Magneto slowly descended from the sky and landed in front of Lu Yifang. Looking somewhat excited, he said, "Child, your power is truly asto·······."
However, before he could finish, Lu Yifang interrupted him. Looking at Magneto descending from the sky, the corner of Lu Yifang's mouth curled upward.
"Magneto, if you were still on the Statue of Liberty, you'd be a real nuisance with my current strength. But since you've already come down, you can't blame me for what happens next."
Magneto's expression changed at once. He hurriedly waved his hands and explained, "Wait, what are you trying to do? Don't attack me. I have something I want to discuss with you."
"Enough talk. Take this." As Lu Yifang spoke, he stomped on the surface of the water. A massive wave suddenly surged up, engulfed Magneto in an instant, and swept him toward the shore of Liberty Island.
"Cough, cough!" When the wave receded, Old Magneto was on the shore, coughing violently in a sorry state.
By then, Lu Yifang had already stormed over. Old Magneto, who had finally managed to stand up, hurriedly waved his hands.
"Wait a moment. There's been a misunderstanding. I can explain—ouch!"
The moment Magneto finished speaking, Lu Yifang had already pinned him to the ground. Fortunately, as a Mutant, Magneto had a decent physique. Otherwise, for an old man, being tossed around like this would have nearly killed him—or at least stripped several layers off his hide.
"Damn it, can't you be reasonable and let me finish speaking?" Pinned to the ground, Magneto shouted the exact same line Lu Yifang had used earlier, his voice full of indignation.
"What? Be reasonable? Fine." Lu Yifang immediately stopped.
"You should have said that earlier. Then you wouldn't have suffered all this. Beating up an old man wasn't what I wanted either. I'm a peace-loving, younger-and-elder-respecting, newly minted capitalist good youth." Although Lu Yifang said this, his body was quite honest. He plopped himself down on Magneto's back.
"Didn't I already say that? You rushed over and attacked me without asking any questions!" Magneto said angrily.
"Oh, is that so?" Lu Yifang gave an awkward chuckle.
"I thought you were trying to pull something, since Professor X had already warned me before I came. He said that if I wanted to reason with you properly, I had to beat you down first."
Magneto clenched his fists and ground his teeth in secret. Charles, you bastard. I treated you as my closest friend, and this is how you set me up? I'll remember this. Just wait. If I get the chance next time, I'll stuff something even more stimulating into your Cerebro.
Having successfully redirected Magneto's hatred toward Professor X, Lu Yifang rubbed his nose and wondered whether he should give Professor X a warning. After thinking it over, however, he ultimately decided that he would tell him only if Professor X agreed to increase his scholarship.
"Child, will you tell me your name?" Although Magneto was being sat on by Lu Yifang, he did not use his powers to resist. Instead, he intended to talk things over with him like this.
"Lu Yifang," Lu Yifang answered simply.
"How did you get into Charles's school? What about your family?" Magneto asked tentatively, wanting to learn more about Lu Yifang's circumstances.
"My parents disappeared seven years ago. After that, I was sent to an orphanage. My powers awakened last week, and Professor X found me. He offered me what I thought were excellent terms, so I went to his school." Lu Yifang spoke frankly. There was nothing about these matters that he needed to hide.
"Oh. That's truly unfortunate, my child." Magneto said this aloud, but his eyes had already lit up.
Did I hear that right? Charles only found this boy last week. Doesn't that mean he hasn't yet been poisoned by Charles's 'love and peace' indoctrination? He's still an uncarved gem.
No. A promising child like this absolutely cannot be left for that fellow Charles to ruin. I have a duty to do something.
"Yifang." To draw closer to him, Magneto had already consciously dropped Lu Yifang's surname. At that moment, he was like a gentle elder with a wealth of experience, beginning to pass his wisdom on to the younger generation.
"Do you know that you're a Level 5 mutant?"
"I'm a Level 5 mutant?" Lu Yifang looked at Magneto in surprise.
"I only know that my powers are very strong. As for this mutant ranking system, Professor X never mentioned it to me."
