He was selling gashapon toys in Marvel Studios, and at the beginning, Tony turned into Kuuga.

Li Ang stopped trying to persuade him.

He took two steps back, giving Steelbone enough space.

Steelbone took a deep breath and placed his hands on his core.

A holographic interface pops up, and the code scrolls rapidly.

"Core energy splitting program initiated." A mechanical voice echoed in his throat, "Splitting ratio 33%."

"Warning: This operation will reduce overall output power by 47%, the weapon system will enter a dormant state, and the self-repair function will be reduced to a minimum."

"It is recommended to terminate the operation."

"Rewrite, execute." The human voice of the skeleton drowned out the mechanical voice.

"Please confirm..."

"implement!"

Click.

The alloy protective plate in front of the chest cavity popped open to the sides, revealing a dense network of cables and pipes inside, with the dark red energy core at the very center fully exposed to the air.

The core began to split.

A beam of light, visible to the naked eye, split off from the core surface, as if a piece of the corona had been torn off the sun.

Dark red energy surged within the steel-boned chest cavity, flowing backward along the cables, causing the entire metal structure of the body to tremble.

"Ha!"

Steelbone tilted his head back, and the veins on the last remaining patch of skin on his neck bulged.

pain.

That wasn't physical pain. It was the tearing sensation of energy being ripped away from every metal fiber and every circuit node.

The remaining half of his face was twisted and deformed, his lips bitten until they turned white.

But his hands didn't stop.

The dark red energy ball was peeled away bit by bit from the core and crawled outward along the internal channels of his arm.

He opened his alloy fingers, and a dark red ball of light, about the size of a fist, floated above his palm.

The core light visibly dimmed, changing from dark red to deep brown, and the pulsation frequency dropped from twice per second to once per second.

Steel Bone swayed slightly.

His knees emitted a piercing metallic scraping sound, and the power of the hydraulic system instantly dropped to 30%.

The ion cannon system on his right arm completely shut down, the power assist device on his left leg stopped working, and his whole body suddenly felt several times heavier.

But he stopped.

He carefully placed the dark red energy ball in his palm into the transparent container on the counter.

The bottle cap closed automatically. A pale blue restraining halo appeared on the inner wall of the container, locking the raging energy firmly in place.

Steel Bone took a step back and bumped into the shelf, knocking over a row of potato chips.

He managed to stand steadily, panting heavily.

"make a deal."

Li Ang picked up the container, looked it up in the light, and the dark red light flickered twice in his pupils.

"A chance to win a premium gacha pull."

He tucked the container under the counter, then turned and patted the side of the gashapon machine.

The machine emitted a deep hum, and the indicator light on top changed from white to gold.

"Come on, Mr. Victor Stone."

Li Ang stepped back, giving his position to Steelbone.

"You traded a third of your life for this shot."

"Don't waste it."

Steel Bone stands in front of the gashapon machine, his metal fingers hovering above the buttons.

His fragmented core was flickering weakly in his chest cavity, at a frequency almost half that of before.

The person's state is like a phone with only 20% battery left, which could go black at any moment.

"What are you still standing there for?" Thor leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Just press it, what are you hesitating for?"

"I'm waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

"I'll wait until I calm down."

On the remaining half of Steelbone's face, his lips were trembling.

He wasn't afraid of pain; when he just tore off a third of his core energy, he didn't even blink.

But he was afraid of disappointment.

What if what you get is useless? What if it's just a fancy weapon or a piece of clothing you can't wear?

The only chance he had, which he had earned with a third of his life, had gone down the drain.

"Victor." Leon's voice drifted from behind the counter, casual, almost like talking about the weather.

"Do you know what this machine of mine has produced?"

Steelbone didn't speak.

"Someone has discovered a transformation device that can transform ordinary people into ancient giants."

"Someone once used a cleaver capable of cutting a cosmic being like sashimi."

"There have even been Devil Fruits that allow people to travel at the speed of light."

Li Ang fiddled with a gashapon toy in his hand, rolling it back and forth between his fingertips.

"Of course, some people have also driven up in ordinary suits."

Thor chuckled softly.

"So don't overthink it, or you'll lose."

Li Ang tossed the gashapon to Steel Bone, whose metal hand caught it instinctively.

Steelbone looked down at the gashapon machine in his hand.

It was colorful and light, a product of a completely different world from the cold steel on his body.

"Fuck you!"

Steel Bone cursed and slammed his metal hand hard on the button.

hum!

The gashapon machine started spinning.

Unlike the noisy background music during Tony's last raffle, this time the sound was deep and lingering, like some kind of ancient resonance.

The light inside the machine slowly changed from white to pale purple, and then transitioned from pale purple to deep indigo.

"Oh?" Li Ang raised an eyebrow.

Thor straightened up and casually placed the Coke can on the shelf.

Gurgle.

A gashapon capsule rolled out of the exit.

A translucent capsule toy with a silvery-blue liquid light flowing inside.

The entire capsule doesn't look like a solid; it's more like some strange substance somewhere between a solid and a liquid, with its surface undergoing microscopic morphological changes every second.

"This color is not recorded in my database." The light from the Steel Bone mechanical eye suddenly brightened.

"Because it shouldn't be recorded."

Li Ang walked over, squatted down, and looked at the gashapon capsule, a rare hint of seriousness flashing in his eyes.

"Open it."

Steel Bone bent down to pick up the capsule toy, his metal fingers twisting the two ends.

Click.

The gashapon capsule cracked.

There was no burst of light, no shockwave.

Only a clump of silvery-blue liquid, denser than mercury, slowly flowed from the eggshell fragments, spreading upwards along the steel bone's metal fingers.

"What is that?!"

Steelbone instinctively tried to shake off, but the liquid was faster than his reaction.

The silvery-blue substance seeped into the gaps in the alloy seams of his arm, drilling into the gaps of every cable conduit as if it had a life of its own.

Then it started to spread.

From the arms to the shoulders, from the shoulders to the chest, from the chest to the spine.

Steel Bone was enveloped in a faint silver-blue light.

"Don't panic, it's a normal reaction." Li Ang took a step back and put his hands in his pockets.

"Let me introduce some of the templates for molecular humans."

"The ultimate alterer from a parallel universe, possessing the ability to manipulate the structure of all matter at the subatomic level."

"In other words," Li Ang said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"From now on, the molecular arrangement of everything in front of you is your toy building blocks."

Before the words were even out of his mouth, the changes began.

The dark red core that had been divided inside the steel-boned chest cavity suddenly began to throb violently.