Begin from the original form of torture and become immortal

Chapter 1732 Public Opinion and Reactions from All Sides

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s proud conventional forces, tactical squads, Quinjet fighters... are as fragile as paper toys in the face of an existence of that caliber.

For the first time, Fury felt so clearly that, in the face of certain impending "natural disasters," the trump card he was so proud of seemed so pale and powerless.

The person truly capable of combating these "natural disasters" has established a higher, more mysterious, and more inaccessible circle outside of his meticulously woven "Avengers" network.

“Stark… Chang Wei…”

Fury stared intently at the giant blue cocoon image on the screen, and the constantly flashing, Stark-esque, teasing watermark. "And that 'Ark'... what are you guys up to? What are you hiding?"

A tremendous sense of loss of control and a profound sense of crisis, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around Fury's heart.

He realized that the rules of the world had quietly changed in the hands of some people.

And he, Nick Fury, the director who calls himself the watchman of the earth, realized for the first time that he might not even have touched the poker table.

He turned and walked toward the communications station, his voice cold and hard: "Agent Romanov, Agent Patton, drop everything and return to headquarters immediately. We have a new... 'learning target'."

He paused, then added, "Top secret, code name: 'Deep Sea'."

The waves of the Pacific Ocean may have calmed down, but beneath the surface, an undercurrent of fear is sweeping across the globe with even greater force.

The catastrophe that nearly turned the Northwest Pacific into an eternally desolate wasteland was so vast and destructive that it could not be concealed by Stark Industries' shimmering holographic watermark.

Tony and Pepper had just ended an unpleasant communication session.

The aftereffects of freezing assets and diverting global resources to build the "Abyss Fortress" are now erupting. Stark Industries' stock price is plummeting, and the old guard on the board of directors is practically screaming "impeachment" on their faces.

Worse still, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a group of so-called experts, under the banner of "science without borders," are boarding a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet and, with Fury's "enthusiastic introduction," are aggressively demanding "joint oversight" of this hot potato.

"Joint supervision?"

Tony sneered, speaking to thin air, or rather, to some unseen one-eyed dragon, "So you want to openly extend S.H.I.E.L.D.'s claws in, Fury?"

The news outlets are going crazy over it.

CNN headline (scrolling satellite cloud images and blurry outlines of a behemoth): "On the brink of doomsday! Mysterious behemoth devours Fukushima nuclear fuel; Stars and Stripes' 120-megaton nuclear bomb fails to stop it; Pacific ecosystem hangs by a thread! Stark Industries' mysterious 'Abyss Fortress' becomes the only barrier?"

NHK Emergency Special Report (background: chaotic crowds in Shibuya, Tokyo): "The Fukushima nightmare repeats itself! Core fuel rods of Units 1 and 2 at the nuclear power plant confirmed to have been predatoryly consumed by an unidentified organism! Radiation levels are abnormally high! The government urges the public to remain calm and avoid consuming seafood..."

Pravda editorial (with picture of Stars and Stripes naval vessels): "Stars and Stripes Imperialism's Nuclear Adventure in the Pacific! Unauthorized Use of Strategic Nuclear Weapons, Creating a Regional Ecological Disaster! Stark Industries' 'Abyss Fortress'—A Neo-Colonial Deep-Sea Fortress? We Demand the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Take Immediate Oversight!"

Twitter trending topics: #PacificDeathZone #StarkCoverUp #StarkIndustryCoverUp
#FukushimaAgain (#FukushimaNightmareRevisited/#FukushimaTragedyReplayed/#FukushimaNuclearDisasterReappeared)

#BanNuclearNow (#ImmediatelyAbolishNuclearPower/#ImmediatelyDisableNuclearPower/#NuclearPowerAbolishedWithoutDelay)

The Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo was shrouded in a low-pressure atmosphere.

The Prime Minister stared at the reports with a grim face: Surveillance footage from the Fukushima nuclear power plant ruins (although most of it was destroyed by energy pulses) clearly captured the massive, grotesque figure tearing through the protective shell and greedily devouring the nuclear fuel rods that emitted a deadly glow.
The lamentations of coastal fisheries associations in despair; the chaos caused by panic buying of iodine tablets and bottled water; the indignant protests of survivor groups in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—"History repeats itself! The nuclear demon has never left us!"

"Star-Spangled Banner!"

A senior cabinet member slammed his fist on the table, his voice trembling with rage. “Not only did they fail to stop that monster, they dropped a 120-megaton nuclear bomb on our doorstep! The wounds of Fukushima have not yet healed, and they have inflicted new ones! Stark… Stark Industries has even treated the remains of that monster as their private property, locking them up in their damned ‘fortress’! This is a trampling on the sovereignty of our island nation!”

The Prime Minister rubbed his temples wearily.

The anger is real, but the reality is even colder. The Self-Defense Forces' deep-sea probes cannot even get within 300 nautical miles of the "Abyss Fortress".

They need the technology of the United States, and they need the possible solutions from Stark Industries.

Ultimately, on the advice of his staff, a diplomatic statement with ambivalent wording was produced: it strongly condemned the use of nuclear weapons (especially emphasizing the damage to the spirit of the three non-nuclear principles), demanded full transparency from the Stars and Stripes regarding the incident, and... requested the Stars and Stripes to provide "urgent support" in nuclear contamination monitoring and protection technologies.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense secretly launched a project codenamed "Eye of Poseidon," deploying the most advanced sonar and unmanned underwater vehicles in an attempt to spy on the secrets of the "Abyss Fortress" from the outside.

Washington is also caught in the eye of the storm.

In the White House Situation Room, the president looked at the final operational report submitted by the Pentagon, his brow furrowed.

The report details how Connors (codenamed Leviathan-Alpha in the report) experienced a surge in energy and unpredictable movement after consuming Fukushima nuclear fuel. Conventional bunker buster bombs (GBU-57) were unable to effectively hit its high-speed core, leaving no other option but to authorize the use of the B61 Mod 12 tactical nuclear bomb deployed in Guam.

"Mr. President,"

The Defense Secretary's voice was somber. "We averted a nuclear catastrophe that could have had a global impact. Stark and that 'Changwei'... they did what we couldn't do, they froze it. But, at a price..."

On the screen, large red areas around the island nation's coast, symbolizing high concentrations of radioactive fallout, are alarming.

However, the reaction on Capitol Hill was quite different.

Democratic progressive lawmakers launched a joint inquiry demanding a thorough investigation into "why Connors was allowed to operate in the Pacific and ultimately attack the Fukushima nuclear facility," "why the intelligence system failed to warn of its nuclear fuel plundering activities," and "whether the decision-making process for using nuclear weapons was legal and compliant."

Republican hawks fiercely criticized the government for being "weak" and said it was a disgrace to the nation to allow a private company to control such a dangerous strategic asset.

(End of this chapter)