"My lord, have you awakened telekinesis or something?"
Razor Fist swallowed as he looked at the metal floating around them, clicking his tongue in amazement.
"Look, nothing around us that isn't metal is floating. It must be metal manipulation, or control over magnetic fields like Magneto!" Sharp-eyed Becky spotted the truth at once.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The alloy panels on the walls, the light fixtures on the ceiling, every metal object in the lab began to tremble, spin, rearrange and deform uncontrollably.
"Is this... metal manipulation?!"
Dr. Burstein, Becky, Razor Fist and Ching-Lin all stared in astonishment, then envy appeared on their faces.
Becky in particular felt that his lord was incredibly lucky to have awakened such a powerful ability.
And it looked as though he could even break metal down and rearrange it. Not even Magneto could manipulate it on a microscopic level with such ease.
This had probably already reached, or at least had the potential to reach, the level of a level-four Mutant!
At that moment, Wenwu broke the restraints and rose from the medicinal pool.
"This is..."
Wenwu's pupils contracted as he stared in disbelief at the metal floating around him.
He could clearly feel that the metal was no longer cold, lifeless matter, but an extension of his body.
"So that's how it is..."
He suddenly smiled, his laughter echoing through the quiet room, tinged with understanding and ecstasy.
"I never expected to awaken a superpower!" Wenwu couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Congratulations on awakening an ability, my lord!" Razor Fist, Ching-Lin and Becky immediately stepped forward and bowed.
"Congratulations on unexpectedly gaining an ability, Mr. Wenwu!" Dr. Burstein added, his face full of delight.
Unable to contain his excitement, Wenwu nodded repeatedly.
With a thought, he let the floating metal fall, leaving only one piece hovering above his palm, constantly changing shape.
"You can rearrange metal at will. This ability is outrageous!" Dr. Burstein exclaimed in amazement.
Wenwu, however, shook his head in disappointment. "It's not the kind of rearrangement you're thinking of. I can't manipulate atoms; I can only change the shape of metal. At most, I can compress it and remove impurities."
"In other words, I can only change its appearance. The metal itself stays the same. I'm just using my mind to bend, stretch, flatten and shape it directly."
"I see... Even so, it's incredibly powerful!" Dr. Burstein marveled. Even with that limitation, wasn't it terrifying enough?
"By the way, my lord, how far does your control reach?" Becky asked, his eyes full of envy.
"One hundred meters," Wenwu replied frankly with a faint smile.
"How far? One hundred meters?!" Dr. Burstein nearly bit his tongue in shock.
"That's right, one hundred meters. Within that range, I can control any metal as easily as moving my own limbs."
Wenwu explained patiently, his voice calm. "As for how much metal I can control at once, I don't yet know my limit."
He reflected that this matched the hundred-meter radius covered by his mental power exactly. He didn't know whether it was pure coincidence or whether his mental power and the range of his metal manipulation were closely connected.
Dr. Burstein listened, dumbfounded. Such an outrageous ability could cover a hundred meters?
Didn't that mean everything within a hundred meters was Wenwu's absolute domain?
If he could control more than a ton of metal at once, he would be a walking natural disaster in human form!
"Draw a vial of blood and test it for the X-Gene," Wenwu instructed, turning his head.
After all, not everyone on Earth with superpowers was a Mutant. They could also be an Inhuman.
The Inhumans were modified humans left over from the Kree Empire's experiments on Earth tens of thousands of years ago. They usually needed a Terrigen Crystal to awaken.
But he had awakened directly under the stimulation of the Spider Serum this time, so there was a very high chance it was a Mutant gene.
After sending Dr. Burstein to run the test, Wenwu turned to testing the changes in his body after the Spider Serum injection.
A series of tests showed that his strength had reached a staggering thirty tons, and that wasn't even his limit.
His dynamic vision could now clearly track a bullet in flight.
As for his Spider-Sense, not only could it sense the hostile intent of a gun pointed at him from a great distance, it could also make his body dodge instinctively, and even detect poisons harmful to his body.
However, Wenwu looked at his wrists and saw that he didn't have glands that could secrete spider silk on their own like Peter Parker.
His ability to cling to objects was the same. His palms had densely packed, retractable microscopic hooks that were hard to distinguish with the naked eye, enough to let him cling to any surface as though walking on level ground.
"It's better without spider silk. That would feel too strange, and besides, I don't need it."
Wenwu was relieved that he hadn't become a spider spirit.
Just as the tests ended, Dr. Burstein's results came back.
His body did indeed contain the Mutants' X-Gene!
In other words, Wenwu had really become a Mutant.
Wenwu fell silent for a moment, a jumble of emotions in his heart.
He had never expected an unawakened Mutant gene to be hidden inside him.
In this world, the vast majority of humans did not possess the X-Gene.
Only a tiny minority carried it from birth. In most, it lay dormant until puberty or a severe emotional shock awakened it, causing a mutation or giving rise to an ability.
There was also another group of latent carriers who would never awaken in their lifetimes, though awakening was not impossible if they were stimulated by special means.
"X-Gene..."
Wenwu murmured under his breath.
He couldn't help thinking of the lore from the comics.
The X-Gene was a seed of evolution planted in human genes by the Ancient Celestial Group.
If this world's lore was the same, then the X-Gene's upper limit would be terrifyingly high.
Besides Professor X and Magneto, there were Franklin Richards, who could create universes; Iceman, who controlled the water molecules of the universe; and Legion, who possessed tens of thousands of abilities and could rewrite reality.
If his X-Gene had the same potential, then his room for growth in the future would be immeasurable.
With such a powerful superpower added to his arsenal, Wenwu didn't object to becoming a Mutant.
But then... Dr. Sterns's face flashed through his mind.
When that bastard had matched him with the serum, he had definitely intended to set him up!
Wenwu left Dr. Burstein's lab and went straight to find Dr. Sterns.
Seeing Wenwu stride toward him, a trace of disappointment flickered subtly in Dr. Sterns's eyes, but it was quickly concealed by a gentle smile.
"Dr. Sterns, are you disappointed that I didn't mutate into a monster?"
Wenwu stared fixedly at him, his voice utterly cold.
"Mr. Wenwu, what are you talking about?"
Dr. Sterns shook his head gently and stepped back, a teasing smile curling at the corners of his mouth. "I should congratulate you on becoming younger. You look just like a handsome high school boy now."
"I have a Mutant's X-Gene in my body. Did you already know that when you matched me with the serum?"
Wenwu refused to back down, questioning him in an icy tone.