Chapter 54 This is what you call professional
When Chu Hang, like a hawker peddling fake designer watches on Wall Street, held the eerie blue energy block between two fingers and twirled it playfully in front of everyone, the air in the entire Death Valley of the Alps seemed to be instantly sucked into a vacuum by an invisible giant hand.
Dead silence.
A dead silence smoother and more suffocating than Nick Fury's bald head.
Bucky, Dugan, Jones... the Howling Commandos, these tough men who could bathe in champagne amidst a hail of bullets, felt their cerebral cortex had been completely burned into charcoal on a circuit board by the series of fantastical events tonight, which even "Approaching Science" couldn't film.
What are one's three views? Can they be eaten?
First, they discovered that the glacier waterfall, which had been hanging there for thousands of years, was a damn holographic projection, a door.
Alright, high-tech, HYDRA is amazing, they accepted that.
Now, the most outrageous thing happened. He actually pulled out a "key" that looked factory original, with a ten-fold compensation for fakes, from his four-dimensional pocket, like a third-rate magician!
This damn... this isn't war anymore! War at least has some logic, some tactics!
This was clearly watching a man named Chu Hangstarring in a personal god-tier show called "My Script, My Rules, You Just Yell 666." And they, this group of battle-hardened elite Soldiers, were the background audience below the stage, who didn't even know how to tip, only gaping and drooling.
"No... no... impossible!"
Through the communicator, Howard Stark's voice was no longer trembling; it was like a late-stage Parkinson's patient on a roller coaster, every byte carrying the wail of shattered worldviews. His proud scientific worldview, built upon the laws of physics and mathematical formulas, was at this moment utterly smashed by Chu Hang with a casual gesture.
"That's HYDRA's standard energy block! MK-3 model! I swear I've studied the wreckage of that thing over a hundred times! Its energy output curve, internal crystal structure, shell alloy ratio, I can recite them backward! How do you have this thing?! And a brand new, intact version?! And... and why the hell do you carry it in your pocket like a lighter?! This thing is standard equipment! It's a HYDRA Soldier's second life! What are you doing with it? Using it as a hand warmer in winter?! Answer me! Chu Hang!!"
Howard's roar, like a string of lit firecrackers, exploded in everyone's ears.
However, no one could answer him.
Because everyone present, including Steve Rogers, wanted to throw every word of Howard's directly back at Chu Hang's face.
The way they looked at Chu Hang was no longer like looking at a comrade, nor a freak. It was like looking at an alien in human skin, a bug that traveled back from the future, a walking, breathing "why."
"Oh, you mean this?"
Facing a question that would make any lie detector explode on the spot, Chu Hang merely idly tossed the energy block in his hand, his tone as light as if he were saying, "Ah, I just picked up a dime on the side of the road."
"It's nothing big. Remember that HYDRA Base we took down last time? It was a bit chaotic then, and I just casually grabbed it from the body of a HYDRA squad leader who had just kicked the bucket. I thought it looked pretty, all blue and shiny like a glass marble, and the craftsmanship was much better than the canned goods we get, so I kept it as a souvenir."
Everyone: "..."
A souvenir?
You damn well call an enemy's high-tech core, which contains terrifying energy and can power an entire Base... a souvenir?
Dugan subconsciously touched the string of German Army Iron Cross medals hanging from his waist, while Jones looked at a cherished Luger pistol in his backpack. They suddenly felt that their taste in collectibles, compared to Chu Hang's, was utterly subterranean.
Normal people's souvenirs are bullet casings, medals, enemy daggers.
Your Chu Hang's souvenir is the enemy's energy core?!
Isn't this collecting hobby a bit too ahead of its time? At least a century ahead!
"You... you incomprehensible... freak!" On the other end of the communicator, Howard was so choked he almost couldn't catch his breath. The scientist's vocabulary seemed incredibly meager at this moment, and he could only squeeze out this impotent, furious comment through clenched teeth.
Chu Hang's heart was calm, and he even felt like laughing.
[Ding! Shock Value from Howard Stark +10086!]
[Ding! Confusion Value from all members of the Howling Commandos +999!]
Sigh, it's such a hassle to explain to these natives.
They wouldn't understand even if he told them.
It's better to be a lucky freak; this script is pretty good.
Steve ignored the teammates behind him who were beginning to question life, and the genius inventor in the communicator who was on the verge of a heart attack. As Captain, his mental fortitude was clearly one or two levels stronger.
He simply walked forward in silence, took the energy block from Chu Hang's hand, his azure eyes gleaming with scrutiny. He examined it carefully for a moment, even feeling the cool, smooth texture of the energy block with his fingers, and then compared the size and shape of the black recess.
Not a single millimeter off, as if it were the original fit.
He said nothing, only silently handed the energy block back to Chu Hang, then gave a slight nod with his chin towards the recess.
The meaning in his eyes was simple and direct.
—Stop the damn chatter, open the door.
"Alright."
Chu Hang shrugged, accepting this weighty "trust" from the future moral paragon and embodiment of justice.
Under the gaze of everyone, whose heartbeats were almost at a standstill from tension, he unhurriedly stepped forward, took a deep breath—mainly to show off and make the action seem ceremonial—and then, steadily, pushed the eerie blue glowing energy block into the deep black recess.
"Click."
A crisp sound, like the meshing gears of a Swiss watch.
Perfect!
The energy block was precisely swallowed, fitting perfectly.
Immediately, a sudden change occurred!
The HYDRA emblem in the center of the recess, which had originally only emitted a faint red light, suddenly flared up! Dazzling eerie blue light instantly replaced the red, spreading wildly along the mysterious patterns on the panel, like ancient runes!
The sight was like a city circuit map instantly illuminated in the dark, full of the intertwined beauty of science fiction and mystery. Finally, all the blue light paths converged on the central HYDRA emblem!
Hum—
A low hum, deep enough to resonate with the heart, sounded, and the entire massive metal panel began to tremble slightly.
"It worked!" A trace of ecstatic relief just bloomed on Dugan's face.
"I knew Chu Hang was a lucky star!" Jones also couldn't help but roar.
The giant glacier waterfall, that layer of flawless holographic projection, began to flicker and distort wildly like an old television screen with bad reception, finally disappearing with a "sizzle"!
Revealing its hideous and terrifying true form behind it.
It was a colossal gate that could not be described in human language. It was pitch black, smooth as a mirror, with no visible seams, as if it were a single piece of obsidian carved from the realm of mythical giants. It stood there, itself the ultimate interpretation of the word "insignificance."
At this moment, this mountain-sized gate was slowly... opening to both sides, with an extremely slow but utterly majestic and oppressive posture!
Countless high-pressure steam jets hidden in the gate's cracks, like the breath of an ancient dragon, hissed and roared, instantly condensing into large patches of thick white mist in the cold air, engulfing everything around them.
