"Please, kid... give it to me," Tony croaked. His voice was barely a raspy whisper, his vocal cords dry as sandpaper. "I'll give you whatever you want. Millions... so many millions you could live in excess your whole life without working a single day."

  He deliberately ignored the fact that the bottle had appeared out of nowhere. At that moment, magic didn't matter; hydration did.

  "I can give you plenty of water, Tony. I can even give you a safe way out of this desert," I said calmly. I shook the bottle in front of his face so he could hear the liquid slosh, and with a thought, I made another identical bottle appear in my left hand. The sound of crinkling pstic was music to his ears. "But money is no use to me here. I need the blueprints for your Arc Reactor and your suit."

  Tony Stark, hearing my demands, stopped dead. His businessman's brain functioned even on the brink of death. "If you're someone who wants to steal my technology... forget it," he said, trying to regain a shred of dignity. "That is patented in my name. My wyers will destroy you. You won't be able to make a single cent from it. Only my suit, maybe, but the reactor..."

  Even in his misery, he was looking for a legal way out.

  "I don't want to make money, Stark. I only wish to understand your technology," I interrupted him, shaking the bottles again. "I know very well I'd end up in federal prison if I tried to commercialize your patents. And I don't pn to patent your suit under my name. I just want the knowledge."

  Tony looked me straight in the eye, searching for the lie. Then he looked at the water. He hesitated. It was his life's work against his own life. Seeing his hesitation, I decided to pull the trigger. I made the two bottles disappear into the void of the Inventory. I shrugged and turned around, starting to walk away.

  Panic exploded on his face seeing his salvation vanish. "Wait! Wait, alright!" he screamed, coughing up dust. "I'll give it to you. But... but promise me you won't patent my suit. Swear it."

  I stopped and smiled beneath the mask. "You are between life and death, and the only thing you're worried about is your ego? You're terrified someone else will steal the credit for your genius... You really are a character, Stark."

  I turned and threw him a bottle. "It's a deal. Besides, if I did that, you would know my true identity, and I have too many enemies who would pay to know who I am. So your trade secret is safe with me."

  Tony caught the bottle in the air and opened it with trembling hands. He drank like an animal, like an addict who hasn't had his fix in days. Water spilled down his chin, but he didn't care. However, a single bottle wasn't enough to quench weeks of captivity.

  "If you want more water and a way out of this hell, fulfill your part of the deal now," I ordered.

  I took a step back and spread my arms. Fwoosh! Out of nowhere, a wide drafting table materialized on the sand, equipped with rolls of blue paper, high-quality graphite pencils, precision tools, and a ptop connected to an industrial battery.

  This time, with his mind a bit clearer from the water, Tony looked at the scene with absolute disbelief. He looked at the table, then at me, and then at the horizon.

  **************************

  Was he dead? Was this a final hallucination brought on by heatstroke? Did limbo have drafting tables? But the thirst was still there, and the ghost child was waiting.

  He decided not to question reality; if it was madness, at least it was productive madness. He approached the table, picked up a pencil, and tried to start.

  But his body was wrecked. His hands shook uncontrolbly from weakness and the trauma of the crash. The lines came out crooked. Frustrated, he dropped the pencil.

  **********************************

  "I... I can't," he murmured, helplessness filling his voice.

  I looked at him and sighed. Efficiency above all. "Stop."

  I handed him a potent painkiller and an isotonic drink from the Inventory. "Take this. It will stabilize you."

  And to ensure he worked under optimal conditions, I decided there was no need to hide anything anymore.

  With a wave of my hand, I took out a second camping set (I had left the main one with Ophelia kilometers away, with orders to wait comfortably but without intervening or listening). I didn't want to risk her hearing sensitive technical details, and I didn't know how long this would take either.

  The reinforced tent, the generator, and most importantly, the portable air conditioning unit materialized around us, enclosing Tony in a bubble of instant comfort in the middle of nowhere.

