I Became a Knockoff Arms Dealer in the Marvel World

July 2010.

Sokovia, Eastern Europe, the Umbrella Corporation located in the northern outskirts.

On the surface, Umbrella has established a cluster of high-rise buildings in the northern suburbs of this city.

In reality, the tall buildings on the ground are nothing more than a façade.

At the center of this beautifully designed architectural complex, blending both Eastern and Western styles, stands a skyscraper that reaches over 300 meters in height. Its design exudes a strong sense of technological advancement, with the corporation's name "UMBRELLA" emblazoned at the top.

This is the headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation. As of now, it employs tens of thousands of people.

Among them, half are black-ops soldiers cloned and brainwashed through Umbrella's advanced cloning techniques.

Three thousand meters underground beneath the Umbrella headquarters lies a secret base known as "The Hive."

Carl Davis had built this base deep underground for good reason, as the Marvel universe was rife with dangers.

The Hive was designed to withstand a nuclear explosion, with its defense systems controlled by the artificial intelligence known as Red Queen.

Despite these preparations, Carl still didn't feel safe enough.

After all, he knew that within the core of Earth, a divine child awaited birth—one that, upon emerging, could destroy the entire planet.

Thus, Carl often found himself in a state of extreme anxiety.

In 2008, just after arriving in this world, he hadn't yet figured out the situation before he was struck by an aerial bomb during an air raid.

His original family died in the bombing, and Carl was left an orphan, just eighteen years old.

At the time, the air was filled with bombings, and the huge shockwaves from the explosions forced Carl to hide trembling in the basement of his home.

Once the raids ceased, Carl wandered aimlessly through the streets, and it was only when he saw Tony Stark publicly announce that he was Iron Man on TV that he realized he had arrived in the Marvel world.

This realization left Carl feeling helpless—he wasn't only in the Marvel universe, but also in Sokovia, a nation in the middle of a civil war.

Fortunately, Carl had a "Shanzhai Tech System" [a counterfeit technology system].

When he saw that a copy of the Soviet-era AK-47 rifle was priced at just $10 in the system's store, he understood what he had to do.

He would become the world's largest arms dealer!

Previously, the international market price for an AK-47 typically ranged from $300 to $800.

But with Carl, a single AK-47 sold for just $30.

This price immediately shattered the entire international arms trade market's baseline.

Even the second-hand market couldn't sell them cheaper than Carl.

Thus, Carl quickly accumulated his first fortune.

Then, he spent six months developing his business quietly.

At first, Carl only dared to sell light weapons like rifles, submachine guns, and drones.

But as his business grew, he began selling medium-range missiles and even knockoff Jericho missiles designed after Stark Industries' technology.

The arms smuggling business expanded rapidly, and Carl began to look for a way to establish a legitimate company, to better cope with risks.

And thus, the Umbrella Corporation was founded.

Using the immense profits from arms trading, Carl bribed numerous warlords in Sokovia, and even secured ties with government officials.

After two years of development, by 2010, the Umbrella Corporation secretly controlled nearly everything in Sokovia, becoming the shadow ruler of this small Eastern European country.

Even the former Hydra secret base hidden in Sokovia, the faction of Baron Strucker's Hydra, had been taken under Carl's control.

However, he wasn't satisfied with just this. Every time he thought about the approaching alien invasion in a few years, or the divine child hidden at the Earth's core, Carl felt a constant, gnawing anxiety.

As a result, in recent months, Carl became bolder and even started selling Jericho missiles in large quantities.

Now, the Jericho-1 missile, invented by Tony Stark, had become highly sought after on the international arms market.

But since 2008, Iron Man had shut down Stark Industries' weapons division and ceased all arms sales to the public.

As a result, the price of Jericho missiles in the international market had skyrocketed.

Moreover, with Iron Man's fame growing, the black market price for Jericho missiles continued to climb.

This prompted Carl to take advantage of the situation. Using his "Shanzhai Tech System," he began flooding the market with Jericho missiles.

Last month, the Umbrella Corporation secretly sold thirty thousand containers of Jericho missiles to several Middle Eastern oil-rich countries.

Naturally, not all thirty thousand containers were filled with missiles. Most of them contained launch platforms, ground vehicle launchers, and other related parts.

If it weren't for the Middle Eastern sheikhs offering a price Carl couldn't refuse, he wouldn't have dared to take such a huge risk.

At present, the price of a single Jericho missile on the black market had reached fifteen million dollars.

But in the Middle East, they were willing to pay 30% more than the black market price to buy these missiles.

The price for Carl's system, however, was just $20,000 per missile, a stark contrast to the $19.5 million offered by the buyers.

This nearly one thousand-fold profit was enough to tempt even God himself.

Carl, of course, couldn't resist. Last month, he took the risk and approved the sale of the batch.

But despite being cautious and careful, without revealing any flaws, the transaction led to unexpected consequences.

After the trade, the buyers from the Middle East—whether foolish or overconfident—emboldened by their acquisition of high-tech missiles, launched a "Defend Freedom" war against the United States.

With the help of the Jericho missiles, several Middle Eastern countries initially achieved unprecedented victories.

This caused a global stir.

Then, Tony Stark, the Iron Man himself, received the news that his own Stark Industries' Jericho missiles were wreaking havoc in the Middle East, with overwhelming firepower forcing U.S. forces to retreat in disarray.

Upon hearing this, a bewildered Tony Stark decisively donned his Mark-5 Iron Man suit and flew to the Middle East to investigate the source of this massive batch of Jericho missiles.

He couldn't believe that so many Jericho missiles were produced by Stark Industries.

After all, since he invented the Jericho missile in 2004, Stark Industries had only produced around a thousand Jericho missiles due to their high cost.

Yet, in the Middle East, more than a thousand missiles were being fired in a single day.

As someone who had once proclaimed himself a "guardian of peace" at a congressional hearing, Tony Stark knew he had to get to the bottom of where these missiles were coming from.

However, while he was a genius inventor, he wasn't much good at undercover investigation or tracing arms deals.

After half a month of searching, with all the sand in the Middle Eastern deserts in his face, Tony Stark still had no leads.