Prison

In fact, the Mutant Secret Prison was not as far away as Zhang Ye had imagined. It was located along the border of Texas, disguised on the surface as a military base with a logistics facility similar to a Military Factory. The prison itself was hidden underground, and there was even a railway line not far away.

That railway had long since been abandoned. It had been built during World War II to transport supplies, but after the war ended, the area was designated a secret military base, making the railway impossible to use. However, with World War III about to begin, it was likely that speeding trains would soon be running along those tracks again.

Far from the military base, Zhang Ye and Pietro got out of the car. They would probably have to continue on foot from there.

"How are we getting in?" Pietro felt deeply uneasy at the thought of returning to his old haunt. Even wearing a helmet that blocked telepathy did not make him feel safe. He only felt that President X could seize control of his mind at any moment.

Zhang Ye was not surprised by Pietro's fear. The kid had been traumatized. Several times in the car, he had woken from nightmares in terror. Sometimes, he had even hallucinated President X's voice inside his head.

Honestly, being able to persuade Pietro to return to the Mutant Secret Prison and steal from President X's secret chamber again made Zhang Ye feel he had real potential as a world-class con artist.

"Wait until dark. Use the cover of night to get me inside, then go sabotage the entire base's power supply system. I've explained this plan to you several times already, haven't I? Don't tell me you still haven't remembered it?" Zhang Ye frowned.

"Of course I remember. It's just... what if? I mean, what if President X uses his telepathy to see through our thoughts beforehand, then sets a trap and waits for us to walk right into it?" Pietro asked nervously.

"He won't." Pietro had asked similar questions the entire way, and Zhang Ye was truly getting tired of it. "Charles has been missing for a long time. Look at how chaotic the border has become—he still hasn't shown himself. I'm guessing something happened to him, so this is the perfect time for us to add fuel to the fire."

"Besides, I gave you the helmet to wear. I'm not scared, so what are you scared of? With that helmet, even if you run into Charles, you can kill him in a second. He should be afraid of you, not the other way around. What are you afraid of?"

"Right, right, right. He should be afraid of me. He should be afraid of me..." Pietro patted his chest as if hypnotizing himself, but soon spoke again. "Zhang, don't you think just the two of us is a little risky?"

"Then what do you suggest?" Zhang Ye rubbed his temples.

"How about we find some desperados? Those gangs in Washington D.C. would do nicely. Wait here—I can bring several hundred people over in one night." Pietro spoke with a serious expression.

"Get out of here with that nonsense. Several hundred people?" Zhang Ye had known Pietro would not say anything useful. "Gangs? How did you even come up with that? In times like these, anyone could betray you. Are you asking them to help, or sending them to their deaths?"

The two chatted idly, and before long, the sky darkened as the vast Gobi Desert sank into darkness.

"Be careful. Don't be so impatient like last time. My body can't handle it." Zhang Ye spoke while lying on Pietro's back, then immediately regretted it because it sounded strange.

But Pietro, tense as he was, did not notice. He gave no reply. Once Zhang Ye was ready, he burst into a sprint, drawing closer and closer to the military base like a shooting star.

Having escaped from prison several times, Pietro was quite familiar with the security here. Before long, without alerting a single guard, he arrived at the Mutant Secret Prison hidden beneath the military base.

When Zhang Ye came back to his senses and his vision cleared again, he felt his stomach churning once more. This time, however, he managed to hold it down.

Looking around, he found himself in a lounge. It was an extremely crude room with only an interior window and two bunk beds. Two soldiers lay sleeping on the beds, but with Pietro's help, they would never wake up again.

The walls had long since peeled, the bedframes were covered in rust, and an unbearable stench hung in the air. For an instant, Zhang Ye felt as though he had returned to Emma's underground laboratory. "How many years has this place been around?"

"I'm not sure." Pietro shook his head and answered honestly. "When I came in, I heard it had already existed for decades. Supposedly, it had been here since World War II. Back then, soldiers drove mutants onto the battlefield and used them as living targets. They were not allowed to retreat—anyone who did was killed. Those mutants could only charge forward."

"After the war ended, some of the surviving mutants were secretly executed, while others were sent here for all kinds of experiments. But they never discovered anything, until President X came to power and took over this place. That was when it truly became a prison for mutants."

"So there was history like that." Zhang Ye sighed.

"Of course, that's only what I heard. I wasn't alive in that era, so I can't say whether it's true or not. But I think it's probably true. After all, I've really seen plenty of people like me. Most of them were driven insane by this power."

"I understand. That's why I think this world has long been rotten to the core." Zhang Ye changed into a soldier's uniform.

"Remember, the entire prison is shaped like the character 'hui,' with four levels in total. The farther down you go, the more uncontrollable the mutants imprisoned there become. I suggest you give up on the fourth level. Start from the third level and work upward. That old bastard Fisk's office and room are at the end of the corridor on this floor. The stairs down to the next level are on the right side of this room."

Pietro took several sets of keys from his pocket. Clearly, in that short time, he had already done quite a few things without anyone noticing.

"Okay, I remember." Zhang Ye took three sets of keys from Pietro. There were actually four levels and four corresponding sets of keys, but Zhang Ye thought the same way Pietro did. From the beginning, they had never intended to release the mutants on the lowest level directly.

The reason was simple: there were too many uncontrollable factors. Zhang Ye was only an ordinary person, and every mutant he released brought a corresponding danger. If he let out some completely uncontrollable lunatic, Zhang Ye himself would be the first to die.