Saying No Means No, and Saying Yes Still Means No

Yinsen was especially unwilling to accept this. He refused to believe there was no way to change these people’s fixed impressions.

"It seems Senator Brickman doesn’t believe me."

David Brickman revealed a very "affable" smile. It seemed to express goodwill, but in truth, he simply did not know how to answer the question. At a time like this, maintaining a friendly smile was the safest response.

Most of the time, the other party would tactfully change the subject. Unless they were dissatisfied with him, few would stubbornly cling to a single question.

Unfortunately, that tactic did not work today.

Those people in the past had either needed something from him or held lower status than him. When they saw that he was not responding, they understood what he meant: he did not want to dwell on the subject.

That was why this tactic had always worked so well for him.

But Yinsen was not his subordinate, nor had he come to ask him for favors. He was even less of a politician. Even if he understood what Brickman meant, he had no intention of doing as Brickman wished.

"What would Senator Brickman consider proof that I’m a Mage?"

David Brickman understood that there was no avoiding this question. As for how Yinsen could prove it? He honestly had no idea. In his mind, Mages only existed in fictional films and novels. It was hard to describe what traits such characters had; they could only be broadly summed up as beings with all sorts of strange abilities, practically omnipotent.

After looking around, Brickman could only casually ask, "You said you came from another world?"

"That’s right."

"How did you come to this world?" After thinking for a moment, Brickman followed up, "Have you been to other worlds as well?"

"Through a special Teleportation Magic capable of breaking through the Plane Barrier."

Yinsen thought for a moment, then lightly spread his hands to make his explanation more convincing. Surging Magic Energy, like obedient pets, transformed into one sphere after another. The spacious reception room seemed to instantly become a unique planetarium, and the sight displayed by that energy was far more stunning than any IMAX experience.

Brickman was not the only one dumbfounded. Even Charles and Erik were staring blankly. As for Moira? She had been scared senseless.

"Think of each sphere as a universe. In my eyes, countless universes are arranged before me like this. All I need to do is break through the protective layer around a sphere and enter it."

The sight before them was immensely shocking. Saying ten thousand words was not as convincing as showing off something extraordinary. Although Brickman still suspected this was merely Yinsen’s Mutant Ability, he was willing to keep listening rather than stubbornly classify him as a mutant.

He also realized something else. If Yinsen was not a mutant and truly was a Mage, did that mean ordinary people could also gain special abilities?

Once he thought of that, he was no longer so resistant to Yinsen’s repeated insistence that he was not a mutant. He even began asking questions with great enthusiasm.

Yinsen briefly introduced the circumstances surrounding Mages, confirming one of Brickman’s suspicions: Mages could be trained from ordinary people.

However, the threshold for becoming a Mage was extremely high. Those without talent were not even qualified to become apprentices.

Naturally, Yinsen would not kindly tell him that his own talent had not been all that impressive back then. He would only keep raising that threshold. As for whether Brickman could find outstanding apprentices, Yinsen did not care.

The main reason he repeatedly emphasized his identity was that he did not want to be tied to mutants.

That was not a good thing for either the mutants or himself.

Yinsen then deliberately displayed some of his spells. Compared to mutants, whose Mutant Abilities were mostly singular and rarely came in multiples, every ability Yinsen demonstrated was another reminder to Brickman that he truly was not a mutant.

He continuously transformed that energy into water, fire, and even lightning. On the surface, he was demonstrating the differences between worlds, but in essence, he was still showing off his abilities.

He also used illusions to accompany his various explanations. Brickman was now beginning to believe that the person before him truly was a Mage, especially after Yinsen, just like in novels and movies, gave a casual wave of his hand and restored Brickman’s slightly rumpled clothes to a crisp, tidy state.

No matter how he looked at it, that was not an ability a mutant would possess.

No mutant had ever possessed so many completely different abilities at once. Apocalypse was still asleep in Egypt.

Brickman gradually accepted the fact that Yinsen was not a mutant, and then he realized he had struck it lucky.

If everything Yinsen said was true, the implications would be enormous.

Not only could ordinary people gain special powers just like mutants, but it also seemed to prove that humanity was not alone in the universe. There were even countless Parallel Universes.

That meant inexhaustible resources, and it also meant potential crises.

