Has hair, has legs, has Erik...
To be honest, Professor X was a bit envious of the Charles in front of him.
Not only was Professor X thinking this, but Magneto was thinking the same thing.
Because he had already heard that in the timeline Darian and the others were from, the one acting as the diplomat wasn't Hank, but Erik.
Not only that, Erik also had a special authority: at critical moments, he could use Charles as a nuclear weapon to deter foreign enemies at any time.
Magneto's eyes widened as he listened.
This was exactly what he had been dreaming about!
If he had received this treatment back then, holding Professor X as a nuclear weapon in his hands, how could the Mutants have fallen into their current state?
Even if the humans didn't respect him, they would have to respect Professor X's hair.
With Professor X as an overt nuclear weapon for the Mutants, how would humans dare to push the Mutants to a dead end?
At worst, they'd all perish together!
Darian asked curiously, "By the way, who exactly controls the Sentinel Robots now?"
"A group of humans without the X-Gene in their bodies."
Storm spoke with a hint of suppressed anger in her voice: "These people were originally the elite class of human society. When the Sentinel Robots suddenly went out of control back then, the first to suffer were actually the human high-ranking officials who carried the X-Gene."
"They took the opportunity to rise to power, not only taking over the government but also firmly seizing control of the Sentinel Robots. They ordered the Sentinel Robots to kill or capture everyone worldwide who carried the X-Gene, ensuring the World was controlled by 'pure' humans to maintain their dominance."
Darian raised an eyebrow after hearing this.
As expected, no matter the World, there's no shortage of ambitious schemers.
He spoke up, "Isn't this problem quite easy to solve? Couldn't Professor X just use his abilities to control all of them?"
Professor X shook his head and said helplessly, "I've tried, but those humans somehow obtained a batch of special materials to create a device that can block Telepathy over a wide area. My abilities have no effect on them."
"No wonder."
Darian finally understood.
He had thought Professor X's moral standards were too high, refusing to act even when his race was on the verge of extinction.
It turned out it wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
Darian suddenly noticed a blind spot: "Wait, the Sentinel Robots also capture Mutants?"
He had originally thought the Sentinel Robots' programming was to kill any Mutant on sight; he didn't expect there was an option to take them alive.
Professor X nodded, "Yes. If a Mutant gives up resistance or completely loses their combat effectiveness, the Sentinel Robots won't execute them on the spot but will choose to capture them instead."
"However, if they are actually captured, their fate will be worse than death."
Magneto took over coldly, his expression grim: "All Mutants captured by the Sentinel Robots are sent to special prisons built specifically for them. They lie in labs, dissected and studied by those humans like lab rats, living a life worse than death."
Hearing this, Erik's face also darkened.
Both he and Magneto shared an experience: being imprisoned in concentration camps as children. He knew better than anyone what it felt like to be treated like livestock.
Hearing that his compatriots were being treated this way now, the fire in his chest was impossible to suppress.
He gritted his teeth, "Then let's tear down that damn prison and rescue our people."
Professor X sighed, "It's not that simple. That Mutant Prison is not only guarded by a large number of Sentinel Robots but is also equipped with a special device that emits radiation suppressing the X-Gene. Once we enter that range, all our abilities will fail, and we'll be no different from ordinary people."
First Sentinel Robots, then Telepathy-blocking devices, and now X-Gene suppressing radiation.
It seems this World's entire tech tree was focused solely on dealing with Mutants?
Darian couldn't help but make a snarky comment.
But he had to admit, the humans of this World were indeed impressive, having developed so many anti-Mutant treasures.
With this combination of measures, let alone ordinary Mutants, even the most powerful ones would be ground into the dirt.
Except for cheaters like Jean, of course.
Erik was still unwilling to give up, "So we're just going to stand by and watch?"
Professor X sighed, "We have no choice; the price is too high."
They were already struggling to deal with the Sentinel Robots, let alone the equipment that could suppress Mutant abilities.
