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Chapter 188 Tony is the real source of all evil

Boom!!!

A deafening explosion came from the sea below, and the entire cliff shook.

The sea surface suddenly bulged upwards, then burst into countless waves, creating a water wall several meters high. Seawater poured down like rain, mixed with all sorts of marine life, including a few large fish, which I wonder which angler's life it was.

At the same time, a system notification sounded in Du Mu's mind.

[Mission: Terror Attack] Completed

[Rewards: 1500 XP, 20 S.H.I.E.L.D. Reputation, Fireball item, Flame Thrower equipment]

[Item: Fire-Repelling Bead (Protects the holder from flames)]

[Equipment: Flamethrower (capable of spraying high-temperature flames, warning, warning)]

The rewards this time are all related to fire.

The Fire-Repelling Pearl, as its name suggests, is a fire-resistant treasure.

With this, when you encounter fire-wielding opponents like Extremis Virus Warriors, you won't need to dodge or flinch. You can just stand there and let them burn you without losing a single drop of blood.

"Now fire-style attacks really won't kill anyone."

Du Mu couldn't help but make a comment.

Of course, he also had to verify whether the fire-repelling pearl could protect his clothes; otherwise, a single burst of flame might kill him instead of him.

There's not much to say about the flamethrower; it's a true AOE (area of ​​effect) powerhouse with a burning effect.

Just as Du Mu was checking the mission rewards, Tony, wearing the Mark 42 Iron Man suit, flew out of the villa.

He landed beside Du Mu, his voice urgent: "Where are the attackers?!"

"Look, it's all over the ground."

At Du Mu's prompting, Tony noticed the headless corpses lying haphazardly on the ground and his eyes widened in shock.

"You did all of this?"

"Who else could it be?"

Du Mu looked at Tony speechlessly: "Seriously, you arrived way too late. If I hadn't intervened, you probably wouldn't even have known your own villa had been bombed."

"I had just made some research breakthroughs in the lab, so I didn't pay much attention to what was happening outside."

Tony was a little embarrassed.

Jarvis had actually reminded him several times, but he was so engrossed in his new inspiration that he simply told Jarvis to shut up.

By the time he heard the commotion outside and hurriedly put on his steel armor and rushed over, Du Mu had already finished.

Tony quickly changed the subject: "These guys are that Mandarin's men, right? What happened to them all?"

Even the well-traveled Tony couldn't help but gasp when he saw the watermelons and juice scattered all over the ground.

This guy must have been an executioner in his past life, he seems to really enjoy beheading people.

Du Mu spread his hands: "There's nothing we can do. They were injected with the Extremis virus; only by cutting off their heads can they die completely."

What is the Extremis virus?

Tony frowned.

I feel like I've heard this name before, but I can't quite place where I've heard it before.

"You'd better go back to the main hall and ask your ex-lover about this," Du Mu said, too lazy to explain.

Tony immediately straightened his face and retorted righteously, "Don't talk nonsense. I don't have any ex-lovers. What if Pepper misunderstands if this gets out?"

Now he's a good man who's settled down and only has eyes for Little Chili. As for his past romantic escapades, he's selectively forgotten them and thrown them all into the trash can of his memory.

Of course, he still kept some rare CG animations and occasionally took them out to reminisce.

Seeing that Du Mu had already dealt with the Mandarin's men, Tony had nothing to do, so he returned to the villa and met his old flame, Maya.

"You are...Mary?"

Maya:

'

""

Is my name really that hard to remember?

"My name isn't Mary, it's Maya Hansen."

"Oh right, Maya, of course I remember you. What do you need?"

Actually, Tony had no idea who Maya was.

He has had more women with him than most people have friends on social media, so how can you expect him to remember every single one of their names?

Maya saw through Tony's pretentious act, but she was too lazy to expose him, since they were only interested in physical intimacy, not emotional connection.

She cut straight to the point: "I have two main things to tell you. First, I want to warn you that someone has sent a special team to assassinate you..."

'

At this point, Maya glanced at Du Mu subconsciously, her face showing undisguised shock.

"But it seems they've all been taken care of by your bodyguards."

As the developer of the Extremis virus, Maya knew its power better than anyone else.

But this man in front of me actually killed more than a dozen soldiers who had been injected with the Extremis virus all by himself, and he seemed to be completely unharmed. His strength is simply terrifying!