Behind the door, in the bottomless darkness, countless gigantic, terrifying gears, more than ten meters in diameter, were grinding and turning wildly with an aesthetic of industrial violence, driving this gate weighing hundreds of millions of tons.
With each rotation, the Earth groaned in response.
Everyone present felt as tiny as trembling ants, looking up at a god opening a magnificent door to his kingdom.
They even had an absurd illusion.
What lay beyond this door was not some HYDRA military Base at all.
But the entrance to hell.
Tens of seconds later, when the door finally opened completely, revealing a massive passage wide enough for an armored division to march abreast, everyone was once again utterly shocked by the sight beyond the door.
Behind the door was not the dark corridor or heavily guarded underground outpost they had imagined.
But a... unimaginably vast, brightly lit underground hangar!
The hangar's height and width were at least several hundred meters, and its length extended to the horizon, with no end in sight. On the colossal dome, rows of giant searchlights, like artificial Suns, illuminated the entire underground space as brightly as day, without a single shadow.
On the hangar floor, rows upon rows of strange and menacing aircraft, unlike anything they had ever seen, were neatly arranged. There were small flying wings for individual combat; streamlined fighter jets like hellish bats; and even several giant bombers like aerial fortresses, their wingspan wide enough to obscure the sky.
Thousands of HYDRA Soldiers, dressed in uniform black uniforms and wearing gas masks, scurried busily through every corner of the hangar like industrious yet deadly worker ants, loading weapons, fueling, and inspecting aircraft. The entire hangar was filled with the roar of engines, the clang of metal, and commands in German, forming a symphony of steel and war.
And in the deepest part of the hangar, a super aircraft, larger and more menacing than all the others, like a dormant black steel behemoth, lay quietly parked.
On its wings, the blood-red HYDRA symbol gleamed with a bloodthirsty light under the dazzling lamps, as if proclaiming the Death and destruction it was about to bring.
The "valkyrie."
A hint of understanding flashed in Chu Hang's eyes. Sure enough, the stage for the final battle was here.
"My God..." Jones looked at the vast, heavily armed underground army before him, feeling his legs tremble and his voice shake. "We... we didn't just poke a hornets' nest, we jumped right into a hornets' nest to take a bath!"
Steve's expression also became extremely grave. He gripped his shield tightly and, in a voice so low only his teammates could hear, gave his orders.
"Everyone, stick to the Shadow."
"Our mission is to destroy that plane."
"Remember, do not expose yourselves until you succeed."
With that, he was the first to bend down, his aura instantly contained, like an agile leopard lurking in the dark, silently, he was the first to step into this underground kingdom of HYDRA.
Chapter 55: Captain America's End
When the enormous gate, like the gates of hell, slowly opened, revealing the vast, suffocating underground military kingdom behind it, even Steve Rogers, a super Soldier with an iron will, couldn't help but skip a beat.
Everything before his eyes had already transcended the scope of war.
This was clearly an industrialized empire.
Cold steel structures supported the cave ceiling like the skeleton of a giant beast, and countless searchlight beams crisscrossed the enormous hangar below, illuminating the menacing aircraft with a cold glint.
The air was thick with the smell of oil, gunpowder, and an indescribable fanaticism; thousands of HYDRA Soldiers bustled about their posts like an ant colony, the entire Base functioning like a precisely operating heart, each beat pumping out the threat of Death.
"Everyone, stick to the Shadow," Steve's voice was extremely low, like an ice-tempered dagger, precisely piercing the somewhat scattered nerves of his team, who were stunned. His gaze was terrifyingly calm, as if the steel hell before him was just another ordinary fortress to be conquered.
"Our mission is to destroy that plane." He gestured with his chin towards the black bomber with an astonishing wingspan at the deepest part of the hangar—that was the valkyrie, the core of HYDRA's doomsday plan. "Remember, do not expose yourselves before we succeed."
Before he finished speaking, he was the first to bend down, every muscle in his body taut. He moved like a leopard merging into the darkness, silently stepping into HYDRA's underground kingdom.
The Howling Commandos, as expected of battle-hardened elites, quickly regained their professional military composure after a brief moment of shock.
Without unnecessary words, they exchanged a resolute glance and then, one by one, followed Steve, using the massive planes and equipment in the hangar as cover, silently infiltrating forward.
Their movements were coordinated, like a single entity moving in the darkness, each step timed between the roar of machinery and the footsteps of guards.
Steve's expression remained unchanged as he guided the team's route with the simplest tactical hand gestures. A raised hand, a clenched fist, a pointed finger—each contained commands precise to the second.
They passed through long Shadows, bypassed patrolling Soldiers, and dodged rotating sensors, the entire process incredibly smooth.
"Farnsworth, those small planes are yours," Stevelowered his body, pointing to the small, single-person flying wings on the tarmac, which resembled black bats, and spoke to the demolition expert in the team.
"Understood." James Montgomery Farnsworth, the gentleman Soldier from Britain, now had an excited gleam in his eyes.
He understood immediately, pulled out a stack of sticky explosives from his backpack, and with the dexterity of a watchmaker, began quietly installing them on the engines and fuel tanks of the aircraft.
The plan was simple, and brutal: feint.
They would set off the biggest, most spectacular fireworks show in this underground kingdom, drawing all of HYDRA's attention.
Then, Steve and Chu Hang, the two strongest spearheads of the team, would take advantage of the chaos to directly target the ultimate goal—Red Skull and the valkyrie.
Minutes later, when Farnsworth gave Steve an "OK" gesture from the Shadows, Steve took a deep breath.
His gaze pierced through the noisy hangar, past countless busy figures, and like lightning, locked onto the man in the black leather trench coat, who was addressing a group of HYDRA officers on a distant platform.
Red Skull, Johann Schmidt. Even from a distance, one could feel the evil aura of arrogance and cruelty emanating from him.
"Move!" Steve barked, the command transmitted to Farnsworth through his bone-conduction headset.
Farnsworth pressed the detonator in his hand without hesitation.
Boom—boom-boom-boom—!!!
A series of explosions, violent enough to overturn the entire Base, simultaneously erupted without warning in various corners of the hangar!
Dozens of single-person flying wings, just refueled, instantly turned into enormous fireballs soaring into the sky, the orange-red flames greedily licking everything. The chain reaction from the explosions then ignited mountains of ammunition boxes and fuel depots nearby!
Flames shot into the sky, and thick smoke billowed!
Piercing alarms instantly blared throughout the Base, so sharp they seemed to tear through eardrums!
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Sector A on Fire! Repeat, Sector A on Fire! Requesting backup!"
"Medic! Quick! We need a medic!"
The once orderly underground kingdom, in a matter of seconds, completely transformed into a boiling hellish porridge of steel and Fire.
Chaos spread like a plague, HYDRA Soldiers scurrying around like headless flies. Some rushed to the explosion sites to fight the Fire, while others fruitlessly searched for traces of the enemy.
