Chapter 27: I've chosen you, grenade!
A surprise?"
When Chu Hang heard this word from Steve's mouth, he almost stumbled. "Boss, can't we be less understated? There are four heavily armed HYDRA Soldiers up there, holed up in an electrical room that looks like a tin can. If we make any noise, and the alarm goes off, then the three of us aren't here to infiltrate, we're here to deliver our heads to all the HYDRA in the entire Base."
However, when he saw Steve's face, full of confidence, his little misgivings were instantly suppressed.
What's there to be afraid of? When the sky falls, there's a tall one to hold it up. The one in front of him, without a doubt, was the tallest and toughest one of this era.
Steve didn't rush to act. He once again turned his gaze to Chu Hang, his blue eyes in the dim light seeming to see through people's hearts. "Chu Hang, listen more carefully. Tell me, the exact positions of those four people, the distance between them, and where is the loudest electrical hum?"
Here it comes! That feeling of being entrusted with an important task again!
Chu Hang felt incredibly comfortable. He immediately closed his eyes and poured all his attention into his ears. This time, he listened more intently than ever before.
Countless sound fragments gathered and reassembled in his mind. Gradually, a three-dimensional sound map, composed entirely of sound, clearly appeared in his consciousness.
"Two patrolling Soldiers, one clockwise, one counter-clockwise, are walking along the outermost corridor of the room. They are currently at diagonal positions, at their furthest distance, about twenty meters."
"The one who isn't moving is in the true north of the room, about fifteen meters from the staircase. I can hear his fingers tapping on a keyboard and flipping switches; he should be in front of the main control console."
"The fourth one, the one wandering around, is in the southeast corner of the room, closest to the staircase, less than ten meters away. He seems to be cleaning his gun; I hear the friction of metal parts."
Chu Hang paused, then added a crucial piece of information: "The loudest electrical hum is in the center of the room, where there are two huge transformers. If we can create some noise near there, it should cover the sound of our footsteps rushing in."
After he finished speaking, he opened his eyes and looked at Steve somewhat nervously, wondering if the information he provided was useful.
After listening, Steve showed an approving smile. He reached out and heavily patted Chu Hang's shoulder, "Excellent work, Chu Hang! You are our best radar!"
With that, he turned to Logan, his gaze becoming sharp. "Logan, your mission is the simplest, yet the most crucial."
Logan snorted in response.
"I'll give you the signal in a moment. I need you to attack the staircase beneath us with all your might. Use your Talon, or just your fists, whatever you prefer. The louder the better, even if you tear this staircase apart. Understand?"
Logan's eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth curved into a wild grin. Destruction? He loved this kind of work the most.
Steve then looked at Chu Hang, his expression much more serious: "Chu Hang, your target is the one cleaning his gun, the one closest to us. He is the first threat that can react after we rush in, and he must be dealt with immediately. Remember, don't hesitate, use your fastest speed."
Chu Hang took a deep breath and nodded heavily.
Finally, Steve unclipped a German-made stick grenade from his waist, which he had just confiscated from the two unfortunate individuals. He weighed it in his hand, a cold, cruel arc forming at the corner of his mouth.
"As for me," he shook the grenade in his hand, "I'm going to give them a 'surprise'."
The plan was simple, yet insane.
Use the immense noise created by Logan to attract everyone's attention, while Steve throws the grenade near the transformers in the center of the room, using the explosion's flash and thick smoke to create chaos and obscure vision.
And at the moment of the explosion, the three of them, like devils rushing out of hell, would leap up from the staircase, harvesting the enemies before they could react, dazed and disoriented by the noise and explosion.
"Chu Hang, time it," Steve's voice was as calm as ice. "I need those two patrolling Soldiers to pass each other on either side of the staircase at the exact moment, that's when their attention is most dispersed and their ability to support each other is slowest."
"Understood!"
Chu Hang closed his eyes again. This time, his mental sound map showed four constantly moving red dots. He could clearly "see" the footsteps of the two patrolling Soldiers approaching little by little.
His heartbeat, too, began to accelerate in sync with those footsteps.
"Ten meters..."
"Five meters..."
"Three meters..."
"Crossing!"
At the very instant the two red dots overlapped and then separated, Chu Hang suddenly opened his eyes and roared, "Now!"
Almost simultaneously with his shout, Steve signaled to Logan.
"Roar!"
Logan let out a long-suppressed growl. His muscular body, like a fully drawn bow, instantly erupted with terrifying power. He didn't even use his Talons, but instead directly smashed his fist, as big as a sandbag, into the metal staircase support beside him!
"Clang—!!!"
A deafening metallic roar suddenly exploded in the confined underground space! It felt as if someone had slammed a battering ram right next to Chu Hang's ear, making his eardrums buzz and his head spin.
The entire iron staircase shook violently, the rivets at the connections groaning under the strain, as if it would fall apart the next second.
At the same time, several panicked German shouts came from upstairs. Clearly, they were startled by the sudden loud noise, and their attention was completely drawn downstairs.
At this very moment, Steve moved!
He flung his arm, and the stick grenade, like a cannonball leaving the barrel, flew out with a piercing whoosh through the narrow gap of the staircase, tracing a perfect parabolic arc as it headed towards the center of the room.
"Boom—!!!"
An explosion, several times louder than the noise Loganhad just made, suddenly erupted from upstairs!
A dazzling flash of fire instantly illuminated the entire staircase opening, followed by rolling black smoke pouring in through the gap.
"Go!"
Steve let out a low growl, grabbed the edge of the staircase with one hand, and with a burst of muscle power in his arm, he shot up from the staircase opening as if weightless.
Logan followed closely, his Beast-like body exploding with astonishing jumping power, pushing off the swaying staircase with both feet and leaping up.
Chu Hang gritted his teeth and also rushed up.
The moment he burst out of the staircase, he was immediately stunned by the sight before him.
The entire electrical room was filled with thick smoke, and the pungent smell of gunpowder made people cough. Several of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling had shattered from the impact of the explosion, leaving only a few stubbornly flickering, making the entire room alternately bright and dark, like a ghost realm.
The alarm did not sound. The grenade's power was just right, only destroying the transformer's casing and creating enough chaos, but not damaging the core power supply system.
Chu Hang immediately spotted his target. The Soldiercleaning his gun was covering his ears, half-crouching on the ground, his face a dazed expression. He was closest to the explosion, receiving the greatest impact.
No time to hesitate!
Steve's instructions flashed through Chu Hang's mind, and his blood seemed to ignite at that moment. The immense power brought by the super soldier seruminstantly spread throughout his limbs.
His body lunged forward with such speed that it left a faint afterimage in the air!
The distance of less than ten meters was covered almost instantly!
The Soldier seemed to sense the danger, suddenly looked up, his terrified eyes meeting Chu Hang's cold gaze. He instinctively tried to raise the gun in his hand.
But it was too late.
Chu Hang's movements were faster than his thoughts!
He didn't use a gun, nor a knife. In that instant, he chose the most primitive and direct method.
One punch!
He condensed all his strength into his right fist, and with an unstoppable momentum, he slammed it hard into the opponent's chest!
"Bang!"
A dull thud, even louder than the surrounding electrical hum.
Chu Hang felt his fist hit something like a steel plate wrapped in leather. The immense recoil made his entire arm feel numb.
And the HYDRA Soldier's expression instantly froze. His chest caved in visibly, and his body arched backward like a cooked shrimp, then his feet left the ground, and he flew backward, crashing heavily against the metal wall behind him with a loud thud, then slid to the ground like a pile of mud, completely still.
One punch...and he's dealt with?
Chu Hang looked at his fist, somewhat dazed. He knew he had become stronger, but he hadn't expected to be this strong now.
However, on the battlefield, even a second of daze can be fatal.
