Chapter 43

Even his physique had grown more robust. His well-defined muscles showed no hint of bulkiness, and when he lightly clenched his fist, he could feel immense power in his palm.

His body had changed.

Su Chen found that even his thoughts were gradually becoming more mature.

After everything he had been through, his former childish stubbornness and the youthfulness on his face had disappeared.

After spending so much time by Su Shan's side, he no longer wore a cold, impassive expression, and his heart, which had suffered for over half a month, had finally found comfort.

Su Chen had been smiling and talking much more these past few days.

Even the darkness in his heart and his pent-up killing intent had receded into his body, no longer showing themselves.

Sometimes, in a momentary daze, Su Chen even wondered whether, after completing his final act of revenge, he should take his sister and leave this place for good.

But after all he had done, he also knew that the course of his life had long since begun to stray from peace.

Could he still go back?

Even if he let go of everything,

Others might not agree.

Just then,

His younger sister, Su Shan, seemed to remember something and said, "Brother, do you remember the ghost that frightened Mom when we were little?"

Su Chen immediately recalled a scene his mother had once mentioned, when something had frightened her.

At their detached house in town, a figure had tried to break in through a window under cover of darkness. His mother, who had been getting ready for bed, had been startled and hurriedly loaded the gun in her drawer.

But in the blink of an eye, the figure outside the window had vanished.

At the time, his mother had even chased outside, only to find the street empty under the night sky, as though what she had just seen had all been an illusion.

"Maybe it was a ghost..."

His mother had concluded that it had all been a hallucination.

That was the incident Su Shan had mentioned.

Su Chen recalled it but thought little of it. His mother had been in poor health at the time, so perhaps she had had a nightmare.

Wait...

Suddenly, Su Chen's gentle expression turned serious, and a drop of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Something's wrong..."

"Where did this memory come from?"

Su Chen's expression changed drastically.

In an instant, he seemed to faintly perceive a fluctuation in reality, as though something had changed in the timeline.

That feeling could not be mistaken.

He was very familiar with it.

He was an expert at altering reality himself, and that faint fluctuation caused by interference with reality could never fool him.

Had someone done something?

Who was it?

Now suspicious, Su Chen immediately sensed on a psychic level that a memory seemed to have been inexplicably "inserted" into his mind.

Then again, "inserted" wasn't quite right.

Without close scrutiny, that brief memory would appear completely seamless, without the slightest sign that anything was amiss.

At the thought that someone had inexplicably tampered with changes in reality from the shadows, killing intent once again surged through Su Chen's long-calm heart. After all, the unknown person hiding in the shadows had caused discrepancies in both his and Su Shan's memories.

What had that person done?

"Damn it!!"

Su Chen knitted his brows, feeling utterly unable to suppress the killing intent within him.

At that moment, the infinitely evolving genes in his body also began to transform, already responding to this inexplicable change.

P.S.: It should be easy to guess, right? Can you figure it out? If you guess it, I'll grit my teeth and post an extra chapter...

Chapter 43

The same night.

Some time earlier.

At an unknown, remote location elsewhere.

The former students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters had gathered in a barracks.

Ever since Su Chen, the number one mutant, had killed Professor Charles and caused the deaths of several X-Men, and Phoenix, Jean Grey, had fully turned dark and completely destroyed the entire estate, these poor students had been fleeing from place to place under the leadership of the few surviving X-Men.

In an extremely ironic turn of events, without Professor Charles's protection, unknown people were secretly tracking them.

"This is so ironic."

Whenever they thought about how General Stryker's arrest of Su Chen had been the root cause of his turn to darkness,

Everyone felt somewhat uncomfortable.

After all, their teacher had insisted to the very end on maintaining peace with humanity and dispelling human society's fear of mutants, and had vowed to arrest Su Chen.

But now...

Without Professor X or several of the X-Men's elite core members, they were like rats scurrying through the streets, reviled by everyone!!

In less than a few days, some students had left the group and chosen to return to their families.

And among them, harsh remarks kept cropping up.

