Counterattack Begins

Night had fallen completely.

A howling gale tore through the woods, and heavy snow sealed off the mountain.

The only light in the cabin came from the fireplace, 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 for death.

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

"Falsworth."

Steve Rogers's voice broke the silence.

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

Chu Hang narrowed his eyes in the corner and thought, This guy gets fired up 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 wide-area shockwave?"

"As long as it's powerful enough." Steve had no time to listen to him talk about the aesthetics of demolition.

Chu Hang nearly laughed. A directional blast? Why not add a guidance system 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 tugged his bowler hat lower.

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

He could smell blood.

"The rest of you, stay here and wait for orders." Steve swept his gaze around the room. "Check your equipment, finish the food, and conserve your strength. The explosion will be the signal. We only get one chance."

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

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

Chu Hang struggled to open his eyes and nodded at him with difficulty, looking as though he could stop breathing at any moment.

Steve's trust in him deepened a little more.

Heh, he's 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 snowstorm.

Logan and Dugan followed behind him.

The three figures quickly vanished into the darkness.

The door closed.

Only the crackling of burning firewood and heavy breathing remained in the cabin.

Chu Hang closed his eyes.

He was not resting.

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

The wind was force seven, and the temperature was minus twenty-eight degrees Celsius.

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

The conditions outside were even worse than they sounded.

The gale drove ice chips into their faces, and the snow rose past their knees. Every step took tremendous effort.

But that was nothing to Steve and Logan.

One had been injected with the serum and had limitless stamina. The other possessed a Healing Factor and never knew fatigue.

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

Before they had gone far, he was already panting heavily, white vapor pouring from his mouth like clusters of ghosts.

"Fuck... this goddamn weather..." His foot slipped, and he nearly fell.

A large hand caught his arm. It was Steve.

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

Dugan gritted his teeth, swallowed back 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 trace of information carried by the snowstorm.

"Stop."

Logan suddenly raised a hand and crouched low, blending into a snow-covered rock.

Steve and Dugan immediately crouched down as well.

"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, 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 inside Steve's mind. "Logan's instincts are sharp. There really is a three-man patrol approaching you. They'll pass by in approximately one minute and forty-seven seconds."

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

At present, only Steve met the requirements.

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

Steve felt greatly reassured and gestured to the other two to stay hidden.

The three of them lay motionless in the snow, even slowing their breathing.

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

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

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

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

They never realized that 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 the livestream.

With Chu Hang's full-map warning 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 standing difficult.

"This is it." Steve checked the compass.

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

"Received, Captain." Chu Hang's voice answered. "The target is approaching from the east. It will fly over your heads in one minute and thirty seconds. Its altitude is one hundred and forty-eight meters. I'll tell you when to strike."

"Move!"

Steve gave the order.

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

Logan removed his grappling hook, securing one end of the rope to the C4 and looping the other around a frozen rock before gripping it tightly.

It was a crude yet effective trap, Chu Hang's idea.

"Chu, count down." Steve dropped to one knee, gripping his shield as he stared into the pitch-black sky.

"Received. Thirty seconds..."

"Twenty seconds..."

"Ten, nine, eight..."

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

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

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

"One!"

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

"Launch it!"

Logan let out a beastly roar and violently yanked the rope!

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

The package traced an arc through the air, flying 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 came the deafening boom.

The entire ridge shook violently as a massive shockwave carried scorching air and metal fragments raining down from the sky.

Steve raised his shield at once, protecting the two men behind him. Red-hot metal fragments struck the shield and scattered sparks, but left no mark behind.

After the explosion, darkness returned.

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

It worked.

The first stage of the main quest "Desperate Survival" was complete.

The Hydra camp below instantly erupted into chaos.

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

"What happened?! The Eye of Odin's 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! Seal them in there!"

On the ridge.

"We... did it!" Dugan shouted excitedly, his voice trembling as though he were about to 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 frantically toward them.

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

"Chu! Tell everyone! Get ready to break out!" Steve shouted into the air, then 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 made it!"

"Prepare for battle!"

At that moment, Chu Hang's "weak" yet clear voice rang beside everyone's ears.

"The captain's order: 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 snowstorm could blow him over at any moment, but his eyes shone with a terrifying brightness.

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

The hunt was over.

The counterattack had officially begun.