In the Marvel Universe: I can summon items from all dimensions.

Chapter 58 My Lord! Times have changed!

Indeed, there are some mutants in the academy who can change their appearance. Mason taught two in his class yesterday, but all they can do is change the color of their bodies like squid, or make certain parts of their bodies swell or shrink—I'm referring to their arms, please don't get the wrong idea.

The situation is similar across the entire academy; at least according to Mason's information, there are no students who can "completely become another person."

So here's the question: in the X-Men series, who is the only character who can change their body shape at will and happen to lose over 40 pounds of weight, like Bobby, a young man?

It's Mystique, Raven Darkholme, of course.

Mason stroked his chin, a thoughtful smile appearing on his face, then strode forward and called out to the fake Bobby.

To be precise, if I've misunderstood and this person isn't actually Mystique, things would get a bit awkward, so let's just call him Fake Bobby for now.

He adopted a strict teacher's tone, cleared his throat, and said, "Good morning, Mr. Drake."

The fake Bobby turned around, and upon seeing Mason, stood up without giving himself away, nodded, and said, "Good morning, Professor Mason."

"I wouldn't dare call myself a professor; I'm just an ordinary teacher."

Upon approaching, Mason raised his chin and asked, "Mind if I sit here?"

Fake Bobby feigned perfect bewilderment: "Ah—of course, it's alright, please feel free."

Seeing that the other person had moved aside to make room for him, Mason sat down and continued his conversation: "How was yesterday's class? To be honest, it was my first day of teaching, so don't be fooled by my calm demeanor on the podium; I was actually quite nervous."

"Haha, Mr. Mason, your class is very interesting. I'm completely engrossed in it," said Fake Bobby, scratching his head. "It's much better than the teachers at my previous school—that menopausal auntie only knew how to scold students she didn't like."

"That's good."

Without warning, Mason revealed his true intentions: "Speaking of which, how's that thing I asked you to do yesterday?"

"?"

Fake Bobby's expression stiffened very briefly.

Mason's observational skills weren't sharp enough to detect this ridiculously small change, but he quickly got the answer he wanted.

"Well—" he saw the fake Bobby say, "Sorry—I had a little party with some new friends after school yesterday and didn't have time to come."

Wrong, they've taken the bait!

Of course, it was all nonsense. In fact, Mason hadn't seen Bobby since get out of class yesterday. He was just making up an excuse to test him, but he didn't expect it to be exposed so easily.

Miss Riven, your professional skills are lacking. Before undertaking such an infiltration mission, how could you not thoroughly investigate the target of your transformation?

"Ah—then there's nothing we can do."

Mason smiled wryly and said, "But you have to give me back the tool. I still need it today."

1

"what?"

Fake Bobby finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Tools—"

"Looks like you didn't bring it with you. Did you leave it in your dorm?" Mason said casually. "Class is about to start, and I can't take up your time. If you don't mind, just tell me where it is, and I'll go get it myself."

"Ah—that—"

Fake Bobby swallowed hard and said, "The thing is in my dorm. I'll take you to get it. My dorm is pretty messy, Professor Mason, you might not be able to find it."

"That's fine too."

Mason stood up and smiled, "Then let's hurry, class starts in twenty minutes."

Mystique is facing a major challenge in her career.

Under orders from Magneto Eric Lansher, she secretly infiltrated the academy last night, hoping to find an opportunity to put a drug into Charles's brainwave enhancer so that he would be immediately poisoned whenever he used it.

For the Brotherhood's future endeavors, Professor Charles must first be rendered powerless. Otherwise, he could simply sit on the brainwave enhancement machine and glance at Eric to understand what he was planning to do. In that case, all the plans would be nothing but empty talk.

And so, carrying an extremely rare piece of equipment that could shield her from telepathy and make her invisible to psychic beings, she secretly entered the academy near nightfall, found a freshman who had just enrolled this year, took his identity, and began to carry out her plan.

First, the Brotherhood members haven't been able to enter the Institute for a long time. They need to figure out the changes that have occurred during this period in order to find the corresponding loopholes and secretly put the poison into the brainwave enhancement machine.

Therefore, she needs to pretend to be a student and observe for a period of time.

The Brotherhood provided her with a file on Bobby Drake, along with various related materials. With these, she could convincingly portray the young mutant, and as one of the world's leading actors, she had ample confidence.

----------

The result was that a major problem occurred on the very first day.

Damn it, who knows what a teacher would ask this young man, who has only been enrolled for a few days, to do?

You're really being quite rude as a teacher, aren't you?

On her way back to her dorm, Mystique repeatedly glanced at Mason, who was following behind her, out of the corner of her eye.