Just as he dealt with his target, the corner of his eye caught sight of the patrolling Soldier who had been on the diagonal, now having reacted. He hadn't been completely stunned by the explosion, and was now raising his gun, its dark muzzle aimed at Chu Hang's back!
"Watch out!"
Chu Hang's pupils suddenly constricted, and all the hairs on his body stood on end! He wanted to dodge, but his body seemed to be fixed, unable to make any reaction in time.
It's over!
At this critical moment, a dark Shadow flashed past like a ghost.
"Pfft!"
A dull thud of a sharp weapon entering flesh.
Chu Hang only saw three Talons, without warning, pierce through the Soldier's back, with warm blood still on their tips.
It was Logan!
Logan had, at some point, dealt with his target and appeared here at the most crucial moment. He emotionlessly withdrew his Talons, letting the corpse fall limply.
"Don't space out on the battlefield, rookie!" Loganglanced at him, his voice hoarse.
Chu Hang's heart was still pounding. He nodded heavily at Logan, swallowing the "thank you" back down.
He turned to look at the other side.
Steve's battle was already over.
The Soldier standing in front of the main control console, and the other patrolling Soldier, had both silently fallen to the ground. Steve was standing in front of the control console, his hands moving like blurs as he rapidly operated it.
From the moment they rushed up until all four guards were dealt with, the entire process didn't even take ten seconds.
This was the Howling Commandos' top-tier combat power!
"Done!" Steve pressed the last button, and the continuous electrical hum in the entire electrical room instantly diminished by more than half.
He turned around, looking at the safe and sound Chu Hang and Logan, and gave a relaxed smile: "Excellent, now, the factory's external defense system, alarm system, and lighting in most areas are under our control."
He walked to the communication equipment, picked up the handset, and adjusted it to a specific frequency.
"Dugan, do you hear me? I've turned off the lights in the 'kitchen'. It's your turn to serve."
After doing all this, he was about to completely cut off the factory's power, to create the best opportunity for the prisoners who were about to rush in.
But just then, Chu Hang, who had been using his ears to keep watch on his surroundings, suddenly changed his expression.
"Wait!" He suddenly raised his hand, saying with a grave expression.
Steve and Logan's gazes instantly focused on him.
"What's wrong?"
Chu Hang didn't answer immediately. He frowned, cocked his ear, as if trying to distinguish something.
"Below... directly below this floor we're on..." His voice held a hint of confusion and unease, "There's something."
"What is it? A patrol?" Steve asked.
"No..." Chu Hang shook his head, his expression becoming somewhat strange, "It's not footsteps. It's a... very heavy, very rhythmic sound. Thump... thump... thump... like a giant heart beating."
Chapter 28 What exactly is hidden underneath?
Heart?"
As soon as Chu Hang uttered the word, Steve and Logan's expressions changed.
If Chu Hang had said there was a patrol team below, or a hidden armory, they probably wouldn't have even batted an eye. A patrol team? Kill them. An armory? Blow it up. For people like them, who were used to bathing in a hail of bullets, these things were nothing.
But the word "heart" was a completely different matter.
The word itself carried an indescribable eeriness.
"Are you sure?" Steve's brows furrowed into a knot, the relaxed look he had just held in his azure eyes completely gone, replaced by extreme vigilance. He lowered his voice, each word seemingly squeezed through his teeth, "Is it a human heart, or… something else?"
Chu Hang closed his eyes and listened carefully again, then shook his head, somewhat uncertainly.
"I don't know," he replied honestly, "The sound is too deep, and too powerful. Thump… thump… Each beat, I feel the floor beneath my feet trembling. A human heart couldn't make such a big noise. It feels… like an elephant or a whale hidden underground."
After he finished speaking, he himself felt the analogy was a bit far-fetched. This was the deep mountains of Austria, where would one find elephants and whales?
Logan said nothing, just walked over silently, mimicking Chu Hang's posture by half-crouching and pressing his ear to the cold concrete floor. His furry ear twitched, like a wild wolf detecting danger.
After more than ten seconds, he suddenly stood up, his face turning exceptionally grim.
"This smell isn't right," he said in a hoarse voice, sniffing hard with his nose, "Do you smell it? Besides the smell of oil and gunpowder, there's also a… bloody smell. Very strong, but not fresh blood, like it's been sitting for a long time, mixed with formaldehyde and rust. It's damn disgusting."
Reminded by him, Chu Hang and Steve immediately noticed it too.
An extremely strange, complex scent wafted up in wisps through the narrow gap in the stairwell. It had been covered by the strong smell of gunpowder before, but now that the smoke had dissipated, this peculiar smell became particularly obvious.
It was fishy, pungent, and carried a metallic sweetness, making one's scalp tingle and stomach churn just by smelling it.
Now, there was no need to doubt anymore.
There was definitely a big problem below.
Steve's expression became more solemn than ever before. As a natural Commander, his brain raced, weighing the pros and cons.
The original plan was for the three of them to cut off the power, disrupt the factory's defenses, and then Dugan's second squad would launch a feint attack from the front to attract HYDRA's attention, allowing them to rescue the prisoners amidst the chaos. This was a precise, interconnected plan, with very tight timing. Dugan and his men must already be in position outside, just waiting for his signal to pull the switch.
But now, an unknown, extremely dangerous-sounding thing had suddenly appeared beneath their feet.
If they ignored it, and this thing suddenly emerged while they were rescuing prisoners, stabbing them in the back, the consequences would be unimaginable. Those crazy scientists from HYDRA, God knew what anti-human monsters they could cook up.
But if they went down to investigate now, it would inevitably delay the scheduled time for the general assault. On the battlefield, a minute's delay could lead to the collapse of the entire plan.
What to do?
Chu Hang looked at Steve's shifting expression, his heart also in turmoil.
To be honest, he was more flustered than Steve and Logan.
Because something was wrong!
He had watched "Captain America 1" no less than seven or eight times in his previous life, and had seen countless explanation videos. He clearly remembered that in this HYDRA factory in Austria, besides the captured Howling Commandos and some ordinary Soldiers, there were no hidden super weapons. Red Skull's trump card was the Tesseract and his "valkyrie" plane capable of carrying nuclear bombs.
But what was this "heart" sound now?
Could it be that his tiny butterfly wings had accidentally flapped, sending the entire plot off course?
As soon as he thought of this, a cold sweat broke out on Chu Hang's back. The unknown was the most terrifying. He would rather face an entire division of the German Army than touch something that hadn't even appeared in the movie.
Just as he was lost in thought, Steve made a decision.
"I'll go down and see," his voice was not loud, but filled with undeniable decisiveness, "We can't delay any longer. Logan, you guard here and control the power distribution room. Chu Hang, you continue to use your ears to monitor the movements of the entire factory, especially the prisoner camp and Dugan's direction. If there's any anomaly, notify me immediately via the communicator."
After speaking, he began to search for the entrance to the next level in the power distribution room.
"No!" Chu Hang almost blurted out, "Captain, that's too dangerous! We know nothing about what's below, if you go down alone, what if…"
Steve turned his head and looked at him, his gaze calm, yet carrying an irresistible power. "Chu Hang, I am the Captain. Some risks must be borne by me."
He quickly found a square metal cover plate in an inconspicuous corner of the room. The cover plate fit perfectly with the floor, and some discarded parts were piled on top, making it impossible to discover without careful searching.
He moved the heavy parts aside with his bare hands, revealing the full extent of the cover plate. It had a built-in rotary lock, which looked very sturdy.
Steve tried to turn it, but the lock didn't budge.
He stopped wasting time, directly inserted his fingers into the gap of the cover plate, and the muscles on his arms instantly bulged, blue veins protruding like small snakes.
"Hey!"
He let out a low growl, and his waist and abdomen suddenly exerted force.
With a grating sound of metal twisting, the heavy steel cover plate was actually torn from the ground by him!
