The team continued moving through the forest, but the atmosphere was completely different now.
Before, they'd technically been a team, sure—but one hastily thrown together. There had always been an unspoken distance between them.
After that ambush and counterkill, though, the way they looked at Levi had changed.
It was like they were staring at some kind of priceless treasure.
Guess this counts as recognition, Levi thought smugly. Sure enough, no matter which world you're in, recognition earned through sheer strength is always the most solid—and the most reliable.
They advanced for another half hour or so. The snow underfoot gradually thinned, and the fresh, crisp scent of the forest faded away, replaced by a cold stench of industrial exhaust and metal.
Suddenly, Steve—walking at the front—raised his hand sharply.
The entire squad froze as if someone had hit a pause button. Everyone dropped into a crouch in perfect silence, melting into the darkness at the edge of the forest.
Levi followed Steve's gaze—and in the next second, his breathing nearly stopped.
Holy hell…
Beyond the treeline lay a stretch of open snowfield so vast it felt almost extravagant.
And at the far end of it—
A gigantic steel fortress sprawled across the horizon like a primeval beast lying dormant in the darkness, its jagged outline feral and oppressive.
So this is the Hydra factory?
In his previous life, Levi had visited plenty of industrial parks, but none of them came even close to this monstrosity. Calling this place a "factory" was an insult.
This was a military fortress built purely for war.
Thick perimeter walls tens of meters high were wrapped in layers of barbed wire, howling mournfully in the freezing wind. Every fifty meters or so stood a towering concrete watchtower. Atop each one, massive searchlights swept back and forth with mechanical indifference, like demonic eyes scanning every inch of land. The snowfield outside the walls was lit up as bright as day.
Under those harsh beams, Levi's enhanced vision clearly picked out German-issue machine guns mounted on the towers.
The dark muzzles looked ready to spit fire at any moment, shredding anything foolish enough to approach.
Squads of fully armed Hydra soldiers in black uniforms patrolled beneath the walls along fixed routes, each accompanied by massive, bull-calf-sized military dogs straining at their leashes.
"Looks like Schmidt dumped his entire Hydra budget into this place," Dugan muttered. At some point he'd lit another cigar, only to grind it out under his boot. His expression had never been so grim.
"Trying to get in from the front would be the same as lining up to meet God."
No one spoke.
The pressure radiating from that fortress was overwhelming. It felt like an invisible wall of steel and death pressing down on everyone's chest. Forget their little squad—even a full regiment would smash itself to pieces against a defense line like this.
One by one, everyone's eyes drifted back to Levi.
Hope. Tension. And a last, fragile sliver of expectation.
Levi instantly felt the weight of it all. He knew what they were thinking. If he could hear footsteps three hundred meters away, maybe—just maybe—he could find a flaw in this seemingly impregnable stronghold.
"I… I'll try."
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, then slowly closed his eyes.
In that moment, he poured all his focus into his hearing and vision. The Super Soldier Serum drove every cell in his body into overdrive, pushing his enhanced senses to their absolute limit.
All other sounds seemed filtered out.
The wind through the trees.
His teammates' tense breathing, their heartbeats—
All of it faded into the background.
His entire world narrowed to the factory ahead.
A flood of sounds surged into his ears.
The faint creeeak of under-lubricated bearings as searchlights rotated…
The subtle differences in patrol footsteps—crunch on snow, click on stone paths…
The low growls of military dogs, the scrape scrape of claws scratching frozen soil…
He could even hear the barbed wire along the walls humming faintly with high-voltage current…
To an ordinary person, it would've all been meaningless noise.
But in Levi's brain, those sounds were rapidly analyzed, sorted, and assembled—piece by piece—into a crystal-clear, three-dimensional acoustic map.
"The west side…" Levi paused, concentrating.
"There's a blind spot in the searchlight coverage. Between two overlapping beams, near the corner—every one minute and twenty seconds, there's about a three-second window of darkness."
A few of the men's eyes lit up—
Only for Levi's next words to douse that hope immediately.
"But the barbed wire there carries the highest voltage. The electrical hum is much stronger than elsewhere. And… beneath the snow, I can hear metallic firing pins frozen in place—very faint click-click sounds. There are landmines buried there."
Dead silence.
Was there really no way in?
Even Steve's brows knit tightly, sharp as drawn blades. Seeing Levi's face pale from the strain, he was about to tell him to stop pushing himself—
When Levi suddenly snapped his eyes open.