There's no other way. Since things have come to this point, if I can't get away with an excuse like "Teacher, my roommate lost your things," then I'll have to find a way to knock this person unconscious after I get into the dorm, and then transform into his appearance to continue the mission.

But is this kind of thing even possible?

Mason Lee Sissel, according to the fraternity's investigation, was a newly recruited sociology teacher by the professor. His past was completely blank, and it was impossible to find out where he came from or how he came into contact with the professor. He was shrouded in mystery.

Are they mutants? If so, what are their abilities? All of these things are unknown.

Mystique is well aware of the limits of her abilities. After all, her only power is to change her appearance. She can barely manage to take down a few special forces soldiers by sneaking up on them using the fighting skills she has practiced over the years. But if she were to face a truly powerful mutant head-on, being instantly killed would be considered quite dignified.

Damn it—how did it turn out like this—could this person have already seen through my identity and is just playing me for a fool?

No matter how long it felt like Mystique was taking, the journey back to her dorm was only that long.

Suppressing her anxiety, she used the key she had taken from Bobby to open the door and went inside first.

Mason followed closely behind.

"It's not too messy," he said casually, hands in his pockets. "So, where are my things?"

In reality, she was sending a message to Kuroshi Kasumi in her mind: "How is it? Are there any ambushes or anything?"

"No, not really. But there was human breathing and heartbeat in the wardrobe. Based on the characteristics, it should be that young man from yesterday was knocked unconscious and put in there." Kuroishi Kasumi replied somewhat angrily, "I say, customer, although there is no standard charge for these little things, if you continue to do this, I will have no choice but to extort you."

"That's alright, I'm not worried about having too much debt anyway."

Mason gave a brief reply.

Now that the real Bobby is safe and there's no one else around, it seems there's no need to continue the act.

"that----"

Mystique was putting the finishing touches on the reason she had just come up with, but just before she was about to speak, she saw the meaningful smile on Mason's face.

That kind of smile that says, "No need to pretend, I've already seen through you."

Mystique was startled.

"So, where are my things, Mr. Drake?"

Leaning against the doorframe, Mason smiled slightly and said, "Or perhaps—should I call you Miss Riven?"

He was risky saying that, because if things didn't turn out as he imagined, and the fake Bobby wasn't Mystique, his attempt to be cool would instantly turn into making a fool of himself.

But it seems—I wasn't wrong.

The instant the words "Miss Riven" were uttered, Mason saw a blue fist coming straight at his face!

Omitted for brevity, but Mystique is actually a true martial arts master.

Throughout her long life, she spent almost all of her time working for the cause of mutants, engaging in infiltration, rescue, and assassination. She received rigorous training in military organizations in various countries, becoming proficient in everything from weaponry to vehicle operation. Her combat skills were also considered masterful—after all, many places she went to did not allow guns, so she had to find ways to deal with enemies with her fists. Over time, she naturally honed her skills to the point where she could take on ten people at once.

Based on Mason's previous encounter with Bullseye, if the armor were removed and the fight were entirely unarmed, Mystique could defeat her with minor injuries or even without any damage after a prolonged struggle, demonstrating her exceptional skill.

So, how should Mason, who is actually just an average person on the stats panel, react when facing such an opponent?

The answer is that they simply can't react in time.

In a split second, Mystique took a few steps forward, steadied herself, and swung her ankles, waist, and arms like a whip, delivering a lightning-fast punch to Mason's chin.

The brain remains in place due to inertia and impacts the inner wall of the skull, immediately showing symptoms of concussion. This is why a blow to the chin during a fight can knock someone down, and Mason was no exception.

Under the powerful punch from Mystique, who had reverted to her original form, Mason, who was more than a head taller than her, almost fell to the side on the spot. Fortunately, he was prepared in advance. After reacting to the punch, he immediately mobilized the light energy in his body and repaired his brain, which had almost been bruised and ruptured, in seconds.

From the outside perspective, it appeared that after taking a punch that could have put someone into a peaceful, undisturbed sleep, he simply swayed a couple of times before standing still.

If you ask if it hurts, then it definitely hurts.

But as painful as it may be, I have no choice but to pretend.

So he straightened up and said calmly to Mystique, who had punched him and then retreated to observe the situation, "Your strength is so-so—you don't even have the strength to hit someone, and you call yourself a Brotherhood?"

But in her mind, she was frantically calling out to Kuroshi Kasumi: "Help, help, help! Give me some more of that poison gas from last time, but this time don't make it too strong. If I don't retain a little bit of consciousness, I'm afraid I'll lose control of my bladder."

