I'm having a blast in Marvel!

Page 22

It smells fishy, ​​pungent, and has a metallic sweetness that makes your scalp tingle and your stomach churn.

Now, there's no need to doubt it anymore.

There's definitely a big problem ahead.

Steve's expression turned more serious than ever before. As a natural-born commander, his mind raced, weighing the pros and cons.

The original plan was for the three of them to cut off the power, disrupting the factory's defenses. Then, Dugan's second squad would launch a feint attack from the front to draw Hydra's attention, allowing them to take advantage of the chaos to capture and rescue the people. It was a meticulously planned operation with each step tightly timed. Dugan and his team were definitely already in position outside, waiting for the signal to pull the power switch.

Suddenly, an unknown, seemingly extremely dangerous thing appeared under my feet.

If left unchecked, what if this thing suddenly appears during their prisoner rescue operation and stabs them in the back? The consequences would be unimaginable. Those mad scientists at Hydra, who knows what kind of inhuman monsters they might concoct?

However, if we go down to investigate now, it will inevitably delay the planned general offensive. On the battlefield, a one-minute delay can lead to the collapse of the entire plan.

Looking at Steve's unpredictable expression, Chu Hang felt a mix of emotions.

To be honest, he was more panicked than Steve and Logan.

Something's not right about this!

He had watched Captain America: The First Avenger at least seven or eight times in his past life, and he knew all the commentary videos by heart. He clearly remembered that in the Hydra factory in Austria, apart from the captured Howling Commandos and some ordinary soldiers, there were no hidden super weapons. Red Skull's trump cards were the Tesseract and his Valkyrie aircraft, which could carry nuclear bombs.

But what's with this "heart" sound now?

Could it be that I, this little butterfly, accidentally flapped my wings and steered the whole plot off course?

The thought sent a chill down Chu Hang's spine. The unknown was the most terrifying thing. He would rather face an entire German division than encounter something that had never even appeared in a movie.

While he was lost in thought, Steve made a decision.

“I’ll go down and take a look.” His voice wasn’t loud, but it was full of undeniable decisiveness. “Time can’t be wasted any longer. Logan, you stay here and take control of the power distribution room. Chu Hang, you continue to monitor the entire factory, especially the direction of the prisoner-of-war camp and Dugan’s group. If anything unusual happens, notify me immediately via communicator.”

After saying that, he began searching for the entrance to the next floor in the electrical distribution room.

"No!" Chu Hang blurted out, "Captain, this is too dangerous! We know nothing about what's down there. If you go down alone, what if..."

Steve turned around and glanced at him, his gaze calm yet carrying an irresistible power. "Chu Hang, I'm the captain. Some risks must be borne by me."

He quickly found a square metal cover in an inconspicuous corner of the room. The cover fit perfectly with the floor and was covered with some discarded parts; it would have been impossible to spot without careful searching.

He moved the heavy parts aside with his bare hands, revealing the entire cover. It had a built-in rotary lock that looked very sturdy.

Steve tried to turn it, but the lock wouldn't budge.

He wasted no more time and directly inserted his fingers into the gap of the cover plate. The muscles on his arm bulged instantly, and the veins stood out like small snakes.

He let out a low growl and suddenly exerted force from his waist and abdomen.

With a sickeningly loud metallic crunch, the heavy steel cover was ripped off the ground!

A dark, gaping entrance leading to the unknown appeared before the three of them.

The strange smell, a mixture of blood and engine oil, instantly intensified tenfold, assaulting our senses.

Steve drew his 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 around and looked at him with some confusion.

Chu Hang gritted his teeth, as if he had made up his mind. "I'll go with you! My ears are more useful down here than up. At least they can let you know which direction the danger is coming from."

That's the truth. No matter how strong Steve is, he's still made of flesh and blood. Faced with a completely unknown environment, the range of his two eyes is ultimately limited. He, on the other hand, is a 360-degree humanoid sonar with no blind spots. In such a narrow and enclosed environment, his role is even greater than Logan's claws.

