Combat Simulation

"Intensify the training?"

Wang Bert’s words left Leech dumbfounded. He could barely handle the previous training, let alone what came next.

Other than Leech, no one objected, including Shadowcat. She understood very well just how difficult and important the battle three months from now would be.

Wang Bert glanced at Leech and said, "I’m giving you all a day off as a reward for today’s battle. Formal training begins tomorrow and will last three months, until we defeat the Celestial Group."

"A day off?"

Everyone’s eyes lit up, and they nodded happily. They had undergone high-intensity training for over a month; it was time to relax.

Then, everyone went home for their break. Wang Bert looked into the void and narrowed his eyes slightly. "This will be the final battle for Mutant Planet."

That was right. This Hell offensive and defensive battle would be Mutant Planet’s final battle. Once they won, Mutant Planet’s affairs would be nearly over, leaving only one final step: restoring Mutant Planet to normal.

To be honest, this final battle had come earlier than Wang Bert expected, but it was not a problem. He believed he could win, because he had never lost.

"Once I win, I’ll be able to see Wanda right away. She’ll definitely be happy."

Wang Bert smiled. This journey to find his wife would finally reach its happily-ever-after ending.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of three months had passed. Inside the illusion, the Professor and the others were teaming up against Apocalypse and Black Phoenix.

"Die!"

Black Phoenix roared, and an enormous black phoenix suddenly appeared behind her. Then, the black phoenix exploded, turning into dozens of smaller phoenixes that blasted toward everyone.

These small phoenixes were incredibly fast. The instant they appeared, they had already reached everyone, because they had burned through space itself.

Black Phoenix at her peak was this powerful. Fortunately, everyone was no longer what they once were. The Professor raised both hands at once, twisting the entire void. The small phoenixes were frozen in place, unable to move.

Cyclops shouted and fired a humanoid laser beam. Wherever it passed, the small phoenixes vanished one after another, though the humanoid laser beam rapidly shrank as well.

Surprisingly, the humanoid laser beam could turn on its own. Cyclops alone destroyed roughly half of the small phoenixes.

"Slash!"

Psylocke split into five, wielding Adamantium Longswords at the same time. Five dazzling blade lights flashed, slicing five small phoenixes and the void apart together.

Seeing Black Phoenix’s attack blocked, Apocalypse stomped heavily. Dozens of giant Earth Giants rose from the ground, roaring as they swung their fists at everyone. Every punch was as terrifying as a falling meteorite.

Wolverine’s twin blades turned crimson. Then, he leaped high into the air and swung his claws with all his strength. Three crimson flashes streaked past, and an Earth Giant’s head exploded directly.

"Life and Death."

Yuriko activated her Life and Death ability, flashing around the Earth Giants like a phantom. Their heads exploded one after another.

Wade chuckled and slammed both hands against the ground. Several-meter-long earth spikes shot from the ground, piercing several Earth Giants right between their legs.

"Wade, you’re disgusting."

Quicksilver looked at him with disdain. Before his words even finished, he had appeared behind Apocalypse, slashing at his head with a sword.

Just as Apocalypse was about to counter with telekinesis, Quicksilver abruptly changed positions and appeared in front of him. Then, his longsword transcended time and space, slashing straight into Apocalypse’s forehead.

Apocalypse possessed an immortal body, so such an injury could not kill him. But he felt humiliated. He roared, unleashing his telekinesis in full force, and the void before him suddenly shattered.

Unfortunately, Quicksilver had already fled before that happened. At the same time, two figures appeared behind Apocalypse: Leech and Shadowcat.

Then, Leech immediately placed his hand on Apocalypse’s back. Just as Apocalypse was about to retaliate, Shadowcat swiftly took Leech and vanished.

Apocalypse’s expression turned ugly beyond measure. After being struck by Leech, his strength dropped by a third.

"Damn it!"

Apocalypse grew even more furious. The earth shook wildly, and soil transformed into a massive earth dragon that roared toward the others.

Psylocke sneered. Becoming one with her blade, she turned into a dazzling streak of sword light and charged into the earth dragon’s mouth. The blade light then tore through the earth dragon without resistance, stabbing toward Apocalypse’s chest.

Apocalypse hurriedly controlled Light Flame to form a shield against Psylocke’s attack. Then, he used telekinesis to guide spatial turbulence into a Space Storm that swept toward Psylocke.

Facing the Space Storm, Psylocke showed no fear. With a thought, a pair of dreamlike transparent wings suddenly appeared behind her. Then, her left wing sliced forward like a blade, and the Space Storm vanished instantly.

