Next Stop

"Why?"

Looking at Nick Fury's corpse, disbelief still lingered on his face. He had died with his eyes open. Pietro could not help but ask, "He was also someone who opposed President X. He should have been able to help us, right?"

Zhang Ye did not answer immediately. Instead, he took several deep breaths. Since arriving in this world, he had seen countless corpses, but this was the first time he had killed someone himself.

After a pause, Zhang Ye switched on the pistol's safety and said, "Like those women who had fallen so low they worked the streets outside bars, he was no longer the hero I remembered. The Nick Fury I knew was an unyielding warrior, a Wallfacer determined to protect humanity."

As he spoke, Zhang Ye looked again at Nick Fury's body on the ground. "This guy was nothing more than a stray dog scared out of his wits by President X. Every time I mentioned President X, there was deep fear in his eyes. What kind of help do you think someone like that could give us?"

"You were worried that he would betray us because he was afraid of President X?" Pietro quickly grasped the key point.

"Maybe. But I didn't dare gamble, and I couldn't gamble. This was for our safety." Zhang Ye took the Safe House key from the corpse, then turned to look Pietro straight in the eye. "I have only ever had one goal: survive at all costs."

Hearing that, Pietro looked at Zhang Ye's serious, resolute face and could not help remembering the pain he had experienced in this world ever since his mutant powers awakened.

Perhaps, in this environment, freedom and life itself were luxuries to everyone in this world. Even staying alive seemed so difficult.

Thinking of this, Pietro took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"I understand. I understand!"

In the suburbs of Washington D.C., Zhang Ye arrived at the Safe House Nick Fury had mentioned without obstruction.

Fury had been right. The place truly had everything Zhang Ye needed. There were not only all kinds of supplies, but also an ample stock of weapons and equipment. It greatly boosted Zhang Ye's confidence.

After gathering intelligence for so long, combined with his conversation with Nick Fury, Zhang Ye was now certain that this world was one of the Marvel Multiverse's universes. Moreover, it appeared to be a catastrophe-ravaged universe—strictly speaking, a discarded universe on the verge of destruction.

The "superhumans" here had all died violent deaths in various accidents. Nor was it just them—the entire universe's combat strength had been severely diminished. One only needed to look at the corpse of the "invincible Galactus" floating in the Solar System to see that.

Iron Man's Mark Armor had not undergone dozens of upgrades, and Hank Pym and his wife's research into the Quantum Realm and Pym Particles was far from comprehensive. Heroes who should have possessed formidable strength could be taken down here with nothing more than a handgun or a missile.

Yet this was undoubtedly good news for Zhang Ye. After all, he was only an ordinary man. If President X of this world truly possessed abilities comparable to those in the Prime Universe or Movie Universe, resisting him would become exponentially more difficult.

Zhang Ye had watched quite a few Marvel movies and read some comics in his previous life, but he had not seen everything. At the end of the twentieth century, Marvel had released plenty of short comic series, and for various reasons, some universes' comic runs had been discontinued. Therefore, Zhang Ye had no idea what kind of creation this universe was.

It took the two of them only five minutes to gather the Safe House supplies. With Quicksilver, a speedster, helping them, the time needed for hauling was drastically reduced.

There was a lot in the Safe House, but Zhang Ye could not take everything at once. He could only select what was useful. Most of it was high-calorie food, needed to sustain Quicksilver's consumption so the kid would not be too hungry to move before they even began their operation.

It was worth mentioning that Zhang Ye had actually found a suit of Iron Man armor there. However, it was not the high-tech suit he remembered, but a very old-fashioned Iron Suit that did not even have artificial intelligence inside.

Zhang Ye found it hard to imagine fighting while wearing such a bulky thing. He would probably become a living target the moment he put it on.

Still, it was not a total loss. Zhang Ye removed the armor's left arm. Its left hand could fire concentrated energy beams, essentially a simplified Repulsor Ray, while the energy plate on its forearm could gather various forms of energy to recharge it. With this thing, he would at least have some means of protecting himself.

After preparing everything, Zhang Ye pulled out his notebook from his bag. It was an old, battered notebook stuffed with newspapers, sticky notes, and the like. The information inside represented all of Zhang Ye's gains.

Opening it, Zhang Ye skillfully flipped to the page he needed. It was densely filled with all kinds of notes, and a clipping cut from a newspaper had been pasted onto it.

Headline: Emma Frost's Good Deed: State of Benn's Largest Orphanage Opens!

The accompanying photograph showed a woman with white hair, dressed in snow-white ceremonial robes. Her lovely face carried a warm, sunshine-like smile as she stood at the entrance of the Orphanage, gently waving to the reporters below.

Judging from the article and photo alone, anyone would have felt goodwill toward the woman named Emma Frost.

After all, being willing to spend money to establish an Orphanage in such chaotic times went beyond simply being a good person. She seemed practically like a bodhisattva reincarnated!

But Zhang Ye did not believe that the illustrious White Queen, one of the founders of the Hellfire Club, could remain so untainted in this world. There had to be some hidden truth behind it.

And that was precisely the next destination of Zhang Ye's journey.

After all, psychic abilities were not without counters. In Zhang Ye's memories, Magneto, Professor X's old rival, possessed a helmet capable of blocking all telepathy. Magneto in this world might already be dead, but that did not mean the helmet did not exist.

Since arriving in this world, Zhang Ye had read many newspapers to better understand it. In one newspaper photograph, he had seen a man wearing a helmet. His name was—Sebastian Shaw.

In other universes, Sebastian was the founder of the Hellfire Club, a villain who had given countless X-Men headaches.

But here, he was a member of the American Congress and one of the people who had once run for president. However, after President X took office, he disappeared. The last place he had been seen was near the Orphanage Emma had now established. It was difficult not to draw certain conclusions.

If anyone else had appeared in a newspaper wearing a helmet, Zhang Ye might have hesitated. But Sebastian was different. Besides, he had once intended to run for president against Charles, so finding himself protective gear capable of resisting telepathy would have been perfectly normal.

Therefore, to improve his odds against President X, Zhang Ye was determined to obtain that helmet. Most people in this world were not normal, and Zhang Ye did not dare gamble on whether he would end up like Deadpool.

In the comic Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, after Charles probed Deadpool's memories, Deadpool discovered that the world was only a comic book and ultimately suffered brain death because he could not accept it. But that had been a normal Charles. The Charles of this world was a genuine madman!

"This woman is beautiful. Looks like this is our next stop." Pietro leaned closer.

"Yes. There's no time to rest. We need to leave as soon as possible." Zhang Ye closed the notebook.