amaotonovel Chapter 4704 X Royal Clash ( )
Chapter 4704 X Royal Clash ( )
Chapter 4704 X Royal Family: Fierce Battle (Part 10)
The meeting returned to its familiar rhythm. In a sense, this was Magneto's comfort zone, because for most of his life, he had been researching how to blow this up or how to attack that. He wasn't good at construction, but he was very skilled at the procedures for surprise attacks.
“Although I have decided to go myself. Lorna told me that she also wants to go, but it’s not enough for just the two of us, and we also lack information on the outer defense system.”
“I’m going too,” Apocalypse said. “I’m immortal, they can’t kill me. As for the outer defenses, we can just break through them, why think so much?”
Zhu Shuai crossed his arms, tilted his head back, and nodded slightly, saying, "That's right, why worry about so much? I don't believe anyone can beat us when we join forces."
"It's just a bunch of metal shells." Some people said, "The previous raiding team was wiped out because they were too careless. This time we are well prepared, why should we be afraid of them?"
“I must remind you,” Magneto said in a deep voice, “the previous raiding team included Cyclops, Phoenix, and Wolverine. They were all very powerful mutants, but they ultimately failed at the Redgate Orchid factory.”
“It’s different,” Apocalypse said. “The X-Men who are active on Earth have had their information collected by the Sentinel robots. Those robots are too much of a counter to you; once they make a move, you can’t escape. But we are different.”
“We rarely appear on Earth, and even the strongest main sentinels lack experience in confronting us. Even if they are on guard, it would be difficult for them to fight us head-on.”
“No,” Magneto said again, “After the Mother Model awakens, the Nimrod-class Sentinels will soon be online. They are super Sentinels that can indiscriminately suppress all mutants, and I’m afraid we are no match for them.”
He paused for a moment, then continued, "I'm not saying this to undermine our confidence, but because we need to come up with a foolproof tactic. The mutants have no room for failure."
"What do you think, Doctor?" Professor X asked in Schiller's mind. He believed Schiller had a solution, and now was the perfect time to bring it up.
Schiller shook his head, replying to Professor X in his mind: "The best tactic is not to go."
Professor X frowned, but Schiller continued, "I don't offer my opinion because I know I can't stop it."
Do you think this plan is doomed to fail?
"This plan must succeed, but it doesn't necessarily have to succeed in terms of the raid itself. Let them go, I'll handle the rest."
"Why do you want to do this?" Professor X asked gently. "Eric values your opinion, and he should listen if you speak up."
It's clear that while Professor X wants to rescue the members of the raiding party, he doesn't want Magneto to go personally, or rather, he's not optimistic about Magneto's plan and is worried about it, even hoping that Schiller can intervene to stop it.
"No, Professor. War is not a gamble. Those who win wars are never gamblers who precisely calculate the pros and cons. If you choose to retreat because the risks are too high, you will lose everything. What makes them go forward despite knowing the dangers ahead is the key to the long-term survival of the homeland you are protecting. How can I convince you to give up these things?"
Professor X remained silent. He knew perfectly well what was going on. It was precisely for this reason that he couldn't directly persuade Magneto. He understood that if this plan failed, mutants would have no future; but if it succeeded, uniting all mutants and building a truly great nation would no longer be a dream. No one could remain unmoved by this rescue mission.
It's like a scene from "Saving Private Ryan" or a similar movie. You might ask, is it worth spending so much effort to save one person? From a resource investment perspective, it's definitely not worth it. War cannot afford waste; every bullet must be used wisely to move closer to victory. No matter how skilled a soldier is, it's not worth investing so much effort to save.
However, humanity cannot be measured by self-interest. When a war hero is trapped and his country fails to do everything in its power to rescue him, the negative impact is immeasurable. Therefore, even at great cost, the person must be rescued. And once successful, the rewards are unimaginable. A war hero who survives countless hardships becomes a living spiritual totem for a nation and its people.
To put it simply, once this skill is unlocked, the fighting spirit of all soldiers increases by 30%, public support increases by 50%, and national cohesion increases by 50%. These factors play a significant role in war and can even determine the life or death of a nation and its people.
“But isn’t this just going back to the all-or-nothing approach?” Professor X had overheard all of Schiller’s conversations with Magneto, and he knew that Schiller didn’t like this kind of behavior that put life and death on the line.
"I did say we can't pin our hopes on surprise attacks and assassinations, but this can't really be considered a surprise attack; it's more like a performance."
"What do you mean?"
“It means I have other plans,” Schiller said with a smile. “They can go ahead and everything will go smoothly.”
Professor X didn't understand, so he watched Schiller's actions. However, after Schiller left the meeting midway through, he didn't do anything else but went back to his room to catch up on sleep. After waking up, he began touring Cracovia.