At the peak of this chaos, two figures, like phantoms in the night, moved against the fleeing crowd, charging directly into the deepest part of the hangar with inhuman speed.
Steve was in front, holding his vibranium shield before him, like an unstoppable human tank. Any grunts, equipment, or even small vehicles that stood in his way were sent flying by his sheer strength and speed! The edge of the Shield cut through the air, emitting a chilling whoosh.
Chu Hang followed closely, his posture much more relaxed. He was like a phantom flickering across the chaotic battlefield, his steps light, his figure elusive.
Countless bullets and explosion Impact waves were strangely deflected by an invisible, distorted force field the moment they approached his body, as if a space independent of this World existed around him.
"Schmidt!" Steve roared, his voice like thunder, overpowering the roar of the explosions.
Red Skull, who was raging at the command console due to the surprise attack, suddenly turned. He immediately saw the figure he hated most in his life, clad in the blue, White, and red-starred uniform. His face instantly became incredibly contorted, his Red Skull-like face showing deep-seated hatred.
"Rogers!" He squeezed the name through his teeth, then turned without hesitation and sprinted towards the valkyrie's boarding ramp.
He knew the Base could no longer be held; the tide had turned. But he still had his last and strongest trump card—the airborne fortress laden with destruction.
"Trying to run?" Steve stomped his foot, the ground instantly cracking, and he shot forward like a cannonball, covering dozens of meters in an instant, directly lunging at Red Skull's retreating figure.
But just then, several "Bat" fighters parked nearby suddenly activated. Their unmanned systems engaged, blocking Steve's path. The cannons under their wings spun, spitting out a dense barrage of Fire, forming a curtain of Death that could tear apart any flesh and blood.
"I'll handle it!" Chu Hang's figure appeared like a ghost in front of Steve. He pushed his hands forward and roared, "Spatial Curvature Barrier!"
The bullets, capable of tearing through steel, seemed to enter viscous Water as they flew towards him, their trajectories beginning to twist and deflect strangely. The bullets' speed dropped sharply, finally clattering powerlessly to the ground and walls nearby, not a single one able to penetrate the invisible barrier unseen by the naked eye.
"Go! I'll take care of this!" Chu Hang shouted without looking back, his arms maintaining the barrier as steady as a rock.
Steve didn't hesitate for a second; this was the absolute trust forged through countless battles. He bypassed the fruitlessly firing planes and continued to pursue Red Skull, who was almost boarding the plane.
Seeing Steve's figure disappear into the entrance of the boarding ramp, Chu Hang's lips curved into a cold smile. "Alright, you small fry, game over."
He suddenly clapped his hands together, as if swatting a fly.
"Spatial Collapse!"
The space around the "Bat" fighters, which were firing wildly, instantly seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand and then furiously squeezed inward! The hard alloy fuselage emitted a screeching sound, and within a second, it was crushed into a pile of sparking scrap metal by an irresistible force!
Having dealt with this small trouble, Chu Hang glanced at the HYDRA Soldiers who were now locked in battle with the Howling Commandos behind him. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and rushed into the valkyrie's boarding ramp.
He knew the real show was in the sky.
By the time he rushed inside the plane, Steve and Red Skull's battle had already reached a fever pitch. Inside the massive cabin, the two were like two prehistoric beasts, engaged in the most primal, most violent hand-to-hand combat.
Steve's fists carried immense power, each strike producing a dull whoosh through the air, heavy and forceful. Red Skull, after injecting the imperfect serum, also possessed astonishing strength; his attacks were even more frantic and reckless. They exchanged blows, and the metal walls were dented with shocking indentations from their Impacts.
Chu Hang did not interfere. He knew this was Steve's battle, the ultimate showdown of two beliefs, the clash of idealism and fascism.
His gaze immediately locked onto the center of the cockpit. There, a cube emitting a faint blue light quietly floated within an energy device, as if the pulse of the Universe beat within it.
The Tesseract. This was his true purpose for this trip.
"You can't defeat me, Rogers!" Red Skull punched Steveback, laughing madly, "What I wield is the power of a god! The power of the Universe! And you are nothing but a Joker in a ridiculous costume, peddling cheap hope!"
He suddenly turned, rushing desperately towards the Tesseract, seemingly wanting to draw even greater power from it to completely crush his archenemy.
"Don't touch it!" Steve's face changed drastically. He had learned of the item's danger from Colonel Phillips and roared as he charged forward.
But it was too late. Red Skull's hand had already firmly grasped the cube.
In an instant, an unimaginable, utterly furious cosmic energy poured out of the Tesseract without reservation, instantly filling Red Skull's entire body! Space itself trembled!
"Ah ah ah ah—!" Red Skull let out a piercing scream that was not human, a sound filled with pain, fear, and a strange hint of release.
His body began to decompose and vaporize into pure energy at a visible rate! A blinding pillar of light shot skyward, burning directly through the plane's ceiling, connecting heaven and earth! Within the pillar of light, Red Skull's body transformed into specks of starlight, torn apart by an irresistible force, and transported to the unknown depths of the Universe.
The light faded. The Tesseract fell from the sky, its contained energy extremely unstable due to the recent outburst. The scorching high temperature directly melted through the plane's metal floor, continuing downwards, finally plunging with a "plop" into the icy, bone-chilling Arctic Ocean below, disappearing into the bottomless darkness.
The plane violently bucked from the energy shock, all the instrument panels sparked, and the autopilot system had completely failed. This fortress of Death, now unconstrained, was plummeting towards the East Coast of the United States.
"Damn it!" Steve rushed into the cockpit, frantically fiddling with the completely useless instrument panels and control sticks, but it was all futile. Each bomb on the plane was enough to destroy a city. He absolutely could not let it fly to the U.S. mainland.
Chu Hang ignored all that. In his eyes, there was only the large hole that the Tesseract had just burned through, its edges still retaining pure spatial energy. The scent of that energy, like the sweetest poison, caused his superpower copier system to emit an unprecedented, frantic craving!
There was only one chance!
"System! Now! Target that residual energy! Copy it for me!" Chu Hang roared madly in his mind. This was his biggest gamble since his transmigration.
…Command confirmed. Copying… Tesseract primordial energy…
The next second, a torrent of energy, billions of times vaster than what he had felt in the HYDRA Base, as boundless as the entire cosmic star sea, surged into Chu Hang's body according to his will!
"Urgh ah—!"
Chu Hang only managed a suppressed groan, feeling as if his body was a glass bottle instantly subjected to a billion atmospheres of pressure. From his soul to every single cell, everything groaned under the unbearable strain! Healing Factor, super soldier serum, the Tri-Force he had just fused… all the power within him, in the face of this true, pure primordial cosmic energy, was like a stream merging into a tsunami, unable to even stir a ripple, instantly scattered into fragments!
His vision went Black, his consciousness like a kite with a broken string, plummeting straight into the abyss of endless darkness.
