Chapter 3: Red-haired Girl
After dinner, Aiden didn't rush to sleep. Instead, he sat cross-legged.
Based on various depictions in the movies, a Mutant's abilities can grow over time.
For example, the young Magneto, even when his emotions were out of control, could only affect objects within a single room.
However, as an adult, his abilities could easily tear apart a football stadium, control hundreds of thousands of tons of the Golden Gate Bridge to fly in the sky… and after being enhanced by Apocalypse, he could control magnetic fields to the terrifying extent of tearing the earth apart.
As for the comic book version, he was even more overpowered.
Since a Mutant's abilities can strengthen with age, they can naturally also be enhanced through active training.
Settling down, Aiden took a deep breath, raised one hand towards the bed opposite him, and his mental power extended towards the bed according to his will.
He wanted to try if he could lift the bed with his telekinesis.
However, as time passed, the bed remained completely still.
"Sure enough, my telekinesis is still too weak. I can't even lift an object as heavy as a bed."
He stopped trying to lift the bed and instead started with smaller objects to test the limits of his current telekinesis.
Thus, various lightweight items were manipulated up and down by his telekinesis.
First, it was the toothbrush and toothpaste in the bathroom.
Then it was cups, shoes, and clothes.
When manipulating these lightweight items, Aiden didn't feel any strain at all; in fact, he did it with ease.
Until he extended his telekinesis towards the bedside table next to the bed.
The bedside table wasn't large, but it probably weighed over ten kilograms.
This time, Aiden felt a real strain.
Enveloped by his telekinesis, the bedside table began to float shakily.
Aiden felt this was the current limit of his telekinesis.
So, he controlled the bedside table to float up and down, as if an invisible figure was lifting the bedside table and doing squats.
As the repetitions increased, dense beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his freshly changed clean clothes also showed spots of sweat.
And as the number of times he controlled the bedside table to move up and down increased, a wave of dizziness began to sweep over his head.
After nearly fifty repetitions, Aiden could no longer sustain it. His vision went black, and he fell directly onto the bed. The bedside table also dropped suddenly with a thud.
After a while, the door was pushed open. Hank looked at Aiden, who was motionless on the bed, with a puzzled expression. He then looked around, found nothing amiss, shrugged, and left.
The first night at the Xavier Institute passed quietly.
It wasn't until the next day when the sunlight streamed through the window onto his face that Aiden slowly woke up.
Waking up, Aiden felt his head heavy and muddled, as if someone had kicked him in the head, experiencing some dizziness and a stinging pain.
It took a long time before he gradually felt a little better.
Aiden was mentally prepared for this situation.
It was like someone who hadn't exercised in a long time going for a run of several kilometers and waking up the next day with sore muscles.
It was perfectly normal for his brain to use mental telekinesis beyond its limits yesterday, lifting the maximum weight it could sustain and exercising, to experience such a phenomenon.
This was also Aiden's method of strengthening his telekinesis, similar to resistance training for muscles.
Use it or lose it; with day-after-day training, his abilities would definitely grow.
As for how much it would grow?
That would depend on how strong Aiden's will was.
As is well known, the human body has its limits; the weight it can bear will always have a limit.
But human will, however, is forever limitless.
To what extent can human will become powerful?
Many events throughout history have demonstrated this.
In ancient times, there was General Guan, who could calmly play chess while undergoing surgery to scrape bone and treat a wound.
Today, there is Hero Qiu, who remained unmoving while being engulfed in flames, solely for the sake of victory.
Facts prove that human will is far stronger than imagined.
Suppressing the discomfort in his brain, Aiden went to the bathroom to wash up.
After taking care of his personal hygiene and washing his face with cold water, he felt much more refreshed, and the dizziness in his head seemed to lessen a bit.
Pushing open the door, Aiden prepared to get something to eat.
As soon as he stepped out, the aroma of food wafted into his nostrils.
Following the direction of the scent, Aiden walked to the second floor and arrived at a spacious living room.
At this time, Charles and Hank were sitting at a table, eating and conversing.
To Aiden's surprise, many other tables were also occupied by figures.
These were young men and women, all around his age, not many, about a dozen or so. He didn't need to guess to know they were other students at the institute, and all of them were Mutants.
Seeing Aiden appear, these students all cast curious glances at him.
Aiden merely glanced at them and didn't pay too much attention.
After all, his soul was that of an adult, so he naturally wouldn't play with a group of children.
However, his gaze suddenly paused, falling on a dining table.
More precisely, it fell on a little girl sitting alone at a dining table.
The little girl had long fiery red hair, red lips, white teeth, and delicate features. Her round face had faint freckles, which added a touch of cuteness.
However, the girl's face was expressionless. She sat there with her head down, her fork occasionally poking at the food on her plate, looking completely lost in thought.
As Aiden looked at her, she seemed to sense it, and her crystal-like blue eyes also looked back at him.
As the girl looked, Aiden felt a strange mental power attempting to penetrate his brain.
This mental power was very strong, at least dozens of times stronger than his current ability.
And at this moment, it was like a rough man kicking open his skull, trying to burrow into his mind to find out what was going on.
Charles, also a psychic, immediately sensed this mental fluctuation from the situation here.
He quickly used his ability to block the unfamiliar mental power.
Instantly, Aiden felt his mind lighten.
"Jean, you can't do that."
Charles spoke sternly, looking at the red-haired girl.
And as Charles's voice fell, the powerful mental power also disappeared.
Looking at the little girl again, she was no longer staring at Aiden but continued to poke at the food in front of her with her head down.
"Are you alright, Aiden?" At this moment, Charles wheeled his chair over to Aiden's side and asked with concern.
"I'm fine."
In reality, Aiden's head was throbbing with a stinging pain, and coupled with the debuff from his training last night, he was really not feeling well.
However, he endured it and acted as if everything was normal, not wanting to bicker with a little girl.
Seeing this, Charles nodded and pointed to a table piled with various foods not far away, saying, "You must be hungry. Go get some food you like over there."
Aiden nodded and walked towards it.
It was a buffet area, with tables piled high with various foods.
However, they were all typical Western breakfast items like bread, fried eggs, sausages, and fruit.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Aiden could only pick up two slices of bread, one sausage, one fried egg, and a plate of noodles.
It was a full, large plate, looking like a very substantial meal.
Ignoring the strange looks from those around him, he carried his large plate of breakfast, found a table, sat down by himself, and began to eat heartily.