Yet against two armed opponents with attributes comparable to his, he was still overwhelmed in an instant.
Could weapons really give them such an overwhelming advantage?
As he pondered, Clarice's concerned voice came from a short distance behind him. "Vitas, did you have another nightmare?"
In the shadows by the rooftop entrance, the black-haired girl sat with her knees bent, a comic spread across her lap.
She tilted her face up slightly, her clear eyes holding a trace of puzzlement. As far as she knew, Chen Xiao was so strong that he shouldn't keep waking with a start.
Seeing her concern, Chen Xiao sighed. "Yeah. Two people chased me with blades in my dream, hacking at me for three whole streets."
So it really had been a nightmare. Clarice blinked, looking a little stunned.
But the next second, Chen Xiao snorted. "No way. I'm not taking that lying down. I'm going back to kill them!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already lain back on the lounge chair, closed his eyes, and plunged into the virtual battlefield again.
That afternoon, after dying five times in succession, Chen Xiao finally accepted it calmly: he couldn't beat those two blade wielders.
Mentally exhausted, he sprawled on the rooftop floor and gazed up at the sky.
Though his face was pale, he showed no discouragement. Instead, his gaze was calm as he repeatedly reviewed the details of the five fights.
From collapsing at the first encounter to lasting over ten exchanges in the fifth fight, even shattering one opponent's weapon before collapsing from exhaustion, his progress was plain to see.
And that blade was no ordinary weapon; that blade technique was far from ordinary, too.
With his current speed, reflexes, and physique, ordinary blades couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes, much less cleave through a fist wrapped in golden energy.
After a long while, his lips parted slightly, and he murmured, "The blade kept vibrating at high frequency, layer upon layer, before finally unleashing the utmost destructive power."
Unfortunately, seeing through the trick was useless. He didn't know that technique at all.
Not knowing it was fine. If he could find a way to take down one of them, perhaps he could seize the relevant experience.
Unfortunately, X-Gene abilities were disabled in the virtual battlefield, making a head-on victory almost impossible.
As he considered this, a warm red quietly entered his field of vision.
"It's almost dark already."
He looked west. The setting sun was molten gold, dyeing the entire sky into silk shaded from orange to red, and he lost himself in the sight for a moment.
When he came back to his senses, he could clearly feel the surging improvement within his body. His lips curved upward, and he pushed himself up, walking toward the girl who had kept him company nearby all afternoon.
"Clarice, let's head back."
"Okay." The black-haired girl answered softly and obediently rose.
She seemed to have something on her mind today. As they went downstairs, her steps were light, and she moved a few paces ahead before asking in a low voice, "Vitas, can I photocopy the Dragon Ball comics for other people?"
Hearing the hesitation in her voice, Chen Xiao smiled. "You don't need to ask me. I gave you the comics. What you do with them is entirely up to you."
"Oh." She nodded.
"What, does someone else want to read them?"
The girl lowered her eyes and smiled. "Yeah, Kara and the others in my dorm. They flipped through the comics while I was showering yesterday, and they got hooked too."
"They kept pestering me this morning, asking to borrow them."
"But I don't want to lend this copy out... so I thought, if they really like it, I could make a few copies."
Naturally, she wouldn't lend out the books because Chen Xiao had drawn them himself, specifically for her. They held special meaning.
If her roommates hadn't kept coaxing and pleading with her, she wouldn't even have brought up photocopying them.
Chen Xiao raised a hand and rubbed her soft hair. "Make as many copies as you want. You can make a few more friends along the way, too."
With that settled, he looked at the thoughtful, sensitive black-haired girl before him. His gaze darkened slightly, and his smile faded a little.
Jean's return meant the X-Men's third battle was approaching faster.
He wondered how much longer the mutant students on this campus could keep smiling like this.
He actually hoped the big battle would come as late as possible,
He needed time. He needed to grow. As he was now, he still wasn't tough enough.
Amid Chen Xiao's worries, the next three days passed peacefully, without incident.
The weather was particularly generous, too, with clear skies every day.
Thanks to this, his strength advanced by leaps and bounds: his constitution soared to 2,600, his mental attribute approached the thousand-point mark, and his grip strength broke past 41 tons, growing ever faster.
Now, without any enhancement from his abilities, a casual punch approached a hundred tons of force. Flipping a heavy truck with one hand had become routine.
"Now that's more like it."
He lay lazily across his desk, letting the sunlight outside the window gently cover his shoulders and back as he felt every bit of strength quietly growing within his body.
At the front of the classroom, the mutant teacher Zhong Hai was explaining principles of physics.
Over a dozen mutant students sat quietly in the classroom, the atmosphere relaxed and steady.
Even if Chen Xiao could deliver a hundred tons of force with a single punch, he still had to sit obediently in class and listen.
There was no helping it. His current identity was that of a fifteen-year-old ninth grader. If he wanted to keep a low profile, he had to follow the rules and go along with everyone else.
Every time he thought about this, his head ached.
Wouldn't it have been great if he'd transmigrated into a college student, or simply an adult?
Then he wouldn't have to slog through textbooks that had nothing whatsoever to do with him. He had no intention of becoming a physicist or chemist.