Before he completely lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was Steve's voice over the radio, filled with infinite tenderness and reluctance.
"Peggy… I… I might miss our dance."
"…Steve?" On the other end of the radio, Peggy Carter's tearful, disbelieving voice came through, the signal intermittent in the snowstorm.
Steve glanced at Chu Hang, who was completely unconscious beside him, blood oozing from his seven orifices, and then at the endless glaciers rapidly passing outside the window.
He smiled, a smile filled with regret, with relief, but even more with a clear conscience. He had fulfilled his mission.
He gripped the control stick, using all his strength to aim this airborne fortress, laden with Death and destruction, towards the boundless, White, and cold Eternity below.
"Goodbye, Peggy."
Boom—!!!
The enormous valkyrie, like a fallen black star, plunged into the thick ice.
Kicking up ice shards into the sky, like a grand funeral.
Then, everything fell silent.
As if nothing had ever happened.
Chapter 56 Sleeping into the 1990s
Time, for Chu Hang, had lost all meaning.
He seemed to have sunk into a boundless deep sea, where absolute zero darkness enveloped everything. There was no light, no sound, no touch, and even the spark of thought was completely extinguished the moment it plunged into that darkness.
Who was he? Where was he? How much time had passed?
He knew none of it.
Everything was nothingness.
The energy forcibly copied from the Tesseract, vast as a star sea, was now wreaking the most primitive and savage destruction within his body. It was like a giant beast trapped in a china shop, frantically tearing and crushing every cell in his body, attempting to completely erase his existence from the material plane.
But within Chu Hang's body, two other forces were stubbornly resisting this destruction.
One was the S-Rank Healing Factor, the foundation of his survival. It was like a tireless repairman, immediately beginning to fix a cell the moment cosmic energy destroyed it. Although the speed of repair was far from keeping pace with the destruction, it never gave up, stubbornly maintaining the basic integrity of Chu Hang's body structure, preventing him from instantly turning into a handful of cosmic dust and dissipating into nothingness.
The other force was the super soldier serum. It was more like an incredibly resilient internal framework, strengthening every corner of Chu Hang's body, from the density of his bones to the toughness of his cell membranes, all reaching a strength far beyond ordinary people. If an ordinary person's body was a house built of wood, then Chu Hang's body was a fortress cast from reinforced concrete. Although the destructive power of cosmic energy was terrifying, it would take more time and effort to completely destroy this fortress.
Thus, within his body, a strange and terrifying balance quietly formed.
Destroy, repair, destroy again, repair again.
This endless cycle, in the infinite darkness and freezing cold, continued for a very, very long time.
Long enough for oceans to turn into mulberry fields, for once glorious dynasties to become dust in history books... untold years had passed.
The ice layer that initially encased Chu Hang, with the grand movement and continuous splitting of the glacier, had long since detached from the Greenland coastline, becoming a massive iceberg floating in the Arctic Ocean. It drifted with unknown ocean currents, embarking on a purposeless, solitary journey across the bitterly cold sea.
Finally, a powerful warm current arrived unexpectedly, completely changing its course. It began to slowly drift south, the enormous ice mass gradually melting in the increasingly warm seawater, its size shrinking accordingly.
Ultimately, on a certain day in 1995, this iceberg, which had once frozen two legendary Soldiers, reached its end in an area near the California coastline, completely breaking apart.
The wreckage of the plane named "valkyrie", along with Steve Rogers' body, sank together into the deeper, darker seabed, quietly awaiting its discovery decades later by Howard Stark's son.
As for Chu Hang, his luck seemed to be a little better.
A huge floe of ice, encasing him, was caught by a strong underwater current and violently pushed towards the nearby shore.
Splash—
With a violent crash, the floe shattered. Chu Hang's body, like a piece of trash abandoned by time, was washed ashore onto a secluded beach by the surging waves.
The warm California sun, for the first time, shone on his excessively youthful face, which had been frozen for fifty years.
This warmth from the outside World seemed to be the last straw that broke the camel's back, completely shattering the terrifying balance that had persisted in his body for half a century. The Healing Factor and super soldier serum, which had been tightly suppressed, surged forth like powerful reinforcements, launching a furious counterattack. And that violent cosmic energy, after fifty years of continuous consumption and attrition, finally showed a hint of fatigue.
Chu Hang's eyelids trembled almost imperceptibly.
Immediately after, he suddenly opened his eyes, like a drowning man on the verge of death, desperately gasping for the long-lost fresh air.
"Cough... cough cough!"
Icy, bitter seawater with a strong metallic taste was violently coughed out of his lungs. He lay sprawled on the beach, every cough tugging at his internal organs, feeling as if his body had been scorched by fire, the pain unbearable.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Am I... still alive?
Confused fragments of memory, like a bursting dam, flooded his blank mind. The smoke of World War II, his comrades from the Howling Commandos, Steve's resolute back, Red Skull's maniacal smile, and the Tesseract he touched at the last moment... as well as the falling plane and the endless cold.
He struggled to raise his head, looking around in confusion.
This was an unfamiliar beach, with steep cliffs behind him and an endless blue ocean in front. The sun was a bit dazzling, and the air was warm and humid.
Everything seemed normal.
But soon, he noticed something was wrong.
In the distant sky, a dazzling white line cut across the firmament, accompanied by a deafening roar. It was a plane that should not have appeared during World War II, its design closer to the 21st century, and its speed astonishing.
Further out on the horizon, a huge ship, like a city of steel, slowly sailed by, its enormous size reminding him of the Titanic he had seen before his transmigration.
He looked down at himself. The combat uniform, which was still considered excellent during World War II, was now tattered and soaked, clinging to his body and emitting an indescribable musty smell.
He propped up his weak body and stumbled up a sand dune.
When he saw the scene on the other side of the sand dune, his entire body froze, as if under a petrification spell.
On a flat, wide black road, cars of various colors and sleek designs sped by.
"What... is this place?" he muttered, his voice hoarse like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
Just as his mind went blank, completely unable to comprehend what he was seeing, two black, boxy sedans suddenly roared out from a corner of the road, performing a sharp brake and coming to a steady stop on the roadside not far away.
The car doors opened almost simultaneously, and several men in black suits and sunglasses quickly exited. Their movements were swift and precise, their eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly, and they all held guns. These men quickly fanned out, silently encircling Chu Hang, who stood alone on the sand dune.
Two people emerged from the leading car.
One was a Black man in his thirties, his sharp suit making him appear tall and straight, his eyes as keen as a hawk. Although his face showed no expression, his entire being exuded an aura of "don't mess with me," keeping people at a distance.
The other was a younger White man, looking to be in his early twenties, with a perfectly measured, almost formulaic smile on his face. He seemed unthreatening, but his positioning was deliberate, subtly shielding the Black man, forming a protective stance.
