Marvel: Master Of Role-Playing

After narrowly dodging another laser, Scott was forced to engage in close combat with Reid.

At first, Scott was confident, believing that with his combat training at the academy, he wouldn't lose to an ordinary human.

However, once they began exchanging punches and kicks, he quickly realized how wrong he was.

Reid's movements were clean, precise, and fast—his strikes were sharp and brutal, leaving Scott with no chance to defend himself.

If Reid was only playing as Lex Luthor, without the aid of technology, he wouldn't stand a chance in close combat against Scott, considering Luthor's reliance on tech in his fights. Despite his superior physical condition, Luthor wasn't specifically trained in hand-to-hand combat.

But the problem was that Reid, while playing as Luthor, also had the combined abilities of Alfred and the Joker.

The former was a high-ranking MI6 agent, capable of fighting even superpowered villains despite his age. The latter was so formidable that even Batman would struggle to get an advantage in hand-to-hand combat when he was serious.

In comparison, Scott's combat skills were severely lacking.

"You bastard!"

Another right hook landed, and Scott staggered back a few steps.

Feeling the dizziness from the blow to his head, he looked around, seeing the world blur and the looming figure of Luthor coming closer. Scott finally felt fear.

He had to admit it—he was no match for this human. With the head injury and severe concussion, if he didn't leave now, he would be in real danger.

"Stay the hell away from me!"

Desperate to escape and survive, Scott unleashed another full-powered laser, pushing Luthor back, before turning and running toward the distance.

He needed to leave. He had to go back to the academy and find the professor to take revenge.

'Running away? With injuries like these, there's a chance a mutant could heal, I can't just let him go.'

Reid wouldn't chase after Scott, who was desperate to escape. People could tap into hidden potential when they're close to death, and Scott's laser eyes were strong enough to kill him. But even if Reid didn't want to pursue him, he couldn't let Scott leave unscathed.

Frowning, he pulled out a small plastic toy that had been modified at some point.

There was a toy shop nearby, and some of the toys there had batteries and motors. With the steel nails from before, Reid had easily crafted what looked like a makeshift grenade.

"Grow up and explode!"

He let out an incomprehensible yell as he threw the toy in Scott's direction.

"What the hell?!"

Hearing Reid's strange yell, Scott turned his head slightly and saw a small toy flashing with electric sparks coming toward him. The smiling face on the toy looked terrifying to him.

Then...

Boom!

The explosion from the toy wasn't that powerful, but the steel nails propelled by the blast dug deeply into Scott's body.

"Ah!!"

With a scream, Scott's red crystal glasses fell off, and a steel nail pierced his right eye, immediately crippling half of his abilities.

Without the red crystal glasses to suppress him, Scott's eyes would now release laser beams at full power just by opening them.

Even the entire mall began to shake as the lasers shot out uncontrollably, making Reid quickly abandon any thoughts of using a steel nail gun to finish him off.

"Harley, follow him. I'll be there soon."

"Understood, Boss!"

Following the order, Harley immediately took action, keeping a safe distance to avoid being accidentally injured, and followed Scott out of the mall.

While the mall continued to collapse, Reid took the opportunity to remove his role-play in a secluded corner, returning to his true identity.

'It seems the items I bought today will take some time to arrive.' Reid thought, blending in with the fleeing crowd as he exited the mall. Not long after, Scott vanished from sight, and the police and fire department arrived on the scene.

"Well, with this, I can confirm the situation with mutants in this world. The problem must be with Charles." Reid mused, recalling that on Earth-1815 in the Marvel universe, Charles was a mutant supremacist who had orchestrated terrorist attacks because of his beliefs.

From what he saw today, it seemed that Charles in this world shared similar views. That would explain why Scott, a student of Charles, came to kill him.

However, Reid still didn't fully understand the reason for Scott's attempt on his life. After all, the Joker Infection that caused Jean to fall in love with the hallucination of him was something Reid never could have anticipated.

'I should follow up on this, and Scott is good research material, isn't he?'

Just recently, Reid had been thinking about studying humans without superpowers as candidates for super-soldier experiments. Now, Scott had practically delivered himself to Reid's doorstep. No matter what changes had occurred at the mutant academy, from Reid's perspective, he had to thank them.

With that thought, Reid once again transformed himself into Lex Luthor and headed toward Harley's location.

...

In a dimly lit alley in New York, Scott was covered in blood. The injury to the back of his head was far worse than he had imagined.

Even though Scott hadn't died on the spot, the time that had passed, along with the steel nail that had pierced his eye, had left him extremely weak from blood loss.

The reason he wasn't releasing uncontrolled laser beams anymore was that Scott had put on his spare glasses.

If he couldn't open his eyes or kept releasing those lasers uncontrollably, he would never be able to avoid the crowd's attention and escape to this place.

'Jean... I'm sorry... I can't even defeat a human…'

Feeling like he was about to bleed out, Scott's mind drifted to Jean's image. In this world, influenced by Charles, he had become a mutant supremacist who discriminated against humans. But his feelings for Jean hadn't changed much.

As he turned the corner, he truly saw the person from his thoughts.

Jean's expression was as cold as when they first met, but this was the Jean he knew—not the one who had been infatuated by a mere human.

"Jean... listen to me."

Scott limped toward Jean, desperately trying to explain what he'd seen.

"That guy, Reid, he's a scumbag. He already has a woman by his side, yet he's still messing around with you. He's not worth your love. Forget about him, Jean..."

But just as Scott was about to reach out to Jean, an invisible barrier blocked his path.

"Jean?"

All he got in response was Jean's disgusted gaze and cold words.

"Scott, for the sake of my happiness with Reid, could you do me a favor... and die?"

"What? Jean... what are you saying?"

Scott was startled by the murderous words from Jean. He instinctively took a step back.

But then, he moved toward Jean again, trying to explain. However, at that moment, an invisible force gripped his neck, and he could no longer speak.

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The chapters from now on should improve in quality, since I didn't have much experience during the start of this novel. Hope you guys enjoy it!

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