Tony was embarrassed.
I was just saying it in passing, and you actually just opened your mouth for such a price!
Although he was indeed very rich, he wouldn't casually pull out ten billion to buy a bottle of potion.
That's enough for him to build how many Iron Man armors?
Seeing Tony silent, Darian asked curiously, "What do you want the Healing Life Potion for?"
"To perform surgery."
Tony didn't hide it and said bluntly, "I plan to remove the little gadgets in my body, but the success rate of this surgery is very low, maybe only five percent, so I need your Healing Life Potion to increase the success rate."
Back then, he took a hit from one of his own shells at close range, which resulted in shell fragments remaining in his body to this day, relying entirely on the electromagnetic device in his chest to prevent them from flowing into his heart through the bloodstream.
For Tony, these fragments were like bombs planted inside him, liable to be detonated at any time.
If it weren't for the surgery's low success rate and some early psychological barriers, he would have wanted to have them surgically removed long ago.
Having heard that Darian had a magical potion that could heal life, he immediately made this call.
Hearing Tony's words, Darian blinked: "The surgery only has a five percent success rate? Then if you do twenty surgeries, won't it be one hundred percent?"
Tony: "???"
You're a freaking mathematical genius!
Tony took a deep breath: "If that potion of yours can guarantee the success of the surgery, let alone ten billion, even a hundred billion would be no problem."
To him, money was never the issue; as long as he was alive, he could create countless ten billions.
Darian nodded: "Then a hundred billion it is, it's a deal!"
Tony: "..."
[NPC Tony Stark has issued a new quest to you]
[Quest: Heal Tony Stark]
[Goal: Help Tony Stark successfully remove the shell fragments from his body]
[Reward: EXP +1500, Tony's Favorability +10, Random Equipment *1]
Seeing the quest prompt, Darian's eyebrows twitched slightly.
If he remembered correctly, Tony's favorability had already reached over 80, right?
"Wait at home, I'm coming to see you now."
After leaving those words, Darian hung up the phone and put the automatic fishing rod into the game inventory.
"Someone's looking for you?" Wanda peeked over curiously.
Darian nodded: "Yeah, you keep fishing here. You can't leave until you catch a big fish. Remember, no using magic."
Wanda snorted and raised her chin defiantly: "Who do you think you're looking down on? Even if I don't catch any fish, I'll never cheat with magic!"
Once you're gone, I'll go to the market and buy the biggest fish; that won't count as cheating with magic!
Wanda added silently in her heart.
10880 Malibu Beach, a seaside mansion.
As soon as Darian stepped into the hall, he saw Tony already waiting there.
Seeing him, Tony asked straight to the point, "How effective is that potion of yours?"
Darian thought for a moment and said, "Let's put it this way: as long as there's a breath left, both internal and external injuries can be quickly recovered. If the injury is particularly serious, just drink a few more bottles, and I guarantee you won't die."
"That powerful?"
Tony was a bit surprised and continued, "What if I want to remove this thing and then fill the hole?"
While speaking, he casually pulled open his shirt collar, revealing the S-Model Arc Reactor inside.
Tony not only wanted to clear the fragments from his body but also wanted to take the miniature Arc Reactor off his chest. After all, who would want to walk around with a hole big enough to fit a golf ball in all day?
Darian chuckled: "Of course. And you don't even need to find someone for the surgery; I can handle it for you right now."
"What?"
Tony looked at Darian half-doubtingly: "Are you sure? Even the top surgeon in America, that horse-faced Doctor named Stephan Strange, didn't dare guarantee the success rate and flatly refused to be my primary physician."
Darian showed a confident smile: "Don't worry, I have my ways. Let alone one hole, even if you had ten holes in your body, I could handle it."
"Ahem, there's no need to fill the other holes."
Tony reluctantly believed Darian's words.
Along the way, he had witnessed Darian's various magical abilities and items.
Although he was a man who advocated science to his core, between science and the unscientific, he had to admit that the unscientific was indeed more impressive.
Scientific method: propose a hypothesis, careful verification, discard and restart, repeat the cycle, and finally reach a conclusion.
Unscientific method: what are you blabbering about? Just jump straight to the conclusion!
"What do I need to do?"
After thinking for a moment, Tony decided to trust Darian.