A dark, unknown entrance appeared before the three of them.
The strange smell, mixed with blood and oil, instantly intensified tenfold, rushing towards them.
Steve drew the Colt M1911 pistol from his waist, checked the magazine, and prepared to go down without hesitation.
"Wait!" Chu Hang called out to him again.
Steve turned back, looking at him with some confusion.
Chu Hang gritted his teeth, as if he had made some decision. "I'll go with you! My ears are more useful down there than up here. At least, I can let you know which direction the danger is coming from."
This was true. No matter how strong Steve was, he was still flesh and blood. In a completely unknown environment, the range his two eyes could see was ultimately limited. And he, Chu Hang, was a 360-degree, dead-angle-free humanoid sonar. In such a narrow, enclosed environment below, his role was even greater than Logan's claws.
Steve looked at him deeply, seemingly evaluating the truthfulness of his words, and also perhaps evaluating whether he had the courage.
A few seconds later, he nodded.
"Alright."
Then, he turned to Logan, his expression becoming extremely serious: "Logan, the top is up to you. Remember, if we two don't return within fifteen minutes, or if you hear any alarm from below, immediately execute Plan B."
"Plan B?" Chu Hang was startled.
Logan grinned, pulled out the two newly captured stick grenades from his pocket, tossed them in his hand, and then pointed to the two huge transformers in the center of the room, a cruel smile appearing on his face: "Plan B is to stuff these two 'potatoes' into the 'butts' of those two big guys, and then, run."
Chu Hang understood. Plan B was to blow up the entire power distribution room, completely paralyzing the factory and plunging it into darkness, then each escaping for their lives.
This was tantamount to admitting that the infiltration and rescue mission had completely failed.
Steve's decision undoubtedly put all their lives on these short fifteen minutes.
"Take care, Captain." Logan, for once, didn't say anything sarcastic, just spoke in a deep voice.
Steve nodded, said no more, and was the first to slide down the ladder at the entrance.
Chu Hang took a deep breath of the unpleasant air and followed closely behind him.
Below was a completely different World.
It was much colder and wetter here than the power distribution room above. The walls were no longer rough concrete, but a special alloy that gleamed with cold metallic luster, covered with various thick, multi-colored pipes, like the blood vessels and nerves of a giant beast, extending all the way into the depths of the darkness.
The air was filled with a strong smell of disinfectant, yet it couldn't completely mask the foul odor of blood mixed with oil.
What made Chu Hang's heart palpitate the most was that sound.
"Thump… thump… thump…"
Here, the huge heartbeat sound became even clearer, even more shocking. With each beat, Chu Hang could feel an invisible sound wave coming from the front, penetrating his body, making his chest feel heavy, and his breathing somewhat difficult.
This was definitely not something normal!
Steve obviously felt it too; his hand gripping the gun tightened even more. He didn't turn on his flashlight, but relied on his super Soldier-enhanced night vision to vigilantly observe his surroundings.
The two of them, one in front and one behind, stepped on the metal floor, cautiously moving towards the direction of the sound.
The corridor was not long, probably only fifty meters. At the end was a huge, somewhat exaggerated circular metal door, looking like a bank vault door, so heavy it could withstand a direct hit from artillery shells.
The heavy pulsing sound, like the heartbeat of an ancient giant beast, was coming from behind this door.
On the door, there was a palm-sized circular observation window, with a ridiculously thick piece of dark glass embedded in it.
Steve gestured to Chu Hang, telling him to stay put and be alert, then he alone silently approached.
He reached out, wiped a thick layer of dust from the observation window with his sleeve, and then, put his eye to it.
Chu Hang watched his back nervously, even forgetting to breathe.
He saw that Steve's body, the moment he peered into the observation window, suddenly froze, like a statue instantly encased in ice.
Time, it seemed, stood still at this moment.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Steve slowly, extremely slowly, moved his head away from the observation window.
He turned around and looked at Chu Hang.
At that instant, Chu Hang saw a face he had never seen before.
That face, always full of sunshine, confidence, and resolve, was now filled with an indescribable shock, horror, and a hint of… deep fear.
His lips trembled slightly, his face as pale as paper.
He looked at Chu Hang, his Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, and with a dreamlike, immensely impactful voice, he softly uttered two words.
"Monster…"
Chapter 29 Monster
Monster…" When these two words escaped Steve Rogers' lips, uttered in a near-dreamlike, trembling voice mixed with immense shock and disbelief, Chu Hang felt as if a cold current from Siberia had been forcibly poured into the seams of his spine, shooting from his tailbone all the way to his crown, causing all the hairs on his body to stand on end in an instant.
This was too wrong.
This wasn't wrong because the word "monster" itself was so terrifying. For Soldiers like them, who rolled around in piles of the dead, the dismembered limbs on the battlefield, mangled beyond human recognition by shells, were inherently more terrifying than any monster.
The wrongness lay in the fact that the person who uttered these two words was Steve Rogers.
It was Captain America, the man who dared to puff out his chest and charge even when facing a thousand troops alone. It was the man whose will was as indestructible as the vibranium shield in his hand. Chu Hang had personally seen him advance into machine gun fire, seen him jump from a building dozens of meters high, seen him throw grenades back like baseballs. The word "fear" seemed to be completely absent from this man's dictionary.
Yet now, such a man, after merely glancing through a palm-sized observation window, displayed an expression as if his worldview had been completely shattered and his faith instantly crushed. His face was devoid of color, an icy pallor, and the ever-burning flame of confidence in his azure eyes seemed to have been doused by a bucket of ice water, leaving only intensely constricted pupils and a hollow terror.
What on Earth was locked behind this door?
Chu Hang's mind buzzed, and countless classic images from horror movies he had watched and horror games he had played in his previous life surged forth like a broken dam. Was it an Alien dripping with acid? Was it a giant zombie beast with a gaping maw? Or was it a Cthulhu-esque ancient god that would make one's sanity evaporate and SAN points plummet just by looking at it?
He instinctively wanted to retreat, every cell in his body screaming the most primal warning: Run! Get away from that door! Curiosity doesn't just kill the cat; it can kill a transmigrator who just wants to live peacefully until the end of World War II!
But his feet seemed to be welded to the cold metal floor, too heavy to lift.
A desire even stronger than fear, mixed with a suicidal impulse and extreme curiosity, whispered like the devil, screaming wildly in his heart.
That was Captain America! Was there anything in this World that could scare him like that? If he missed this, he felt like he'd regret it for a lifetime! This was an exclusive scoop, a hidden plotline not even shown in the movies!
Just one look! Just one look! Anyway, with the Healing Factor and super soldier serum as a base, even if he passed out from fright, he should wake up, right? At worst, he'd just run after seeing it, run faster than anyone!
Chu Hang fought a fierce internal battle, trembling as he tried to bolster his courage, and then, like a petty thief sneaking a peek at a neighbor showering, he lightened his footsteps and slowly, inch by inch, moved towards the heavy, circular metal door.
Steve remained in that stiff posture, his entire being like a puppet whose soul had been extracted, completely unresponsive to Chu Hang's approach.
Chu Hang carefully skirted around him and came to the door. He first took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but the foul stench, a mixture of strong blood, formaldehyde, and metallic rust, almost made him vomit the compressed biscuits he had just eaten.
He steeled himself, thinking, "Die, then die!"
He closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them, pressing his eye to the palm-sized circular observation window.
The next second, his breath, his heartbeat, all his thoughts, completely froze at that moment.
Behind the door was a colossal circular laboratory, larger than imagination.
