Suddenly, Things Calmed Down

After Sebastian was eliminated, the CIA quickly sent reinforcements.

They must have received the news and learned that the greatest enemy had been eliminated. Calling their arrival a rescue mission would be less accurate than saying they had come to take Emma Frost away.

Meanwhile, Moira, as an active agent, also needed to submit a detailed report and truthfully relay everything that had happened.

As for Charles and the others, they were ignored.

The CIA did not know how to handle Charles’s group. Or rather, no consensus had been reached internally: should they be treated as threats and eliminated? They had just helped solve a huge problem, and judging from their previous actions, these extraordinarily powerful individuals seemed inclined toward the government’s side.

At the same time, the abilities displayed by Charles and Erik left the CIA’s senior officials conflicted. They were wary on one hand, yet also felt that having such power on their side was an excellent thing. Who knew what troubles might arise in the future? Perhaps these people’s abilities could solve them.

Just like this crisis. If Charles and Erik had not helped uncover the truth and eliminate the mastermind, Sebastian Shaw, America and the Soviet Union—two nuclear powers—would have erupted into a serious conflict because of the provocations of a small group, perhaps even dragging all humanity into Nuclear War.

But it still came down to the same issue. Some people firmly believed that mutants posed a threat to ordinary humans, so they strongly opposed "bringing in" Charles and the others.

The two factions were locked in a tug-of-war. Since those at the top could not reach a unified conclusion, the resulting attitude seemed as though they were ignoring everything Charles and the others had done and sacrificed.

The young mutants did not understand the twists and turns involved. Hank understood, but he would not say anything that would make his companions angry. Charles, armed with sufficient knowledge and memories of the future, understood the key issue but did not particularly care.

"Compared to being directly targeted as monsters, the current situation is much better."

The lack of an official stance proved there were still voices within the government supporting them. If they continued working hard, perhaps they could secure a better living environment for mutants.

They did not need to be treated exactly the same as ordinary people, but at the very least, they should not become humanity’s public enemy.

"Personally, I suggest that your mutant academy cooperate more with the government. Those politicians are practical people. If you always keep mutants apart from society, they will not care about any objective facts. They’ll only treat you as enemies, because that meets many people’s expectations and earns them enough prestige."

Yinsen shrugged. "That’s their capital for continuing to climb higher."

He strolled with Charles through the sprawling estate, discussing some matters of the future along the way.

"I originally thought that staying away from such things would keep mutants from becoming tools in other people’s struggles. Reality proved that I was far too naive."

Charles did not have any better solution. He had originally wanted mutants to stay away from conflicts, believing that would keep them clear of trouble. But reality had proven that even if you did not go looking for trouble, trouble would still come looking for you.

The mutant population was growing larger and larger, making it impossible for them to hide themselves away. The social conflicts caused by all kinds of superpowered crimes could not be avoided simply by hiding away and running a school.

So hiding away and living quietly was definitely not an option. That was a dead end. "History" had already proven that.

Since they could not hide, they might as well step into the spotlight. After suggesting that Charles form the X-Men, Yinsen proposed using his immense wealth to build alliances with certain politicians. The X-Men would become an officially recognized special police force dedicated to superpowered crimes, continually earning the approval of ordinary people through righteous and admirable deeds.

"Do not try to make the X-Men an independent vigilante force. That would only bring trouble upon you and every mutant, Charles."

Sometimes, whether people saw you as righteous heroes or an extremely dangerous violent organization depended on that one point alone.

Professor Charles from his previous life had done many things worthy of criticism. On one hand, he complained that ordinary people would not accept mutants; on the other, he ran his own little kingdom. There, mutants only listened to Charles. They ignored America’s Constitution, criminal code, and every other law. They recognized only Professor Charles and did not care who the American president was. Whoever sat in office would have to crush you without mercy.

"Can doing this truly bring mutants a better future?"

"At least it can ensure that mutants do not become the public enemy of all humanity, leading everyone to find ways to wipe them all out once and for all."

Charles fell silent. He could doubt whether this method would work, but he could not deny that his previous approach truly did not.

The two circled the enormous mansion and returned to the front entrance, where they happened to see Erik reading on the lawn.