Darian said easily, "It's simple. Find a comfortable place to lie down, and leave the rest to me."
"Then let's go to my lab; no one will disturb us there."
The two went to the underground laboratory.
Tony pointed to a high-tech metal lounge chair: "This is where I usually change the reactor. Is this okay?"
"It's fine."
Darian nodded. After Tony lay down, he said seriously, "If you're ready, we'll start the surgery now."
"Surgery!?"
Tony's expression froze instantly, and he suddenly propped himself up from the medical chair: "Weren't you going to use that magical ability of yours to solve it directly?"
Darian curled his lip: "Where would I get such an item? You have to believe in science."
If I believed in science, would I still need to look for you!?
Tony almost jumped up, but was quickly pressed back into the chair by Darian.
Darian comforted him: "Don't worry, my surgery success rate is much higher than five percent; it's at least ninety-nine percent."
"Then there's still a one percent failure rate!"
Seeing Darian's hands, which weren't even wearing gloves, and the non-sterile environment around him, Tony couldn't help but swallow.
He felt that this one percent failure rate was much more dangerous than a five percent success rate.
"Take this medicine."
Darian pulled out a white pill and handed it to Tony.
"What is this?"
"Painkiller. After taking it, you won't feel any pain for a certain period of time. I originally planned to give you physical anesthesia, but the surgery later will require you to stay conscious and cooperate."
"..."
Hearing this, Tony obediently swallowed the painkiller.
Darian nodded with satisfaction: "Very good. This is your first surgery, don't be too nervous."
"I'm not nervous," Tony said stubbornly.
"I know, I was talking to myself."
???"
Ignoring Tony's horrified gaze, Darian pulled out a powerful magnet and smiled: "The following scene might be a bit intense, just bear with it."
"What is this th—"
Before he could finish, Darian had already activated the powerful magnet in his hand.
With a bang, the Arc Reactor in Tony's chest popped out and was instantly attracted to the powerful magnet, revealing the shocking empty hole beneath.
It had to be said that Tony's constitution didn't seem like a normal person's; he could act like nothing was wrong even with such a large hole in his chest.
Could it be that he really is a Kryptonian?
Without the power supply from the Arc Reactor, the electromagnetic device immediately lost its function, and the iron shards hidden in Tony's body began to flow with the blood.
Having been personally verified by his "good uncle" Stane, Tony could only last a few minutes at most in this state; any longer and he'd probably see Stane waving at him.
Darian didn't stop. After pulling out the Arc Reactor, he continued to use the powerful magnet. Soon, a small iron shard emerged from Tony's chest, accompanied by crimson blood, and stuck to the magnet.
However, Tony didn't feel any pain, as if the body wasn't his own.
Witnessing this scene, he was dumbfounded.
Is it really this simple and crude?
Anyone with even a little medical knowledge would never dare to do what Darian was doing.
These sharp metal fragments were crashing around inside the body, and the process of forcibly sucking them out would surely cut many blood vessels and tissues.
If he hadn't swallowed that painkiller beforehand, Tony would probably be in unbearable agony by now.
"Drink this."
Darian looked at Tony's still relatively long health bar and pulled out a red potion to hand to him.
[Large Potion Bottle: After use, continuously restores health for 30 seconds]
This was an advanced version of the life potion.
Darian was worried that a normal life potion wouldn't keep the health bar up, so for safety's sake, he had Tony drink the Large Potion Bottle with better recovery effects.
Tony didn't say a word and drank the Large Potion Bottle directly. The bloody hole that had just been torn open by the iron shard immediately began to heal itself.
While the effect of the Large Potion Bottle was still active, Darian used the powerful magnet to suck out the remaining iron shards in Tony's body one after another. In less than a few seconds, there were a dozen iron shards of various sizes on the magnet.
And the dense bloody holes on Tony's body were also slowly healing under the effect of the Large Potion Bottle.
Seeing the iron shards that had troubled him for months solved like this, Tony's face was filled with surprise and joy.
"Good job, Dr. House!"
"Don't be in a hurry, the surgery isn't over yet."
Darian looked at Tony's unchanged chest and said in a deep voice, "The hole in your chest has existed for too long; it's been judged as a part of your body. The life potion can't recognize this as a wound that needs to be repaired."
Tony suddenly had a bad feeling: "So, you mean..."