That was not all. Psylocke swung her longsword at astonishing speed, and the entire world seemed filled with blade light. Even Apocalypse did not dare to be careless, frantically gathering Light Flame to block Psylocke’s attacks.

After a while, Psylocke’s blade light finally disappeared. Apocalypse could not help but sigh in relief. At that moment, an overwhelming sense of danger surged within him. Without hesitation, he traversed the void and retreated.

"Die!"

Wade, whose eyes were pitch-black, slashed at the void. A huge gash suddenly opened across Apocalypse’s chest, blood pouring out as if it cost nothing. Worse still, the wound could not heal.

This was Wade’s ultimate move, created by combining various abilities—Void Slash. It could not only slash across a distance, but also prevent the target from regenerating.

This move was powerful, but it came at a price. Wade’s body suddenly burst apart, blood completely dyeing his clothes red.

"Good thing I’m wearing red. Otherwise, I’d have to wash my clothes every time I used it. Such a waste of water."

Wade returned to normal and said with a grin. Unfortunately, no one paid attention to his antics. Taking advantage of Apocalypse’s injury, Psylocke transformed into thirteen figures and attacked him simultaneously. Even Apocalypse was thrown into a panic and forced back again and again.

On the other side, Cyclops roared, and a humanoid laser beam flew from his body toward Black Phoenix.

"Scott, has anyone ever told you that move of yours is ugly?"

Black Phoenix smiled disdainfully and condensed flames into a Flame Whip. Then, the whip shattered the humanoid laser beam and coiled toward Cyclops.

Wolverine immediately stood in front of Cyclops. He first wrapped the whip around his claw blades, then shouted and forcibly cut the Flame Whip apart.

Seeing this, Black Phoenix pointed a finger. The broken whip turned into a small phoenix and charged at Cyclops. Cyclops raised his hand and fired a massive laser blast, blowing the small phoenix apart.

This move had killed Cyclops once before. He would not let his guard down again.

"Why can’t you just obediently go die?"

With her attacks blocked one after another, Black Phoenix was greatly enraged. She roared, and the surrounding space suddenly shattered. Then, she thrust both hands forward, turning countless space fragments into black flames that blasted continuously toward the Professor and the others.

The Professor raised a hand and used magnetism to disrupt the void. Large quantities of spatial flames exploded. Seeing this, Black Phoenix created even more space fragments and hurled them at the Professor.

At that moment, three figures appeared out of thin air behind Black Phoenix: Shadowcat, Yuriko, and Leech. Then, Yuriko and Leech simultaneously placed their hands on Black Phoenix.

Black Phoenix’s power suddenly dropped by a third. Worse still, Yuriko was frantically devouring her power.

"Get lost!"

Black Phoenix was just about to unleash flames when a figure appeared in front of her out of thin air, slashing more than ten times in rapid succession. It was Quicksilver.

Puff, puff, puff… More than ten wounds suddenly appeared on Black Phoenix’s body. Enraged to the extreme, she unleashed her disintegration ability at full power. Everything around her, including space and time, turned into nothingness. Fortunately, Quicksilver, Shadowcat, and the others had anticipated this and disappeared in advance.

Black Phoenix had killed Quicksilver and Shadowcat three times with this move. The first time, they had been caught off guard. The second time, they had not expected her to be able to disintegrate time as well. The third time, they had been too greedy for victory and were a moment too late.

Soon, Black Phoenix’s outburst ended. She took a deep breath and used black flames to repair her body. At that moment, the three from Shadowcat’s group appeared again, and Yuriko’s right hand, wreathed in Pitch-Black Flame, stabbed viciously into her back.

That was not all. The next second, Yuriko’s right hand emerged from Black Phoenix’s chest, clutching her heart.

"No!"

Black Phoenix did not die. As she used telekinesis to try to seize back her heart, she also controlled black flames to erupt, blasting Yuriko and the other two away.

Unfortunately, Black Phoenix did not get her wish, because Yuriko used her disintegration ability to disintegrate her heart.

Without a heart and with her strength suppressed by Leech, Black Phoenix’s power fell drastically. She glared at the Professor and the others with an ashen face and shouted, "Impossible! You don’t have precognition, so how did you predict my reactions again and again?"

"Because you killed us hundreds of times."

Wade complained, "I get Shadow just looking at that face of yours now."

"Wade, shut up. There’s no need to say so much."

Wolverine shouted, "We don’t have much time left. This time, we have to kill them."

"That’s right, we don’t have much time."

The Professor nodded. He controlled his wheelchair into the air, and a massive magnetic field pressed down on Black Phoenix like a mountain.