"Was everything Professor Charles taught us a lie?"

"This is a world where the strong prey on the weak..."

"Without the protection of force, we're just lab rats for people to study and dissect."

Far too many harsh remarks were being made within the group.

Quite a few students were even saying they wanted to follow Su Chen, the number one mutant.

"Only he can lead us out into the world."

The days of being secretly watched by humans who coveted them, hunted down, and forced to flee had become unbearable for many mutant students.

If the ferocious Wolverine, Logan, had not gotten word and successfully linked up with them, killing quite a few of their attackers, the group would probably have lost many more people.

Inside the tent,

The surviving X-Men had settled on a very bold plan.

"We have to change all of this."

"Maybe our attitudes and views toward humans have changed a lot, but we need to change everything and get it all back. We need Professor X, and we need the X-Men back."

"We have to get it all back."

Shadowcat said with a mournful expression, clenching her fists tightly as she forced herself to rally.

The X-Men of that generation-Iceman, Shadowcat, Rogue, Havok, Bishop, and others-as well as Quicksilver, who had narrowly escaped death, the still badly injured Cyclops, and Wolverine had all gathered there.

"This all depends on you."

Shadowcat turned to Logan.

After all, the only person who could endure traveling through time and space without his body being torn apart or even his brain exploding was the self-healing Wolverine before her.

"I'm ready. Let's get on with it."

Wolverine took a deep breath and lay flat on a stone platform.

Whoosh!!

Shadowcat took a deep breath, then reminded him, "What you do in the past will overwrite all of the original history. Everyone else will only remember the altered history."

"If you can successfully change history, then you'll be the only one who remembers what happened at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."

"Bring them back."

"Logan!"

Hum!!

At that moment, Shadowcat pressed her hands to either side of Wolverine's forehead, and a terrifying fluctuation in time and space poured into Logan's head.

He had to return to the past, find Su Chen while he was being arrested, rescue him, and kill General Stryker and all the soldiers hunting him.

Then Su Chen would not be transferred a second time to the large base on the snowy plain, lose control, escape, and subsequently turn completely dark, nuke the capital, and slaughter their fellow X-Men.

If they rescued him and let him return to a normal life, none of the tragedies would happen!

Let him live the normal life a thirteen-year-old boy should have.

That was the Days of Future Past plan led by Shadowcat.

Days of Future Past!

It sounded inconceivable.

In fact, in the Marvel Universe, time and space travel, dimensional descents, parallel universes, and quantum technology were all perfectly normal means.

However...

She was still young and had not yet mastered her newly awakened ability to travel through time and space, so even she could not be sure she could send Logan to the exact point in time.

Hurry!!

Maintaining the ability was also leaving her somewhat weary and weak, and she could not hold on for long.

Hum!!

Under the power of time and space travel, Wolverine, Logan, successfully returned to the past.

But there was a problem with the point in time.

Sure enough, Shadowcat could not control it perfectly.

Logan did not return to the day Su Chen had been arrested over a month ago.

Instead, he went back to over a year earlier.

After realizing the timing was wrong, Logan did not choose to sleep and awaken himself. He was unwilling to endure the pain of traveling through time and space again, and another brilliant plan had occurred to him.

I'll put an end to it all by killing Su Chen outright.

Logan's eyes inexplicably reddened. Professor Charles had been his friend, and the fact that someone had ended his life by causing brain death was more than Logan could bear.

And so,

Having arrived at the wrong point in time, Logan headed to Moss Town on the West Coast, intending to go to Su Chen's home and kill him, nipping the future threat in the bud.

As long as I kill him, none of the nightmares in the future will happen either.

With his plan in mind, Logan rode his motorcycle into the town under cover of night.

Bringing with him a thick, lingering killing intent, he arrived outside a detached house.

Creak!!

He pulled open the gate and entered the yard, where a cobblestone path led to the firmly locked front door.

Logan did not go through the front door. Instead, he broke into the house through a window on the side.

"Hmm..."

Just then, Logan caught sight of a woman in pajamas through the window.