Chu Hang's gaze swept over them, then landed on the strangely shaped black pistols in their hands, his mind working rapidly.
These people were not Germans, nor were they any Allied forces he was familiar with. Their demeanor and equipment exuded an indescribable elite and mysterious quality.
"Don't move, put your hands up." The young White man spoke, his voice gentle and polite, but the gun in his hand was held incredibly steady, the muzzle not wavering in the slightest. "We mean no harm, we just want to ask you a few questions."
It was English. Chu Hang understood, which made him slightly relieved.
He slowly raised his hands, indicating he was no threat. He was so weak he could barely stand, and the turbulent cosmic energy within him still throbbed faintly. Let alone resisting, he had no doubt that if they merely pushed him, he might fall apart on the spot.
The sharp-eyed Black man stepped forward, stopping a few paces in front of him. His gaze lingered for a moment on Chu Hang's tattered World War II uniform, then swept over his excessively youthful face, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
"Who are you?" the Black man asked, his voice deep and magnetic, carrying an unquestionable authority and oppressive presence. "Why are you here? This is a military restricted area."
Chu Hang opened his mouth, but found he had no idea how to answer.
Say he was a World War II Soldier? Just defrosted from a block of ice? Only a madman would believe such a thing.
"I... I don't know." He could only choose the answer closest to the truth, his voice dry and hoarse. "When I woke up, I was on this beach."
The young White man seemed about to say something, but was stopped by a look from the Black man.
The Black man took two steps forward, knelt down, and carefully picked up a blood clot mixed with tiny ice shards that Chu Hang had coughed up, sealing it in a transparent evidence bag. After doing all this, he stood up, his gaze once again falling on Chu Hang's face, an expression that seemed to see through to the deepest secrets of one's heart.
"One last question." His tone was calm and unruffled. "What year is it now?"
Chu Hang froze.
He instinctively blurted out the answer: "1945."
Upon hearing this answer, a hint of unconcealed surprise flashed across the young White man's face, while the Black man's eyes grew even deeper and more solemn.
He straightened up and, into his comms, ordered in a detached tone: "Target confirmed, identity unknown, mental state possibly confused, claims to be from 1945. Bring him back, initiate A-Rank isolation protocol."
Having said that, he no longer looked at Chu Hang, turning directly and walking towards the car.
Two Agents in black immediately stepped forward, one on each side, supporting the weak Chu Hang and leading him towards one of the black sedans. Chu Hang did not resist; he sensed his body was still recovering, and there was no need to cause chaos and attract attention. What he needed now was information about the current World.
In the last few seconds before getting into the car, he clearly heard the conversation between the two men.
"Fury, do you think he's telling the truth? 1945?" The young White man, Phil Coulson, quickly caught up with Nick Fury's pace and asked in a low voice.
"Whether it's true or false, it doesn't matter, Coulson." Fury's steps didn't falter in the slightest. "What matters is that a man in a fifty-year-old military uniform appeared perfectly intact at the entrance of the Project PegasusBase. That in itself is not a normal occurrence."
"Project Pegasus"?
"Fifty years"?
These two words, like an invisible heavy hammer, struck Chu Hang's mind, and with a "buzz," he instantly understood something.
He was shoved into the car, and the door slammed shut with a "bang." Through the window, he saw the outside World rapidly receding. He finally understood what had happened to him.
He hadn't transmigrated to another World.
He had simply... slept for fifty years.
Waking up to a completely changed World... A pure white room, with walls, ceiling, floor, and even the table and chairs in the center of the room all pure white, with no other furnishings. Chu Hang had changed into a similarly white outfit and sat quietly on a white chair.
He had been confined here for several days.
Every day, food and water were delivered on time, and researchers in white coats would come, scanning his body with various instruments he didn't understand, drawing blood samples, and asking him inexplicable, logically disjointed questions.
Chu Hang was very cooperative.
Because here, through subtle conversations with the researchers and the guarding Agents, he finally pieced together a vague picture of this new World.
It was 1995.
World War II had long ended, and the entire World had undergone drastic changes. The mysterious organization he was in, fully named the "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," was abbreviated as S.H.I.E.L.D.. And the place where he was being held was the secret Project Pegasus Base, jointly established by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the U.S. Air Force, whose core research project was the energy extracted from the Tesseract.
Everything matched up.
Steve and he had fallen into the glacier together, and Captain America had since become an inspiring legend. As for himself, by a strange twist of fate, he had awakened exactly fifty years later, and by sheer coincidence, was sent directly to the core Baseresearching Tesseract energy.
This arrangement of fate was even more coincidental than a movie script written by Howard Stark.
These past few days, he had also finally had time to calm down and carefully examine his physical condition.
The superpower copier system had already rebooted the day after he woke up. But its state was extremely poor, with flickering garbled code and glaring red [WARNING] messages all over the system interface.
[System Status: Severely damaged. Energy core overloaded, currently self-repairing... Estimated repair time: Unknown.]
[Host Status: On the verge of collapse. Unresolvable high-dimensional energy exists within the body, causing severe rejection reactions with the host's life form. Healing Factor and super soldier serum are barely maintaining vital signs.]
[WARNING: Before system repair is complete and the high-dimensional energy conflict is resolved, please do not use the copy function again, otherwise it will lead to the simultaneous annihilation of the system and the host.]
Chu Hang's heart sank by half after reading this information.
Simply put, he was now an unlucky fellow sleeping with a nuclear bomb that could explode at any time. He simply couldn't control the energy from the Tesseract; instead, it was like a ticking time bomb that could blow him to smithereens at any moment. And his golden finger, which he relied on for survival, had crashed due to this reckless gamble, whether it could be fixed, and when it could be fixed, were all unknown.
The only comfort was that his physical foundation was still there. After the fusion of the Healing Factor and the super soldier serum, his physical strength and recovery ability were still far beyond ordinary people, but now most of his strength was being mobilized to suppress the unstable "nuclear bomb" within him.
"Damn it, I really overdid it this time." Chu Hang leaned against the cold chair back, sighing helplessly.
Just then.
Woo—woo—woo—!!!
The entire Base suddenly blared with an extremely piercing, highest-level alarm! The white ceiling light in the room, which indicated safety, instantly turned blood-red and flashed urgently, dyeing the entire pure white space with an ominous scarlet hue!
"Alarm! Alarm! Unidentified flying object detected above Base! Repeat! Unidentified flying object detected above Base!"
"Sector A roof breached! Unidentified personnel fallen in! Request tactical squad immediate support!"
The voice over the broadcast was filled with panic and confusion, mixed with the faint sound of explosions from a distance.
Chu Hang suddenly stood up from the chair.
They're here!
A sharp glint instantly flashed in his eyes. He knew this was his only chance to escape!
Captain Marvel's origin event was officially beginning today, right here, right now!
And the ultimate antidote that could resolve the "nuclear bomb" within him had also arrived!
