"I'm so pissed!"
At Hydra's secret base, Red Skull, its leader, held the receiver away from his ear and let the Fuhrer of the Third Reich curse furiously on the other end.
Italy had fallen, Mussolini had been captured alive, and the Allied Nations had landed on Sicily...
The disadvantage the Axis Powers had worked so hard to reverse had been leveled once again.
Facing the high-spirited Allied Nations and the loss of an allied country, the Fuhrer could no longer maintain his composure. He swore like a fishwife.
"A bunch of useless trash! Worthless scum!"
In the end, the Fuhrer in distant Berlin ended the call with one of his signature lines.
Red Skull's face turned livid as he slammed down the phone.
Crack!
He crushed the receiver directly into a pile of parts!
Sizzling sparks jumped onto his skin, yet he did not notice at all.
"Sebastian Shaw is such a useless fool! He bragged about Mutants being so powerful, yet he couldn't even handle a team of fewer than thirty people!"
Red Skull repeated the Fuhrer's rebuke and threw it at Sebastian Shaw in Auschwitz concentration camp.
He had sent out all his enhanced warriors, along with the Hellfire Club's Mutants, yet they had not only failed to rescue Mussolini but had been completely wiped out.
This was an outcome Red Skull had never expected!
Was that young Allied Nations captain known as "Superman" really that powerful?
As a Super Soldier himself, Red Skull found it hard to believe.
He was the first Super Soldier created by Dr. Abraham Erskine, and no one understood the power he possessed better than he did.
"The Allied Nations must be hiding other secret weapons! One man conquered Italy and brought about the fall of Rome... This is nothing more than a myth fabricated by the Allied Nations! It isn't worth believing!"
Red Skull sneered, then walked over to a metal device.
Inside it sat a pristine cube, its surface glowing with a ghostly blue light.
Faint energy fluctuations traveled through the metal device's conduits toward some unknown destination.
"The Allied Superman and Sebastian's Mutants are both inferior products destined to be eliminated! I have obtained the power to become a god! How could Hitler's Aryan Superman plan compare to the treasures of Odin's Vault!"
Red Skull stared at the cube, his eyes filled with obsession.
He believed those ancient myths had actually been real events.
They had merely been passed down by later generations, embellished artistically, and gradually transformed into what they were today.
As it happened, the Fuhrer whom Red Skull had once worshipped was also a firm supporter of mysticism.
Influenced by his idol, Red Skull became a Super Soldier after receiving the serum, then began exploring Norse Mythology in search of the precious gem lost from Odin's Vault!
At last, he found the Tesseract in a church in Norway!
"The Third Reich has become an obstacle to Hydra's development. We can no longer obey Hitler's orders. Don't you agree, Dr. Zola?"
Red Skull turned to a short middle-aged man, Hydra's chief researcher in its scientific division.
The special device extracting energy from the Tesseract was precisely his masterpiece.
"Hail Hydra!"
Dr. Zola answered tactfully.
He was a scientist, not a fanatic influenced by Nazi ideology.
Under Red Skull's leadership, Hydra had long since begun slipping free of the Third Reich's control.
If anyone else had received a furious scolding call from the Fuhrer, they would likely have been scared out of their wits, fearing arrest by the Gestapo and imprisonment under brutal punishment.
But Red Skull was not worried in the slightest. With the Tesseract in hand and the ability to provide the Third Reich with energy weapons, he was now an indispensable bargaining chip within the Axis Powers.
Without those massive multi-turret tanks that swept through battlefields and energy guns that could turn a human body into ash with a single hit, the Soviet army would likely have already stormed Berlin.
"Mr. Schmidt, regarding the Allied Nations..."
Dr. Zola asked cautiously.
At present, perhaps Hydra was the only force in the Axis Powers capable of resisting the Allied Superman.
The Fuhrer had called personally, so he surely wanted Red Skull to resolve this problem and crush the Allied Nations' morale!
"Superman is nothing to fear! Hydra, which possesses the Tesseract and controls core technology, is the true ruler of the world! The Valkyrie Project is our priority!"
Red Skull said disdainfully, not taking the legendary figure promoted by the Allied Nations seriously at all.
Then, he delivered an impassioned speech.
Just like the former Fuhrer of the Third Reich, he spoke of the world's future.
Silent, Dr. Zola stared at the portrait placed in the corner of the wall.
A skull-like head with peeling skin.
That was Red Skull's true face!
Normally, he only used an exquisite mask to conceal that terrifying visage.
"What about Sebastian Shaw? He cherishes his 'Mutant brethren.' Losing four at once this time will surely hurt him deeply. Our alliance with him may be affected..."
Dr. Zola lowered his head and asked softly.
"The Hellfire Club... If they want to cause trouble, Sebastian Shaw should go find that Allied Superman. What does it have to do with me?"
Red Skull said contemptuously.
"Are my enhanced warriors not more valuable than his freakish brethren? Trying to seize power with a group of freaks is utterly foolish! Humans are the creatures most hostile toward anything different. Once Sebastian Shaw's Mutants step onto the world stage, they will become objects of everyone's vigilance. Besides, I no longer need an alliance with him."
