amaotonovel Chapter 4693 The Demise of the X Royal Family (4)
Chapter 4693 The Demise of the X Royal Family (4)
Chapter 4693 The X Royal Family: Demise (XIV)
"Nature reserves?!" In the UN General Assembly hall, the ambassador opposite Sebastian twisted the microphone and said, "Are you all crazy? What are nature reserves?!"
Even though Sebastian didn't understand it either, he was a seasoned veteran, and he knew the words inside and out.
“Watch your attitude, Mr. Ambassador,” Sebastian began by labeling me, “your attitude, which borders on a personal attack, makes me think that you and your country have serious discrimination against mutants. If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, you can leave. Okay?”
After saying that, he ignored the ambassador and continued, "In fact, I think there's a misunderstanding internationally about the activities of the mutants on Clarkia Island. The mutants are simply developing a newly discovered nature reserve. Clarkia Island is home to over 20,000 new species of flora and fauna, all of which are endangered. As the first group to set foot on this island, although we've temporarily made it our base, our primary goal is to contribute to environmental protection. To this end, the mutants have established the 'Clarkia Environmental Protection Foundation' to ensure that the flora and fauna on Clarkia Island receive proper protection..."
These words left the ambassadors from various countries stunned. Many began whispering among themselves. What was going on with the mutants? Had they suddenly gained intelligence? Or were they being guided by a powerful figure?
Everyone has to admit that the move of not establishing a nation, a strategic retreat, was already very clever, but establishing nature reserves and foundations is even more ingenious.
Let's start by not establishing a nation. Anyone with even a basic understanding of diplomacy knows that targeting a country is very simple. Externally, one can raise tariffs, impose sea, land, and air embargoes, suppress trade, or unite to influence currency exchange rates. Internally, one can instigate color revolutions, ethnic conflicts, regional separatism, and so on. Doing these things within the mutant population is also easy, since mutants are not a monolithic group.
In fact, all the major powers are prepared for two scenarios. On one hand, they are ready to vote in favor of establishing the nation; on the other hand, they have already begun sending mutants under their control to Clarkia Island, ready to cause trouble at any time.
It can be said that once Clarkia establishes a nation, it will immediately face a comprehensive international encirclement. All countries will target them openly and covertly until the mutant nation collapses from the inside out.
But now, things get a bit complicated if the mutants don't establish a nation. Because without a nation, there's no reason to change the current system of governance.
The mutants' mode of governance is very primitive; simply put, might makes right. If they choose to establish a nation, they must integrate with the international community and adopt a sufficiently modern mode of governance—that is, so-called democratic politics. Even if they don't want to become a vote-based system, they have to change, which greatly expands their options.
But if someone says, "We are barbarians," insisting on remaining primitive and refusing to integrate into modern society, you can't just go to their primitive tribe and demand they vote for a chief. Therefore, Magneto and Professor X will always be the absolute core leaders. With their immense power, it will be incredibly difficult to shake the mutant population.
It's fair to say that the fact that humanity has developed such rapid technological advancements in modern times, yet mutants haven't been wiped out, isn't due to human kindness. The existence of Magneto, Professor X, and their mutant organizations is the sole reason. These people are incredibly difficult to deal with; without shaking them, it's impossible to completely exterminate mutants.
Therefore, not establishing a nation, or rather, postponing its establishment, can be considered a very clever strategic retreat. This prevented modern states from targeting mutants, rendering many common methods of suppression in modern society ineffective, and thus preventing them from falling into traps.
Furthermore, the idea of "establishing nature reserves" is a brilliant and ingenious move, instantly transforming "selfish behavior" into "altruistic behavior."
The mutants didn't stay on Clarkia Island to establish their own nation, but rather to protect the island's rare flora and fauna. This is all for the sake of protecting Earth's ecosystem.
Of course, this raises questions. Soon, an ambassador pointed out sharply: "Then why are mutants responsible for protecting them? If such rare flora and fauna resources truly exist, wouldn't it be better to let professional biologists and plant conservationists handle it?"
"If they are mutants, then of course it's possible."
Why does it have to be a mutant?
“You don’t know this,” Sebastian said, as if he had been waiting for them to ask. “Clarkia is a living island. You can think of it as a special kind of mutant.”
An uproar erupted from the audience, with everyone shouting loudly. One of the ambassadors asked, "What do you mean by saying he's a special mutant? How can an entire island have mutants?"
“Turning into an island is Clarkia’s mutant ability,” Sebastian said. “There are many different mutant abilities in this world. Some people can turn into diamonds, and naturally, some people can turn into islands. Unfortunately, Clarkia doesn’t welcome ordinary people; he only accepts mutants living inside him for extended periods.”