Tony frowned. "You mean the Mandarin, right?"

"You could say that."

"What do you mean by 'it's okay to say that'?"

Maya took a deep breath and explained, "In fact, the Mandarin is just a puppet who was pushed out. You probably know the real mastermind, his name is Aldrezig-Killian."

"I don't know him."

"6

'

Maya was speechless for a moment, and suddenly felt a little sorry for Killian.

That man had considered Tony his number one rival for years and had tried to defeat him at every turn, but Tony didn't even remember his name!

Thinking about it that way, it doesn't seem so bad that Tony can't remember her name; at least he guessed one of the pronunciations correctly just now.

Do you remember the Millennium Technology Summit held in Bern back then?

Maya slowly revealed the truth, allowing Du Mu and Tony to gradually understand the ins and outs of the whole matter.

In short, when Tony was young, he was an arrogant jerk. On the night of the summit, he met his fanatical fan, Killian, and agreed to meet him on the rooftop to discuss cooperation. However, he completely forgot about it and spent the whole night discussing bioengineering with Maya.

Killian waited on the rooftop all night, enduring the cold wind, and went from being a fan to a hater, vowing to take revenge on Tony.

At that time, Maya's research needed funding, so the two hit it off and worked together in a secret laboratory to develop the Extremis virus. They recruited veterans who were wounded in the war to conduct experiments. The losers became human bombs, while the winners became Extremis virus warriors.

Because such human experimentation was illegal, Killian came up with a brilliant idea: to blame all the human explosions caused by the experiments on so-called terrorist organizations. Even the Mandarin was played by an actor he specifically hired, making him take the blame for his actions. This led to a series of events.

After listening, Du Mu suddenly realized, "So, Tony is the real root of all evil!"

"That's a very accurate summary." Maya nodded in agreement.

Tony:

'

'

He opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but couldn't find the words.

This certainly sounds like his fault. Who would have thought that a casual refusal to stand someone up when he was young could trigger such a chain reaction more than a decade later?

Du Mu sighed, "Tony, I've discovered that quite a few people want to get rid of you. First it was Stanislavski, then Vanke, and now this Killian has popped up, plus those crazy stock market investors. Just how many enemies do you have?"

Actually, the people of Sokovia should have been included as well, but thanks to Tony's money laundering, his reputation in Sokovia is gradually improving, successfully making Stark's Dark Stanislavsky bear all the infamy.

Stanislav: Please turn on your microphone to communicate.

"Well....

""

Tony wasn't too sure either, after all, he had offended too many people.

Half of it was because of his arrogant personality, and the other half was because of his sharp tongue that could infuriate people to the point of brain hemorrhage. As a result, he had no idea how many people he had offended.

If Tony had a hate point collection system, he'd probably become a god on the spot.

Tony decided to skip the awkward topic and turned to Maya: "Since you and Killian are partners, why are you telling me this now?"

Maya was silent for a few seconds, then her expression turned serious: "Because Killian is getting more and more insane. He plans to use the Extremis virus to create large-scale terrorist attacks in order to make huge profits. This completely goes against my original intention in developing this technology, and I don't want to continue like this anymore."

"Moreover, the Extremis virus itself is not perfect. Even if the injection is successful, there is still a certain chance that the host will go out of control and cause an explosion. I want you to help me fix this flaw. I know you can do it."

As she spoke, she took out a yellowed old card with several lines of handwritten equations on it.

Back then, Tony was in a period of deep reflection. After quickly reviewing the Mayan research report on the Extremis virus, he left a few lines of corrective formulas on this card. It was these few lines of casually written formulas that solved the research dilemma of the Extremis virus, brought about a breakthrough, and led to the Extremis virus we know today.

All I can say is that Tony is truly amazing; in less than one night, he achieved what others have researched over decades.

However, Tony refused Maya's request without hesitation.

He had already witnessed the danger of those Extremis warriors through the surveillance replay played by Jarvis, so how could he possibly agree to help Maya fix the flaws in the Extremis virus? Not to mention that Maya and Killian had a cooperative relationship and were not trustworthy at all.

No matter how Maya tried to persuade him, Tony remained unmoved, displaying the heartless and ruthless nature of a scoundrel.

Maya was greatly disappointed and turned to leave the seaside villa.

As Du Mu watched the other person's departing figure, he immediately sent a message to an encrypted channel.

