Victory Returns

The blinding blue energy tide spread outward, annihilating everything it covered—walls, floors, even steel doors—in an instant.

"Aaaah!"

The bespectacled old doctor's screams were insignificant within it. His body gradually dissolved into nothingness until it completely evaporated.

The corridor walls shattered and collapsed, while the dust formed a shockwave that violently hurled Kyle away!

Several seconds later, everything finally began to settle.

At the end of the corridor, Red Skull tore off the disguise mask on his face, revealing a terrifying crimson skull visage.

He coldly looked at the ruined corridor before him, which had suffered devastating damage. After leaving behind the words, "Until we meet again, Super Soldier," he turned and left without looking back.

After a while, a bedraggled figure finally pushed himself up from the pile of rubble in the corridor. It was Kyle, who had narrowly escaped disaster.

"Cough, cough."

Kyle brushed the dust from his body and stared at the peeled human-skin mask on the floor at the end of the corridor. His voice was icy to the extreme. "Red Skull, next time... I swear, the next time I run into you, you'll die an ugly death!"

I'll write this grudge down in my little notebook for now!

Fortunately, there had been a meat shield in front of him to block most of the energy wave, and with the Vibranium Bracer's defense, Kyle had only had both sleeves burned away, with damage to the rest of his clothes as well.

"Still, I missed the best chance to seize the Tesseract." Kyle sighed inwardly. This time, he had truly suffered a hidden loss. He had underestimated Red Skull as a villain.

After all, Red Skull was the founder of Hydra. Even if he was slightly weaker than Steve and no match for Kyle, his sinister methods were still impossible to guard against.

At that moment, an alarm suddenly sounded from the central control room, only half of which remained intact. Kyle snapped back to his senses and rushed inside as if realizing something.

Black smoke rose from the central control console. Red German text on the main screen read, "Factory self-destruct countdown: 61 seconds," and the number continued to decrease.

Directly opposite the control room screen, an unconscious young man was tied bare-chested to an experimental table. On the wall beside him hung a large map with six flags scattered across it.

Kyle's attention immediately focused on the map, and a card-drawing prompt appeared in his mind.

German Factory Distribution Map:

A distribution map recording six German weapons manufacturing factories and bases. White Item Card.

Draw?

"Another map? Is this supposed to unlock the next stage?" Kyle blinked, a cold smile curling across his lips.

Run all you want, Red Skull. I'll wipe out your nests one by one first.

Just as Kyle turned the distribution map on the wall into a card, a tall figure suddenly rushed into the room. They looked at each other, both momentarily stunned.

"Kyle?"

"Steve?"

After making such a large circle, Kyle and Steve had reunited in the factory's control room.

"What happened here?" Steve asked in alarm as he surveyed the badly damaged control room.

"It's simple—the factory commander got impatient and threw an energy bomb at me to stop me." Kyle shrugged and nodded toward the young man lying in the room. "That's the person you came to rescue this time, right?"

"It's Bucky!" Steve was overjoyed when he saw the young man. He hurried over, trying to wake him.

"Just carry him out over your shoulder. This place is about to explode." As Kyle spoke, he pointed at the main screen. The countdown had only half a minute remaining.

Steve nodded and did as instructed, slinging his unconscious best friend over his shoulder. Just as Kyle was about to lead the way out, his peripheral vision caught sight of something on the control console.

Car Key:

The key to Red Skull's personal vehicle. This four-wheel-drive automobile was crafted with Germany's finest engineering and possessed astonishing horsepower. White Item Card.

"Perfect. Follow me!" Kyle snatched up the Car Key and led Steve toward the factory garage.

The half-minute countdown ended. Explosions erupted throughout the factory, and the New Energy Weapon supplies set off a chain of blasts. The flames lit up the wilderness beneath the night sky.

Outside the factory, a large number of liberated American prisoners had already seized the factory's New Energy Weapons and tanks, crushing the German troops stationed there.

When the factory began its self-destruction, all the American soldiers fled outward in a rush.

Just then, amid the backdrop of explosions and flames, the roar of an engine sounded, and a sleek, exquisite luxury car that looked like a work of art burst out.

"Follow my orders! Break through toward our base!" Kyle shouted from the driver's seat. He floored the accelerator and charged ahead, smashing straight through the factory's iron fence as though he were driving Red Skull's precious car like a tank.

"Follow them! Everyone, follow them!!"

When the American soldiers saw the conspicuously dressed Steve and Bucky in the car and recognized them as allies, they immediately cheered and surged after the vehicle into the vast dark wilderness.

One night passed.

At dawn, while the sky was still dim, Carter could no longer remain calm and went to the Training Base communications room to seek news.

"Second Lieutenant Kyle and Steve Rogers disappeared last night in the third post-battle zone. The factory there no longer shows any signs of life. The search team has returned, and we are preparing to officially report and register them as deceased."

Captain Brant personally received the telegram and coldly said to Carter, "Because of you, we have not only lost an outstanding officer and a publicity captain, but also the lives of more than a hundred soldiers!"

"If that is the result, I am willing to bear all responsibility." Carter responded calmly. She did not believe those two men could have died so easily on the battlefield.

"No matter what you say now..." Captain Brant stopped halfway through his sentence and turned his gaze toward the area behind him.

The sound of a car driving could faintly be heard from the wilderness outside the base.

"Look, what's that?"

"My God!"

The soldiers preparing to train inside the base gathered in surprise at the rear gate, then quickly split apart to make room.

A damaged luxury car led the way. Kyle sat in the driver's seat, driving slowly, while Steve and the awakened Bucky sat shoulder to shoulder in the back seat.

Behind the luxury car were more than a hundred American soldiers carrying New Energy Weapons. Though their faces were filled with exhaustion after fighting and breaking through all night, every step they took was incomparably firm.

They had returned!

"This kid, he really is—" When Captain Brant saw enemy tanks being driven back behind the group, he was completely speechless.

Had they looted the entire enemy factory?

Please give me one chance to prove my abilities as a soldier!

The young man's determined words still echoed faintly in his ears. At some point, the recruit who had first entered the base had rapidly become a hero who repeatedly created miracles.

"He really is extraordinary!"

Captain Brant finished his unfinished sentence and took the lead in applauding. The soldiers at the Training Base followed with applause of their own.

The thunderous applause echoed above the base for a long time without fading.