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Page 24

Logan's reaction was almost inhuman. Like a wild beast sensing danger, he didn't even turn his head, but twisted his body at an incredible angle right in place.

The terrifying tentacle grazed his back and slammed heavily onto the control panel beside him. A series of crackling sounds followed, and the steel control panel, sparks flying, was dented in a large chunk by the blow!

Chu Hang's eyelids twitched. If that blow had hit someone, wouldn't they have been cut in two on the spot?

Logan dodged the attack, but his face showed no relief; instead, it was filled with a furious rage.

He let out a beastly roar, and the muscles in his arms bulged instantly.

Three bone claws, gleaming with a chilling white light, suddenly sprang out from between his fists! He turned and lunged, swinging the bone claws fiercely at the tentacle that was retracting!

There was a sharp sound of metal clashing.

Logan's bone claws struck the area where the tentacles were covered in metal plates, but only produced a series of dazzling sparks, leaving just a few shallow white marks!

Logan himself was also jolted back several steps by the enormous recoil, a look of disbelief on his face.

Just then, Steve finally climbed up from below. He looked somewhat disheveled, his uniform covered in a sticky green liquid, but his eyes remained sharp. He glanced at the tentacle writhing wildly, trying to attack again, and without hesitation, made his move.

The vibranium shield in his hand transformed into a streak of blue and red light, striking the relatively vulnerable fleshy part connecting the tentacle to its base at an incredibly tricky angle.

A muffled thud, like a knife slicing through tough skin, rang out. The tentacle shuddered violently, and a spurt of dark green, foul-smelling liquid instantly erupted from its surface. In pain, it quickly retreated back into the opening.

Amidst the chaos, a sliver of clarity flashed through Chu Hang's mind.

He stared at the dark entrance, and without thinking, pulled a grenade from his waist, pulled the pin, aimed carefully, and threw it down!

A muffled explosion came from underground, and the entire power distribution room shook violently. A thick plume of black smoke, mixed with the smell of burning, billowed out of the hole.

"Well done!" Steve roared, yelling at Logan, who was still in a daze, "Logan! Blow them up!"

Logan was brought back to his senses by the shout. He glanced at his right hand, which was still numb from the shock, and then at the dark entrance, his ferocity increasing rather than diminishing. Without hesitation, he rushed to the two massive transformers and forcefully wedged the two long-handled grenades in his hands into the gaps of the transformer's heat sink.

"Three seconds!" Logan pulled the fuse and yelled without turning his head.

Steve grabbed the shield that had been thrown back, pulled Chu Hang by the arm with his other hand, and turned to run wildly toward the door of the power distribution room.

Logan followed closely behind, his speed no slower than theirs.

The three of them, like three cannonballs fired from a gun, used all their strength to rush out of the power distribution room and into the factory's internal corridor.

Behind them, there was a tremendous roar, like the thunder god's roar, as the two grenades detonated the transformer!

"Boom - boom -!"

An indescribable, deafening roar, powerful enough to rip eardrums apart, accompanied by a devastating shockwave, swept over them from behind. Chu Hang felt as if he had been shoved hard by an invisible giant hand, and his entire body was sent flying forward.

The walls and ceiling behind them were instantly torn to shreds by the violent electric current and explosive energy. In a flash, all the lights in the entire factory went out!

Darkness, utter darkness, descended.

The three of them stumbled and crawled through the darkness and chaos, completely disoriented, and could only rely on instinct to rush toward the nearest exit they could remember.

Chu Hang didn't know how long he had been running, but he felt like his lungs were about to explode.

Suddenly, a tightly closed iron gate appeared in front of them.

Steve didn't even look, and immediately delivered a shoulder ram, slamming into the other like a battering ram!

The heavy iron door, along with its frame, was smashed open by him!

A blast of cold air, mixed with the smell of snowflakes and gunpowder, swept over us.

They're out!

The three of them stumbled and rushed into the snowstorm outside. Before they could even catch their breath, the massive Hydra factory they had just escaped from began to emit a sickening, metallic, grotesque sound, like the mournful cry of a giant beast.

Immediately following, a devastating chain of explosions began, centered on the power distribution room!

Chapter 31 Aftermath

For a moment, Chu Hang thought he was dead.

He was thrown into the air by the shockwave of the explosion, his body tumbling uncontrollably. The whole world turned into an inverted vortex of flames and darkness. The scorching airwave slammed into his back like an invisible giant hand. He could clearly feel his combat suit instantly becoming brittle from the heat. Then, his internal organs felt as if they were being squeezed out of place by this immense force.

His sense of time completely vanished. He didn't know if he had been flying in the air for a second or an eternity. Until his back slammed heavily into something soft yet cold, the enormous impact made his vision go black, and he almost passed out on the spot.

