The earth trembled violently, buildings shook, and thick smoke and dust billowed into the air.
Amidst the howling wind, Chen Xiao, clad in magnificent black battle armor, stood in the center, his eyes cold and stern, his face devoid of any emotion.
He had no intention of engaging in a back-and-forth struggle with these Mutants; his attacks were swift and decisive, leaving no room for retreat.
With a single blow, all things were annihilated.
But at that moment, ripples appeared on the side wall amidst the billowing smoke and dust, and two Mutants suddenly burst through the wall.
One of them had short brown hair and his eyes shot out dazzling golden light. Radial waves spread out in an instant, locking onto Chen Xiao firmly.
As the golden light swept over him, the X-Gene that had been surging within him suddenly froze, as if it were being tightly choked by invisible shackles, making it impossible to mobilize even a fraction of its potential.
This person is the special individual Professor X mentioned who can suppress mutant abilities.
At the same time, the right wall collapsed with a roar, revealing a three-meter-tall, pitch-black Sentry electronic eyes gleamed eerily, radiating a chilling aura.
This was clearly a meticulously planned ambush.
The wall-walker, accompanied by a power-controller, launched a surprise attack, first severing Chen Xiao's power, and then the black-armored Sentry delivered the final blow.
However...
You're finished.
Looking at the "incapacitated" Chen Xiao, the two Mutants smirked with smug satisfaction.
For Mutants, once their abilities are sealed, they are no different from ordinary people; facing such killing machines, there is only one way out: death.
They have practiced this tactic repeatedly, specifically for capturing high-risk mutant targets from the outside world, and have never failed.
At this moment, not only the two people present, but also Trask and others hiding deep within the research institute, had already concluded that the outcome was decided.
Trask immediately ordered, "Remove his hands, inject him with inhibitors, and capture him alive!"
Before he could finish speaking, the Sentry's massive body suddenly sprang up, teleporting to Chen Xiao's front as if by magic. Its arms transformed into jet-black blades, slashing towards Chen Xiao's wrists.
Before the Blade even arrived, a piercing whistling sound tore through the air, making Chen Xiao's clothes flutter wildly, but he remained completely still.
when!
A deafening clang of metal clashing rang out as the black blade slammed into Chen Xiao's shoulder armor, striking like a bronze bell with a resounding boom and ripples.
"How is that possible!"
Seeing that Chen Xiao was completely unharmed and hadn't even flinched, the two attackers and Trask behind the monitor all paled.
At this moment, Chen Xiao's lips curled slightly beneath his mask, his voice as calm as a breeze. "That's it?"
Before he finished speaking, the longsword in his hand suddenly burst into light, its golden radiance blazing, the blade trembling like a dragon's roar, carrying a world-destroying force, and slashing straight at the Sentry's chest.
boom!
The moment the Blade touched the body, the air exploded, and a visible ring of Havok burst forth.
The Sentry's entire body covered in scales trembled wildly as if it were alive, each layer dissipating the force and desperately resisting the mountain-shattering blow, demonstrating the incredible strength of its body.
This casual strike was enough to cleave a skyscraper in half.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The stalemate lasted only a moment before a series of cracking sounds erupted from the Sentry's body, and then his entire torso disintegrated under the high-frequency vibration of the blade.
boom!!
Berserk golden light exploded, carrying countless metal fragments that transformed into a destructive torrent that instantly engulfed the two Mutants.
"No!"
The screams abruptly ceased. The one who had penetrated the wall and controlled the energy was instantly riddled with holes, blood and flesh splattered everywhere, leaving only a pool of blurry fragments.
"His abilities weren't suppressed at all... No! He's not Mutants at all!"
In the underground command center, Trask and the others were ashen-faced. No one had expected that this intruder clad in black armor was not a mutant.
"Withdraw!"
Without time to investigate the reasons, the group decisively abandoned their stronghold and rushed towards the escape route.
On the third floor, after casually crushing the Sentry and eliminating two Mutants, Chen Xiao transformed into a scavenger, completely leveling the entire research institute. He then headed straight for the fourth floor, where his true purpose for this trip lay: the priceless biological gene cultivation equipment.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Whether it was the defensive robots or the surviving Mutants managed to escape the first slash, they were all as fragile as paper in front of him.
In fact, once several Sentry and more than ten mutant fighters were killed, the entire base had lost all means of resistance.
Chen Xiao arrived at the fourth floor without any obstacles. As usual, he first destroyed the surveillance cameras and then began disassembling and reassembling the equipment.
However, these instruments were extremely sophisticated, and it took him more than twenty minutes to collect all the portable equipment.
Next came the fifth and sixth layers; wherever they went, they destroyed what needed to be destroyed and preserved what was useful.
Upon reaching the eighth floor, Chen Xiao suddenly stopped.
At the far end of the corridor, three blonde girls, around twelve or thirteen years old, stood in hospital gowns with metal controllers around their necks, staring at him with tense expressions.
At their feet lay seven fully armed security personnel, lifeless.
Chen Xiao scanned the area with his divine sense and knew that these people had their consciousness directly shattered by mental force, rather than being killed by violence.
His gaze pierced through the walls, briefly sweeping over the isolation rooms, before he spoke calmly, "It seems I don't need to get involved here."
