"Well done, my prince!"
T'Chaka immediately reined in his smile. At the same time, his gaze swept casually over Fenris and the others, only to collide head-on with Professor X's deep, knowing eyes.
"Bring our friends the people they asked for."
T'Chaka instinctively avoided Charles's gaze and gestured to T'Challa from a distance.
A faint sound of the door opening followed. In the next moment, T'Challa strode in from outside with seven shackled men in tow.
Six of them had dark, weathered skin and varying builds, but all of them shared the same nearly uncontrollable greed and killing intent in their eyes.
"Vibranium. It's all vibranium..."
"These Wakandans are filthy rich."
The moment they entered, they began carefully sizing up the place used to receive Wakanda's most honored guests.
But as professional vibranium smugglers, they were already shamelessly calculating the value of the luxurious layout and decorations in their heads.
"So these are the ones who pulled us out of Wakanda's prison?"
The six men cast subtle glances around them. Then the leader suddenly noticed the group quietly seated in the guest section nearby.
Silently, his eyes met a pair of amused eyes watching them.
They belonged to an exceptionally handsome young man who was idly toying with a delicate little axe in his hand.
When he noticed the smuggler's stare, the young man grinned.
A wave of icy cold swept through the man's body. His eyes stung sharply, and he could not stop himself from shivering. He immediately lowered his gaze and stood still, not daring to look around anymore.
"These are the vibranium smugglers we captured."
T'Challa brought the seven men forward, thoughtfully separating them into two groups. Pointing to the six on his left, he spoke in a clear, ringing voice. "Over the past five months, these men smuggled a total of twenty kilograms of vibranium and made enormous profits from it."
"Under Wakandan law, they should have faced life imprisonment without daylight, or even death. But since our friends now need these people to resolve a difficulty, it is only natural for Wakanda to lend a hand."
As he spoke, T'Challa's gaze drifted, seemingly by accident, toward the guest seats.
"Mm, very good."
T'Chaka kept a solemn expression on the surface, but inside he was practically blooming with delight, silently praising his sensible son over and over.
"As for this last one..."
T'Challa pointed to the man on his right.
The man's eyes were lifeless now. He looked utterly wilted, with not the slightest trace of vitality left in him.
He stood there rigidly in place, and as T'Challa introduced him, everyone's eyes fell onto him at once.
T'Challa gave a light cough, straightened his back again, and raised his chin. "According to our intelligence, this man is also one link in the vibranium smuggling chain, but his identity and motives have been completely hidden..."
"He has undergone special training and can endure all manner of torture. Meanwhile, the special chip inside his brain helps him resist drugs and psychic suggestion, while also threatening to self-destruct at any moment and erase him completely."
"To maintain the chip's stability, we even fitted him with the latest stabilizer developed by Shuri, to prevent any accidents."
Only then did the others notice the small collar fastened around the man's neck.
"Charles, can you read him?"
From the guest section, Magneto stared fixedly at the man's head. There, he could sense an extremely faint magnetic fluctuation.
The old version of himself would never have detected something so subtle so easily.
"It's difficult. Let me try again."
Professor X narrowed his eyes slightly.
A concealed strand of psychic power condensed into a line and shot straight into the man's mind.
Beep.
Beep.
As though something had triggered an alarm, the collar around the man's neck suddenly began flashing a harsh red light, while shrill warning sounds rang out without pause.
"Aaagh!!"
This man, who had endured endless brutal training and interrogation, suddenly let out a wretched scream as if subjected to some inhuman torment. In the next instant, he collapsed stiffly to the floor.
Veins bulged across his forehead at once, and his whole body curled in on itself under the agony.
It was only after a long while, when the red light on the collar gradually turned blue, that he slowly stretched his limbs again. His clothes were already soaked through, and his face had gone deathly pale.
That horrifying scene plunged the vast council chamber into sudden silence. Only T'Challa, who had already witnessed the chip's power a few times, remained calm and stood quietly beside the man.
"Bolivar..."
Not far away, Professor X withdrew his gaze, his face dark with anger.
"What happened?" Magneto asked at once.
"Preventing interrogation and self-detonation are the least important things that chip does. Its real purpose is to stop telepaths from reading his mind."
"As soon as a telepath tries to forcibly read his memories, the chip will detonate as well, destroying his brain instantly."
Professor X rarely showed such intense emotion. He took several deep breaths before finally calming himself. "Bolivar implanted this kind of brutal chip into everyone who knows the location of the main Sentinel base, specifically to prevent me from finding them. He used this method to violently sever every possible lead that might expose him."
"He's really that ruthless..."
Scott's brow furrowed hard the moment he heard that.
He glanced at Fenris beside him, only to find that Fenris still seemed completely unmoved, fully focused on fiddling with his new toy.
"If Fenris isn't worried, why should I be?"
Scott immediately settled down and straightened up as well.
"So..."
Once the man stopped struggling and lay weakly collapsed on the floor, T'Challa let out a perfectly timed sigh below, his meaning obvious. "Trying to get intelligence out of this man really is extraordinarily difficult."
"However, Wakanda currently has a technology that can..."
"No need!"
A strong, resonant voice suddenly rang out, cutting T'Challa off and drawing everyone's attention at once.
"Erik, what are you doing?"
Professor X glanced at the suddenly rising Magneto and tugged at his sleeve. "The new generation of X-Men at the school - Kitty Pryde. Her ability has matured. She can try removing the chip."
"We're still alive, aren't we? How can we put that burden on the younger generation?"
Magneto rose from the guest section and slowly walked over to the man sprawled on the floor.
Then he looked at T'Chaka and T'Challa.
"This is indeed the man we came for. Since you were willing to hand him over, that proves you're not some shortsighted fool, at the very least."
"On top of that, you were willing to give us your precious Heart-Shaped Herb and a great quantity of vibranium with no conditions attached. King T'Chaka, I admire you. I believe Wakanda can only grow stronger under your leadership."
At the mention of the Heart-Shaped Herb and vibranium, the smile on Magneto's face became harder and harder to suppress.
"As for tricks like planting a chip in someone's brain, there's no need for you to trouble yourselves with it. That man thought his plan was foolproof."
"But he forgot one thing."
"I, Magneto, am improving too."
(End of Chapter)
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