Mr.
Howlett eventually agreed to all the conditions.
Aron led a group of musketeers on horseback and followed him toward his estate.
The vast estate stretched as far as the eye could see, and at its center stood a traditional European-style mansion.
The solid structure made of thick basalt blocks perfectly matched the rough nature of its owner.
Passing through a corridor whose walls were hung with several medieval oil paintings, they arrived in front of a tightly closed room.
Old Mr.
Howlett’s straight back was now slightly bent.
“Mr. Blackwood, please, go in. I have already ordered that no one is to enter, and I beg you to do everything you can to cure James!”
Old Mr.
Howlett, whose face was almost always expressionless, managed to force an ugly smile.
There was an endless plea in his voice that made it impossible not to feel pity for the old man.
“Don’t worry. Leave it to me!”
Aron opened the door, entered the room, and locked it behind him.
A sick boy lay on the bed.
His rapid breathing was accompanied by strange sounds, while his cheeks were unnaturally flushed.
Even so, his ears moved almost imperceptibly, as though even while unconscious he could hear what was happening in the outside world.
Aron lifted a corner of the blanket, pulled out the boy’s right hand, and placed several fingers on his wrist.
He was burning hot to the touch, far above the temperature an ordinary person could have during a fever.
A normal person who had lain unconscious with such a high temperature for three days would have died long ago.
It seemed that this boy was different from ordinary people!
“A very unusual pulse. It is steady and strong, which does not match someone who is deathly ill at all. However, judging by his physical symptoms, his condition is indeed very serious, and he is on the verge of death.”
Removing the fingers with which he had been measuring his pulse, Aron concluded that even with his fairly advanced medical knowledge, he could not cure the boy’s strange illness.
Thinking about it, Aron’s gaze sharpened, and a golden light appeared around his head, making him look sacred, like a deity that had descended to earth.
At the same time, a golden glow also began spreading around his hands, after which he pressed his palms against the boy’s chest.
When the golden light penetrated his body, a miraculous scene occurred…
The boy’s rapid breathing gradually calmed, the strange sounds from his windpipe disappeared completely, and the burning temperature of his forehead instantly returned to normal.
If anyone else had been present at that moment, they would certainly have been stunned for a moment, thinking they were watching some kind of magic performance, or would have devoutly knelt on the floor and begun praying as though they had arrived on a pilgrimage.
Just as Aron intended to stop using his healing ability, a scorching and violent life force suddenly burst from the boy’s bone marrow.
It permeated every blood vessel, nerve, muscle, and bone in his body.
After Aron examined him using Gravitational Electromagnetism, he discovered that this force had even penetrated every one of his cells.
The body of the boy lying on the bed began convulsing uncontrollably.
The pain seemed so intense that even an unconscious person could not ignore it.
His thin fingers dug deeply into the wooden board of the bed.
Aron’s pupils narrowed slightly.
Breaking a board was not difficult.
Anyone who learned how to properly use all of their strength could do it.
However, driving fingers of flesh and blood into a solid pine board required at least reaching the peak level of Ming Jin.
Although the boy possessed incredibly powerful life energy, there was no trace on him of having practiced martial arts.
There was only one possible explanation.
James, Mr.
Howlett’s grandson, possessed a supernatural ability just like Aron, but because of his young age, it had not yet awakened.
Judging by the results of the examination using Gravitational Electromagnetism, the boy’s ability was probably related to physically strengthening his body.
That could also explain why the boy, despite his powerful life energy, muscles, and bones, would occasionally be bedridden by a severe illness.
Having understood the cause of his condition, Aron continued using his healing ability.
He wanted to see what kind of ability would awaken in the boy.
If it was powerful enough, there would certainly be a place for him in Aron’s future plans.
The boy’s convulsions became increasingly violent.
The mattress beneath him was soaked with sweat, and a hoarse roar came from his throat.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide.
His dark pupils expanded and gradually transformed into beast-like vertical pupils that emitted a faint green light.
The boy who had just awakened swung his arms and struck the bed hard, as though trying to break his own bones.
The skin on his arms bulged into strands as thick as earthworms, spreading from his forearms all the way to his palms, while the bulges continuously twisted and writhed.
Suddenly, he raised his hands and clenched his fists.
Bone claws pierced through his skin and grew out between the knuckles of both hands.
“Awoo!”
Like the desperate howl of a lone wolf, his cry pierced through the walls and struck the ears of old Mr.
Howlett and his son, who were waiting outside.
John Howlett’s expression changed drastically.
He pulled out the pistol tucked into the back of his belt and was just about to kick down the door and rush inside.
Old Mr.
Howlett, with a gloomy expression, grabbed his impulsive son.
“What are you planning to do?”
John was horrified to realize that, despite being in the prime of his life, he could not break free from the grip of his father’s large, withered hand.