"You insects think you can kill me?"

Black Phoenix roared, and the battle erupted once more.

An hour later, Black Phoenix and Apocalypse fell to the ground and were declared dead. The illusion lifted, and everyone sat on the ground in exhaustion, their faces full of joy.

After nearly three months, they had finally succeeded in killing Black Phoenix and Apocalypse without losing a single person. This meant they truly possessed the power to slaughter gods.

Wade said arrogantly, "Apocalypse, your death day is here. I’ve hated the sight of you for a long time."

"Wade, don’t get careless."

The Professor shook his head. "We killed them this time because we knew all their trump cards and every one of their reactions. Even so, we still nearly lost people.

Actual combat will only be harder. No one knows what changes Black Phoenix and Apocalypse might have, and more importantly, there are more than just the two of them. We will face more enemies than we did in the illusion."

Everyone nodded. Winning in the illusion did not mean they would win in reality. An illusion was, after all, just an illusion.

"We’ll take it one step at a time."

Wade shrugged and said, "In tomorrow’s training, we can have the BOSS add Original Sin."

"There isn’t much time. Add both Original Sin and Legion."

After thinking for a moment, Psylocke said, "Original Sin is manageable. We’ve fought him several times. But we know very little about Legion, so we need to familiarize ourselves with his abilities as soon as possible."

"Familiarize ourselves with his abilities? That won’t be easy. He has several thousand abilities."

The Professor sighed. "He may not be the strongest mutant, but he is definitely the most troublesome mutant."

Cyclops hesitated before asking, "Professor, is your relationship with Legion terrible?"

"I don’t want to talk about that. In any case, Legion is our enemy, whether he has joined the Celestial Group or not."

The Professor shook his head and said, "When you face him, don’t hold back. Don’t look at me like that. Killing him would be a release for him. Among his thousands of personalities, at least half of them want to die."

Everyone was speechless. Wade’s eyes rolled as he asked, "The BOSS isn’t here today. How about we have some bonus time?"

"That works. We can treat it as a celebration."

The Professor thought for a moment and nodded. Then, he used psychic power to activate the illusion seeds Wang Bert had left behind, and everyone fell into different illusions at the same time.

Wade’s illusion was becoming a billionaire who could have anything he wanted, even smacking the president in the face with Banknotes.

The Professor’s illusion was Mutant Academy, where he gently taught students how to read. To him, that was the happiest thing in the world.

Cyclops’s illusion was a quiet life with Jean, like any other married couple. Most importantly, Wolverine that bastard was not in his illusion.

This kind of illusion was called a Wish Illusion. Put simply, it helped them fulfill their wishes and counted as a benefit for them—over the past three months, their training had been extremely difficult, so they needed a balance between work and rest.

At the same time, in England, Wang Bert shook hands with the prime minister. The prime minister said, "Mr. Wang, as long as you need it, you may use all of England’s assets, as long as you remember to return them afterward."

"Thank you, Prime Minister. I won’t forget your friendship, and I will protect England as much as possible."

Wang Bert smiled. Over the past three months, as Original Sin recovered, there had been more and more Evil Believers, and every country had fallen into crisis. Under such circumstances, Wang Bert and the mutants’ importance had risen without limit.

Taking this opportunity, Wang Bert made a request to the major nations—when necessary, he would use the funds in their treasuries to activate Money Power.

In peacetime, no one would ever agree to such a request. Some might even think Wang Bert had lost his mind. But now, every country needed Wang Bert’s help, so after some consideration, they chose to agree on the surface.

Of course, it was only a surface agreement. How could they really let Wang Bert use the money in their treasuries and banks? They would agree for now, then find some excuse when it came time to release the funds. They were experts at that sort of thing.

Fortunately, a surface agreement was all Wang Bert wanted—as long as they agreed, he could forcibly use those funds through Money Power.

As for whether he could pay them back, that was not a problem at all. In the real world, Wang Bert was the richest man in the universe. What were a few Earthly assets? Leaving that aside for now, Wang Bert said goodbye and left for France to meet another president. He intended to reach agreements with every country in the shortest possible time.

Although Wang Bert did not believe he would lose to the Celestial Group, the matter was too important. He had to go all out.

In Hell, the Celestial Group and the others stood within a city that seemed to be made of yellow sand. Looking over the various arrangements, the Celestial Group nodded in satisfaction. "Apocalypse, your abilities are quite good. I like this Lost City."

Apocalypse stood beside him expressionlessly and said nothing—he had already been completely controlled by the Celestial Group and had become nothing more than a puppet.