Hmph, I knew Charles wouldn't tell him. That bastard never wants promising children to know their potential. He has to understand that he's wasting their gifts.
If I hadn't discovered Lu Yifang, would he have tried to cripple another Level 5 mutant, just like Jean Grey? I absolutely won't let something like that happen again.
"Damn it." Just as Magneto was secretly making up his mind, Lu Yifang's frustrated voice reached him.
"You're disappointed in Charles, aren't you?" Magneto said in a distant tone. Smearing his old friend in front of his student was one of Magneto's specialties.
"I am a little. More accurately, though, I feel like I got the short end of the stick. I was wondering why that bald old man was so eager to invite me to his school and offered such generous terms. So that was the reason. If I'd known, I shouldn't have held back then. I should have demanded more benefits. At the very least, he definitely would have agreed to a private dorm room." Lu Yifang wore a deeply regretful expression.
A private dorm room? What the hell is this? How is that even disappointment? Magneto no longer knew how to complain internally. Is that something a normal person would think about······? Wait, that does seem like something a normal person would think about. Could it be that I······
Magneto hurriedly dragged that dangerous line of thought back and began changing the subject.
"As a mutant, have you sensed the world's hostility toward us? The discrimination from those foolish mort······ ordinary people?"
"A little," Lu Yifang said calmly.
A little? Those people are already planning to create the Mutant Registration Act, mark us all, and lock us up, and you still say 'a little'?
Are you going to think it's a bit excessive only after they send us all to laboratories and dissect us one by one?
Of course, Magneto kept those words to himself. He naturally would not say them in front of Lu Yifang. Right now, he was working hard to raise Lu Yifang's opinion of him.
Thinking about it carefully, Magneto suddenly felt that Lu Yifang's attitude was perfectly normal. After all, Lu Yifang had only just awakened his powers and Professor X had found him immediately, which meant he had never experienced the world's hostility. He did not hate ordinary people either.
Seeing that he could not make a breakthrough on that front, Magneto fell silent for a moment before hurriedly changing the subject. "Child, do you know why I went to such lengths to create this device?"
"I know a little. But unfortunately, your device is still in the experimental stage and has massive flaws. Your experiment cannot possibly succeed." Lu Yifang lowered his head and looked at Magneto.
"You think so too?" When Magneto had previously tied up Cyclops and the others for his experiments, Storm had already told him the same thing. But at the time, Magneto had been caught up in the fervor of imminent success. How could he possibly have believed Storm?
"Before coming here, I took some time to watch a video. Its subject was Senator Kelly, whom you captured for your experiment. Not only had all the cells in his body died, but when his powers went out of control, he directly turned into a mass of unknown liquid." Lu Yifang explained.
"Oh, my God. What have I done?" Magneto muttered in disbelief. He believed Lu Yifang because he had calmed down by then. Moreover, he had already failed, so Lu Yifang had no reason to deceive him like this.
In fact, there was scientific basis for beating up the big villain first and reasoning with him afterward. Only then could he calm down and think things through.
For example, Old Magneto was questioning his entire life now. He had always possessed extraordinary talent for courting disaster and making a huge scene, and only now did he realize how badly he had screwed up.
If he had turned everyone in New York into mutants, it would have been an enormous news story, but overall, it should have benefited mutants. In particular, many heads of state and executives from powerful nations happened to be attending meetings in New York. Those additional ten million or so mutants could have accomplished a great deal.
But if the experiment failed and everyone in New York died, it would become a colossal disaster. Mutants and ordinary people alike would suffer a devastating loss.
Old Magneto's ideal was for mutants to flourish, and this was absolutely not what he wanted to see.
After thinking it all through, Old Magneto immediately became dispirited. But at that moment, Lu Yifang spoke.
"Although your actions this time were far too extreme, I approve of your idea."
"What? What did you say?" Magneto raised his head in confusion and stared at Lu Yifang in disbelief. He wondered whether he was simply too old and his ears had stopped working properly.
"I said that I believe mutants are the next stage of human evolution. Mutants are humanity's future." Lu Yifang looked at Magneto and spoke with utmost seriousness.
Before you continue