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"Your hair is... electrically charged?" Black Superman asked in surprise.
Hearing his voice, Bill Johnson looked up. At the same time, the color of his hair and eyebrows changed again.
"When I woke up, my hair was already like this. And it keeps changing colors all the time."
"Buddy, are you married?"
Bill, whose hair had suddenly turned bright blue, replied,
"Divorced. That bitch took half my assets before I even went bankrupt. Lucky her."
By the time he finished speaking, his hair had turned red.
Black Superman seemed to realize something.
"Let me test something. What's the scariest thing you've ever experienced? You can tell me, or just think about it if you'd rather not say."
"Does getting scared by A Nightmare on Elm Street count?"
As he spoke, his hair shifted to a dark, muted purple.
"And the happiest moment of your life?"
"Sleeping with our college cheerleading captain. Man, those legs, that waist..." Bill said, deliberately dragging it out as if trying to leave everyone hanging.
Whether the story was true or not, his evasive storytelling naturally left the audience dissatisfied.
What Black Superman paid attention to, however, was the fact that Bill's hair and eyebrows had turned a brilliant yellow.
"What do you hate most?"
"Idiots who can't understand plain language and think they're smarter than everyone else."
Bill answered while sporting a head of vivid green hair.
"I see."
Black Superman stopped asking questions and thoughtfully observed the middle-aged man who had only awakened his mutant ability later in life.
There wasn't enough data yet, but perhaps there was another explanation.
What if ordinary people who failed to awaken mutant powers during adolescence did so because their abilities were simply too weak?
Perhaps their X-Gene couldn't activate during puberty because the potential wasn't strong enough.
Meanwhile, the more powerful a mutant's ability was, the younger they tended to awaken.
Their powers were so strong that an ordinary human body couldn't fully contain them, causing them to break through the limits and mutate at an early age.
No wonder that mutant who awakened before birth was regarded as someone beyond Omega level.
Their powers were so absurd that they didn't even bother playing on Earth anymore.
If that was true, then Magneto's plan to transform all humanity into mutants would merely create large numbers of Epsilon-level mutants.
Would old-money families, senators, military leaders, and political elites really accept that?
The future looked bleak.
"Bleak? What do you mean?"
Standing beside Magneto, Selene asked.
Apparently, she had picked up on his thoughts.
Black Superman smiled.
"I mean Bill Johnson's mutant ability. His hair color seems to change according to his emotions.
"That means if he ever tries to lie in the future, his own hair will betray him.
"Good thing he's already divorced. Otherwise, whether he was dealing with his wife or a lawyer, I honestly can't think of any way he could negotiate on equal footing except by shaving himself bald."
The person who reacted more strongly than Magneto was naturally Bill Johnson himself.
His hair had become a purple-red gradient, clearly reflecting a mixture of shock and anger.
"Oh, for God's sake! Are you serious?"
Before Black Superman could answer, all the mutants gathered around nodded in unison.
"Oh, damn it!"
Bill immediately grabbed a mirror and frantically examined himself.
"Get me a hat. No—wait. Get me a razor. I'm shaving it all off!"
"Don't forget your eyebrows, eyelashes, and nose hair. If you're going to shave, you should remove every single strand."
Black Superman cheerfully added fuel to the fire.
For a brief moment, Magneto wondered whether it had been a mistake to recruit this guy in the first place.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, Joker Superman was still—
The crowd, naturally, contained very few people trying to comfort Bill and plenty who wanted to stir things up.
Some handed over knives.
Others were knives.
Several mutants eagerly volunteered to help shave him.
A bunch of rough-looking men waving blades around was enough to make a middle-aged Wall Street office worker like Bill Johnson's legs go weak.
He had agreed to undergo the mutant transformation experiment because he wanted an overwhelmingly powerful ability.
Something that would let him stride through life with confidence and authority.
Who could have imagined he'd end up with a head full of ridiculous mood-indicator hair?
In the end, he was still just another helpless nobody.
Unable to watch any longer, Magneto lifted every blade into the air and caused them to orbit around Bill.
The circle grew wider and wider, forcing the troublemakers backward.
"That's enough!
"Give our fellow mutant some room to breathe.
"He hasn't adapted to all of this yet.
"And can any of you be certain that this is the full extent of his ability?"
Magneto's intervention finally quieted everyone down.
Most of what he said was probably intended as reassurance.
Bill Johnson might hear it and think his power still had room for growth.
But anyone who had made it into the Brotherhood of Mutants was at least a seasoned street survivor.
Many of them could thrive even in prison.
None of them were new to being mutants.
They knew perfectly well that developing one's powers was rarely easy.
Why had mutants never truly united into a single force?
If a drug existed that could remove mutant powers entirely, the number of mutants willing to become ordinary humans again would probably exceed the number who wished to remain mutants.
It wasn't primarily because they feared hurting family members or loved ones.
Those cases existed, but they were relatively uncommon.
The real reason was much simpler.
Most mutants despised their own weak abilities.
Powers that did nothing except complicate daily life and earn ridicule from others were more burden than blessing.
In such cases, many would gladly give them up.
Bill Johnson's color-changing emotional hair clearly fell into that category of "useless powers."
So while everyone was teasing him, there wasn't much genuine malice involved.
They were simply trying to help the new guy accept reality a little sooner.
Once the commotion died down, it was time to focus on business.
Everyone unrelated to the experiment was driven out of the temporary infirmary, and Black Superman began conducting a thorough examination of Bill Johnson.
Unfortunately, the man's anxiety was now even worse than before he had volunteered for the transformation.
"Am I okay?
"What am I supposed to do now?"
While performing the examination, Black Superman replied,
"First of all, you appear perfectly healthy. No signs of physical rejection, abnormal sweating, or anything unusual. That's good.
"As for your hair, don't worry about what to do with it just yet.
"I recommend observing it for about a month.
"Besides exploring your ability, we need to determine whether there are any additional side effects.
"For example—"
Black Superman suddenly plucked a hair from Bill's head.
Bill yelped.
"—whether your body hair, including your scalp hair, might somehow be linked to your lifespan.
"Maybe if you pull them all out, you'll instantly die."
Bill stared at him in horror.
"Can something like that really happen?!
"Then why did you pull out one of my hairs?!"
Black Superman looked at the strand in his hand.
Its color had changed along with the hair on Bill's head, becoming a bright purple that represented panic.
"Interesting."
Then he moved the hair close to the spot where it had been removed.
To everyone's surprise, the strand wriggled like a living creature.
It crawled back into its original position and reattached itself to Bill's scalp.
Black Superman tugged lightly.
This time, it wouldn't budge.
Deciding not to force the issue, he let it go.
Magneto had naturally noticed this characteristic as well.
He fell silent, contemplating how such an ability might be utilized.
Black Superman, meanwhile, continued:
"In any case, you only have one task right now.
"Maintain a normal routine and undergo medical observation.
"I need to make sure you don't suffer genetic collapse and die.
"As for your new life, let's talk about that a month from now."
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