When John Li woke up again, he was already in a Manhattan hospital. His hands were fixed by splints, and there were many wailing wounded on the surrounding hospital beds. Looking around, John saw that many people were either missing an arm or had a broken leg. Considering the situation, he felt lucky.
A nurse walked in with a report. Her short blonde hair was neat, with little freckles on both sides of her nose. Her curvy figure made the voices of the wounded a little weaker.
Seeing that John was awake, the nurse grinned. "Little guy, you are really lucky. You were near the craziest streets where those two monsters were, and you only suffered minor injuries."
She glanced at the report in her hand and then touched John's head. "By the way, the police were supposed to contact your parents, but they couldn't find them. You might need to call them to come pick you up and pay the medical bills."
"Miss Nurse, what time is it?" John glanced at the window; it was still pitch black.
"4:15 in the morning. You were brought in last night and have been in a coma for six hours," Penny said, looking at her watch. She leaned down and said kindly, "Your medical expenses are two hundred and thirty-seven dollars. You can go to the nurse's desk and make a call. I have something to do now. Bye!"
"Well, Nurse Penny, bye!" John responded after glancing at the name tag on Penny's chest.
Penny's departure attracted the attention of most people, but not John.
John, who was no more than 1.2 meters tall, jumped out of the hospital bed and went to the window. He saw many ambulances transporting the wounded in front of the hospital.
He checked his pocket and found almost three hundred dollars in it. After paying the fee at the office, he hurriedly left the hospital. Before leaving, he overheard the head nurse at the front desk.
"Yes, the beds are full. Please send any serious cases to another hospital; don't send them here!"
"Don't you know? Those two monsters destroyed several buildings. We already have over 100 serious patients here. According to the police, more than 80 people died, and over 100 vehicles were destroyed. Thousands are injured. What can we do about this?"
John stopped a taxi outside. "Queens, Forest Hill Road!"
"Hey, kid, that's not close. Do you have money?" the black driver asked.
"You'll get paid," John replied, looking grimly at the scenery outside the window.
As the car started moving, John saw the site of last night's incident. Several police cars with flashing lights and blaring horns were parked, pulling a yellow cordon to keep people away.
John let out a sigh of relief and leaned on the car seat. 'Five years, it seems the plot is about to begin. But why is this body only ten years old? So many things are inconvenient!'
Five years ago, John Li was watching "Spider-Man: Heroes Expedition" in the movie theater. He had just seen the end of the film and was eagerly waiting for the post-credits scene. Instead of the scene, a bullet came.
A man had angrily rushed into the theater, holding a homemade gun and shooting at a couple sitting next to John, muttering, "You dare find a man outside? I'll kill you!"
Unbiased, all the bullets hit John in the head. His last thoughts as he lay bleeding on the ground were, 'What's the final post-credits scene? If only the bullet could turn!'
In a daze, he found himself on the streets of New York, becoming a five-year-old child living with his adoptive parents.
John looked at the screen in his mind: "Control Points: Forty-nine"
'Strength: 7, Defense: 5, Speed: 8, Spirit: 17 (Note, a healthy adult male has a value of 10)'
"Skill: D-Class Metal Control"
The three-line light words completely changed John's life. He had to relearn English, accept a new family, and deal with the fact that his body was now smaller. He also slowly accepted that he could control metal.
Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped on Forest Hill Road. "Hey, boy, twenty-nine dollars, pay up!"
John took out thirty dollars and handed it over.
The driver snatched it and said, "Wow! The remaining dollar is a tip. Here's some advice, kid: don't hang around outside at night!" He then drove away.
Watching him leave, John resisted the urge to take two bolts from the car's wheels and walked towards his house. Looking at the splints on his hands, he moved his fingers slightly, and a knife in his trousers flew out. He cut the bandages and threw them in the trash.
"Only one knife left. I lost too much this time. Not only did I gain nothing, but I also lost all my belongings. What a pity!" John stuffed the knife back into its sheath and silently went upstairs to his room.
He first took down a large box full of high-calorie snacks, chocolates, compressed burgers, canned beef, and so on, from the cabinet and started eating.
At the same time, a solid iron rod, nearly six centimeters thick, was pulled out from an iron rack and placed on his knees. Once he finished the last bit of beef, he gently placed his hands on the iron rod.
Although his broken arms had given up on the splint, they were slightly bent. The immense pain from these actions made his arms tremble, and he couldn't close his palms without the help of some metal pieces around.
John's hands on the iron rod sank a little. He felt an inexplicable energy wrapping around the broken parts of his arms, slowly correcting the broken bones.
This was an ability John discovered when he was eight. He had flown too high, fallen, and broken his legs. Instinctively, he had pulled a heavy iron frame over and placed his hands on it. That night, he lay in the yard, consuming half of the iron frame to heal his legs. The severe pain kept him awake all night, and he caught a cold. Since then, he hadn't dared to take such risks.
The sky outside the window turned pale. It was already past five o'clock. Half of the iron rod in his hands had disappeared, not leaving any residue.
John thought for a long time about how to describe this kind of treatment.
Was it absorption? Not really. It was more like exchanging the disappeared metal for healing energy, though he still didn't understand how it worked.
Hearing movement outside the door, John knew his uncle and aunt had woken up. He didn't hesitate.
Sitting cross-legged, he emitted a slight golden light. The iron rod in his hands trembled uncontrollably. Small golden light spots emerged from the iron rod, melting into John's glowing body.
After about ten minutes, John opened his eyes. The room was dim again. He threw the iron rod into a big iron box behind him.
'Click!' The metal rod fell, naturally breaking into two pieces like fragile glass.
He stood up and glanced at his uninjured hands. 'I feel like I'm stronger!'