1 Chapter 1: Becoming an Angel
"Warren, are you okay?"
Warren suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "I'm fine."
His father, Warren Worthington II, patted his shoulder and smiled in relief.
"The Worthington Laboratory that I invested in has achieved tremendous success. Soon, it will free you from your current predicament," he said.
"I look forward to that day," Warren replied calmly.
"It won't be long. I have already met with the president, and the government will fully support our 'cure.' We have started large-scale production," Warren Worthington II explained.
Warren Worthington II, the head of the Worthington Group, a Fortune 500 company in a certain universe on Earth, was a busy man. However, he loved his son dearly, which is why he invested in the Worthington Laboratory.
He took the time to come back and share the good news of the laboratory's significant progress with his son.
What pleased him even more was his son's unusually amiable attitude today, which had previously been somewhat distant.
In high spirits, Warren Worthington II left home satisfied to attend to his business matters, leaving Warren alone in his room.
Closing the door and standing in front of the mirror, Warren, with a slight hunch, took off his clothes, revealing his well-built upper body adorned with a belt.
Don't misunderstand; he wasn't a philosopher. He was just...
Whoosh!
Released from constraints, his wings suddenly unfurled from his back, pristine and pure.
He was simply a mutant.
"I have become an angel in the X-Men," Warren found it difficult to accept this fact, even though it had been nearly a day since he crossed over.
Accompanying his transformation was a card drawing system.
Single draw, ten draws... but he had no money.
No newcomer's package, no first recharge discount, and the only option to recharge was a prompt indicating that 100g of gold equaled 1 coin. Warren checked the prices and realized that acquiring a single coin required spending over four thousand dollars.
Below, a 24-hour countdown timer displayed the remaining time with a gold coin.
The system seemed to offer one coin every 24 hours, which would allow him to make a single draw of the lowest-tier common card, serving as a daily guarantee.
Common, rare, epic, legendary—cards of these four tiers were drawn separately, with the cost of a single draw increasing by hundreds, thousands, and even millions of times.
A single draw of a common card cost only one coin, a rare card required a hundred coins, an epic card necessitated one hundred thousand coins, and a legendary card demanded one billion coins.
"Damn, receiving one coin every 24 hours... Can I live long enough to draw a legendary card with the free coins?" Warren roughly estimated that it was highly unlikely, so he wondered if being an angel, a mutant, granted him extended life.
Or perhaps he could draw out someone else's lifespan?
It seemed that only spending real money would do.
"I wonder if the version of me from the original world simply disappeared or died, or if we swapped places. If I died and disappeared..."
Damn!
He hadn't even taken his new girlfriend to bed yet, hadn't driven his newly purchased car for long, hadn't even mentioned bringing his girlfriend home for Chinese New Year... Oh, damn it!
"Can snapping my fingers send me back?" This question was quite complex.
While Warren indulged in his random thoughts, the 24-hour countdown finally reached zero.
One coin was added to his account!
"As my reliance in this perilous world, please give your utmost support!" Warren washed his hands and returned to his room to draw a card.
Single draw: 1 coin.
Ten draws: 10 coins (with an additional blue common-level card as a bonus).
Hmm... aren't they supposed to be common, rare, epic, and legendary? What does a blue card mean?
Warren had little experience playing card-drawing games before and didn't quite understand why he had brought a card-drawing system with him when he crossed over. He was a player of Dungeon Fighter Online, so theoretically, he should have been given a ghost hand or the Eye of Darkness, but he didn't receive either.
His understanding of cards was limited to the manga he watched as a child—the one where they printed cards on-site.
"Come on, let's draw a common card!"
The single coin he had glimmered as it was spent, and out of the four gray cards, the one on the far left representing "common level" shone with a constantly changing white, blue, purple, and gold.
When the frequency of the changes reached its peak, it abruptly stopped.
[Golden Common] The majestic voice declared the result.
Warren was startled. "Damn! Why are you shouting like that? What's the point of making such a loud noise?"
This thing actually had sound! Did it want to scare people? It didn't make a single sound all this time until I paid?
