Base Laboratory

When Alex woke up, he found himself locked inside a sealed box. The cramped box did not even leave him room to move, and it was pitch black all around, without the slightest bit of light. Something seemed to be wrapped around his head as well, forcing his mouth open. Alex tried to turn his head or close his mouth, but he could not.

"I've been captured?" With only a brief recollection, Alex understood his situation. Thinking that Audrey might still be in danger, he immediately became frantic.

Just as he was about to use Teleportation to escape, a beam of light suddenly shone into his eyes. The blinding light made Alex instinctively close his eyes, interrupting his Teleportation. At that moment, a straw was shoved in and roughly inserted into his mouth.

Alex had just tried to spit it out when a thick liquid with a strange moldy, rotten smell rushed through the straw into his mouth, then flowed down his throat and into his stomach. A wave of nausea hit him at once. Alex dry-heaved several times before inexplicably falling asleep.

Whenever Alex woke up, the straw would immediately be inserted into his mouth. The nauseating liquid would flow into his stomach, and then he would fall asleep again.

The cycle repeated itself. He did not know how many times he had drunk that strange liquid, but one day, when Alex woke up, he found that he was no longer trapped in that cramped, sealed, dark box. Instead, he had been locked inside a spacious glass room. Outside it appeared to be a laboratory, filled with all kinds of experimental equipment.

The laboratory was completely enclosed, with no windows on any side. Alex still could not see what lay outside.

In his previous life, Zhang Xuan had trained Teleportation to the point where he could appear anywhere on Earth with a single thought, so long as the place existed in his memories, whether he had visited it himself or merely seen it in photographs or online.

But Alex could not do that yet. Limited by his teleportation range, he could only search for familiar places nearby. On the European Continent, the places Alex knew were nothing more than those he had passed through on his journey. Yet he had just tried every place in his memory, and every teleportation attempt had failed!

Just as Alex was feeling utterly frustrated, the laboratory's tightly sealed iron door opened. He looked over eagerly and discovered a long, narrow corridor outside, with ** holding guns lined up on both sides. There was still no way to escape!

Pulling back his gaze, Alex looked at the person who had just entered the laboratory. At barely over a meter tall, he looked practically like a dwarf, except without the long beard. He wore glasses and had a stern expression, making him look rather ridiculous.

"What's so funny, Teleporter?" The "dwarf" noticed the smile on Alex's face and immediately changed expression. "Anyone who dares look down on Zola must die!"

"Zola? Dr. Zola?!" Alex was startled. He immediately recalled the short doctor from the movie who had helped Red Skull research the Tesseract. Judging by his height, this had to be him.

"Kid, I'll show you what I'm capable of!"

Zola let out a sinister laugh and walked to a corner. A moment later, he emerged wearing a long gray trench coat and a ridiculous eyepatch, looking like an oversized Shuke.

Watching Zola slowly approach, Alex could not help but suppress his smile. He looked warily at Zola's strange grin. Zola might look ridiculous, but his abilities were not weak, or Red Skull would never have valued him. Alex was very worried that he would use him as an experiment.

"Kid, take a nap first!" Zola smiled at Alex and pressed the red button on a machine beside the glass room with his right hand.

At his words, Alex immediately remembered the strange liquid he had been forced to swallow repeatedly some time ago. Just as he became alert, clouds of green smoke suddenly billowed up around him. Knowing something was wrong, Alex covered his nose. Unfortunately, it seemed useless. His head grew increasingly dizzy, and he once again fell stiffly to the floor.

When Alex woke up again, he found himself lying on the cold floor, weak and limp all over. Even sitting up seemed difficult. His right arm still throbbed faintly. He rolled up his sleeve and saw a needle mark on his arm. Looking up beyond the glass room, he saw the short Zola holding a glass test tube containing a third of a tube of blood.

Noticing that Alex had awakened, Zola turned to look at him, still wearing that ridiculous eyepatch. "Kid, you woke up pretty quickly. You can wake up this fast after losing 2,000 milliliters of blood? Your constitution isn't bad!"

Alex ignored Zola. He sat weakly on the floor and looked around, hoping to find a way out. He had already given up on the main door. With so many ** guarding it, there was no way he could escape.

The laboratory had no windows, but it definitely had ventilation ducts. That was what Alex was searching for. If there was a vent, it had to connect to the outside. As long as Alex could get one look at the environment outside, he could use Teleportation to escape.

After searching for a while, Alex indeed spotted a vent in the ceiling on one side of the laboratory. It was not large, and he could faintly hear the sound of wind coming from it. Looking at the vent's position, Alex's mood grew heavy. It seemed likely that this laboratory was underground.

"I'll check it out after Zola leaves." Having made up his mind, Alex lay down comfortably and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep.

Seeing that Alex was not moving, Zola stopped paying attention to him and focused on his experiment.

He did not know how much time had passed, but when Alex woke up, there was not a single person left in the entire laboratory.

Alex immediately used Teleportation to leave the glass room. He ran beneath the vent in a few steps, found a table, climbed onto it, and peered inside. There was only darkness. He could see nothing at all.

Disappointed, Alex jumped down from the table and wandered all around the laboratory. After searching for a long time, he found nothing. Unwilling to give up, Alex carefully crept over to the main door and cautiously shifted the huge iron door open by a crack. Through the gap, he saw the long, narrow corridor packed with **!

Alex cursed under his breath, closed the door again, and helplessly returned to his glass room, where he fell asleep with a heart full of turmoil.

Bang, bang, bang! The constant pounding jolted Alex awake. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he looked at the laboratory, which had suddenly become lively.

Yesterday, only he and Zola had been in the huge laboratory. Today, many more people had suddenly appeared. Judging by their appearance, they were scientists like Zola. There were also some ** moving in and out, helping carry things.

After working busily for most of the day, the ** all withdrew from the laboratory. More than a dozen scientists remained, along with a tall man wearing a military cap. From the way he carried himself, he seemed to be the leader here. Everyone treated him with great respect. Alex guessed that he was Johann Schmidt from the movie, Red Skull.

"Dr. Zola, I've found the materials and people you wanted. When will the thing I want be ready?"

"General Schmidt, it will only take two days!" Faced with this leader, Zola was extremely cautious. Even his voice became much softer.

Hearing how Zola addressed him, Alex confirmed his suspicion. The man before him was the future Red Skull.

"Good. In two days, I hope to see what I want." Red Skull looked coldly at Zola. His tone was indifferent, yet it made Zola's body tremble faintly.

Only after Red Skull turned away did Zola let out a long breath. Pointing at Alex inside the glass room, he asked, "General Schmidt, what about him?"

Red Skull turned at the sound and looked over. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Keep him. We'll use him as an experimental subject when the time comes!" With that, Red Skull turned and walked out of the laboratory.

"Understood!" Zola answered quietly. Once he saw Red Skull leave, he immediately began working busily with the dozen or so other scientists.

PS: Sorry for the late update. I'm going to rush out the second update right away.