He tumbled and crawled into the knee-deep snow like a tattered sack, the immense momentum carrying him to plow a long furrow in the snow before finally coming to a stop.

Chu Hang lay prone in the snow, not wanting to move at all.

His lungs felt like a torn bellows, each breath accompanied by excruciating pain and a pungent, acrid stench. Icy snowflakes landed on his burning face, melting instantly, yet he felt no cold. His entire body, inside and out, felt as if it were being scorched by an invisible fire. This was the bio-heat generated by his self-healing factors frantically repairing his damaged internal organs.

His head was buzzing. The earth-shattering explosion had been so loud that it exceeded the limits of his ears, leaving only a continuous high-frequency tinnitus, as if thousands of cicadas were chirping simultaneously inside his skull.

Several seconds passed before Chu Hang finally snapped out of his near-death daze. He tried to move his fingers, but his self-healing ability shielded him from all the damage. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked back.

The sight before him made him forget to breathe.

That heavily guarded steel fortress is now a giant torch soaring into the sky.

Centered on the power distribution room, the energy of the explosion, like a slowly blooming lotus of destruction, completely blew up the upper part of the entire factory.

Countless twisted and burning steel bars and concrete blocks were thrown hundreds of meters into the air, like an apocalyptic meteor shower, trailing long streaks of fire and thick smoke, and crashing down into all directions of the valley.

The entire valley was bathed in a blinding orange-red light, and a massive mushroom cloud of billowing smoke slowly rose, as if to devour the dark night sky. The air was thick with the acrid smell of tar, the pungent odor of burning plastic wires, and something else... the nauseatingly sweet and pungent smell of burnt protein from that monster that he had previously detected underground.

"This is what you call a grand spectacle." The thought involuntarily popped into Chu Hang's head. Compared to the real, mountain-shaking destruction before him, all the special effects blockbusters he had ever seen in theaters seemed so pale and laughable.

"Cough cough...Are you all alright?"

Steve's voice rang out beside Chu Hang as he struggled to his feet from the snow, coughing violently. His once bright blue, white, and red uniform was now blackened and grime-covered, and his face was covered in soot, making him look like a plumber who had just climbed out of a chimney. Only his eyes remained remarkably bright in the firelight.

"Can't die."

From another direction, Logan's muffled voice came. He was even more disheveled than the others, half-buried in the snow. He slammed his fist into the snow in front of him, letting out a low growl filled with suppressed rage: "Damn it! What the hell was that thing?!"

Chu Hang could hear the unwillingness in his voice. For a beast like Logan, whose very nature was to fight and hunt, encountering an opponent whose bone claws, which he was most proud of, could not even scratch was far more unbearable than being shot. It was almost a challenge to his very existence as a apex predator.

Steve didn't respond immediately, but just silently stared at the burning ruins, his eyes as complex as an impenetrable fog.

There was relief at surviving the ordeal, anger at Hydra's madness, but more than anything, there was a deep worry that Chu Hang had never seen on his face before.

“We must leave immediately.” He turned around, his voice not loud, but unusually firm amidst the howling wind and snow. “This explosion is a signal; all the German troops and Hydra patrols within a fifty-mile radius will converge here. We need to rendezvous with Dugan and his men as soon as possible.”

His words were like a bucket of cold water, dousing Chu Hang's somewhat numb nerves. He suddenly remembered that they had come to rescue people. The factory had been blown up, but what about his captured comrades?

Chu Hang shook his still slightly dizzy head and got up from the snow.

"Captain, which way do we go?" Chu Hang asked.

Steve pulled the crumpled map from his waist, examined it carefully by the light of the distant fire, and then pointed to a ridge behind them: "According to plan, after Plan B succeeds, we will meet at rendezvous point number three. Dugan and the others will take the prisoners there to wait for us."

"Let's go." Logan said succinctly, leaping up from the snow. He glanced down at the almost negligible white marks on his fists, a fierce glint in his eyes, and followed Steve without a word.

The three of them trudged through the deep snow, the atmosphere terribly oppressive.

No one spoke; only heavy breathing and the crunching of footsteps on the snow filled the air. The shadow of the monster weighed on everyone's hearts like a heavy boulder.

After running for about ten minutes, they crossed a mountain ridge. The flames from the explosion were blocked by the mountain, and the surroundings suddenly became dark. Steve found a sheltered spot in a rocky hollow and gestured for them to rest.

He sat down against the cold rock wall, took off his helmet, revealing a face covered in sweat and soot. He raised his head, his deep blue eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness, staring directly at Chu Hang and Logan.

“Tell me,” he began, “what did you all see? About that… thing. We need to gather information.”

