Howard Stark

Colonel Phillips was so exasperated that he laughed.

"You little punk! Let me see if you really are unbeatable!"

Carter shook her head helplessly. These two were usually quite steady and composed. What on earth had gotten into them today?

A new round of competition began—and ended in an instant. Colonel Phillips had barely fired two shots when a burst of Submachine Gun-like rapid gunfire erupted beside him, only to quickly fall silent again.

Puzzled, the Colonel turned to look, only to find that Chen Mo had already lowered his gun. Beside him, Carter stood with her red lips slightly parted and her eyes wide, looking as though she had seen a ghost.

"What happened?" The Colonel was completely baffled. He could not make sense of what was happening before his eyes.

"So... so fast!" Hearing the Colonel's question, Carter finally snapped out of it and replied with a slight stammer.

Ignoring their conversation, Chen Mo returned the gun to Carter and walked away on his own.

"Hey! You brat, we're not done competing yet!" the Colonel shouted angrily.

"It's over, Colonel," Carter said, watching Chen Mo's retreating back.

"It's over?" the Colonel asked in confusion. "That kid didn't fire a single shot! And who fired that Submachine Gun just now?"

"There was no Submachine Gun. Look." Carter handed him the gun in her hand.

Colonel Phillips took the pistol suspiciously and ejected the magazine. The magazine had originally held seven rounds, but now only six remained.

"He fired one shot?" the Colonel asked doubtfully.

"And those." Carter pointed to where Chen Mo had just been standing.

The Colonel turned around and looked. Two magazines lay on the ground. He walked over, picked them up, and found that both had been emptied.

"Could it be..." A terrifying possibility formed in the Colonel's mind. "He fired fifteen shots and changed magazines twice in that short span of time?"

"You expect me to believe that?" the Colonel said to Carter in disbelief.

"It's the truth." Carter nodded solemnly.

Without even checking the targets, Carter saluted the Colonel and turned to leave, leaving him standing there alone, clutching the magazines and questioning his life.

After staring at the magazines for a while, the Colonel suddenly remembered something. He raised his head and walked toward Chen Mo's target. Reality dealt him another heavy blow—the clear bullet holes in the bullseye told him that it was all true.

The second round ended hastily. The Colonel was crushed again, and even worse than before. They had used the same gun, yet Chen Mo fired faster, shot more accurately, and even changed magazines faster—much faster, so fast it was hard to believe.

It was not surprising, really. Though the Colonel was an excellent marksman, he still had to adjust the muzzle and aim again before every shot. Chen Mo's immense strength gave him far better control over the pistol, leaving the muzzle with almost no recoil and allowing rapid consecutive fire.

Not to mention Chen Mo's own reflexes and agility. The Colonel's defeat had been inevitable from the start.

The Colonel could not help regretting it. Why had he, with nothing better to do, insisted on competing with an inhuman freak like Chen Mo? Well, now he had gotten what was coming to him.

At the same time, he silently warned himself that no matter what he saw Chen Mo doing next time, he must never go over and invite another beating. Even if Chen Mo drew a sword and said he was going to charge a machine gun, he should believe that Chen Mo could split bullets with his sword and cut down every enemy.

A few days later.

Chen Mo saw Howard Stark again in the laboratory. This genius inventor was also an important member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, responsible for physics and mechanics. All the equipment used in the Super Soldier enhancement, including the Vita-Ray and the experimental chamber, had been personally built by him.

Howard was also very curious about Dr. Erskine's new assistant who had appeared out of nowhere. Dr. Erskine was beyond pleased with Chen Mo, praising him to the skies and repeatedly calling him a once-in-a-century super genius who could learn anything at a glance and draw inferences from one example to the next.

That left Howard, who had always been proud and considered himself a genius, thoroughly unconvinced. He was determined to measure himself against Chen Mo.

Thus, in the days that followed, aside from learning biology from Dr. Erskine, Chen Mo was constantly challenged by Howard with questions related to physics and mechanics. Howard wanted to see whether Chen Mo was truly as gifted as the doctor claimed, and just how far his abilities went.