He shouted anxiously:
“Father, let me go! That Eastern necromancer must be torturing James! You heard how he just screamed! I’ll kill that necromancer and save my son and your grandson!”
Old Mr.
Howlett firmly held his son with one hand while snatching the pistol from him with the other.
Suppressing the worry in his heart, he said in a deep voice:
“Do not act recklessly. I believe Mr. Blackwood will not do anything unreasonable!”
“If anything happens to James, I will blow his head off with my own hands, and then I will kill everyone on the Blackwood estate, down to the last dog!”
His words were filled with fierce and commanding determination, so John had no choice but to lower his head.
Whenever his father behaved like this, no one dared question his decisions.
Even the most rebellious gunman in the family, who had followed his father the longest, would bow his head and submit to his authority.
Inside the room, the boy stared blankly at the bone claws on both of his hands, his mind completely empty.
The six bone claws were more than twenty centimeters long.
The middle claw on each hand was slightly longer than the others, as thick as a thumb and shaped like a triangular spike.
Their tips resembled slender and sharp daggers, slightly curved at the ends.
Between each claw protruded thick, knotted bony growths that firmly held all six claws in place.
“I… I am… Have I become a monster?”
The boy muttered to himself.
A pained expression appeared on his face, and his eyes unconsciously looked toward the tall figure beside the bed.
When he woke up and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was that man, whose hands, wrapped in golden light, were pressed against his chest.
It was him.
It had to be him!
He must have turned him into a monster!
Rage overwhelmed his reason.
Blood rushed to his head and, without thinking for even a moment, he tried to drive the bone claws into the man in front of him.
The moment he raised his hands, an enormous force erupted from the void and firmly trapped his body.
The boy felt as though his bones were creaking under the pressure of that violent power and could be crushed into pieces at any moment, as though several mountains had been placed on his body.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk! James Howlett… Now I remember!”
“Don’t look at me like that. You were born with this ability and it has nothing to do with me!”
“Anglo-Saxons really are crazy. All of you suffer from some sick kind of paranoia!”
Aron’s Telepathy penetrated the boy’s thoughts the very moment they appeared.
Compared with James, whose ability had only just awakened, Aron was already extremely skilled at controlling his own powers.
Just as his healing ability originated from Gravitational Electromagnetism, Gravity Manipulation, which he was now using to keep James trapped, was also derived from that miraculous ability.
In addition, Aron had developed numerous other powers.
Among them were Microscopic Vision, with which he observed changes in the cells of James’s body, as well as Electromagnetic Manipulation, Gravitational Field Shield, Death Perception, Accelerated Language Learning, and other abilities.
All of these supernatural abilities originated from Aron’s perception of the tiny stellar body in his brain, and he had gradually mastered them through constant study and practice.
“All right, now I’ve explained the whole story to you. Do you still think I’m the one who turned you into a monster?”
James embarrassedly touched his nose.
The bone claws had already retracted into his hands, while the torn flesh healed in the blink of an eye.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Blackwood. I behaved very rudely!”
How could he not understand now that he had wrongly accused the man who had cured him?
Fortunately, that handsome man from the East also possessed a powerful supernatural ability.
Otherwise, James might have killed him because of his own recklessness, and after the murder, even the governor’s administration certainly would not have let him off.
Aron smiled and patted him on the head.
After realizing James’s true identity, he had no intention of missing the opportunity to win over the younger version of Wolverine.
“According to the agreement I reached with your grandfather, Mr. Howlett, from now on I will be your foster father. Do you understand?”
“Foster father?”
James tried to pronounce the unfamiliar Chinese word, nearly biting his own tongue.
“Yes. If that is difficult for you to understand, you can call me something else—Godfather!”
Aron used another expression that was easier for Westerners to understand.
“I wonder whether my future children will be able to inherit my powerful supernatural abilities?”
He sighed inwardly.
For a moment, the thought of finding a woman and getting married crossed his mind, but he immediately suppressed it.
The appearance of the younger version of Wolverine confirmed his earlier suspicions.
This world truly was not ordinary, but was filled with danger.
Because this was—the Marvel Universe!
[Ding! A powerful desire from the host has been detected. The “More Children, More Blessings” System is loading… Loading complete. The System has been successfully linked!]
“What is going on? I only thought that I should get married and have children, and then the ‘More Children, More Blessings’ System appeared?”
[This system fully lives up to its name. The more children the host has, and the greater their abilities and strength, the more powerful the host’s abilities and strength will become.]
[Simply put, as the number of children increases, their abilities and strength will continuously be added to the host’s abilities and strength.]
“This…”
After listening to the system’s explanation, Aron remained completely stunned for some time.
It seems my late-arriving system, my cheat, isn’t particularly serious after all.