Chương 161: Chapter 161: Hidden Murderous Intent 

In fact, although the plot had been brought forward by over a year, AIM's research progress on the virus wasn't as advanced as it was in the original storyline. Their connections with international terrorist groups weren't as deep either; it could only be said that they had just begun communicating. 

Without sufficient funding, AIM's research on the Extremis virus was quite slow. These Extremis soldiers were only the earliest versions—the kind that would self-destruct at the slightest disagreement or provocation. 

When all the Extremis soldiers stepped into this forest, the atmosphere instantly changed. Bursts of murderous intent surged from all directions, insects fell silent, and birds suddenly took flight. 

"What's going on? What's out here?" The leading Extremis soldier carefully observed his surroundings but saw nothing, making him even more cautious. 

"Captain, I feel like something's wrong too." A grunt behind him carefully aimed his standard-issue weapon around. 

These soldiers were all disabled veterans Killian had handpicked from field hospitals. Having survived intense battlefields, they possessed an inexplicable intuition for danger. 

"Proceed with caution." The captain waved his hand. The team behind him immediately reformed their formation, trusting their backs to their teammates with their muzzles pointing outwards. 

His teammates' professional performance relieved the captain. Watching Happy's receding figure and the few Ninja soldiers left behind, the captain pressed his radio to contact the island, asking them to send people to intercept Happy, while he slowly led his Extremis squad to encircle the Ninja soldiers. 

The captain sized up the Ninja soldiers who were watching themselves get surrounded without showing the slightest panic. He felt something was off. But the Extremis squad behind him gave him absolute confidence. As the commander of this squad, he clearly knew that their strength was far beyond what ordinary people could contend with. 

"You are surrounded, surrender immediately!" The commander had his squad members turn on their infrared lasers, and red dots appeared on the bodies of the Ninja soldiers. 

But their eyes didn't change at all; instead, they slowly drew the ninjatos at their waists. 

The captain frowned. "Break their legs." 

As soon as he spoke, the soldiers behind him immediately lowered their muzzles, preparing to break the Ninja soldiers' legs and capture them alive. 

But the Ninja soldiers instantly vanished from where they stood, leaving him stunned. 

Immediately, a ninjato thrust out from the shadow in front of him, directly severing his subordinate's arm. 

Seeing his hand chopped off, the soldier couldn't help but scream miserably. Subsequently, his heart rate accelerated, and his emotions grew increasingly agitated. 

Seeing the situation turn bad, the captain lunged forward, pinned the soldier to the ground, and shouted loudly, "Calm down! You are an Extremis soldier now! It's just a severed hand, it will slowly grow back on its own!" 

But the intense pain made the Extremis soldier lose his reason. As his emotions grew more agitated, traces of fiery light continuously spread through his blood vessels to his whole body. 

Seeing this, the captain gritted his teeth, directly pulled out the pistol strapped to his leg, and fired madly at the soldier's head. The bullets completely tore the soldier's head apart, leaving no hope of healing, and he fell limply to the ground. 

Looking at the soldier's corpse, the captain panted heavily. Just as he inserted the pistol back into its holster and was about to issue orders to the other soldiers, a cold gleam shot out from the side, slashing straight toward his head. 

The captain's pupils shrank sharply, but he couldn't react in time. 

Seeing their captain die, the other soldiers froze for a moment. Countless Ninja soldiers took this opportunity to strike directly, their sharp ninjatos cleanly slicing off their heads, not even leaving them a chance to self-destruct. 

It didn't take long for the Extremis squad to be completely wiped out. Luke issued a new order, having these Ninja soldiers search the entire island, kill all Extremis soldiers, and only leave a few alive for questioning. 

Meanwhile, outside the island, Thursday was still flying over the ocean carrying Happy. Three armed helicopters flew out from the island. After locking onto Happy, missiles were fired one after another, spewing smoke as they flew toward him. 

"There are missiles! Do you have flares or something like that?!" Happy asked anxiously, looking at the missile tracks displayed on the screen. 

"Uh, I was heavily modified for defense by Mr. Tony, so I'm not equipped with any weapons. But I should be fine taking two missiles?" 

"Are you sure?" 

"I'm definitely fine, but I can't guarantee you'll be fine. The force of the missile is enough to shake you to death right through the armor." 