"Exactly!"
Darian grinned, and a watermelon knife appeared out of thin air in his hand: "I have to turn it into a fresh wound first!"
Tony's eyes widened: "Wait."
Ignoring Tony's attempt to stop him, Darian stabbed the knife into his chest without hesitation, and blood splattered instantly!
"Ah—!"
Tony instinctively screamed.
But he still didn't feel a hint of pain, only the sensation of something large entering his body.
Seeing that the wound he just stabbed was already starting to heal automatically, Darian cut the Gordian knot, gripping the hilt and quickly slicing a circle around the large hole in Tony's chest, removing the tissue around the edge of the hole entirely, revealing a bloody new wound surface.
Even though Tony had experienced many storms, seeing his own chest being remodeled like a watermelon being cut made his scalp tingle.
He regretted it; if he had known, he would have let Darian use physical anesthesia, at least being knocked out would have spared him from seeing this.
When Darian finally pulled out the watermelon knife, the wound surface of the hole in Tony's chest began to squirm and grow.
Fresh red granulation tissue spread from the edges to the center, quickly covering the entire hole. New skin formed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in the blink of an eye, the terrifying large hole was filled in smoothly.
And Tony's health bar, which was about to hit rock bottom, was pulled back by the Large Potion Bottle, forcibly extending his life.
"Is it... done?"
Tony repeatedly felt his chest, the sensation of flesh from his fingertips making him feel like he was in a dream.
Darian nodded: "Yes, congratulations, the surgery was a success. Now you've become a whole man again."
Tony: "..."
I was a whole man before the surgery, too!
But complaints aside, looking at his chest in the mirror, which was as good as new, Tony's face still rippled with uncontrollable joy.
From now on, he finally had no threat from shrapnel and no longer needed to rely on the Arc Reactor and electromagnet!
After calming down a bit, Tony still couldn't help but complain, "Although the result is perfect, isn't your treatment method a bit too horrifying?"
Darian waved his hand dismissively: "This is nothing. If it weren't for the fact that your body is too weak and the brain's survival time after leaving the body is limited, I would have wanted to just chop your head off with one blow and let your body grow a new one. That would even save the trouble of opening your chest; how convenient."
Tony: ( Д )!?
This time he didn't argue; if his body was weak, so be it, it was better than being beheaded.
[Quest 'Heal Tony' settlement complete]
[Rewards: 1500 EXP, Tony's Favorability +10, Equipment 'Beak Mask']
[Equipment: Beak Mask (Wear it to filter any infectious diseases)]
For some reason, every time Darian saw "infectious diseases," he always seemed to misinterpret it.
But what he cared about more now was something else.
Darian immediately opened the Kick Nick Fury's Ass Alliance and pulled up Tony's teammate panel.
[NPC: Tony Stark (Iron Man)]
[Race: Human]
[Attributes: Strength 12, Agility 11, Constitution 9, Spirit 18]
[Equipment: None]
[Favorability: 95]
After his body returned to normal, Tony's constitution only increased by one point.
So, this guy really is weak!
Then, Darian focused his gaze on Tony's high favorability of 95 and narrowed his eyes.
"Tony, take this."
Darian handed over the watermelon knife. Tony, not knowing why, took it anyway.
Although Tony had a quirk of not taking things from others, he hadn't reached the level of obsessive-compulsive disorder; he would still take things from people he was close to.
Especially when on the phone, no matter who handed him something, he would basically take it subconsciously; after all, this was an instinct carved into human genes and couldn't be changed.
And after Tony took the watermelon knife, a watermelon knife—no, a Nichirin Blade—instantly appeared in his equipment slot.
Without the system prompt, Darian would have treated the Nichirin Blade as a real watermelon knife. When not killing Vampires, this Nichirin Blade really was no different from a watermelon knife costing a few dozen yuan at the supermarket, just a bit sharper.
Darian tried clicking on the Nichirin Blade in Tony's equipment slot.
Immediately, a semi-transparent prompt box popped up.
[Do you want to remove this equipment from your teammate?]
Darian's eyes lit up, and he decisively chose yes.
The next moment, Tony felt his hand lighten, and the watermelon knife vanished instantly, appearing in Darian's game warehouse.
It really works!
Darian was overjoyed.
This way, he could remove equipment from Tony at any time in the future!