Aftermath of the Incident

The morning's noisy sounds woke Lu Yifang. He rubbed his eyes and climbed out of bed.

"Awake, buddy!" Fireman John turned around and greeted Lu Yifang.

He was playing a game in front of the TV. The characters on screen kept shouting sounds like "Adoken, Houyuken." Right, he was playing King of Fighters, and his chosen character was none other than the fire-wielding Kyo Kusanagi.

His skills looked pretty good—he had easily beaten several characters and showed no fear even facing Orochi.

"Where's Bobby?" Lu Yifang asked with a yawn.

"Right over there." John pointed toward the balcony, where a crew-cut youth was carefully watering a potted plant.

"Morning!" Noticing Lu Yifang was awake, Bobby greeted him warmly.

"Morning to you both." Lu Yifang had already gotten out of bed and started washing up in the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, refreshed and clear-headed, Lu Yifang walked out and waved at the two. "Come on, let's go grab breakfast."

"No need, I've got enough here." John pointed at the pile of snacks in front of him.

"Oh, is that so?" Lu Yifang said, then picked up a bag of chips from the floor and started eating them casually.

"Hey, you can't do that! That was my last bag of chips." John was about to snatch it back, but the situation on the TV screen suddenly reversed.

Startled, John quickly turned his attention back to the TV. After a flurry of frantic button-mashing, his Kyo Kusanagi was KO'd. At the same time, the bag of chips had already been wolfed down by Lu Yifang.

"Now can we go eat breakfast?" Lu Yifang tossed the empty chip bag aside and said calmly.

"Fine." Looking dejected, John stood up, and the three of them headed to the cafeteria.

Three days had passed since the Liberty Island incident. Delivering Magneto to Professor X had fulfilled Lu Yifang's mission. As for how the Professor would deal with his old friend, or what the aftermath of the Liberty Island incident would be, that was none of Lu Yifang's concern. For now, he was just an ordinary mutant student waiting for class.

Speaking of class, it seemed the school's start date had been delayed again. The teachers had all gone missing—one after another, again and again. It looked like normal classes wouldn't be possible this week either.

What kind of bizarre school was this? If parents asked why their kids had poor grades, were the students supposed to say the teachers never showed up because they were too busy saving the world?

Such a ridiculous excuse would definitely earn them a double beating from both parents.

Students wanted holidays, sure, but having a National Day break every week got boring too. Wouldn't it be nice to have five days off and only two days of class each week?

Lu Yifang wondered if the school had something like a Student Union. If not, he'd start one himself. They needed an organization that could stand up to the teachers and protect the students' legitimate rights—especially the sacred right to attend class.

After three days of rest, bored out of his mind, Lu Yifang was mulling over his plan when he unconsciously arrived at the cafeteria. The Mutant School didn't have many people—at most a hundred or so. During this holiday period, even fewer were visible in the cafeteria.

In the center of the cafeteria, a large TV was set up, broadcasting news about "Liberty Island."

Lu Yifang ate his breakfast while watching the news. Soon, he had a general understanding of the Liberty Island incident. The authorities had officially labeled it a common terrorist attack, with the goal of destroying the Statue of Liberty as a demonstration. The strange light orb was explained away as some new type of optical weapon.

Notably, S.H.I.E.L.D. had also gotten involved. A S.H.I.E.L.D. spokesperson stated they would definitely catch the culprit and bring them to justice, in the name of democracy and freedom.

As for the word "mutant," it appeared only once in the entire news report, and that was just a brief clarification claiming the incident had nothing to do with mutants.

Lu Yifang couldn't help but feel a secret shock. Professor X's methods were far more powerful than his own—he had actually managed to suppress this matter.

But if he thought about it carefully, Professor X, as one of the most powerful mental powers users, living in a so-called democratic and free country, was undoubtedly terrifying. If he wanted to support a senator, he could easily dig up all the dirt on their opponents using his abilities. And which politician had completely clean hands?

He could even use his mental power to sway public opinion or manipulate someone into shouting "Hail Hydra!" in public.

Of course, Professor X had principles. He would never do the latter two things—they violated the peace-oriented stance he had always championed and would cross the bottom lines of other hidden forces.

But that didn't mean Professor X had done nothing at all. Without a doubt, Professor X was a good man, but he was also an excellent leader. So don't expect him to be like Captain America, God's righteous man.

This time, it was clear Professor X had used his influence in the government to successfully shift the blame from mutants to terrorists, calming the storm.

Right, this storm could be considered settled. Sure, there were still angry public protests, but did anyone really expect this to escalate into another "9/11"?

Even though the Statue of Liberty was one of America's symbols, not many people had died in this incident. Besides, this was the Marvel world. In this world, there were more than a dozen evil beings who wanted to blow up the White House and had the power to do so.

A random villain popping up to blow up a building or rob a bank was old news to New Yorkers. With their nerves long since toughened by constant training, it would probably take aliens bombing New York to stop them from calmly enjoying their afternoon tea.

Since this matter could already be declared over, Lu Yifang lost interest and focused on eating his breakfast. But then John pulled out his phone, opened a video, and mysteriously leaned in close to Lu Yifang.

"What are you showing me?" Lu Yifang asked curiously.

"The truth about the Liberty Island incident, of course!" John said excitedly.

As he spoke, the video started playing. The Statue of Liberty appeared first, and at its top, two figures could faintly be seen facing off. Seeing this, Lu Yifang realized the video recorded his battle with Magneto.

Fortunately, the image was very blurry—it was nighttime, after all, and Storm had created fog. Honestly, the fact that they could make out human figures at all made Lu Yifang admire the videographer's skill.

Unsurprisingly, the comments below the video were full of complaints. Everyone was trashing the quality, saying it was worse than an adult film, and most questioned the video's authenticity.

"These foolish muggles actually doubt this video's realness? How ridiculous. The one controlling metal in that fight is clearly the famous Magneto." When John mentioned Magneto, his eyes lit up, showing great admiration for him.

"More than Magneto, I'm curious about who could fight him to a standstill," Bobby chimed in.

"How should I know? You think it might be the Professor?" John turned to ask.

"Do you think the Professor, in his wheelchair, could fight like that?" Bobby rolled his eyes at John and analyzed calmly.

"Besides, even though the video is blurry, you can clearly tell the figure is a young man. At the oldest, he wouldn't be over forty."

"Someone young enough to fight Magneto evenly? Damn, I've made up my mind." John slammed the table and stood up excitedly.

"I'm going to find him and make him my boss."

"Cough, cough!" Lu Yifang, who had been drinking milk, nearly spat it out.

"Yifang, you don't have to react so dramatically just to laugh at me," John said, annoyed.

"It's nothing, nothing. Go on." Lu Yifang waved his hand and lowered his head to continue eating his bread.

Bobby, however, shot a suspicious glance at Lu Yifang. He remembered that on that night, Lu Yifang had gone out to see Professor X and hadn't returned until very late. Could it be...?

Thinking this, Bobby quickly shook his head. No way, impossible. My roommate can't be that awesome!