Chapter 2617: Mayfly World (Part 18)

The answer is of course no.

The X-gene certainly does not follow regression to the mean, nor is it possible to become stronger and stronger like synthesizing a big watermelon. If this were the case, the universe would have exploded because of entropy increase long ago.

After many years of research and cracking of the X-gene by humans, it was finally discovered that this thing had nothing else, purely random.

Two ordinary people might give birth to a child with the X-gene, two mutants might give birth to ordinary people, and a combination of an ordinary person and a mutant might also give birth to ordinary people and mutants.

Two powerful mutants might give birth to ordinary people, might give birth to Epsilon-level disabled mutants, and might give birth to powerful mutants.

The only rule that could still be considered credible and circulated internally was that powerful mutants and ordinary people were more likely to give birth to powerful mutants.

This rule mainly came from Magneto and Professor X. Magneto's three children were all very strong because his father was a powerful mutant and his mother was an ordinary person.

One of Professor X's sons was very strong because his father was a powerful mutant and his mother was an ordinary person.

Besides that, many students recruited in the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters were also combinations of mutants and ordinary people, just that the mutants among the parents were not that strong, but the children born were at least not disabled.

So these relatively strong Alpha and Omega-level mutants generally believed that combining with ordinary people could give birth to stronger children. As for the combination between mutants and mutants, there had been no two powerful enough mutants to combine so far, so it was very difficult to deduce the rule.

But looking from the bottom of society, many Epsilon-level mutants who suffered discrimination also found it difficult to combine with ordinary people. Most of them also looked for the same congenitally insufficient mutants to combine, but their fertility status was also completely random, not weaker and weaker, nor would they become stronger.

This led to a very embarrassing problem for mutants. If they gathered all powerful mutants on one planet and let them combine in pairs to have children, then this planet could not be a planet of powerful mutants, because there were definitely ordinary people and Epsilon-level disabled people among the children.

And according to the birth probability of powerful mutants, after a few generations, this planet would become a new Earth, and mutants would still be the minority.

Although not on Earth, Magneto could completely implement a third-class citizen system, letting ordinary people be slaves, but the problem was that the huge number of Epsilon-level mutants still needed to consume a lot of resources and could not produce, so in the end, they still had to rely on powerful mutants to support them. In the end, who was the slave to whom?

These speculations flashed through Clark's mind quickly. He almost instantly understood this truth, and then opened his mouth very affirmatively, "You are repeating the same mistakes."

How could Professor X not understand this truth? He still said very gently, "We just want to give mutants hope, let them understand that there is their paradise in the distance, so that they can have a sense of belonging and can unite."

Clark shook his head and said, "This takes a long time, and it may not be really effective."

"Perhaps we don't need to be so troublesome at all." Clark stared at Magneto with those deep blue eyes. Magneto looked away. Damn blue eyes.

"What is the dilemma you are facing now? I heard from Dr. Schiller that it is because you can't find mutant talents in agriculture and animal husbandry now, and ordinary people can't understand your situation."

"And the reason why you can't find talents in this area is because there is a country that has settled them all. They live and work in peace and contentment there, and have been stable to the point of not being enterprising."

"Since this is the case, it shows that there is a utopia for mutants in this world. Why do you have to work hard to build another one?"

Magneto had to turn his head back to look at Clark. He said, "The people there are not of one mind with us."

"But they are very united, aren't they? Even you two mutant leaders of global civilization personally recruited them and couldn't shake them. You should have tried the temptation of wealth and power, right? How well are they living to be able to refuse you again and again?"

Magneto and Professor X were unwilling to talk about this topic, but Clark said, "You want to build a utopia in a distant place because as long as mutants on Earth can't see it, they can imagine how good it is."

"But imagination is imagination after all. No matter how many public opinion gimmicks you make, it is not as good as seeing it with your own eyes. And the vast majority of mutants were born on Earth. They have more reality for everything that happens on Earth."

"A country that is close at hand and can even be visited at will, with the style of mutants, and a virtual paradise in the Andromeda Galaxy that is far away and can't be seen or touched, which one do you think they will trust more?"

"We can also let them..."

"But they will understand that the people who go there have been selected," Clark said, "I am a reporter, you can't hide this from me. They will say that the people you invited to visit all took money, or they said so under your coercion and inducement. They won't believe it."

"Isn't China like this?"

"At least China has opened travel visas for all countries on the surface, although the time is limited, this is telling everyone, we are not afraid of you coming at all. As long as you can afford a plane ticket, you can come and see if what we have done is true."

"Even if some people can't afford a plane ticket, this makes them understand that the cost of doing this kind of fake is too high, which is impossible. Even if it is fake, even if only a few cities have done it, it will cost huge manpower and material resources. Compared with this, the cost of your fake is very low, so it is even less credible."

Magneto was silent and did not refute. Clark said, "I don't understand why the other side has successful experience, but you are unwilling to learn? Just because of ideology?"

