Magneto wore a cold, satisfied smile as the bloody iron sphere floating before him obediently split into three smaller, perfect metallic spheres. These orbs, forged from the prison guard's very essence, hummed with latent magnetic energy, floating like three lethal, dark moons. As long as Magneto stood on a planet with metal, he was, quite literally, unstoppable.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
"Click! Click! Click!"
With a silent, instantaneous command from Erik Lehnsherr, the three small iron balls shot forward like railgun slugs. They didn't just breach the thick polycarbonate walls of the plastic prison; they carved through them, leaving three perfectly circular, molten holes in their wake.
The impact alarm systems shrieked, and prison guards in the distance, already alerted by the sudden loss of their comrade, frantically hammered the isolation switch.
The massive, retractable bridge—the only physical passage connecting Magneto's cell to the main corridor—began to quickly withdraw. The chamber where Magneto was housed was instantly isolated from the outside world, creating a terrifying, isolated island surrounded on all sides by a sheer, bottomless drop—a chasm designed to prevent exactly this kind of escape.
However, Magneto's expression did not change in the slightest. He watched the massive structure pull away with detached amusement. A sheer drop meant nothing. As long as there was metal, he feared no one, and he was certainly not intimidated by a simple engineering challenge!
"Whoosh!" The central small ball in front of Magneto instantly flattened, transforming under his will into a perfectly smooth, circular iron disc. It was razor-thin, almost invisible from the side, a perfect metallic carpet that now hovered suspended in the empty, dark chasm.
Magneto stepped onto it with the casual elegance of a man stepping onto an ordinary floor, and the iron disc became his silent, swift chariot, carrying him effortlessly across the terrifying void.
The other two lethal orbs spun around him, one leading, one trailing, giving him an air of regal, untouchable invulnerability. If the platform beneath his feet had been a glowing sword, coupled with his calm, utterly dominant demeanor, he would have looked like a timeless, ancient Sword Immortal finally descending upon the mortal world.
More prison guards, roused by the frantic alarms, rushed toward the rapidly collapsing containment area. But these guards were deliberately disarmed—they had no guns, no ammunition, and their uniforms contained minimal metal, as those assets would only serve to arm their legendary prisoner.
But without guns or metallic weapons, these guards were pitifully useless against the true Master of Magnetism.
"Die where you stand, pathetic jailers of humanity!"
Magneto didn't even turn his head. His two accompanying orbs accelerated outward again, splitting and reforming into a lethal swarm of metallic shrapnel. They sliced through the surrounding glass and plastic prison walls, tearing through the guards who hadn't even had time to raise their hands in defense.
The shrapnel took the lives of the unlucky group of guards instantly, painting the pristine white walls red, before they seamlessly gathered and reformed, silently following Erik as he broke free from the complex and into the open night air.
Meanwhile, outside, Mystique had been waiting in the shadows, her form already shifted into a nondescript silhouette. As soon as Magneto emerged, she moved to meet him—or rather, to greet him, because Magneto clearly required no help in fighting his way out.
"The air… it tastes of freedom and metal. It feels so good to be loose again, Raven!" Magneto savored the feeling, but his focus quickly snapped back to the greater, darker mission. He was still most concerned about his old friend and nemesis, Charles Xavier. Upon seeing Mystique, the urgency returned. "Tell me, how is Charles? Where did that military fanatic take him?"
"Charles? Wait, William Stryker took Charles?" Mystique's expression instantly twisted in shock. She had been focused solely on the complex, meticulous task of rescuing Magneto and was completely unaware of the attack on the school. "Something happened at the school? Charles was captured?"
"That's right! That vile bastard William Stryker took Charles. He knows Charles is the key," Magneto confirmed grimly, his features hardening into a mask of brutal resolve. "We must locate him immediately. I already know Stryker's final, twisted purpose: he wants to use Charles's power to destroy all of us mutants!"
"We're probably not enough on our own, Erik." Mystique frowned, shifting her stance restlessly. After Magneto's capture, the Brotherhood of Mutants had scattered—some had gone into deep hiding, others had abandoned the organization entirely. At this critical moment, their numbers were drastically low.
"We need to find the X-Men. I heard that Cyclops was captured, but Stryker won't be able to catch the others—not Storm, not Jean—unless he has other, more powerful means," Magneto deduced, his mind racing through the strategic possibilities. "Go and find their whereabouts, Raven! They are the only ones who might have a bead on Stryker's true location!"
"No problem there. I was prepared for Charles being hunted," Mystique nodded, a smug, confident smile playing on her lips.
"I placed a microscopic tracking device inside their Blackbird jet while I was at the mansion. As long as the remaining X-Men take off, I'll be able to find their signal." She then morphed into a falcon and disappeared into the night sky, leaving Magneto to follow his path to his own secret rendezvous.
