"You're not heading back so soon, are you?"
"I haven't even shown you my Iron Man armor yet."
As Tony walked, he suddenly remembered and spoke up.
New York was not peaceful at night, but Harvey Anberaka probably had nothing to fear.
So Tony directly tried to persuade him to stay a little longer.
"Then you'll have to prepare another hundred-person serving of late-night snacks for me."
Harvey did not refuse. He merely stated his condition for staying longer.
"Didn't you just say you were about to have dinner?"
"And you already want a midnight snack?"
"Or is that one of the costs of that ability?"
Hearing that Harvey was thinking about midnight snacks before even having dinner, Tony Stark asked.
"Something like that."
Harvey nodded slightly.
Harvey could not guarantee what changes Tony Stark would undergo after joining the Void in the future.
But Tony Stark's appetite certainly would not be small either, so Harvey was giving him a little warning in advance.
That would also make it easier for Tony Stark to accept when the time came.
"What were you two talking about?"
Seeing Tony and Harvey Anberaka come upstairs, Pepper asked curiously.
"We had an in-depth discussion about the future of Earth and my technological achievements."
Tony answered casually.
"That excuse again..."
Hearing those familiar words, Pepper replied speechlessly.
"I wasn't lying to you. We really did discuss Earth's future."
Tony paused, then spoke seriously.
"Fine, fine. The topics between you two are always the same few things."
"Beautiful women, fine wine, sports cars, technology, and the future."
Pepper rolled her eyes as she spoke.
"Correction: it wasn't just talk."
"With our status, it isn't merely something we can talk about. We can truly participate in it and change it."
Tony corrected her seriously.
While Tony bickered with Pepper Potts, Harvey had already arrived at the dining table and begun eating.
As Tony Stark and Pepper chatted, they noticed that Harvey Anberaka was elegantly and rapidly sending dish after dish of food into his mouth.
"I'd heard the rumors, but seeing it in person still makes it hard to believe."
Watching the empty plates pile up at an absurd pace while Harvey's eating showed no sign of slowing, Pepper said in shock.
"Hard to believe or not, it's the truth..."
Tony touched his chest as he spoke.
"Mm, but Tony, why do I feel like you've gotten quite a bit younger?"
Pepper nodded, then looked at Tony and asked.
"Maybe it's because I'm in a good mood right now?"
Tony did not pay it much mind and answered casually.
The shrapnel in his body had been removed, and his Palladium Poisoning had been cleared as well.
Although he would continue suffering Palladium Poisoning over time if he kept using the Arc Reactor and wearing the Iron Man armor.
With Harvey Anberaka around, he no longer needed to worry about poisoning. It could be said that he no longer had any concerns.
Hearing that, Harvey glanced at Tony Stark but said nothing.
"No, your wrinkles are gone. Look for yourself."
Pepper brought over a mirror, handed it to Tony Stark, and spoke.
"..."
Tony Stark looked at himself in the mirror. He seemed several years younger, looking more like he had just turned thirty.
"Did you develop some new technology?"
Pepper looked at Tony and asked with utmost seriousness.
Tony was thirty-eight and could no longer be considered young. His hair had not turned gray yet, but some wrinkles naturally appeared on his face.
But now, Tony looked several years younger, his skin smoother and his appearance even more handsome.
After all, how to preserve one's youthful appearance was something every woman worried about after reaching adulthood.
Pepper was a woman too, so naturally she wanted to know how this had been done.
Of course, Pepper's first suspicion was that Tony Stark had developed some new technology, since that was Tony's specialty.
"I'm not a geneticist or pharmacologist. How could I possibly develop a drug that preserves youth or even restores it?"
Tony Stark shook his head and spoke directly.
"Then why have the wrinkles on your face disappeared?"
Pepper scrutinized Tony, desperately wanting to know the truth.
"I don't know either."
Tony Stark shook his head in confusion, wearing an expression that plainly said he had no idea.
Then Tony Stark glanced at Harvey Anberaka, who was still devouring food at a frenzied pace.
Though he did not know what Harvey Anberaka had done, the changes in his body were definitely connected to Harvey Anberaka.
"I need to go downstairs for something."
"Pepper, don't come down. I'll tell you what I need to tell you."
"If I don't want to tell you something, don't pry."