Chen Mo was more than happy to oblige, absorbing all kinds of knowledge like a sponge and enriching himself.

At first, when faced with the various problems Howard brought him, Chen Mo still needed some time to study and research them, despite possessing many advanced scientific concepts from the modern era.

But as Chen Mo's store of knowledge steadily grew, he solved problems faster and faster. Howard had no choice but to keep increasing the difficulty, even bringing out cutting-edge technologies he was currently researching. Unfortunately, the results remained despairingly one-sided.

Howard felt as helpless as a meat bun thrown to a dog. Deep down, he had no choice but to admit that Chen Mo truly was an even more outrageous super genius than himself.

Comparing Chen Mo, who possessed superpowers, to an ordinary human genius was indeed somewhat unfair.

Although Howard had failed to beat Chen Mo in the field he had always been proud of, he still refused to concede verbally and was always looking for chances to provoke him.

Chen Mo, naturally, showed no courtesy in the face of Howard's occasional provocations. He responded with direct, brutal retaliation, often leaving Howard in a thoroughly miserable state.

He could not beat Chen Mo in brains, could not beat him in an argument, and was completely crushed if it came to fighting. Howard had truly met his nemesis. He would be left utterly speechless every time, swear again and again never to provoke Chen Mo, then turn around and eagerly go looking for another beating. He simply never tired of it.

In everyone's eyes, the two were a pair of bitter rivals. To say they got along well would be wrong, since they argued and fought all day and could not stand the sight of each other. Yet to say they got along poorly would also be wrong, since the two geniuses were always huddling together to research cutting-edge technology and had produced quite a few results.

The Colonel and the doctor were equally helpless about these two people, who were normally mature, composed, intelligent, and wise, yet turned into clowns whenever they were together. After several failed attempts to persuade them, they simply stopped interfering. As long as they did not delay their work, they could make all the trouble they wanted.

"Move it! Run faster!"

The Reserve soldiers were once again on a long-distance training run. Unsurprisingly, Steve was running at the very back. His physical stamina was still lacking, after all, but he gritted his teeth and kept up without falling behind.

"Halt!"

Halfway through the run, they saw Agent Carter waiting in a Jeep not far ahead. The instructor ordered the group to stop, then pointed at a flagpole erected beside the road and shouted at the trainees.

"That flag means you've only run halfway!"

"The first person to take down the flag gets to ride back to camp with Agent Carter!"

"Go!"

Hearing that, the soldiers rushed forward in a scramble. But the flagpole was far too thin and slick. They would slide back down before climbing very high.

"Is that all you've got?"

"This unit is finished!"

"Come on! Climb up there!"

The instructor mocked them from the side, watching their embarrassment with great interest.

"For seventeen years, no one has managed to get that flag."

"Alright, fall in! Get back here and line up!" Having enjoyed the spectacle long enough, the instructor prepared to continue the training run.

The others had no choice but to give up and return to line up by the roadside with their heads hanging low. Just then, Steve, who had finally caught his breath, walked forward.

"Rogers, I said fall in!" Seeing Steve ignore the order and walk straight to the flagpole, the instructor barked at him sternly.

Steve ignored the instructor's furious shouting. He looked up at the flagpole, then bent down and pulled out the securing pin at its base. The flagpole immediately began to tilt.

"Clang!"

Under everyone's stunned gaze, the flagpole crashed to the ground. Steve stepped forward, easily took the flag, and Agent Carter smiled at him with a hint of approval.

Steve walked past the soldiers, who stared at him dumbfoundedly.

"Thanks, sir." Stuffing the flag into the stunned instructor's hands, Steve climbed into the back seat of the Jeep.

Agent Carter could not help laughing. She barely managed not to laugh out loud, and after Steve got in, Carter turned and nodded at him in the back seat.

The Jeep carried the two of them away, leaving a group of bewildered soldiers standing in the wind and dust.

The instructor watched Steve's carefree figure ride away in the Jeep, then lowered his head to look at the flag in his hands. He felt nothing but chaos deep inside...

Steve had once again stood out from the crowd, displaying his intelligence and winning Agent Carter's favor at the same time.