Five Abilities

Frank's final week guarding the door.

Lynn spent the whole morning finding time to temporarily close the clinic for half a day.

He locked the back door and hung a sign reading "Open This Afternoon" on the front door.

Frank sat at the entrance as usual, but he noticed that Lynn did not go upstairs today—he went downstairs instead.

The clinic's basement was not large, only about twenty square meters.

It had originally been used for storing junk. Lynn spent a week clearing it out, laying down floor mats, and installing several wall lamps.

He locked the basement door and stood in the middle of the room.

The system panel opened.

He needed to figure something out—just how strong was he now?

Current Ability Library:

First, Super Intelligence, incomplete version at 70%. Source: Batman. S+ rank. Core ability: Mind Processor.

Second, Super Senses, incomplete version at 75%. Source: Daredevil. A+ rank. Information Collection Terminal.

Third, Healing Factor, weak version at 60%. Source: Punisher. B+ rank. Passive Recovery.

Fourth, Indestructible, incomplete version at 65%. Source: Luke Cage. A rank. Passive Defense.

Fifth, Superhuman Strength, weak version at 55%. Source: Jessica Jones. A- rank. Basic Attack.

Five abilities.

All of them were incomplete or weak versions.

None of them were exceptional on their own, but stacked together—

Lynn began testing them.

Strength.

He crouched down and gripped the iron chest in the corner of the basement, filled with old equipment.

It had taken a great deal of effort to carry this chest down before. It weighed at least two hundred pounds.

He stood up.

The entire chest rose with him.

It was not effortless, but neither was it strenuous.

He tried using one hand—his right hand bore the weight alone as his left hand let go.

The chest remained steady above his right palm.

He could lift over two hundred pounds with one hand without any obvious muscle tremors.

Superhuman Strength at 55%—Jessica's peak strength could probably lift around two tons, so 55% meant a little over one ton.

Not particularly strong.

But more than enough to handle ordinary people.

Defense.

Lynn set down the chest and took a folding knife from his pocket—he had swiped it from Leo's clinic and kept it for self-defense.

He flicked open the blade and slashed hard across his left forearm.

The blade slid across his skin, leaving behind a white mark.

There was no blood.

He increased the force and drove the tip straight down.

This time, he felt it—the knife tip bounced off the surface of his skin, but a dull pain came from the point of contact.

Indestructible at 65%—ordinary blades could not hurt him, but high-speed bullets or special materials still could.

Recovery.

He dug a mark into the back of his hand with his fingernail—the red mark faded after about thirty seconds.

Healing Factor at 60%—minor injuries recovered almost instantly, moderate injuries took several hours, while severe injuries still required conventional medical treatment.

Then came the synergy test between the two core abilities.

Lynn closed his eyes. Super Senses activated at full power.

He could hear Frank turning newspaper pages above the basement, a nurse in the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital across the street making a phone call, a truck reversing two blocks away, and a group of children playing basketball four blocks away.

Every sound was crystal clear.

Super Intelligence processed those sounds simultaneously—not receiving them passively, but actively analyzing them.

Frank was turning the pages 0.3 seconds slower per page than yesterday, which meant today's news interested him more.

The hospital nurse was speaking Spanish. Her boyfriend had forgotten to buy milk.

There was an abnormal frequency component in the truck's engine noise. Its exhaust system might have a crack.

All those analyses were completed within a second.

He opened his eyes.

The synergistic effect of these two abilities was not a simple addition.

Super Senses provided massive amounts of raw data, while Super Intelligence processed and extrapolated it in real time at ten times the speed of thought.

Together, they gave him almost holographic environmental awareness within a two-hundred-meter radius.

Any threat would be identified before it could get close to him.

Lynn also discovered something even more important.

He opened the system's reputation panel.

Current Reputation: 410

The unlock threshold for Ability Forge was 500.

He was still ninety short.

He stared at it for several seconds.

He had read Ability Forge's description countless times—"Consume Reputation to fuse multiple copied abilities and create an entirely new composite ability. The quality and effects of fused abilities far surpass the simple addition of individual abilities."

Far surpass simple addition.

That meant the five incomplete and weak abilities he currently possessed might produce a qualitative leap if fused properly.

What would Super Intelligence and Super Senses become if they fused?

What about Indestructible, Healing Factor, and Superhuman Strength?

He did not know the answer.

But he knew that unlocking Ability Forge would be a turning point for his entire ability system.

Ninety reputation points to go.

At his current rate of earning reputation—treating an ordinary person earned five to ten points, while treating a superhero earned sixty to one hundred and fifty points.

If one or two more superpowered patients came along, he would have enough reputation.

"I need more patients." Lynn closed the system panel. "More valuable patients."

He came up from the basement and turned on the computer at the reception desk.

On the news page, Stark Industries' stock price had fallen four percent over the past three days.

The reason was that Tony Stark had once again canceled a public appearance—this time citing "food poisoning."

Lynn enlarged the news photo—a candid shot of Tony Stark at an event three days earlier.

Tony wore a dark suit and sunglasses in the photo.

To an ordinary person, he merely looked slightly haggard.

But in Lynn's eyes—

Skin.

The grayness across his face had increased by eleven percent compared to photos from two months ago.

It was not the sickly yellow pallor caused by fatigue, but a diffuse, uniform gray.

It indicated a systemic decline in his circulatory system.

Neck. There was an area of discolored skin the size of a fingernail on the left side of his neck, mostly hidden beneath his shirt collar.

Ordinary people would not notice it, but once enlarged, it was clear that the texture of that patch differed from the surrounding skin—like some kind of heavy metal deposit.

Hand. Tony's left hand held some kind of drink in the photo, but his right hand had been cut off.

Not literally cut off. It simply had not been captured due to the framing of the photo.

But in another photo from a slightly different angle, Lynn found part of his right hand—the fingertips were darkened, at least two shades deeper than normal skin tone.

Impaired peripheral circulation.

All the data pointed to the same diagnosis—the palladium core in the Arc Reactor was continuously releasing toxins.

Palladium was seeping into his bloodstream through the interface between the reactor and his chest cavity, gradually damaging organs throughout his body.

Judging from the current rate of deterioration—without outside intervention, Tony Stark probably had three to four months left.