Chapter 15: A New Direction

"Must mutants always be ruled by humans?" Magneto suddenly asked.

"Mutants, humans—why make such a clear distinction? Why must they always be in opposition?" Ian countered.

In Ian's view, the difference between humans and mutants was even smaller than the difference between Black and White people.

Since Black and White people could live in the same country and legally enjoy the same rights, why couldn't mutants and humans coexist peacefully?

"I didn't want to stand against humans at first either, but now I have no way out," Magneto said helplessly.

"There are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. Capital only cares about profit. If the profit is high enough, capital can forget about hatred entirely," Ian said, persuading Magneto.

"You've already proven that you have the strength to cooperate. Now, you just need to prove that you are qualified to cooperate. If you can show that, capital won't mind having another powerful partner.

Once you can align with capital, everything else ceases to be a problem.

After all, this is a country ruled by capital. Capital's needs dictate everything!"

Magneto looked puzzled, as if he were asking, "Is it really that simple?"

Yes, it really was that simple!

It was just that, due to Magneto's background and life experiences, he had never been exposed to the upper echelons of capital before.

Professor X originally had a chance—he came from a well-off family.

Unfortunately, as a mutant, Charles instinctively disdained the political maneuvering of human society. After decades, his family's network had all but disappeared.

"What qualifies me for cooperation?" Magneto asked.

"It's simple. Capital won't collaborate with someone who is constantly on the move—it's too unpredictable," Ian explained.

"Magneto, your deterrence power is already sufficient. The only thing left is to make people believe you won't suddenly turn on them."

"What exactly should I do?" Magneto continued to ask.

"Find a suitable base and bring the Brotherhood of Mutants into the open," Ian stated plainly.

It was actually a simple matter—Magneto was too powerful, and he had no obvious weaknesses. That made people uneasy, afraid that he might suddenly lash out.

"My personal recommendation is for you to find a suitable island. At this stage, mutants aren't ready to live side by side with ordinary humans," Ian added.

Professor X had his X-Mansion, Ian had the Carnegie family and the Mutant Academy, so Magneto also needed a place to anchor himself.

"I'll think about it," Magneto said. He didn't agree immediately, but from his expression, Ian could tell he was seriously considering it.

Sure enough, just a few days later, Magneto gave a definite answer.

Most members of the Brotherhood of Mutants had long desired a stable "home." When Magneto proposed the idea, he immediately gained widespread support.

Magneto ultimately chose an island off the East Coast, over a hundred square kilometers in size.

The island was large, but it had no permanent residents. Ian directly negotiated a lease agreement between the U.S. government and Magneto.

With that, the Brotherhood of Mutants finally had a stable homeland—a place where they could make their own decisions.

Ian also got to see the true strength of the Brotherhood, which was far superior to that of the X-men.

The Brotherhood's core members weren't many, but their quality was extremely high. There were dozens of Level 3 and above mutants.

As the Brotherhood stepped into the public eye, the relationship between humans and mutants began to ease.

The hostility between ordinary people and mutants had always been the result of certain politicians deliberately manipulating public opinion.

Now that capital had new interests at stake, they were happy to redirect public sentiment.

After all, they didn't care about right or wrong—they just needed topics and attention!

Seeing the Brotherhood's strength, Ian realized the Mutant Academy was lacking in power.

Among the academy's action team, aside from Ian himself, there were fewer than twenty Level 3 mutants, and most of them had non-combat X-abilities.

The academy had a lot of students, but most of their abilities weren't suited for battle. Some could only partially transform into animals—useful for looking cute, but not much else.

Ian wanted to turn them into combat assets, but he had yet to find a way to enhance their X-abilities.

X-genes were difficult to alter, and since X-genes served as the foundation for rule runes, changing rule runes was equally difficult.

The only method Ian knew for refining rule runes was to first stabilize them into a triangular structure, then accumulate rule energy to perfect them.

"Ian, reconstructing rule runes is proving to be incredibly difficult. So far, we've made no progress at all," John regretfully announced, officially declaring the experiment a failure.

Though, perhaps it wasn't a complete failure—after all, Ian himself was a successful example.

But with only a single case, there wasn't enough evidence to draw conclusions.

John could only make a speculative statement: "Maybe you have to reach Level 5 before you can reconstruct rule runes."

"John, do you have any other ideas?" Ian was unwilling to give up just yet.

"I do have a new idea!" John admitted.

"We could try improving rule runes through synthesis and supplementation.

If someone can form two rule runes at the same time, and if the two abilities are highly compatible, they might merge into a more refined rule rune."

Theoretically, this hypothesis had a high probability of success, and Ian was intrigued.

"Have you tested it?" Ian asked.

"Rogue tried. Two compatible rule energies can indeed merge, but absorbed rule energy can only be used directly—it can't be used to form rule runes," John replied.

"How do you plan to solve this problem?" Ian asked.

They were stuck on the first step again. But since John had brought it up, Ian believed he must have some kind of direction.

"Absorbed rule energy can't be used to form rule runes, but what about one's own rule energy?" John proposed.

"If we implant a new X-gene, we could likely generate a second rule rune."

"Implanting an X-gene isn't easy, is it?" Ian immediately pointed out the key issue.

"It's extremely difficult. Foreign genes naturally repel the body's own genes. Even if they are compatible X-genes, improper implantation leads to genetic collapse," John admitted.

"Isn't that the same problem the military has when splicing X-genes to create X-weapons?"

"It is! The failure rate is extremely high. Even in rare cases of success, the subject constantly faces the risk of genetic collapse and drastically reduced lifespan."

"So…?"

"So we need a new, safe method for gene implantation!" John concluded.

That was probably his real goal all along.

"Do you have any leads?" Ian asked.

"No," John admitted, shaking his head.

"If you don't even have a starting point, how am I supposed to pull a solution out of thin air?"

"I believe you'll find a way!"

"Where does your confidence come from? I—" Ian suddenly thought of something.

"Maybe I can try something. But no guarantees."

Gene implantation might be impossible in the pure X-Men universe.

But this was the Marvel universe—a world filled with impossible technology!

Hey everyone! Exciting news—there are 20 extra chapters available right now on Patreon! You can find the link in the novel description

(End of Chapter)