Time, for Chu Hang, has lost its meaning.
He seemed to have sunk into the boundless the Deep, where absolute zero darkness enveloped everything. There was no light, no sound, no touch, and even the spark of thought was completely extinguished the moment he fell into that darkness.
Who is he? Where is he? How long has it been?
Don't know anything.
Everything is Void.
The energy forcibly copied from Cosmic Cube, as vast as the sea of stars, was currently carrying out the most primitive and savage destruction in his body. It was like a giant beast imprisoned in a china shop, frantically tearing and crushing every cell in his body, trying to completely erase his existence from the material level.
But there are two other forces in Chu Hang's body that are stubbornly resisting this destruction.
One is [S-Class Healing Factor], the foundation for his survival. It is like a tireless maintenance worker. The moment Cosmic Energy destroys a cell, it immediately starts repairing it. Although the speed of repair is far behind the pace of destruction, it never gives up and stubbornly maintains the basic integrity of Chu Hang's body structure, preventing him from turning into a handful of cosmic dust on the spot and dissipating invisible.
The other force is [Super-Soldier Serum]. It is more like an extremely tough inner framework, strengthening every corner of Chu Hang's body. From the density of bones to the toughness of cell membranes, it has reached a strength far beyond that of ordinary people. If we talk about ordinary people Tongren's body is a house made of wood, so Chu Hang's body is a fortress made of reinforced concrete. Cosmic Energy's destructive power is certainly terrifying, but it will take more time and energy to completely destroy this fortress.
As a result, a strange and terrifying balance quietly formed inside his body.
Destroy, repair, destroy again, repair again.
This endless cycle, in the endless darkness and ice, lasted for a long, long time.
Long enough to turn the sea into mulberry fields and turn the once glorious dynasty into dust in the history books.
I don't know how many years have passed.
The ice layer that originally enveloped Chu Hang has long since broken away from the coastline of Greenland due to the great movement and division of the glacier, and turned into a huge iceberg floating on Arctic Ocean. Following the unknown ocean current, it embarked on an aimless and lonely journey on the cold and bitter ocean.
Finally, a powerful warm current arrived unexpectedly and completely changed its course. It began to drift slowly southward, and the huge ice mass gradually melted in the increasingly warm water, and its volume became smaller and smaller.
Finally, one day in 1995, the iceberg that once sealed the two legendary soldiers met its end in a sea area near the California coastline and completely fell apart.
The wreckage of the plane named "Valkyrie", together with the bodies of Steve·Rogers, sank into the deeper and darker seabed, waiting quietly for decades to be discovered by the sons of Howard·Stark.
As for Chu Hang, his luck seems to be a little better.
A huge ice floe wrapped around him was caught by a strong undercurrent and pushed violently to the shore just around the corner.
Wow--
With a violent impact, the ice floe shattered. Chu Hang's body, like a piece of garbage abandoned by time, was washed up on a deserted beach by the surging waves.
The warm California sunshine shone for the first time on his overly young face that had been frozen for fifty years.
This warmth from the outside seemed to be the last straw that broke the camel's back, completely breaking the terrifying balance in his body that had lasted for half a century. Healing Factor and Super-Soldier Serum, which had been suppressed, seemed to have received powerful reinforcements and began a crazy counterattack. And the violent Cosmic Energy finally showed a trace of fatigue after fifty years of continuous consumption and wear.
Chu Hang's eyelids trembled slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Immediately afterwards, he opened his eyes suddenly, like a drowning man who was dying, desperately breathing in the fresh air that he had not seen for a long time.
"Cough... cough!"
The bitterly cold sea water with a strong smell of rust was violently coughed out of his lungs. He lay on the beach in a state of embarrassment. Every time he coughed, his internal organs were affected, and he felt as if his body was being burned by a fire. The pain was excruciating.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Am... still alive?
The chaotic memory fragments were like a bursting tide, rushing into his blank brain. The smoke of World War II, the comrades of Howling Commandos, the determined back of Steve, the crazy smile of Red Skull, and the Cosmic Cube that was touched at the last moment... as well as the falling plane and the endless coldness.
He struggled to raise his head and looked around blankly.
This is an unfamiliar beach, with steep cliffs behind it and the endless blue sea in front of it. The sun is a bit dazzling, and the air is warm and humid.
Everything seems normal.
But soon, he noticed something was wrong.
