This Map Is Definitely Wrong

Fuck, we got played.

Those three words were like a bucket of ice water poured from Chu Hang's head to his heels, chilling him to the bone.

In that instant, Hydra, Captain America, and the goddamn mission all vanished from his mind. All that remained was the cold fury of being fooled and toyed with, followed by an overwhelming fear that surged over him like a tide.

He wasn't an idiot.

In his previous life, he had spent years scraping by in society. He had seen too many word games buried in contracts and heard too many empty promises from bosses. When it came to the word "trap," he had an almost Beast-like instinct for it.

The distance shown on the map was nowhere near the distance he could see with his own eyes!

According to the map's scale, their current position should have been at least seven or eight kilometers from that factory, separated by several mountain ridges. On a snowy night like this, forget seeing lights—even if the other side set off fireworks, all you would see would be a faint glow on the horizon.

But now?

Not only could he see that endless stretch of lights, he could even vaguely make out the outlines of the factory's towering buildings. That meant their straight-line distance from the factory was definitely no more than two kilometers!

Fuck, they had practically shoved their faces right in front of the enemy's surveillance cameras!

Why?

The only explanation was that the map was fake! Or rather, from the very beginning, this map had never been meant for people on their own side.

Cold sweat instantly soaked Chu Hang's back.

He remembered now. He had taken this map from the Hydra squad leader he had killed. At the time, he had been too busy celebrating his lucky find to think any deeper about it.

Now that he considered it carefully, there were far too many suspicious details!

What unit's patrol map would be drawn so "artistically"? Crooked lines, an unclear scale, and crude sketches for key locations. This was not a military map meant for soldiers to use on a battlefield at all!

What did it resemble more? It was more like... false intelligence deliberately leaked to lure in and mislead the enemy!

Those Hydra bastards had surely captured Allied prisoners or spies more than once. They could easily have deliberately let prisoners see maps like this through various channels "by accident," or simply placed one on an officer who was bound to be discovered.

Then, those poor fools who had finally escaped, or thought they had obtained vital intelligence, would be just like him—following this map and smugly taking what they believed was a "safe" route.

But they would never realize that this so-called "safe route" was actually a death trap carefully prepared for them by Hydra!

That place labeled "Hunter's Cabin" might not have been a shelter at all. It could have been an observation post packed with land mines and surveillance equipment! If they had really dragged Gabe straight there, they would probably already have become the brightest stars in the sky.

"Chu... what's wrong?" Gabe on the sled sensed that something was off as well. He saw Chu Hang frozen in place, staring at the distant factory, his face frighteningly grim.

Chu Hang did not answer immediately. He suddenly crouched down and dragged the sled behind several thick spruce trees. Their dense branches and accumulated snow temporarily concealed them.

Only then did he lower his voice to a near whisper. "Gabe, we've been played. This map is fake."

Gabe Jones was an experienced veteran too. He froze for a moment, then followed Chu Hang's gaze toward the distant factory. After one look, his face turned deathly pale.

As a soldier, he understood the relationship between distance and visibility better than Chu Hang did. At such close range, they had dragged the sled through open ground for so long. It had been no different from taking a stroll right under the enemy's noses.

"Those Nazi sons of bitches!" Gabe cursed under his breath, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He instinctively gripped his carbine tighter and warily scanned the darkness around them.

"We weren't spotted just now... were we?" he asked nervously.

"I don't know." Chu Hang shook his head, uncertain himself. "But we can't gamble on it. From now on, we have to assume a search party is already heading this way."

Fear was like an invisible hand tightly clutching both their hearts.

Only at that moment did Chu Hang truly understand what war was. It was not a movie. It was not a game. There was no chance to reload and start over. One wrong step, one tiny oversight, could doom you beyond redemption. His pitiful foresight from movies was as fragile as paper before the true cruelty of reality.

What now?

Go back? Return to that cave? No, it would be discovered sooner or later.

Keep heading toward Hunter's Cabin? That would be even more suicidal.

For a time, they seemed trapped in a dead end.

"Chu, listen to me." Gabe's voice suddenly became exceptionally calm. He grabbed Chu Hang's arm, his eyes carrying the determination unique to a soldier. "Leave me here. Find somewhere to hide me. Go alone—your target will be smaller, and it'll be easier to avoid them. Find the captain and complete the mission. Don't worry about me. That's an order!"

This again.

Chu Hang looked at him, feeling both annoyed and amused, along with a trace of indescribable warmth.

He patted Gabe's hand and shook his head. "Save it, Gabe. First, you're not my commanding officer, so you can't order me around. Second, the Howling Commandos do not abandon any teammate. I don't want to say that a third time."

He paused and took a deep breath, forcing his wildly pounding heart to settle down.

The more dangerous things became, the more he needed to stay calm. That was the only useful lesson he had learned from countless overtime shifts and being hassled by his boss.

