This room...
In the center was a blood-stained operating table. Next to it stood an old shelf and searchlight, the shelf filled with blood-stained surgical tools.
Around the house, long cabinets lined the walls, and many large transparent jars sat on the cabinets. Each jar was filled with the same human organs—eyes, brain, heart, lungs... At a glance, it seemed like just enough to assemble an entire human body.
"Just finished the autopsy."
Seeing this scene, Tony and Happy recalled what Tamayo had said before entering, and a chill surged through their hearts. Looking at Tamayo again, she no longer seemed like a peerless beauty but clearly a devil in human skin.
"I just finished the autopsy and haven't had time to clean up, so please don't be alarmed." Tamayo said softly, and the gentle voice made Tony and Happy shudder, suddenly snapping back to reality from their wild thoughts.
When they looked at Tamayo again, she was still the kind and virtuous beautiful woman, though set against the backdrop of blood. Looking around again, although they still felt terror and unease, they no longer had that same sense of disgust and fear from a horror movie.
They looked at each other and saw a trace of doubt in each other's eyes.
Were they just too timid?
"What, is there a problem?"
Seeing that the two hadn't responded for a long time, Quinn couldn't help asking.
"No, no problem."
Tony replied subconsciously.
Just after responding, he immediately regretted it and corrected himself. "Actually, there's a big problem. If I decide to receive treatment later, it absolutely cannot be here. It must be in a well-equipped and clean environment."
"We probably won't need tools!"
After Tamayo finished speaking, seeing Tony look over in confusion, she immediately explained. "Mr. Tony's situation is very special.
You have shrapnel embedded in your heart, and you need the device in your chest to prevent the shrapnel from going deeper. But your device is constantly producing toxins that erode your body.
To solve the problem, you must either remove the shrapnel or improve the device so it no longer produces toxins.
Otherwise, even if the poison is detoxified, you'll continue being poisoned."
"..."
Tony stared at Tamayo in stunned silence, opened his mouth, and said incredulously after a moment, "How do you know my physical condition?"
"Tony, is this true?"
Hearing Tony admit it, Happy looked at him in disbelief.
"I'll tell you later." Tony glanced at him, then looked at Tamayo. "Why do you know my condition? I've never told anyone about it except for Ethan, who's already dead. No one else knows. Why do you know so well?"
Ethan was the man who'd installed an electromagnet on Tony's chest in the Middle East and saved his life.
But he'd died when Tony was fleeing the terrorist compound, so there was no way he could have told anyone. And Tony himself hadn't told anyone about his situation.
So it should have been impossible for anyone to know.
Looking at Tony who was watching her closely, Tamayo smiled. "Smell and sound."
"What?"
"Your blood is mixed with the rusty smell of corroded metal. In your blood vessels, there's a sound of hitting iron plates when the blood flows. Your blood has been corrupted by a certain element, producing an indescribable rancid odor—even scavenging animals wouldn't want to taste it."
[Ding! You obtained 100 wish points!]
[Ding! You obtained 360 wish points!]
"..."
Tony's mouth hung open as he looked at Tamayo in disbelief.
He'd never seen such an incredible person.
So much information could be perceived by nose and ears alone.
Wait.
Rancid?
Thinking of something, Tony raised his arm and sniffed at his wrist, then lifted his collar and continued sniffing.
After a moment, he stared at Tamayo and questioned, "Why don't I smell anything rancid? Are you messing with me?"
"If you think so, then so be it!"
Tamayo shook her head gently, ignored him, went into the house to get some water, and began cleaning up.
Tony realized his attitude had upset her, so he admitted his mistake. "Okay, looks like I'm being paranoid. So do you have a way to solve my problem?"
"Yes, but it's difficult!"
"What's the difficulty?"
"The shrapnel in your heart has gone very deep." Tamayo said while wiping the blood from the operating table. "Going deeper will cause your heart to stop beating. Pulling it out will cause cardiovascular rupture, and you'll die from internal bleeding within a dozen seconds. Current medical methods simply cannot repair the cardiovascular system within ten seconds—not to mention there's more than one piece of shrapnel in your heart."
"I know my own body. I don't need you to explain that. Just tell me what to do!" Tony said, irritation creeping into his voice.
This situation had bothered him for a long time, and he'd been afraid to let people around him know because he didn't want them to worry.
He'd had enough.
Tamayo glanced back at him, then continued scrubbing the operating table while speaking. "I said earlier that this situation could be resolved by improving the device on your chest, but I don't know anything about such high-tech devices, and you obviously can't do it either.
So the only option is to remove the shrapnel through medical means.
But even I can't repair multiple damaged blood vessels within a dozen seconds. Normal methods simply won't work."
"Normal methods?"
Tony noticed Tamayo's phrasing, raised his eyebrows, and asked, "Normal methods won't work—but abnormal methods will?"
"That's correct."
Tamayo stood up, tossed the towel into the basin, and looked back at Tony. "Do you have any reason strong enough to 'want to live even if you're no longer human'?"
"No longer human?"
Tony and Happy looked at Tamayo blankly, not understanding.
Tamayo turned around, cleaned the blood-stained towel, then looked at the bright red water. "I don't have the ability to repair multiple damaged blood vessels within a dozen seconds, and there's no doctor in this world who can. That means we can only give the patient stronger vitality—strong enough that even if blood vessels are damaged, they can survive."
"...You mean body modification?"
Tony and Happy still didn't quite understand what Tamayo meant and could only try to interpret it in terms they could comprehend.
"Body modification?" Tamayo was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help laughing. "Speaking of which, demons really are a form of body modification, aren't they?"
"Demons?"
"Creatures transformed from humans." Tamayo explained to the two. "A thousand years ago, a person who was weak and bedridden became a demon through medicine, and since then gained immortality and life force and power transcending human limits. If you don't mind becoming a demon, I can transform you into one."