If they tried to break into the prison, they would likely all end up dead before they could even rescue the others.
"Darian, what do you think?"
Erik could only turn his gaze to Darian, knowing that he always had a way.
[NPC Erik Lehnsherr has issued a new quest to you]
[Quest: Prison Break Operation]
[Objective: Go to the Mutant Prison and rescue the imprisoned Mutants]
[Reward: Depends on quest completion rate]
"Of course we have to save them!"
Darian glanced at the quest notification and hesitated hardly at all: "We're short on manpower right now. Those imprisoned Mutants, regardless of their power level, will be a force to be reckoned with once released, making our future plans go more smoothly."
The tomboyish Kitty Pryde said worriedly: "But the problem is, the Mutant Prison is filled with X-Gene suppressing radiation. Even my abilities won't work there. Even if we could break in and get them out, if we're held up by Sentinel Robots, reinforcements will arrive right behind them, and then no one will escape."
Kitty Pryde's point was spot on.
Rescuing people is one thing; whether you can escape after rescuing them is another.
A place as important as the Mutant Prison wouldn't be neglected by the humans.
Once their movements are exposed, a steady stream of Sentinel Robots will surely arrive. Even if they rescue the Mutants, they'll be trapped inside, with no way to escape.
Unless they can wipe out all the Sentinel Robots at once.
Darian grinned, "Do you know how Andy Dufresne escaped from prison?"
Kitty Pryde looked blank, "Who is Andy Dufresne?"
"You don't know him? He's the protagonist of 'The Shawshank Redemption'."
"Huh? Isn't his name Shawshank?"
New York, America; the Mutant Prison.
Inside a cell, several Mutants were imprisoned.
They all had a metal device around the back of their necks, pressed tightly against their skin, flashing a bright yellow light.
This device was specifically designed to suppress the X-Gene; once worn, a Mutant basically couldn't use any abilities.
But that wasn't all.
The four walls of the cell continuously emitted a faint purple glow, which served the same purpose as the device on their necks.
Under this double layer of protection, both the Mutant prisoners and any Mutants who broke in would become as weak as ordinary humans.
Combined with the armed human guards inside and the Sentinel Robots stationed outside, the possibility of a Mutant escaping from here was completely severed.
The Mutant prisoners in the cell sat or lay on their beds, their eyes hollow and expressions numb, looking as if they had long since given up resistance.
There was only one exception.
On a plank bed in the corner, a silver-haired middle-aged man was huddled, staring at the floor with his head down, plotting heaven knows what.
His name was Pietro, code-named Quicksilver.
He was originally an X-Man until his legs were brutally broken by Sentinel Robots.
And don't ask how a Speedster got his legs broken.
The number of times his legs had been broken in his life was simply uncountable.
Every time a troublesome enemy appeared, the first to suffer were his fleet feet. He had gotten used to them breaking, but Quicksilver had never given up on the idea of escaping.
After years of training, he had learned to walk on his hands, and he was even more agile than when walking on his legs.
If given just one chance to unleash his power, even the Sentinel Robots would be left eating his dust.
He had also studied it: although the prison was filled with X-Gene suppressing radiation everywhere, there was one place it didn't cover.
The underground!
If he could get underground, he could use his abilities and tools to dig a tunnel in a short time and escape this hellhole.
As for digging tools, he had already prepared one: a small rock hammer.
Although this crappy prison didn't treat Mutants like humans, they were at least afraid of collective suicides, so they allowed thirty minutes of outdoor time every day. It was during that time that he traded with another prisoner for this hammer.
But problems followed.
How was he going to unlock the device on his neck and break through the hard concrete floor?
Quicksilver's mouth twitched, "How is this different from the plot of 'The Shawshank Redemption'?"
The protagonist in that movie used a small rock hammer to stubbornly smash out a tunnel and escape.
But he tried it, and the concrete on the floor was as hard as iron. With this crappy rock hammer in his hand, he'd probably die before he could even chip out a hole.
"Shawshank misled me!"