The entire space was like a giant hollowed-out white can, at least a hundred meters in diameter. Walls, ceiling, and even the floor were covered with a layer of white alloy that gleamed with a cold luster. Countless precision instruments, blinking with various indicator lights, and pipes as thick as giant pythons, converged from all directions towards the center of the laboratory. Dozens of researchers, clad in white fully-enclosed protective suits and heavy gas masks, moved like a busy, silent colony of worker ants, shuttling, recording, and adjusting at various control panels.
However, all of this was merely background.
What truly made Chu Hang's soul tremble was the thing in the very center of the laboratory.
It was a giant glass cylindrical container, over ten meters tall, like a specimen jar for a giant from mythology. The container was filled with a viscous liquid that glowed with an eerie, phosphorescent green light. Bubbles slowly rose from the bottom, flickering in and out of existence in the green light, appearing incredibly demonic.
And within that green liquid, something was immersed.
Chu Hang's brain couldn't even find a suitable word to describe it for a moment.
Its main body resembled a human torso, forcibly ripened and magnified to its extreme. Its skin was a lifeless, ghastly pale, like an over-soaked corpse, and it was semi-transparent. Chu Hang could even clearly see that beneath that thin layer of skin, veins, blackish-blue and thicker than fire hoses, rose and fell slowly like sleeping pythons with the undulations of the liquid.
Its chest cavity was completely open, without skin, ribs, or muscle protection. A heart, much larger than an off-road vehicle tire, was exposed nakedly in the green liquid, connected by countless electrodes and tubes, beating heavily and powerfully, one beat after another.
Thump... Thump... Thump... With each beat, Chu Hangcould see an invisible Impact propagating through the liquid, causing the entire container to tremble slightly. So, this was the source of that heavy sound, like the heartbeat of an ancient beast.
This giant torso had no legs; its lower body was truncated, replaced by a tangled mass of complex supports and hydraulic pipes, gleaming with a cold metallic luster, rooted deeply into the bottom of the container like tree roots. Its arms were also reduced to short fleshy stumps, densely covered with various metal probes glowing with faint red light, looking like a discarded pincushion.
The most terrifying part was its head.
That head was completely disproportionate to its massive body, like a deformed tumor inflated to its limit. There was no hair, no eyes, no nose, no ears, only a giant mouth, as if forcibly split open by an axe, gaping silently and despairingly, as if emitting an Eternal and mournful wail to this World.
Chu Hang's stomach churned, his throat burning. He bit his lip hard, preventing himself from vomiting on the spot.
What the hell is this thing?!
This was HYDRA's secret? This was Red Skull's trump card? They were actually secretly creating such a biological weapon, stitched together from flesh and machinery, deep underground in these remote mountains?
If this thing were unleashed, never mind a division, even an army might not be able to stop it! This was simply a Carnage machine crawled out of hell!
The movie never mentioned this thing! Had his tiny butterfly wings accidentally flapped, sending the entire plot ten thousand eight hundred miles off course?
Just as Chu Hang's mind went blank, stunned by the utterly terrifying sight before him, his vision, enhanced to its limit by the super soldier serum, allowed him to catch a detail he had overlooked.
In the deepest part of the laboratory, on a main control panel surrounding the container, a row of dazzling red alarm lights was flashing wildly at an extremely high frequency. Next to the alarm lights, a large LCD screen prominently displayed a line of constantly decreasing, bright red numbers.
00:03:17
00:03:16
...Bad! They're counting down!
Chu Hang's heart plummeted, and a sense of crisis even stronger than when he first saw the monster instantly swept through his entire body. From the looks of it, these HYDRA mad scientists were clearly about to perform some critical operation on this monster. Were they preparing to activate it? Or were they preparing to destroy it?
Whichever it was, it was definitely not a good thing! In three minutes, a cataclysmic change was bound to occur here!
"Captain!" Chu Hang suddenly turned around, grabbing Steve's arm, who was still in a state of shock, and shaking him with all his might, "Wake up! Something's wrong! Very wrong!"
Shaken by him, Steve seemed to finally snap out of the immense shock. He suddenly gasped, his gaze refocusing, but deep terror still lingered in his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"They're counting down!" Chu Hang pointed at the heavy metal door, his words coming out like a machine gun, "I saw a countdown inside, less than three minutes left! They're definitely going to do something to that monster! We have to stop them!"
Steve's face instantly turned incredibly grim. He again forced himself to suppress his nausea, quickly glanced through the observation window, and immediately understood the gravity of the situation.
"Damn it!" he cursed in a low voice, filled with urgency and anger, "We have to get in there now!"
But how to get in? This door looked even sturdier than a bank vault door. For the two of them, let alone three minutes, even thirty minutes might not be enough to open it.
Just as the two were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, their brains rapidly working to devise a plan, an unexpected development occurred.
"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"
A sharp, piercing alarm, loud enough to burst eardrums, suddenly blared from the laboratory behind the door, echoing throughout the entire underground space!
Chu Hang and Steve exchanged glances, both seeing deep shock and confusion in the other's eyes.
Something had happened! It wasn't them causing trouble; something had gone wrong inside the laboratory!
The two again simultaneously leaned towards the observation window to look, only to see that the laboratory, which had just been orderly, was now in complete chaos. The scientists in white protective suits were scurrying around like a disturbed hornet's nest, several control panels sparking and spewing thick black smoke due to operational errors.
And the giant monster, submerged in the green liquid, as if stimulated by something intense, began to struggle wildly with unprecedented force!
Its massive body twisted and slammed violently within the container. Each Impact caused the heavy, specialized glass container to emit a groan of protest. On the surface of the container, visible, pale, spiderweb-like cracks began to appear!
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"
The exposed giant heart was beating at least twice as fast as before! The heavy, dense thumping sound was like a death knell drum on the battlefield, fiercely pounding their eardrums, making them feel as if their own hearts were about to explode with it.
Something even more terrifying happened.
That circular metal door, which they thought was indestructible, now emitted a heavy and clear "click" sound.
Immediately after, the rings of bowl-sized lock cylinders around the door, like giant gears, began to retract into the wall one by one, accompanied by the hissing sound of hydraulic pressure releasing!
The door... was opening!
Chu Hang's mind buzzed, instantly going blank.
He understood. It was the terrified scientists inside, opening the door from within to escape for their lives!
"Run!"
Steve's reaction was at the limit of human speed. Without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed Chu Hang, who was still in a daze, and turned to sprint down the corridor they had come from!
At this moment, stopping the monster, completing the mission—everything was thrown to the back of his mind. Only one primal thought remained: survive! Once that door opened, they would face a group of scientists driven completely mad by their desire to live, and a terrifying monster that could burst out at any moment, one he wasn't even confident he could fight!
The two pushed the speed granted by the super soldier serum to its maximum, almost becoming two blurred afterimages in the narrow metal corridor.
"Creeeeak—Screech—"
Behind them, the massive metal door, weighing dozens of tons, emitted a bone-chilling metallic grinding sound as it slowly began to open inwards.
A blinding white light and an even stronger, more nauseating stench poured out from the door crack like a breached dam!
"Quick! Get back to the power distribution room!" Steveyelled at Chu Hang as he ran, "Notify Logan, execute Plan B! Now!"
Chu Hang was dragged along, stumbling, not even daring to look back. He could only place all his hope on his extremely enhanced ears to judge the situation behind them.
He could hear the panicked screams, curses, and scuffles of the scientists behind the door, fighting for the exit, surging towards the doorway like a tide.
However, beneath all this chaotic noise, there was another sound that made his blood run cold.
"Crash—Shatter—"
It was an incredibly clear, yet incredibly heavy sound.
It was the sound of glass being completely shattered and exploded!
Immediately after, there was the sound of a tsunami-like torrent of liquid pouring out, heavily slapping against the floor!
Then... all sounds fell silent for a moment.
Only that sound still echoed.
"Thump... Thump... Thump..."
That giant heartbeat still echoed.
But this time, the sound was no longer muffled as if transmitted through liquid and glass. It became incredibly clear, incredibly real, filled with wild, violent power.