Bored out of his mind, he took out his phone, fiddled with it briefly, then slipped it back into his pocket.
It was only 2006. Smartphones weren't even on the horizon yet. The old model in his hand could only ring and barely take a blurry photo. It couldn't even open a webpage.
Smartphones in the true sense would have to wait until the iPhone burst onto the scene in 2007, when touchscreens and an app ecosystem would truly ignite the era.
Accustomed to a future where a few taps let him stream shows, chat, shoot the breeze, and team up for games, Chen Xiao now couldn't even send a WeChat message. He felt utterly drained.
"All right, that's it for today."
Just as his eyelids were fighting to stay open and his head was bobbing, the teacher at the front finally closed his lesson plan and dismissed the class.
The classroom immediately erupted.
But this break was a little different from usual,
Some mutant students pulled comics from their desk drawers, flipping through the pages with a rustle;
Others gathered in groups of three or five, gesturing and arguing, their eyes shining;
Several middle school girls pattered over to Chen Xiao's desk and chattered:
"Vitas, you're amazing! Your comics are incredible!"
"Vitas, when's volume six of Dragon Ball coming out?"
"Vitas, why did Oolong's underling turn into a bull? Is it because he counts as a mutant too?"
"Vitas, can you really summon Shenron by gathering all seven Dragon Balls?"
Chen Xiao's scalp instantly tightened.
But faced with these bright-eyed girls, he couldn't exactly swing his arms and blast them away. He could only muster a gentle smile. "I'm still working out the next part of the story. Once I've figured it out, I'll start drawing right away."
"According to the setting, gathering all seven really does let you summon Shenron."
"Then can Shenron... really grant any wish?"
"Yes."
Only after he patiently answered each question did the girls disperse in satisfaction, turning to join the group in class that was enthusiastically discussing the comics.
Phew,
Chen Xiao let out a long breath. Looking up, he caught sight of the black-haired girl in the front row blinking her eyes and putting on an innocent expression. The corner of his mouth twitched.
If he'd known this would happen, he wouldn't have agreed to let her photocopy the comics for her classmates that day.
For these mutant students, whose daily activities were restricted to little more than playing ball and watching cartoons, the five volumes of Dragon Ball were like a gateway to a new world.
At first, they had only made three copies for Clarice's dorm. But word spread from ten to a hundred, and in less than three days, every elementary and middle school student in the school had a copy.
Now Chen Xiao was wildly popular at school,
Not because he had become an X-Man, nor because he had saved Scott, but because he was the author of Dragon Ball.
"Hey! Vitas!"
"Vitas, have you eaten?"
"Vitas, are you going to the cafeteria too?"
"Vitas, what kind of burger do you like best?"
"Vitas, what color under... do you think girls should wear?"
On his way to the cafeteria at noon, the elementary and middle school mutants he encountered greeted him one after another, their questions becoming increasingly outrageous.
Chen Xiao rubbed the smile that was almost frozen onto his face, turned his head, and glared at the black-haired girl snickering beside him. "Quit laughing. Keep it up, and you're not getting any tutoring tonight."
Clarice immediately stuck out her tongue, playful and ingratiating.
Over the past two days, thanks to the comics' popularity, she had grown closer to her dormmates, become more talkative, and looked considerably more animated.
And just as Chen Xiao was holding his tray and digging into lunch, a well-known pharmaceutical corporation in the outside world was holding a press conference.
"Members of the media, welcome. I am Worthington Kedes."
"Recently, a laboratory under our company achieved a major breakthrough, successfully developing a treatment for mutants."
"What? A treatment for mutants?" a reporter in the audience blurted out.
"That's right. A 'treatment.'" The silver-haired middle-aged man onstage nodded steadily.
"I have always believed that mutant abilities are not evolution, but a physiological abnormality that can be treated. For many years, we have focused our clinical research on this field."
"Now, the drug has passed all verification: it can permanently suppress mutant gene expression, returning mutants to the physiological state of ordinary humans."
The room erupted. The news spread like wildfire, instantly sweeping across every major channel.
That afternoon, Chen Xiao didn't return to the classroom. Instead, he found somewhere quiet to bask in the sun and catch up on sleep.
A tree over ten meters tall had dense foliage like a canopy. He lay lightly atop its highest crown, his body swaying gently in the wind like a feather.
Just as he thought he could spend the day lounging in peace, the sky overhead abruptly changed. Dark clouds churned, fierce winds rose, and the leaves rustled loudly.
Immediately afterward, Storm, dressed all in black, came riding the wind and hovered above him.
Chen Xiao opened his eyes and sighed helplessly. "Ms. Ororo, your entrances are still so... stunning."
Storm smiled faintly. "You're not bad yourself, Vitas."
"Can you tell me how you're lying so steadily on those branches without sinking down at all?"
Her gaze swept over the branches beneath him. She detected no energy fluctuations and saw no trace of an ability applied to them, leaving her even more puzzled.
Chen Xiao sat upright, his tone relaxed. "It's simple. Just make yourself lighter."
"I see... so that's also how you jumped from ten thousand meters up?" Storm nodded.