Quicksilver felt a wave of regret.
If he had known, he should have watched a few more prison break movies or learned a few tricks from Magneto, the master of prison breaks.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump...
Just as Quicksilver was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a strange sound.
"What's that sound?"
Quicksilver listened closely and found the sound was getting nearer, appearing to come from underground.
The next second, he saw the concrete floor below disappear out of thin air, revealing a perfectly square hole.
A head popped out of the hole.
Wearing a helmet and clutching a pickaxe, the person was covered in dust, looking just like a miner who had just dug a tunnel.
When Quicksilver saw the face clearly, his eyes lit up, and he cried out in surprise.
"Dad! You've come to save me!"
Erik: "???"
Do people nowadays call anyone 'Dad' just to save their lives?
Erik's mouth twitched, and he lowered his voice, "Keep it down. I'm here to get you out. Call the others."
Quicksilver nodded vigorously, "I got it, Dad."
"I'm not your dad. Don't call me that."
Erik's face darkened.
He didn't even have a wife; where would a son come from?
Besides, Quicksilver's face looked older than his own; how could he have the nerve to call him 'Dad'?
Quicksilver nodded again, "Okay, Dad."
Erik: "..."
Quicksilver didn't waste any more words. He jumped off the bed, propped himself up with his hands, and like an acrobat, scurried over to the other Mutant prisoners upside down, whispering something.
The scene looked truly bizarre.
Heaven knows what Quicksilver told them, but the other Mutant prisoners all turned their heads at once and saw Erik in the hole.
Their once hollow and numb eyes lit up bit by bit, their faces filled with excitement as they ran over without a word.
"Just jump down."
Erik dropped those words and pulled his head back, disappearing into the hole.
The Mutant prisoners looked at each other and, without further hesitation, jumped in one by one.
Quicksilver followed suit.
Then he regretted it.
The hole was ridiculously deep; he fell for several seconds without seeing the bottom.
His body kept falling, wind whistling in his ears, surrounded by pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen.
I'm cooked!
Falling from such a height, he was afraid he'd be covered in bruises.
Quicksilver closed his eyes in terror, his life flashing before his eyes like a movie.
Splash!
The next second, he suddenly felt as if he had crashed into water.
"Gurgle gurgle—!"
Water splashed everywhere. Quicksilver flailed about for a moment before scrambling out of the water and landing on his butt on the ground.
He gasped for air, soaked to the bone, his hair plastered to his face—a pathetic sight.
Quicksilver didn't care about that; his eyes widened as he surveyed his surroundings.
This was a massive underground space, with signs of excavation everywhere. There was a hole in the ceiling—the one he had just fallen through.
Directly beneath the hole was a pool of blue water. It wasn't very large but looked quite bizarre. The water in the center was shaped like a perfect cube, and the runoff stopped exactly a few meters away, not a single drop more.
Clearly, he had just fallen into this pool of water.
But the problem was, falling from such a height, even into water, how could he be completely uninjured?
Quicksilver was shocked, "What is this?"
"MLG Water."
Darian stood nearby and explained, eyeing Quicksilver with a strange look.
Everyone else had landed feet-first, soaking their lower halves at most.
Quicksilver, on the other hand, had fallen head-first and nearly drowned.
Then, Darian raised the silver iron bucket in his hand and scooped at the water. The water on the ground instantly vanished completely, not a drop left behind, as if the pool had never existed.
And the iron bucket in his hand was now full of water, the surface shimmering with a faint blue light.
[Item: A Bucket of Water (An iron bucket filled with water; creatures falling into the water will not take fall damage)]
Seeing this, Quicksilver was surprised once again.
But he felt more at ease; as long as it was a phenomenon he couldn't understand, he just defaulted to assuming it was a Mutant power.
"Are you also a Mutant here to rescue us?"
Quicksilver stood up, looking delighted.
Quicksilver: (·)
Darian: (.—.)
Good grief, it was his first time seeing someone stand up on their hands to talk.