However, the main universe's Iron Man rushed out of his bedroom in a hurry. He yelled, waking up all the Avengers.
Everyone was exhausted from the previous battle, and almost everyone was catching up on sleep. They all emerged from their rooms bleary-eyed. Thor slammed his hammer on the table with a bang: "You better be in trouble, Tony Stark."
Captain America, unfazed, ran his fingers through his hair, wiped his face, and sat down on the sofa. The others followed suit. Spider-Man fetched snacks and drinks, placing them on the table. Hawkeye opened a can of ice-cold beer, and Thor munched on potato chips.
"Something terrible has happened!" Iron Man exclaimed. "Guess what I found in the files I left behind in the lab?"
"What?" Captain America frowned.
"Those mutants might not be dead," Iron Man said excitedly. "Their bodies are gone, but their consciousness remains!"
"How did you know?" Black Widow asked, somewhat puzzled.
"I found some clues in the transmission data sent back from the Redgate Orchid factory." The main universe's Iron Man, regardless of whether they understood or not, projected a hologram onto the wall and began to explain on his own, "In the latest system log, there's a clear anomaly here. The data records show that something was uploaded to the factory's system. And the timing of all this anomalous data is exactly the same as the time the mutants died..."
Captain America paused for a moment, then asked, "Why didn't the lab administrator notice?"
“They may have discovered it, but they didn’t do anything about it,” said the main universe Iron Man.
“But this sounds like a very serious change,” Dr. Banner asked, frowning. “How can they just ignore it?”
"Not only did they ignore it, they also deleted the log. I only discovered something was wrong when I managed to recover the data."
Why would they do that?
While the others were still pressing for answers, Black Widow already had a knowing look on her face. She said, "There's a traitor among the researchers."
"You mean there are mutants mixed in with them?"
“It’s very likely that it’s just some workers who’ve been working too much overtime, haven’t received bonuses, and still can’t go home even after a victory,” Black Widow said, shaking her head. “This is clearly an act of revenge.”
Some people can't understand because they haven't worked much. But Spider-Man nodded and said, "Indeed, if someone works overtime for a major event and thinks they can take a long vacation to rest after it's over, but is then told they have to stay on duty, they probably just want the Earth to be destroyed."
“But more than one person will probably see this,” Captain America said, pointing to the projection on the wall. “We can’t all of them betray us, can we?”
"The first person to see it deleted it, and the rest didn't have the energy to investigate," said the main universe's Iron Man. "Either those who enter a lab become scientists; most people have no inspiration and no interest in doing anything extra. Most people are more like zombies who just follow the rules."
“They were not willing to participate in this project,” Black Widow pointed out incisively. “No scientist is willing when they are taken away by the government and the military. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone tacitly concealed it.”
"What impact will this have?" Captain America asked again.
"Major impact, extremely significant!" Iron Man leaped into the air. He reached the wall, pointed at the projection, and said, "Those people have entered the factory system. Do you know what that means? They could potentially seize control of the factory through virtual consciousness!"
"What?!" Thor jumped to his feet. "You mean these mutants can control the Redgate Orchid factory?"
“If we don’t take action, this will likely happen sooner or later,” Iron Man said. “The Mother should have security measures in place, but the problem is, there are many skilled mutants among them. Many members of the raiding party have abilities bound to their souls, like Phoenix. What if she, with Phoenix, breaks through the security measures and takes control of the Mother? How will she treat the human government that killed them?!”
Captain America gasped: "But the prototype is for producing Sentinel robots, and the Redgate Orchid factory shouldn't be able to directly strike Earth, right?"
"No, it's not possible, after all, it's not a cannon. But what if they take control of the prototype and directly modify the Sentinel robot's program, making it slaughter humans?"
Captain America couldn't sit still any longer. He said, "This is absolutely unacceptable. The consequences of mutants taking control of the factory would be catastrophic, especially since the members of the raiding party who were killed were not rational. In a fit of rage, they might do a lot of crazy things, and the Earth and humanity would be in danger."
"How are we going to stop it?" Dr. Banner asked. "We can't even break through the outer defenses, how can we get inside the system?"
“I don’t believe they didn’t leave a backdoor in the system.” The main universe’s Iron Man thought for a moment and said, “Unfortunately, the plan to raid the lab failed, and those researchers were taken away. Otherwise, we could have found a breakthrough by dealing with them.”
"So what do we do now?" Captain America asked him.
“This is not the time for infighting.” The main universe’s Iron Man was somewhat overwhelmed. He said, “We need to find the Avengers in this universe and have them contact the human government. We absolutely cannot let mutants take control of the Redgate Orchid factory.”