Chapter 54: Speed of Life and Death

"His condition is very bad. Excluding the infection risk that might be caused by those messy wires he put in his body, he is also old. The body's recovery ability is not as good as a young person's. After being injured, there will be a great risk of leaving sequelae. Even if he can survive this infection and inflammation, the body function has already been seriously damaged. I think you can ask him if he has any last wishes..."

Stark hammered the table, and the violent sound startled Strange. This very picky doctor said, "You'd better ensure that the consultation fee you give me is worthy of your irritable temper."

"I am very sure that your courage is worthy of my force," Shiler said to Strange.

Stark looked at Obadiah lying on the experimental bench. His pupils had already begun to be somewhat unfocused. An extreme emotion surrounded Stark. He didn't understand why Obadiah wanted to do this.

"I have always wanted to prove to Howard that the biological technology route I once proposed is by no means useless. It can give people enough strength, even if their bodies have aged to an unrecognizable state, they can still perfectly control the armor through the power of the body..."

"But you are about to die!" Stark said very angrily. "What on earth can be more important than life?!"

"Howard died earlier than me..."

Stark was speechless. He heard Obadiah say with a sigh again: "He deserved to die early, it's a pity he died early..."

A complex emotion rose in Stark's heart. He knew that the relationship between Obadiah and Howard was not what many people imagined—a perfect partner.

When you are on the road with a peerless genius, few people will not have feelings of jealousy. Perhaps Obadiah also thought about proving that he could do it without Howard.

Unfortunately, without Howard, he didn't know who he should prove it to.

Obadiah was already old. Perhaps he also knew that if he didn't do this, he would never have another chance.

There must be a Stark who understands that he is correct. If old Stark can't, then little Stark can too.

"I have to find a way to save him!" Stark rushed to the other side of the experimental bench and began to frantically search for data. He had no time to think about Obadiah stealing his armor core now. For so many years, Obadiah was almost his only relative. Now he was about to die, and Stark couldn't care about anything.

"Heart stent! We must make a heart stent for him!" Stark said.

Strange shook his head and said, "You really have no medical knowledge. His heart is about to fail. This is not a problem that a stent can solve."

"Then hit a few more!"

"Unless you can rebuild a heart for him with machinery, his heart now simply cannot achieve the function of pumping blood for the body. At most, in three hours, he will die of heart failure."

"Are you just a doctor who only speaks sarcastic words?!" Stark asked angrily. Strange was even more angry than him. He said, "You rich guy wasted my whole afternoon with one sentence! I'm just telling the truth! He's hopeless! Don't treat doctors as God. You put seven or eight holes in your own heart, even if God comes, he can't save him!"

Shiler patted Strange on the shoulder and said, "Can't you see the situation now? This rich man who is so poor that he only has money left is willing to pay any price to save his uncle. As long as you can come up with a plan, you can name the price."

Strange rubbed his temples and said, "We are all doctors. Don't I want to earn this money? But if he could be saved by medical means, then there would be no one in this world who couldn't be saved."

"What did you just say??" Stark turned his head and asked suddenly.

Strange froze and said, "What did I say?"

"Yes... mechanical heart! Rebuild a heart for him!"

Shiler looked at his watch and said, "You only have three hours."

After speaking, he looked at Obadiah again.

"This is still an optimistic estimate. I'm afraid that once it exceeds two hours, even if there is a new heart, his whole body will necrosis due to lack of blood."

Stark said nothing. He suddenly quieted down, and it seemed that he was no longer so irritable for a moment. His brain, cursed by knowledge, began to run frantically with all threads.

"It's too ridiculous. You want to replace a living person's heart with a heart made by a machine. What about the rejection reaction?" Strange said.

Stark turned his head and punched him. Shiler dragged him out of the lab. Strange rubbed his nose and said, "These damn rich people..."

"Stop complaining, think about the seven or eight-digit consultation fee he will pay you later, are you feeling a little better?"

"Will he really pay that much?"

"That's Stark. Look under your feet, a floor tile here might be your monthly salary."

Strange rarely didn't speak. It seemed that the huge consultation fee that was about to arrive didn't make him happier.

After a while, Stark suddenly rushed out and said, "I have an idea! Yes, I have a way! Arc Reactor, that model..."

"I need an assistant, hurry! Come over here!"

Strange sat still. Shiler could only stand up and say, "I'll do it, but I hope it's not screwing in light bulbs again."

After entering the lab, it was a mess inside, made by Stark. Shiler stepped over various documents and data scattered on the ground. Stark began to tinker on an experimental bench full of various complex instruments. While tinkering, he said, "The model is not only useful for the composition of energy reaction, its structure is very adaptable to the human body. As for the rejection reaction..."