"?" Kuroshi Kasumi replied in a listless voice, "Why bother? Let me just slap her to death. The effort required is about the same anyway."

"You're an alien commander now; you can't just show up like that," Mason urged impatiently, seeing the situation about to change again. "Hurry up, I'll pay you!"

"Sigh—" Kuroshi Kasumi sighed, "Alright, then I'll charge you an extra two hundred million joules when we collect the debt later."

The instant her voice fell, Mason smelled a similar scent to the one he had in class yesterday, and his physical sensations weakened. Moreover, Kuroshi Kasumi's professional skills were indeed strong; if she said it was half effective, it really was only half effective.

Very good, now please call me the Academy's King of Endurance.

"What's going on?" Mystique gritted her teeth. "It feels no different from a normal person's—a healing factor? Hmph, Charles's luck is really good; he always manages to recruit some formidable characters."

"Surrender, Miss Riven."

Mason smiled confidently and said, "Guess if I contacted you after notifying other people?"

"Hmph—" Mystique sneered. "If that were the case, I would have been overwhelmed and taken down long ago—but there are only the two of us here now, and I have the ability to snap your neck before the others arrive."

"Go ahead," Mason said nonchalantly. "A mere fatal wound means nothing to me."

"Don't think I'll fall for that a second time!"

Mystique let out a low growl and lunged at Mason.

Some people might think she's resorting to desperate measures, but that's not actually the case.

You should know that Mystique is Professor Charles's childhood friend. In some incidents back then, she also cooperated with some members of the X-Men. She is one of the few mutants who can get along well in both the Academy and the Fraternity. Specifically, as long as she doesn't go too far, she can use her "face fruit" to get entangled with the people of the Academy without worrying about being treated like a grandson and beaten up like Azu did last night.

Now that she's been exposed, all she can do is run away. If she gets caught, even if the academy doesn't make things too difficult for her, she'll still be interrogated.

So the key question is how to defeat this self-healing ability user in front of us—the newcomers to the academy won't give her the same face as the other old fogies!

Mason was actually quite nervous.

This is actually his first real battle. Considering that in the Marvel Universe, there are relatively few characters like Mystique who are just technically skilled, rather than being shameless enough to punch through a wall like some characters are described as being close to human limits, he decided to try and see if he could take her down on his own.

We'll consider air guns later. For now, let's use her skills to test how well my self-healing ability works against close-combat experts.

If I can launch a counterattack, maybe I actually have quite a bit of close-combat skill?

Because he only knew a little bit of haphazard punching, Mason threw a straight punch when he saw Mystique charging towards him—but this immediately gave her an opening.

Mystique grabbed Mason's outstretched arm, turned it slightly to the side, and then swept her leg, disrupting his balance and causing him to fall to the side.

In Mason's eyes, Mystique had inexplicably knocked him down, then used her two beautifully curved and very strong legs to wrap around his neck, forming an armbar in the blink of an eye.

Mystique's thinking was this: while it was unlikely to inflict fatal damage on a healing factor user, there was room to restrict their movement. Judging from the feel of the touch just now, this guy didn't seem to have adamantium in his body like Wolverine. So, using a chokehold to break his limbs to buy time to escape should be fine, right?

So, after the armbar was set up, Mystique exerted her strength, and in just two seconds, Mason's right arm snapped.

According to her understanding, after suffering such damage, even if her self-healing ability is very strong, she would at least be in pain and stiffen up for a few seconds, which would be enough for her to take further action.

However, the problem is that Mason now has virtually no sense of pain.

He heard a cracking sound from his arm and then lost control of it, but this did not prevent him from making any other movements.

Since his arm was already broken, twisting it a little more wouldn't hurt—with that mindset, he rolled away from Mystique and twisted his right arm behind his back, getting rid of the armbar in a way that would make anyone else's hand hurt.

Mystique: "?!"

Very well, assessment complete. I'm completely not cut out for this. Melee combat is nobody's business.

He then straightened up, swung his right arm in front of him, and pressed the storage bracelet on his right wrist with his left hand.

The air gun popped out of the storage space and was caught by Mason, who then put it on the index finger of his left hand.

Mystique was quick to react. Although she was startled by Mason's actions, she immediately stood up and delivered a side kick to Mason.

This is the moment to test your speed.

Obviously, it's faster to slap someone with your mouth than to kick them with your leg.

So, just before being kicked in the head, compressed air burst forth from Mason's fingertips, striking Mystique with lightning speed and sending her flying backward, crashing into the wall in a "V" shape.

This posture is quite novel.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief, thus declaring his victory in the first battle.

Having superior equipment is still a win, isn't it? — Not at all.