After narrowly dodging another ser, Scott was forced to engage in close bat with Reid.

  At first, Scott was fident, believing that with his bat training at the academy, he wouldn't lose to an ordinary human.

  However, ohey began exging punches and kicks, he quickly realized h he was.

  Reid's movements were , precise, and fast—his strikes were sharp and brutal, leaving Scott with no ce to defend himself.

  If Reid was only pying as Lex Luthor, without the aid of teology, he wouldn't stand a close bat against Scott, sidering Luthor's relian te his fights. Despite his superior physical dition, Luthor wasn't specifically trained in hand-to-hand bat.

  But the problem was that Reid, while pying as Luthor, also had the bined abilities of Alfred and the Joker.

  The former was a high-ranking MI6 agent, capable of fighting even superpowered vilie his age. The tter was so formidable that even Batman would struggle to get an advantage in hand-to-hand bat when he was serious.

  In parison, Scott's bat skills were severely g.

  "You bastard!"

  Anht hook nded, and Scott staggered back a few steps.

  Feeling the dizziness from the blow to his head, he looked around, seeing the world blur and the looming figure of Luthor ing closer. Scott finally felt fear.

  He had to admit it—he was no match for this human. With the head injury and severe cussion, if he didn’t leave now, he would be in real danger.

  "Stay the hell away from me!"

  Desperate to escape and survive, Scott unleashed another full-powered ser, pushing Luthor back, before turning and running toward the distance.

  He o leave. He had to go back to the academy and find the professor to take revenge.

  ‘Running away? With injuries like these, there's a ce a mutant could heal, I 't just let him go.’

  Reid wouldn’t chase after Scott, who was desperate to escape. People could tap into hidden potential when they're close to death, and Scott's ser eyes were strong enough to kill him. But even if Reid didn't want to pursue him, he couldn’t let Scott leave unscathed.

  Frowning, he pulled out a small pstic toy that had been modified at some point.

  There was a toy shop nearby, and some of the toys there had batteries and motors. With the steel nails from before, Reid had easily crafted what looked like a makeshift grenade.

  "Grow up and explode!"

  He let out an inprehensible yell as he threw the toy in Scott’s dire.

  "What the hell?!"

  Hearing Reid's strange yell, Scott turned his head slightly and saw a small toy fshing with electric sparks ing toward him. The smiling fa the toy looked terrifying to him.

  Then...

  Boom!

  The explosion from the toy wasn’t that powerful, but the steel nails propelled by the bst dug deeply into Scott’s body.

  "Ah!!"

  With a scream, Scott’s red crystal gsses fell off, and a steel nail pierced his right eye, immediately crippling half of his abilities.

  Without the red crystal gsses to suppress him, Scott’s eyes would now release ser beams at full power just by opening them.

  Eveire mall began to shake as the sers shot out untrolbly, making Reid quickly abandon any thoughts of using a steel nail gun to finish him off.

  "Harley, follow him. I’ll be there soon."

  "Uood, Boss!"

  Following the order, Harley immediately took a, keeping a safe distao avoid being actally injured, and followed Scott out of the mall.

  While the mall tio colpse, Reid took the opportunity to remove his role-py in a secluded er, returning to his true identity.

  ‘It seems the items I bought today will take some time to arrive.’ Reid thought, blending in with the fleeing crowd as he exited the mall. Not long after, Scott vanished from sight, and the polid fire department arrived on the se.

  "Well, with this, I firm the situation with mutants in this world. The problem must be with Charles." Reid mused, recalling that oh-1815 in the Marvel universe, Charles was a mutant supremacist who had orchestrated terrorist attacks because of his beliefs.

  From what he saw today, it seemed that Charles in this world shared simir views. That would expin why Scott, a student of Charles, came to kill him.

  However, Reid still didn't fully uand the reason for Scott's attempt on his life. After all, the Joker Iion that caused Jean to fall in love with the halluation of him was something Reid never could have anticipated.

  ‘I should follow up on this, and Scott is good research material, isn't he?’

  Just retly, Reid had been thinking about studying humans without superpowers as didates for super-soldier experiments. Now, Scott had practically delivered himself to Reid's doorstep. No matter what ges had occurred at the mutant academy, from Reid's perspective, he had to thank them.

  With that thought, Reid once again transformed himself into Lex Luthor and headed toward Harley's location.

  ......

  In a dimly lit alley in New York, Scott was covered in blood. The injury to the back of his head was far worse than he had imagined.

  Even though Scott hadn't died on the spot, the time that had passed, along with the steel nail that had pierced his eye, had left him extremely weak from blood loss.

  The reason he wasn't releasing untrolled ser beams anymore was that Scott had put on his spare gsses.

  If he couldn't open his eyes or kept releasing those sers untrolbly, he would never be able to avoid the crowd's attention and escape to this pce.

  ‘Jean... I'm sorry... I 't eve a human…’

  Feeling like he was about to bleed out, Scott's mind drifted to Jean's image. In this world, influenced by Charles, he had bee a mutant supremacist who discriminated against humans. But his feelings for Jean hadn't ged much.

  As he turhe er, he truly saw the person from his thoughts.

  Jean's expression was as cold as when they first met, but this was the Jean he knew—not the one who had been infatuated by a mere human.

  "Jean... listen to me."

  Scott limped toward Jean, desperately trying to expin what he'd seen.

  "That guy, Reid, he's a scumbag. He already has a woman by his side, yet he's still messing around with you. He's not worth your love. Fet about him, Jean..."

  But just as Scott was about to reach out to Jean, an invisible barrier blocked his path.

  "Jean?"

  All he got in response was Jean's disgusted gaze and cold words.

  "Scott, for the sake of my happiness with Reid, could you do me a favor... and die?"

  "What? Jean... what are you saying?"

  Scott was startled by the murderous words from Jean. He instinctively took a step back.

  But then, he moved toward Jean again, trying to expin. However, at that moment, an invisible fripped his neck, and he could no longer speak.

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  The chapters from now on should improve in quality, since I didn't have much experience during the start of this novel. Hope you guys enjoy it!

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