Mutant Founding Ceremony

The Mutants had finally founded their nation, more than a year after the conclusion of the Magneto Massacre Incident.

Following the invitation’s guidance, Zhan Liu flew to an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. As soon as he approached Paradise Island, the invitation emitted a burst of red light and flew automatically toward the island. Immediately afterward, someone took off and flew toward him.

"Welcome, Master. This way, please." His greeter was an old acquaintance, Storm, clearly an intentional arrangement by the Mutants.

Under Storm’s guidance, the two landed on the island’s main thoroughfare. Walking one in front of the other, they headed deeper into the island.

Although this was a deserted island, there was no trace of desolation now.

At the very center of the island stood a strange, towering structure shaped like a skyscraping tower. Made entirely of metal, it gleamed brilliantly beneath the morning sun. It could be seen clearly even from the island’s edge.

With the tower as its center, various districts radiated outward, forming a pattern of concentric rings. The roads were spacious. The main roads had twelve lanes, while the crisscrossing side roads had six.

Within the third ring, aerial tracks ran through the sky, with trains that appeared to use magnetic levitation technology. The aerial tracks were relatively sparse, so they did not obstruct the light, while adding a unique sci-fi beauty.

The ordinary buildings on the island were nothing special. They were not much different from the skyscrapers in any city, aside from differences in design. It was simply unclear whether their facilities were any different.

On the other side of the island, he could vaguely see thick smoke billowing into the sky. That was probably the industrial district, though he had no idea which Mutants worked there or whether they were more efficient.

From Storm, Zhan Liu also learned that the island contained many other districts, including agricultural, livestock, residential, educational, and entertainment areas, allowing millions of Mutants to support themselves.

It went without saying that, when it came to developing Paradise Island, all the farsighted members of the Mutants must have worked together and contributed ideas before they could create such a complete plan for the city.

This newly born deserted island had now been completely transformed into a supercity with a unique sci-fi style. Clearly, Magneto and the others did not want their guests to think that Mutants were a bunch of savages, or develop the mistaken impression that Mutants could only destroy and not build.

For more than a year, Magneto had been leading the Mutants in construction here. Although Magneto was highly capable at construction work, he still followed Professor Charles’s advice and assigned much of the simple labor to ordinary Mutants.

It was no easy task, especially getting a group of villains accustomed to wielding guns and knives to put down their weapons and pick up tools. Fortunately, Magneto’s prestige had now reached its peak, and there were many fanatical believers among the Mutants.

With the two leaders of the Mutants working together, even those who were dissatisfied had to obediently get to work.

This year or so was less about construction than taming beasts, turning those unruly Mutants back into members of civilized society. After all, the Mutants were founding a nation. They could no longer fight and kill at will. The beasts of the past now had to put on suits, tie on neckties, and pretend to be respectable human beings.

At least, every Mutant Zhan Liu encountered along the way was courteous and polite, no different from ordinary city residents. Moreover, the Mutants in this city all held their heads high, brimming with confidence. They were not as timid or wary as Mutants in other countries.

As expected, whether a nation’s military was strong or not was directly reflected in the faces of its citizens.

The only thing that felt out of place to Zhan Liu was that the Mutants he encountered along the way seemed somehow off.

These people… were absurdly strong!

He had dealt with Mutants before. Someone like Cyclops, for instance, was already a first-rate expert among the Mutants. Yet every Mutant he had seen on the way here was at least as strong as Scott.

That made no sense!

If Storm’s massive improvement in strength could still be explained, since she had also crossed the threshold of Magnetic Field Rotation, then the sudden explosive improvement of so many Mutants was downright strange.

Zhan Liu deliberately used his rarely employed mind-reading ability. He chose two Mutants and read their minds, but found nothing at all. The Mutants themselves knew nothing about it, believing only that it was the result of the normal evolution of Mutant abilities.

It was understandable that a group of ordinary Mutants would not know the secrets of the Mutants, so Zhan Liu turned his attention to Storm. She was one of the core members of the X-Men. If there were any truly secret matters, they would not have been concealed from her.

But there was a problem: Storm did not know anything either.

She only knew that after the Magneto incident, her strength had suddenly improved by leaps and bounds. She attributed this rapid progress to her study of Magnetic Field Rotation.

But Zhan Liu knew very well that this definitely was not caused by Magnetic Field Rotation.

Mutants had appeared in the Martial Arts School before, and he had carefully observed them at the time. If it had such an incredible accelerating effect, Jimmy Yang would not have been stuck at the entrance stage back then.

He had never reached the Ninety-Seven Heavens, so he did not know exactly what the Ninety-Seven Heavens could accomplish. As a result, he could not declare with certainty that this matter had nothing to do with Magneto.

After committing this matter to memory, Zhan Liu did not continue investigating. After all, Magneto was stronger than him. Who knew whether he might read Zhan Liu’s mind?

He was not today’s main character. All he had to do was patiently wait for the excitement.

The military had disgusted him last time. Although he had blown up the Pentagon and forced the Sentinel Robots to retreat, and the culprit behind the later Pentagon Tragedy had been blamed on that unidentified robot, they had not dared mention Zhan Liu’s name at all.

But Zhan Liu did not believe the military had suddenly become so good-natured. If its technology had advanced again in recent days, it would surely bring out the Sentinel Robots for another round of live combat practice. The Mutant Founding Congress was an excellent opportunity.

Magneto was not as good-natured as he was. You provoke me and still expect to walk away unharmed? If fewer than ten million people die, count it as my loss!

Moreover, he was especially concerned about the deal between Ancient One and Magneto. This was a perfect chance to use the military’s Sentinel Robots to test whether another star would explode this time, and whether Ancient One would appear.

If he could not break through the Fifty Heavens yet still wanted to contend with someone as powerful as Magneto, his only option was to push further into the Complete State.

Following Storm, he arrived at a huge stadium. The Mutant Founding Ceremony would be held there.

After escorting him to his seat, Storm said her farewells and left. There were a great many guests today, so she was quite busy.

Zhan Liu’s seat was in the front row of the guest section, surrounded by diplomats from various countries.

The invitations had originally been sent to dignitaries from every nation, but no one dared come, and no one dared refuse. In the end, they all sent diplomatic representatives instead, preserving diplomatic etiquette while tactfully expressing their own positions.

Politicians were best at handling this sort of thing.