"The north side!"
His eyes blazed with near-manic excitement, like a man wandering the desert for days who had finally spotted an oasis.
"The north side—by the riverbank! There's a drainage channel!"
He pointed toward the factory's northern edge, shrouded in darkness. His voice sped up with excitement.
"I can hear dripping water—very rhythmic. Not natural. It's coming from a large pipe, probably the factory's drainage outlet. Security there is the lightest—probably because it stinks. I can hear patrols instinctively holding their breath and speeding up whenever they pass that area."
He took another breath and continued urgently:
"And most importantly—I hear metal rattling at the outlet. Clang… clang… Like the grate's been battered by water for years. The bolts are loose!"
Drainage channel.
Those words hit like a lightning bolt, instantly tearing through the gloom of despair.
Steve's eyes lit up, blue irises blazing.
"Outstanding work, Levi!"
He couldn't suppress his excitement, slamming a fist into Levi's shoulder. If this had been Levi before, he'd have been knocked flat—but now he only felt a slight numbness. Steve's earlier grimness vanished, replaced by roaring battle spirit.
"That's our way in!"
Logan stepped closer, sniffing hard with his animal-sharp nose before grinning ferally.
"The kid's right. With the wind like this, I can already smell it. Nasty stuff."
With a breach identified, the rest fell into place.
Steve gathered everyone at once, spreading out a crude map taken from a Hydra soldier. Under the faint moonlight, he began issuing orders, his voice low but steady—like a pillar holding everyone's nerves in place.
"Here's the plan," he said, tracing lines with the tip of his knife.
"Levi, Logan, and I form the first assault team. The three of us infiltrate through the drainage channel. Our priority is the power room—cut the electricity to the perimeter fences. Then we open a side gate from the inside to let the rest of you in."
He looked up, eyes sharp.
"Dugan, you take the others and form the second team. Circle around to the outer edge of the mined western zone and stay hidden. Once we cut the power, I'll signal you. You breach through the west gate we open and head straight for the POW camp marked here. Rescue our men. Keep it quiet—avoid firefights until the prisoners are out."
"Yes, sir!" Dugan nodded heavily.
"We'll use this to contact you."
Steve handed him a captured Hydra communicator.
"Signal code is three short bursts. Once you hear it, move immediately. If… if we don't signal within an hour—assume we've failed."
His voice hardened.
"At that point, you retreat immediately. Take Gabe and leave. No hesitation. That's an order."
"Captain…" Dugan hesitated, then swallowed the words he wanted to say. He gripped the communicator tightly and nodded.
"You boys be careful."
Steve smiled, clapped his shoulder, then turned to Levi and Logan.
"Ready?"
Logan licked his dry lips, knuckles cracking as his fingers clenched. His eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty anticipation, like a beast about to be unleashed.
Levi took a deep breath and nodded hard.
Truth be told, he was a little freaked out. Crawling through a stinking sewer with Captain America and Wolverine to infiltrate a heavily fortified Hydra base—
This was surreal as hell.
A few months ago, he'd been a cubicle drone stressing over KPIs and his boss's moods.
Now he was about to do something straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Life really is crazier than movies.
"Move out."
At Steve's low command, the three-man team slipped away from the main force like ghosts, vanishing into the night. Under the cover of darkness, they cut toward the foul-smelling riverbank like three razor-sharp knives.
The night wind carried icy cold through the reeds.
They quickly found the massive drainage outlet, half-hidden by thick weeds and layers of sludge. Before they even reached it, a stench beyond description slammed into them—cold, wet, and overpowering. Rotting garbage, industrial waste, and biological filth, all fermented together for months.
Logan's face turned green instantly. He muttered a vicious curse under his breath.
Even Steve frowned instinctively—but without hesitation, he stepped forward, grabbed the rusted iron grate, and flexed.
Muscles bulged, veins standing out as a shrill screeeeech rang out. The hundred-kilo grate was torn open just enough for a man to squeeze through.
A wave of even fouler air and icy wastewater surged out.
Steve glanced back at them, said nothing, and ducked straight into the bottomless, stinking darkness.
Levi stared at the black hole, his stomach churning violently. He nearly threw up the compressed biscuits he'd eaten earlier.
He glanced at Logan, who looked just as constipated, sighed, and followed.
Fine. A sewer is a sewer.
After all—this was a sewer crawl with Captain America and Wolverine.
If he lived to tell the tale, it'd be enough to brag about for the rest of his life.
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