This Smell Was Way Too Intense!

Chu Hang plunged headfirst into the pitch-black drainage pipe and felt like his whole life had turned gray.

Oh my God, this smell was way too intense!

If the smell outside had merely been an appetizer, then now he felt like he had plunged into a biochemical weapons pool where aged pickled cabbage and a public toilet had fermented together for eight hundred years. The stench drilled into every pore from every direction, making his eyes stream with tears.

He instinctively wanted to hold his breath, but then remembered that he was a Super-Soldier now. His lung capacity was incredible; he could hold his breath for over ten minutes without breaking a sweat. The problem was, even if he could hold his breath, he could not stop the smell from drilling into his nose!

The icy sewage rose past his calves, thick and sticky, and who knew what delightful things were floating in it. Chu Hang only felt something soft beneath his feet, and every now and then, something slick would swim past his legs.

The thought of what those things might be made his stomach churn, and he nearly sprayed out the compressed biscuits he had eaten at noon.

Suppressing his nausea, he looked up at Steve, who was walking at the front.

Damn, Captain America really lived up to his name. Steve held a small waterproof flashlight in one hand and his beloved shield in the other, his back straight as he stepped through the sewage without splashing much water. The expression on his face was as calm as if he were strolling through his own backyard. It was downright infuriating. That foul stench, enough to knock someone unconscious, seemed no different to him than fresh country air.

Then he looked at Logan behind him. That man's expression was far more colorful.

Logan's features were practically twisted into a knot. His Beast-like sense of smell was practically a curse in this environment, and he was probably suffering several times Chu Hang's mental contamination. An unlit cigar hung from his mouth as low growls constantly rumbled from his throat, like a wild bear on the verge of going berserk.

"Fuck... this place smells worse than the bear dens I dug through in the forests of Canada," Logan finally muttered in a hoarse voice.

Chu Hang felt exactly the same. Wasn't that the truth? This place was simply not fit for humans. In his previous life, he had thought protagonists crawling through ventilation ducts and sewers looked cool as hell in movies. Now that it was his turn, he realized movies were all lies. Reality meant enduring the stench and claustrophobia while constantly worrying about stepping on something he really should not step on.

"Stay sharp." Steve's steady, powerful voice came from ahead, like a shot of adrenaline that cleared Chu Hang's nearly fume-addled mind. "Chu Hang, pay attention to the sounds around us. We don't know where this pipe leads or what might be inside."

"Got it." Chu Hang answered, forcing himself to shift his attention away from the revolting stench and focus on his ears.

The Super-Soldier Serum's enhanced hearing came into play again. He closed his eyes, and the nauseating smell around him seemed to fade somewhat as countless faint sounds gathered in his mind.

The rushing sound of sewage, the drip-drip of water falling from the top of the pipe, and the splashing sounds made by the three of them wading through the water.

Besides that, he heard something else.

"Front left, about fifty meters away. There's something there," Chu Hang said quietly.

Steve and Logan immediately stopped and warily looked in the direction he pointed. The flashlight's dim beam could not reach that far, and the path ahead remained a deep darkness.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"I hear a lot of... a lot of tiny crawling sounds. Rustling. And something chewing." Chu Hang frowned as he tried to distinguish them. "There are a lot of them. Sounds like... rats. Big ones."

Logan sniffed hard, his expression becoming even uglier. "He's right. I can smell that piss stink. Fuck, they're a bunch of big bastards."

Steve's brow furrowed as well. Rats in a sewer were nothing unusual, but this many of them, and this large, was abnormal. In a Hydra base, who knew what strange things they might have created?

"Can we go around them?"

"Probably not." Chu Hang shook his head. "The sound is coming from the entire cross-section of the pipe. They seem to have blocked the way ahead."

Steve was silent for a moment before making his decision. "Let's go take a look. Stay alert."

The three continued forward. The farther they went, the stronger the rats' distinctive musky stench became, mixing with the sewer's own foul odor to form something even more indescribable—a horrific smell enough to make an ordinary person pass out on the spot.

Soon, Steve's flashlight beam illuminated the scene ahead.

Even though Chu Hang had prepared himself, he still could not help sucking in a cold breath when he saw it.

The pipe ahead was packed with countless black rats. These rats were several times larger than any Chu Hang had seen before, each one the size of a kitten. Their blood-red eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty Greed beneath the flashlight beam, like countless red gemstones.

They seemed to be gnawing on something, producing teeth-grinding cracking sounds. At the center of the swarm, he could vaguely make out the skeleton of some unknown creature that had already been nearly stripped clean.

"My God..." Chu Hang felt his scalp go numb. If someone fell into that swarm, not even bone fragments would remain.

"Fuck! These little bastards!" Logan let out a low growl. He seemed to have an instinctive loathing for these filthy creatures, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged. He looked ready to pop his claws.