Both resources and crises could become bargaining chips for him to make use of. In particular, the possibility of these things made his original plan far more feasible.

Brickman wanted to recruit a mutant team because he wished to use the powerful abilities of mutants like Charles and Erik to form a special department dedicated to fighting crime. As long as they continued protecting ordinary citizens, protecting America, and accomplishing real things, he, as the person backing them, would gain a solid foundation.

They could also deal with possible mutant crimes, and the prestige gained from that would help him rise even further.

But that alone was not enough. The news Yinsen brought meant that countless Parallel Worlds existed. No one could guarantee that a world would not suddenly launch an invasion against them.

In that case, the value of a sufficiently powerful armed group would greatly increase. The mutant force he had originally planned to recruit would seemingly receive even more attention as a result, and he would gain even more benefits along with it.

"Do people or organizations capable of breaking through the Plane Barrier and hostile toward other universes exist?"

Yinsen nodded. He did not go into too much detail, nor was there any need to. It was enough to make them understand that a world containing multiple universes was far more dangerous than they imagined.

In this world, which had neither other superheroes nor other superpowered beings, the X-Men would become the strongest team they could rely upon. To a certain extent, this could ease the conflict between humanity and mutants.

Of course, it would be difficult to make humanity fully accept mutants. For now, they could only compromise with each other to a certain extent. Then, through the X-Men’s long-term efforts, ordinary people could come to understand that having Mutant Abilities did not mean one could do whatever one wanted. Mutants also had to accept the control and punishment of the law, just like everyone else. The hostility ordinary people felt toward mutants would lessen considerably.

However, Mutant Abilities often went out of control during adolescence. Sometimes, the damage caused by that loss of control would be too severe if treated as intentional criminal behavior. Unless that issue was resolved, ordinary people’s dissatisfaction with mutants could never truly be eliminated.

But Yinsen was not the mutants’ parent. He had already done more than enough by helping them this far. Charles and Erik could deal with this headache themselves.

Besides, even among ordinary people, there was no shortage of conflict between ethnicities and races. True universal harmony? That would only be possible if an Alien Invasion drove humanity to the brink of extinction and destroyed the old order and ideals.

The conversation then returned to Charles and Erik. Yinsen had already emphasized countless times that he was not from this world and would soon leave. Getting information from him was enough; they should not expect him to stay behind and work for them.

Brickman was a smart man. He understood what Yinsen meant and began shifting his focus to the two young mutants.

Moreover, Yinsen had more or less made it clear that he had a good relationship with the two of them. If they encountered trouble in the future, he would not mind helping them.

In other words, as long as Brickman befriended these two mutants, it would also mean establishing a connection with this Mage who could travel between different universes. Once Yinsen’s claims were proven true, Brickman would not mind investing more heavily in the two mutants.

For example, he could appropriately publicize the X-Men’s righteous actions and let the entire world understand that some powerful mutants had been working tirelessly to preserve world peace.

These were all things Charles had failed to do well before. A major reason Yinsen had urged him to cooperate with powerful politicians was for publicity.

It could not be helped. Sometimes, that was simply how it worked. No matter how much you did, if no one knew about it, it was as good as doing nothing. Yet if mutants caused a single disaster, overwhelming publicity would immediately cast the entire mutant population into the abyss. Even if you sent out the X-Men to remedy the situation, it would be useless.

With memories from his "past life" reminding Charles of this, he no longer rejected cooperating with politicians. At the very least, Brickman had appeared quite friendly. If nothing unexpected happened, they would become partners for quite some time to come.

If things went smoothly, becoming long-term strategic partners would not be a problem either.

Overall, this meeting had gone very smoothly, and every party had achieved its goal.

Brickman had found his future political bargaining chips. If everything went smoothly, he could gain prestige and further elevate his status. If Yinsen’s words were confirmed to be true, he might even become an indispensable figure in this world.

Charles had found a collaborator he found reasonably agreeable, and the two sides had already reached a preliminary understanding. Although the X-Men would lose some freedom by becoming official civil servants, that was still better than Charles running around putting out fires while countless politicians stabbed him in the back.

Once they were all part of the same camp, those politicians would have to think twice before stabbing them in the back. Besides, Brickman would help shield them from pressure on that front.

As for Yinsen? He had finally convinced Brickman that he was not a mutant… at least, he seemed to have convinced him on the surface.