Chapter 57 This is your chance.
The alarm blared like a dull, rusty saw, slowly and cruelly tearing at Chu Hang's eardrums, one agonizing pull at a time. Each flash of the blood-red emergency lights painted the pure white cell crimson, like a slaughterhouse, and in the interplay of light and shadow, one could almost smell the premonition of blood.
Explosions, gunshots, and screams laced with fear and despair surged in from outside, wave after wave, growing closer and closer, as if the tides of hell were battering his lone skiff.
Chu Hang stood in the center of the room. His body, frozen for half a century, had only recently awakened, still carrying a profound weakness that made him tremble uncontrollably. Yet, the gaze within this frail body was astonishingly bright, so bright it seemed capable of piercing this cage. It was the look of a traveler who had trekked for months across an endless desert, on the verge of dying from dehydration, finally catching sight of a patch of green on the horizon—a look mixed with madness, greed, and a desperate resolve to achieve his goal at any cost.
Opportunity.
He knew S.H.I.E.L.D.'s modus operandi better than anyone. Once this sudden chaos subsided, what awaited him would certainly not be freedom, but even stricter imprisonment and more in-depth research. They would dissect him like a rare lab rat, analyzing him repeatedly until they had squeezed out every last secret from the Tesseract within him, then preserve him as a specimen, sealed away forever. He absolutely could not let that future happen.
He had to escape.
Right now, at this very moment!
"Boom!"
A colossal roar, more muffled and violent than any explosion before, erupted from nearby, as if a prehistoric Beast had turned over underground. The entire room shook violently, and dust from the ceiling cascaded down like a miniature snowfall. Chu Hang stumbled, nearly falling to the ground, the sense of weakness clinging to him like a shadow.
However, it was this destructive Impact that brought a glimmer of hope.
The white door in front of him, crafted from high-strength alloy and symbolizing absolute confinement, emitted a grating metallic screech as it twisted in the violent tremor. Fine cracks spiderwebbed across the connection between the doorframe and the wall, and the precise electronic lock panel on the door burst into a series of dazzling electrical sparks before sputtering and plunging into complete darkness.
The door had been forced open a crack. A gap just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways, leading both to hell and to heaven.
Chu Hang's pupils contracted to a pinpoint.
He didn't hesitate for even a tenth of a second. Almost simultaneously with the lock's failure, he mustered all his remaining strength, launching himself like an arrow from a bowstring, charging desperately towards the gap, slamming it open with his shoulder, and squeezing through.
The corridor outside was already a living hell.
The emergency lights flickered on and off, wildly switching between light and darkness, making everything appear fragmented. The air was thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder, burning plastic, and an overpowering stench of blood. The once-white walls were covered in gruesome bullet holes and scorched burn marks, and several bodies of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents in uniform lay strewn on the floor, their warm blood pooling into irregular dark red stains on the tiles.
The surviving Agents were taking cover behind corridor corners and collapsed debris, engaging in fierce exchanges of fire with an unseen enemy. Bullets zipped through the narrow space with a "whoosh," each Impactagainst the wall sending up sprays of concrete dust and sparks.
Chu Hang's glaring white prison uniform made him a moving target in such a chaotic and dim environment.
He ducked low, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the trajectories of the gunfire. Now! In the brief pause between two rounds of shooting, he executed a swift forward roll, his movements fluid with the instinct granted by the super soldier serum, precisely taking cover behind the still-warm body of an Agent. Though his body was weak, his combat instincts were etched into his bones.
His hand quickly fumbled over the body, a cold sensation emanating from his fingertips.
A pistol, heavy in his hand. Two spare magazines, tucked into his pocket. A malfunctioning walkie-talkie, crackling with static, was tossed aside.
Enough.
He tucked the pistol behind his waist, his body pressed tightly against the cold floor, moving like a snake slithering in the shadows. Using rows of overturned filing cabinets and debris as cover, he moved silently through the chaotic battlefield. His objective was clear: not to rush blindly towards the exit, but to go against the flow, towards the very heart of this chaos.
Because he knew that only there lay his true hope of survival.
"All teams, attention! Target is moving towards the B7 sector archives! Repeat, target is in B7 sector!"
"Officer Fury! We've lost Dr. Mar-Vell's signal!"
"Damn it! Get me air support! I want to know who those bastards in the sky are!"
Broken, static-filled radio communications crackled from around a nearby corner. Chu Hang followed the sound and saw a familiar figure—Nick Fury—leading Phil Coulson and a squad of fully armed Agents, returning precise fire as they rapidly advanced deeper into the corridor.
Fury's perpetually tense face showed no trace of panic, and his single eye gleamed with cold killing intent. Each time he raised his hand to fire, he was as calm as if on a firing range, all while clearly issuing commands. The still-young Coulson followed closely beside him, holding a pistol defensively in one hand and adjusting his earpiece with the other, dutifully playing the role of second-in-command and bodyguard.
That's it!
Chu Hang's heart gave a sudden leap. He remembered clearly, from the movie's memory, that the battle between Carol Danvers and the Kree, the energy explosion that changed everything, had its final ignition point in the B7 sector archives, where the light-speed engine was stored.
He didn't follow too closely, but like a true ghost, maintained a safe distance that allowed him to observe without being discovered, quietly trailing behind Fury's squad.
This path to hope was not peaceful.
Just as Chu Hang rounded a corner piled with debris, he collided head-on with a "S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent" who was running in a hurry.
"Sorry!" the "Agent" blurted out instinctively, reaching out to steady the stumbling Chu Hang.
The moment their bodies touched, Chu Hang's body stiffened abruptly.
Something was wrong!
This person's body temperature was much lower than a normal human's, like a piece of cold jade wrapped in skin. The texture of the skin also felt strange; through the thin layer of the combat uniform, it felt like touching cold rubber. More importantly, there was no scent of adrenaline, which humans profusely secrete during extremely tense combat situations. Although he hadn't replicated Logan's Beast-like sense of smell, the super soldier serum had also greatly enhanced his five senses, making him unusually sensitive to these subtle differences.
Chu Hang's eyes instantly turned cold as frost. Without any hesitation, he powerfully twisted his waist, using the force of the collision to fall backward, while his right hand, swift as lightning, drew the pistol from his waist. The dark muzzle, even as he fell, was already steadily aimed at the other person's head.
The "Agent's" reaction was also astonishingly fast. The moment Chu Hang fell back, the apologetic expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by an inhuman ferocity and brutality. His arm twisted and extended at an unnatural angle, his five fingers transforming into sharp bone Talon, slicing through the air as they fiercely clawed at Chu Hang's throat.
It's a Skrull!
Chu Hang understood, but his hand movements didn't pause for a second.
Bang!
The gunshot was exceptionally piercing in the narrow corridor, its echo making eardrums throb.
The bullet accurately struck the Skrull's disguised brow, but it only caused its body to lurch violently, a small hole oozing green blood appearing on its head, inflicting no fatal damage.