"!" 

Happy froze for a moment, then hurriedly used the Bluetooth connection to shout, "Tony! I need help!" 

Watching the missiles close in, Happy's eyes gradually filled with despair. But a magic array suddenly opened in front of him. The missiles crashed into it and directly detonated, turning into beautiful fireworks. Tony also rushed out from the ocean, the magic array on his hands condensing a few black fireballs that he threw at the three helicopters. 

The fireballs curved in the air and smashed into the three helicopters without causing any explosions. However, streams of black flames landed on the helicopters, quickly burning all three to absolute nothingness. 

"Boss!" Happy yelled excitedly, moving to hug Tony directly. Tony couldn't really dodge, so he retracted the sharp magic arrays on his hands, opened his arms, and hugged him back a couple of times. 

"Why didn't you tell me about this? You should have let me handle these things." 

Happy hugged Tony tightly. "That guy Killian was hitting on Pepper, so I wanted to teach him a lesson, but I ended up getting ambushed by them!" 

Happy almost cried. At that time, he had followed Killian and his crew to an abandoned steel mill in the suburbs and saw Killian and his subordinates trading with some masked men carrying guns. 

Thursday was nearby at the time and could transform to fit his size. After putting on Thursday, thinking about how Tony massacred his enemies in all directions, Happy's confidence burst forth, and he charged right in. 

Originally, it was just as he thought—those guys with guns couldn't harm him at all. But Killian and the others sneakily turned on a signal jammer on the side, then rushed up to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him. 

He didn't know what kind of drugs those guys took to be able to fight a machine with their bare hands, and they even glowed and emitted heat, pinning him down there. There were also a few guys who played suicide bombers, completely dazing him with the explosions, and he was finally captured and brought here. 

Watching Happy tell Tony what had happened, Luke released Nightbat Ninjas on the side, having them check the entire island to see if there were any secret passages or the like. 

After the Ninja soldiers cleared the area, all the Extremis soldiers on the island were eradicated, leaving only some researchers. 

After a while, Luke and the others landed on the island. Happy hurriedly got out of Thursday. Although Thursday could accommodate Happy's obese body after transforming, the internal space was limited to ensure defensive capabilities, making Happy exceptionally uncomfortable. 

But when Happy came out, an indescribably awful smell wafted out as well, making Luke involuntarily retreat a few meters back. 

Tony, opening his helmet, also frowned. "My God, what is that smell on you? Did they throw you into a cesspit?" 

Happy froze for a moment, raised his shoulder, and sniffed. "Uh, I think it's fine?" 

"What the hell is going on?" Tony frowned and looked at Thursday. 

Thursday shrugged helplessly. "Mr. Happy is a human; he has needs to eat, drink, poop, and pee. Although I couldn't satisfy his needs to eat and poop, I could still satisfy his needs to drink and pee." 

Hearing this, Luke on the side didn't even know what expression to make. Tony's expression changed, and the way he looked at Happy and Thursday shifted entirely. He then remembered that he had just given Happy a good, solid hug. 

Even though it was through the armor, Tony's face still turned extremely pale, and he even felt his stomach start to churn. 

Looking at the innocent Happy, Tony ignored Happy's protests, directly ordered Thursday to wrap him back up, and even took him to the ocean for a thorough rinse. 

Watching Happy fly far away, Tony took a few deep breaths, finally suppressing his nauseous feeling. 

Looking at Luke, who had retreated several meters away, Tony asked weakly, "So what are we supposed to do next again?" 

Although he had discussed the plan with Luke just a moment ago, being stimulated by Happy like this made Tony's brain go completely blank, unable to remember a single thing. 

A Nightbat Ninja appeared behind Luke and flapped its wings to disperse the smell, finally allowing Luke to sigh in relief. 

"We should go see if Killian is on this island next. He's the real head of AIM," Luke reminded him, making Tony remember that guy Killian. 

"That guy really is a bastard, casually conducting human experiments, and he dared to lay his hands on Happy. I definitely have to teach him a good lesson!" 

Tony rubbed his fists. Having just been triggered by Happy, he wanted to find something to vent on. That guy Killian should be pretty good at taking a beating, right? 

Most of the Extremis soldiers had been cleared out. The remaining scientists and a few leaders were gathered and captured by the Ninja soldiers in a clearing. 

