LightReader

Chapter 131 - Chapter 131: Alan and Dr. Zola's Conspiracy

Amidst the ashes and scattered remains of the Sentinels, Jean Grey stood tall in the center. Her eyes were pitch black, and dark flames slowly rose from her body.

Apocalypse, Charles, and Magneto stood before her, wary and cautious, unwilling to make a move.

Apocalypse could feel the terrifying destructive power emanating from the Phoenix. He thought to himself, Is this what a Level 5 mutant looks like?

In the history of mutants, there had been no confirmed existence of a Level 5 mutant. Perhaps there had been, but no records remained.

Jean Grey was the hidden Level 5 mutant of the present day.

As for Wanda, the Scarlet Witch's level, they had no direct contact and could not make any assumptions.

It was clear that Charles and Magneto had witnessed Jean's out-of-control state before.

At that time, anything that touched the dark flames was instantly reduced to dust, and only Logan's incredible healing ability allowed him to approach and knock her out with a single punch.

Of course, Jean's dark persona was far less powerful then than it was now.

Since then, Charles had regularly reinforced the mental barriers around Jean to prevent her dark persona from overtaking her true self.

"Jean, wake up. Don't let the dark persona take over your mind. Fight back like you do in training."

"The source of mental power comes from inner strength. You must believe in yourself."

"You are you, unique and one of a kind."

Charles tried to awaken Jean's true self through telepathic communication.

Suddenly, Jean's stiff neck turned, and her deep, black eyes stared into the distance.

The three of them simultaneously gasped.

They had every reason to believe that a single glance could mean their immediate demise.

Apocalypse clenched his fists, ready to flee at any moment.

Modern mutants were terrifying; ancient mutants were more reasonable.

Magneto's first thought was to snap Charles's neck to prevent further angering the Dark Phoenix, but he restrained his murderous intent.

Jean made no further moves, and the darkness in her eyes gradually faded.

Finally, she returned to her normal appearance.

"Professor, I'm a little scared," Jean said, looking anxiously at the black ashes beside her.

"It's okay. It's all over now," Charles comforted her.

Seeing her true self return, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

They quickly gathered the students in the base and evacuated them.

Thankfully, the Dark Phoenix persona had appeared at a critical moment, or many lives might have been lost.

Alan was busy hunting Sentinels in the base, completely unaware that everyone else had evacuated.

Turning a corner, he immediately retreated back.

He saw a lone Sentinel and prepared to launch a surprise attack.

He signaled the angels not to move, waiting for the Sentinel to approach before they all attacked together.

In reality, the angels were controlled by his consciousness, like robots, following commands.

Alan just didn't realize it.

The Sentinel approached and was about to turn.

"Ah!"

Alan launched a flying kick, and the five angels attacked in succession.

"Ouch!"

Misjudging the Sentinel's weight, Alan was the first to bounce back.

The five angels successfully pinned it down, holding it firmly, waiting for Alan to finish it off.

"Stop! It's one of our own."

At that moment, the Sentinel emitted an electronic voice, begging for mercy.

"The Sentinels have evolved again?"

Alan was shocked. "They've even learned to lie to deceive their opponents."

"Alan, it's me, Dr. Zola," the Sentinel robot hurriedly explained.

"Don't try to fool me. Dr. Zola doesn't have your delicate features, slender figure, or the ability to change into any shape you like."

Alan looked skeptical, already sitting on its back, his butcher knife pressed against the back of its head, proudly declaring, "I'm the great Captain Hydra. How could I let a robot fool me? Do I have no pride?"

"How do you want me to believe you?"

The Sentinel's head rotated 180 degrees, revealing a pair of green eyes filled with human-like sorrow.

"You are Zola. You should know the cruelest torture I wished for when I was a spy," Alan asked mischievously.

"Ten blond, blue-eyed, long-legged, G-cup beauties in lace camisoles and white stockings tempting you."

At these words, Alan's expression froze. "Dr. Zola, when did you infiltrate the enemy? I didn't expect you to have such spy potential."

"Get off me first," Zola said disdainfully.

Alan realized his riding posture was inappropriate and shyly got up. "Who likes riding a stiff robot?"

Zola got up and explained, "Didn't you install a router on me? I hacked into a robot through the signal. Did you forget?"

"I forgot."

"…"

Alan responded blankly.

Zola was speechless. He couldn't believe Alan had forgotten what happened just a few days ago.

"It's not important. My loading ability can only control one Sentinel. If the hardware is upgraded, I might be able to take control of the entire robot army," Zola said frankly.

"Let's not play tricks. Do I look stupid?" Alan asked, blinking.

"…"

Zola awkwardly denied, "You're overthinking. It's not what you think."

"What do I think?"

Alan's sly smile sent chills down Zola's spine. He thought to himself, It's so hard to fool this madman. He seems to see through people's hearts.

