Energy Can Be Copied Too!

The world was finally fucking quiet.

The explosions that had been louder than a rock concert, the metallic shrieks more miserable than slaughtered pigs—all of it had been completely silenced by that final deafening blast, comparable to a small nuclear explosion.

Chu Hang collapsed onto the snow on his ass, feeling like some unlucky bastard who had run an eight-hundred-kilometer marathon and then gotten run over by a dump truck three times. His chest heaved like a broken bellows, and not a single part of his body wasn't screaming that it was about to fall apart.

He was exhausted.

Truly exhausted—more exhausted than he had ever been after grinding through a project for an entire month straight.

Since coming to this world, this was the first time he had fought such a high-end world boss. That thing had been like a giant mech stitched together with a terrifying monster, putting his mental pressure through the roof. Every second, his nerves had been taut as guitar strings, terrified that one careless moment would get him stomped into a two-dimensional creature.

The muscle fibers he had strained from his violent output were rapidly repairing themselves under the combined effects of the Super-Soldier Serum and his Healing Factor.

The two powerful abilities had achieved highly efficient synergy within his body.

Chu Hang subconsciously clenched his fist, feeling the strength that seemed capable of crushing metal. He understood now. Only after this battle had he truly stabilized the power of the Super-Soldier Serum. He was far stronger now than he had been before the fight.

A long, bellows-like gasp came from beside him.

Turning his head, Chu Hang saw Steve Rogers kneeling on one knee, using his iconic shield to brace himself against the ground. Captain America was breathing heavily, but his blue eyes gleamed with the relief of surviving the disaster and an unshakable resolve.

"You all right?" Steve asked between heavy breaths, his voice hoarse but full of concern.

"Won't die." Chu Hang grinned, flashing a row of white teeth as he lightly sprang out of the snowpit. "I feel... better than ever."

Steve looked at Chu Hang and smiled in relief as well. He nodded, then turned his gaze elsewhere.

Logan lay sprawled in the snow in the shape of a starfish. The arm Chu Hang had used as an "armor-piercing drill" had already mostly recovered under the effects of his Healing Factor, as though the horrifying injury from before had been nothing more than an illusion.

"Hey, old man, still alive?" Chu Hang called out to him.

Logan said nothing. He merely raised a hand and gave the gray sky a crystal-clear middle finger.

"Fine, looks like you've got plenty of spirit left." Chu Hang shrugged.

Steve got to his feet, walked over to Chu Hang, and extended a hand. Chu Hang paused for a moment, then took it. With a pull, the captain steadily hauled him up.

"Nicely done, Chu." Steve gave Chu Hang's shoulder a firm pat, strong enough to make an ordinary person bare their teeth in pain. "If it hadn't been for you just now, we might all have died here."

"Don't say that, Captain." Chu Hang hurriedly returned the compliment. "If you hadn't jumped down first to draw its fire, we wouldn't even have gotten close to that thing."

The two exchanged a glance. A trust and tacit understanding forged through life and death met in their eyes.

"We need to confirm it." Steve looked toward the massive smoking wreckage in the distance. "Make sure that thing is completely finished."

Chu Hang and Logan both agreed. Finishing off the enemy was standard procedure.

Supporting one another, the three trudged unevenly toward the ruins. The closer they got, the stronger the strange stench of motor oil, burnt circuitry, and unknown substances became. Logan's nose twitched, and he frowned. "No living scent left. It's dead for sure. But this smell... it's strange."

Chu Hang also focused, using his enhanced hearing to scan the wreckage. There was only dead silence—no heartbeat or any other signs of life.

"Wait." Chu Hang suddenly stopped. "There's movement."

"What?" Steve immediately went on alert.

"Something's making noise." Chu Hang pointed toward the center of the wreckage, where they had attacked before. "A humming sound, high frequency. Like some device is on standby."

The three exchanged looks and immediately rushed toward the source. After prying away a twisted armor plate, they saw it—a basketball-sized metal sphere covered in unknown runes, along with three fresh claw marks, clearly Logan's handiwork. The sphere emitted a faint blue glow, and the humming came from within it.

Steve instinctively reached out to touch it, but Chu Hang grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Don't touch it, Captain!" Chu Hang's expression was grave. "Something's wrong with this thing. Very wrong!"

