On the grand plaza directly in front of the White House, two massive, opposing factions were currently engaged in a heated, highly volatile protest. Thousands of people brandished signs and screamed their respective ideologies at each other.
On one side of the barricades, the anti-mutant faction roared:
"Incompetent government! You're wasting taxpayer money!"
"The Annihilation Protocol must be re-executed! The White Demon is the greatest threat to humanity!"
"Vote NO on the Mutant Emancipation Act!"
Directly opposing them, the pro-mutant faction screamed back:
"Free the mutants!"
"Mutants are humans too! They belong in our society!"
"Stop wasting lives in a futile war! We can't possibly fight the White Demon!"
"He survived a direct hit from a nuclear bomb! He is an angel descending from heaven! He is a living God!"
"If we continue to antagonize the White Demon, humanity will truly go extinct!"
What surprised Su Mu the most wasn't the political divide, but the sheer number of people in the pro-mutant crowd who had dyed their hair stark white and were wearing the exact same white hoodie he had worn during his first televised massacre in Harlem.
There were even a few individuals cosplaying him who were startlingly accurate. Their hairstyle, height, and posture were almost identical, and they had even gone so far as to wear crystalline blue contact lenses!
If the Six Eyes hadn't instantly detected the minute biological discrepancies, Su Mu would have genuinely wondered if some clandestine organization had secretly cloned him!
Furthermore, through the absolute sensory perception of the Six Eyes, Su Mu detected a significant number of actual mutants hiding within the pro-mutant crowd. Sweeping his gaze, he even spotted Mystique perfectly disguised as one of his cosplayers, and several other X-Men lurking on the perimeter of the plaza.
What's going on here? Su Mu thought, amused. Isn't Mystique a core member of Magneto's Brotherhood? Why is she suddenly running ops with the X-Men again? Did Professor X manage to Talk-no-Jutsu her back to the "right path"?
The more Su Mu thought about it, the more it made sense. Unlike Magneto, who harbored a genocidal hatred for ordinary humans, Mystique was primarily driven by a profound cynicism regarding humanity's promises. That was why she joined the Brotherhood.
But now, terrified of the White Demon's apocalyptic retaliation, the U.S. government was desperately trying to push the Mutant Emancipation Act to appease him. Seeing genuine political progress, Mystique had likely defected back to the X-Men to ensure the Act passed smoothly.
But seriously, what is the deal with all these cosplayers?
Su Mu certainly didn't harbor any delusions about his public image. He was an unapologetic, mass-murdering, arrogant terror. Yet, here he was, staring at a literal fan club.
Curious, he casually approached a young woman in the crowd who was sporting a white wig and round sunglasses.
"Excuse me," Su Mu asked politely. "Why exactly are you guys cosplaying the White Demon? And why are you supporting the Emancipation Act?"
The young woman turned around. Her eyes instantly lit up. The guy standing in front of her was hands down the most breathtaking, flawless White Demon cosplayer she had ever seen! He even perfectly captured that transcendental, arrogant aura!
The thought that she was actually talking to the genuine, flesh-and-blood God of Mutants didn't even cross her mind.
Dazzled by Su Mu's handsome features, she giggled and answered his slightly weird question.
"Duh! Because the White Demon is insanely hot!"
Her friends noticed Su Mu as well. Seeing his flawless "cosplay," their eyes practically sparkled, and they immediately swarmed him.
Pressing their soft curves against his arms, they enthusiastically answered his question.
"He's gorgeous! He has so much bad-boy charisma!"
"Totally! He's like a Greek god!"
Su Mu's face darkened with invisible black lines. Right. Fan-girls. I should have expected that.
Subtly activating the Limitless, he gently but firmly pushed the overly enthusiastic girls a few inches away from his body, creating an invisible, impenetrable barrier of personal space.
"Are there really no other reasons?" he asked, genuinely curious.
At that moment, a pimply teenager who had been staring enviously at Su Mu being swarmed by the girls chimed in, offering a much more cynical analysis.
"Of course there are other reasons, bro! The guy literally walked out of a nuclear explosion without a scratch! Humanity doesn't have a single weapon left that can kill him!
"Barring a miracle, it's pretty obvious the White Demon is going to eventually take over the entire world! And knowing his personality, once he's in charge, he's going to ruthlessly purge everyone who opposed him or attacked him!
"We're just getting ahead of the curve! If we loudly support him now, we have a much better chance of surviving the global purges!"
