Boom!!!
A thunderous explosion echoed from the sea below, causing the entire cliff to tremble.
The surface of the sea surged upward abruptly, followed by countless waves bursting forth, creating a wall of water several meters high. Seawater poured down like rain, mixed with various marine life—even a few large fish. Who knows whose lifetime catch that was for some poor fisherman.
Simultaneously, the system's notification sound echoed in Darian's mind.
[Mission "Terrorist Attack" settlement complete]
[Rewards obtained: 1500 Experience Points, 20 S.H.I.E.L.D. Reputation, Item "Fire-Repelling Bead", Equipment "flamethrower"]
[Item: Fire-Repelling Bead (Protects the holder from the harm of fire)]
[Equipment: flamethrower (Can spray high-temperature flames; Warning, Warning)]
This time, the rewards were all related to fire.
The Fire-Repelling Bead—as the name suggests—was a treasure for fireproofing.
With this, if he encountered opponents like Extremis Soldiers who played with fire again, he wouldn't need to dodge or evade at all. He could just stand there and let them burn him without losing a single drop of health.
"Now Fire Style really won't be able to kill anyone."
Darian couldn't help but complain.
Of course, he still had to verify whether the Fire-Repelling Bead could protect his clothing. Otherwise, if a blast of fire came and he survived but ended up socially dead, that would be a problem.
There wasn't much to say about the flamethrower; it was a solid AOE artifact with a burning effect.
Just as Darian was checking his mission rewards, Tony, wearing the Mark 42 Iron Man armor, flew out of the Villa.
He landed beside Darian and asked urgently, "Where are the attackers!?"
"There, they're all over the ground."
Following Darian's gesture, Tony noticed the headless corpses scattered all over the ground, and his eyes widened instantly.
"You did all this?"
"Who else would it be?"
Darian looked at Tony speechlessly.
"By the way, you're way too slow. If I hadn't stepped in, you probably wouldn't even have known your own Villa was being blown up."
"I just happened to make some research breakthroughs in the lab, so I didn't pay much attention to the noise outside."
Tony was a bit embarrassed.
In fact, Jarvis had reminded him several times, but he was so immersed in his new inspiration that he told Jarvis to shut up.
By the time he heard the commotion outside and hurriedly put on his armor to rush over, Darian had already finished.
Tony quickly changed the subject.
"These guys must be The Mandarin's subordinates or whatever. Why do they look like this?"
Even the well-traveled Tony couldn't help but gasp as he looked at the "watermelons" and "watermelon juice" scattered across the ground.
Was this guy an executioner in his past life? He really loves decapitating people.
Darian spread his hands.
"Can't be helped. They were injected with Extremis; they only stay dead if you cut off their heads."
"What is Extremis?"
Tony frowned.
He felt like the name was familiar, but he couldn't recall where he'd heard it for a moment.
"You'd better go back to the hall and ask your old flame about that."
Tony's face immediately stiffened, and he retorted righteously, "Don't talk nonsense. I don't have any 'old flames.' What if word gets out and Pepper misunderstands?"
He was a reformed man now, devoted only to Pepper. As for his past dalliances, he had selectively forgotten them all, tossing them into the memory trash bin.
Of course, some rare "CG animations" were still preserved by him to be occasionally revisited and savored.
Seeing that Darian had already dealt with The Mandarin's subordinates, Tony had nothing left to do but return to the Villa, where he met his old flame, Maya.
"Are you... Mary?"
Maya:
"..."
"..."
Is my name really that hard to remember?
"My name isn't Mary; it's Maya Hansen."
"Oh right, right, right. Maya. Of course I remember you. What do you need from me?"
In reality, Tony didn't remember who Maya was at all.
He had been with more women than the number of friends most people have on social media. How could he be expected to remember every single name?
Maya saw through Tony's posturing but didn't bother to call him out. After all, their relationship had been purely physical, not emotional.
She got straight to the point.
"I'm here for two main reasons. First, I wanted to warn you that someone has sent a special team to assassinate you..."
At this point, Maya instinctively glanced at Darian, her face filled with unconcealable shock.
"But it seems they've already been taken care of by your bodyguard."
