"Boom!"
A violent explosion erupted beside his ears, and a scorching blast of air mixed with dust and rubble slammed into Lynn's back.
He staggered, nearly falling to the ground.
Before him lay the hellish ruins of a city.
The sky was blotted out by a slowly rising city, and countless menacing robots rained down from above, spewing deadly blue lasers at will.
The screams of civilians, the collapse of buildings, and the roar of gunfire intertwined into a symphony of the apocalypse.
This was Sokovia.
[Simulated spacetime activated.] [Identity: S.H.I.E.L.D. level-three field agent.] [Main mission: Die for Wanda Maximoff.] [Mission hint: The value of your death depends on the depth of the mark it leaves on the target's heart. An unremarkable death cannot earn a high rating.]
A pale blue system panel flashed across Lynn's retinas.
He drew a deep breath of air tainted with gunpowder, forcing himself to calm down.
He was just an ordinary man now, dressed in a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. combat uniform and holding a standard-issue rifle.
On a battlefield at the Skyfather level like this, he did not even qualify as cannon fodder. He was merely a speck of dust that could be crushed at any moment.
"Hey! New guy! Don't just fucking stand there! Find cover!"
A veteran agent with blood all over his face roared at him, then dragged him behind a crumbling wall.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Several lasers instantly tore through the spot where Lynn had just stood, leaving searing holes in the ground.
"Thanks," Lynn said, panting heavily.
"Stick with us if you want to live!" the veteran shouted as he changed magazines. "Our job is to cover the civilian evacuation. Don't go picking fights with those tin cans!"
Lynn nodded, but his gaze swept beyond their cover, rapidly searching the chaotic battlefield.
He was looking for someone.
Soon, amid the ruins of a relatively open square, he spotted that piercing scarlet.
Wanda Maximoff.
She hovered in midair, scarlet energy surging around her hands as she tore apart the Ultron robots charging toward civilians.
Exhaustion and anger were written across her face, and every use of her powers came with heavy gasps.
Not far from her, a silvery-white afterimage raced through the battlefield, stirring gusts of air.
Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff.
Found them!
Lynn's heart began pounding.
He knew the crucial moment in the plot was about to arrive.
He had to reach the right position before that "instant" came.
"I see civilians trapped over there! I'm going to help!"
Lynn shouted to the veteran beside him. Without waiting for a response, he burst out of cover and sprinted toward Wanda.
"You lunatic! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The veteran's furious curses were drowned out by explosions.
Get myself killed?
That's right. That's exactly what I came here to do.
Lynn answered inwardly.
But his death had to have value.
He moved through the ruins like an agile cheetah.
Before transmigrating, he had been nothing but an ordinary office drone. But his three years of training at S.H.I.E.L.D. (Hydra) had not been for nothing. His physical fitness and tactical evasion skills already far surpassed those of ordinary people.
[Warning! Approaching high-energy reaction detected!]
The system's alarm sounded in his mind.
Lynn abruptly dove forward into a roll.
"Boom!"
A thick laser beam instantly vaporized the spot he had just occupied.
It was one of Ultron's elite robots.
Without so much as a glance, Lynn kept sprinting, never looking back.
He had only one destination: the center of the square, where a tragedy was about to unfold.
He observed the entire battlefield from a god's-eye perspective.
Captain America was directing the evacuation, Iron Man was locked in combat with Ultron in the air, and Thor and Hulk were clearing out large swaths of foot soldiers.
Everything was exactly as it had been in the movie.
And Ultron had already seized control of the Quinjet circling overhead.
Its cold autocannons had begun slowly turning.
In the square, Hawkeye was holding a little boy who had been separated from his parents, trying to find cover.
Quicksilver noticed them.
Meanwhile, repeated use of her powers had left Wanda momentarily dazed. Several Ultron robots had her tied down, leaving her no time to attend to anything else.
Now!
Lynn's pupils contracted to pinpoints.
He saw Quicksilver turn into a streak of silver lightning and charge toward Hawkeye.
He also saw flashes beginning to flicker from the Quinjet's dark cannon barrels.
He could even read the scream in Wanda's heart from her face, which had instantly turned deathly pale and filled with despair.
"Pietro!!!"
Wanda's scream rang through the sky.
But it was too late.
Bullets, after all, traveled faster than sound.
Yet, at that critical instant-
A dark figure, faster and more resolute than Quicksilver's lightning, suddenly shot out of the ruins!
It was Lynn!
He poured every ounce of strength built through those three years of training into his legs, his muscles crying out under the unbearable strain.
In that moment, his speed surpassed mortal limits!
"Get out of the way!"
Roaring with every ounce of strength he possessed, Lynn slammed into Quicksilver, who had just reached the spot in front of Hawkeye and was preparing to shield him from the bullets with his body.
"Thud!"
The tremendous force sent Quicksilver flying sideways, and he hit the ground with a look of utter bewilderment.
Lynn took his place.
He turned, facing the impenetrable metal storm descending from the sky with his back.
He even had time to smile at Wanda, whose face was filled with horror and despair not far away.
Goodbye.
Or rather, hello, Wanda.
The next second.
"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud-!"
Countless large-caliber armor-piercing rounds instantly tore through his body.
Flesh, bones, and organs were ripped apart, leaving countless ghastly wounds across his back.
Immediately afterward, the fully charged laser from the Quinjet's main cannon followed.
A scorching blue beam struck him squarely in the back, piercing straight through his chest.
Lynn's body trembled violently, his life draining away as swiftly as floodwater bursting through a broken dam.
The world before his eyes began to blur.
Yet he still used the last shred of his strength to straighten his back and remain standing.
With a mortal body of flesh and blood, he held up an absolutely safe barrier for Hawkeye, for the child, and for Quicksilver.
Only when the hail of bullets stopped and the laser dissipated did it end.
Only then did Lynn's body slowly sway and topple toward the ground like a severed stump.
A pair of soft hands caught him.
Scarlet energy instantly swept across the entire square, reducing every Ultron robot to dust in a heartbeat.
Lynn lifted his head with difficulty. What came into view was Wanda's tear-streaked face, so beautiful it was heartbreaking.
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