In the distant sky, a dazzling white line cut through the sky, accompanied by a deafening roar. It was an aircraft that should not have appeared in the World War II era. Its shape was close to the design of the 21st century, and its speed was astonishingly fast.
Further on the sea level, a huge ship, like a steel city, was slowly passing by. Its huge size reminded him of the Titanic he had seen before crossing.
He lowered his head and looked at himself. The combat uniform on his body, which was relatively sophisticated during the World War II period, was now in tatters, clinging to his body wetly, exuding an indescribable musty smell.
He propped up his weak body and staggered up a sand dune.
When he saw the scene on the other side of the dune, his whole body froze, as if a restraining spell had been cast on him.
On a flat and wide Black Noir road, cars of different colors and smooth shapes were speeding past.
"What... is this place?" He murmured to himself, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of sandpaper were being rubbed together.
Just when his mind went blank and he was completely unable to understand what he saw in front of him, two Black Noir, square cars suddenly roared out from the corner of the road, made a beautiful sudden brake, and stopped steadily on the roadside not far away.
The car door opened almost at the same time, and several men wearing Black Noir suits and sunglasses quickly got out of the car. Their movements were crisp and clean, their eyes scanned the surroundings warily, and they all held guns in their hands. These people quickly fanned out and silently surrounded Chu Hang, who was standing alone on the sand dunes.
Two people got out of the leading car.
One of them was a black man in his thirties. He was wearing a straight suit that made him tall and tall, and his eyes were as sharp as a falcon. Although his face had no expression, his whole body exuded an aura of "don't mess with me" and keep strangers away.
The other was a younger white man, who looked to be in his twenties, with a formulaic smile that was just right, as if it had been measured with a ruler. He didn't look threatening, but his position was very particular, and he blocked the black man's side and front without leaving any trace, forming a protective posture.
Chu Hang's eyes swept over them, and then fell on the strange-looking Black Noir pistol in their hands, and his brain started working rapidly.
These people were not Germany people, nor were they any Allies troops he was familiar with. Their temperament and equipment exuded an indescribable eliteness and mystery.
"Don't move, raise your hands." The young white man spoke, his voice was gentle and polite, but the gun in his hand was held very firmly, and the muzzle did not move at all. "We don't mean any harm, we just want to ask you a few questions."
It was in English. Chu Hang understood it, which made him feel a little relieved.
He slowly raised his hands to show that he was not a threat. He was now so weak that it was difficult to even stand still, and the restless Cosmic Energy in his body was still aching. Not to mention resisting, he had no doubt that if the other party just pushed him lightly, he might fall apart on the spot.
The sharp-eyed black man stepped forward and stood a few steps in front of him. His eyes lingered on the tattered World War II military uniform worn by Chu Hang for a moment, and then he glanced at his overly young face, frowning slightly.
"Who are you?" the black man said, his voice low and magnetic, with an unquestionable sense of majesty and oppression, "Why do you appear here? This is a military restricted area."
Chu Hang opened his mouth, but found that he didn't know how to answer at all.
He said he was a World War II soldier? He had just been thawed out of ice? Only a lunatic would believe this.
"I... I don't know." He could only choose the answer that was closest to the truth, his voice dry and hoarse, "When I woke up, I was on this beach."
The young white man seemed to want to say something, but was stopped by the black man's look.
The black man took two steps forward, squatted down, and used tweezers to carefully pick up a piece of blood mixed with fine ice residue that was coughed up by Chu Hang, and sealed it in a transparent evidence bag. After doing all this, he stood up and his eyes fell on Chu Hang's face again, his eyes seemed to be able to see through the deepest secrets of people's hearts.
"Last question." His tone was calm, "What year is it now?"
Chu Hang was stunned.
He subconsciously blurted out this question, "1945."
Hearing this answer, the young white man's face flashed with unconcealable surprise, while the black man's eyes became deeper and more solemn.
He stood up straight, spoke to the communicator in his ear, and ordered in an emotionless tone, "The target has been confirmed, his identity is unknown, his mental state is suspected to be chaotic, he claims to be from 1945. Take him back and activate A-Class Isolation Protocol."
After saying that, he stopped looking at Chu Hang, turned around and walked towards the car.
Two agents in black immediately stepped forward, one on the left and one on the right to hold the weak Chu Hang, and took him to one of the Black Noir cars. Chu Hang did not resist, he felt that his body was still recovering, and there was no need to create chaos to attract attention. What he needed now was information about the current world.