Luke and Tony soon arrived. Looking at the group of people squatting with their hands on their heads, they took a good look but didn't see Killian's figure. 

"He's not here? Could he be hiding somewhere else on the island?" 

Luke shook his head. "The Nightbat Ninjas have already searched the entire island. There are no secret rooms or anything like that." 

"Then this is troublesome. We don't know where that guy Killian is." 

Tony frowned, while Luke looked at a few guys whispering among the crowd. "I think these guys should know." 

... 

Bringing his subordinates along, Killian shook hands with a heavily bearded bald man and then walked out of the dilapidated building. 

"We made a lot of money on this trade. Maybe we can push the research progress forward to the next stage." 

Killian smiled and said to his trusted subordinate. This time, they sold a lot of the Phase One serum for a good price. As for what these highly unstable, easily explosive serums would be used for, Killian couldn't care less. 

Taking a drag from his cigarette to stabilize his emotions, Killian asked his trusted subordinate to check on the situation at the base. 

But after a long time, there was no answer from the base, causing Killian's brow to tighten. 

Taking a device from his pocket, Killian began to operate it. Over on the overseas island, Luke was currently interrogating those few leaders for Killian's exact location. 

After stimulating these guys a little, their bodies began to glow, making Luke sigh and toss them into the mouth of the Shadow-Eater waiting to be fed nearby. 

"These guys' conditions are highly unstable; we can't get any intel out of them at all," Luke frowned and said to Tony. He turned to look at the shivering researchers; these guys were just corporate drones Killian had kidnapped from all over the world. They knew nothing. 

Right at that moment, the branches of some trees turned, revealing a tiny camera. Although the Ninja soldiers quickly spotted these cameras and destroyed them, Killian still managed to get a lot of intel. 

Looking at the camera wreckage directly uprooted and brought before him by the Shadow Ninjas, Luke tossed the pile of junk to Tony, asking him to see if there was any way to track the guy behind it. 

Observing the situation at the scene, Killian's expression violently sank. 

"We've been discovered." The subordinate beside him also saw the situation on the monitor and spoke to Killian with a frown. 

Killian's face grew increasingly heavy, as if he was holding something back. Finally, he fiercely smashed the device in his hand onto the ground and frantically stomped it to pieces. 

"Tony Stark! It's you again! It's always you!" 

Remembering how this bastard had left him stranded on a rooftop for a whole night a few years ago—when he was in despair and wanted to jump off the building, that guy was lying under the covers fooling around with a few women. Now, this guy had also destroyed his base, making Killian even more furious. 

After venting for a while, Killian took a sedative handed to him by a subordinate and, without even blinking, injected a dose enough to keep a normal human asleep forever into his body. 

Calming down, Killian thought of Tony and Luke in the video. Looking at Stark Tower not far away, he began to ponder what to do. 

Finally, Killian revealed a mad smile. 

"We'll do something big. Once we make enough money, we'll go into hiding directly and build a new base to research the Extremis virus." 

The bald subordinate beside him noticed Killian staring at Stark Tower and nodded thoughtfully. "I'll have someone investigate the whereabouts of the Stark Industries CEO right now. When the time comes, we'll kidnap her directly. I believe Tony Stark will offer a good price." 

"Inject her with a dose of the serum too. Give that bastard a little surprise," Killian said viciously. 

The bald subordinate behind him, however, shook his head. "But all our serum was on the island. The company doesn't have any stock here." 

Killian sighed. Then, he turned around and threw a fierce punch right at the bald man's face, smashing it to a pulp. Grabbing him, Killian pointed at the building behind them. "Isn't our serum right inside there?" 

The bald man felt the pain on his face but didn't dare resist. As the leader, the serum Killian had injected was much better than his, and the physical enhancement effect was far stronger. He was no match for Killian at all. 

After being pushed away by Killian, the bald man felt his completely smashed jaw and brutally pulled it back into place. The magma-like tissue began to heal, quickly restoring him to his original appearance. Looking at the building behind him, his eyes were full of anger. Without taking any weapons, he charged straight in. 

A burst of gunfire rang out, then quickly fell silent. The bald man, wearing clothes full of bullet holes, walked out from inside carrying a briefcase.