Counterattack Begins

Night had fallen completely.

A wild wind howled through the forest, and heavy snow sealed off the mountains.

Only the fireplace illuminated the cabin, making the team members' faces flicker between light and shadow. The room was quiet, but the atmosphere had changed completely from half an hour ago.

No one wanted to sit around and wait to die.

Everyone looked like a wild beast ready to fight for its life.

"Falsworth."

Steve Rogers's voice broke the silence.

"Here, Captain!" James, the explosives expert, stood at attention.

Chu Hang narrowed his eyes in the corner. This guy gets excited the moment he hears there are explosives to play with.

"Give me all the C4," Steve ordered. "Combine it into one high-explosive package and use Hydra's communicator as the detonator. Can you do it?"

"No problem, Captain!" Falsworth's eyes lit up. "Give me ten minutes! Do you want a directional blast or a blanket shockwave?"

"As long as it's powerful enough." Steve had no time to listen to his theories on explosive aesthetics.

Chu Hang almost laughed. A directional blast? Why not add guidance while they were at it?

Steve turned to the other two.

"Dugan, Logan. You're coming with me."

"You got it!" Dugan, the grizzled old soldier, rubbed his hands together and pulled his bowler hat lower.

Logan said nothing. A low growl rumbled from his throat, like a beast before a hunt. He drew the hunting knife from his boot and lightly ran his thumb along its edge.

He could smell blood.

"The rest of you, stay here and stand by." Steve swept his gaze around the room. "Check your gear, eat all the food, and conserve your strength. The explosion will be the signal. We only get one chance."

Finally, his gaze fell on the "weakened" Chu Hang in the corner.

"Chu, stay here. Don't go anywhere." Steve's tone was solemn. "You're our final insurance."

Chu Hang struggled to open his eyes and nodded at him with effort, looking as though he might stop breathing at any second.

Steve trusted him a little more.

Heh. So easy to fool. Chu Hang thought.

Steve gave him one last look, then turned, grabbed the Star Shield, and pushed open the door into the blizzard.

Logan and Dugan followed behind him.

The three figures quickly vanished into the darkness.

The door shut.

Only the crackling of burning firewood and heavy breathing remained inside.

Chu Hang closed his eyes.

He was not resting.

The instant the door closed, his hearing spread out, covering the snowy mountains within a five-kilometer radius.

Wind speed: Force Seven. Temperature: minus twenty-eight degrees Celsius.

Steve and the other two's heartbeats, footsteps, and breathing formed a real-time three-dimensional map in his mind.

The conditions outside were even worse than they sounded.

The fierce wind hurled ice chips against their faces, and the snow rose past their knees. Every step was exhausting.

But that was nothing to Steve and Logan.

One had been injected with the serum and possessed endless stamina. The other had a Healing Factor and never tired.

Dugan had it the worst. He was only an ordinary man.

Before they had gone far, he was already panting heavily, his white breath billowing out like clusters of ghosts.

"Damn it... this godforsaken weather..." His foot slipped, and he nearly fell.

A large hand grabbed his arm. It was Steve.

"Stay close." The captain's voice was steady in the wind.

Dugan gritted his teeth, swallowed his curse, and continued onward with his head down.

Logan led the way.

His steps were as light as a lynx's, and he barely needed a flashlight. His nose twitched in the air, sorting through every scrap of information carried by the wind and snow.

"Stop."

Logan suddenly raised a hand and lowered himself, blending into a snow-covered rock.

Steve and Dugan immediately crouched down.

"Something wrong?" Steve lowered his voice.

Logan did not answer. He pressed his ear to the snow.

A moment later, he opened his eyes.

"Patrol. Three men. Ten o'clock direction, three hundred meters away."

Steve and Dugan were startled. Three hundred meters? How had he detected them in this weather?

"Captain, don't worry." Chu Hang's voice rang directly in Steve's mind. "Logan's instincts are accurate. There really is a three-man patrol approaching you. They'll pass by in one minute and forty-seven seconds."

This was a new ability Chu Hang had developed: Telepathic Private Message. Only people with strong enough mental strength and sufficient trust in him could receive it.

At the moment, only Steve met those conditions.

"They don't have thermal imaging. The blizzard is the best cover. Don't move. Wait for them to pass," Chu Hang added.

