"Hey! What are you doing? Keep your hands to yourself!"
"Huh?"
"You jerk, how dare you touch my girl? You're asking for trouble!"
After a small commotion caused by a fire in the nightclub, another incident of harassment occurred.
A girl thought the man behind her was taking liberties, and her boyfriend got angry. It turned out that the man also had a girlfriend, and she was quite tough, even trained. In a fit of anger, she, along with her own boyfriend and the two on the opposite side, pinned them down and gave them a severe beating.
This naturally attracted the attention of most people.
Including Billy, the handsome man who had just walked out of the private passage, and his fat-bearded bodyguard, who was the boss here.
No one noticed that the recently closed private passage door was slightly opened again, and Bucky's figure shot out.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he blended into the crowd of onlookers, quietly approaching the true culprit, Maria Hill, who was also watching the show.
"Let's go."
"Where to?"
Hill followed Bucky, asking with a hint of curiosity.
At this moment, she was no longer the cold and dull person she was before; after all, she was young, and two pranks in a row had made her somewhat excited.
"They've switched targets, that handsome guy."
"Hmm, he is quite handsome. What's his background?"
"Not quite clear yet, but he's the one who controls the supply."
The two followed closely, leaving the nightclub, and drove to tail the handsome guy's black Buick SUV.
"Is he really handsome? I think he's just average. I was just being polite."
Just as he was speaking, Bucky suddenly turned his face to Hill, asking coolly.
"Yes, such a beautiful face is rare."
In that dim environment, Hill couldn't really see the other person's face clearly, but she answered Bucky with a look of longing.
"Really? Then am I, who is a little bit more handsome than him, even more handsome than I thought?"
"Ugh, someone thinks too highly of himself."
The two bickered all the way, following along.
"When we get into a fight later, how should I cooperate with you?"
However, as she spoke, Hill suddenly sighed and asked.
"Fight? I didn't say we were going to fight. I plan to follow him first and figure out his situation."
"Are you serious?"
"What's wrong?"
Bucky, who was initially baffled, confirmed Hill's gaze and realized that something might indeed be wrong.
"Are you really not aware that the other party has already noticed someone following him, which is why he's circling back and forth, not to shake us off but to buy time, gathering his subordinates, and finally leading us to an ambush site?"
"...Then of course, that's what I was thinking... right?"
Bucky was a little unsure whether Hill was testing him or speaking the truth.
But seeing Hill cover her face, Bucky suddenly realized.
He had been careless, so careless.
Although he inherited all of the original Winter Soldier's combat skills.
He didn't actually inherit all of the Winter Soldier's combat experiences; many memories were truly fragmented or lost.
Moreover, he hadn't had much actual combat experience to digest and absorb. Fighting a few thugs or convenience store bandits was like child's play compared to the Winter Soldier's combat history.
Another point was that Bucky's missions all had one characteristic: no survivors, no eyewitnesses.
In other words, even the original Winter Soldier, while skilled at covert tracking, had no need for it. Since there were no survivors anyway, it made no difference whether the other party noticed or not.
Even if they noticed, the other party couldn't escape the Winter Soldier's pursuit; it was just more futile resistance before being killed by the Winter Soldier, with no difference in the outcome.
So Bucky, following the Winter Soldier's habits, tracked them, thinking it was seamless. If Hill hadn't pointed it out...
It seems there's no difference either?
Bucky thought again, so what if they found out?
The Winter Soldier isn't afraid, so why would he, an enhanced version with a cheat, be afraid?
It's just about being reckless. Since the other party chose to confront him, then so be it.
However, Bucky's "strong-willed" answer made Hill cover her face again.
Every time she thought Bucky was finally reliable, he would pull a stunt like this.
"There's a gun in the storage compartment; take it for self-defense. Don't get out of the car then. If a fight really breaks out, hide behind the car and support me as needed."
"Are we really going to fight? It's still not too late to retreat now."
Although Hill said this, she somewhat understood Bucky's temper. As she spoke, she opened the storage compartment in front of her, took out the Makarov pistol inside, checked the magazine, loaded the pistol, and then inserted two extra magazines into her knee-high boots.
Although she always tried to dissuade Bucky, holding the gun, Hill was somewhat excited.
"You said the other party found us. If we retreat now, then he'll remember our license plate and find our home?"
"What about you? Where are your weapons?"
"Didn't we agree on three rules? We can't kill unless absolutely necessary."
"This is no time for jokes. Do you really think you're Batman?"
"I can fight better than him. I am the Winter Soldier."
"I can't talk sense into you; do as you please."
Hill covered her face again. Now, she could only hope that Bucky would be as miraculous as before and that the other party wasn't a vicious desperado, but just some thugs to deal with her and Bucky.
Bucky really didn't want to kill, just as he said.
Not trying to restrain himself, not killing even when he had to.
But the soul of an ordinary person, not some veteran with PTSD from the battlefield, who wants to play real-life PUBG every day, shooting living people and getting splattered with blood?
Bucky still couldn't forget the first person he killed in this world. It wasn't a nightmare, but he could clearly remember every detail of that moment, vivid whenever he thought about it.
He had killed twice: once it was HYDRA, and once it was the villain who massacred Frank's entire family.
If he could avoid killing, a beating would be enough. And with Bucky's strength, combined with the Winter Soldier's understanding of the human body.
Keeping that person alive, in some sense, was no less a punishment than killing him.
So, it all depended on that handsome guy.
If he really came at Bucky with a gun, determined to court death, Bucky couldn't stop him, could he?
The guy in front led Bucky on circles for over half an hour. Even Bucky had long noticed something was off; he was just provoking them.
However, he seemed to finally be ready, starting to drive in one direction, eventually arriving at a container area in Brooklyn Docks.
"It's a good place. After killing them, mix them with cement and sink them directly."
The guy parked his car next to two identical SUVs, and the two SUVs turned on their headlights, making Hill instinctively shield her face with her arm.
Bucky, however, merely closed his right eye, adjusting his left artificial eye to anti-glare mode.
"Only eight people? Who are they looking down on?"
ADVANCE CHAPTER AVAILABLE IN PATREON
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