The initial burst of golden light was terrifying. It felt like countless strands of white-hot iron wire had violently sprung from Leo's skin, causing his newly achieved metallic 'Copper Skin' to sizzle and hiss.
An intense, agonizing pain surged through his brain, as if his entire consciousness were being slowly lowered into a vat of molten iron. His entire upper body was consumed by an unbearable, excruciating torture.
The small vest he had been wearing instantly turned to ash. Countless grotesque, blood-red fissures appeared on his once smooth skin, weaving complex, horrifying patterns across his chest and back. This was the raw, physical trauma of the Steel Bars enhancement integrating its final 50% threshold.
Outside the fractured door, Tony and Pepper froze, hearing Leo's utterly desperate, pain-filled scream. Tony's terror spiked; what kind of supernatural torment could force such a cry from a boy who could effortlessly bench press 120 kilograms?
Pepper stared anxiously at the immovable door, desperately wishing she could kick it down.
Tony, however, was already calculating structural integrity. He knew his own high-quality, reinforced door wouldn't yield to simple force. He sprinted back to his workshop and returned seconds later, armed with a miniature plasma cutting torch, two industrial-grade crowbars, a high-voltage stun gun (just in case), and, bizarrely, a small handgun (for structural support, naturally).
He shoved the mini-cutter against the door frame, and in less than thirty seconds, he had sliced through the structural connection on one side.
Meanwhile, inside the room, the blinding golden light had finally been violently absorbed into Leo's body. The countless patterns and crimson marks—the residual physical trauma of the breakthrough—now covered his entire upper torso, looking exactly like the intricate, overlapping knife-cuts left by hundreds of blades.
The pain continued its assault on Leo's brain. The broken metal fragments scattered around him suddenly began to vibrate violently, instantly leaping up and enveloping Leo completely in a chaotic, spinning metal cocoon.
The metal lifted Leo higher into the air. In that same instant, in addition to the burning pain in his body, a terrifying, absolute hunger attacked his brain.
It wasn't mere hunger; it was a primal, desperate scream for energy. Every single cell in his body was crying out, demanding sustenance, threatening immediate, irreversible shutdown if it wasn't fed. It was a crisis of survival.
The cold threat of death loomed over Leo. His stomach clenched into a hard, painful ball, trying to squeeze out the last vestiges of stored energy.
This intense, existential stimulation caused Leo's eyes to turn bloodshot instantly, and his mind blanked. In this moment, if a living person had appeared, he probably would have lunged at them, let alone proper food.
"Aaaah!!!"
With the last of his conscious strength, Leo roared his despair and desperate need into the void.
Suddenly, the light bulb fixture above his head shattered. Two thick bolts of raw electrical energy struck Leo directly from the ceiling wiring.
Leo, suspended in mid-air, reacted purely on instinct. His body became a gluttonous beast, firmly grasping the two currents of high-voltage electricity and swallowing them instantly, pulling the energy into his core.
From outside, it looked utterly bizarre: two arcs of pulsing, blue-silver current connected the ceiling to Leo's head, giving him the appearance of having two glowing, electric antennae.
Outside the room, Tony—who was just preparing to cut the other half of the frame—suddenly stopped. He looked up at the flashing lights above the door and the flickering power throughout the hallway.
"Jarvis, what just happened?"
"Sir, the sudden appearance of a large, high-drain electrical load in Mr. Leo's room has instantaneously overloaded the main house power line, resulting in critical voltage instability." Jarvis's voice trembled slightly, his speech becoming noticeably hesitant due to the power disruption.
Tony looked at the door warily, then continued his work, quickly cutting the final connection.
But the door still wouldn't open. The residual, inexplicable, immense force was still holding it firmly in place, jammed into the frame by the sheer force of Leo's fading power.
"Pepper, get back," Tony ordered, shoving a crowbar into the gap.
Pepper stepped back, looking at Tony with a face full of concern. "Shouldn't we call for help? I feel like this is severely dangerous!"
"I think Leo is in significantly more danger right now," Tony grunted, leveraging the first crowbar to widen a crack, then using the second one for maximum force. With a sudden, sickening tear of metal and wood, one side of the door frame shattered.
Tony finally had a clear line of sight into the room. He leaned in, peering at the strange sight of the two electrical wires connecting the ceiling to Leo's head. His body was glowing bright red, covered in countless crimson fissures, and actually emitting wisps of smoke.
"Leo seems to have been electrocuted," Tony muttered, prying harder. "It looks serious; he might already be…"
Pepper panicked, her eyes reddening with tears. She snatched up her phone, ready to call for emergency help.
Sufficiently replenished by the raw electrical energy, Leo's survival instinct was satisfied. He fell from mid-air, scattering the inert metal shards that had covered his body all over the ground.
The strange, intense energy field in the room instantly vanished. The now-unsupported door collapsed inward, no longer resisting Tony and Pepper's entry.
"Leo! Leo, wake up!" Tony rushed in first. Seeing Leo's small body still smoking, he frantically began tapping his face.
Pepper, still on the phone, saw the miserable, cracked state of Leo. She covered her mouth, fighting back a sob.
"Wait, Pepper, I don't need to go to the hospital!"
The sudden, surprisingly clear voice startled Tony, who was momentarily distracted from attempting CPR.
Pepper stared wide-eyed, momentarily dumbfounded, as Leo slowly got to his feet amidst the wreckage.
"Sister Pepper, could you please order some food for me? Um, a lot more would be better. I'm truly hungry. Existence-threateningly hungry, actually."
Tony stood up, looking around the horrific state of the room. The walls were scorched black by high temperatures, the bed and bedside lamp were melted and ruined, and the entire atmosphere felt like a furnace blast.
The scattered broken metal fragments finally caught Tony's attention. He recognized the shape of the original sheets. The four tons of titanium alloy he had moved into the room five days ago were now all reduced to these dull, inert fragments.
It must all be Leo's doing. So what in the hell actually happened?
Pepper looked at Leo, whose body was covered in those horrifying, burnt-red lines. "Are you sure? I think we absolutely need to get you to the hospital for a full workup!"
"No need, Pepper. I know my own situation. I just need to eat! I really, really want to eat!"
"Okay. Happy, scratch the ambulance," Pepper said into the phone, her voice shaking but stabilizing. "Yes, but you might need to bring a ridiculous amount of food here. How much? Bring all the fast food back—hamburgers, pizzas, fries. Yes, bring a lot. The portions should be enough for ten—no, make that twenty people. Yes, as soon as possible. Thanks, Happy!"
Seeing Pepper hang up, Leo felt a surge of awkward gratitude. "Thank you, Pepper. That was… an unexpected accident. I didn't anticipate the power draw."
Tony reached out and gently touched Leo's cracked, scarred upper body.
"These don't look like simple burn marks," Tony observed, his scientific curiosity instantly overriding his panic. "They look more like permanent scarification—like an intense, internal branding process. They certainly weren't there during our testing two days ago. What exactly happened to you?"