Mutated Stone

Biodata

Background / History

The circumstances behind the stone’s origin, its bond with Qi Jun, and his transportation to the Marvel Universe remain unexplained. Qi Jun considers whether an unknown organization or powerful being might be responsible, but has no evidence establishing either possibility 5.

After bonding, the stone transmits information about its abilities to Qi Jun. Unlike the native Reality Stone, it does not drain his life force and provides automatic protection. However, deliberate reality alteration still requires him to supply energy, making energy collection his immediate priority 4 6.

Qi Jun’s first electrical absorption experiment destroys a transformer but produces little usable energy. Learning that recently deceased humans retain more valuable life energy leads him to collect casualties from gang battles in Hell’s Kitchen. He later develops skill-copying methods and discovers sunlight absorption as another source of energy 7 8 9 14 29 39.

Appearance

• Color: Deep red bordering on black and purple, as described in the opening scene 1.
• Form: A gemstone; the supplied descriptions do not specify its dimensions or shape 1 4.

Abilities & Skills

Reality Alteration and Manifestation

The stone possesses every ability attributed to the Marvel Universe’s Reality Stone, along with additional capabilities 4 41.

• Creates objects: Can materialize equipment, documents, and other objects from Qi Jun’s intentions 10 24.
• Rewrites existing conditions: Can repair wiring, roll back electricity records, alter property ownership, and modify memories 9 24.
• Overrides ordinary rules: Can produce otherwise illogical results, such as making an unmodified ordinary dog smarter than Tony Stark 42.
• Potentially creates a true god: Confirms that manifesting a true god of the Marvel multiverse is possible, but requires an enormous energy supply. Qi Jun does not perform this feat 41 42.
• Adapts across universes: Attunes itself to a universe’s fundamental essence and retains its full capabilities rather than becoming weakened or inert outside the Marvel Universe 4.

Materials and technical understanding reduce manifestation costs:

Energy Absorption and Storage

The stone absorbs material and immaterial energy, including positive, negative, mental, soul, and magical energy 4.

• Passive absorption: The stone retains all passively absorbed energy; Qi Jun cannot spend it 5.
• Active absorption: Energy collected deliberately is placed in a separate storage area accessible to Qi Jun 6.
• Current division: The stone takes half of energy absorbed through it. Qi Jun’s share is expected to increase as his strength and control improve, but no improved split is documented 6.
• Activation cost: Deliberately controlling absorption consumes Qi Jun’s stored energy 39.
• Internal reserves: The stone itself contains more energy than the Marvel Universe, but Qi Jun cannot access that reserve 41.

Corpse Recycling

The stone converts recently deceased bodies into energy and removes associated traces 9 14.

• Complete removal: Qi Jun’s first collected corpse disappears along with its clothing, embedded bullets, and spilled blood 14.
• Remote collection: Bodies can be collected within five meters and within Qi Jun’s line of sight; physical contact is unnecessary 22.
• Unconfirmed expansion: Qi Jun suspects greater strength or better control could extend the collection range, but does not demonstrate this 22.
• User-imposed restriction: His refusal to recycle living people is a moral boundary, not a stated limitation of the stone 50.

Passive Protection and Regeneration

The stone automatically absorbs harmful energy and restores Qi Jun’s body without charging his personal energy reserve 4 5.

• Regeneration: Can repeatedly restore him provided he is not destroyed instantly 5.
• Bullet-wound recovery: Forces a bullet out of his arm and immediately heals the damaged tissue; his sleeve remains torn and bloodstained 16.
• Mental and soul defense: Absorbs invasive psychic energy. A telepath attempting intrusion risks brain injury, loss of intelligence, or death 5.
• Environmental protection: Can absorb harmful radiation and other energy in space, but does not remove the need for oxygen 4 5.
• Temperature regulation: Maintains his body temperature despite sunlight, cold surroundings, and internally generated heat 37 38.
• Physical maintenance: Removes negative bodily conditions, allowing running and jumping without ordinary fatigue 38 43.

Detection Concealment

The stone’s passive absorption prevents incoming detection signals from revealing Qi Jun 38 43.

• Signal absorption: Includes electromagnetic waves, infrasound, ultrasound, infrared radiation, and pulse waves 38.
• Surveillance protection: Prevents surveillance devices from capturing his figure. This differs from the Infiltrator Sunglasses, which delete his image from recorded frames in real time 43.
• Mystical concealment: Prevents the Ancient One and the New York Sanctum’s sorcerers from detecting his arrival through supernatural probing 5.
• Undeveloped applications: The narration identifies gravity absorption and control as a possible route to flight, but Qi Jun does not know how to use it 38.

Skill Copying and Enhancement

The stone can copy learned abilities from another person’s memories into an absorbable Skill Book 29 30 31.

• Uses a physical vessel: A battered book becomes an English Proficiency Skill Book; pocket comics become firearms Skill Books 29 45.
• Leaves the source unchanged: The man whose English knowledge is copied continues walking without any apparent change 29.
• Transfers learned expertise: Qi Jun successfully uses the English book rather than learning the language conventionally 30 31.
• Separates individual sources: Firearms books copied from Big Daddy and Hit-Girl are marked “BD” and “HG” respectively 45.
• Offers enhancement: Basic Skill Book enhancement is quoted at 100 energy points. Higher enhancement levels are Qi Jun’s speculation, not demonstrated upgrades 31 45.

Physical Tempering

Actively absorbing sunlight suppresses the stone’s automatic maintenance to a low level, exposing Qi Jun to burning damage 40.

• Damage-and-repair cycle: Passive recovery repairs the injuries after absorption, producing a body-tempering effect 40.
• Observed improvement: Qi Jun notices increased grip strength after recovering 40.
• Practical limit: During active absorption, healing cannot fully keep pace with incoming damage, forcing him to pause 40.

Documented Uses and Costs

Limitations

• Bonding is not full mastery: Qi Jun cannot freely command the stone’s entire power or access its intrinsic energy 6 41.
• Active effects require payment: Manifestation, deliberate absorption, and other commanded effects depend on energy supplied by the user 6 39.
• Human alteration is expensive: Changing memories costs substantially more than altering inanimate objects or records 9.
• Protection has a survival threshold: Instant destruction into fragments or being thrown into the sun can overwhelm its passive protection 5.
• Basic needs remain: Energy protection does not automatically prevent death from oxygen deprivation; Qi Jun also recognizes starvation as a vulnerability 5 26.
• No conversational intelligence: The stone communicates information and cost estimates but cannot explain its judgment of “harmful” energy through ordinary conversation 8 38.

Relationship

• Qi Jun — Bonded user and beneficiary. His strength and control determine how much of the stone’s potential he can exploit, while his refusal to recycle living people restricts how he chooses to fuel it 6 50.

Opening-Scene Feat

• The novel opens with Qi Jun protected from Thanos’s six-Stone snap by the dark-red gemstone. He then repeatedly restores the erased beings with snaps of his own, while Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet eventually shatters. This scene precedes the account of Qi Jun’s arrival and early experimentation 1.