  The air conditioner hummed softly, a heavenly contrast to the hell outside. Tony Stark, feeling the coolness on his burnt skin, watched as I pulled ptes of hot food out of the void—a cheeseburger, french fries, an ice-cold soda. The aroma hit his nose, awakening a primitive hunger. But when he reached out a trembling hand to grab the burger, it vanished in a blink, returning to my Inventory.

  Tony let his hand drop, defeated, and looked at me with gssy eyes. "Are you even real?" he whispered, his rational mind fracturing. "Are you some kind of angel or demon who came to test my soul? Your technology... viotes thermodynamics. I don't understand it."

  "If you want food and more water, stop philosophizing and get to work. I'm not here to answer your existential questions."

  With a dismissive gesture, I made all the food and ice water I had taken out just to torture him with the sight disappear. Tony let out a grunt of frustration, but his attention shifted quickly when my hand moved again in that gesture.

  Immediately after, from the void, I "summoned" another asset: a middle-aged man, sweaty, with thick gsses and the pale skin of someone who hasn't seen the sun in days. He wore a wrinkled b coat with the barely visible logo of Hammer Industries.

  It was a lead scientist I had kidnapped. A small man, motivated by fear of my threat to his integrity and his family, plus the greed for the money I promised him.

  "From now on, you will talk to him," I indicated to Tony coldly, pointing to the man who was trembling slightly. "He will observe your progress and confirm if your blueprints are authentic and functional. If he says it works, you eat. If he says it's trash... well, you know."

  Tony narrowed his eyes, focusing on the newcomer. His face went from confusion to pure indignation upon recognizing him.

  "You? You work for Justin Hammer..." Tony turned to me, furious at the humiliation. "Damn you! Don't tell me you're from Hammer's company. That cheap knockoff! And this low-level scientist won't understand my designs even if I draw them with crayons. If I have to expin every detail so his mediocre brain processes it, it will take hours!"

  "I'm not from any company, and I certainly don't work for Hammer," I replied calmly, leaning on the table. "I just hired this scientist independently as quality control, to confirm you aren't tricking me with fake equations."

  I got close to him, invading his personal space. "And the way I see it, Stark, you have all the time in the world and a quiet pce with air conditioning. So start working. Or do you prefer to throw yourself back on the sand to wait for the vultures?"

  Tony swallowed his insults, clenching his jaw so hard his teeth hurt. He hated this. He hated that a crazy midget was ordering him around and he hated having to dumb down his genius so a Hammer employee understood it.

  "Fine," Tony spat, grabbing the pencil with fury. "But if he asks something stupid, I'm charging extra."

  The following hours were psychological torture for the genius. He worked without rest, with a constant tic of anger in his eye, drawing complex schematics on paper and programming algorithms on the computer.

  The Hammer scientist, fulfilling his role, asked constant questions, forcing Tony to simplify and detail the blueprints until they were "foolproof," leaving him no room to pull any deceptive maneuver. Unknowingly, Tony was creating the perfect instruction manual so I could replicate his technology ter.

  Finally, Tony dropped the pencil. "Done. Physical blueprints, digital ones, and the damn expnation for beginners. Happy?"

  The scientist reviewed everything several times, appearing to run simutions on the computer and making sure everything fit, then nodded at me. It was authentic.

  "Good job," I said.

  I fulfilled my part. I made gallons of water and food appear on the table. Tony threw himself at them, drinking and eating with desperation. While he was distracted, I stored the blueprints and the computer. Then, without warning, I deactivated the camp.

  Zap!

  The tent, the air conditioner, the table, and the chair disappeared instantly. The brutal heat of the desert hit Tony again like a physical sp, leaving him sitting on the hot sand clutching his water bottles.

  I tapped a button on my cell phone. Shortly after, the roar of an engine broke the silence and Ophelia was seen descending from the distant dune where she had been waiting.

  Upon arriving, her eyes betrayed the desire to ask a thousand questions, frustrated at not having seen anything that happened inside the camp. But, remembering the hierarchy and my previous warning, she remained silent like a good lieutenant.