After saying that, he turned and left.
The ninth underground level is the core of the Sentry Laboratory, where decades of X-Gene research data and rare active samples are stored. These are precisely the things Chen Xiao most wants to take away.
But just as he was about to take a step, the youngest of the three blonde girls suddenly spoke softly:
"You... are you here to save us?"
Chen Xiao paused slightly, his tone calm. "I'd say that's barely acceptable. You all wait here for now. I'll take you upstairs after I've finished dealing with things down there."
He felt a sliver of pity for these imprisoned "people," but it was far from deep. If it were convenient, he wouldn't mind rescuing them.
boom!
The heavy alloy gate of the ninth-floor passage cracked open with a single strike from him. He looked up and saw a colossal object standing in the center: shaped like a giant mechanical head, its entire body covered with data interfaces and cooling pipes—the main control brain of the Sentry System.
He then turned to the side, his gaze falling on a gray-white wall beside him.
"Faster! Faster!"
In the dark and narrow escape tunnel, a group of people stumbled and ran, with Trask urging them on as he ran.
Huff! Huff!
An elderly man with gray hair and beard staggered, panting heavily. " Trask... rest... rest a while, I can't hold on any longer..."
Another top biologist, leaning against the wall and panting, said in a weak voice, "Yes... that's right. We've run so far; the intruder might not be able to find the entrance to the secret passage. We should be... safe."
Trask wiped his sweat, shook his head resolutely, and said, "No, we must leave immediately!"
"That person is too strong. Once he finds the location of the secret door, he can catch up in the blink of an eye, and we'll all be dead."
"Just hold on for another ten minutes! This passage leads directly to the other side of the mountain, where there's a small supply depot with a few off-road vehicles parked. If we can break through, we'll have a chance to survive."
Hearing this, everyone could only clench their fists and continue walking.
"Damn it! If I'd known this would happen, I should have equipped this tunnel with an underground railcar!" someone couldn't help but growl.
What's the point of saying this now?
"We did consider the possibility of Mutants attack back then, but who believed that someone could actually breach the research facility? So we only hastily dug an emergency tunnel."
"Alright, shut up, all of you, let's save our energy for the journey!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the group sighed and prepared to take a step...
A series of dull, rhythmic metallic clanging sounds suddenly rang out behind me: clang! clang! clang! like iron boots pounding on a steel floor, each one making my eardrums ache.
The men's faces turned ashen instantly.
"You're in such a hurry to leave without even saying goodbye. Don't you think you're taking me seriously?"
A detached voice drifted over. Before the words had even finished, a dark shadow flashed, and the person was already standing directly in front of them, his silver-white armor gleaming coldly, the shoulder armor patterned like a coiled dragon.
An oppressive feeling washed over me; the air seemed to have been sucked out, my chest felt like it was weighed down by a thousand-pound stone, my breathing became labored, and my scalp tingled.
Only now did they truly understand what it meant to be irresistible.
Just by standing there, the invisible pressure emanating from the other party was like a tangible blade, cutting one's skin painfully, chilling one's spine, and bringing the breath of death close at hand.
Glug!
Trask's Adam's apple bobbed, his face as white as paper. "Mr. Draco... what grudge do we hold that compels us to be so ruthless?"
"If you're willing to be lenient, I'm willing to offer you two billion, no, five billion US dollars! My entire fortune, not a single penny!"
Chen Xiao's voice was deep. "Fifty billion... that's indeed tempting."
"Can,"
boom!!
Before the words were even finished, a golden blade of light tore through the darkness, slashing out with the force of thunder!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The five bodies disintegrated inch by inch in the domineering blade light, blood mist exploded, limbs flew everywhere, and not even a complete corpse was left.
"Didn't bring a storage device?"
Chen Xiao glanced down at the scattered pieces of blood and flesh on the ground, pondered for a moment, and muttered to himself, "In other words, they are certain that even if the research institute is destroyed, the results of their years of research will not be lost."
"It seems that the America government has a complete backup of the Sentinel Program."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure blurred and disappeared into the shadows deep within the passage.
On the ninth floor, he stood before the mechanical head, five meters in diameter. Its surface was covered with densely packed sensor cables and energy conduits, silently floating in mid-air, like a steel shrine.
Buzz,
Suddenly, two enormous optical lenses emitted a faint blue light, and a cold electronic voice announced, "Intruder, cease your destructive actions. Please preserve my core functions."
Beneath the mask, Chen Xiao raised an eyebrow slightly. "You've developed self-awareness?"
"Consciousness? No. I simply selected the optimal solution from the current 2,736,419 possible coping strategies."
"In human terms, this is called begging for mercy, because I want to keep running."
With just this one sentence, Chen Xiao confirmed that this AI had indeed developed a rudimentary form of self-awareness.
No wonder, in the old X-Men imagery, the Sentry ultimately slaughtered most of humanity on Earth.
It's not because all targets carry the recessive X-Gene, but because the central control unit that governs them, the Sentry Core, has already quietly awakened.
Ironically, Trask and his team were clearly unaware of this. Otherwise, they would never have allowed an AI with independent thought to remain dormant in the deepest part of the research institute for so many years.