Luo Xia had asked Violet to find a famous surgeon to help Tony deal with the shrapnel lodged in his chest. The Arc Reactor used magnets to hold the fragments in place, keeping Tony alive, barely.
But that only treated the symptoms, not the cause. Even if Tony upgraded the Arc Reactor to its second generation and solved his Palladium poisoning, he would still die if he ever had to go without it.
Unfortunately, the shrapnel was too close to Tony's heart, and there were too many pieces. Missing even one could be fatal.
That was why Tony had never dared to go through with the operation.
The surgeon Violet recommended to Luo Xia, Dr. Stephen Strange, was one of the best in the world. And from what Luo Xia could tell from his résumé, he seemed easy enough to hire—as long as you had the money.
Money was never an issue for Stark Industries. Although Tony had announced the closure of its weapons division, sending its stock price plummeting,
the cost of a single operation was nothing to him—not even a drop in the bucket.
Luo Xia asked Violet to pull up Tony's medical records and email them to Dr. Strange. He made it very clear that money was no object if the operation succeeded.
After a good night's sleep, Luo Xia had slept more soundly than he had since arriving in this world. He hadn't even dreamed, and slept straight through until dawn.
When he woke, it was already past ten in the morning.
"Good thing I don't have to clock in at work." Luo Xia stretched.
"Commander, you have two messages. One is a reply from Dr. Strange, and the other is from S.H.I.E.L.D." Violet hopped onto his bedside.
"Let's hear the one from S.H.I.E.L.D. first." Luo Xia yawned.
"Agent Coulson from S.H.I.E.L.D. called a little after seven this morning. You were sleeping so soundly that I sent the call to voicemail. Coulson said he'd like to meet you when you have time. He seems to want to talk about Tony Stark." Violet reported to Luo Xia.
"Okay. Tell him to advance me some of my salary, and I'll buy him coffee this afternoon. What did Dr. Strange say?" Luo Xia asked indifferently.
"Dr. Stephen Strange replied by email. He said the operation was extremely dangerous. Even if he performed it himself, he could only raise the success rate from 10% to 50%. He also said that, with current medical technology, that was the best anyone could hope for."
"Didn't he have any other suggestions?" Luo Xia pressed.
With only a 50% chance of success, no wonder Tony hadn't been able to make up his mind. It was practically a gamble with his life.
"He did. He mentioned that Oscorp seemed to be developing a new type of minimally invasive medical device, with nanoscale precision, but it wasn't in production yet. If he could use a set of those devices, he could raise the success rate to over 90%."
"Oscorp?" The name stirred a vague sense of familiarity in Luo Xia.
"Isn't that the Green Goblin's company?" It took Luo Xia a moment to remember what made the company special.
Before arriving in this world, Luo Xia had only watched a few Marvel movies and hadn't learned much about this universe. Aside from the famous Avengers, he wasn't familiar with the other superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so Osborn hadn't rung a bell right away.
"Spider-Man's been in a bunch of movies that mention Oscorp. I wonder which version of this world we're in." Luo Xia grew curious.
If this world followed the latest Spider-Man movie, then Spider-Man would probably only be five years old right now—a child. It was even possible that his parents were still alive and well.
"Make an appointment with Oscorp, under the name of a technical consultant for Stark Industries," Luo Xia instructed Violet.
"Understood, Commander." Violet answered respectfully.
But after she finished, Violet hesitated and said, "Um... Commander, could I ask for a day off?"
Luo Xia stared at Violet with wide eyes. This robot girl could ask for time off?
"What do you want to do?" Luo Xia asked.
"Well... I found out there's a World of Warcraft offline event today. I'd like to go check it out."
Luo Xia nearly spat out his drink. "You play World of Warcraft?"
Technically speaking, Violet had only been around for a few days.
"I'm a max-level Fury Warrior!" Violet immediately projected her account for Luo Xia to see.
This time, Luo Xia really did spit out his drink.
How had Violet managed to reach the level cap in just a few days? It was only 2008, and the level cap was 70—not some later version where you could pay to jump straight to level 100.
Even with a max-level player helping her level, she couldn't have reached the cap that quickly. And looking at her account, she'd even collected a full set of class gear.
What kind of drop rate was that? She had to be the luckiest player in the world.
"Wait, where did you get this account? You didn't..." Luo Xia asked.
"I hacked into the server and changed the data. Don't worry, I used S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources, so nobody will find out." Violet said without the slightest attempt at discretion.
Luo Xia: "..."
It was just a game. Did she really have to go that far? If someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. found out their system had been hacked and its resources used to break into World of Warcraft's servers, would they go after Blizzard?
Violet kept blinking at Luo Xia, looking pitiful. It seemed she really wanted to go to that offline event.
"How are you going to get there? Aren't you afraid someone will mistake you for a collectible figurine and buy you?" Luo Xia asked Violet.
That was entirely possible. In robot form, Violet looked like an exquisitely detailed doll. If she showed up, someone might try to take her home.
At that, Violet immediately froze up as if she'd rusted. Seeing how pitiful she looked, Luo Xia had no choice but to tell her, "There's nothing important to do today anyway. I'll take you."
As soon as Luo Xia said that, Violet leaped off the bed and wrapped herself around one of his fingers. "Commander, the electric light dancing at your fingertips is the undying faith of my life!"
"Hey, hey, I've watched A Certain Scientific Railgun too!" Luo Xia teased.
After putting Violet back on as a watch, Luo Xia left the apartment and headed for the World of Warcraft event venue, following her directions.
But as soon as Luo Xia left the apartment, a black van quietly started following him from behind, and he seemed completely unaware.
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