Super-Soldier Serum

The sun set, and night quietly crossed the sky.

Tony Stark stood before the dust-covered expo model, his fingers lightly brushing over the miniature buildings.

Sweat had soaked through his shirt, not from the heat, but from excitement.

With everything else finished, he had finally begun studying this thing.

After Xiao Han's reminder, he was looking forward to it.

"JARVIS, scan the entire model. Look for anomalous structures."

A blue laser grid covered the model's surface, and a holographic projection formed a three-dimensional image in the air.

Suddenly, Tony's gaze locked onto the support structure of the central pavilion. It was clearly a variation of an atomic model.

"That's it!" Tony's trembling fingers brought up the periodic table. "Project the structural formula!"

An unprecedented atomic structure appeared in the air, and JARVIS immediately analyzed it. "Sir, this appears to be a stable isotope. In theory, it can replace palladium."

A crazed gleam flashed in Tony's eyes.

He grabbed his tools and began dismantling the model, as focused as he had been when taking apart radios as a child.

When the final piece was removed, a blueprint lay in his palm—the last gift Howard Stark had left for his son.

"Dad..." Tony's voice caught, but the laboratory alarm quickly cut him off.

"Sir, a high-speed target is approaching."

Before Tony could react, Xiao Han was already standing behind him.

"You found the new element."

Tony spun around sharply, instinctively hiding the blueprint behind his back before giving a self-mocking laugh. "No point hiding it from you, right?"

Xiao Han's gaze fell on the blueprint. "Your father was a genius."

"Yeah. Too bad he was better at leaving riddles than being there." Tony shook the blueprint. "Still, this really can solve my problem."

At three in the morning, the underground laboratory of Stark Industries was brightly lit.

Tony, wearing an oil-stained T-shirt, was calibrating the particle accelerator.

Xiao Han stood beside him, offering crucial advice now and then.

"That won't work. The proton beam will disperse." Xiao Han pointed at a parameter. "Increase the magnetic field strength by twelve percent."

Tony frowned, then made the adjustment. "You understand quantum physics too?"

"I learned it an hour ago," Xiao Han replied casually.

As the machine rumbled, a beam of blue light flowed through the vacuum tube.

Tony held his breath as he watched the data curve on the detector gradually stabilize.

"It worked!" He grabbed the new element, glowing with triangular light, and cheered like a child. "JARVIS, prepare for the transplant surgery!"

Xiao Han pressed a hand onto his shoulder. "Not now. You're too tired."

"No, no, no... I..." Tony's words abruptly stopped when he realized his feet had left the floor. Xiao Han had lifted him straight up.

"Humans who haven't slept for forty-eight hours aren't suited for delicate surgery," Xiao Han said firmly. "Rest for six hours. I guarantee everything will be ready when you wake up."

Tony wanted to protest, but an irresistible wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him.

In the final moment before he slipped into darkness, he vaguely realized that the alien had used some kind of biological force field on him.

Six hours later

Tony Stark woke beneath a glaring white light, the smell of disinfectant stinging his nostrils.

He instinctively reached for his chest. What his fingertips touched was no longer a cold metal ring, but an entirely new reactor

It emitted a purer blue glow than ever before.

"The surgery was a success."

Tony snapped his head around and saw Xiao Han standing before a biological scanner. A holographic projection displayed a 3D model of his chest cavity.

The surgical instruments were neatly arranged nearby, but most striking of all were the obvious modifications made to every piece of equipment.

"You... operated on me?" Tony's voice was hoarse. "Here? Without a medical team?"

Xiao Han shut down the projection and walked to the bedside. "Your vital signs are stable. The new element has fused perfectly with your myocardial tissue, and the symptoms of palladium poisoning have disappeared."

Tony lowered his head to inspect his body. There was no surgical incision, no trace of stitching, as if he had never undergone open-chest surgery at all.

This medical technology...

"Wait," Tony suddenly realized. "You modified my medical equipment?"

Xiao Han picked up an ordinary surgical robot. "I added a few control modules."

A faint glow appeared at his fingertips. With a light sweep across the metal surface, he revealed circuitry within that had been completely reconstructed.

Tony's breathing quickened.

As an engineer, he knew all too well what this meant.

This man who called himself a superhuman not only possessed godlike strength, but superhuman intelligence as well.

"I have to say, you're incredible." Tony finally let out a breath and decided not to dwell on it any longer.

Tony sat up from the medical bed and rolled his shoulders, feeling the new source of energy within his chest.

Blue light shone through the fabric of his shirt, especially conspicuous in the dim laboratory.

"How does it feel?" Xiao Han handed him a glass of amber liquid.

Tony accepted the glass and took a sniff, raising an eyebrow. "Macallan 55? Where did you find this?"

"Your private wine cellar." The corner of Xiao Han's mouth lifted slightly. "But it's been improved. It can accelerate cellular repair."

Tony took a sip, and his eyes immediately lit up. "Damn, that flavor! What did you add?"

"A substitute of some kind." Xiao Han walked toward the workbench on the other side of the laboratory. "It temporarily enhances neural transmission efficiency."

Tony swirled the glass, then suddenly turned serious. "Why are you helping me this much? That surgery, those modifications... this goes beyond the scope of our deal."

With his back to him, Xiao Han tapped lightly on the holographic keyboard. "Fifteen percent of the shares deserves better service."

"Bullshit." Tony set down his glass. "You know Stark Industries' market value. Even without you, I could..."

"I found it." Xiao Han cut him off and removed a test tube from a cryogenic chamber.

The pale blue liquid shimmered strangely beneath the lights, as though countless tiny points of light were flowing within it.

Tony's scientific instincts were immediately piqued. "What is that?"

"The Improved Super-Soldier Serum." Xiao Han placed the test tube beneath an optical microscope. "Based on Doctor Erskine's prototype, but with all side effects removed."

Tony leaned closer to inspect it, and JARVIS immediately projected analysis data onto his retina. "The molecular structure is thirty-seven percent more complex than the version in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files... these protein chains..."

"The strength increase is 2.5 times that of the original, metabolic rate rises by four hundred percent, bone density..." Xiao Han paused.

"Enough to let you fall from the thirtieth floor and walk away with only a few scrapes."

Tony straightened, his expression turning serious. "You replicated the Super-Soldier Serum? In just these few days?"

"Not exactly replicated." Xiao Han rotated the test tube.

"I rewrote the entire genetic sequence. There won't be side effects like Red Skull's, and it won't alter the user's personality traits."