The view crossed the vast ocean and half the globe, arriving in hot, arid Afghanistan.
This was a desert region filled with yellow sand.
The sun hung high in the sky, its scorching rays baking the earth.
A massive base had once been hidden in this desolate place.
But now, it had been reduced to ruins.
Broken stones and wrecked weapons lay scattered across the scorched earth.
Guns melted into liquid metal, cars torn apart by tremendous force, and remains burned to charcoal.
All of it silently spoke of the terrible battle that had taken place here.
The thick smell of gunpowder and burning still filled the air.
At that moment, a group of people stood silently atop a high sand dune beside the ruins.
There were about twenty of them.
They all wore matching black combat uniforms and carried sophisticated weapons.
Sand masks covered their faces, leaving only their cold eyes visible.
They stood straight as emotionless killing machines, watching their surroundings warily.
In front of these heavily armed soldiers stood a man who seemed completely out of place.
He was a middle-aged man.
He wore a black suit, his hair was meticulously combed, and his expression was perfectly calm.
The middle-aged man held his hands casually behind his back.
A closer look would reveal ten rings on his fingers, each a different color and an unusual shape.
In the scorching sunlight, the ten rings glimmered faintly, their light enough to make one's heart tremble.
Red, blue, green, gold... Each ring seemed to contain an unknown power.
He was The Mandarin, the supreme leader of Advanced Idea Mechanics.
The Mandarin stood at the highest point of the dune, looking coldly down at the crater and ruins below.
His expression was grim.
These fools were good for nothing but making a mess.
They couldn't do a single thing right. What use were they?!
He had poured vast amounts of money and weaponry into the Afghanistan branch, establishing a fortified base.
His goal had been to secretly gather materials here and expand the organization's influence.
But look at it now.
These men had given him a surprise.
Overnight, the place had turned into a smoking junkyard.
The entire base had been razed to the ground, and not a single person had been left alive.
The moment he had heard the news, he had been so angry he had almost laughed.
Just listen to this. Was this something a human being could do?!
The Mandarin steadied his breathing and suppressed his anger.
"For God's sake, can someone explain this to me?"
The Mandarin spoke calmly, with no hint of anger in his voice, but no one dared take him lightly.
"Why did the branch base end up like this? What exactly happened here?"
As soon as he finished speaking, one of his subordinates standing behind him stepped forward.
The man was The Mandarin's trusted intelligence officer.
Although he had served The Mandarin for many years, cold sweat still broke out on his forehead the moment his leader spoke.
The intelligence officer swallowed, lowered his head, and began to tremble as he reported what they had learned.
"Sir, based on the intelligence we pieced together from our informants in the area and our examination of the traces left at the scene, we've roughly established what happened."
The intelligence officer paused, seemingly gathering his words, terrified that a single mistake might cost him his life.
"Go on." The Mandarin did not turn around, keeping his gaze fixed on the ruins below.
"Yes, sir." The intelligence officer wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"It started two months ago. Benjamin, the man in charge of this base, accepted an outside assassination job without headquarters' knowledge."
The Mandarin's brow furrowed slightly at that.
It was hardly unusual for his subordinates to earn extra money behind his back.
Many of them did it, and it saved him a considerable amount of money.
So as long as it didn't affect the bigger picture, he usually turned a blind eye.
"Benjamin led his men in an ambush on a US military convoy," the intelligence officer continued.
"But instead of killing the targets as his employer requested, he saw the value of their identities and brought them back alive, locking them in the base's cave."
"Who did he kidnap?" The Mandarin asked mildly.
The intelligence officer took a deep breath and spoke two names.
"He kidnapped the Stark brothers. Tony Stark and Luca Stark."
At those two names, The Mandarin's hands suddenly clenched. He turned around and stared fixedly at his subordinate.
"Say that again. Who did Benjamin kidnap?"
The Mandarin's gaze frightened the intelligence officer into taking several steps back. His legs gave way, and he nearly fell to his knees.
"The... the Stark brothers, sir. Tony Stark and Luca Stark."
"Benjamin wanted to force them to build missiles for us in the cave."
"Damn it! If I remember correctly, those two are Howard Stark's children, aren't they?"
The Mandarin's expression changed, and his breathing grew somewhat rapid.
The answer was already clear, but he didn't want to admit it.
"Yes, sir. They're the biological sons of Howard Stark, the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the intelligence officer hurriedly confirmed with a nod.
With the answer confirmed, The Mandarin's face grew terribly grim-or rather, ashen with rage.
Howard Stark.
A damned man!
The name brought back humiliating memories he had buried deep inside for twenty years.
It had happened twenty years ago.
The Mandarin had been in his prime then, full of confidence.
He had just acquired ten rings with magical powers, giving him immense power far beyond Earth's technology.
Such power would have made anyone extraordinary.
He was naturally no exception.
And so, full of ambition, he had built an army equipped with the most advanced technological weapons of the time.
He named the organization Advanced Idea Mechanics.
He had believed he could easily conquer the world and bring everyone to their knees.
With his army at his back, he had arrogantly launched a Secret War.
He had thought it would be a one-sided slaughter.
But he was wrong.
Absurdly wrong.
Just when he thought victory was within reach, a group of agents appeared before him.
The organization was called S.H.I.E.L.D.
At the time, Howard Stark was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders and its director.
Of course, he was also the central mind behind the latest weapons and logistical support supplied to S.H.I.E.L.D.
To this day, The Mandarin could not forget what had happened that day.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent several people with superpowers.
And they were monsters who completely defied human common sense.
The battle had been so fierce that heaven and earth seemed to darken.
The Mandarin's Advanced Idea Mechanics forces were easily defeated by those superpowered people.
The advanced energy weapons had no effect whatsoever on those monsters.
And although The Mandarin had the power of the ten rings, he had barely managed to stay alive.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s superpowered people had severely wounded him, and he had fled the battlefield in disgrace like a beaten dog.
That defeat was the greatest humiliation The Mandarin had ever suffered in his life.
Everything he had painstakingly built was destroyed in an instant, and he had been forced to take his surviving subordinates into a dark corner, where they had lain low for twenty years.
Throughout those twenty years, The Mandarin had never stopped thinking about revenge.
But he also knew very well that as long as S.H.I.E.L.D. and those monsters were still around, he could not reveal himself lightly.
He had to endure and wait until he grew stronger.
Only by becoming stronger could he wipe away that humiliation!!
But now, that damned Benjamin had gone behind his back and kidnapped Howard Stark's two sons!
The Stark Family was, after all, a key ally of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Going after the Stark Family now was the same as directly provoking S.H.I.E.L.D.
And he had no desire to pay the price for provoking S.H.I.E.L.D. a second time.