan beside him, genuine pride appearing on his aged face. "Fortunately, my son Ivan is also a scientific genius, no less capable than Howard's son. He inherited my knowledge and worked day and night to overcome the challenges. At last, he successfully reproduced and improved the technology, completing the miniaturization of the Arc Reactor."
In the living room of the Malibu mansion in Los Angeles.
Tony stared fixedly at the livestream, his chest heaving violently, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
Unable to suppress the anger in his heart any longer, he raised his hand and violently swept the coffee cup off the table.
Crash!
The exquisite ceramic cup shattered, scalding coffee spilling across the floor and splashing onto his trouser legs.
"Shameless! Absolutely shameless!"
He gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples. "Since when did the fruits of my father's hard work become the Vankos' achievement? They're twisting the truth! Utterly shameless!"
Pepper Potts, who had just arrived, hurried forward and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder, trying to soothe his out-of-control emotions.
But what appeared next on the livestream nearly made Tony spit blood with rage.
Anton solemnly used both hands to unfold a roll of yellowed, tattered paper blueprints, covered in the marks of age, and held it high before the camera.
"At the urging of the Ten Rings' benevolent leader, today my son and I will release this complete set of first-generation Arc Reactor blueprints free of charge, as a gift to the entire world."
Facing the whole world, his movements solemn and his voice firm and resounding, he said, "My only wish is that the nations of this world will no longer be bound by the shackles of energy, that all humanity will share clean energy, steadily advance toward prosperity and strength, explore the universe, and never again wage wars and conflicts over energy!"
"Although this first-generation Arc Reactor technology can only produce large-scale equipment, is expensive to build, and lacks sufficient stability, it is already an epoch-making breakthrough. As long as scientific teams around the world continue to improve and optimize it, they can fully achieve miniaturization, high stability, and low costs, completely rewriting the global energy landscape!"
The moment he said this, the global internet exploded, and hundreds of millions of people erupted in excitement.
Within just a few minutes, the Ten Rings released the complete, fully detailed cold fusion reactor blueprints, allowing the entire world to download and study them.
Leading research institutions and energy laboratories around the world immediately assembled experts to verify them, comparing the theoretical data line by line and working through the principles behind the equipment.
In mere moments, scientists from countless countries were speaking in excited tones, utterly astounded-the blueprints were real, the theory complete, and the technology feasible. This was one hundred percent genuine core fusion technology!
The entire world was shaken. An energy revolution was truly coming.
Nick Fury and the entire senior leadership of the US government and military wore livid expressions, filled with fury and disbelief.
Fury held his forehead. What he had feared most had happened after all.
"That idiot Stern!"
Pierce cursed loudly, slamming his palm onto the desk.
That idiot was one of his men. He hadn't expected his recklessness to create such an irreversible situation.
Tony stared fixedly at the blueprints JARVIS had downloaded. The more he looked, the more blood rushed to his head, his eyes turning red.
The fruits of his Stark Family's hard work had been handed to the whole world as a gift, just like that!
Although Tony Stark had now transformed into Iron Man, he wasn't a saint. Everyone had selfish desires, and he naturally didn't want his technology leaked just like that!
Now Anton had released the Arc Reactor technology to the public and gained tremendous acclaim.
Even if he had lied, the whole world had benefited and would only spread word of Anton's greatness. They might even turn around and mock the Stark Family for being stingy!
Seeing him lose control like this for the second time, Pepper Potts kept comforting him softly.
But Tony had long since been blinded by rage and couldn't calm down at all. Without a word, he turned and headed straight into the equipment room, putting on his Iron Man armor.
The armor's engines roared to life, blue light bursting forth as it became a streak of light tearing through the air, flying at full speed toward Salia.