Newcomer at the Academy

Brainstorm churned through Alex’s head for ages, nearly turning his brain into tofu pudding, yet it failed to produce a single meaningful idea. All that thinking had been for nothing.

"Damn it, I refuse to believe this!" Since brainstorm had no effect, Alex decided to force the issue. As the saying went, practice produced true knowledge. With enough experiments, he would surely find a solution.

Alex began pacing back and forth through the huge observation room, copying abilities again and again. After consecutively copying the abilities of three people, he was so overwhelmed that he failed to notice anything and unhesitatingly chose to copy a fourth. That decision made him suffer dearly.

A tearing agony spread from every inch of his skin into his central nervous system. Wave after wave of neural stimulation nearly made Alex pass out on the spot.

How could Alex dare pass out here? This was an observation room holding thousands of Hellfire Club mutants, and the room he was in was still open. If he blacked out and let the mutant before him escape, the consequences would be disastrous.

Enduring the agony of ten thousand ants gnawing at his brain, Alex twisted his body and staggered out of the observation room. With the last of his strength, he shut its door. Just as he was about to pass out from the pain, the agony suddenly receded like a tide.

While he was still astonished, an even fiercer wave of pain struck him. Alex could no longer hold back and wailed aloud. Pain could make someone faint once it reached a certain level, but if it became even worse, it could force them awake again. Alex was in precisely that state.

He remembered an old internet rumor from his previous life: pain had twelve levels, and the highest, level twelve, was the pain of childbirth. But at that moment, Alex was certain that what he was enduring had absolutely reached level 120000000000. Do not bother counting the zeros—Alex did not know how many there should have been either!

After an unknown length of time, Alex suddenly felt that something was off. It seemed as though something was missing.

As he puzzled over it, an unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded beside his ear. Turning his head, he saw it came from the person in the observation room behind him. "Are you all right? You’ve been screaming so miserably!"

Alex sprang to his feet, then instantly understood. The excruciating pain throughout his body was gone—no wonder he had felt like something was missing! Thinking of that blissfully unbearable agony, he still felt lingering fear. He reflexively raised a hand to wipe away cold sweat, only to find his palm covered in moisture. Looking down, he saw that his entire body was drenched, as if he had just been fished out of water.

"It all came out of your body." The person in the observation room spoke at just the right moment, resolving Alex’s confusion.

Alex looked up at the observation room. Inside sat a black-haired woman. Her hair was black, but her facial features and skin were unmistakably Caucasian. As he watched her, Alex suddenly grew puzzled again. She looked oddly familiar, and he could not help asking, "Who are you?"

The black-haired woman lazily pointed at the label on the observation room door. "It’s written there. Read it yourself."

"Real name: Tessa. Codename: The Sage…" With just one glance, Alex remembered who she was. Sebastian Shaw’s telepath, the person in charge of the underground factory in the Las Vegas desert—and someone he had personally captured.

When he looked at Tessa again, Alex could not help chuckling. "So it’s you!"

"You…" Tessa looked at Alex, hesitated for a moment, then glanced around. Seeing that the people in the other observation rooms were all listlessly asleep, she lowered her voice and continued, "Could you… let me go?"

Alex sneered, staring at Tessa with an expression of utter surprise, but he said nothing.

"I was forced to join the Hellfire Club too." Tessa continued pleadingly. "If you release me, I’m willing to join you and become one of your people."

Alex shook his head and said indifferently, "I don’t need you to join us. Besides, why should I trust you?" With that, he left without hesitation. He had long since been unable to stand the stink of his sweat-soaked body.

After taking a bath and changing clothes, Alex had no choice but to head to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Teleportation had hit a bottleneck, and copying abilities had yielded no path forward. After wasting so many days, Alex had to bow to reality and choose to become a student at the academy.

When Alex, freshly scrubbed clean, walked into Emma’s office, her face suddenly lit up with a brilliant smile, like a little devil’s grin.

"Finally made up your mind?" Emma gestured for Alex to sit down and casually made him a cup of plain water. She knew he was not used to coffee. Then she sat beside him, the smile on her face growing increasingly meaningful.

Alex gave a vague grunt. He neither drank the water nor spoke. He was still feeling depressed!

Emma burst out laughing, shoved Alex upright, and sternly said, "Since you’ve chosen to join Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, you need to act like one of its teachers. What kind of appearance is this, loafing around like that?"

"A teacher?" Alex opened his bleary eyes and looked at Emma in confusion. Wasn’t he here to be a student? How had he become a teacher?

Emma finally could not hold it in any longer. She collapsed against Alex’s shoulder and laughed heartily.

Alex was still stunned. It took him a long while to realize what had happened. He reached toward Emma’s full chest and shouted with an angry laugh, "You dared make fun of me? Taste my Dragon Claw Grip!"

After fooling around for quite some time, Alex finally released Emma from his arms, a satisfied smugness on his face. All he lacked was a cigarette afterward.

Emma’s face was flushed red as she glared at Alex reproachfully. "It’s broad daylight. What else are you trying to do?"

"You’re the one who tricked me!" Alex reached out again and brushed a hand over Emma’s exposed waist, then lifted his hand to his nose and took a light sniff. "Do it again, and I’ll handle you the same way!"

From beginning to end, Emma had only said that Alex would go to the academy to learn. She had never said he would go as a student; learning could also be done as a teacher. But Alex had misunderstood—or rather, Emma had deliberately led him into misunderstanding.

Emma dodged Alex’s hand as it reached for her chest again and said awkwardly, "I won’t dare do it again!"

Leaning back against the bench behind him, Alex turned to Emma and asked, "By the way, if I’m going to be a teacher, what am I teaching?" Alex had never considered himself suited to teaching. Ruining people tirelessly was more like it. "Let me make this clear first: I don’t know how to do anything. Don’t blame me if I teach them wrong."

"Don’t worry, we definitely won’t make things difficult for you." Once the academy’s serious business came up, Emma also became serious. "Do you remember the desert? I thought you taught quite well there."

"Teach that?" Alex was somewhat surprised. He assumed a martial arts opening stance, his face full of hesitation. "Is that really appropriate?"

"Mutants can’t rely solely on their Mutant Abilities. I think combat skills and martial arts will be very useful for the students." Emma nodded very seriously, then continued, "Besides, combat training can improve the students’ physical fitness, which will also help them master their own abilities."

"That’s true." Alex did not refuse and nodded in agreement. Then he remembered the most important question and hurriedly asked, "Right, but what about my problem?"

Emma had long since considered it. The moment Alex asked, she answered without hesitation, "When the other teachers are giving classes, you can go listen too."

"So I’m still a student!"