Reboot: Mechanic

Mary quickly shifted her focus from their earlier discussion to Shi Tian's injuries.

"Sit still, Nathan. Let me take a look at your injuries," she said, her demeanor shifting from detached to highly focused.

"It's no worries, Mary." Shi Tian raised his hand and said awkwardly.

"It's just the wounds being agitated and hence the bleeding. I'll just rebandage them myself and I'll be fine," he added, not willing to bother her with his injuries.

If he wanted to receive such concern and care from the start, then he wouldn't have bothered concealing it. He was not a child anymore, and Shi Tian didn't wish to create a reliance on someone.

Sooner or later, there'll be times that he will be alone, with no one to assist him in recovery.

Hence, getting used to it now was an ideal outcome in his mind.

Alas, Shi Tian had severely underestimated Mary.

"When I said sit still, that was not a suggestion but a command." Mary flashed a cold expression and said.

"Also, the bullets used by the elite soldiers of Commander Theobold should not be taken as normal bullets. As if they would use such low-grade bullets in their arsenal." She warned, using her eyes to command him to let her check on the wound.

With her being so adamant, Shi Tian could only sigh softly and temporarily moved away from the computer screen, allowing her to check on the bullet wounds.

Lifting his shirt up, Shi Tian revealed his bare body wrapped in bandages.

The bandages were now soaked in a dye red color, clear evidence of him bleeding profusely for a while.

Mary's brow knitted when she noticed just how severe his injuries were under the cover of his clothes.

'Just how did he endure all this pain without uttering a single sound?' She wondered silently.

She examined his injuries with a practiced eye, her expression growing more serious as she assessed the damage.

As she inspected the injuries, she asked, "Why did you conceal your injuries from us?"

Before Shi Tian could even answer the question, she continued, "Did you think you're some steel type that could withstand the injuries? Or did you not trust us and think we might harm you while you're injured?"

"W-What?"

Shi Tian's mouth was wide open in confusion. He tried to turn around and explain that was not the reason, but Mary stopped him from doing so by patting his shoulders lightly.

"If none of the above were true, then I can't fathom why you would want to conceal such injuries. Don't you know these bullets can't heal normally? The bullets are laced with a type of poison. Once it makes contact with the internal organs of the body, it would start to coagulate the blood and infect the white blood cell." Mary scolded harshly.

"Wait a minute, Mary. If the bullets can have such an effect, then why is Nathan fine?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow and interrupted. It was clear that she was dumbfounded by Mary's explanation.

Her explanation was equivalent to saying being shot once was fatal, but look at the situation currently. Shi Tian was calmly sitting in front of them despite being riddled with such bullet types.

"That's what I don't understand." Mary clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"This Nathan kept trying to play safe, but he's constantly putting himself in danger without noticing it. I swear he must have some sort of plot armor to still be safe after being hit by all these bullets." She added, walking to a container and taking out some isopropyl alcohol.

The isopropyl alcohol was a more concentrated and enhanced version of regular isopropyl alcohol. It could help disinfect the wound, but also nullify the bullet's effect that had been laced on Shi Tian.

Naturally, such an item could be considered expensive, given the resources used to create it.

"You owe me money for making me use this," Mary informed Shi Tian and was ready to pour some on his wounds.

However, Shi Tian suddenly turned around and held her wrist.

"I have to pay for this?" He asked in doubt. "No need to use it then. I can simply just bandage the wounds, and it's not like I'm feeling anything abnormal in my body other than some occasional fatigue."

"..."

The fact that Shi Tian valued money over his well-being was quite a shocker yet also not a shocker at the same time for these two women.

Mary herself had long known about how stingy and frugal Shi Tian could be. It was as if it would kill him if he were to make a bad deal once.

As for Vanessa, she had experienced it personally just how much of a scammer he could be. For using just a bit of his items, Shi Tian would charge her at an exorbitant price.

Hell, it wouldn't even surprise her if they were to be informed that Shi Tian operated a black market, known to sell high-priced items but the items are low-quality ones.

"Are you joking right now?" Mary knitted her brows and asked, her mouth twitching slightly.

Shi Tian smiled bitterly when he noticed the two women's expressions.

Was it wrong of him to worry about money?

Sure, the world might have become chaotic, but money was still the main currency to get around in. Matter of fact, money has become even more important now when most resources are locked behind by a price tag.

"I'm poor, Mary." Shi Tian said with a straight face.

"You can't be that shameless, right?" Vanessa snorted coldly.

"You scammed me quite a lot back when I was injured, so how could you possibly be poor?" She then said and explained to Mary how Shi Tian managed to scam her Dimension Ring.

She thought now was the perfect time to inform Mary of Shi Tian's ridiculous and wicked method.

However, expectations were usually different from reality.

"Geez, I thought you were quite clever for deceiving us, but it seems like I was wrong. You're really dumb to be scammed by such an exorbitant price." Mary exclaimed in shock and disbelief.