Chapter 5751: Chapter 4774: X Royal Family: Rebirth (14)

"The United States Secretary of State Office published an article stating that the political route taken by Clarkia is entirely wrong and that cooperating with China will never bring peace to the world. If they continue down this path, the US and all its allies will impose multifaceted sanctions on Clarkia’s economy, trade, and culture. Now, please listen to our detailed report..."

"The US President posted on social media, stating that Clarkia’s contact with SWORD is ’unacceptable.’ Clarkia cannot establish any long-term good trading relations with countries other than America and its allies. If they have such intentions, America will certainly counteract."

"The Kremlin has just announced that any Mutant within its borders is prohibited from using the Clarkia Flower to enter Clarkia. Russian citizens attempting to do so must cease such illegal exit activities, or customs will not recognize any exchanges, which may result in citizens being stranded overseas..."

"The latest article from the British Mirror suggests that Military Intelligence Five might be considering more stringent measures against Clarkia’s maritime trade activities and its island homeland, which could face sanctions from the Royal Navy..."

A click. The TV was turned off. Main Universe Iron Man sighed deeply, almost through gritted teeth, "We’ve barely been gone any time, and they’ve offended so many countries. How exactly did they manage to do that?"

"Look on the bright side," Thor said as he stuffed food into his mouth, "We’ve only been away for a bit, and there’s already a television signal here. And they can receive several channels, which means their technological development is doing well."

Main Universe Iron Man couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Just as he was about to say something, he began to cough violently. Captain America, standing beside him, pulled him to sit down: "You’re not fully healed yet, so don’t shout. You should take a rest."

"I just can’t stand the Mutants wreaking havoc on the work we accomplished together," Main Universe Iron Man said, "The situation on Clarkia Island has improved quite a bit, but offending so many countries at this time, how can trade and diplomacy proceed normally? Cough, cough, cough..."

"I’m also curious," Black Widow squinted her eyes, "How did they connect with SWORD? Logically, they shouldn’t have any intersection."

The local Avengers also seemed to be discussing this issue. Nick walked in, placed some documents on the table, and looked at them, saying, "According to the latest information from Wakanda, they have already begun some cooperation with Clarkia. Regarding the sanctions, they remain silent and are even unwilling to express diplomatic condemnation, which means their mutual interests must be substantial."

"What could it be?" Captain America asked.

"Medical," Nick said decisively, "The two countries with the highest level of advanced medical technology in the world are most likely united to monopolize medical technology. This isn’t hard for them to achieve. What puzzles me is that if the Mutants had thought of this earlier, they wouldn’t have had no allies by the time of the United Nations General Assembly."

"Are you saying..." The local Iron Man also squinted, "Their leadership has changed?"

"That’s the only possibility." Nick sat down, sighed softly, rolled up his sleeves, and then said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has conducted a very comprehensive understanding and analysis of Magneto and Professor X. Both of them are idealists, but they also significantly lack practical experience, political acumen, and even some common sense."

"This move to first attract Wakanda and then seek refuge with SWORD doesn’t seem like something two political novices could accomplish. As I said, if they could do this earlier, Clarkia wouldn’t have been forced to this point. Our analysis has uniformly concluded that there may be a change in Clarkia’s regime."

"But if other Mutants had such a skill, they wouldn’t have waited until now to use it." Ant-Man raised a question, "Though it’s unlikely to be a coup or anything, giving some advice is easy, so why did they only think of changing tactics now?"

"That’s why we also don’t believe it’s any other Mutants from this universe who inspired them, but rather more likely from another universe."

"Are you referring to those other-universe visitors? But, with all due respect, their interests are not completely aligned with those of the Mutants, just like the Main Universe Avengers, who also do not wish for this universe’s Mutants to develop too well because this might conflict with their goal of becoming leaders of the Multi-universe Human Alliance."

"Could it be the Central Universe?" Captain America asked, "That Shiller is definitely questionable."

"This doesn’t seem like Shiller’s style," Nick said, "You’ve seen his interventions before. No one could say that the Shi’ar Empire’s invasion and the subsequent series of events have nothing to do with him. Although this doesn’t prove he lacks diplomatic capabilities, it does show that he doesn’t like using Earth’s diplomatic methods to solve problems. He prefers using dimensional reduction strikes to leave others with no choice."

As soon as he said this, everyone was silent. They had fought in the cosmos for so long and only managed to drive their opponents back to the vicinity of the Mercury Line by exploiting a fatal weakness, and they still hadn’t won entirely, still relying on the Mutants to hold the line, and had only returned for a temporary respite, preparing to go back if the situation didn’t improve.

And all of this, although they started it, how the Red Orchid Factory managed to open into a Teleportation Portal remains unclear, but they did fall into a trap to some extent, and Shiller certainly played a part.

If he was someone who liked resolving issues through alliances and strategies on Earth, he wouldn’t have done this, as it was evidently more difficult and riskier. Since he did it this way, there’s no need to resort to an even more troublesome method.

