Artificial Mutants

Over the past year, the X-Men have been searching extensively for Mutants across the world and inviting them and their families to come here, so there are actually still quite a few ordinary people on Paradise Island. Fortunately, the Mutants all know that the ordinary people on the island are the families of Mutants, so no one has attacked them.

But at this conference, the number of ordinary people seemed to be a little higher than usual.

Although he was puzzled by this, it had nothing to do with Zhan Liu, and he did not care. He simply sat in his place, waiting for the conference to begin.

The attending guests and media reporters were all very punctual. The conference officially began at ten o’clock in the morning sharp.

Amid solemn music, Raven, dressed in formal attire, pushed Professor Charles, who was also dressed formally, in his wheelchair. Behind them, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants each formed a row, all dressed in formalwear. Following behind them, they filed into the stadium through the entrance.

Once they reached the middle of the venue, Raven continued pushing Charles forward. A podium had already been set up at the very center of the venue.

The other Mutants, meanwhile, dispersed and took seats among the Mutant audience. Judging by their distribution, it was obvious that each of them had been assigned a small area. It was simply unclear whether they were there to defend against attacks or suppress any disturbances.

After Raven pushed Charles onto the stage, Charles delivered the address. Having Professor Charles, a mild-mannered, good-natured old man, deliver the founding ceremony’s speech would make it easier for the various countries to accept and avoid provoking them too much.

The speech itself was unremarkable, basically no different from any other ceremony.

It covered reminiscing about the past, looking toward the future, and talking about the Mutant Nation’s peaceful founding principles to reassure the various countries. Then came hopes that humans and Mutants would cooperate and coexist, advance hand in hand, build on the present, and create a glorious future together.

These were all obligatory proceedings. Aside from the excited Mutant crowd below the stage, none of the guests felt much of anything. A symbolic round of applause and a show of polite support were enough.

Then, just as Zhan Liu and all the guests thought the founding conference would continue so blandly, an unexpected development occurred.

After Professor Charles finished his address, Ororo pushed his wheelchair off the podium, while Magneto Erik descended from the sky in a majestic display and landed on the stage.

Everyone’s hearts tightened, and they hurriedly raised their attention. The media reporters raised their microphones and cameras high, hoping to capture something out of the ordinary.

Erik looked around, then dispensed with any pointless words and announced directly:

"Next, please welcome Mr. Norman Osborn and Mr. Harry Osborn to the stage."

The guests below stirred faintly for a while. After all, Osborn Corporation was also a world-famous conglomerate. Appearing at the Mutant founding conference at such a sensitive time seemed a little too high-profile.

Although Osborn Corporation had secretly supported the establishment of the Mutant Nation, providing considerable supplies, money, and even manpower, it was not the only company doing so. Many international conglomerates had secretly done the same.

The establishment of the Mutant Nation was itself an enormously profitable venture. As long as the nation survived, the conglomerates investing here would certainly make enormous profits.

Capitalists had no nationality. Anyone with a nationality was not a qualified capitalist.

Although the various governments were unhappy about this and considered it an act of aiding the enemy and betraying one’s country, the capitalists of every country had done countless things like this throughout history. There were too many cases to investigate, and many could not be investigated at all.

But doing things behind the scenes and openly standing up for the Mutants were two entirely different concepts.

In this world, many things could be done but not spoken of.

Even a prostitute had to put up a chastity arch, or she could not command a good price!

Humanity was simply this hypocritical!

After the Osborn father and son left the guest seating and stepped onto the stage, Erik retreated half a step and gestured toward Norman Osborn.

Norman nodded, stepped forward, leaned toward the microphone, and loudly announced, "I, Norman Osborn, hereby volunteer to join the great family of the Mutants. I will have Magneto activate the X-Gene within my body. I now invite everyone across the world to witness this together!"

The crowd below erupted in an uproar. If Magneto’s intimidating presence had not been so powerful, the reporters who had no idea how to spell the word "death" would have rushed forward to question him.

Next, Harry followed his father and made the same declaration.

Then, under everyone’s watchful eyes, Erik placed his hands on the heads of Norman and Harry and activated his ability on them. A moment later, Erik withdrew his hands, and powerful energy erupted from both men.

The energy was immense, and since the two had only just awakened, they clearly had poor control over it. There were obvious signs of leakage. However, with Magneto standing beside them, he merely pointed, and the power was confined to a very small area. He even had enough strength left to protect the podium from being affected.

Even so, in the eyes of the crowd and before the cameras, the space around the two men could already be clearly seen twisting.

More importantly, neither man’s appearance had changed in the slightest. They still looked like ordinary humans, rather than turning into some grotesque, ugly monstrosity—frog-men, for example.

For the vast majority of Mutants, the abilities produced after their genes were activated were uncontrollable. No one knew whether they would awaken a powerful ability or something utterly useless.

Yet this awakening was irreversible. There was no way to return to human form.

Mutants were also discriminated against because of their strange appearances and useless abilities. If every Mutant could retain a human appearance after awakening and possess an immensely powerful ability, ordinary people would probably feel more envy than anything else!

The guests present were mostly sensitive people, and they immediately realized what this action represented.

Did those political leaders not want superpowers? Of course they did. The only issue was that such powers were uncontrollable.

But if Magneto could truly activate people’s X-Genes while ensuring that their abilities were powerful and controllable, and that they retained their human forms, many politicians would surely secretly join the Mutants and exchange their current selves for a superpower.

There was no need to doubt it. This group of politicians could absolutely do such a thing!

If Charles’s speech just now had been an attempt at conciliation, then Magneto’s actions were half threat and half temptation.

Given Magneto’s abilities, could he easily activate the X-Genes of all humans? Even if activating everyone was impossible, could he activate the people of an entire country or city?

Amid everyone’s murmured discussion, Magneto stepped up to the microphone and loudly announced:

"In view of Osborn Corporation’s contributions during the founding of the Mutant Nation, this artificial activation of the X-Gene has been carried out. From now on, Mutant awakenings will continue to rely primarily on natural awakening, and I will not activate the X-Gene for anyone else."

The discussion below grew even louder.

Only a fool would believe that!

This was a declaration: Don’t provoke me in the future, and I will not artificially activate anyone’s genes. We can all live in peace. But if humanity stirs up trouble again in the future, then perhaps artificially increasing the Mutant population might just happen.