Ever since being told that the young Magneto needed to read more if he wanted to become stronger, Erik had begun carrying a book wherever he went. Even without using Magnetic Field energy to enhance himself, Erik’s learning ability still far surpassed that of ordinary people. Through self-study, he had already reviewed everything up through high school and was currently teaching himself university-level material, mainly physics, with astronomy and other subjects mixed in.

"I’m just worried that mutants will become tools for certain people. We’ll give everything, only to end up with none of what we wanted."

Charles’s concerns were not unreasonable. After all, everyone knew what those people were like: they had neither integrity nor credibility.

"That’s why you cannot simply keep trying to please them. You should show some muscle when appropriate."

Charles had handled this terribly. He clearly possessed the power to destroy all humanity in an instant, yet anyone could treat him like a weakling and squeeze him whenever they wished. Every time, Charles chose to let things go, which only encouraged certain people to become even more arrogant.

"Not everyone can be reasoned with. Many people wave righteous banners while secretly pursuing vile goals. Do you think reasoning works on people like that?"

Take the Weapon X Program. Those people went on and on about the mutant threat, repeatedly stirring up public hostility toward mutants. Did they truly want to protect all humanity? Don’t be ridiculous. They merely wanted a legitimate excuse to capture mutants without restraint and conduct all kinds of shameful experiments on them.

No matter how many arguments you presented to people like that, it would be useless. They had never come to reason with you in the first place. The simplest way to deal with such people was to eliminate them directly.

"But wouldn’t that make some people wary of us instead?"

"It’s a good thing if they’re wary of you. At least they’ll know not to provoke you. You have memories of the future. Those memories should have told you something."

"What?"

"Were more young mutants under your protection captured, or were more mutants from the Brotherhood of Mutants formed by Magneto captured?"

Charles was speechless again. Clearly, more mutants on his side had been captured. The other side had calculated that even if they seized his people, he could not do much about it. At most, he would send the X-Men to rescue them. Retaliation? He had never even considered it.

But if they poked Magneto, that powder keg would kill their entire families in minutes without negotiation.

"Now that Erik is standing with you, I believe he’ll be more than willing to do some things that you don’t want to do, but have no choice but to do."

Charles nodded helplessly. Perhaps Erik had agreed to stay because he had thought of that as well?

He then considered the events of the coming decades and several of his important future companions.

It was currently 1960. Phoenix, Jean Grey, would not be born for another few years, and her powers would awaken much later still. Cyclops and Storm would also be born over the next few years. He should make some early preparations and keep track of these children at all times, lest something happen before they had the chance to grow up.

Yinsen was pondering similar matters. The original trilogy was set around the year 2000, but that Timeline had later been overwritten by Days of Future Past, so it could be ignored.

He was currently in the world of the new trilogy. The first installment had a clear temporal clue: the Missile Crisis. It corresponded to the year 1960, the era he was currently in.

Days of Future Past, the second film of the new trilogy, involved two Timelines. The future one could be ignored, while the era inhabited by the young Professor X was clear: 1973.

Although Apocalypse, the third film, did not explicitly state its exact time period, one detail revealed when the story truly took place: several young mutants went out to see the newly released Star Wars Episode III, which premiered in 1983.

Yinsen was calculating this because he was considering whether there were still any benefits he could gain here. Quietly waiting through the plot and then collecting a few more rewards was completely impossible. With a time span of more than twenty years, all he could do for now was stare helplessly.

His control over the Space-Time Pointer was indeed growing stronger. Sooner or later, he would break through that time limit. But he had not done so yet, and he still could not remain for more than a year.

No matter how he counted, the only thing he seemed able to do was release Apocalypse ahead of time. But what would be the point of releasing that guy? Apocalypse could enhance mutants’ powers, but Yinsen was not a mutant.

On top of that, Apocalypse was extremely self-centered and was clearly suffering from an advanced case of chuunibyou. He was not someone who could be communicated with normally.

"Let Charles or the future Dark Phoenix deal with that idiot Apocalypse."

After setting Apocalypse aside, many familiar X-Men had not even been born yet. Even if he wanted to recruit some mutants, he had no targets. For a moment, Yinsen did not know what he should do.

Aside from chatting nonsense with Charles and imagining the future every day, he worked hard to digest the mass of Mental Power that old Charles had given him, further increasing his strength.