Steve gave him a deep look, as if assessing the truthfulness of his words and whether he had the guts.

A few seconds later, he nodded.

Then he turned to Logan, his expression becoming extremely serious: "Logan, the situation up here is yours. Remember, if neither of us returns within fifteen minutes, or if you hear any alarms coming from down below, immediately execute Plan B."

"Plan B?" Chu Hang was taken aback.

Logan grinned, pulled the two newly captured stick grenades from his pocket, tossed them in his hand, and pointed to the two huge transformers in the center of the room, a cruel smile 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, plunging the factory into complete paralysis and darkness, and then everyone would flee for their lives.

This is tantamount to admitting that the infiltration and rescue mission has completely failed.

Steve's decision undoubtedly put all their lives on the line for those mere fifteen minutes.

"Take care, Captain." Logan, unusually, didn't say anything sarcastic, but simply said in a deep voice.

Steve nodded, said nothing more, and was the first to slide down the ladder at the entrance.

Chu Hang took a deep breath of the foul-smelling air and then climbed down as well.

Below is a completely different world.

This place was much colder and damper than the electrical substation above. The walls were no longer rough concrete, but a special alloy that shimmered with a cold metallic luster, covered with all sorts of thick, differently colored pipes, like the veins and nerves of a giant beast, extending all the way into the depths of darkness.

The air was filled with a strong smell of disinfectant, but it couldn't mask the stench of blood and engine oil mixed together.

What made Chu Hang's heart tremble the most was that voice.

"Boom...boom...boom..."

Here, the enormous heartbeat became clearer and more awe-inspiring. With each beat, Chu Hang could feel an invisible sound wave emanating from ahead, penetrating his body, making his chest feel tight and his breathing difficult.

This is definitely not a normal thing!

Steve clearly sensed it too; his grip on the gun tightened. He didn't turn on his flashlight, but instead relied on his enhanced night vision as a super soldier to cautiously observe his surroundings.

The two of them, one in front of the other, carefully made their way towards the direction from which the sound came, stepping on the metal floor.

The corridor wasn't long, only about fifty meters. At the end was a huge, almost exaggeratedly large, round metal door, which looked like a security door in a bank vault, so heavy it could withstand direct bombardment from artillery shells.

The heavy, throbbing sound, like the heartbeat of an ancient behemoth, came from behind this door.

On the door, there was a small, round observation window, fitted with an absurdly thick, dark glass pane.

Steve gestured to Chu Hang, telling him to stay put and keep watch, and then quietly moved closer by himself.

He reached out and wiped away a thick layer of dust from the observation window with his sleeve, then peered through it.

Chu Hang watched his retreating figure nervously, forgetting even to breathe.

He saw Steve's body suddenly freeze the moment he leaned close to the observation window, like a sculpture instantly encased in ice.

Time seems to stand still at this moment.

Steve slowly, very slowly, moved his head away from the observation window.

He turned around and looked at Chu Hang.

In that instant, Chu Hang saw a face he had never seen before.

That face, which was always full of sunshine, confidence, and determination, was now filled with indescribable shock, horror, and a hint of... deep fear.

His lips trembled slightly, and his face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

He looked at Chu Hang, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty, and softly uttered two words in a dreamlike, yet powerfully impactful voice.

"monster……"

Chapter 29 Monster

When those two words came out of Steve Rogers' mouth in a trembling voice that was almost like a dream, mixed with immense shock and disbelief, Chu Hang felt as if a cold current from Siberia had been forcibly poured into the spine of his back, rushing from his tailbone all the way to the top of his head, making every hair on his body stand on end in an instant.

This is so wrong.

Something was wrong, not because the word "monster" itself was so terrifying. For these soldiers who had been through countless deaths, the mangled remains of those blasted beyond recognition by artillery shells on the battlefield were more horrifying than any monster.

The strange thing is that the person who said those two words was Steve Rogers.

