What Is Hidden Down There?

A heart?

The moment Chu Hang said that word, Steve and Logan's expressions changed.

If Chu Hang had said there was a patrol down there, or an armory hidden below, neither of them probably would have batted an eye. A patrol could be killed; an armory could be blown up. For people who treated bathing in a hail of bullets as routine, none of that was a problem.

But the word "heart" was an entirely different matter.

The word itself carried an indescribable sense of strangeness.

"Are you sure?" Steve's brows knotted together. The ease that had just left his blue eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by extreme vigilance. He lowered his voice, forcing every word through clenched teeth. "Is it a human heart, or... something else?"

Chu Hang closed his eyes and listened carefully again, then shook his head uncertainly.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "The sound is too heavy, too powerful. Thump... thump... Every beat makes it feel like the floor under my feet is shaking. A human heart couldn't make that much noise. It feels... like an elephant or a whale hiding underground."

After saying it, even he thought the comparison sounded ridiculous. This was the deep Austrian wilderness. Where the hell would they find an elephant or a whale?

Logan said nothing. He merely walked over, crouched down like Chu Hang had, and pressed his ear to the cold concrete floor. His furry ears twitched like a wild wolf sensing danger.

More than ten seconds later, he abruptly stood up, his face looking exceptionally grim.

"This smell's wrong," he said in his raspy voice, sniffing hard. "Do you smell it? Besides the motor oil and gunpowder, there's... blood. A lot of it, but it isn't fresh. It smells like blood that's been sitting for a long time, mixed with formaldehyde and rust. Fucking disgusting."

With that reminder, Chu Hang and Steve noticed it immediately as well.

An extremely strange, complex odor drifted up through the narrow gap at the stairwell in thin wisps. It had previously been masked by the thick smell of gunpowder smoke, but now that the smoke had dispersed, the strange stench became especially obvious.

It was fishy, sharp, and carried a cloying metallic sweetness that made their scalps tingle and their stomachs churn.

There was no need to doubt it anymore.

There was definitely a huge problem down there.

Steve's expression became graver than ever. As a natural commander, his mind raced as he weighed the pros and cons.

The original plan had been for the three of them to cut the power and disrupt the factory's defenses. Then the second squad, led by Dugan, would launch a frontal feint to draw Hydra's attention while they took advantage of the chaos to rescue the prisoners. It was a precise, tightly linked plan, with every timing point calculated to the second. Dugan and the others had surely already taken position outside, waiting for the signal from Steve's side when the power was cut.

But now, some unknown thing that sounded extremely dangerous had suddenly appeared beneath their feet.

If they ignored it, and it emerged while they were rescuing the prisoners to stab them in the back, the consequences would be unimaginable. Who knew what kind of inhuman monsters Hydra's mad scientists could concoct?

But if they went down to investigate now, they would inevitably delay the scheduled assault. On a battlefield, a delay of even one minute could cause the entire plan to collapse.

What should they do?

Chu Hang watched Steve's shifting expression, his own heart in turmoil.

Honestly, he was even more panicked than Steve and Logan.

Because something about this was wrong!

He had watched Captain America 1 no fewer than seven or eight times in his previous life, and he had binged so many commentary videos that he knew it all by heart. He clearly remembered that Hydra's Austrian factory had nothing hidden inside besides the captive Howling Commandos and some ordinary soldiers. Red Skull's trump cards were the Cosmic Cube and the Valkyrie, the plane capable of carrying nuclear bombs.

So what was this "heart" sound?

Had his tiny butterfly wings accidentally flapped the entire plot off course?

At that thought, cold sweat broke out across Chu Hang's back. The unknown was the most terrifying thing of all. He would rather face an entire division of German soldiers than touch some freakish thing that had never even appeared in the movie.

Just as his thoughts ran wild, Steve made his decision.

"I'll go down and take a look." His voice was not loud, but it carried unquestionable resolve. "We can't delay any longer. Logan, hold this position and control the power room. Chu Hang, keep using your ears to monitor the entire factory, especially the prisoner camp and Dugan's direction. If anything unusual happens, notify me immediately over the communicator."

After saying that, he began searching the power room for an entrance to the next level.

"No!" Chu Hang blurted out almost instantly. "Captain, it's too dangerous! We know nothing about what's down there. If you go alone and something—"

Steve turned and looked at him. His gaze was calm, yet it held an irresistible force. "Chu Hang, I'm the captain. Some risks have to be borne by me."

He quickly found a square metal hatch in an inconspicuous corner of the room. It fit seamlessly into the floor and was covered with discarded parts. Without a careful search, it would have been impossible to spot.

