Chapter 221: As Long as He Can Heal

Henry the Tinkerer's way of saving lives is, in polite terms, unconventional; in harsh terms, it's treating human life like grass. Anyone who sees it would shake with rage.

Removing a bullet from the abdomen poses no difficulty for a Kryptonian who comes with built-in X-ray vision.

Ordinary people either tear the wound wider to get a better view of the bullet, or they frantically rummage inside the patient's body, hoping to stumble upon it by luck.

Either way, it inflicts secondary trauma on the injured. Many have died from the sheer pain of such procedures.

But Henry catches every one with a single clamp; tweezers go in, the bullet head comes out. The action is so crisp that anyone watching would be impressed.

Internal bleeding, however, is harder to handle. If the bleeding isn't severe, he simply stitches the wound shut and leaves the internal condition to heal naturally.

But if the bleeding is severe, like with Derek's companion, he must stop the bleeding before stitching the wound. Otherwise, with uncontrolled internal bleeding, the person could simply die.

The Tinkerer's method of stopping bleeding is not just wild; anyone watching would be unable to bear it. He pulls a soldering iron gun from his briefcase, plugs it in, and heats it until red.

At first, Derek didn't understand the purpose of this soldering gun, but after the Tinkerer removed the bullet, he actually shoved the gun into the wound to cauterize and stop the bleeding! This Mexican youth nearly drew his own gun and shot the Tinkerer in the forehead!

The sensation must have been unbearable, because his companion, who had been unconscious from the gunshot, woke up in pain. The man screamed and leaped upright!

Fortunately, the Tinkerer moved swiftly, pressing one palm against the patient's chest to pin his body in place. This prevented him from thrashing about and ensured the soldering iron stuck in his abdomen didn't cause further damage.

When the companion fainted again, the Tinkerer happened to pull the soldering iron out. Besides sticking with a good amount of blood, some tissue was directly charred and clung to the soldering iron.

Only then did he stitch the wound and apply gauze to protect it.

If one were to speak seriously, the speed and technique of this wound treatment were the best and fastest Derek had ever seen.

But the use of a soldering gun to stop bleeding left him stunned. Derek's head buzzed, and he didn't know how to react until it was over.

When the Tinkerer walked over to a nearby sink, discarded his disposable rubber gloves, and began washing his hands, Derek finally regained his normal senses. He angrily drew his gun, pointed it at the man, and shouted, "What exactly did you just do?"

"Saving a life. What else?" the Tinkerer said without turning around.

"Is that medical equipment?" Derek questioned, pointing at the soldering gun that had been tossed onto the table, its plug already pulled.

The Tinkerer argued with conviction: "As long as it saves a life, who cares what its original purpose was?" After washing his hands, he casually grabbed a cloth of unknown cleanliness from nearby and wiped his wet hands.

Regarding the gun held before his face, the Tinkerer showed no panic. Seeing it, he merely said, "That thing is useless. Put it away."

"Shut up, shut up!" Derek repeatedly pointed his gun at the Tinkerer. With a weapon in hand, courage turned to recklessness, and he said, "Hand over all the money on you."

The Tinkerer frowned and said, "That's against the rules. My fees are much cheaper than a regular hospital's outpatient charge. I didn't rip you off, and I saved the person. Are you really going to rob me now?"

"Does robbery need a reason? The weapon is in my hand, the barrel is pointed at your head; that is the reason." Derek said loudly and proudly.

The Tinkerer considered himself unlucky, pulled the five dollars from his pocket, and placed them on the table. Raising his hands, he stepped back a few paces and said, "That's all the money I have. Here, take it back."

Derek looked in disbelief at the bills he had originally taken out, approached the table directly, grabbed the bottom of the Tinkerer's briefcase, and dumped everything inside onto the surface.

Only the clinking and jingling of objects was heard as the contents of the briefcase spilled all over the table: all sorts of strange tools, gauze, band-aids, and the like, not a single thing of value.

Derek, unwilling to give up, approached the Tinkerer with his gun raised, intending to search his pockets. He kept saying, "Don't move. If you don't move, I won't hurt you."

The Tinkerer didn't move at all, merely mumbling something under his breath.

Derek couldn't hear clearly, and since he needed to get close to search the man, he tilted his head and leaned in, asking, "Walter, what did you say?"

In the blink of an eye, the Tinkerer grabbed Derek's gun-holding hand, twisted it inward and downward. With his other hand, he formed a tube shape and pressed it against the muzzle, acting just like a silencer.

By the time Derek realized he should pull the trigger, the muzzle was already aimed at his own abdomen, and a shot was fired.

The Tinkerer's hand-tube did not stop the bullet, nor did it function as a silencer; it merely reduced the bullet's speed and lessened its impact.

This allowed the bullet to enter Derek's body smoothly and stop inside. It did not, due to the close-range shot and excessive power, punch straight through or cause the bullet to wander wildly inside the body.

If anyone had previously examined the injuries of the companion Derek brought, they would know the two injuries were consistent, with the bullets stopping at the exact same position inside the body.

Taking this shot was not the end. The Tinkerer immediately pinched the artery on Derek's neck. The brain's brief lack of oxygen caused this man who tried to steal chickens but lost his rice to roll his eyes back and faint.

The Tinkerer, who had no real intention of killing the man, saw the Latin American youth's eyes roll back and released his grip, placing the man on the ground.

Shaking his hands, the Tinkerer said with dissatisfaction, "With skills this weak, you still want to cause me trouble?" He then dialed 911 to call an ambulance. Besides explaining the gunshot and the emergency situation, he also made sure to mention the location of the injured person.

The Tinkerer certainly wouldn't let the ambulance come to the door to pick him up; instead, he chose a nearby location with no surveillance cameras.

Before the 911 center could repeatedly confirm details, the Tinkerer hung up the phone. At the same time, using his super speed, he threw the Latin American youth to the spot he had specified. Then he returned to his black clinic.

The person on the hospital bed was still asleep. But with his wound already treated, his expression was not as painful as before.

The Tinkerer left a note instructing the person to leave on their own once they woke up, and not to forget to close and lock the door. He then cleaned up the mess in the room, washing what needed washing and cleaning what needed cleaning.

Although the room looked messy and appeared very dirty, the hygiene standards were actually not poor; it was just that items which should have been discarded in a regular hospital were taken back by him, washed and sterilized, and reused.

All of this, relying on the Tinkerer's super speed, took no longer than a moment in the real world; it was just a blink of an eye.

Having finished, he happened to hear the emergency siren of the ambulance, which stopped at the spot where he had dumped the man, taking away the guy who had shot himself. The Tinkerer sighed, "Ah, I am truly a good person."

"The ambulance fee, plus the emergency center fee, can probably be settled for a few thousand dollars. If he has any cases on his record, the police will also show up to care about his life or death."

"Anyway, this life has been snatched back from the brink; he won't die by the roadside like a stray dog. From this perspective, perhaps I do have the qualifications to be a superhero."

(End of this chapter)