He was Captain America, the man who dared to charge forward alone against a thousand men. He was a man whose will was as unbreakable as the vibranium shield in his hand. Chu Hang had personally witnessed him advance into the fire of machine guns, leap from buildings dozens of meters high, and throw grenades back like baseballs. The word "fear" seemed to be entirely absent from this man's dictionary.

But now, this same man, merely glancing through a tiny observation window, revealed an expression as if his worldview had been completely overturned and his faith shattered in an instant. His face was deathly pale, and the ever-burning flame of confidence in his azure eyes seemed to have been extinguished by a bucket of ice water, leaving only violently contracted pupils and an empty, horrified void.

What's locked behind this door?

Chu Hang's mind went blank for a moment, and countless classic images from horror movies and games he had seen and played in his past lives flooded back like a burst dam. Was it an alien dripping with acid? Was it a giant zombie beast with a gaping maw? Or was it one of those Cthulhu-esque ancient gods that could make someone's sanity evaporate and their SAN value plummet just by looking at it?

His first instinct was to back away; every cell in his body was sending out its most primal warning: Run! Get away from that door! Curiosity can kill not only the cat, but also a time traveler who just wanted to live peacefully until the end of World War II!

However, his feet felt as if they were welded to the cold metal floor, so heavy that he couldn't lift them at all.

A desire stronger than fear, mixed with a reckless impulse and extreme curiosity, was like the whisper of the devil, raging wildly in his heart.

That's Captain America! Is there anything in the world that could scare him like that? If you miss this, you might regret it for the rest of your life! This is exclusive news, a hidden plot that wasn't even shown in the movie!

Just one look! Just one look! Anyway, with the healing factor and super soldier serum as a backup, even if I faint from fright, I should be able to wake up, right? At worst, I'll just look and run, run faster than anyone else!

Chu Hang was having a fierce internal struggle with himself. He tried to bolster his courage while slowly and cautiously making his way toward the heavy, round metal door, like a thief about to peek at his neighbor taking a shower.

Steve remained in that stiff posture, like a puppet whose soul had been taken away, showing no reaction to Chu Hang's approach.

Chu Hang carefully walked around him and came to the door. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, but the stench, a mixture of strong blood, formaldehyde, and metallic rust, almost made him throw up the compressed biscuits he had just eaten.

He steeled his resolve and thought, "So be it, I'll die!"

He closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them again, bringing them close to the palm-sized round observation window.

The next second, his breathing, his heartbeat, and all his thoughts came to a complete standstill.

Behind the door was a circular laboratory that was larger than anyone could imagine.

The entire space resembled a giant, hollowed-out white can, at least a hundred meters in diameter. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were covered in a layer of white alloy with a cold, gleaming sheen. Countless sophisticated instruments flashing various colored indicator lights and pipes as thick as pythons converged from all directions towards the center of the laboratory. Dozens of researchers, dressed in white, fully enclosed protective suits and wearing heavy gas masks, moved like a swarm of busy, silent worker ants, flitting between various control panels, recording data, and making adjustments.

However, all of this is just background.

What truly made Chu Hang's soul tremble was that thing in the very center of the laboratory.

It was a giant cylindrical glass container, over ten meters tall, resembling a giant specimen jar straight out of mythology. The container was filled with a viscous liquid emitting an eerie, ghostly green light, with bubbles slowly rising from the bottom, flickering in the green glow, creating an incredibly sinister effect.

And soaking in that green liquid was... something.

Chu Hang couldn't even find a suitable word to describe it for a moment.

Its main body resembled a human torso that had been forcibly matured and magnified to its limit. Its skin was a lifeless, pale white, like an over-soaked corpse, and it was translucent. Chu Hang could even clearly see that beneath that thin layer of skin, thick, bluish-black blood vessels, like sleeping giant pythons, were slowly rising and falling with the movement 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 catheters, beating heavily and powerfully, one beat after another.

dong... dong... dong...

With each beat, Chu Hang could see an invisible shockwave spreading out from the liquid, causing the entire container to tremble slightly. This was the source of the heavy sound, like the heartbeat of an ancient behemoth.