Magneto shook his head and said, "It can be said that, or it can be said that it is not. Their government is of this attitude, but any government other than them cannot allow mutants to do this, and we don't have our own government."

"Then build one."

"No one will agree, this is the problem," Magneto said, "Once we do it, we will definitely be attacked by everyone."

"Then look for allies."

"We have no allies. Even the Chinese government will not express support for us because we want to establish our own country, and even mutants in China will not. They never regard themselves and us as one."

"Then don't build a nation as a mutant," Clark leaned his body forward, put his hands on the table, and stared at Magneto's eyes.

Magneto was slightly stunned. He really didn't understand what Clark meant. What does it mean not to build a nation as a mutant?

Schiller finally understood what Clark was trying to do after going around such a big circle. He really couldn't help laughing. Seeing Magneto's confused expression, he tried hard to press the corners of his mouth and knocked on the table, attracting Magneto's attention and said.

"You say you want to build a nation for mutants, everyone will definitely disagree, but if you say you want to rebuild the former Soviet Union, everyone will definitely cheer for the founding ceremony of the mutant nation."

Schiller clearly heard Professor X spray the coffee in his mouth.

Magneto also couldn't help rubbing his forehead. He looked at Schiller and said, "Don't think I don't

"We are not discussing me right now, but you. You said the Chinese government wouldn't support mutants, and that's true, especially since they certainly wouldn't support mutants represented by the Brotherhood of Mutants, and the mutants within China have no affection for you at all."

"But you cannot deny the strength of this country and its firm attitude toward its allies. As long as you can establish a relationship with this country, the name under which you do it doesn't matter at all."

"Conversely, there are few supporters of their national system in the world right now, and with the arrival of the interstellar era, ideological disputes will one day resurface."

"Or rather, all countries are currently going all out, and the interstellar arms race they are engaged in is all to prove that they are the correct ones, just like the Cold War back then."

"It is foreseeable that in the new round of the arms race, every side will need allies. Mutants cannot fight to the end as a neutral force. Or do you prefer to cooperate with the United States?"

Magneto's expression sank; he knew that everything Schiller said was true, and this trend was already faintly emerging.

He was someone who had lived through the Cold War, and he knew that this kind of competition was not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the future stage was boundlessly vast; competition and confrontation were instead catalysts for development.

Therefore, people like Nick and Schiller did not oppose this kind of competition, and the major powers also had a tacit understanding, defaulting to the emergence of this situation.

Since that is the case, the competition will inevitably intensify, and everyone will do their best to win over allies. In this situation, trying to remain neutral and flip-flopping is the stupidest decision.

Magneto had once seen with his own eyes the fate of those small countries that courted death, and the current situation of mutants was even worse than those small countries.

They were not players with land and population at all; they were more like a knife, an enchanted weapon. Attacking a player would at least invite moral condemnation, but no one would condemn anyone for using any means to seize a knife.

If it really reached that point, he would have no choice. They must take the initiative and plan early in order to find a place to settle down in the magnificent next era.

Would China be a good choice?

Magneto didn't know, but he knew he couldn't choose the United States. What the United States wanted was just a knife; they would not allow their weapons to have any autonomous consciousness. If Magneto were willing to become a weapon, why would he be frantically causing trouble within the United States?

If he were willing to bow his head, the Brotherhood of Mutants would not be a terrorist organization. His unwillingness to lose autonomy is the fundamental reason for the birth of this organization and why it acts this way.

Schiller had long since seen that Magneto had a pathological desire for control over himself and others, which stemmed from the fact that he couldn't control too many things in his early years. This psychological trauma gave him an excessive compensatory psychology.

But as it happens, the United States is also a country with an extremely strong desire for control. What it wants is not win-win cooperation, but annexation and control. Zero-sum game is a term written into the national spirit of the United States, and unchallengeable authority is the foundation of their hegemony in the world, which dictates that they will not bow to others.

Since neither side is willing to bow, naturally no cooperation can be reached, and since the United States cannot be chosen, only one option remains.

Magneto still appeared somewhat hesitant. He said, "I don't oppose cooperating with any country, but I must know what I can get from such cooperation. Is it a real country?"

"Is having the title of a country really that important to you?" Clark asked. "If you actually controlled a certain place, must you call yourself a king?"

"Of course not," Magneto said with some disdain. "I'm not that naive."

"That makes things easy. Since you've been doing the work of a terrorist organization anyway, why can't you make the momentum of your activities even bigger?" Clark spread his hands and said, "What's good about attacking U. S. military bases? Don't you know what is most important to the United States?"

Magneto looked at him.

"How does the title of 'Mexican anti-government army' sound to you?"

"I... what?????"

Magneto looked at Clark, who had said this.

"You're crazy."

"Are you afraid?"

Magneto had to look at Schiller again, the meaning in his eyes being—"Where did you find such a lunatic?"

Schiller, however, shook his head and said in his heart: "He is not a lunatic; he is just a good friend of humanity."