It was as if... that giant heart had been completely exposed to the air!
Chu Hang's pupils instantly constricted to pinpricks.
As he ran for his life, he used all his strength to let out a heart-wrenching scream, filled with endless fear, at the blue figure also sprinting ahead of him.
"It's out! It's right behind us!"
Chapter 30 Run! Run for your life!
Chu Hang had never run so fast in his life.
He hadn't run this fast when his boss chased him for proposals at the company in his previous life; nor had he run this fast when he jaywalked and almost got hit by a car.
Chu Hang felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him; they were like two small motors, their only command to charge forward, to charge forward desperately.
The wind howled in his ears, yet he heard nothing.
No, he could hear, and more clearly than anyone else.
He could hear the 'thud-thud' of Steve's military boots on the metal floor as he dragged Chu Hang along, a rapid sound like a Death march.
He could hear his own uncooperative heart 'thumping' wildly in his chest, feeling as if it would leap out of his throat any second.
But what he heard most clearly was the sound coming from behind him.
It was a sound he never wanted to hear a second time in his life.
"Hiss... crash... thud..."
It was a mixed symphony, making one's scalp tingle.
There was the sound of some heavy, slippery flesh dragging on the metal floor, like a butcher dragging a freshly slaughtered giant whale; there were countless tiny metal parts and pipes, scraping against the ground with an ear-splitting noise as they failed to support an immense weight; and there was... that heartbeat.
"Thump... thump... thump..."
It was catching up!
That monstrous thing, that creature stitched together from flesh and machinery, had truly emerged from the lab, and it was chasing them!
Chu Hang didn't even need to look back; with his enhanced hearing alone, he could conjure an incredibly terrifying image in his mind: that giant legless mass of flesh was using the chaotic metal supports on its lower half as legs, crawling towards them like a deformed giant spider in the narrow corridor, at a speed completely disproportionate to its massive size!
Chu Hang cursed under his breath: Not only could this thing move, but it could also chase people?
What on earth had those HYDRA bastards created!
"Quick! The ladder!"
Steve's voice rang out ahead, like a clap of thunder, jolting Chu Hang awake from his boundless fear.
Only then did he see clearly that they had already reached the end of the corridor, and the vertical ladder leading to the upper power distribution room was right before their eyes.
Steve didn't hesitate for a moment, not even slowing down.
At the last second before reaching the ladder, he forcefully pushed Chu Hang's back and roared, "You go first!"
Then, he sharply turned around, facing the direction they had come from, and held the vibranium shield tightly in front of him.
He actually intended to block the pursuing monster by himself, to buy Chu Hang time to climb up!
"Captain!" Chu Hang's eyes turned red.
"No time to talk! Hurry!" Steve roared without looking back, his voice carrying an undeniable command, "Go up and tell Logan! Plan B!"
Chu Hang's heart felt as if it had been fiercely clutched.
He knew that at this moment, any hesitation would be a betrayal of Steve's trust.
He gritted his teeth, no longer thinking, and scrambled up the ladder with all his might, using both hands and feet.
Chu Hang had never felt these few short meters of ladder to be so long.
He could feel the entire corridor below him vibrating slightly; the monster was getting closer and closer!
He could even smell the suffocatingly strong stench of blood and formaldehyde, surging madly upwards through the entrance he was climbing out of.
"Steve!" Chu Hang couldn't help but look back halfway up the climb.
In that instant, he saw a huge, dark shadow, a mixture of pale flesh and cold metal, almost filling the entire corridor entrance, lunging fiercely towards Steve's not-so-tall blue figure!
"Boom!"
A deafening roar.
Chu Hang felt the entire metal platform shake violently.
That was the sound of Steve's shield, directly withstanding the monster's Impact.
"I'm fine! Get up there!" Steve's voice sounded a bit muffled, but still steady.
Chu Hang dared not look again, using all his strength to climb the remaining distance in a few quick movements, then rolled into the power distribution room.
"What's going on?"
Logan's hoarse voice immediately rang out.
He had been waiting by the entrance, and seeing Chu Hang in such a panicked state, and smelling the strange odor from below, his expression had become incredibly solemn, his two grenades clutched tightly in his hands.
"Below... there's a monster below!" Chu Hang gasped, "Captain is holding it off down there! Plan B! Quick! Execute Plan B!"
Logan's pupils suddenly contracted.
Without a word, he turned and rushed towards the two massive transformers.
But at that moment, an unexpected change occurred!
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, the metal cover plate beneath their feet, the very entrance they had just climbed through, was violently struck from below by an unimaginable force, causing the entire cover plate to bulge upwards!
Immediately after, a pale, tentacled appendage, thicker than Chu Hang's thigh and covered in barbs and metal scales, shot out from the forced-open gap with a "swish," like a venomous snake emerging from hell, heading straight for Logan's back, who was the closest!
"Watch out!" Chu Hang yelled at the top of his lungs.
Logan's reaction was almost inhuman.
Like a Beast sensing danger, he didn't even turn his head, his body twisting sharply in place at an incredible angle.
"Whoosh!"
The terrifying tentacle almost grazed his back as it flew past, striking the control panel nearby with a heavy thud.
With a series of 'crackling' sounds, the steel control panel sparked and was dented significantly by the whip-like strike!
Chu Hang's eyelids twitched at the sight; if that hit a person, wouldn't they be cut in half instantly?
Logan dodged the attack, his face devoid of any relief, replaced instead by a furious rage, thoroughly provoked.
"Roar!"
He let out a bestial roar, the muscles in his arms bulging instantly.
"Clang!"
Three bone claws, gleaming with a chilling white light, suddenly sprang from between his knuckles!
He turned, lunged forward, and swung his bone claws, fiercely slashing at the retracting tentacle!
"Clang!"
A piercing metallic screech.
Logan's bone claws struck the part of the tentacle covered in metal scales, merely producing a series of dazzling sparks and leaving only a few shallow white marks!
Logan himself was jolted back several steps with a 'thud-thud-thud' by the immense recoil, an expression of disbelief on his face.
Just then, Steve finally climbed up from below.
He looked a bit disheveled, his uniform covered in sticky green liquid, but his eyes were still sharp.
He glanced at the wildly writhing tentacle, attempting to attack again, and showed no hesitation.
"Whoosh!"
The vibranium shield in his hand transformed into a blue-and-red streak of light, striking with incredibly cunning precision the relatively vulnerable fleshy part where the tentacle connected to the structure below.
"Thwack!"
A dull thud, like a knife cutting into tough hide.
The tentacle was struck, quivering violently, and instantly spurted a putrid, dark green fluid from its surface.
In pain, it quickly retracted back into the hole.
An opportunity!
A moment of clarity flashed through Chu Hang's chaotic mind.
He looked at the dark, cavernous entrance, and without thinking, pulled a grenade from his waist, removed the pin, aimed, and threw it down!
"Boom!"
A muffled explosion echoed from below ground, shaking the entire power distribution room violently, and a thick black smoke, tinged with a burnt smell, spewed out from the opening.
"Good job!" Steve roared, shouting at Logan, who was still dazed, "Logan! Blow them up!"
Logan snapped out of it with the shout.
He glanced at his right hand, which was still numb from the shock, then at the dark, cavernous entrance, the ferocity in his eyes intensifying rather than diminishing.
He no longer hesitated, lunging towards the two massive transformers, and firmly wedged the two long-handled grenades into the gaps of the transformer's cooling fins.
"Three seconds!" Logan pulled the fuses, roaring without looking back.
"Run!"
Steve snatched up his returning shield, grabbed Chu Hang's arm with his other hand, and turned to sprint towards the power distribution room's main door.
Logan followed closely, his speed no less than theirs.
