New Journey

Donnie walked out of his room wearing the school's custom-made combat suit. The material was excellent, with flexibility and stretch that suited him well. He carried a backpack and headed fully armed toward the school gates.

He had not said goodbye to the professor or the others. When he had asked them for a combat suit last night, it had already been equivalent to telling them he was leaving. Some things did not need to be spoken aloud; they would only intensify the sadness of parting.

This was his choice. He could not tolerate forever cowering in some corner of the world. He wanted to charge out, to spread his arms and embrace this unprecedented age—prosperous yet cruel, heroic yet desolate.

Many students stood on both sides of the road watching him. They already understood that Donnie was leaving.

"Then why are you still going? You didn't need to risk your life like this. You could have just stayed at the school."

Someone shouted at him, reminding him that there was no need for such danger. He could have stayed behind with them. Though they had not known one another for long, many of them had already accepted this young man. They understood what kind of person he was, and they all wanted to get close to him, as if Donnie possessed some mysterious quality that naturally drew people in.

Donnie did not turn around. He merely waved and walked toward the gates with his backpack. Several vehicles stood ready there, waiting for their creator.

Even through the air, one could seemingly feel that murderous chill.

Donnie was going out to kill.

Indeed, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters would also be at the center of many future events. Donnie could have stayed here, perhaps even become one of the X-Men. The professor and the others would certainly have been happy to accept him.

But Donnie did not want to do that. This was a real world, not some fantasy. No one had some ridiculous protagonist's halo; everyone was merely one among the countless living beings in this world. At most, a small handful had taken the first step while the vast majority of ordinary people remained ignorant and bewildered.

Donnie would rather be one of that small group that moved first. There were far too many terrifying enemies in the future, and he did not want to wait passively.

To be honest, deep down, Donnie had no confidence at all that he could survive battle after battle in the future. None whatsoever.

Perhaps he would last a long time, or perhaps he would fall soon. But even so, Donnie was willing to do it, because this was his own choice. At least he would not regret it too much, unlike hiding somewhere in fear and trembling, terrified that catastrophe might one day descend upon him.

Pyro John rushed over, shouting that he wanted Donnie to take him away. He wanted to follow Donnie instead of remaining here.

"Take me with you! I can fight too! My fire control is useful to you! I'm not afraid of death either!" John shouted. He did not care whether the teachers heard him. He only wanted to leave with Donnie and fight alongside him. That was the life he longed for.

"You're too weak. Taking you would be useless." Donnie did not even turn his head.

Many people watched Donnie and saw him off.

Inside an office on the third floor, the professor watched Donnie's retreating back without saying a word.

"Won't you try to persuade him to stay?" Ororo asked softly.

The professor shook his head and sighed. "I talked with him a great deal over these past few days, but there was one matter we never discussed. He understood, and so did I. Neither of us spoke of it... He and we are not on the same path. This place does not belong to him, and he belongs here even less. He belongs only to the endless wilderness. Only there can he keep running without stopping."

Ororo seemed to understand, yet not quite. She fell into thought.

Donnie left with his army: four cars and one motorcycle. The engines roared, their thunderous sound echoing through the sky, brimming with horsepower. This was his army, and he would lead them against their enemies. For a long time to come, these four cars and motorcycle would follow him through bloody battles, until they were smashed to pieces.

The sun hung high, its blazing rays scorching the heavens. A cold, stern light swept everything clean.

The rumbling gradually faded into the distance. Donnie had ultimately embarked upon the path he was meant to walk. What would the outcome be? No one knew. No one at all.

Donnie drove absentmindedly, but his mind was elsewhere. His AllSpark was constantly burning, growing brighter. That subtle, rippling energy spoke to him of its wonders.

Each time he used the AllSpark now, the pain in his head was greatly reduced. It was no longer as unbearably difficult as before. That was a good sign, showing that his AllSpark was recovering on its own.

But perhaps it was just an illusion. He always felt that the AllSpark was repairing itself more slowly, and that a deep yet invisible scar lay across it. Repairing it would be extremely difficult.

Donnie sighed helplessly. When Mutants awakened, most of their abilities were already in an uncontrollable state, let alone someone like Donnie, who had desperately overtaxed his own power.

This lack of control during a Mutant's awakening had caused tremendous losses, even leading to the innocent deaths of family members. This was also why Mutants were rejected and hated by the public.

No one wanted a potential Mutant nearby, like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment, leaving them injured or dead.

Mutants still had a long way to go before they could be accepted by the public.

Magneto's plan to exterminate ordinary humans was simply unworkable.

A million years ago, the Celestials descended upon Earth and altered primitive humanity, giving many Earthlings the X-Gene. That was the root cause of Mutants emerging among humanity.

The overwhelming majority of Earthlings possessed the X-Gene. Those in whom it was expressed were Mutants, while those in whom it remained recessive were ordinary people. Magneto kept talking about extermination, but it was fundamentally unrealistic. Magneto had simply been driven too far by human governments over the years. So many times, he had nearly been left with no way to survive. Otherwise, he would never have gone this far. If he did not kill people, they thought he was easy to bully and wanted to kill him.

Donnie thought again of how the government would create Sentinels in the future, using the X-Gene as their tracking target in order to hunt down Mutants. Yet the Sentinels went out of control. Before they had even killed many Mutants, ordinary people carrying recessive X-Genes were nearly wiped out.

And if Ultron—that ancient monster who could endlessly revive no matter how many times he was killed—was included as well, then the surviving superheroes sending Wolverine Logan to risk his life traveling through time to alter history and restart the timeline had been a choice born of desperation. Reversing the future was not so simple. Those who toyed with time would inevitably pay a terrible price.

Otherwise, the strongest being in the universe should have been the Flash, who was about to be born in Central City. With the miraculous Speed Force, he could easily travel through time and roam the corridors of space-time. If he could not defeat you, he could travel back in time, kill you as a child, then run back and happily watch as the force of temporal correction gradually erased you from countless dimensions of past and future.

But that was impossible. Those who toyed with time were bound to pay a price too great to bear.

Donnie was naturally curious about time corridors as well, but at his current level, he was not qualified to touch them.