Sebastian paused for a moment, then continued, "The Krakia Flower, which could cure diseases before, is a magical plant from Krakia Island. This plant is quite rare and has very high economic value. And there are many more like this plant on Krakia Island. Mutants must make efforts to protect these rare plants and animals, which is also protecting the precious natural assets of our planet. Establishing nature reserves and environmental foundations is only natural."
The ambassadors below began whispering among themselves again, clearly looking for fault. One ambassador spoke up, "But if we don't let ordinary people onto the island, how will we know if there are natural resources there that need protection?"
"We never said we wouldn't allow ordinary people to come to the island; we only said they shouldn't stay there for extended periods. In fact, ordinary people probably wouldn't be able to adapt to the environment of Clarkia. The climate and natural environment there are not suitable for ordinary people without superpowers to live there long-term. Many trace elements and nutrients that the human body needs cannot be replenished in time. However, if you bring your own supplies, you can still stay there for a short period of time."
"In fact, the mutants sincerely invited ambassadors from various countries to visit and explore Clarkia." Sebastian was particularly careful with his wording, avoiding terms like "visit" or "arrival," and simply referring to it as a tour and scientific expedition.
His words, ironically, made the ambassador who had asked the question back down. They had already said that the place was unsuitable for ordinary people to live there, and that anyone going would have to bring their own supplies. If someone were to contract some disease and die there, the mutants might not even offer compensation, since they had already fulfilled their duty to warn.
Besides, it's been said there are tens of thousands of new plant and animal species there. What if some are aggressive? What if some are poisonous? Those mutants who can fly and burrow underground aren't afraid, but if an ordinary person went up there and encountered a small animal like a rabbit or cat, that would be one thing, but if they encountered a black bear or a tiger, they probably wouldn't be able to run away. Wilderness survival is an extreme sport, after all.
The murmurs below subsided considerably, but soon another sharp question was raised by the ambassador: "How can the mutants guarantee that your activities there will protect rare resources and not damage the environment?"
This resonated with many. After all, there are quite a few mutants, and there may be even more in the future. Each of them has superpowers, and they would need to build things to survive there, which would inevitably lead to environmental destruction.
Sebastian was genuinely stumped, as he didn't really know much about environmental matters. His palms were sweating with nervousness, and he tried to brush it off with some vague answer, but then he received another message from Magneto. He looked at it closely and nearly choked on his own words.
"Cough cough cough..."
Sebastian took several deep breaths to catch his breath. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and then said, "I'm sorry, you may have misunderstood. The Clarkia Nature Reserve we are establishing includes mutants."
There was a moment of silence in the room; many people didn't understand what he meant. One of the ambassadors grabbed the microphone and asked, "What do you mean by 'including mutants'?"
“We are also one of the rare animals that need to be protected.” Sebastian said, barely able to contain himself. “The main purpose of establishing this nature reserve is to protect mutants.”
A row of question marks appeared visibly in the audience. Sebastian was somewhat embarrassed to speak, cursing Magneto, that whimsical old man, a thousand times in his mind, but he still had to bite the bullet and say, "The Nature Foundation was established to protect all the rare plants and animals on Clarkia Island, including mutants."
“But…but…” one of the ambassadors was already stammering, “You are not wild animals…”
“We are,” Sebastian declared, “the current mainstream international view, as well as that of mutants themselves, is that mutants do not belong to the human race. We have genetic differences from modern humans. Mutants and modern humans should be considered parallel, not subordinate, that is, mutants and humans. Therefore, from the perspective of humans, mutants and chimpanzees of the Homininae subfamily should both belong to the wild animal kingdom.”
These words stunned everyone, including Sebastian himself. He thought about it for a moment as he spoke and realized that it seemed to be true.
Currently, most humans and mutants believe that humans and mutants are not the same species. However, virtually no scientists make a clear distinction because it's incredibly difficult to study. Even chimpanzees are difficult to keep in captivity, let alone mutants. Studying them is simply too laborious.
While some organizations do conduct surreptitious human experiments on mutants, the findings cannot be made public, otherwise Magneto would surely come after them. Many of Magneto's so-called terrorist attacks are actually attempts to rescue captured mutants; no one would dare to self-destruct.
This has led to a lack of systematic classification of mutants in academia. Everyone thinks they are different from humans, and they themselves think so too, but they haven't studied in detail what category or order they belong to.
But now, the mutants have reached a conclusion. They consider themselves another species within the genus *Homo*, that is, mutants alongside *Homo sapiens*. Of course, to be more scientific, *Homo sapiens* should be divided into two types: mutants and non-mutants. After all, these two types have no reproductive isolation and no differences other than the X gene, so they should belong to the same genus.
However, to maintain the independence of mutants, they were separated from Homo sapiens and became another genus of humans, parallel to Homo sapiens. This can be considered a rather astonishing conclusion.