He moved the heavy parts away with his bare hands, revealing the hatch in full. It had a recessed combination lock that looked extremely sturdy.

Steve tried turning it, but the lock did not budge.

He stopped wasting time and shoved his fingers into the gap around the hatch. The muscles in his arms instantly bulged, and veins stood out like little snakes.

"Hey!"

He let out a low roar and suddenly exerted force through his waist and abdomen.

With a teeth-grinding creak of twisting metal, he forcibly tore the heavy steel hatch right out of the floor!

A pitch-black entrance leading into the unknown appeared before the three of them.

The strange smell of blood and motor oil instantly became more than ten times stronger, rushing straight at them.

Steve drew the Colt M1911 Pistol from his waist, checked the magazine, and prepared to go down without hesitation.

"Wait!" Chu Hang stopped him again.

Steve turned back and looked at him in confusion.

Chu Hang gritted his teeth, as if making up his mind. "I'm going with you! My ears will be more useful down there than up here. At the very least, I can tell you which direction the danger is coming from."

That was the truth. No matter how strong Steve was, he was still flesh and blood. In a completely unknown environment, the area his two eyes could see was ultimately limited. But Chu Hang was a human sonar system with no blind spots in any direction. In a cramped, enclosed place like this, he might be even more useful than Logan's claws.

Steve looked deeply into his eyes, seeming to assess the truth of his words—and perhaps whether he truly had the courage for it.

A few seconds later, he nodded.

"Fine."

Then he turned to Logan, his expression becoming incomparably serious. "Logan, the upper level is in your hands. Remember: if the two of us haven't returned within fifteen minutes, or if you hear any alarm coming from below, execute Plan B immediately."

"Plan B?" Chu Hang froze.

Logan grinned, pulled out the two stick grenades they had just confiscated, tossed them in his hand, then pointed at the two massive transformers in the center of the room. A cruel smile appeared on his face. "Plan B is stuffing these two 'potatoes' up those big bastards' 'asses,' then running."

Chu Hang understood. Plan B meant blowing up the entire power room, plunging the factory completely into paralysis and darkness, then escaping separately.

That was equivalent to admitting that the infiltration and rescue mission had completely failed.

Steve's decision had undoubtedly placed all their lives on these brief fifteen minutes.

"Take care, Captain." For once, Logan did not crack a joke. He merely spoke in a low voice.

Steve nodded, said no more, and was the first to slide down the ladder through the entrance.

Chu Hang took a deep breath of the foul air and climbed down after him.

Below was an entirely different world.

It was colder and far damper than the power room above. The walls were no longer rough concrete, but a special alloy that glimmered with a cold metallic sheen. Thick pipes of various colors covered them like the blood vessels and nerves of some enormous beast, stretching all the way into the depths of darkness.

The air was saturated with the heavy smell of disinfectant, yet it could not conceal the stench of blood mixed with motor oil.

What made Chu Hang's heart pound most was that sound.

"Thump... thump... thump..."

Down here, the enormous heartbeat had become clearer and more overwhelming. With every beat, Chu Hang could feel invisible sound waves surging from ahead, passing through his body and making his chest feel tight and his breathing difficult.

This definitely wasn't anything normal!

Steve had clearly felt it too. His grip on the pistol tightened further. He did not turn on a flashlight, relying instead on the enhanced night vision of a Super-Soldier as he cautiously observed the surroundings.

One in front and one behind, they stepped carefully across the metal floor toward the source of the sound.

The corridor was not long, perhaps only fifty meters. At its end stood an absurdly huge circular metal door, resembling the vault door of a bank. It was so heavy that it looked capable of withstanding a direct artillery strike.

That heavy pulse, like the heartbeat of some ancient beast, was coming from behind that door.

There was a palm-sized circular observation window in the door, fitted with an absurdly thick piece of dark glass.

Steve gestured for Chu Hang to stay where he was and keep watch, then silently moved closer by himself.

He reached out, wiped away a thick layer of dust from the observation window with his sleeve, and brought his eye close to it.

Chu Hang watched his back nervously, forgetting even to breathe.

He saw Steve's body suddenly stiffen the moment he looked through the window, like a statue instantly frozen in ice.

Time seemed to stop at that moment.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Steve slowly, extremely slowly, pulled his head away from the observation window.

He turned to look at Chu Hang.

In that instant, Chu Hang saw an expression he had never seen before.

That face, always filled with sunlight, confidence, and determination, was now covered in shock, horror, and a trace of... deep fear beyond words.

His lips trembled slightly, and his face was pale as paper.

He looked at Chu Hang, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty, then softly uttered two words in a dreamlike voice filled with overwhelming impact.

"Monster..."