Inside the quiet sanctuary of the Wing Chun martial arts school, Logan finished recounting his experiences to Huang Wen, carefully editing the narrative to suit his ego. Of course, regarding his fight with Bruce Banner—or rather, the full-blown, catastrophic confrontation with the Hulk—Logan naturally positioned himself as the superior fighter.
In Logan's highly embellished account, from the beginning of the dust-up to the final, necessary retreat, Logan had completely overwhelmed the Hulk, stating emphatically that the green giant hadn't managed to land a single meaningful blow.
(Bruce Banner was already safely asleep upstairs. If he had heard Logan's self-serving commentary, the Hulk would likely have clawed his way through the ceiling to correct the record.)
"So, to recap: Charles was arrested by Stryker's goons after he went to the plastic prison, and the college was attacked in the chaos. Then, Stryker used the military to chase you and the big green guy until you blew up a factory somewhere,"
Huang Wen summarized, tapping his chin thoughtfully. He then used his special abilities—the enhanced Perception and Divine Power—to cross-reference Logan's disjointed facts with the faint, persistent memories of the movie he had seen long ago.
A name surfaced in his mind like a beacon. "Lake Alkali! Alkali Lake!" He muttered to himself, the certainty of the memory overriding Logan's confusion. The military base... the dam... the final confrontation point... it all fits.
"Uncle Wolf, do you know anything about Lake Alkali?" Huang Wen asked, looking up sharply at Logan.
"Lake Alkali? Yeah, I know it," Logan replied, frowning as he recalled the grim, desolate location. "I spent time there searching for my memories. Charles sent me there. It's a total wasteland now, Boss—no one lives there, just abandoned military structures and a big old dam."
"Sometimes, what you perceive isn't necessarily the reality," Huang Wen said, shaking his head. He spoke slowly, uttering a profound statement that was half philosophy, half movie plot knowledge. He then got up and walked toward his room.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Logan was taken aback by the teenager's sudden, cryptic profundity. He shouted after Huang Wen, "Hey! How old are you? Why are you talking like some ancient Chinese hermit? Can't you just spit out what you know?"
"Saying it directly is just… low-class," Huang Wen muttered to himself with a slight smile as he retreated to the privacy of his personal quarters.
Logan scratched his head, a thoughtful, confused look in his eyes. "Low-class? I told him about the attack after Charles left, and he immediately brought up Alkali Lake… Does he know Charles was taken there? Does he know what Stryker is planning?" Logan's mind, rarely focused on anything but instinct and survival, began to churn with an unfamiliar level of strategic thought.
Inside the quiet sanctity of his room, Huang Wen quickly pushed aside the matters of Logan, Banner, Magneto, and the coming global mutant war. He had something far more pressing and infinitely more rewarding to attend to: the three lottery draws!
He mentally reviewed his accumulated rewards: One Extraordinary Item Draw and Two Legendary Skill Draws—for a total of three chances at Legendary Power!
Huang Wen knew that after tonight, he would no longer just be a respected martial arts master on a street corner. He would possess the fundamental power required to truly stake his claim in this world of gods, monsters, and maniacs.
"System, claim the mission rewards immediately." Huang Wen focused on the mission page and claimed all the rewards from the three successful missions in one swift action.
"Let's start small, get the blood pumping." Huang Wen looked first at the Extraordinary Item Draw among his haul. He took a deep, centering breath, recalling all the times he'd failed to draw anything truly game-changing. "Draw an Extraordinary Item!"
With a dazzling "Whoosh!", a familiar white light enveloped his internal vision, swirling for a moment before resolving into a translucent icon.
"Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained the extraordinary item: Rebirth Dragon Emblem."
(Derived from the movie The Medallion, this is an item of profound and ancient power. After system optimization, it no longer needs to be activated upon death; simply wearing it will grant you the power of the Rebirth Dragon Emblem.)
"Special Note: You can only possess its power when wearing the Rebirth Dragon Emblem. When you wear it, you will have 999 points of stamina, 9.9 points of Divine Power (Shen), and you will also be granted true, biological immortality."
"Special Tip 2: There are two known methods to bypass this immortality and neutralize you: one is to physically steal your Rebirth Dragon Emblem, and the other is to cause two Rebirth Dragon Emblems to collide directly upon your person. Therefore, please keep your Rebirth Dragon Emblem safe. Furthermore, it is strongly advised that you do not draw a second Rebirth Dragon Emblem, as you would literally be creating a fatal weakness for yourself."
"This… this is an Extraordinary Item?" Huang Wen's eyes widened to an absurd degree, staring blankly at the lottery results in front of him. His mind reeled. He had expected a fancy weapon or perhaps a utility device, but this… this was the ultimate cheat code. At this moment, Huang Wen felt a profound certainty that he had completely and permanently overturned his luck.