"The map is fake, but our brains aren't." Chu Hang's gaze sharpened again. "Hydra wants to play us? Then we'll play with them properly."

He crumpled the damned map into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he closed his eyes and focused all his attention on his hearing.

The Healing Factor was fundamentally an ability granted by the X-Gene. After copying it, aside from its greatest restorative power, it had strengthened Chu Hang's body in every aspect. The improvement was not huge, but at the very least, his hearing was far sharper than an ordinary person's.

The wind, the soft rustle of snow falling onto leaves, the crack of distant branches snapping under accumulated snow... countless tiny sounds flowed into his ears like trickling streams, forming an invisible map of sound in his mind.

Gabe watched Chu Hang stand there with his eyes closed, as though listening to something, but did not interrupt. From this young Eastern comrade, he felt a steadiness and reliability beyond his years. That feeling gradually calmed his own panicked heart.

A few minutes later, Chu Hang's eyes snapped open.

"Follow me!"

Without another moment of hesitation, he grabbed the sled and turned toward a direction completely opposite to their original plan.

It was a lower-lying depression where the trees grew even denser.

"Where are you going?" Gabe asked in confusion.

"To find a place that's actually safe." Chu Hang dragged the sled laboriously through the uneven snow as he explained, "Listen. Can you hear running water upwind?"

Gabe tilted his head and listened carefully. Sure enough, between gusts of wind, he could hear an extremely faint rushing sound.

"The river!" Gabe immediately understood. "The river we jumped into when we were hiding from the pursuers!"

"That's right!" A smile tugged at Chu Hang's lips. "Hydra's map led us toward the high, open trap zone. What does that tell us? It tells us that this lower area closer to the water is instead a weak point in their defenses. Because in their eyes, no one would be stupid enough to run toward a river in winter."

"And where there's a river, there are riverbanks. Riverbanks are constantly eroded by flowing water, making them the most likely places for natural caves and rock crevices to form. That's far safer than some man-made Hunter's Cabin!"

Gabe was dumbfounded. He could not understand how, in just a few short minutes, Chu Hang's mind had taken so many turns and immediately come up with an entirely new plan that sounded damn feasible.

He watched Chu Hang drag the sled ahead of him. That back was not particularly broad, yet at that moment, it seemed incomparably tall and dependable.

The road ahead was far harder to travel than before.

The snow in the depression was deeper, and every step cost Chu Hang enormous effort. The sled would also get caught on tree roots or rocks from time to time, forcing him to stop and clear the way. His strength was draining rapidly. Sweat ran down his forehead and quickly froze into a layer of white frost on his eyebrows.

Yet his steps never stopped, and he showed no sign of panic.

After walking for some time, they finally heard the clear sound of flowing water. Pushing aside the last patch of brush, they found a river roughly seven or eight meters wide before them, not yet completely frozen over.

White mist rose from the river in the frigid air. Along the bank, just as Chu Hang had predicted, were rocks and crevices of all sizes carved out by the water.

Chu Hang's gaze swept over the area rapidly, and he soon found a target.

At an inconspicuous bend in the riverbank, beneath a massive boulder, there was a pitch-black opening concealed by vines and dead grass. The opening was not large, just enough for a person to bend over and crawl inside.

"That's it!"

He pulled the sled to the entrance, then cautiously poked his head inside to check. Only after confirming there were no wild beasts or other creepy things inside did he call for Gabe to come down.

Working together, they got Gabe into the narrow yet surprisingly dry and warm rock cave.

The cave was small, less than ten square meters, but for two fugitives desperately in need of somewhere to hide, it was practically a five-star presidential suite.

Chu Hang moved all their equipment inside, then gathered dry branches and vines from outside and cleverly camouflaged the entrance. From the outside, no one would ever realize there was a cave hidden there.

Only after finishing all that did Chu Hang finally let out a breath. He slumped against the cold rock wall as though his whole body had fallen apart, unable to move even a finger.

He was exhausted.

Not only physically, but mentally from the prolonged tension and strain.

Gabe looked at his exhausted state, his eyes full of gratitude and guilt. "Chu, thank you. If it weren't for you..."

"Enough, don't say that." Chu Hang waved a hand, cutting him off. "We're safe for now. Get some rest and heal that leg. I need to... I need to figure out how much time we have left."

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into his mind.

That cold countdown was still ticking tirelessly.

[Superpower Copier] cooldown remaining: 2 days 19 hours.

There was not much time left.

He did not know how Captain America was doing now, nor did he know where the rest of the Howling Commandos were. He only knew that he had to reach that damned factory within two days.

But now, he had not even figured out the factory's true location, and he had a severely wounded man with him.

Chu Hang opened his eyes and glanced through the gap in the cave entrance's camouflage at the deep night sky outside, a sky that seemed as though dawn would never come. For the first time, he felt a trace of doubt about this mission.

Maybe Gabe was right.

Maybe he really should... go alone?