Looking across the vast ocean, half a world away, lay the hot and arid land of Afghanistan.
A desert expanse stretched endlessly under a scorching sun baking the earth.
In this deserted wasteland, a massive base had once been hidden.
Now, it was nothing but ruins.
Scattered rubble and wrecked weapons littered the blackened ground—firearms melted into puddles of molten iron, vehicles torn apart by brute force, and charred human remains.
Everything bore silent witness to the terrifying battle that had taken place here.
The air was still thick with the pungent stench of gunpowder and scorched flesh.
On a high dune overlooking the ruins stood a group of people.
About twenty of them, all clad in identical black tactical suits, holding high-end weapons.
Windproof masks covered their faces, revealing only cold, unfeeling eyes.
They stood straight as ramrods, vigilant killing machines watching their surroundings.
In front of these heavily armed soldiers stood a man who looked completely out of place in this environment.
A middle-aged man.
He wore a black suit, his hair combed impeccably, his face as calm as still water.
His hands were casually clasped behind his back.
A closer look revealed ten oddly styled rings of various colors on his fingers.
Under the blistering sun, these ten rings glinted with a faint yet heart-chilling light.
Red, blue, green, gold…
each ring seemed to pulse with unknown power.
He was the supreme leader of Advanced Tech—the Mandarin.
Standing at the highest point of the dune, the Mandarin looked down coldly at the ruined crater below.
His expression was dark.
*A bunch of useless fools.* *They can’t get a single thing right.
What good are they to me?!* He had invested vast amounts of capital and weaponry into the Afghanistan branch to build a fortified stronghold.
His goal was to secretly harvest materials and expand the organization’s influence here.
And now?
Those fools had handed him quite a surprise.
Overnight, the place had been reduced to a smoking junkyard.
The entire base had been leveled to the ground, leaving not a single survivor.
When he first got the news, he had almost laughed out of sheer fury.
*Listen to that—is that something a human being could do?!* The Mandarin adjusted his breathing, suppressing the rage in his chest.
“For God’s sake, will someone explain this to me?” His tone was calm, devoid of anger, yet no one dared take it lightly.
“How did our branch base end up like this?
What on earth happened here?” The moment he spoke, a subordinate standing behind him immediately stepped forward.
This man was the Mandarin’s confidant and intelligence officer.
Though he had served the Mandarin for many years, cold sweat broke out on his forehead the instant his master opened his mouth.
Gulping, the intelligence officer kept his head bowed and began to report in a trembling voice.
“Sir, based on information gathered from local informants and our analysis of the lingering tracks at the scene, we have pieced together the sequence of events.” He paused, carefully choosing his words for fear of saying the wrong thing and inviting instant death.
“Go on,” the Mandarin said without turning around, his eyes fixed on the ruins below.
“Yes, sir.” The officer wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“It all began two months ago.
Benjamin, the head of this base, took an external assassination contract behind headquarters’ back.” Hearing this, the Mandarin’s brows creased slightly.
Subordinates making extra money on the side was common in the organization.
Many did it, and it saved him a considerable amount in expenses.
So long as it didn’t affect the grand scheme, he usually turned a blind eye.
“Benjamin led a team to ambush a US military convoy,” the officer continued.
“However, instead of killing the target as the employer requested, he recognized the target’s identity and value.
He captured him alive and imprisoned him in the base’s caves.” “Who did he kidnap?” the Mandarin asked indifferently.
The intelligence officer took a deep breath and uttered two names.
“He kidnapped the Stark brothers—Tony Stark and Luca Stark.” At those names, the Mandarin’s hands suddenly clenched into fists.
He whipped around and glared deathly at his subordinate.
“Say that again.
Who did Benjamin kidnap?” Terrified by the Mandarin’s glare, the officer stumbled back a few steps, his knees buckling as he nearly fell to the ground.
“It…
it was 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, his breathing growing ragged.
The answer was right before him, but he refused to accept it.
“Yes, sir.
They are the biological sons of the former Director of SHIELD, Howard Stark,” the officer hastily confirmed with a nod.
Hearing the confirmation, the Mandarin’s face turned ghastly, almost livid.
Howard Stark.
That damned man!
The name reawakened a humiliation buried deep within his heart for twenty long years.
Twenty years ago, the Mandarin was in his prime, full of pride and ambition.
He had just obtained ten rings of miraculous power, wielding strength far beyond Earth’s technology.
Such power would make anyone extraordinary.
He was no exception.
Driven by ambition, he had built an army equipped with the most advanced technological weapons of the era.
He named his organization Advanced Tech.
He believed he could easily conquer the world and bring everyone to their knees.
Leading his army, he launched a secret war with supreme arrogance.
He thought it would be a one-sided slaughter.
He was wrong.
Catastrophically wrong.
Just when he thought victory was in his grasp, a group of agents appeared before him.
That organization was called SHIELD.
And Howard Stark was one of SHIELD’s founders and its Director at the time.
He was also the core brain providing SHIELD with cutting-edge weaponry and logistical support.
To this day, the Mandarin could not forget the scene from that day.
SHIELD deployed several superpowered individuals.
Monsters that defied all human common sense.
That battle turned heaven and earth upside down.
The Mandarin’s Advanced Tech forces were effortlessly obliterated before those superpowered monsters.
Advanced energy weapons did nothing against them.
Even with the power of the ten rings, the Mandarin barely escaped with his life.
He was critically injured by SHIELD’s superpowered agents and fled the battlefield like a beaten dog.
That defeat was the single greatest humiliation of his life.
The empire he had painstakingly built was destroyed overnight, forcing him to take his remaining followers and hide in the dark corners of the world for twenty years.
During those twenty years, not a single moment passed without him thinking of revenge.
Yet he knew very well that as long as SHIELD existed, as long as those monsters remained, he could not recklessly reveal himself.
He had to endure.
He had to wait until he grew stronger.
Only strength could wash away his past shame!
And now, that damned Benjamin had gone behind his back to kidnap Howard Stark’s sons!
The Stark family was a core ally of SHIELD.
To provoke the Stark family now was equivalent to directly provoking SHIELD.
And the price of provoking SHIELD was something he had no desire to experience a second time.