"Could it be the mutants from these two universes?" Black Widow proposed again, "They might indeed come over, right?"

"That’s exactly what I suspect." Nick nodded and said, "Our S.H.I.E.L.D. spies in Wakanda recently captured some footage of a diplomatic reception, but due to not daring to get too close, the images aren’t very clear. Can you all take a look and see if you can identify which universe’s Charles Xavier this might be from?"

He passed around the documents he held, and everyone received a photograph. Nick continued: "According to the informant, the visitor seemed very young, without wearing a helmet or Cerebro, looking just like an ordinary youth. Yet the King was very courteous to him, even invited him for a meal."

Listening to this description, and upon glancing at the photo, Spider Man had an epiphany and confidently declared, "They’re definitely from the Central Universe."

Everyone turned to look at him, and Spider Man continued, "Across all the multiverses, young Professor X and Magneto are not uncommon. But youthful appearance with seasoned tactics, likely only the two of them from the Central Universe, because they are ones who’ve undergone rejuvenation."

The others were a bit surprised, and Spider Man added, "Their universe indeed has rejuvenation substance, specifically something I’m not sure of, but their universe’s Spider Man also became younger, that much I can confirm."

The people present weren’t particularly fascinated by the rejuvenation matter, as most of them were long-lived cyborgs, and they had their means to retain youth, it was just a question of whether the price was acceptable.

What surprised them was that the visitor was from the Central Universe. Since it seemed the Prime Universe was more inclined to intervene, the Central Universe Iron Man had been cruising along all this time, aside from appearing in the laboratory skirmish, he hadn’t taken any major action.

"These two are quite formidable." Spider Man evaluated, "The mutants from the Central Universe occupy an entire Andromeda Galaxy and survived under siege from the Three Great Empires, even beat them so bad they dare not speak out. On Earth, they have their own independent nation, and long since established normal diplomatic relations, maintaining decent relationships with various countries, never heard of any country sanctioning them. They traverse Earth, Solar System, and Andromeda Galaxy freely, even involved in Earth’s various construction projects, far superior to our universe."

Nick frowned slightly and said, "I’ve heard of this, but is it really all just their doing?"

"But what you can’t deny is, if they didn’t grow to such potential, mutants would have been left behind during the development of the Central Universe, but the fact is they kept up. And now, discussing the past holds no meaning, these two are arguably the most adept mutant leaders in multiverse politics, aren’t they?"

Captain America said with some headache, "Thus, it isn’t wise to sanction them. I’ve never understood why the US government keeps opposing them. If it were my era, they’d definitely be coveted by all parties."

"Unfortunately, it’s no longer wartime." Black Widow shook her head and said, "I can vaguely guess why Mr. President wants to sanction them. Sanctioning them is a pretense, restricting the East is the reality."

"I ironically find it a pity the troops of the Shi’ar Empire didn’t hit your doorstep." Doctor Strange spoke surprisingly, "Unless the knife is at the neck, humans will never understand what unity means."

"Turns out, invading the Solar System isn’t considered knife at the neck, huh." Thor snickered, "I thought it had already stabbed through the eye socket."

No one argued with him about this. It could only be said that the current level of technology for the human race isn’t high enough, and their understanding of cosmos isn’t thorough enough. To them, the Sun seems very distant, the Red Orchid Factory was built only after capturing so many scientists and using alien technology near the Sun. If you tell them the Star System is akin to your bedroom, enemies invading the Solar System is no different from home robbery, they still couldn’t understand.

Doctor Strange was evidently speaking out of frustration. Earth hasn’t reached the stage where an enemy could be allowed to attack so close. Using alien threats might bring quick results, but it’s too dangerous, and it’s quite fortunate it hasn’t come to that.

But moreover when considering, as Shiller watches the departing troops, does he have no other thoughts at all? After all, his plan to use alien threats to coerce human unity seems to have failed, does he really have no back-ups?

"I don’t understand it either." Spider Man looked at everyone staring at him, he shook his head and said, "A Doctor is very capable but not omnipotent. Perhaps he didn’t expect us to actually win."

"It wasn’t ’us’ who won." Captain America said, "The weakness was given to me by him, meaning he himself ended his own plan. Why do you think he did that?"

Everyone shook their heads, unable to think of an answer. Had Shiller not given the weakness, perhaps they’d still be fighting desperately now, even from the situation back then, the Jupiter Line was already unretainable. The Shi’ar Empire wasn’t pushing forward bit by bit, the next in line would probably have been the Moon Line.

A little more delay and humanity would be facing catastrophe, the plan to coerce human unity might as well have been completed. What made Shiller abruptly decide to abandon it, directly ’unlock’ The Avengers and let them swiftly drive the threat away from Earth?

No one present knew, at most they could only speculate. But researching this question now holds no significance, they have to find a way to balance Clarkia with the various governments’ relations, instead of letting both sides fight another battle on Earth. This will test not only mutant leaders’ capabilities but also their own political acumen.