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Chapter 6 - Stark of the Eastern Sea, Life Like a Blooming Lotus, Old Ethan at 44

Tony Stark never imagined that he would find himself in such a terrifying crisis.

It was supposed to be just a routine military exercise, but he was attacked by terrorists instead.

Not only was he kidnapped and taken to a pitch-black cave, but a powerful electromagnet was also placed on his chest, using a weak magnetic force to hold the bomb fragments inside him, preventing them from piercing his heart.

But before he could even process this reality, a group of terrorists barged in, began torturing him, and demanded that he create some Jericho missile.

Just as Stark was unsure if he could survive, feeling lost and terrified, a man who claimed to be a stand-in messenger suddenly appeared, using methods Stark could not comprehend to kill all the terrorists and then offered to take him out of this hellhole.

Honestly, Stark was a bit scared.

He didn't know if he could trust this person, but he needed to escape immediately.

According to Mo, the terrorists had been dealt with, and Stark could leave at any time and anywhere if he wished.

But only Stark knew just how huge the hidden danger was with the electromagnet on his chest—if the car battery powering it short-circuited, he would die in an instant.

So, in order to save his own life, Stark had to create a new energy source for himself.

Fortunately, the materials were abundant here, and with Ethan willing to assist, Stark quickly completed the first step of creating a new energy source by extracting 1.6 grams of palladium from a pile of missiles.

However, just as Stark was about to melt the palladium using a crucible, Mo, who was standing aside researching the stand-in, suddenly froze. A strange electronic prompt sounded in his mind.

[System prompt: New module characteristic detected, research will grant download rights.]

"New module characteristic? What's that?" Mo froze for a moment before asking.

However, the electronic voice didn't answer him. Fortunately, Mo was starting to understand that this system-like voice had no intelligence and couldn't communicate—it only triggered certain prompts when specific conditions were met.

"What?"

Stark, who was manipulating the crucible, seemed to have heard something and looked up in confusion. "Are you talking to me?"

"Kind of." 

Mo responded, walking over to Stark's location. He was somewhat suspicious that this new module characteristic might have something to do with Stark, so he directly asked, "What are you doing?"

"Melting this palladium." Stark placed the crucible on the fire, explaining, "If I want to make a small reactor, I need to first cast a palladium ring."

"A reactor, huh..." 

Mo glanced at the gradually melting liquid palladium in the crucible. For some reason, it reminded him of when he was playing with industrial mods with his friends. He had once made the mistake of picking up a uranium-235 pellet, only to be hit with a radiation debuff that nearly killed him. Subconsciously, he said, "Goodness... are you planning to share radiation, huh?"

"Huh?"

Stark was stunned. "What did you say?"

Just then, Ethan, who had just finished making a sand casting mold, walked over. "What's going on? I think I heard you two discussing something?"

"Ethan, look, Stark here is already cooking up a storm."

Mo immediately turned to Ethan, saying, "He's already trying to kill himself in style. You, as a doctor, aren't going to stop him?"

"...Cooking a storm?"

Ethan was puzzled and looked at Stark. "What soup are you making?"

"Authentic tritiated soup." Without waiting for Stark to respond, Mo raised his thumb. "Has the flavor of radiation, full of fragrance."

"Don't listen to him blabbering nonsense."

Stark quickly explained, "I'm just making a small arc generator. It's very safe. My company has a huge one. Ethan, your hands should be steady, right? Come help me pour the palladium ring."

"I just gave everyone a challenge, asking them to figure out how to fill the entire cave," Mo said, not bothering with Stark and continuing his radiation jokes. "First, I killed all the terrorists, but the bodies only covered the ground. Ethan lit the candles, but the cave still has shadows... only the smartest Stark, using palladium to cast a small reactor coil, causing radiation to instantly fill the cave."

"Palladium is just a heavy metal; it's not radioactive!"

Stark finally couldn't hold back. "The reactor I'm making doesn't rely on fission energy. It relies on palladium adsorbing hydrogen isotopes for cold fusion energy. You don't understand, so don't talk nonsense..."