Stark's hand movement suddenly stopped. He supported the table with both hands, then lowered his head. He said softly, "I almost died of rejection reaction too. Maybe this is retribution."

"Stop mentioning those fatalism theories of yours," Shiler looked at Obadiah.

He seemed to still have consciousness, but excessive lack of blood made him unable to speak. He didn't look at Stark, just stared at the experimental bench.

Perhaps, the young Obadiah also stood on the side like this, watching Howard busy around the experimental bench with enthusiasm. At that time, they could do experiments all night, and then chat about how these inventions would change the world while eating breakfast.

At that time, Howard was full of enthusiasm and ambitious. He was an incomparable genius. Obadiah was more like the shadow of a genius. Howard was born to change this world, while Obadiah, he just wanted to use his ability to make himself live better.

Obadiah felt his whole body start to heat up. A warm current flowed from his heart to his limbs. In a hazy state, he saw countless pictures playing before his eyes.

Howard died too early, but Obadiah was grateful that Howard died so early. This allowed him to have a sufficiently beautiful friendship to recall before he died. That was the most passionate and glorious time of his life.

A behemoth rose in his hands until it ruled the world.

Grateful that Howard died too early, this friendship was not gradually worn away to wither in the mundane impermanence of the world. It was always so fresh, even before death, it looked without any regrets.

"You have to hurry," Shiler said looking at Obadiah. "We estimated a bit wrong. You have at most an hour and a half. He has already lost his sanity."

Stark turned around in a panic and said, "No!! Don't! Wait, wait... don't be like this, how could he..."

"Just like you before, the desire to survive is a very important thing. Once it's gone, the body will start to decay at a speed you can't imagine."

Stark pinched the parts in his hand tightly. He said nothing, turned around, and continued to do the experiment.

Shiler asked the Symbiote in his mind, "Can't you reorganize a heart for him?"

"No, his heart is missing something. It needs the Symbiote to maintain it. Leaving me, he will die."

Shiler recalled, it seemed that in the comics, it was indeed like this. Old Eddie relied entirely on Venom to transform cells into a part of his body. Leaving Venom, he would die too.

"There are parts, can combine," the Symbiote said again.

Shiler said to Stark, "You can try to manufacture parts, I can use the reconstruction method to combine it with flesh and blood, without fixing and stitching."

Stark held a pen and design drawing to show Shiler and said, "The structure of the Arc Reactor can be fully used on the heart. Look here, we replace the entire left ventricle, strengthen the myocardium here, and install an artificial heart pump here..."

Shiler called Strange in. Strange looked at the design drawing and said, "If it is only theoretically possible, it is possible, but I advise you not to do this. The combination of human body and metal will have great risks. This is a problem that the medical community has been unable to break through, and you are simply not a doctor. Even if you can save him for a while, subsequent parts maintenance and metal aging are all problems..."

Shiler said, "Obadiah seems to have been researching biological machinery. He must have useful data. Jarvis, can you find out where Obadiah is doing research?"

Jarvis sent a buzzing sound and said, "Calculating... positioning... positioning successful, Stark Industries site, also the former Stark Automobile Industry Group."

"Storage equipment detected... those data were not uploaded, please wait, I am using physical cracking..."

After a few minutes, an armor flew in, holding a thick computer in its hand. Stark took out a USB flash drive and plugged it into the computer. Soon Jarvis said, "Data encrypted... encryption cracking... cracking completed... all uploaded."

Stark hurriedly turned to his host. At the moment of opening the host screen, he froze.

It was full of data and drawings. Shiler couldn't understand what was written at all. After a while, Stark took two steps back and said, "Maybe he is right, maybe he is right..."

"He found another path, a path completely different from mechanical armor..."

"You have no time," Shiler said.

"No, now I only need half an hour, no no no, 20 minutes, these data are ready-made, Jarvis, calculate for me immediately, we start from constructing this model..."

An hour later, Stark, Shiler, and Strange walked out of the lab with exhausted faces. Strange was covered in blood and said, "How can there be such a thing in this world? You really made a heart with a pile of scrap copper and iron, and then made it beat successfully. My God..."

Shiler wasn't much better. Changing someone's heart was a physical job, and his chest was soaked with blood.

Stark leaned against the wall and sat down slowly. He said, "Am I really like my father? Blindly arrogant, willful..."

"No..."

Stark looked up at Shiler who was speaking.

"You are more rotten than your father." ===== CHAPTER 55 =====