The three of them, like three cannonballs, used all their strength to burst out of the power distribution room and into the factory's internal corridor.
Behind them was the immense roar, like Thor's bellow, as the two grenades detonated the transformers!
"BOOM—CRASH—!"
An indescribable, destructive Impact, a massive sound wave capable of completely tearing human eardrums, swept over them from behind.
Chu Hang felt as if he had been violently shoved by an invisible giant hand, and his entire body flew forward.
The walls and ceiling behind them were instantly torn to shreds by the raging electricity and explosive energy.
All the lights in the entire factory went out in an instant!
Darkness, complete darkness, descended.
The three of them stumbled and scrambled in the darkness and chaos, completely disoriented, relying only on instinct to rush towards the nearest exit in their memory.
He didn't know how long they ran, but Chu Hang felt his lungs were about to burst.
Suddenly, a closed iron door appeared before them.
Steve didn't even look, directly delivering a shoulder charge, his entire body like a battering ram, slamming into it fiercely!
"Clang!"
That heavy iron door, along with its frame, was forcibly knocked flying by him!
A blast of cold air, mixed with snowflakes and the smell of gunpowder, rushed towards them.
They... were out!
The three of them staggered out into the snowstorm, and before they could catch their breath, behind them, the massive HYDRA factory they had just escaped from began to emit a grating, metal-twisting sound, like the mournful cry of a giant Beast.
Immediately after, centered around the power distribution room, a cataclysmic chain explosion began!
Chapter 31 Aftermath
For an instant, Chu Hang thought he was dead.
Blown away by the Impact of the explosion, his body tumbled uncontrollably in the air, and the entire Worldbecame an inverted vortex of Fire and darkness.
A scorching wave of air, like an invisible giant hand, slapped hard on his back; he could clearly feel his combat uniform instantly crisping, and then, his internal organs felt as if they had been dislocated by this immense force.
His sense of time completely vanished.
He didn't know if he had flown for a second or a century until his back slammed heavily into something soft yet cold, and the tremendous Impact made his vision go black, almost causing him to faint on the spot.
He fell like a broken sack, tumbling and crawling into the knee-deep snow, his immense inertia plowing a long furrow in the snow before he finally managed to stop.
Chu Hang lay in the snow, not wanting to move an inch.
His lungs were like a torn bellows; every breath brought knife-like pain and a strong smell of charring.
Cold snowflakes landed on his burning face, melting instantly, yet he felt no cold; his entire body, from inside out, felt as if it were being roasted by an unseen Fire.
This was the biological heat generated by his Healing Factor frantically repairing his damaged internal organs.
His head buzzed; the earth-shattering explosion just now was so loud it exceeded the processing limits of his ears, leaving only a continuous high-pitched ringing, as if thousands of cicadas were chirping simultaneously in his skull.
It took several long seconds before Chu Hang recovered from his near-death stupor.
He tried to move his fingers; his Healing Factor had helped him withstand all the damage.
He propped up his upper body with his elbows and looked back.
The sight before him made him instantly forget to breathe.
The heavily guarded steel fortress was now a colossal torch reaching into the sky.
Centered on the power distribution room, the explosion's energy, like a slowly blooming lotus of destruction, had completely blown off the upper part of the entire factory.
Countless twisted, burning steel bars and concrete blocks were thrown hundreds of meters into the air, then descended like a doomsday meteor shower, trailing long streaks of Fire and thick smoke, whistling as they crashed into all sides of the valley.
The entire valley was illuminated in a dazzling orange-red, and a giant mushroom cloud of rolling smoke slowly ascended, as if to devour the pitch-black night sky.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of tar, the burnt plastic smell of wires, and also... that sickeningly sweet, bloody odor of burnt protein belonging to that monster, which he had smelled underground before.
"Now this is a grand spectacle," Chu Hang thought, a phrase involuntarily popping into his mind.
Compared to the real, mountain-shaking destruction before him, all the special effects blockbusters he had watched in movie theaters seemed so pale and ridiculous.
"Cough, cough... Is everyone alright?"
Steve's voice rang out beside Chu Hang; he struggled to his feet from the snow, coughing violently.
His once bright blue, White, and red uniform was now smudged Black and gray, and his face was covered in soot, looking like a plumber who had just crawled out of a chimney; only his eyes, reflected in the Firelight, remained astonishingly bright.
"Not dead."
From another direction, Logan's muffled voice came.
He was more disheveled than either of them, half-buried in the snow.
He suddenly slammed his fist hard into the snow in front of him, letting out a low growl of extreme, suppressed anger: "Damn it! What the hell was that thing?!"
Chu Hang could hear the unwillingness in his voice.
For a wild Beast like Logan, for whom combat and hunting were etched into his bones, encountering an opponent that even his most prized bone claws couldn't harm in the slightest, the sense of frustration was far more unbearable than taking a bullet.
This was almost challenging his very existence as a top predator.
Steve didn't respond immediately, only silently watched the burning ruins, his eyes as complex as an impenetrable fog.
There was relief at having survived, anger at HYDRA's insane actions, but more than that, there was a deep worry Chu Hang had never seen on his face before.
"We must leave immediately."
He turned, his voice not loud, but exceptionally firm in the howling wind and snow: "This explosion is a signal light; all German Army and HYDRA patrols within a fifty-mile radius will converge here.
We need to rendezvous with Dugan and the others as soon as possible."
The mission.
His words were like a bucket of cold Water poured over Chu Hang's stunned and somewhat numb nerves.
Only then did he remember that they were here to rescue people.
The factory was blown up, but what about the captured comrades?
Chu Hang shook his still-dizzy head and climbed out of the snow.
"Captain, which way do we go?" Chu Hang asked.
Steve pulled out the crumpled map from his waist, carefully identified their location by the distant towering Firelight, then pointed to a ridge behind and to their side: "According to the plan, after Plan B succeeds, we'll gather at rendezvous point three.
Dugan and his men will take the prisoners there and wait for us."
"Let's go." Logan said succinctly, leaping out of the snow.
He glanced down at the few almost imperceptible shallow White marks on his knuckles, a fierce gleam flashing in his eyes, and followed silently behind Steve.
The three of them trudged through the deep snow, their steps heavy, the atmosphere terribly oppressive.
No one spoke, only heavy breathing and the "crunch" of snow underfoot.
The Shadow of that monster weighed on everyone's hearts like a heavy boulder.
After about ten minutes of running, they crossed a ridge, and the explosion's Firelight was blocked by the mountain, making the surroundings instantly dim.
Steve found a sheltered rocky recess and motioned for them to rest briefly.
He sat down against the cold rock face, took off his helmet, revealing a face covered in sweat and soot.
He looked up, his bright blue eyes seeming to glow in the darkness, staring directly at Chu Hang and Logan.
"Tell me," he began, "what did you both see? About that... thing.
We need to consolidate information."
Logan was the first to speak; he irritably ran a hand through his hair, his voice hoarse like sandpaper rubbing: "That thing's skin, or rather, its carapace, is incredibly hard.
My claws hitting it were like using an axe to chop a main battle tank; it only produced a few sparks, utterly useless."
He paused, then added, "And, its strength is immense, truly immense.
That one blow almost shattered my arm."
Steve's brow furrowed even deeper; he turned to Chu Hang: "Chu, your hearing is the best; did you hear anything special down there?"
"I feel... it doesn't seem to have been actively released by those scientists," Chu Hang speculated based on his observations, "It was more like an experiment gone wrong.
Those scientists looked even more terrified than us; they opened the door themselves trying to escape, and ended up getting us trapped too.
That countdown might have been for some kind of sedative or destruction protocol, but it failed."
Steve fell into a long silence after listening.
He looked down at his shield, stained with dirt and green slime, and slowly said: "I blocked it with the front of my shield.
That force... it was pure physical Impact, like being hit head-on by a full-speed charging Tiger tank.