Beyond being startled, he noticed the card itself taking on its appearance.
It was a white crystal card with a picture on top and text below, with a golden gem embedded at the golden ratio.
[Golden Common: Expert of Chaos]
The picture depicted a golden figure standing proudly with a hill of gray figures beneath his feet.
[Fusing the combat experience of ten top mortal experts, a one-time-use card]
[Do you want to use it?]
Of course.
This card, which had only appeared less than a minute ago, dissolved into light particles, and Warren's mind was flooded with numerous fragments of memories.
First-person perspective, battles, battles, battles, battles... endless battles!
The battles involved opponents similar to humans but mostly non-human. The protagonist from the first-person perspective didn't possess any powers beyond human capabilities; he was an ordinary person using every part of his body as a weapon, dancing with any weapon he picked up effortlessly.
Endless battles. Because the memories were fragmented, Warren couldn't determine how long these memories added up to.
...
However, when he woke up, he found himself lying on the floor.
He had slept on the floor from noon until evening, only awakened by the butler's knocking.
It was dinnertime.
Warren dined alone and, after the meal, returned to his room. As he walked, his posture suddenly became unrecognizable.
"Drawing from the combat experience of ten experts, I feel my muscles itching!"
It wasn't any familiar fighting style for Warren. The combat experience bestowed upon him by the "Expert of Chaos" card seemed to come from another world, with many memories of non-human opponents glimpsed from the fragmented memories.
Different styles, none of which existed on Earth, blended together to form a profound fighting technique firmly rooted in Warren's mind.
"Hey!"
"Ha!"
...
He practiced a few moves in his room, nodding with satisfaction.
Not only were the moves good, but this body was also stronger than his original one, with an additional set of abs.
Warren could only entertain himself because although the staff and servants in the house showed respect and courtesy, he could still clearly sense their aloofness. It was quite excessive for him, a newcomer, to notice that.
A mutant!
Most ordinary people in this world despised mutants, especially after the recent incident where mutants nearly brought about the destruction of humanity.
Warren discovered through his online research that the president himself had been targeted in an assassination attempt, carried out by a teleporting mutant. It had triggered a global crisis, thrusting the issue of mutants into the spotlight.
This event mirrored the plot of X-Men 2, where William Stryker controlled the teleporting mutant to assassinate the president and Professor Charles Xavier, using a device called the Cerebro to amplify his powers to eliminate mutants worldwide. However, the situation was reversed, and it was the ordinary humans who faced destruction, thanks to the intervention of Magneto.
If not for the efforts of the X-Men, the world would have been left with only mutants.
Being almost killed by mutants, even those who didn't initially hold a grudge against them now despised them. Warren discovered that his father, Warren Worthington II, couldn't accept the fact that his son was a mutant. However, due to his wealth, he invested in the Worthington Laboratory to develop a "cure" that could nullify mutant abilities.
The storyline of X-Men: The Last Stand revolved around this "cure." Magneto led the mutants in an attempt to destroy the source of the cure, while the X-Men stood on the side of humanity to prevent it.
"In the face of Magneto's existence, where metal weapons are useless, the Worthington Laboratory would have been destroyed if not for the support of the X-Men. What role should I play in this scenario?" Warren wondered. Should he observe the situation and let it unfold, or should he use his knowledge of the plot to alter the outcome? After all, many lives were at stake.
But it wouldn't be easy. Jean Grey's presence complicated matters. As the most powerful mutant with the Phoenix Force, it would be challenging to kill her, and changing the course of events would likely release an even greater threat. He couldn't just go to Nepal to request support from the Supreme Sorcerer, could he?
Injecting the cure into her? Ridiculous. She wasn't Magneto; plastic weapons wouldn't work against her. And if he got close to Jimmy, who could teleport, his mutant abilities would be nullified. How could he teleport?
"It's best to let this storyline play out quietly. This world doesn't need a Phoenix that only causes destruction," Warren decided. He planned to stay quietly at home, draw some cards, and wait for this chapter of the plot to unfold.
