American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

"Do you think I look like a steelworker?"

"You can't judge a book by its cover."

Stephen Chow adjusted his hat, his gaze falling on the wine-red cloak, and carefully assessed it for a few seconds.

He smacked his lips and said, "To be fair, Lao Wan, you're at the age where you're on the verge of delayed retirement. But our bureau's motto is 'all-encompassing,' and we can rehire high-level talents."

"What our steel mill desperately needs right now is a zero-carbon emission master like you, someone who brings their own magnetic levitation technology, doesn't need cranes, and saves the factory a huge amount of industrial electricity. You're practically a chosen one!"

"Master craftsman?"

A steel bar was twisted into a pretzel near Stephen Chow's ear.

"Technical title! This is a title of respect, don't you understand?"

Comrade Zhou quickly added:

"If you think it makes you look too old, we can call you Engineer Wan or Chief Engineer Ai! Once we reach full production capacity by the end of the year, the factory will nominate you for a May Day Labor Medal, and you'll be praised over the factory's public address system with a big red flower on your head—that'll be incredibly prestigious! Your retirement pension will be able to increase by at least two levels, saving you forty years of wasted effort!"

Magneto raised his five fingers.

The steel beams groaned shrilly, the sheet metal walls bulged inward, and the nuts on the ground bounced incessantly.

"Your steel mill...can it accommodate the Brotherhood of Mutants?"

"That depends on whether you have a professional qualification certificate."

"..."

Do you have a special equipment operator's certificate? Have you obtained an advanced welder's certificate? Have you participated in Level 3 safety training?

"You bunch of people wander around all day dressed in your juvenile delusions, not even wearing safety helmets when you go into the workshop. What if you get injured and break a leg? Who's going to pay for the medical expenses? You'll just have to squeeze money out of our bureau's medical insurance!"

"How about this, you all start with outsourced internships. You, on the other hand, can go to the steel mill and work diligently in temperature control. As for this red-skinned comrade over there..."

Stephen Chow turned his head and waved familiarly to Azazel.

"This teleportation skill is amazing! It's a waste not to use it for same-city express delivery in a logistics park! Dude, how many orders can you deliver in an hour with that teleportation?"

Unable to stand this guy any longer, Magneto raised his hand and waved it.

All the scrap metal from the entire factory rushed over.

The steel plates closed from all sides, the wheel hubs blocked the gaps, and the iron chains wrapped around the outside more than a dozen times.

Rusty gears were piled on top of each other, and in the blink of an eye, they formed a large iron ball with a diameter of three meters.

Stephen Chow was sealed away before he could even utter a "Holy crap" sound.

With the last manhole cover attached, the inside of the iron ball plunged into darkness.

"Feed? Hey hey!"

A dull echo reverberated from deep within the layers of iron walls, tinged with exasperation: "Even if the deal falls through, we can still be friendly! The contract details haven't been finalized yet! If you think the probationary period base salary is too low, we can sit down and discuss it properly!"

Magneto clenched his five fingers, and the iron ball contracted inward.

"Oh my god! Don't push! Don't push!"

"A base salary of 8,000 isn't quite befitting someone of your stature in the industry! I've personally decided to promote you to 9,500! I'll also apply for a summer heat allowance for you! That's really the most I can offer. Our Director Wang only makes 12,000 a month; you can't possibly earn more than your boss, that's a major taboo in the workplace!"

The scraping sound of the sheet metal grew louder and louder.

"Old Wan? Engineer Wan? Master Ai? Grandpa Ai!"

"Is anyone still breathing outside?"

"Call the police! 110! There are criminal gangs illegally restricting the personal freedom of grassroots government employees here! This is a serious crime that damages the business environment!"

Stephen Chow patted the inner wall.

It's sturdy and has a pretty good seal.

"Help! If someone doesn't come and open the door soon, I'm going to suffocate! I have an over-eighty-year-old stingy bureau chief to serve, and a whole bunch of mutant employees who are starving and living off the government to support. My life is the foundation of everything, I can't let it die here!"

The red devil swished its tail irritably at the large iron ball on the ground that was still shaking and occasionally letting out screams.

"Why not just grind him into mincemeat?"

Magneto's hand hovered in mid-air, and the image of Charles leaning on his cane flashed through his mind.

hope.

"He... he's still useful. Let him fend for himself."

I still have that job posting in my hand.

Magneto expressionlessly folded the paper twice and stuffed it into the inside of his pocket.

"Dump this ball anywhere, anywhere," he coldly ordered without turning his head. "The farther away from New York, the better."

"Old Wan! I'm not deaf yet! I heard everything!"

"This is unilateral and malicious dismissal! Throwing the hiring manager out without a signed resignation form—that's blatant workplace bullying! You just wait, I'm definitely going to sue you in labor arbitration, and I'll even confiscate your underwear!"

Red Devil impatiently reached out and placed his hand on the surface of the iron ball.

"Bang!"

The three-meter-tall iron ball vanished into thin air, and the world finally returned to its long-lost tranquility.

……

black.

It was dark and crowded.

Stephen Chow is curled up in the center of the iron ball, with half a car exhaust pipe stuck in his right leg and an old-fashioned wok on his forehead.

Is anyone outside?

"Hey! The package arrived but no one's here to sign for it!"

Nobody paid any attention to them.

All I could hear was the whooshing sound of the wind. The noise was so loud that even several layers of steel plates couldn't muffle it; it sounded like someone was blowing a blower at an iron ball.

Stephen Chow took out his phone.

No signal.

Comrade Zhou shoved the phone back into the phone and pulled out a butcher's knife.

The blade was drawn, its cold gleam skimming along the iron wall.

"Old Wan, Old Wan, I kindly introduced you to a legitimate job with full social insurance and housing fund benefits, but you refused and insisted on doing this shady kidnapping. Isn't that a narrow-minded approach?"

A white stream of air flowed up the arm and onto the blade.

A low growl came from inside the iron ball.

"Open it!"

The blade flashed.

The thick steel plate looked like a tin can that had been cut open, with a smooth, thin crack running down the middle.

The second strike followed with a diagonal slash, and the third strike knocked away the iron chains that were wrapped around the outside.

"boom!"

Half of the metal shell crashed into the snow.

A strong wind swept in snowflakes, which splattered all over Stephen Chow's face.

The surroundings were blindingly white.

There were no highways, no factories, and certainly no New York lights.

In the distance, snow-capped mountains stretched out, a few crooked pine trees were covered with ice crystals, and a patch of green aurora borealis floated on the horizon.

The snow at my feet was up to my leather shoes.

Zhou Xingxing looked down at his spotless black leather shoes, then at the wooden sign ten meters away that was creaking and swaying in the wind.

The wooden sign features a smiling brown bear.

Welcome to Alaska

Zhou Xingxing's eyelids twitched a few times.

"Wait, where did this red-skinned delivery guy come from? Is this still in China... or rather, is this still America? Did he step on the gas and end up in the Arctic Circle? You can't cross provincial borders like this!"

A creaking sound came from behind the snow slope.

A brown bear, at least three times larger than the one on the billboard, emerged from the woods, its nose twitching as it stared at the steaming hot takeout food in the middle of the snow.

Stephen Chow was also staring at it.

The man and the bear were more than ten meters apart, and neither of them made the first move.

The brown bear opened its blood-red maw.

"roar!"

"What are you looking at? Can you even be a mount?"