Chu Hang could sense an extremely violent yet familiar energy fluctuation contained within the little sphere.

The Cosmic Cube!

Though the energy intensity was worlds apart, that vast sensation originating from space could not be mistaken! Hydra had actually already mastered preliminary technology for utilizing the energy of the Infinity Stones!

An instinctive craving rose from the depths of Chu Hang's heart. Every cell in his body seemed to be clamoring to devour that energy.

[Ding! High-purity Cosmic Cube energy source detected! Begin replication?]

[Warning: This energy source is extremely unstable. The host's current physique may be unable to withstand it completely. Forced replication carries risks...]

Chu Hang's heartbeat accelerated.

Gamble! He had to gamble! Opportunities like this were rare!

He silently said in his heart, "Replicate!"

[Ding! Beginning replication of [Degraded Cosmic Cube Energy]... Replication progress: 1%... 5%...]

He remained outwardly calm, but inwardly, he was tense.

"We have to take it with us." Steve's voice interrupted his thoughts. "We absolutely can't leave this thing here. Howard Stark will definitely be interested in it."

In the end, they carefully wrapped the dangerous "power bank" in canvas, with Steve carrying it himself.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from afar. The members of the Howling Commandos had arrived. When they saw the battlefield that had been leveled flat and the mountain-like monster wreckage, everyone was left dumbfounded.

"God..." Dugan muttered. "You three... did you slaughter a dragon or something?"

Steve merely smiled tiredly. "Cleared a roadblock. How are our people?"

"They're all rescued! Everyone's safe!" Dugan reported excitedly.

Everyone's eyes focused on Chu Hang, Steve, and Logan, filled with awe, admiration, and disbelief.

Facing those gazes, Chu Hang looked at Captain America beside him, then glanced at Wolverine in the distance, who was trying to light a flattened cigar.

This is too damn hard. It's more brutal than 996. I don't want to go!

Steve's gaze swept across the crowd before finally settling on the Hydra base in the distance, still brightly lit.

He took a deep breath, his voice steady and powerful:

"Everyone, stay on the perimeter and be ready to provide support at any time."

"Chu Hang, Logan, the three of us are going to bring our brothers home from that hell!"

[At the same time, a secret command room of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR)]

On a screen flickering with static, satellite footage was frozen on the enormous monster corpse. The command room was deathly silent, and the atmosphere was heavy.

"Replay it." The agent commander's voice was hoarse and cold. "Enlarge the final three minutes. Analyze it frame by frame!"

The technician quickly operated the controls. The footage rewound, showing Steve leaping off the cliff to draw fire, followed by Chu Hang descending from the sky with Logan and launching the fatal strike.

"Stop!" the agent commander ordered.

The screen froze at the instant Chu Hang hurled Logan like a javelin.

"Analyze the movement trajectories and force output data of these two targets!"

Data rapidly scrolled across the screen.

"Report, sir! According to model calculations, Chu Hang's explosive power at the instant of takeoff exceeded Captain Rogers's peak record! The force he applied when throwing Logan is estimated to be sufficient to throw a heavy tank dozens of meters!"

"And that final kick for additional propulsion..." The technician's voice trembled. "It can't be calculated precisely! The instantaneous force stacking exceeds the explanatory range of existing physical models! The results show that they pierced more than three hundred millimeters of unknown high-strength alloy armor purely through physical attacks!"

The agent commander stared fixedly at Chu Hang's figure on the screen, his eyes filled with shock and suspicion.

"Chu Hang..." he murmured. "Our initial assessment was completely wrong. Horribly wrong!"

"He is far more than a simple enhanced soldier! He concealed his true strength! That final strike... the power contained within it was extraordinary. It was more like some kind of... instantaneous energy burst that we cannot comprehend!"

"And that energy core." The agent commander pointed at another report. "An energy body Hydra extracted from the Cosmic Cube. Rogers recovered it after the battle. But at the moment Chu Hang touched it, our detectors captured an anomalous energy fluctuation that lasted an extremely short time!"

A chorus of sharp inhalations rose through the command room.

"Sir, are you saying he can use..."

"I have no conclusion," the agent commander interrupted his subordinate. "I only know that this man is ten thousand times more complicated than we imagined."

The agent commander slammed his fist onto the console.

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