Heroic Era!

The Symbol of Peace, Kyle, had vanished from the public eye for sixty-three years. It turned out that he had left Earth for a trip through outer space, returned after personally confirming the existence of advanced Alien Races, and directly declared that humanity’s future enemies would come from beyond Earth!

This news report could no longer be described as a sensational headline. It was the single most shocking piece of information to leave the entire world stunned since the seemingly peaceful twenty-first century began!

Early that morning, in New York, America’s economic capital, people scrambled to buy copies of the New York Times.

Office workers who usually rushed to work were actually huddling together in streets and alleys, reading the newspaper. The more they read, the more shocked and distressed they became. The New York Times was not using a sensational headline to attract attention; its well-reasoned and substantiated report was even more thought-provoking and terrifying.

That morning, more than eighty percent of New Yorkers were late for work. Even those who arrived at their companies in a daze could only discuss the newspaper’s claims about aliens with their colleagues in anxious voices.

After noon, once this major news spread rapidly beyond New York and even beyond the Americas through online media, it swept across the world like a catastrophic nuclear storm, causing a global uproar!

The return of Kyle, the Symbol of Peace, was naturally enough to draw the attention and discussion of people around the world. Yet the alien intelligence he had brought back was simply too shocking for humanity!

Symbol of Peace, Alien Technology, Alien Invasion, Future Crisis…

In less than half a day, topics that left people deeply unsettled became the focus of global discussion. Countless famous scientists and experts stepped forward to offer their views, some opposing it and some supporting it.

Some suggested establishing friendly contact with Alien Races in advance. Some proposed that nations quickly develop plans to deal with an Alien Invasion. Others dismissed it as absurdity, claiming that the person spreading the rumors should be brought in for questioning.

As for that last point, the public immediately cursed them. "Brainless so-called experts!"

They had to know that the one who had made and proven those statements about aliens was Kyle, the Symbol of Peace!

Go reread the history books! During the darkest and most chaotic days of World War II, he had once stood alone as the equal of gods and forced the Japanese Empire to surrender. He alone bore titles such as Demon, God of Slaughter, and Tyrant, names that represented strength and brutality. He was the strongest living legend of his era, hailed as the "Symbol of Peace, the Invincible Hero"!

Arrest Kyle and interrogate him? Had their brains short-circuited?

Of course, the media and scientific organizations of every country did not dare trouble Kyle. Sensibly, they contacted American legislators and the military, using every possible method to probe the views of America’s upper ranks on the matter.

They soon received insider information.

Government agencies across America had urgently convened a high-level meeting late the previous night and discussed matters until morning. Most of the participants were still asleep at home.

As for the claims about aliens, the response from American agencies and even the president was extremely subtle. Their stance remained impartial: they neither accepted it as fact nor publicly clarified it as nonsense.

In truth, America’s upper ranks very much wanted to suppress those claims, lest the public panic and cause an economic recession and rising crime rates.

But the problem was that Kyle was the one who had made the statements. He was the one person America could not control. And if an Alien Invasion really did occur in the future, then those who suppressed the warnings now would become sinners nailed to the pillar of history for all eternity!

With Kyle deliberately pushing things forward, the wheels of the era had already begun to turn. No one dared stop them. All anyone could do was accept it and think of countermeasures.

America’s silence indirectly amounted to acknowledgment of the alien claims.

At once, no media outlet in the world dared publicly question them. They began reporting the related news seriously, joining the public in a long-term discussion and focus on the matter.

Knowing that the sky was about to change, they needed a source of light and a protective umbrella to prepare their response.

Kyle, the Symbol of Peace, could serve as that beam of light piercing the darkness. But where was Earth’s protective umbrella?

Just as the entire world was gripped by fearful discussion, a metal man painted gold and red burst brilliantly into the sky.

In less than half a day.

The metal man, equipped with a Supersonic Flight engine and laser cannon weaponry, flew across the vast ocean from America to the Middle East. One after another, he utterly crushed well-armed terrorists throughout the region and rescued the local civilians.

The metal man’s steel battle armor ignored not only bullets, but even tanks and missiles could not halt his advance. He crushed and swept through every kind of high-tech weaponry, fighting violence with violence while maintaining an astonishingly high rescue survival rate!

The local people affectionately gave him the heroic title of Iron Man.

Iron Man appeared precisely at this turning point in the era, like an effective shot of adrenaline injected into the hearts of people terrified by the alien claims.

The birth of Iron Man made the public clearly understand one thing.

Kyle, the Symbol of Peace, was the world’s only universally recognized legendary hero. But precisely because of that, he alone was far from enough—more capable people had to step forward, become heroes, and bear the disasters and pressure of the future!

This year was 2008.

What came next should never be a Dark Era representing despair and dead ends. It should be a Heroic Era belonging to light and hope!

Very few people knew.

After Iron Man completed his heroic feat in the Middle East, he was detected by the American military’s air-defense reconnaissance network while returning to America through its airspace.

Mistaking him for an unidentified flying object, Colonel Rhodes, commanding a military base, dispatched two F12 Fighter Jets to intercept and capture him. After the fighter jets battled Iron Man in the air, one of them unfortunately suffered wing damage and crashed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Colonel Rhodes finally learned Iron Man’s true identity in shock. He had no choice but to conceal the encounter as a military exercise accident.

Elsewhere.

In a secret interrogation room at the CIA headquarters in New York, a tall silver-white Iron Machine broke in. It brutally shot more than a dozen interrogators, then killed the criminal leader who had acted against the Symbol of Peace the previous night.

Surrounded by military personnel, the Iron Machine forcefully blasted through a wall and flew rapidly into the sky.

The emergence of Iron Man and the appearance of the Iron Machine, both equipped with advanced technology far beyond ordinary understanding, were like a second shot fired into the sky. Following the alien claims that shattered old frameworks, they raised humanity’s understanding of technology to an entirely new level!

At the same time, deep within the Atlantic Ocean, on the Karl family’s private island disguised as a massive floating iceberg.

The third floor of the base’s main fortress building. Here stood the family’s highest council chamber, which no one had possessed the authority to open for sixty-three years. Today, it finally welcomed the long-awaited highest family meeting.

The hall was brightly lit and spacious enough to hold a hundred participants. An oval metal table stood in the center, surrounded neatly by more than a hundred chairs.

At that moment, the meeting chairs were almost filled with people of various ages.