In the last few seconds before getting in the car, he clearly heard the conversation between the two people.
"Fury, do you think what he said is true? In 1945?" The young white man, Phil·Coulson, asked in a low voice as he quickly followed Nick Fury.
"Whether it is true or not, it doesn't matter, Coulson." Fury's footsteps did not pause at all. "What is important is that a man wearing a military uniform from fifty years ago appeared intact at the door of the 'Project Pegasus' base. This in itself is not a normal thing."
"Project Pegasus"?
"Fifty years"?
These two words were like an invisible heavy hammer, hitting Chu Hang's mind hard. With a "buzz" sound, he understood something instantly.
He was put into the car and the door slammed shut. Through the car window, he saw the world outside rapidly regressing. He finally understood what happened to him.
He didn't travel to another world.
He just... slept for fifty years.
When I woke up, everything was turned upside down.
A pure white room. The walls, ceiling, floor, and even the tables and chairs in the center of the room are all pure white, without any extraneous furnishings. Chu Hang put on the same white clothes and sat quietly on a white chair.
He has been locked up here for several days.
Food and water were delivered regularly every day, and researchers in white coats came over to scan his body with various instruments he couldn't understand, take his blood samples, and ask him some inexplicable and logically jumping questions.
Chu Hang was very cooperative.
Because here, through indirect conversations with the researchers and guard agents, he finally pieced together the vague appearance of this new world.
It's 1995 now.
The Second World War has long since ended, and the entire world has undergone earth-shaking changes. The full name of the mysterious organization he belongs to is the "Strategic Territorial Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Bureau", or "S.H.I.E.L.D." for short. And he was imprisoned. The place is the "Project Pegasus" secret base jointly established by S.H.I.E.L.D. and U.S. Air Force. Its core research project is the energy extracted from Cosmic Cube.
Everything is right.
Steve fell into the glacier with him, and Captain America has since become an inspiring legend. But he himself, by some strange combination of circumstances, woke up exactly fifty years later, and was sent directly to the core base for studying Cosmic Cube Energy without any bias.
This fateful arrangement is simply more coincidental than the movie script written by Howard·Stark.
In the past few days, he finally had time to calm down and carefully check his physical condition.
[Superpower Copier] The system had been restarted the day after he woke up. But its state was extremely poor, with flashing garbled characters and dazzling red [Warning] words everywhere on the system interface.
[System status: severely damaged. The energy core is overloaded and is repairing itself... Estimated repair time: unknown.]
[Host status: On the verge of collapse. There is unanalyzable high-dimensional energy in the body, which has a severe rejection reaction with the host Life Law form. Healing Factor and Super-Soldier Serum are barely maintaining Life Law physical signs.]
[Warning: Before the system repair is completed and the high-dimensional energy conflict is resolved, the host must not use the copy function again, otherwise the system and the host will be Oblivion at the same time.]
Chu Hang felt quite cold after reading this information.
To put it simply, he is now an unlucky man sleeping with a nuclear bomb that may explode at any time. The energy from Cosmic Cube cannot be controlled at all. Instead, it is like a time bomb that may blow him to pieces at any time. And the golden finger that he relies on for survival has also shut down because of this risky gamble. Whether it can be repaired and when it can be repaired are all unknown.
The only consolation is that his physical strength is still there. After the fusion of Healing Factor and Super-Soldier Serum, his physical strength and recovery power are still far beyond ordinary people, but now most of his strength has been mobilized to suppress the unstable "nuclear bomb" in his body.
"Damn, I really lost it this time." Chu Hang leaned on the cold back of the chair and sighed helplessly.
Just then.
Woo--woo--woo--!!!
The entire base suddenly sounded an extremely harsh, highest-level alarm! The white overhead light in the room, which represented safety, instantly turned into a rapidly flashing blood red, dyeing the entire pure white space with an ominous scarlet!
"Alert! Alert! UFOs appear over the base! Repeat! UFOs appear over the base!"
"The roof of Area A was penetrated! Unidentified people fell in! Requesting immediate support from the tactical team!"
The voice on the radio was full of panic and confusion, mixed with the faint sound of explosions in the distance.
Chu Hang suddenly stood up from the chair.
Coming!
His eyes suddenly burst out with a fascinating light. He knew that this was his only chance to escape!
The origin event of Captain Marvel officially kicked off today, right here and now!
And the ultimate antidote that can solve the "nuclear bomb" in his body has also arrived!