Then Tony seemed to remember something. After giving Pepper a few instructions, he headed for the underground laboratory.
Before going down, Tony stood at the stairway entrance and glanced at Harvey Anberaka.
When he saw that Harvey Anberaka did not interfere with what he was doing, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing Tony head downstairs again and tell her not to follow, Pepper felt somewhat frustrated by his willful behavior.
The moment Tony Stark entered his underground laboratory.
"Jarvis, scan my body."
"And compare it with my previous condition."
Tony Stark immediately gave the order.
Upon receiving the command, Jarvis immediately began scanning him with a red light.
"Sir, your cellular activity has been enhanced, making your body stronger."
"Furthermore, you are currently free of any illnesses. Compared to yesterday, your body has become six years younger."
"Based on your cells, you are now equivalent to your thirty-two-year-old self."
"It is as though you have reverted to youth."
After scanning him, Jarvis displayed two holographic projections and explained the situation.
"Reverted to youth?"
"Harvey Anberaka, what exactly did you do to me..."
Tony Stark looked at the holographic projection of himself. Even the model of his appearance looked younger. Only then did he truly realize the changes in his body.
Harvey Anberaka had not only removed the shrapnel and cleared out the palladium accumulated in his body, but had also made him younger.
Tony Stark knew that lifespan and genetics were fields humanity had been studying for a long time.
Yet even after so long, humanity still could not handle or cure many diseases, much less develop effective drugs or methods to extend human lifespan.
But Harvey Anberaka had not only directly cured the disease in his body, he had enhanced his cells and made him young again?
What kind of superpower was this? It had completely surpassed Tony Stark's understanding.
If Harvey Anberaka spread this method of restoring youth, no matter how astronomical the price, who knew how many wealthy people would want to regain their youth.
This favor was far greater than Tony had imagined.
"Sir, this is difficult for me to explain. Perhaps it will be easier for you to understand if you see it for yourself."
Hearing Tony's words, Jarvis immediately displayed a video projection.
Tony looked at the projection and noticed that the timestamp below showed it was not long—only around one minute.
Tony watched himself fall unconscious after shaking hands with Harvey Anberaka.
Then Tony saw Harvey Anberaka's finger directly slice open his chest.
Harvey Anberaka's ordinary-looking finger, which appeared to hold nothing at all, had become an incomparably sharp scalpel at that moment.
It sliced through his skin, and then Harvey Anberaka's hand released countless purple, thread-like strands that burrowed through his chest and into his heart.
The purple threads precisely and swiftly removed the shrapnel from his body.
Less than ten seconds later, his skin healed at a visible rate.
After doing all that, Harvey Anberaka stood to one side.
Harvey Anberaka seemed to consider something, then laid his body flat on the ground.
The video ended there, continuing only until he woke up. After watching it, Tony Stark could not help but hold his chin.
"And this was only a minor trick..."
Tony Stark recalled every word of his conversation with Harvey Anberaka and muttered in disbelief.
The unknown healing ability Harvey Anberaka had displayed, along with hands as sharp as blades, were already extraordinary.
And that might only be the tip of the iceberg of Harvey Anberaka's abilities.
Tony Stark could not even begin to imagine how many more abilities Harvey Anberaka might reveal.
Although he was a super genius, his horizons were still limited by the known boundaries of humanity. Superpowers were a field he had never understood.
"Jarvis, destroy this footage as well as the recordings of my conversation with Harvey Anberaka tonight."
After a while, Tony Stark calmed himself and gave the order.
"Sir, this is extremely valuable information. Are you certain you wish to destroy it rather than store it on a private server?"
Hearing the order, Jarvis asked.
Though it was an artificial intelligence, it understood that the contents of tonight's discussion were extremely valuable.
"Destroy it. Don't leave behind a single record."
"Otherwise, if what happened tonight gets out by accident, it will only bring unpredictable disaster."
Tony spoke seriously.
Tony was extremely confident in his technology, but he could not guarantee that his servers and systems would never be hacked.
If someone hacked them and saw tonight's footage, it would not only bring trouble to Harvey Anberaka, but might also turn Tony into a sinner responsible for others' deaths.
"Understood. Beginning destruction."
Upon receiving the order, Jarvis immediately began deleting everything.
Three chapters today. This is the first.
Before you continue