"Damn it!" Chu Hang cursed inwardly. He had forgotten that Skrulls were also tough-skinned; the physiological structure of these alien beings was far more resilient than humans'.
The Skrull, pained, let out a sharp, ear-splitting shriek, and its assault grew even more frantic. Chu Hang rolled, narrowly dodging the deadly Talon, then suddenly lifted his foot and kicked with all his might at a fire extinguisher cabinet embedded in the nearby wall.
With a crash, the glass shattered, and a red cylindrical object—a fire extinguisher—fell out.
Chu Hang snatched up the heavy fire extinguisher, aimed at the direction from which the Skrull was again pouncing, and without hesitation, slammed down the trigger.
Hiss—!
A torrent of white dry powder instantly sprayed out, like a thick fog, engulfing the Skrull's face.
Caught off guard, the Skrull's vision and breathing were instantly obstructed, and it let out angry, confused roars.
Now!
Chu Hang tossed aside the empty fire extinguisher, lunged forward in a single bound, and seizing the moment when the opponent's vision was obscured and its arms flailed wildly, he plunged the barrel of his gun, with all his strength, into its mouth, which was open in a roar.
Then, he pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He emptied the remaining bullets in the magazine, pumping them all into the alien creature's cranial cavity.
The bullets exploded from within, instantly blasting the Skrull's head into a pulpy mess of green blood and white brain matter, red, white, and green splattering everywhere.
The massive body crashed to the ground, twitching violently a few times before its disguise faded, reverting to its original ugly form with green skin and long, pointed ears.
Chu Hang leaned on his knees, gasping violently, his chest heaving like a bellows. This rapid series of actions had almost completely depleted the little strength he had just recovered. He could feel the cosmic energy within him, dormant for fifty years, now throbbing faintly with pain due to this intense exertion, like a hot magma churning in his veins.
He dared not linger, forcing himself to stumble to his feet, orienting himself, and continuing to run towards the B7 sector.
The closer he got, the clearer the explosions and a strange energy fluctuation became; the air itself seemed to tremble slightly.
When he finally reached the outskirts of the B7 sector, the sight before him made him involuntarily stop, taking cover behind a large container.
This was a vast experimental area, similar to an aircraft hangar. The entire area was in utter chaos. Several uniquely shaped Kree starships had crashed in different locations, their wreckage burning fiercely, billowing black smoke. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and Kree assault troopers in green uniforms were engaged in a brutal and chaotic firefight, energy beams and physical bullets weaving a net of Death.
And in the very center of the hangar, a small experimental aircraft had crashed, its fuselage broken in half, dangerous electrical sparks flickering from the wreckage.
A blonde woman in a green flight suit was struggling to get up from the ground. There was blood at the corner of her mouth, but her eyes were remarkably stubborn and full of defiance.
Not far from her lay another woman, severely wounded in the abdomen, blood soaking her clothes, clearly not going to survive.
Opposite them, a man also in a Kree uniform, with an arrogant expression, walked slowly towards them. His eyes were cold, carrying a playful, controlling air, like a cat toying with a mouse.
Yon-Rogg! Carol Danvers! Mar-Vell!
All the key figures were present! The turning point of history was now!
Chu Hang's heart began to pound uncontrollably, as if it would burst from his throat. He pressed tightly against the cold container, staring intently at everything unfolding in the arena, his breathing almost stopped.
He saw Mar-Vell, in her dying moments, use her last breath to say something to Carol.
Then, he saw Carol turn, her eyes shifting from confusion to determination. She raised the pistol in her hand, aiming it at the damaged engine in the experimental aircraft's wreckage, which was now glowing with an eerie blue light and constantly leaking terrifying energy.
The light-speed engine! The Tesseract's energy core!
"Don't..." Chu Hang instinctively wanted to shout. He wanted to say, don't shoot, you idiot! You should shoot that man, not that engine!
But he bit back those words, locking them tightly in his throat.
Because he knew, this shot had to be fired.
This was Carol Danvers' destiny to transform into Captain Marvel, and it was also Chu Hang's key to escaping his prison and truly living!
Just as Carol's eyes became utterly resolute, and she was about to pull the trigger...
The violent cosmic energy within Chu Hang, dormant for fifty years and originating from the Tesseract, seemed to be powerfully attracted and resonated by a similar source of power, beginning to hum and tremble frantically at an unprecedented frequency!
It was an indescribable sensation, as if every cell in his body was awakening, yearning, cheering, welcoming an impending feast of destruction and rebirth.
Intense pain tore at his nerves, yet deep within this extreme suffering was a strange, intoxicating comfort.
This was a prelude to destruction, yet it also heralded the arrival of new life.
Chu Hang gritted his teeth, blood seeping from his gums, his eyes bloodshot from extreme excitement and unbearable pain.
Through the gap in the container, he stared intently at the blonde woman, watching her slender finger slowly, steadily press down on the trigger.
It's coming!
The next second.
The entire World was completely engulfed by a dazzling, pure, all-consuming, eerie blue light.
Chapter 58 This deal was a winning gamble.
Time was infinitely stretched in this moment, then compressed into an invisible singularity in the next instant.
No sound.
The moment Carol pulled the trigger, the entire Worldfell into absolute silence. All explosions, gunshots, and roars were instantly swallowed by an invisible yet overbearing force, as if they had never existed.
Next, there was light.
It was a pure, ultimate phosphorescent blue light, indescribable by any words, that violently detonated from the nearly collapsed light-speed engine. It was not illuminating the World, but devouring it. Everything in sight—the burning wreckage of the spaceship, the Soldiers in combat, the running Agents, and even Yon-Rogg's expression, a mix of shock and fury—lost their original colors and shapes in this blue light, turning into distorted silhouettes, then completely dissolving.
Chu Hang hid behind the container, but the blue light seemed to penetrate the thick steel plate, directly branding itself onto his retina. He felt as if he wasn't just illuminated by light, but violently struck by a train approaching at light speed, his body and soul disintegrating in this silent Impact.
Boom—!
The terrifying energy Impact finally arrived. The several-ton container he was hiding behind, like a soda can kicked by a mischievous child, let out a piercing metallic groan and was forcefully shifted back over ten meters, slamming heavily into the hangar wall, creating a huge dent in the sturdy structure.
Chu Hang was sandwiched between the container and the wall, his bones seemingly groaning in protest. A normal person would have been reduced to a puddle of flesh from such a collision. But the super soldier serum-enhanced bones and the tenacious Healing Factorallowed him to tough it out.
However, this physical Impact was nothing compared to the drastic changes happening inside his body.
The Tesseract energy that had raged within him for fifty years now seemed like a school of sharks that had smelled blood, completely falling into a frenzy. It was no longer crashing and destroying chaotically, but like a volcano that had found its vent, surging and converging madly in one direction!