"Don't act rashly, Logan!" Steve grabbed his shoulder. "Too much noise will draw the people above down here."

Looking at the disgusting tide of rats before them, he analyzed the situation calmly. "They're just ordinary rats attracted by food. Their size probably mutated because of pollution from the factory waste. They're afraid of fire."

As he spoke, he took out a flare from his tactical backpack and snapped it hard.

"Psssh—"

With a soft hiss, a blazing red flame ignited in the dark pipe, staining everything around them with an eerie bloody glow.

The rats, which had been baring their teeth and preparing to move, immediately shrieked in terror at the sight of the flame, as if they had encountered a natural predator. The swarm instantly erupted into chaos. Countless rats surged toward the sides and ceiling of the pipe like a tide, desperately trying to get away from the flame that terrified them.

Very quickly, a path wide enough for one person to pass through was cleared through the swarm.

"Move!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Steve held the burning flare and strode through the "road" formed by the rats.

Chu Hang and Logan followed close behind.

Walking in the middle, Chu Hang felt like Moses parting the sea. Except there was no seawater on either side of him, only countless pairs of red-glowing eyes filled with resentment and Greed. He could even feel the heat radiating from the rats' bodies and their fear-raised fur brushing against his pant legs.

The feeling was fucking exhilarating.

After passing through the rat swarm without incident, the three walked another hundred meters or so before they reached a fork in the path.

One branch led left, the other right.

"Which way?" Logan was becoming impatient. He only wanted to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.

Steve was also troubled. The map had not marked the sewer layout. Taking the wrong path would not only waste precious time but could also lead them into unknown danger.

"Chu Hang?" He once again placed his hopes on Chu Hang.

Chu Hang nodded and closed his eyes again.

This time, he listened even more carefully.

The sound of water flowing through the left pipe seemed louder, and he could faintly hear a strange buzzing sound, like some kind of large fan turning.

And the pipe on the right...

Chu Hang's eyes snapped open.

"Right!" He pointed at the right-hand branch and spoke with certainty. "I hear... footsteps! And metal clashing! It's above us and slightly to the right! That side should be close to the factory's inner area!"

"Good! We'll take the right!" Steve decided immediately.

The three quickly turned and entered the pipe on the right.

This pipe was narrower than the main sewer and somewhat drier. Even the terrible stench seemed much lighter. The farther they went, the clearer the sounds Chu Hang heard from above became.

He could hear synchronized footsteps. They were probably patrolling soldiers.

He could hear the heavy clang of metal doors opening and closing.

He could even hear someone loudly berating something in German.

They were getting closer and closer to their target.

After they walked another two hundred meters or so, Steve, who was at the front, suddenly stopped.

"Dead end."

Chu Hang poked his head forward and saw a rusty metal ladder extending up from the sewage toward a square exit at the top of the pipe, sealed by an iron grate.

They were finally getting out!

Joy surged through Chu Hang's heart.

Steve made a quiet gesture, then silently climbed the ladder like a cat. He pressed himself against the cold pipe wall, brought his ear close to the iron grate, and carefully listened for movement outside.

A moment later, he gently nodded to the two below and mouthed, "Safe."

He gripped the iron grate with both hands, the muscles in his arms bulging again. This time, he controlled his strength and did not make too much noise. With only a teeth-grinding screech of twisting metal, he forcibly tore the seemingly solid iron grate out of the concrete.

A relatively fresh breath of air carrying the scent of motor oil and rust flowed in.

Chu Hang and Logan greedily inhaled, feeling as though they had come back to life.

Steve climbed out through the opening first, followed by Chu Hang, then Logan.

When Chu Hang's feet finally landed on solid concrete, he let out a long breath.

They had successfully infiltrated the place.

He looked around and found that they were in a narrow, dim corridor. It seemed to be an underground maintenance passage somewhere in the factory. Thick pipes and cables covered the ceiling, while dim explosion-proof lamps were spaced far apart along the walls. The air was filled with damp mildew and a heavy smell of motor oil.

"We're at the factory's northeast corner. This should be the underground level for the boiler room and power systems." Steve glanced at an internal layout map hanging on the wall and quickly made his assessment. "The electrical room is one floor above us, not far from here."

Just then, Chu Hang's ears twitched.

"Shh!" He suddenly raised a hand and lowered his voice. "Someone's coming! Two people! Heavy footsteps—they should be patrol soldiers wearing heavy combat boots! They're less than thirty meters away!"

The moment he finished speaking, clear footsteps and German conversation came from around the corridor's corner.

Steve and Logan's gazes instantly sharpened.

Steve quickly scanned the surroundings, pointed to a pile of clutter covered with oilcloth nearby, and gestured for them to hide.

The three immediately slipped behind the clutter and held their breaths.

The footsteps came closer and closer...

Chu Hang's heart rose into his throat. He gripped the MP40 in his hands tightly, his palms covered in sweat.

Now things were about to get real.