If it weren't for this shield absorbing most of the kinetic energy, my arm would have been completely useless from that blow."
He paused, then looked up, a rare hint of lingering fear in his eyes: "And, it has intelligence; it's definitely not a mindless Beast.
After its first attack was blocked by me, it didn't repeat it, but immediately changed tactics, using that tentacle to attack my lower body from below.
It was probing, looking for weaknesses, learning in combat.
All of this happened within a few seconds."
Chu Hang's heart sank again.
Overwhelming strength, almost invincible defense, and combat intelligence capable of analyzing the situation and adjusting in an instant.
What exactly did HYDRA want?
To create such a perfect killing machine to rule the World?
This was already beyond the scope of conventional warfare.
"Whatever bastard thing it is," Logan spat fiercely, saying with a vow-like tone, "if I ever encounter it again, I'll rip its heart out alive!"
"I'm afraid there won't be a next time," Chu Hanginstinctively replied, his words half-based on common sense speculation and half on self-comfort, "Such a violent explosion, the entire Base was flattened; no matter how hard it is, it must have been buried under hundreds of tons of steel and concrete, burned to charcoal."
Steve, however, shook his head, his expression unusually serious, even solemn: "No, Chu.
In war, you can never be so optimistic.
Until we confirm its remains with our own eyes, we must assume it is still alive."
As soon as he uttered these words, Chu Hang felt the surrounding air instantly drop several degrees.
Assume it's still alive?
Are you kidding me!
That was an explosion powerful enough to level a small mountain!
No carbon-based life form could survive the core detonation of that much energy!
But looking at Steve's undeniable gaze, Chu Hangswallowed the rebuttal that had reached his lips.
He was the Captain; his judgment always started from the worst possible scenario, which was an attitude of responsibility for everyone's survival.
Just as the oppressive atmosphere was about to solidify, a faint, crackling radio static emanated from Steve's communicator on his waist.
"Zzz... calling... Thunderbird... this is... Eagle's Nest... respond if you hear... repeat..."
It was Dugan!
Steve's spirits instantly lifted; he immediately grabbed the communicator and pressed the talk button: "Eagle's Nest, this is Thunderbird!
Received!
What's your situation?
And the prisoners?"
"We... zzz... succeeded!" Dugan's voice came through the radio, both excited and incredibly exhausted, "Everyone's rescued!
My God, Steve, you guys made too much noise in there!
We thought you blew up the entire mountain!
We're heading to rendezvous point three as planned; where are you?"
"We're also on our way, about twenty minutes out!" Steve's face finally broke into a genuine smile, "Well done, Dugan!
Everyone stay alert; we'll evacuate immediately after we link up!"
"Understood! Eagle's Nest, end call!"
Communication cut off.
This good news was like a shot of potent adrenaline, instantly dispersing all the gloom and fear from their hearts.
"Let's go!" Steve put his helmet back on, his voice regaining its indomitable momentum, full of infectious energy, "Let's go bring our brothers home!"
Chu Hang and Logan immediately got up and followed, their steps feeling much lighter.
As long as they could rendezvous with Dugan and his men and get everyone out of this damned place, all the sacrifices and risks of tonight would be worth it.
However, just as Chu Hang was happily fantasizing about all of this, his extremely enhanced ears caught a faint yet incredibly familiar anomaly.
The sound came from behind them, from the direction of the fiery ruins.
It was very light, very muffled, almost completely obscured by the howling wind and snow and the crackling aftermath of the explosion.
Had his hearing not far surpassed human limits, reaching a non-human realm, he would never have noticed it.
It was a very rhythmic sound.
One beat, another beat, and another.
It was like... a giant drum buried deep underground, slowly being beaten.
Chu Hang's steps suddenly halted; his entire body seemed to be under a spell, frozen in place.
"What's wrong?" Steve, walking ahead, noticed his abnormality and immediately stopped, turning back to ask warily.
Chu Hang didn't answer him, only stiffly, inch by inch, turned around, orienting his ears towards the direction of the sound, holding his breath, and using all his attention to listen.
The sound of the wind, the snow, the burning flames, the distant "hissing" of hot metal touching ice and snow... then, beneath all this background noise, that sound once again clearly entered his ears.
Thump... thump... thump... It wasn't a hallucination!
This wasn't his heartbeat, nor was it the echo of the explosion!
It was a heartbeat.
It was the pulsating sound of that giant heart he had seen in the underground laboratory!
It wasn't dead.
After such a violent, such a complete explosion and collapse, it was actually still alive!
Moreover, the heartbeat sounded steadier, more powerful than what he had heard before; each beat seemed to shake the earth, filled with a wildness and brutality of... breaking free, escaping confinement.
A bone-chilling coldness shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head, making all the hairs on his body stand on end instantly.
His body began to tremble slightly, uncontrollably.
"It... it's still alive..."
Chu Hang, in a hoarse voice that was almost like a dream and even unfamiliar to himself, spoke this fact, capable of plunging anyone into complete despair, to the bewildered Steve and Logan.
"That monster... isn't dead..."
Chapter 32 How do you fight this thing?
When Chu Hang spoke, his voice was not loud, but in the dead silent snow, it was like a death knell ringing.
The expressions on Steve and Logan's faces froze in that instant.
Logan's brow, which had just relaxed due to the mission's success, furrowed into a knot again. He first looked at Chu Hang in disbelief, then suddenly turned around, like a lone wolf trying to catch the scent of prey in the wind, cocking his ear towards the direction of the ruins.
Steve's reaction was even faster. He didn't listen, because he knew Chu Hang's hearing was far superior to his. He just stared intently into Chu Hang's eyes, where the fire of hope that had just ignited was being replaced by cold shock.
"Are you sure?" His voice was very low, each word seemingly squeezed through his teeth.
Chu Hang didn't answer, just swallowed hard and nodded heavily.
He was certainly sure. That heartbeat was like a giant diesel engine running at full power, heavy, strong, and full of unreasonable vitality. It echoed in his mind, each beat making his heart clench. It wasn't just alive, but it sounded... more powerful than before.
Logan had clearly also caught a hint of something, perhaps not a sound, but some Beast-like intuition. He slowly straightened up, the ferocious aura of a Beastrising on his face again, and he bared his white teeth, growling in a low voice: "Good, very good! Saves me the trouble of looking for it later!"
This guy was a lunatic. Shouldn't a normal person's first reaction to this kind of news be to run? But he was actually excited.
But Steve's reaction truly made Chu Hang realize the seriousness of the situation. He wasn't angry or aggressive like Logan, nor was he afraid like Chu Hang. He just took a deep breath, and that air, mixed with gunpowder and snow, seemed to make his eyes instantly become as cold and sharp as a surgical knife.
"Let's go!"
He didn't hesitate at all, uttered these three words, and turned to sprint towards the designated rendezvous point number three. His decisive attitude was as if what was chasing them was not an unkillable monster, but merely an ordinary blizzard. This calmness shocked Chu Hangmore than Logan's ferocity. It meant that in the judgment of this battle-hardened Super Soldier, their combined chances against that monster were Zero.
The only option was to run.
Logan seemed to want to say something, but seeing Steve's undeniable back, he could only curse under his breath and follow closely. Chu Hang, of course, dared not delay and ran after him with all his might.
The three of them sprinted through the snow, no one speaking anymore. Chu Hang focused all his energy on his hearing, tracking the monster's movements.
The heartbeat grew clearer and louder. Thump... thump... thump... Immediately, a grating, heavy scraping sound mixed in. It was the sound of countless tons of steel and concrete grinding and breaking against each other.
It's coming out!
As this thought flashed through Chu Hang's mind, a deafening roar suddenly erupted behind them, from the center of the burning ruins!
"Boom!"
