A dozen minutes later, large numbers of war correspondents rushed to the battlefield.
On camera, Iron Man Armor, fighter jets, tanks, missile launchers, and military fortifications had melted under extreme heat.
Every building, military facility, and defensive position within the bases had been reduced to nothing. Not even a trace of the soldiers' remains was left.
Clearly, all the soldiers stationed at the eight bases had been completely vaporized by the extreme heat, leaving no bodies behind.
After a brief, deathly silence, every live news broadcast around the world erupted. The anchors' voices trembled with barely suppressed fear.
"Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!"
"A new science-fiction-level weapon of mass destruction has emerged! This was an utterly overwhelming strike!"
"Eight regular military bases have been destroyed, completely wiped off the map!"
Soon, battlefield figures from all sides were quickly compiled and made public. The cold death toll stunned the world.
More than ten thousand American troops stationed overseas had been killed!
The bases of the five Middle Eastern countries had suffered a combined fifteen thousand deaths!
In a single brief exchange, twenty-five thousand regular military personnel had perished. Not one had survived.
Once the figures came out, global public opinion fractured completely, and the internet ground to a halt. Trending topics dominated the rankings in every country, with opposing opinions instantly sweeping across the web.
Ten minutes after the fighting ended, Hamid, chief spokesperson for the Ten Rings General Bureau of Foreign Affairs, appeared punctually at a globally broadcast press conference. His expression was stern and his tone forceful as he delivered the final official statement to the world's media.
"This military conflict was caused entirely by an unprovoked attack launched by the United States-led coalition."
"We exercised restraint throughout and did not initiate any dispute. The coalition fired a thousand missiles first, launching air strikes on our residential areas and killing dozens of innocent civilians, trampling on the most basic principles of humanitarianism."
"All counterattacks by the Ten Rings were unequivocally legitimate acts of self-defense."
"The United States and every country involved in the surprise attack bear full responsibility for all consequences of this war, casualties, and regional instability."
"Our initiative in developing weapons is not a threat to the world. It is an act of defense!"
The press conference was broadcast simultaneously around the world. Local people in the Middle East and opponents of the United States rallied in support.
Western media, meanwhile, adopted a unified line and launched an all-out smear campaign. Hashtags flooded global trending lists: #TenRingsMassacre# #TerroristAttackWithBannedWeapons# #TerrorismOfTheNewCentury#
An American military spokesperson hastily convened a press conference. Taking a hard line and visibly furious, he publicly declared:
"This is a blatant massacre-a crime against humanity! An act of terrorism without any limits!"
"Over twenty thousand active-duty military personnel have died innocent, horrific deaths, and countless families have been torn apart. The crimes of the Ten Rings are unforgivable!"
"They developed and deployed prohibited weapons of extreme lethality without authorization, disregarding international order and trampling on the rules of war!"
"The Ten Rings are a cancer entrenched in the Middle East that threatens global security!"
The United States government officially announced:
It would impose the highest-level, comprehensive economic, military, and technological blockade and sanctions on the Ten Rings, calling on every country and international organization worldwide to boycott them, sever relations, and impose embargoes to isolate the Ten Rings completely.
Online opinion across the West was overwhelmingly one-sided. Abuse, condemnation, and calls for boycotts flooded the internet, firmly branding the Ten Rings a "terrorist force."
European and American internet users denounced them en masse, their anger running high:
"This isn't war. It's a massacre!"
"If weapons of this caliber spread, the whole world will face disaster!"
"The world must unite to wipe them out and eliminate the Ten Rings threat for good!"
"Mourn the twenty-five thousand fallen soldiers. The Ten Rings must pay!"
Western social media platforms comprehensively restricted the reach of and deleted comments supporting the Ten Rings. Public discourse was monopolized under heavy pressure, and public sentiment in favor of a boycott reached its peak.
Most online voices in East Asia expressed dissatisfaction with American imperialist rhetoric:
"The coalition bombed civilians first, then cried foul when they were hit back. The height of hypocrisy!"
"Did anyone mention humanitarianism when a thousand missiles were raining down on residential areas? Now that they're getting hit, they want to talk about rules?"
"The Ten Rings were only protecting themselves. This was a desperate counterattack that hegemony forced them into, step by step!"
"The United States has spent years creating wars in the Middle East and massacring civilians without ever being sanctioned. Now they're getting hit, and suddenly it's unfair!"
"Aggression is legal, self-defense is a crime. Those are the rules of American hegemony."
"All the United States brings the world is war. The Ten Rings bring the world endless energy. That's a contribution to all humanity!"
Whatever global public opinion might be.
At this moment, everyone in the world fully understood.
The Ten Rings were no longer merely a local armed force holding territory in the Middle East.
They were a formidable force with strategic weapons, one that dared to confront the American-led coalition head-on and could instantly flatten national-level military bases.
No one in the world dared underestimate them!
At that moment, no matter how fierce the storm of public opinion outside became, Wenwu remained completely unmoved.
After instructing his subordinates to properly resettle the affected civilians, he took Becky to a nearby, unworked medium-sized mineral deposit.
This was precisely the deposit Becky had previously surveyed, where no personnel had yet been assigned.
With a thought from Wenwu, the distribution of countless iron ores underground appeared clearly in his mind.
Boom!
With a muffled roar, the ground shook violently. Vast quantities of iron ore burst out of the earth like a churning subterranean dragon. Then, with another slight shift of his will, the iron in the ore instantly liquefied before being forcibly separated and fused together, while all kinds of impurities pattered down like a torrential rain.
In the blink of an eye, over a hundred tons of pure iron lay piled before him.
"My lord, with this ability, you'll never need to worry about iron and steel again." Becky tilted his head up, his eyes filled with fervor and worship. "And you've refined it straight into pig iron, saving so many steps and so much time!"
Wenwu nodded slightly without saying much and continued manipulating the special mineral vein underground. After some excavation, he had hollowed out nearly half of this medium-sized iron deposit, obtaining not only over a hundred thousand tons of pig iron but also unexpectedly refining several tons of gold.
However, the intensive use of his ability had nearly exhausted his mental power. He could only stop for the time being, intending to extract the rest in one go after his mental power recovered. Still, this pig iron was already enough to supply the Ten Rings for a long time.
After returning to his residence, Wenwu began planning to secretly build a second base to support their development.
After considering his options, he settled on southeastern Libya in the Sahara Desert.
The area was rich in minerals and uninhabited for hundreds of kilometers around. It could achieve eighty percent self-sufficiency and was less than two thousand kilometers from Salia.
When night fell, Wenwu immediately set out to inspect the site.
The hovering stealth fighter streaked through the night sky at supersonic speed and soon landed steadily in southeastern Libya.
To his pleasant surprise, the moment Wenwu stepped off the fighter, he sensed a large, comprehensive mineral belt beneath the mountains, containing vast quantities of iron, gold, copper, cobalt, and other rare metals.
Wenwu could barely conceal his delight. With this mineral belt, he could mass-produce all kinds of high-energy weapons and Iron Man Armor here in the future!
To ensure their safety, he turned to Becky and instructed in a low voice, "Use ultrasound to scan several dozen li around us. Make sure there's no human activity."
"Yes, my lord!" Becky accepted the order and immediately soared into the sky, releasing invisible ultrasonic waves in every direction.