In fact, Zola wanted Alan to help him improve the hardware so he could hack into the Sentinel control network and command a Sentinel army.

"Upgrading hardware is easy for me. I just need a hand."

Alan exposed the truth proudly, "You want to transfer your data consciousness, have thousands of mechanical bodies, and gain freedom and immortality. You're just mimicking Ultron."

Ultron, the data-based lifeform, was exactly what Zola aspired to be.

Of course, Zola didn't know who Ultron was, or he would have knelt down and pledged allegiance on the spot.

Ultron was a true data lifeform, able to exist on the internet without a physical body.

Zola, on the other hand, was a consciousness uploaded to a computer, at best an "electronic ghost," a bound spirit among ghosts.

"Let's get down to business."

Zola said seriously, "I found that all Sentinels are controlled by a central mainframe. Destroying the mainframe will paralyze all Sentinels."

"But wouldn't that expose you? If you insert a foreign object, wouldn't the mainframe notice?" Alan asked curiously.

Although Alan's way of speaking was a bit unusual, Zola understood and explained, "Before bypassing the firewall, I built a fake data model. Given the intelligence level of the system, it couldn't detect me."

"Why not just take over the mainframe?" Alan suggested.

"If I could, I wouldn't be talking to you," Zola said frustratedly. "I suffered from algorithmic lag, like replacing your blood with pig's blood causes rejection."

"If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Stop making excuses," Alan said disdainfully.

"Back to the point. I need to wait for them to recall the Sentinels for data cleanup. Then I can lock down the mainframe's location and send you the coordinates. Reverse hacking the mainframe's local network now would expose me immediately," Zola warned.

"I'll wait for your message."

Alan couldn't help with this. He wasn't a hacker and had no way to infiltrate the Sentinel network. Besides, his only online interest was visiting risky websites with security warnings.

Zola's controlled Sentinels had disabled their recording functions, replacing them with normal patrol videos. From the manual control interface, everything appeared normal.

Of course, they could only collude secretly. On the surface, they helped Alan kill Sentinels, but the video feed was immediately transmitted to the enemy's big screen. The entire plan would be ruined.

At Trask Industries' data processing center.

The Sentinel army was divided into three groups, simultaneously raiding three bases.

The results were unsatisfactory.

Especially with the Dark Phoenix instantly killing hundreds of Sentinels, everyone fell silent.

Suddenly, all video feeds were lost, and the Sentinels' signals went dark, indicating total annihilation.

"Who is she?"

This question arose simultaneously in the minds of the five chiefs and Trask.

They had no record of such a powerful mutant.

She seemed uncontrollable, an undeniable threat to humanity.

Trask pulled up analysis data, his expression grave. "The energy radiation levels exceed the observation threshold. She is like a walking 100,000-ton nuclear bomb."

"That's terrifying!"

The five chiefs thought it was an exaggeration.

How could a human possess such terrifying power? Even the old gods walking the earth would tremble before a nuclear bomb.

Of course, the gods walking the earth are all nobodies.

"More terrifying."

Trask said solemnly, "A nuclear bomb can only explode once, but she can keep exploding."

"…"

In an instant, the five faces changed dramatically.

They had been studying mutants for a long time and knew that mutant powers seemed to have no usage limits.

"Doctor, any countermeasures?"

Trask feigned deep thought. "We need to recall the Sentinels first. I need more data support."

He couldn't tell the truth, or the investors would all run.

The raid.

Only one Sentinel group killed more than ten mutants. One was wiped out by the Dark Phoenix. The remaining group…

They looked at the big screen.

The crazy Alan had killed nearly half the Sentinels…. All by playing dirty tricks and ordering angels as cannon fodder.

"Ignore him."

Trask wanted to strangle this madman. His repeated sabotage was ruining the Sentinel product's reputation.

The feeling of hating someone but being powerless was truly maddening.

The recall command was issued.

The Sentinels rose into the air and flew away from the base, with Alan waving goodbye below.

Trask considered installing a self-destruct program. Next time he encountered this guy, he would order the Sentinels to swarm and explode on the spot. Let's see if he survives.

As the Sentinels returned to the warehouse, they sat in their docking stations and began necessary data cleanup, like a computer clearing junk files to prevent system lag.

One Sentinel's eyes flickered green briefly before returning to normal.

Parsing: 17% rule breached.

Parsing: New algorithm 39% optimized…

Parsing: Special individual detected, tracking in progress…

Parsing: Signal source captured, beginning individual data collection…

Parsing: Establishing Plan 532.

[Chapter Complete]

***

Want more? Check out my Patreon for:

✓ Advanced chapters of all my stories

✓ Exclusive novels & fanfics

✓ Early access content www.p@treon.com/meowthtl

💪 Community Goal: 500 Power Stones unlocks a bonus chapter!

Thanks for reading and supporting the story

More Chapters