Fifteen minutes later, Becky returned and reported, "My lord, there are no traces of human activity within dozens of miles!"
Only then was Wenwu completely reassured. With a thought, he controlled the underground metal deposits, drawing them out and turning them into roughly a hundred tons of pure metal.
Then he formed the metal into an enormous drill and bored straight underground with it.
Deep within the rock strata, he sent his invisible metal ability spreading and seeping along the mineral veins.
The pure iron minerals buried deep underground were forcibly stripped away, turning into masses of liquid metal that extended and solidified at his will, forming thick steel walls layer by layer.
The other metals accompanying the deposits were also sorted out one by one by his ability.
Gold, copper, cobalt, and chromium were separated, fused into billets, and stacked neatly along one side of the cavity.
The useless rock and slag were pushed to the other end of the space.
As he continued using his ability, the steel walls kept growing forward, and the enormous underground space widened little by little.
Wenwu continuously extracted various minerals, turning pure iron into walls and adjusting their structure at will. Eventually, he forcibly "gnawed" an enormous, steadily expanding cavity out of the ground.
Of course, using his ability on this scale was extraordinarily draining. Whenever his mental energy was severely depleted, he returned to the surface to meditate and recover.
During his breaks, Wenwu contacted Razor Fist and told him to start using the two large hovering warplanes to secretly transport equipment and personnel over.
Although this was a sensitive time, with satellites and radar systems around the world keeping the Ten Rings firmly in their sights, the Ten Rings' warplanes had complete radar stealth capabilities. Coupled with the cover of night, the outside world had no way of detecting them.
Five days later, after Wenwu's tireless efforts, the space for the base finally took shape.
The base had a full six levels, each roughly 150 meters long and wide, all built with a steel framework.
However, large amounts of excavated rock, soil, and mineral waste were still piled inside.
Once the base officially began operating, the framework could be recycled if steel was needed. If building materials were needed, plasma energy could melt the rock so it could be used as cement.
Of course, the base would still need further expansion later.
After several days of continuous, intensive use, Wenwu felt that he had not only become more proficient with his metal ability, but that it had even grown stronger. That was an unexpected gain.
Once the base's framework was complete, Wenwu worked with the personnel for several more days to clear out the rock debris inside, then left Razor Fist in full charge of the remaining construction.
Before he knew it, ten days had passed.
Online discussion of the Ten Rings remained intensely heated, but behind the scenes, the entire world had long since plunged into a frenzy of Arc Reactor research.
During this time, powerful nations had already mastered the Arc Reactor's core technology and were building initial prototypes while working toward miniaturization.
Meanwhile, traditional energy companies around the world wanted nothing more than to devour the Ten Rings, Anton, and his son alive.
Once Arc Reactors became widespread, their energy empires would come to a complete end!
But with the Ten Rings now holding a super strategic weapon, they did not dare retaliate openly.
Left with no other choice, the major financial consortiums could only pour money into recruiting talent, hoping to claim a share of the Arc Reactor market and its related industries.
Meanwhile, Tony had received invitations from the military for several days in a row, asking him to provide technical guidance.
Tony merely chuckled, shook his head, and refused outright.
Only if everyone started from the same point would things be fair and the world peaceful.
If he helped, he would effectively be helping them build weapons, which was completely at odds with his current principles.
Besides, if he taught everyone else, what the hell would be left for him as "Iron Man"? With Iron Men filling the skies, he really would become a joke!
Still, Tony privately estimated that even with the blueprints, they would need at least a year to build a large Arc Reactor with stable output and low costs.
If even that step would take a year, how much longer would shrinking it to the size of a fist take?
But this world had never lacked geniuses, such as the future Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards.
At that moment, he was staring at the schematic for a miniaturized Arc Reactor on his computer screen, a faint smile curling his lips.
He was not particularly interested in the energy technology itself. These days, only the mysteries of physics interested him.
He was researching miniaturization solely so that, if he could not find investors, he could exchange it for the funding to go into space and study the "Cosmic Energy cloud due to arrive in a year."
He considered himself a super genius no less capable than Tony Stark, but his research was too ambitious. No one had faith in it, and no one was willing to risk investing.
On top of that, his luck was truly rather terrible. Most ventures he undertook ran into misfortune midway through, leaving him with nothing accomplished to this day.
"Hahaha, good! It finally worked! Howard, Anton, you truly were geniuses!"
Elsewhere, a burst of delighted laughter suddenly rang out in Dr. Otto's laboratory.
Otto stared fixedly at the magnetic field confinement system data calculated on his computer, his face filled with wild joy.
The exposure of Arc Reactor technology had neither discouraged him nor made him abandon his "controlled nuclear fusion project." Instead, it had strengthened his conviction.
Far from replacing his goal, the Arc Reactor had filled the gap that had given him the worst headaches, greatly accelerating the maturation of "controlled nuclear fusion."
Controlled nuclear fusion, with its nearly limitless energy, was his ultimate goal. Once it succeeded, its costs would be even lower than those of the Arc Reactor.
Although it could not achieve extreme miniaturization, its energy was virtually inexhaustible.
In Otto's eyes, the Arc Reactor was merely an excellent invention. But he did not simply want a "super battery." He wanted to replicate the energy of a star.
He acknowledged the Arc Reactor's greatness, but its fuel was the rare element palladium.
Palladium was now a strategically controlled metal, its price skyrocketing to ten or twenty times its previous level. The futures market had already collapsed.
Tsarist Russia and South Africa, which accounted for ninety percent of global palladium production, had already imposed comprehensive export restrictions.
The deuterium and tritium used in controlled nuclear fusion, however, could be extracted from seawater and were virtually inexhaustible.
Thus, the Arc Reactor was merely an advanced "battery" with scarce fuel.
Controlled nuclear fusion was the ultimate energy source for all humanity.
Plasma confinement had always been a major obstacle in his previous "controlled nuclear fusion project." Now, however, the principles behind the Arc Reactor had finally given him tremendous inspiration.
But he did not have tritium, the crucial core element for controlled nuclear fusion, so he could not conduct experiments immediately.
Tritium production was extremely low, and it was extraordinarily expensive. Current worldwide reserves amounted to just 25 pounds. He therefore had to find investors.
But before he could make a move himself, Norman Osborn came to him.
The military's withdrawal of funding had originally pushed Norman to the edge of a cliff, but the release of the Arc Reactor blueprints suddenly reminded him of Dr. Otto, who had once approached him for investment.
If Dr. Otto's controlled nuclear fusion succeeded, Oscorp Industries could fight its way through this energy revolution sparked by the Arc Reactor.
Then Osborn would surely return to its peak and leap into the ranks of the world's leading energy giants!
He understood the Arc Reactor's limitations better than anyone. After careful consideration, he decided to seek out Dr. Otto and gamble on this final chance.
If that truly failed, he would have no choice but to test the human enhancement serum on himself!