"Huh?"

Mo froze. "Isn't palladium a radioactive metal?"

"That's a radioactive element."

Stark rubbed his forehead helplessly. "Forget it. I'm not going to explain it to you. You probably don't even know the difference between electromagnetic radiation and ionizing radiation. Ethan, come help me pour the coil..."

"Alright."

Ethan didn't really understand, but since Stark called him, he got to work seriously.

He used tongs to grab the scorching crucible and began pouring the molten palladium into the sand mold.

At that exact moment, as the molten metal was poured into the mold, Mo's mind was suddenly filled with another electronic prompt.

[System prompt: 'Melting' and 'Casting' actions researched. You have obtained the download rights for a new module.]

[System prompt: The Soulforge module is starting to download.]

"???"

Mo stared in shock, his eyes widening.

It was then that he finally understood—his modpack could indeed add new modules.

He had suspected this when the mod translation appeared, and now it seemed his guess was correct. Although he didn't understand exactly how the ability to add modules worked, it was at least a good thing. If he could figure out how to add a "return home" module, he could return to the Minecraft world, right?

Excited by this thought, Mo began to look into how to add a module during this time.

Stark had just poured the palladium ring, and the reactor was still far from finished.

Taking advantage of this time, Mo quickly tried to figure out how to add modules, even silently repeating "I've watched Fullmetal Alchemist, I want an equivalent exchange module" a thousand times, though the results were not very promising.

Seeing that adding modules was unlikely to succeed, Mo switched his focus to the Lucky Block.

Unlike the unclear mechanism for triggering the module addition, using the Lucky Block was much simpler. Mo just had Steve right-click on the block, and the next moment, a white light flashed, and the Lucky Block disappeared.

In its place was a crystal-clear blade.

"Hm? What's this?"

Mo took one look and immediately recognized the sword's origin.

This sword came from Mo's favorite mod, the Twilight Forest mod, and it was the glass sword, which had a chance of being obtained only in the Aurora Palace in the Glacial Plateau.

This sword had an astounding 40 damage points, but its only flaw was a durability of just 1.

It was as sharp as glass but just as fragile.

However, Mo's attention wasn't on the sword.

"To think it really pulled an item from another mod." Mo thoughtfully stroked his chin. "I haven't even loaded the Twilight Forest mod yet, but I pulled out the glass sword from it... Could it be that this Lucky Block can pull items from all known mods?"

If it could pull items from all mods, the Lucky Block would truly be terrifying.

After all, Minecraft mods were numerous, with some deadly weapons like bacteria that could infinitely multiply, bombs that could shatter chunks, or hot springs machines that could flood the world—there were countless examples.

Unfortunately, since the Lucky Block was given by the system, Mo wasn't sure how its logic worked.

Was it a repeatable reward, where he could claim one every time a new mod was added, or was it a one-time reward, where after receiving it, no more rewards would come?

As though to confirm Mo's suspicion, his mind was filled with another electronic voice.

[System prompt: The Soulforge module has been successfully downloaded. Would you like to load it?]

"Ah..." 

Mo froze for a moment, then immediately agreed. "Load it quickly."

[System prompt: The Soulforge module has been successfully loaded.]

[System prompt: Since you have downloaded and activated a brand-new module, you have received a Lucky Block. This Lucky Block will randomly select an item from any known module.]

With a system prompt, another Lucky Block appeared in Steve's inventory.

"Whoa, it really works?"

Seeing the rainbow-colored Lucky Block, Mo was excited.

In his excitement, Mo quickly commanded Steve to open the Lucky Block. This time, white light flashed, and Steve's hand was holding a purple, claw-like object.

"What's this?"

Curious about the new item, Mo checked it out.

It was called the Ender Hand, and after thinking for a moment, Mo recalled that it came from the Mutant Creatures mod. Left-clicking allowed it to attack monsters, right-clicking made it levitate a block, and shifting right-clicking allowed the player to teleport.

"Now... this is really a treasure." 

Looking at the purple claw in Steve's hand, Mo was clearly surprised.

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