Death Countdown

"30! 29! 28..."

William stared intensely at the counting numbers, his heart pounding faster and faster, his face drenched in sweat.

To uncover the secrets of the Skull Gang, he had prepared a meticulous plan, even mapping out his escape route, but he never expected the flash drive to contain a terrifying self-destruct program!

He scanned his surroundings, relieved to find no one paying him any mind, and ruffled his messy hair.

In those blockbuster movies, self-destruct devices were always horrific things; he dared not imagine the destructive power that would be unleashed once this one detonated.

"24! 23! 22..."

William pressed the laptop's power button hard, but it seemed broken, showing no reaction at all. He began to regret renting such a piece of junk; it was going to get him killed at the most critical moment!

"Got it!"

He glanced at the laptop's battery, thinking that if he cut the power completely to shut the computer down, it should stop the countdown.

Without hesitation, he summoned his courage and yanked the battery out.

As he grabbed the battery, he scrambled under the table, lowered his head, and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Sir, sir, are you alright?" A waitress nearby noticed William's strange behavior and hurried over, asking with a look of concern.

"Don't come over, stay back! It's dangerous here!" William opened his eyes to see the waitress's long legs and waved his hands frantically, terrified.

The waitress looked at William as if he were an idiot, wondering if the man had some kind of mental illness.

William had hidden away fearing the flash drive would explode once the power was cut, but no explosion occurred, so he sat back down in his seat.

Under normal circumstances, a laptop without a battery should have shut down long ago.

But as William returned to his seat, he was shocked to see the computer hadn't turned off; the screen hadn't even dimmed. The familiar Skull Gang logo remained, and the self-destruct countdown continued!

"20! 19! 18..."

Why was this happening? William widened his eyes. How could a laptop without power continue to function? Was it haunted in broad daylight?

With that thought, William looked at the flash drive still blinking with a blue light. Perhaps the computer's state was linked to the drive? Maybe if he pulled it out, the self-destruct would end.

But just as his hand touched the drive, he hesitated.

He figured that if he could think of it, the creator of this drive certainly could too. A computer working without power was already bizarre; for all he knew, the moment he pulled the drive out, the device would detonate!

No, that method wouldn't work!

If all else failed, he would have to grab the laptop and run, getting as far away from the cafe and the crowds as possible; perhaps that would minimize the casualties.

He began to hate himself for not being a hacker; maybe then he could have disabled the countdown. But thinking about that now was useless; he had to get out of here immediately.

Wait! A hacker?

Just as he grabbed the laptop to run, he suddenly remembered something. He recalled the reward he had drawn from the Overwatch System earlier: that Sombra skill card!

"I can hack anything... and anyone..." Sombra's beautiful figure appeared in the air.

Sombra: Hack: This skill can hack any network, computer, or electronic device.

Note: This skill card is a one-time consumable and can only be used once.

"Athena, Hack!" There was no time to hesitate; William immediately activated the skill card.

In an instant, the entire laptop was swept by a purple glow. The light appeared and vanished in a flash; the red light on the flash drive stopped blinking and turned purple.

"16! 15! 14."

The death countdown finally stopped.

William gasped for air, his shirt soaked through with sweat. He downed the rest of his coffee, finally managing to steady his nerves.

He had opened the skill card from a loot box yesterday. Since it was a one-time use, he had decided not to use it unless absolutely necessary.

He hadn't expected such a moment to arrive so soon, but thankfully he had Sombra's skill, or he would have been in serious trouble today.

The moment Hack was released, William saw the entire structure of the flash drive. There was no tracking device inside, and the self-destruct mechanism had been successfully neutralized.

Hidden deep within the drive was a deeper storage layer, one that required a level-two password to unlock—a password that required a specific person's fingerprint.

That was all the information William could see. He had used the Hack skill once and essentially decoded the secrets of the drive, but for the deeper layers, he needed that person's fingerprint.

Perhaps once he successfully obtained the hero Sombra, he would be able to fully unlock the secrets of the drive.

Regardless, he had survived another brush with death. Had he not drawn the Hack skill card earlier, he would have been a dead man.

With that thought, he looked at the computer screen again, and the original Skull Gang logo was slowly changing.

The white skull was being rendered in a blood-red hue, and the black snake in its mouth gradually vanished.

Beneath the skull, six tentacles resembling those of an octopus appeared, set against a black circular background...

William's expression shifted instantly. He was all too familiar with this emblem, for it belonged to the infamous organization in the Marvel world—

Hydra!

Hydra was a supervillain organization in the Marvel universe, named after the multi-headed serpent from Greek mythology. Legend had it that it possessed nine heads, and if one were cut off, two more would grow in its place.

This became the motto and creed of Hydra, symbolizing its immortality and endless reach.

During World War II, Red Skull became obsessed with mythology and ancient power, eventually discovering the Tesseract based on Norse legends. He soon betrayed his superiors, intending to use the power of the Cube to win the war and dominate the entire world.

The Allied forces established the Strategic Scientific Reserve, using the Super Soldier Serum to create the first superhero in history—Captain America. Captain America led his Howling Commandos to defeat Hydra and shatter the Red Skull's conspiracy.

In the end, the Red Skull vanished into the brilliant radiance of the Tesseract, while both the cube and Captain America sank into the frigid ocean.

"This is truly hair-pulling." With the threat of self-destruction gone, William pulled out the USB drive and carefully tucked it into his pocket.

Although he didn't know what secrets were hidden within the drive, anything related to Hydra would cause a global uproar if discovered by others!

I wonder if anyone has guessed it?