Chapter 1724 - Declaring War, and Long-Lost Son?

The image of the circular symbol switched to that of an old Eurasian-looking man. He said, "Some people say I am a terrorist, but I consider myself a teacher…"

As the old man rambled on, it was clear that he was from Central Asia.

Several civilians who were pressed to the ground were held at gunpoint by terrorists whose faces were covered, as if they were about to be executed.

Then, gunshots rang out, and the civilians collapsed.

The old man rambled on for a few minutes before he finally said, "…I, the Mandarin, declare that the explosion was my doing."

Luke had a strange expression on his face. "Are you kidding me?"

Of the people Tony hated the most in his life, terrorists were definitely one of them, especially the Ten Rings in Central Asia.

The most humiliating thing that ever happened to Tony was when he was caught by the Ten Rings and imprisoned in a cave to be a blacksmith for more than a month. Not only did he eat pig swill, he also couldn't take a bath.

Now that Happy had been severely injured by the explosion and had almost died, it was interesting that the Ten Rings had jumped out to claim responsibility.

Based on Luke's years of working cases, for people to jump out and confess… There really were people like these, and terrorists were even more prone to taking responsibility.

But this was too much of a coincidence.

Tony had been so busy working on tech at home for the past year to go to Central Asia to attack the Ten Rings.

Now, the Ten Rings had stepped forward, looking like they were ready to fight Tony – something didn't feel right.

Half an hour later, something even more bizarre happened.

A paparazzo found an opportunity to interview Tony, and asked him what he thought about the Ten Rings severely injuring Happy, his head of security.

Tony immediately exploded and declared war on the Ten Rings, and announced his address in front of the camera.

In the end, the tycoon grabbed the paparazzo's phone and said, "I'll get you a new one," before he smashed it against the wall.

Luke chuckled. The tycoon was indeed a professional at dealing with paparazzi.

Propping himself up on a bar stool, he took a sip of his coffee.

Thinking for a moment, he sent a message to Tony: Do you need backup?

On the other side, Tony was sulking when he received the notification from Jarvis. "Mr. Bruce sent… hm, congratulations."

Tony was stunned. "Congratulations?"

Jarvis said, "The subject heading of Mr. Bruce's message is: Congratulations."

Tony: "…What did he say?"

Jarvis said, "He's asking if you need backup."

Tony snorted. "No. I can beat the sh*t out of the Mandarin on my own!"

Jarvis said, "…Should I use your exact words, sir?"

Tony: "…Just say no."

There was no need to brag via text messages.

It only felt good to brag in front of the person himself.

The tycoon disdained people who hid behind the keyboard.

Like that Mandarin guy, who only dared to talk big. Tony swore that he would really beat the crap out of him.

Too lazy to play along, Luke simply sent him information on the scene at the diner: Take a look. Something isn't right.

Tony's anger subsided when he received the information.

He knew that Batman's biggest trait was that he was very paranoid, and his best ability was to dig up dirt.

Otherwise, why would this guy set up a sockpuppet organization under the name Pacific Detective Department?

If Batman said that something was wrong, then something was definitely wrong.

Thinking that, he looked at the data and started to model the scene of the explosion.

He worked for half a day.

Tony found something suspicious. "A temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius in the center of the explosion site? That doesn't make sense."

Generally, bombs relied on shock waves to be lethal. Most of the time, 3,000 degrees was just the temperature of the initial reaction. After the combustion, the temperature wouldn't exceed 1,000 degrees.

The incident at the diner clearly hadn't been caused by a chemical reaction.

He frowned. "Jarvis, check if there have been other similar explosions."

"Yes, sir," said Jarvis. "However, two visitors are waiting at the front entrance."

Speechless for a moment, Tony said, "Are you serious? I'm waiting for that Mandarin to drop by, and you drop people off at the front door?"

Jarvis said, "Sir, you announced the address to the world this morning. There's not much I can do."

Tony sighed and looked at the entrance. He suddenly felt worried. "Wait, why is it a woman and a kid?"

Jarvis: "…That's why I informed you."

Tony said, "Don't tell me that the Stark family suddenly has a six- or seven-year-old heir."

There was helplessness in Jarvis's gentle voice. "I don't know. That's why I informed you."

Tony had never been a coward, but he was no longer the playboy he used to be, and he and Pepper had been having a tiff recently.

Tony had already bent over backward to curry favor with her.

More importantly, the woman in the car outside suited his taste.

Although he didn't remember her, she looked familiar.

Something poked at his memory, as if to say, "That's right, you did do something."

Apprehensive, Tony let the woman in.

It was impossible for this to be an attack. The woman and the boy, as well as the car they were in, had been scanned. There were no dangerous items.

The woman entered the front hall and came face to face with Tony, who called out, "Dr. Maya Hansen, right? Why are you looking for me?"

The beautiful doctor said, "I knew it. You don't remember."

Tony: …F*ck, I'm dead.

A few minutes later, a certain tycoon looked relieved.

That was because Dr. Hansen had just said that the boy wasn't his son, and she wasn't here to ask him for child support.

"I'm here to tell you not to start a war with the Mandarin. You'll be in grave danger," she said.

Tony didn't object, but immediately got it. "What else do you know?"

She sounded like someone who knew something.

Dr. Hansen hesitated and didn't answer the question directly. "Your opponent isn't just the Mandarin… Huh?"

She suddenly looked behind Tony in surprise at the French windows that faced the ocean.

Jarvis said, "Missile attack, sir!"

Tony: "WTF!"

He was in the hall with Dr. Hansen, and the suit was below him in his lab. It was too late.

Tony could only press the reactor in his chest. "Activate."

Silver-gray nanotechnology surged out of the reactor and quickly spread to cover his upper body.

Boom!

There was a violent explosion on the other side of the villa, and the shock wave quickly hit Tony, who had turned around and covered Dr. Hansen.