Hearing the teenager's completely logical but entirely unhinged theory, Su Mu was speechless. Since when did I plan on conquering the world? That sounds like entirely too much administrative work.
He didn't bother to correct the kid. He simply offered a polite nod and a slight smile before turning and walking directly toward the White House gates.
As he walked, a strange phenomenon occurred. The giggling girls trailing behind him suddenly went dead silent. The chaotic screaming and political arguments of the thousands of protesters gradually died down. In a matter of seconds, the deafening plaza fell into an absolute, suffocating silence!
Su Mu passively expanded the radius of the Limitless. The dense crowd in front of him was gently, irresistibly pushed aside by an invisible spatial wall, completely unable to touch him or impede his path.
A few anti-mutant protesters who were violently shoved aside turned around to curse at him. But before a single slur could leave their lips, they were violently blasted backward by a terrifying wave of spatial repulsion, crashing into dozens of innocent bystanders!
More and more people turned their attention to the uniquely striking white-haired man. The spot he occupied instantly shifted from the periphery to the absolute center of the world's attention!
The fan-girls who had been flirting with him earlier began to tremble violently. Staring at the invisible, apocalyptic force field parting the sea of humanity, their minds shattered under the weight of reality.
The girl he had spoken to first stood completely paralyzed, her eyes wide with sheer, unadulterated terror. She muttered over and over again, her voice cracking.
"He's real... he's really the White Demon..."
At the exact center of the barricades, the leaders of both the pro-mutant and anti-mutant factions abruptly stopped their screaming matches.
Whether it was the opportunistic supporters hoping to survive a global purge, or the radical anti-mutant activists demanding his immediate execution—absolutely no one dared to utter a single syllable!
It was a textbook case of Lord Ye's love of dragons. When the White Demon was just a concept on a television screen, they could scream, debate, and postulate without fear.
But when the actual, living God of Destruction materialized right in front of them? Their courage evaporated instantly. They were utterly terrified of doing anything that might draw even a microsecond of his attention!
The leader of the anti-mutant faction was shaking so violently that a dark stain began to rapidly spread across the front of his pants, dripping audibly onto the concrete!
Fortunately for them, the White Demon completely ignored the ants. He strolled right past the barricades, stopping directly in front of the White House lawn, where hundreds of heavily armed Secret Service agents, military personnel, and dozens of upgraded Sentinel robots had rapidly assembled.
Su Mu slowly levitated into the air, hovering majestically above the ground. He looked down at the political epicenter of the free world, and then cast a chilling, arrogant glance back at the thousands of frozen protesters behind him.
He opened his mouth to deliver his address to the nation, but suddenly paused. He tapped his forehead lightly and offered an apologetic, brilliant smile.
"Ah, my deepest apologies. Give me one second. I forgot to take out the trash."
In the next microsecond, he vanished from the sky and materialized directly in front of the terrified leader of the anti-mutant faction!
Then, under the absolutely horrified stares of thousands of protesters, under the desperate, screaming protests of the newly arrived X-Men, and in front of the trembling, pants-wetting leader... Su Mu casually raised his hand.
BOOM!
A catastrophic wave of spatial repulsion, laced with jagged black lightning, violently erupted from his palm!
The anti-mutant leader's body was instantly atomized. But the absolute kinetic force didn't stop there. It violently tore through the crowd behind him, atomizing dozens of radical protesters and obliterating every sign, banner, and megaphone in its path!
A massive, conical crater was violently carved into the plaza, leaving behind a thick, suffocating cloud of crimson mist.
Just as Su Mu had told Professor X back in New York: the only reason dissenting voices existed was simply because the violence applied wasn't absolute enough!
Having taken out the trash, Su Mu manipulated the spatial pressure around him, violently expelling the floating viscera and blood outward. The gruesome crimson rain showered down on the surrounding pro-mutant supporters and the horrified faces of the X-Men.
Completely ignoring the terrified, blood-curdling screams of the crowd and the furious, desperate shouts of the X-Men behind him, Su Mu casually warped back to his original position hovering above the White House lawn.
Set against the apocalyptic, blood-soaked backdrop of the plaza, the White Demon flashed a brilliant, diabolical smile at the trembling military forces guarding the President.
"Thank you for your patience, Mr. President. Shall we begin?"
(Author's Note: How do you guys feel about him using the portals to visit the DC universe later on?)
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