As the developer of Extremis, Maya knew its power better than anyone.
Yet the man before her had single-handedly taken out over a dozen Extremis Soldiers and appeared completely unscathed. This level of strength was simply terrifying!
Tony frowned. "The person you're talking about... it wouldn't happen to be The Mandarin, would it?"
"You could say that."
"What do you mean 'you could say that'?"
Maya took a deep breath and explained, "In fact, The Mandarin is just a puppet. You likely know the real mastermind; his name is Aldrich Killian."
"Don't know him."
"..."
""
Maya was momentarily speechless, suddenly feeling a bit sorry for Killian.
That man had viewed Tony as his primary rival for years, trying to defeat him at every turn, only for Tony to not even remember his name!
Thinking about it that way, Tony not remembering her name didn't seem so bad; at least he'd guessed one syllable correctly earlier.
"Do you remember the Millennium Science Summit held in Bern?"
Maya slowly revealed the truth, allowing Darian and Tony to gradually piece together the sequence of events.
Simply put, when Tony was young, he was an arrogant jerk.
On the night of the summit, he met his superfan, Killian, and promised to meet him on the rooftop to discuss a partnership. Instead, he forgot about it completely and spent the night discussing biological genetic engineering with Maya.
Killian waited on the rooftop all night in the cold wind, turning from a fan to a hater. From then on, he vowed to take revenge on Tony.
Coincidentally, Maya's research needed funding at the time, so the two hit it off.
In a secret lab, they co-developed Extremis, recruiting disabled veterans from wars for experiments. The failures became human bombs, while the successes became Extremis Soldiers.
Since such human experimentation was illegal, Killian came up with a brilliant idea: he blamed all the human explosions caused by the experiments on a so-called terrorist organization. Even The Mandarin was just an actor he hired to take the fall. This led to the series of events that followed.
After hearing this, Darian had a look of realization. "So, Tony is the true source of all evil!"
"A very accurate summary," Maya nodded in deep agreement.
Tony: "..."
He opened his mouth to retort but didn't know where to start.
This really did sound like it was his fault. Who would have thought that a casual brush-off in his youth would cause such a chain reaction over a decade later?
Darian sighed. "Tony, I've noticed quite a few people want you dead. First Stane, then Vanko, now Killian, plus those crazy shareholders. Just how many enemies do you have?"
Actually, he should have included the people of Sokovia, but thanks to Tony's monetary whitewashing, his reputation in Sokovia was improving daily, successfully shifting all the blame onto the "Darkness of Stark," Stane.
Stane: Please turn on your microphone to communicate.
"Uh..."
Tony wasn't sure either; after all, he had offended far too many people.
Half was due to his arrogant personality, and the other half was because of his sharp tongue that could give someone a stroke. Consequently, he didn't even know how many people he had crossed.
If Tony had an Aggro Collection System, he could 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 coming to tell me all this now?"
Maya was silent for a few seconds before her expression turned serious.
"Because Killian is getting crazier. He plans to use Extremis to carry out large-scale terrorist attacks for massive profit. This completely goes against my original intention for developing this technology. I don't want to continue like this anymore."
"Furthermore, Extremis itself isn't perfect. Even if the injection is successful, the host still has a certain chance of losing control and exploding. 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 a few lines of handwritten equations on it.
Back then, Tony was in "sage mode."
After quickly skimming Maya's research report on Extremis, he had left a few lines of corrective formulas on this card. It was those casually written equations that solved the research bottleneck of Extremis and brought about the breakthrough progress that led to the current Extremis.
One could only say Tony was truly impressive; in less than a night, he achieved what took others decades of research.
However, faced with Maya's request, Tony refused without hesitation.
He had already seen the danger of those Extremis Soldiers through the surveillance playback Jarvis showed him. How could he possibly agree to help Maya fix the flaws in Extremis? Not to mention, Maya and Killian were partners, making her untrustworthy.
No matter how Maya pleaded, Tony remained unmoved, looking every bit like a heartless scumbag.
Maya was deeply disappointed and left the seaside Villa.
Watching her departing figure, Darian immediately sent a message to an encrypted channel.