Steve's heart settled, and he gestured for the other two to stay hidden.

The three of them lay flat in the snow, completely motionless. Even their breathing slowed.

Soon, three Hydra soldiers in white camouflage suits trudged past them, cursing under their breath.

"Fuck! This place isn't fit for human beings!"

"The general sends us out on patrol while he sits by the fire!"

"Keep it down! Want to be sent off as experimental material?"

They had no idea death was right beneath their noses.

Once the footsteps faded away, the three men rose.

Dugan and Steve looked at Logan with a little more awe.

They did not know that the real monster was lying in the cabin, watching a live broadcast.

With Chu Hang's full-map warnings and Logan's wilderness experience, they safely bypassed two patrols and a hidden sentry.

Half an hour later, they reached the target ridge.

It was completely bare, and the wind was strong enough to make it hard to stand.

"This is the place." Steve looked at his compass.

"Chu, where's that 'eye'?" Steve asked in his mind.

"Received, Captain." Chu Hang's voice replied. "The target is approaching from the east. It will pass directly overhead in one minute and thirty seconds. Altitude: one hundred and forty-eight meters. I'll tell you when to move."

"Move!"

Steve gave the order.

Dugan immediately tied the C4 package to a crooked pine tree.

Logan removed his grappling hook. One end of the rope was secured to the C4, while the other was looped around a frozen boulder and gripped tightly in his hand.

It was a crude but effective trap—Chu Hang's idea.

"Chu, count down." Steve dropped to one knee, gripped his shield tightly, and stared into the pitch-black sky.

"Received. Thirty seconds..."

"Twenty seconds..."

"Ten, nine, eight..."

The muscles in Logan's arm bulged, veins standing out sharply.

Dugan's finger hovered over the detonator button, and his forehead was drenched in cold sweat.

"Five, four, three, two..."

"One!"

"Now!" Chu Hang and Steve shouted at the same time.

"Get up there!"

Logan let out a beastly roar and yanked the rope with all his strength!

With a creak, the bent pine snapped upright and hurled the black C4 package violently into the night sky!

The package traced an arc through the air, shooting straight toward the coordinates Chu Hang had marked.

"Detonate!" Steve roared.

Dugan pressed the button without hesitation!

In an instant, the world turned white.

A deathly silence followed.

Then the deafening explosion reached them.

The entire ridge shook violently as a massive shockwave, carrying scorching air and metal fragments, rained down from above.

Steve raised his shield immediately, protecting the other two behind him. Red-hot metal fragments struck the shield, scattering sparks, yet failed to leave even a mark.

After the explosion, darkness returned.

In Chu Hang's senses, that irritating buzzing had vanished completely.

It worked.

Main quest "Desperate Survival," Phase One completed.

The Hydra camp at the foot of the mountain instantly erupted into chaos.

Piercing alarms echoed through the valley as countless searchlights swept wildly across the snow.

"What happened?! The Eye of Odin signal has been cut off!"

"Report to the general! We've lost surveillance over the western cliff area!"

"Damn it! It's those rats! They're trying to break out through the cliff! All units, converge on the western cliff! Trap them there!"

On the ridge.

"We... we did it!" Dugan shouted excitedly, his voice trembling as though he might cry.

"Don't celebrate yet." Logan spat out snow and looked down the mountain. "We kicked a hornet's nest."

In the forest below, hundreds upon hundreds of lights were surging toward them.

They had been exposed, but they had also bought themselves their only chance.

"Chu! Tell everyone! Get ready to break out!" Steve shouted into the air. Then he grabbed Dugan and Logan. "Let's go! To the cliff! Move!"

Inside the cabin.

The moment the explosion sounded, every team member rushed outside.

"That's the captain's signal!"

"They did it!"

"Prepare for battle!"

Just then, Chu Hang's "weak" but clear voice rang in everyone's ears.

"The captain's orders: all personnel, immediately break out toward the western cliff!"

"Now! Move!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he was the first to grab a rifle and stagger out of the cabin.

He looked as though the wind and snow might knock him down at any moment, but his eyes shone with a frightening brightness.

The Howling Commandos did not hesitate. Roaring, they followed that "unsteady" figure into the vast snowy night.

The hunt was over.

The counterattack had officially begun.