The power displayed by the Tesseract had already immersed Red Skull in his dream of ruling the world.
He no longer needed the Third Reich, nor did he need Mutants.
Because the world would soon fall into Hydra's hands!
Poland, Auschwitz concentration camp.
Sebastian Shaw sat behind a desk. He was the administrator of this "factory of death."
Soothing music flowed slowly from the gramophone, echoing through the room.
This concentration camp held vast numbers of Jews, Poles, and Soviet army prisoners. Every day, people died here—buried alive, shot, gassed, vivisected... there were all kinds of methods.
The officers stationed at the camp treated it as a playground, taking pleasure in killing at will. Sebastian Shaw never stopped them, nor did he ever participate.
He was a scientist. Seeking essence and pursuing truth were his goals.
Compared with slaughter, Sebastian Shaw preferred research.
Finding the code of genes and the key to opening the door of evolution had long been his wish!
Influenced by Hitler, Sebastian Shaw had once believed that blond, blue-eyed Germans possessed the most superior bloodline on Earth.
Yet after becoming deeply involved in the so-called Aryan Superman plan, he was greatly disappointed.
The "perfect race" claimed by the Fuhrer was not the Germans. They were no different from Jews or Poles, neither stronger nor more intelligent.
"Lehnsherr is the key to opening a new era."
Sebastian Shaw said softly.
Ever since discovering the little boy named Erik Lehnsherr, it was as though he had opened the door to a new world.
His former belief in the theory of superhumans had finally been proven.
This planet truly possessed a race superior to humanity. They were pioneers on the path of evolution, gifted individuals with extraordinary abilities.
Far away in America, Dr. Bolivar Trask, who also studied genetic inheritance, called this group "Mutants."
He believed their genes seemed to have been implanted with a miraculous string of code, sending them down a path entirely different from humanity's.
Unfortunately, Dr. Trask was unwilling to say much about the secrets of the X-Gene.
That disappointed Sebastian Shaw somewhat. Fortunately, he had a real Mutant in his hands to serve as a reference.
Thus, like a greedy, starving wolf, the mad scientist tried to dig more treasures out of the Mutant.
Especially after awakening Erik Lehnsherr's innate ability, he began conducting experiments without end, studying in depth the differences between Mutant genes and those of ordinary humans.
The prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp became the finest living test subjects.
A cold-blooded, insane scientist was far more terrifying than those Nazi butchers!
Hard work paid off. Sebastian Shaw found a way to awaken Mutant genes.
That was painful torture combined with extremely harsh living conditions, which could possibly awaken the dormant X-Gene within the human body—although the success rate was exceedingly low, as long as human lives did not matter and enough numbers were thrown at it, there would always be a few successes.
Using this method, Sebastian Shaw created a batch of artificial Mutants.
Chameleon and Gas Woman belonged to this group.
He also recruited quite a few natural-born Mutants under the banner of brotherhood.
"Red Devil" Azazel was one of them.
As for Sebastian Shaw himself, he adopted the more reliable method of organ transplantation.
He vivisected the successfully created artificial Mutants, removed their organs, and transplanted them into his own body.
As long as he solved the rejection response, he could successfully transform into a Mutant!
The facts proved Sebastian Shaw's mad idea was correct, and he succeeded.
"This is the power God has bestowed upon me!"
Sebastian Shaw braced both hands against the desk, his eyes full of smug satisfaction.
He felt every cell in his body brimming with vitality. His aging body had become young and powerful, while his shriveled muscles grew fuller by the day.
"Mr. Shaw, Ilena said she has lost her links to Chameleon, Steel Shell, and the others!"
A subordinate knocked on the door and delivered this terrible news to Sebastian Shaw.
The mad scientist, immersed in satisfaction, suddenly changed expression. A cold, violent, terrifying aura radiated from him.
The subordinate hurriedly lowered his head, his legs trembling as he feared provoking Sebastian Shaw's wrath.
"How could this happen?"
Sebastian Shaw demanded furiously.
Ilena was a natural-born Mutant he had found, possessing a rare psychic ability.
She could leave psychic marks on three to five people and sense their existence at any time.
A broken link meant someone had erased the psychic marks—or killed them!
Neither outcome could make Sebastian Shaw happy.
Every Mutant was his precious treasure. No one but him was allowed to damage them!
"Damn Hydra! I should never have agreed to Red Skull's request!"
Sebastian Shaw's face was filled with fury as he stared at a newspaper from the Allied Nations on the desk. Its headline said that Roosevelt and Churchill had called the conqueror of Italy "Superman."
"Superman? We will meet sooner or later. When that time comes, let me see what you're capable of!"
P.S. Thanks to Ditian Wushuang for the 500-point donation, and Cangqiong Jueying for the 100-point donation. Much love~
P.S.2: I couldn't be bothered to split the chapter. Three thousand words in exchange for recommendation votes and bookmarks from you esteemed readers isn't too much to ask, right? (ω)
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