HYDRA Secret Research Base.
"Officer, the person you requested is already inside."
A HYDRA member stood before the door, reporting with a respectful bow.
Darian nodded and opened the door. Inside was a simple soundproof room with only a table and two chairs.
Maya was sitting on one of the chairs, her face pale and filled with panic and unease.
Just a few hours ago, after being rejected by Tony, she was disheartened and prepared to drive back to Killian's lab.
Unexpectedly, while driving on a relatively quiet stretch of coastal road, several unmarked black vans suddenly swarmed out and forced her to stop.
Before Maya could react, she saw over a dozen burly men surge out of the vans, smash her windows, and spray a mist inside. She soon lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, she found herself in this completely unfamiliar enclosed space, with no one responding no matter how much she shouted.
"It's you!?"
Maya's face was full of shock when she saw the person walking in.
She never expected to see Darian again in a place like this.
Darian said cheerfully, "It's me. Didn't expect to meet again so soon, Mary."
"My name is Maya!"
Maya instinctively corrected him, then suddenly realized, "Wait, you kidnapped me!?"
Darian sat in the chair opposite her.
"It wasn't a kidnapping; we just invited you over."
Maya was both angry and anxious, her voice trembling.
"You smashed my car window, drugged me, and brought me to this godforsaken place—you call that an invitation?"
"Don't sweat the details."
Darian waved his hand and said directly, "Mary, I'm very interested in your research. We can help you fix the flaws in Extremis."
"What!?"
Hearing this, Maya didn't bother correcting her name and asked hurriedly, "You can really fix the flaws in Extremis!?"
Darian nodded. "Yes, but we have one condition: you must join our organization."
"What organization are you, exactly?"
Maya immediately became alert, her body instinctively leaning back.
Judging by the behavior of Darian's group, they didn't seem like a legitimate organization.
Darian said calmly, "That can only be revealed after you join. However, I can tell you that it's a very large organization with deep roots, far beyond what a small-time operation like Killian's can compare to."
Doubt remained in Maya's eyes.
"But Tony already rejected me. Can your organization really do it?"
"In the vast Universe, geniuses like Tony are far from the only ones."
A hint of mystery appeared in Darian's smile as he shifted the topic.
"Besides, don't you already want to stop following Killian? We're giving you the perfect opportunity to break away from him and continue your research."
"Furthermore, we can help you erase all evidence of your crimes. You should know that while Killian is the mastermind behind those bombings, as the core researcher and technology provider, you are legally an accomplice. Even with the best lawyer, you'd likely spend decades in prison."
These words hit home, striking Maya's deepest fear.
Indeed, once everything was exposed, she would have to spend her final years in prison—an outcome she could not accept.
Darian continued, "Besides, now that things have escalated this much, the outside World has already labeled you as an evil terrorist organization. Even if it was just a tactic to deceive people, it doesn't change the nature of it. You wouldn't want to be branded a terrorist forever and be remembered with infamy, would you?"
Of course Maya didn't want that.
As a scientist, she hoped her name would go down in history, but certainly not in that way.
Maya took a deep breath.
"Your organization... really has the ability to solve all these problems?"
Darian nodded affirmatively.
"Of course. Our organization is far more powerful than you can imagine. These are all minor issues for us."
Maya was silent for a moment before finally gritting her teeth.
"Fine, I'll join your organization!"
Darian wasn't surprised at all and grinned.
"A wise choice. Welcome aboard, Mary."
"My name is Maya, not Mary."
"Okay, Mary."
"..."
Maya gave up on arguing about that and asked what she cared about most.
"So, since I've already agreed to join, can you tell me the name of our organization now?"
"No problem. Our organization is World-renowned with a long history. Our power permeates every corner of the World. You've definitely heard the name."
Maya's heart skipped a beat.
From the description, it truly sounded like a massive and secretive titan. No wonder he dared to boast about erasing her troubles.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but sit up straighter, feeling both apprehensive and a complex expectation of being accepted by a major organization.
"So, the name of our organization is..."
"HYDRA."
Maya: "..."
Oh no, it seems I've fallen into an actual terrorist organization.