Although Cyclops looked serious most of the time, he was actually quite easygoing.
If nothing else, the fact that he was willing to lend his cars to students was proof enough.
Aside from a few vehicles in his personal collection, Cyclops generally wouldn’t refuse to lend out the others as long as the student had a reasonable excuse and a valid driver’s license.
For example, if someone wanted to drive into the nearby town for a date with his girlfriend.
That was how Iceman had borrowed a car last time.
But right now, Cyclops was wearing an expression so stern that Lorna and the others had never seen it before.
Lorna had volunteered for the course herself.
Iceman, Colossus, and Shadowcat, on the other hand, had been carefully selected by Cyclops and the others as outstanding students who might be worth training into future X-Men.
Cyclops, Phoenix, and the others were still young.
They could continue protecting the school and its students for many years.
Even so, Cyclops still hoped that some of the students would eventually become new members of the X-Men.
That way, even if something unfortunate happened to the current team one day, there would still be people capable of taking up their responsibilities and continuing to protect the school and its students.
But after seeing Lorna and the others’ performance just now, he was deeply disappointed.
In terms of raw ability, they were more than strong enough to complete the mission and wipe out the attacking force.
Yet not only had they failed to defend the block, their performance had been a complete mess.
If they had failed because they simply weren’t strong enough, Cyclops wouldn’t have said much.
But Lorna, Iceman, and Colossus hadn’t “died” because they lacked the strength to protect themselves.
They had died because they underestimated the enemy.
That was what Cyclops truly found unacceptable.
Aside from Roy, all of them had treated the exercise like a game and completely ignored the warnings both he and Roy had given them.
Seeing Cyclops display a level of sternness they had never witnessed before, Lorna and the others fell silent.
Cyclops gave them no time to recover emotionally or collect themselves.
“Continue training!” “If you’re still like this in the next round, then don’t bother coming back tomorrow.” With that, Cyclops left the training room.
The moment he stepped outside, the lifelike holographic projection appeared again.
The same city block.
The same enemies.
The battle began once more.
… Time passed quickly.
Before long, night had fallen.
Over the course of the past several hours, Roy and the others completed five practical combat exercises in total.
Aside from their disastrous first attempt, the following four went fairly well.
Roy, of course, remained consistently stable throughout.
He had already been undergoing this kind of training for an entire week.
The enemies he faced had long since progressed from ordinary armed troops to all kinds of mutants.
After being harshly criticized by Cyclops, Lorna and the others finally started taking the training seriously.
Their performance during the second and third rounds was still somewhat poor, and they occasionally became flustered.
But during the final two exercises, their performance had already reached a passing level.
In this context, “passing” meant that they had finally begun to understand how to use their own abilities to protect themselves while defeating the enemy.
Their experience and technique were still lacking, but at the very least, they were no longer getting easily “killed” like they had in the beginning.
After the fifth practical combat exercise ended, Cyclops and Phoenix separately evaluated the performances of Lorna and the other three, pointing out what they were still doing poorly and giving them specific advice on how to improve.
“All right.
That’s enough training for today.” “You can head back.” Cyclops said to the five students.
“Okay.” Iceman, Lorna, and the others nodded to Cyclops and Phoenix before leaving the training room.
Roy didn’t leave with them.
Instead, he turned to Cyclops.
“Mr.
Scott, the Professor told me last night that I could ask you about the X-Men.” “What do you want to know?” Cyclops asked.
From his personal point of view, Roy was still joining the X-Men a little too early.
Cyclops acknowledged that Roy already possessed considerable combat strength.
But no matter how he looked at it, Roy was still too young.
Letting someone who wasn’t even legally an adult yet join the X-Men felt a little too casual.
Still, since Professor X had personally invited Roy to join, Cyclops had no intention of going against his decision.
Cyclops might currently be the leader of the X-Men, but Professor X was the true pillar of the organization.
“I want to know what privileges the X-Men have.” “Of course, rights and obligations go hand in hand, so I’d also like to know what responsibilities come with being an X-Man.” Roy didn’t waste any time and asked directly.
“The X-Men do have certain privileges, but not that many.” “You probably already know that members of the X-Men are allowed to operate freely around the world.” “Besides that, we also have a limited degree of special law-enforcement authority.” Cyclops quickly explained.
Special law-enforcement authority?
What exactly did that mean?
Roy looked at Cyclops in confusion.
Before he could ask, Cyclops continued, “To give you a simple example, you can think of the X-Men as something like mutant law enforcement.
We have the authority to apprehend mutant criminals.” “Of course, not every mutant criminal requires the X-Men to get involved.
And once we capture someone, we still have to hand them over to the authorities.
We aren’t allowed to privately try or imprison them.” “The purpose of that special law-enforcement authority is mainly to ensure that we have the legal standing to intervene in cases involving mutants.” “Mutant criminals are different from ordinary criminals.
If everything were left to conventional law enforcement, putting aside whether they could successfully capture the target, the cost of doing so could be extremely high even if they succeeded.” “Also, this special law-enforcement authority is essentially one of the X-Men’s obligations as well.” “If the authorities encounter a dangerous mutant criminal they can’t apprehend, they’ll send us a request for assistance.” “Once we receive that request, we’re expected to go and help with the arrest.” After listening to Cyclops’s explanation, Roy had only one thought.
This so-called privilege was really just a transaction.
The authorities granted the X-Men a certain degree of operational freedom and law-enforcement authority.
In return, the X-Men were expected to provide assistance whenever the authorities needed them.
From that perspective, the X-Men were essentially a special kind of mercenary force.
The only difference was that they weren’t paid in money.
“Any other questions?” Cyclops asked.
“Besides the privileges granted by the authorities, what rights and obligations do official X-Men have within the school?” Roy continued.
“As for rights, you basically have access to all of the school’s facilities.” “For example, this training room, the medical facilities, and the laboratories.” “You can also freely access the information stored in the school database.” “As for obligations, they mainly involve training students and protecting them.” Cyclops thought for a moment before answering.
“That’s all?” “Nothing else?
Like salary, benefits, or anything like that?” Talking about money might have sounded vulgar, but mutants were still people.
They still needed money to live.
Roy did have some savings right now, but not very much.
For ordinary daily expenses—going on a date with Clarice, shopping with Lorna, buying some gifts—he had enough.
But if he wanted to live a more luxurious lifestyle, then things would become a little difficult.
“So this is what you really wanted to ask about, isn’t it?” Hearing Roy’s question, Cyclops gave him a look of sudden understanding and smiled.