Marvel: Sign-In System – Starting with the Glint-Glint Fruit

"Neagley is right, Reacher."

At that moment, a path opened through the crowded ward, and Matthew walked in.

"BOSS."

Everyone lowered their heads and called out respectfully.

"BOSS."

The soldiers on the hospital beds instinctively tried to get up when they saw Matthew arrive, but Matthew pressed his hand down with a wave.

A gentle force held them in place.

Then he stood before Reacher's bed, swept his gaze over everyone, and said in a deep voice, "Every one of you is outstanding. Every one of you is excellent."

"What makes you outstanding and excellent is not only your loyalty, but also your perseverance and your desire to become stronger."

"From nothing to where you are now, less than a year has passed."

"Astartes and Raven. These are two banners. Since joining the warbands, none of you have brought shame to those names."

"Every day, you wake up before dawn to begin training, pushing yourselves until your physical energy is completely drained, even to the point of fainting."

"What I have seen in all of you is relentless effort."

Unlike Magneto's persuasive speech, Matthew's words were not impassioned.

They were calm instead.

But it was precisely that calmness that struck the heart.

In a single sentence, it meant this: your efforts, as your leader, I have seen them all.

That was what moved them most.

"Day and night, you have trained under constant tension. You have held on all this time, and that perseverance has brought you its reward."

"The battle with Magneto was meant to let you grow through real combat, not to make you deny all the effort you have put in because of one defeat."

"I am proud of you, and I believe that sooner or later, you will surpass Magneto. You may even surpass those so-called gods who stand high above."

"Failure is never truly frightening. No one goes through life without failing. Taste the bitterness of failure, remember that taste, and then, in the future, erase it with your own hands."

The entire ward was completely quiet. Only Matthew's voice echoed in their ears.

...

On a beach in San Juan.

"Erik, how do you feel?"

Professor X sat in his wheelchair, facing the waves beneath the night sky. The lights from the coastal road brought a little brightness to the beach.

Magneto stood beside him.

Farther away were Mystique, Sabretooth, and the X-Men.

All of them were looking this way.

"If you're here to mock me, Charles, I have nothing to say," Magneto snorted coldly.

The sea breeze fluttered the cloak draped behind him.

It revealed the turbulence in his emotions.

Even so, Magneto knew Professor X was not mocking him.

Having been both enemies and friends for decades, the two understood each other perfectly.

It was simply Magneto's way of lashing out.

This was their usual way of interacting.

After the jab, Magneto fell silent for a moment before continuing in a low, heavy voice, "Those people... I have never seen anything like them."

"They have unbelievably powerful bodies. Stronger than that little kid at your school called Colossus, and only inferior to Juggernaut."

"But there are many of them, and they have formed an army."

"Their combat techniques and methods are rich, strange, and unlike anything I have ever seen."

Magneto did not need to recall it carefully, because the shock and impact this night had brought him were too deep.

At the end, he lowered his voice, his tone growing heavier.

"They are not mutants."

That final sentence was what Magneto had truly wanted to say.

"That's right. They are not mutants." As an old friend, how could Professor X not know what Magneto was thinking?

In fact, he was thinking the exact same thing.

Not mutants, yet able to wield such power—and more than fifty of them. What did this mean?

It was simply terrifying upon careful thought.

The kind of realization that made one's scalp tingle.

They were even reluctant to believe it.

It was so shocking that they could almost glimpse a corner of the future.

A corner they dared not imagine.

Magneto felt a chill. He was not sure if it was because he stood by the sea.

"Heh. I never thought there would be other freaks in this world besides us. A group of terrifying freaks."

Magneto let out a self-mocking laugh.

"Freak" was the word he hated most.

Those humans loved using that word to describe him and his people.

Yet now, it had come from his own mouth.

"Do you know, Erik, the first time I met that child was in November of last year."

Professor X did not respond to Magneto's words. Instead, he began speaking on his own.

That drew Magneto's attention. He turned his head and looked at Professor X's side profile. The distant streetlights illuminated one corner of his face, while most of it was covered in shadow.

"At the time, I was still teaching the students at the school. That child found the school, and he found me."

"He proposed a deal."

At this point, Professor X also turned his face slightly and met Magneto's gaze. "He wanted Hank to develop a nutritional drug for him, one with enough nutrients in a single tube that even an elephant would be unable to digest it."

"The bargaining chip was the Alkali Lake dam base."

"So he was the one who told you about it." Magneto frowned.

He knew that Professor X had informed him of that matter. After learning that Professor X had rescued those innocent mutant compatriots from the dam, along with those horrifying experimental records and reports, Magneto had cooperated with him without hesitation and launched a pursuit of William Stryker.

At first, he had thought it was the result of the X-Men's investigation.

He had not expected that it had been that boy who told him.

"Yes. But at the time, he was still inexperienced, and far from as powerful as he is now. He was alone. Do you know what that means, Erik?"

"What?"

Magneto's expression changed abruptly.

"Isn't it unbelievable? I feel the same way."

Professor X smiled helplessly.

"Less than a year?"

"Less than a year. At most, no more than two years." Professor X confirmed Magneto's guess.

"Damn it. How exactly did that kid do it?"

This time, Magneto was not merely shocked. Fear began to grow inside him.

At most, no more than two years. What kind of concept was that?

It meant that the boy possessed the ability to mass-produce super soldiers who were troublesome even for him to deal with.

Fifty?

That number was probably far from the limit.

"What is that kid planning to do?"

Magneto truly felt a chill.

In a daze, he seemed to see himself surrounded by dense, countless super soldiers.

One pair of ruthless eyes after another stared at him.

Or rather, stared at the entire world.

"I don't know. But I do know one thing, Erik. Do not try to search for him, or provoke him."

Professor X gave his old friend the most solemn warning of his life.

"That would bring disaster to you, perhaps even to our entire kind."

Magneto fell silent.

After a long time, he spoke, but his voice had become hoarse and powerless. "Then what does all the effort we made before amount to?"

"Maintaining our current relationship with him is enough, Erik. That is crucial."

"I don't think I would have the courage to face him again either."

Magneto's once-straight figure seemed to bend slightly, and he appeared even older.

...

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