That sound was completely different from the previous explosion, more muffled, more penetrating, as if something incredibly heavy had forcefully broken through the Earth's crust from deep within its core!
The three of them looked back in unison.
They saw that in the center of the sea of Fire, the mountain of burning steel wreckage, like an activated volcano, suddenly arched upwards! Countless burning debris were pushed aside by an unimaginable force, like waves parted by a giant ship.
Then, a huge, indescribable Shadow slowly, irresistibly, rose from that destruction and Fire.
It was still the body stitched together from pale flesh and cold machinery, but its appearance now was a hundred times more terrifying than what they had seen in the Underground Room.
The high temperature of the explosion had charred the fleshy parts of its skin, like burnt charcoal. But beneath those charred cracks, a dark red, lava-like glow emanated, as if molten rock, not blood, flowed through its veins. The metal supports on its body, which were originally only for support, had now fused completely with the twisted rebar, armor plates, and pipes from the factory explosion, in a hideous and terrifying manner. Its size had increased by at least two circles, like a moving hill made of flesh and steel.
What made Chu Hang's scalp tingle the most was its "head." The already grotesque and terrifying head now had half of it replaced by a huge, glowing red turbine engine. The turbine was still slowly rotating, emitting a low "woo-woo" sound, and the hot airflow it sprayed out distorted the air around it.
This was no longer a biological weapon. This was a war titan that had crawled out of hell, with steel for bones and Fire for blood...
"Roar—!"
It raised its half-flesh, half-mechanical head and let out a roar unlike any creature could produce. The sound wave, full of endless pain, anger, and savagery, transformed into a visible Impact, blowing the surrounding flames down on both sides.
Then, its sole remaining, giant single eye slowly rotated in the firelight, spanning nearly a thousand meters, and accurately landed on their three figures, tiny as ants.
They were targeted!
In that instant, Chu Hang felt as if he had been locked onto by an ancient Beast, and a primal fear, originating from the depths of his genes, instantly seized his heart, making him almost unable to breathe.
"Run! Don't look back!"
Steve's roar was like a heavy hammer, smashing hard on the back of Chu Hang's head, waking him from the fear that was almost solidifying.
Chu Hang came to his senses, started running again, following his pace. He dared not look back, fearing that another glance would completely strip him of all courage to flee. They ran faster, using all their strength with every step in the knee-deep snow. The powerful physique brought by the super soldier serum was pushed to its limit at this moment.
But it was no use.
He could clearly hear that the monster, after a brief pause, had moved.
Thump... crunch... boom... Its lower body, fused from countless metal scraps, like an out-of-control giant battering ram, began to move towards them at a desperate speed. With every step it took, the ground trembled, and its massive body crushed the burning ruins, emitting a thunderous roar.
Its speed was actually faster than theirs!
"Captain! It's catching up! Fast!" Chu Hang yelled at Steveahead of him, his voice hoarse as he sprinted.
"I know!" Steve roared back without turning his head, "Over that ridge ahead! Use the terrain to shake it off!"
That ridge was still at least four hundred meters away from them. And the monster was already less than eight hundred meters away, and that distance was rapidly shortening!
Chu Hang's heart turned cold. They couldn't outrun it, they absolutely couldn't!
"This won't do!" Logan's voice also showed a hint of urgency, "It'll catch us like rabbits and stomp us into meat paste! Someone has to hold it back!"
With that, he actually slowed down, turning to charge towards the monster.
"Come back!" Steve suddenly stopped, grabbing Logan's arm, his eyes sharp as knives, "Your Talon can't hurt it! Going up is suicide! Follow orders!"
"But..."
"No buts!" Steve's tone was unequivocal, "Our mission is to rendezvous with Dugan and the others, and get everyone out of here! Any of us dying here is meaningless!"
Logan's chest heaved violently as he glared at the approaching behemoth, his eyes almost spitting Fire with unwillingness and anger. But he finally gritted his teeth, turned around, and continued to run forward with Steve.
Chu Hang knew Steve was right. In the face of absolute power, fearless courage was no different from suicide.
But logic was logic, and despair was despair. He could clearly hear that with every "footfall" of the monster, the ground trembled more violently. He could even feel the scorching heat wave emanating from it, hitting his back in waves.
Close, too close!
Just as Chu Hang felt he was about to give up, Stevesuddenly spoke again, his voice remarkably steady even while sprinting, full of powerful logic and command.
"Chu! Listen! Don't just listen to its footsteps! Listen to its body structure! Where are its weaknesses? Joints! Energy core! Anywhere that sounds different from its main structure!"
One sentence enlightened Chu Hang.
That's right! He was so preoccupied with fear that he forgot his hearing was their greatest asset right now!
He forced himself to calm down, pushing all fear and distracting thoughts from his mind, and like a precision instrument, focused all his senses on the behemoth behind him.
Heartbeat... This was its biological core, protected by thick flesh and armor, sounding muffled and offering no opportunity to strike.
Metal scraping... That was the sound it made when moving, all over its body, impossible to distinguish.
Wait!
Amidst countless noisy sounds, he caught a different sound. A high-frequency, humming sound, similar to an electric current flowing. It didn't come from the heart-like biological core, nor from the half-turbine engine head, but from... its back!
In the upper part of its back, there was a spot where the sound was completely different from other parts. The sound there was clearer, sharper, as if a powerful energy was rapidly operating within a relatively fragile container.
"Its back!" Chu Hang immediately shouted, "In the upper part of its back, there's a spot where the sound is off! It's like... like some kind of energy core! The sound there is much more fragile than the heartbeat in its chest!"
Steve's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Good job!" he roared, increasing his speed by a few points, "Logan! Did you hear that? Its weakness is in its back!"
"Heard it!" Logan's voice was tinged with an uncontrollable excitement, "But how do we get behind it?"
Yes, how do they get behind it? They were struggling to even escape head-on, let alone circle around.
Just then, they finally reached the foot of the ridge. It was a steep slope, almost seventy degrees, covered with thick snow and ice.
Steve didn't even look, directly throwing his vibranium shield. The shield embedded itself firmly into a rock crevice halfway up the mountain with a clang. He grabbed the strap connected to the shield, roared, and swung himself upwards towards the ridge like a pendulum.
"Catch!"
In mid-air, he even had the extra strength to swing the other end of the strap towards them.
Logan caught it, and without a word, his bone claws extended, stabbing fiercely into the ice wall, and he climbed upwards using both hands and feet. Chu Hangmimicked him, using the entrenching tool at his waist as an ice axe, desperately climbing upwards. The three of them, like three agile geckos, ascended the steep mountain face at top speed.
And the monster also reached the foot of the ridge.
It looked at them, seemingly pausing. Its massive body was simply unable to climb the steep mountain face.
Just as a glimmer of hope rose in Chu Hang's heart, the next second, that hope turned into bone-chilling cold.
They saw the monster slowly raise its enormous Talon, made of countless metal parts and pipes, like a siege ram.
Then, aiming at the mountain face they were climbing, it smashed down with a powerful punch!
"Boom—!"
The entire ridge seemed to have been hit head-on by a heavy aerial bomb, shaking violently.
Chu Hang felt a huge force coming from the mountain, almost knocking him off the ice wall. Countless ice chunks and gravel rained down from above their heads like a downpour.
"Quick! Get up!" Steve roared from the top.
They gritted their teeth, braving the falling rocks, and desperately climbed upwards.
"Boom!"
The monster punched again!
This time, a huge crack appeared where it hit, and the crack spread rapidly upwards like a black lightning bolt. He watched helplessly as the crack, starting a few meters below his feet, extended all the way up, directly above Steve!
"Captain! Watch out!"
Before Chu Hang's words finished, a giant rock the size of a truck above Steve's head, loosened by the collapsing mountain, suddenly broke free and, with immense force, smashed down directly towards him!