Hydra's secret research base.

"Sir, the person you requested is already inside."

A Hydra member stood at the door, bowing respectfully as he reported.

Du Mu nodded, opened the door and went inside. It was a simple, soundproof room with only a table and two chairs.

Maya was sitting in one of the chairs, her face pale, filled with fear and unease.

Just hours earlier, after being rejected by Tony, she was disheartened and prepared to drive back to Killian's lab.

Unexpectedly, when the car reached a relatively secluded section of coastal highway, several unmarked black vans suddenly appeared and forcibly stopped her.

Before Maya could react, she saw more than a dozen burly men pour out of the car, smash the windows, and spray a cloud of mist inside. She quickly lost consciousness.

When she woke up again, she found herself in a completely unfamiliar, enclosed space, and no one responded no matter how she called out.

"It's you!?"

Maya looked on in astonishment when she saw the person who walked in.

She never expected to see Du Mu again in such a place.

Du Mu chuckled and said, "It's me! I didn't expect to see you again so soon, my goodness!"

"My name is Maya!"

Maya instinctively corrected him, then suddenly realized, "No, you kidnapped me!?"

Du Mu sat down in the chair opposite her: "It wasn't a kidnapping, I just invited you here."

Maya was both angry and anxious, her voice trembling slightly: "You smashed my car window, drugged me, and brought me to this godforsaken place. Is this what you call an invitation?"

"Don't worry about the details."

Du Mu waved his hand and said directly, "My goodness, I'm very interested in your research. We can help you fix the flaws in the Extremis virus."

"What!?"

Upon hearing this, Maya, forgetting to correct herself, quickly asked, "You really can fix the flaws in the Extremis virus!?"

Du Mu nodded: "Yes, but we have one condition: you must join our organization."

"What kind of organization are you?"

Maya immediately became alert and unconsciously leaned back.

Judging from the behavior of Du Mu and his group, they don't seem to be a legitimate organization.

Du Mu calmly replied, "I can only tell you that after you join, but I can tell you that this is a very large and well-established organization, far superior to a small-scale organization like Killian."

Maya's eyes still held doubt: "But Tony has already rejected me, can your organization really handle this?"

"In the vast universe, there are far more geniuses like Tony than just him."

A hint of mystery crept into Du Mu's smile, before he abruptly changed the subject: "Besides, didn't you already decide you didn't want to follow Killian anymore? We can give you that opportunity—a chance to break free from him and continue your research."

"Moreover, we can help you erase all evidence. You should know that although Killian was the mastermind behind those bombings, as a core researcher and technology provider, you are legally an accomplice. Even if you hire the best lawyer, you will probably have to spend decades in prison."

These words were perfectly accurate, hitting the nail on the head regarding the Maya's deepest fears.

Indeed, once the truth is fully exposed, she will have to spend her later years in prison, an outcome she cannot accept.

Du Mu continued, "Besides, things have already escalated to this point. The outside world has long labeled you as an evil terrorist organization. Even if this is just a cover-up, it doesn't change the nature of the organization. You don't want to be forever branded as a terrorist and infamous, do you?"

Maya certainly didn't want to.

As a scientist, she hopes her name will be recorded in history, but certainly not in that way.

Maya took a deep breath: "Your organization...is it really capable of solving all these problems?"

Du Mu nodded affirmatively: "Of course, our organization is much stronger than you imagine, these are all minor issues for us."

Maya was silent for a moment, then gritted her teeth and said, "Fine, I'll join your organization!"

Du Mu was not surprised at all, and grinned: "A wise choice. Welcome to the team, my goodness."

"My name is Maya, not Mama."

"Okay, Mom."

"6

'

Maya abandoned dwelling on that question and instead asked what mattered most to her at that moment: "So, now that I've agreed to join, can you tell me the name of our organization?"

"No problem. Our organization is renowned worldwide, has a long history, and its influence extends to every corner of the world. You've definitely heard of it."

Maya felt a chill run down her spine.

Judging from the description, it is indeed a huge and hidden behemoth, no wonder the other party dared to boast that he could smooth over her troubles.

Thinking of this, Maya straightened her body, feeling both uneasy and filled with a complex expectation of being accepted by a large organization.

"So, the name of our organization is..."

'

"Hydra".

Maya:

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'

Oh no, it seems I've stumbled into a real terrorist organization.