Logan was the first to speak, irritably running his hand through his hair, his voice hoarse like sandpaper:

"That thing's skin, or rather its carapace, is incredibly hard. When I slash at it with my claws, it's like trying to chop down a main battle tank with an axe—it only manages to create a few sparks, it's utterly useless."

He paused, then added, "And it was incredibly powerful, extremely powerful. It almost broke my arm."

Steve's brow furrowed even more as he turned to Chu Hang: "Chu, you have the best hearing. Did you hear anything unusual down there?"

“I feel… it wasn’t released intentionally by those scientists,” Chu Hang speculated based on his observations. “It’s more like an experiment went out of control. Those scientists seemed even more scared than us; they opened the door themselves to try and escape, and ended up getting us caught too. That countdown might have been the activation time for some kind of sedative or destruction program, but it failed.”

After listening, Steve fell into a long silence. He looked down at the shield in his hand, which was covered in grime and green slime, and slowly said, "I blocked it head-on with the shield. That force... was pure physical impact, like being hit head-on by a Tiger tank charging at full speed. If this shield hadn't absorbed most of the kinetic energy, my arm would have been completely ruined in that moment."

He paused, looked up, and a rare hint of lingering fear flashed in his eyes: "Moreover, it is intelligent, not a mindless beast. After I blocked its first attack, it didn't repeat it, but immediately changed its strategy, using that tentacle to attack my lower body from below. It was probing, looking for weaknesses, and learning in battle. All of this happened in just a few seconds."

Chu Hang's heart sank again. Overwhelming power, near-invincible defense, and the combat intelligence to analyze the battle situation and make adjustments in an instant. What exactly did Hydra want? To create such a perfect killing machine to rule the world? This had gone beyond the scope of conventional warfare.

“No matter what kind of son of a bitch it is,” Logan spat viciously, speaking in a vow-like tone, “if I ever see it again, I’ll rip its heart out alive!”

"I'm afraid there won't be a next time." Chu Hang subconsciously replied, half of which was a deduction based on common sense and half of which was a heartfelt self-comfort. "With such a violent explosion, the entire base was razed to the ground. No matter how tough it is, it must have been buried under hundreds of tons of steel and concrete and burned to a crisp."

Steve shook his head, his expression unusually serious, even grave: "No, Chu. In war, you can never be so optimistic. Until we see its wreckage with our own eyes, we must assume it's still alive."

The moment he said those words, Chu Hang felt the air around him instantly drop several degrees.

Assuming it's still alive?

Are you kidding me! That's an explosion powerful enough to level a small mountain! No carbon-based life form could survive the catastrophic explosion of that kind of energy core!

But seeing the unwavering conviction in Steve's eyes, Chu Hang swallowed back the rebuttal that was on the tip of his tongue. He was the captain; his judgment always started from the worst-case scenario—it was an attitude of responsibility for everyone's survival.

Just as the oppressive atmosphere was about to solidify, a faint radio noise, mixed with a "buzzing" sound, came from the communicator on Steve's waist.

“Buzz…calling…Thunderbird…this is…Eagle's Nest…respond if you hear me…repeat…”

Steve's spirits lifted instantly, and he grabbed the communicator, pressing the call button: "Eagle's Nest, this is Thunderbird! Received! How are you? Where are the prisoners?"

"We...buzz...we did it!" Dugan's voice came through the radio, both excited and utterly exhausted. "Everyone's out! Good heavens, Steve, you guys made a huge commotion in there! We thought you blew up the whole mountain! We're heading to rendezvous point three as planned. Where are you guys?"

“We’re on our way too, about twenty minutes from now!” A genuine smile finally appeared on Steve’s face. “Well done, Dugan! Everyone stay alert, we’ll evacuate immediately after we regroup!”

"Understood! Eagle Nest is ending the call!"

Communication was interrupted. This good news was like a shot of adrenaline, instantly dispelling all the gloom and fear in their hearts.

"Let's go!" Steve put his helmet back on, his voice regaining its indomitable spirit and 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 reunite with Dugan and the others, and get everyone out of this damned place, then all the sacrifices and adventures of the night would be worthwhile.

However, just as Chu Hang was happily fantasizing about all of this, his extremely enhanced ears caught a faint yet incredibly familiar strange sound.

The sound came from behind them, from the direction of the inferno ruins.

It was very light and muffled, almost completely masked by the howling wind and snow and the crackling echoes of the explosion. Had his hearing not been far beyond human capabilities, reaching a superhuman level, he would never have noticed it.

It was a very rhythmic sound.

One, one, another.

It's like... a giant drum buried deep underground, being slowly struck.

Chu Hang suddenly stopped, as if he had been frozen in place by a spell.