The Sebastian Shaw incident finally concluded with the Minister of Defense's downfall.
Of course, officially, the government announced that the Minister of Defense had voluntarily resigned due to the incident that endangered national security, which was considered the most dignified way to step down.
This also prevented the government from losing face.
However, after the Minister of Defense fell, someone else naturally needed to take his place. Kennedy felt that George was not performing well; he had promoted him, yet George supported the Military more during the Vietnam War. Now was a good time to replace him with someone more obedient.
Speaking of which, Kennedy emerged victorious in this incident, not only greatly enhancing his prestige but also expanding his power.
The Director of the Bureau of Investigation, Frye, was in a similar position. Previously in decline, he managed to return to the top decision-making circle with a series of successive achievements.
The CIA also gained recognition for being the first to discover the Missile Base. Oliver, through his successful collaboration with the X-Men, has been promoted to headquarters.
In short, the three factions that established a cooperative relationship with Fang Yuan all reaped immense benefits.
Now, without Fang Yuan even needing to ask, the three parties proactively began to curry favor with him.
Kennedy offered extensive public opinion support, Frye expressed willingness to share intelligence with Vought Corporation, and Oliver also patted his chest, promising that Fang Yuan could use CIA personnel as he wished.
The ancestors long ago said, 'All the World is bustling for gain, and all the World is rushing for gain.'
However, no matter how much they gained, there was only one biggest winner in this incident—
"Mutants!"
"The future of Mutants is bright!"
At Xavier's Mansion, Charles looked at the enthusiastic praise for the X-Men on television, his entire face beaming with a smile.
"No!" Eric quickly interrupted him, "Now they are called Awakened!"
"Awakened Save the World!"
"Human Saviors—the X-Men!"
"Ambition and Peace? The Awakened Chose Humanity!"
That's right, the official designation for Mutants is now Awakened.
The headlines of major newspapers were more exaggerated than the last, and the publicity for the X-Men's deeds on television and radio was overwhelming.
At this point, no one dared to stand up and object. Even The Collector Daily, which always loved to criticize Mutants, could only grudgingly refrain from criticizing the Mutants—now called Awakened—for one day, publishing a vague article titled "Beware of Ambitionists Among the Awakened."
However, as Old Jerry would say, this was The Collector Daily's mildest language in months.
"But…"
Charles frowned, looking at the headline of the next newspaper— "Tragedy: X-Men Captain Paralyzed Due to Injury!"
"Fang, why did you make me pretend to be unable to walk freely?" he asked.
"To protect you," Fang Yuan explained. "Your ability, to freely read people's thoughts, is definitely repulsive to most people."
Charles still didn't quite understand: "I understand the reasoning, but what does this have to do with paralysis?"
"First, I will pretend to search the World for a cure for you, but unfortunately," Fang Yuan spread his hands, "I won't find one."
"Then, after some time, I will have Hank announce that he has developed a special gene therapy agent that can restore your ability to move," Fang Yuan stated the core point, "but this agent has a side effect."
"That is, you will lose your superpowers!"
Charles's eyes grew brighter as he listened, and he eagerly continued: "This way, when I move freely in the future, people will think I've lost my superpowers, and they won't be afraid or wary of me!"
Charles lunged forward and hugged Fang Yuan: "Fang, you're amazing, so smart!"
"But wouldn't a disguise require medical records or something?" He suddenly frowned.
At this point, Raven quickly walked over and pulled Professor X away from her man, sending him back to his own man.
"Did you forget about me?" she asked helplessly.
"Oh, right!"
Professor X suddenly realized; with Mystique around, what kind of injury couldn't be faked?
Eric was also very happy for Charles. However, what made him happiest was that even though Fang Yuan was now a Mutant—no, an Awakened leader, recognized as the "Black King" of the Hellfire Club—he still thought of them.
However, Raven didn't say much to Fang Yuan, and Fang Yuan wasn't surprised.
These past two days, Raven had been having a small spat with him, mainly because Emma's appearance had given her a sense of crisis, and she actually wanted to define their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend.
But Fang Yuan decisively refused.
Are you kidding? He was a pond owner; how could a fish lock him down privately?
So Raven was a bit unhappy with Fang Yuan.
However, Fang Yuan didn't plan on how to coax her; he was very experienced with this kind of situation.
Those who truly didn't want to accept would have already cut off contact. Raven showed no such signs, so after some time, when she craved it, Fang Yuan would just smooth things over.
Watching the Mutants laughing and chatting, Fang Yuan shook his head.
Mutants might be big winners, but there was always only one who won the most.
That was—him!
[Current Employee Overview]
[Charles Xavier: Reputation 132]
[Erik Lehnsherr: Reputation 121, unlocked Tier 3 reward.]
[Raven Darkholme: Reputation 101, unlocked Tier 3 reward.]
[Warren Worthington: Reputation 156]
[Alex Summers: Reputation 90]
[Hank McCoy: Reputation 88]
[Sean Cassidy: Reputation: 89]
On the X-Men side, reputations generally increased by 20-30, successfully obtaining the character templates for Magneto and Mystique.
[Character Template: Erik Lehnsherr (A+ rank, 17% development)]
[Character Template: Raven Darkholme (B+ rank, 48% development)]
From now on, Fang Yuan was also a man of means.
Pulling submarines, right?
He could do that too!
Moreover, he could transform like Mystique, greatly enhancing his disguise abilities.
Magneto's ability development was slightly higher than Professor X's, but only marginally. However, Mystique's development degree truly surprised Fang Yuan.
48%.
That was second only to Angel's C-rank ability, and even higher than Sebastian Shaw!
Furthermore, Raven's character template also increased Fang Yuan's Agility attribute to E-.
Among the X-Men's Big Three, Mystique always managed to bring Fang Yuan extra surprises.
And besides the Big Three, the reputations of other X-Men members were also on the verge of being 'well-known,' needing only about 10 more points to unlock their character templates.
Among them, Sean's reputation increased the most, by over thirty points.
This was mainly because Sean's performance was particularly outstanding in the battle against the Hellfire Club.
Whether it was acting as a human sonar to locate Shaw, or battling Salvador in the sky, or pinpointing Impact's position, it could be said that throughout the entire battle, apart from Magneto pulling the submarine with his bare hands, Banshee's performance was the most impressive.
Therefore, Fang Yuan decided that the focus of the upcoming publicity would be on Hank, Alex, and Sean, to unlock their Tier 3 rewards.
As for Charles's reputation of 132, which seemed only 18 points away from 150, Fang Yuan knew that these 18 points would be more difficult to achieve than Hank's and the other two combined.
The current publicity environment was more suitable for promoting multiple targets; promoting only one person would be a bit wasteful.
Moreover, through his experience with Angel, Fang Yuan understood that to break through from 'well-known' to 'World-renowned' in reputation, there must be specific events to support it.
Clearly, the Missile Crisis alone was not enough to push Professor X's reward to the fourth tier.
Besides the X-Men, the Hellfire Club also gained a lot.
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
patreon.com /AZofficial