  Without saying a word, I got on the back of the bike.

  The Hammer scientist, seeing we were preparing to leave, ran toward us with a mix of relief and desperation. His job was finished; he expected his payment and, above all, to be returned to the safety of my Inventory or taken far away from this hell of heat.

  Tony, his mouth full of water, blinked in a daze. The transition had been so abrupt that, once again, everything seemed like a fever dream or a limbo between life and death.

  "I've already sent an S.O.S. radio signal to the area with your coordinates," I shouted over the roar of the engine. "If I'm not mistaken, there are 'Ats Corp' search teams combing this zone. They should be here in a few minutes."

  Tony, still on the ground clutching his water bottles, wanted to scream. He wanted to demand that leaving him stranded there wasn't part of the deal, that they take him on the bike. He opened his mouth, but the words got stuck in his throat upon seeing my movement.

  A tactical pistol with a silencer materialized in my hand.

  Tony tensed, thinking it was his end. But the barrel didn't point at the billionaire. I twisted my wrist to the right, aiming directly at the forehead of the Hammer scientist who was looking at me with pleading eyes.

  "Thanks for your services."

  Pffth.

  The sound was sharp, almost irrelevant in the vastness of the desert. The scientist's body fell like a sack of rocks, with a clean hole in his head, staining the golden sand red.

  Tony froze, his eyes wide, processing the casual brutality he had just witnessed. I turned slowly toward him, ensuring my mask etched the terror into his soul.

  "Now... I am the only one in the world who knows about what you have done," I said in a ft voice. "No witnesses. No copies. And there will be no body either."

  By the time Tony tried to react, I had already absorbed the scientist's corpse into my Inventory, erasing the only proof of the crime.

  Ophelia throttled up fully and the bike shot off, disappearing into the horizon and leaving behind us only a trail of dust and an "Iron Man" broken by fear, doubting his own sanity.

  The desert wind hit my mask, but beneath it, a smile of absolute satisfaction was drawn on my face. The bright blue text fshed before my eyes, confirming that the masterstroke had been worth every second:

  [System Notification] Ding! [Achievement Unlocked: The Merchant of Despair] You have subjected an "S-Rank Protagonist" (Tony Stark) to a state of absolute submission without using physical violence. You have exchanged a basic resource (Water) for the pinnacle of human technology. You have broken the ego of the "Iron Man" before he was born. Rewards: Capital: +3,500 Gold.

  [New Passive Skill: Reverse Engineering] Description: Your mind can now deconstruct the logic behind any technology you possess or whose blueprints you have analyzed. Effect: Reduces research and development time by 50%. Removes the "Prior Knowledge" requirement to operate advanced-level technology. Stat: Intelligence 6.45 ? 6.75 (Your mind has adapted to the level of a technological genius).

  [Special Item: The Artificer's Seed] Description: An unstable energy core that serves as a catalyst. Usage: Can be fused with existing technology (like the stolen Arc Reactor) to eliminate its original design fws or "clean" its energy signature so it is untraceable by its original creator.

  While I silently celebrated my loot, miles away, Tony was left alone under the relentless sun, hugging his water bottles as if they were his most precious treasure.

  Several minutes ter, the rhythmic sound of bdes cutting the air filled the sky. Bck, impeccable helicopters, with the Ats Corporation logo shining on the armor, appeared over the dunes, descending to execute the "rescue."

  When the soldiers got out and loaded him onto the stretcher, giving him real medical attention and IV fluids, Tony Stark had to accept the truth. The taste of water in his mouth was real. The burns on his skin were real. And the masked child who had stolen his life's work... was also real.

  As the helicopter rose, Tony looked out at the infinite desert through the window. He was alive, yes. He was going back home. But he felt a hollowness in his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. It was a strange, bitter feeling, unknown to him until that day:

  Absolute defeat.

  sarbleinletter