Extreme pain, like a breached tide, instantly submerged Chu Hang's every nerve. He felt his body being torn apart from within, every cell screaming, burning, disintegrating. This was a torment purer than Death, a panic of existence being erased.
But just at the edge of this destruction, the system, which had been silent for so long and almost forgotten by him, suddenly reacted.
"War...ning... Warning! Detecting homologous... static... high-level energy body!"
"Energy protocol... forced... static... activation!"
The system's voice was no longer the usual emotionless mechanical tone, but filled with ear-splitting static and intermittent stutters, like an old radio about to burn out, letting out a hoarse cry in its last moments.
Chu Hang's consciousness was already almost blurred by the pain, but he desperately clung to the most important words in that string of information—"homologous high-level energy body."
"Do you... static... copy target: Carol Danvers... current state: Twin Star Form (nascent)?"
"Warning: Host... static... body state extremely unstable! Forcing copy... will... have a high probability of causing... complete collapse of energy structure... static... annihilation!"
"Warning: System core... severely damaged... This copy will... static... consume all backup energy... leading to system... forced hibernation..."
A series of warnings, like dying wails, flashed frantically in Chu Hang's mind, every word carrying the chill of Death.
But Chu Hang could no longer hear them.
Collapse? Annihilation?
Damn it, what's the difference between me now and collapse and annihilation? If I don't take this gamble, once this chaos passes, those white-coated S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents will cut me into ten thousand pieces and make me into a specimen for study!
Hibernation?
Sleep if you have to! As long as it lets me live, you can even format on the spot!
This was his only chance. His only, and last, chance since waking from the ice, in this strange time and space!
"Copy!"
He didn't make a sound, but these two words, using all his will, exploded like thunder deep within his soul.
"Copy for me!"
"Command... confirmed..."
"Starting copy... Twin Star Form..."
The next second, a new, equally vast and majestic energy, as if crossing the barrier of space, was forcibly extracted from the center of that phosphorescent blue light, then brutally poured into Chu Hang's body!
If the original Tesseract energy within Chu Hang was a wild, destructive primal beast, then the new energy, belonging to the "Twin Star Form," was a skilled, experienced master tamer.
The moment the two homologous forces met within his body, instead of a more terrifying explosion, a strange chemical reaction occurred.
"Ugh ahhh—!"
He finally couldn't help but let out a scream of extreme, suppressed pain, curling into a ball, veins bulging like twisted earthworms from his neck and forehead. Beneath his skin, countless light bands seemed to be frantically flowing, sometimes phosphorescent blue, sometimes fiery gold, illuminating his body erratically, like an energy body about to explode.
This pain far surpassed the tearing by the Tesseractenergy in the past, and far surpassed the fifty years of isolation in ice. This was the excruciating pain of life forms being forcibly reshaped at the most fundamental level, the ultimate torture of gene chains being disassembled and reassembled.
But Chu Hang's will, at this moment, was clearer than ever before.
He could clearly "see" how the new energy gradually enveloped, permeated, and decomposed the wild, primitive energy, then re-wove and recombined it according to a new, profound structure he couldn't comprehend. It was like
He didn't know how long passed, perhaps a century, perhaps only an instant.
The heart-wrenching pain slowly receded like a tide. In its place was an unprecedented, indescribable feeling of power.
He could feel that with just a thought, this power could surge forth according to his will, destroying everything in front of him.
"Fusion... started... energy structure... reorganizing..."
"Fusion complete."
"Warning: System core overloaded... entering forced hibernation... restart time... unknown..."
In his mind, the system's voice, after a final faint whimper, fell completely silent. The familiar system interface also dimmed and disappeared.
Chu Hang slowly uncurled his body and gradually stood up from the ground. His bones made a faint crackling sound; it was the sound of new life after reshaping.
He looked down at his hands.
A faint, golden flame-like glow was seeping from beneath his skin, forming a thin aura around his body. A few mischievous blue electrical arcs, like small snakes, jumped and flickered at his fingertips, emitting a subtle "zzzt" sound.
The ground beneath his feet, centered on him, was already scorched black, as if seared by an invisible Fire.
He succeeded.
He won this life-or-Death gamble.
Just then, the blinding glare in the hangar finally began to dissipate, and his vision gradually cleared.
Chu Hang's eyes sharpened, and almost instinctively, he focused all his attention, trying to control the uncontrolled energy leaking from his body.
"Go back! All of you, get back!" he roared frantically in his mind.
The golden flame flickered a few times, then reluctantly, little by little, retracted beneath his skin. The electrical arcs at his fingertips also vanished with a "zzzt."
After doing all this, Chu Hang felt like he had run a marathon, and exhaustion surged over him again. He didn't dare to linger, and with a flash, he once again hid behind the now-deformed container, only peeking out half his head, cautiously observing the situation outside.
Inside the hangar, it was a mess.
At the center of the explosion, the ground had melted into a large circular shallow pit, its edges smooth as a mirror, still emitting wisps of smoke.
Carol Danvers lay in the center of the shallow pit, charred and unconscious, only the faint rise and fall of her chest proving she was still alive.
A little further away, Nick Fury and Coulson were scrambling up from behind a cover, their faces covered in dust and lingering fear, looking around in bewildered disbelief at the surreal scene.
And the Kree Commander, Yon-Rogg, had been thrown over ten meters by the Impact. He was now shaking his head, struggling to his feet. He glanced at the wreckage around him, then at the unconscious Carol, a hint of ruthlessness and determination flashing in his eyes.
He ignored his Kree subordinates who were still exchanging Fire with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, and walked directly towards Carol, his objective clear.
Chu Hang watched this scene from the Shadow, clenching his fists tightly.
He knew what Yon-Rogg was going to do next. He would take Carol, bring her back to Hala, erase her memories, instill false pasts in her, and then turn her into the Kree Empire's sharpest weapon—"Fos." A controlled, living weapon fighting for the Empire.
Should he stop him?
This thought flashed through Chu Hang's mind, but he immediately extinguished it himself.
No.
He glanced at his still slightly trembling hands. His current state was extremely poor, and he had no idea how to use the newly merged energy. Rushing out to fight a battle-hardened Kree elite Commander would be no different from courting Death. Moreover, although the energy within him was tamed, the fatigue in his body was very real.
Furthermore, once exposed, he, an even more bizarre "energy source" than Carol, would likely immediately become the number one target for both the Kree and S.H.I.E.L.D. At that point, he would face pursuit from both sides, with no peace.
He couldn't take that risk.
At least not now.
Watching Yon-Rogg bend down and pick up the unconscious Carol, watching an intact Kree spaceship slowly descend through the hole in the hangar roof, casting a beam of light to receive them, Chu Hang slowly unclenched his fists.
His eyes were cold and calm, like the most patient hunter, waiting for the optimal hunting moment.
First, survive.
Survive, then talk about anything else.