Noisy shouts, clattering footsteps, and bursts of blinding muzzle flash.
"Where is this?"
Sean dazedly opened his eyes, his consciousness resurfacing as though he had just awakened from a dream.
He saw a dense barrage of bullets striking his body. The metal rounds, carrying immense kinetic force, seemed to crash into an impenetrable wall of steel; their tips were crushed flat as if squeezed by an overwhelming force.
His vision wavered a few times. Perhaps stimulated by the outside world, his muddled thoughts gradually cleared. He slightly turned his head and surveyed his surroundings.
The air was thick with murky dust. Blazing white bulbs overhead illuminated the dim environment, while intricate cables and pipes lined the walls. It looked like an underground fortification or secret base.
"What happened?" The second question surfaced in Sean's mind.
He had never experienced anything like this before—his mind was hazy, his consciousness confused, as though he were a pathetic drunk waking up the morning after a wild binge with a splitting headache, fractured memories, and no recollection of anything that had happened before.
Since arriving in this world, Sean had never relaxed his guard. With his physical constitution, he was completely immune to alcohol; it was impossible for him to lose control and get falling-down drunk.
Even if he drank an entire cellar of vodka, he might not even feel "drunk," let alone forget what had happened earlier.
"Sentry..."
He lowered his head. He was inside golden armor. The metal torrent capable of tearing everything apart could not harm him in the slightest. Even without raising the Energy Field, the sharp bullets that could pierce bodies and rip apart flesh merely made him feel a faint itch when they struck him.
"Hydra."
Sean saw squads of soldiers in black uniforms, Hydra insignias pinned to