29: Chapter 29 Facing Captain America Head-on, I'm Not Afraid of Empty Promises

"Ding."

On the top floor of Fisk Tower, the doors of the private elevator slowly slid open to both sides.

Steve Rogers, wearing his iconic star-spangled uniform and carrying his circular Vibranium shield on his back, strode out of the elevator.

The entire top floor was eerily quiet.

There were no guards, no gunmen. Only Frank Castle leaned against a support pillar in the distance, staring at him coldly while playing with a laser gun that emitted a faint blue glow.

In the center of the vast office...

Lynn sat in a large leather executive chair, holding a glass of Bordeaux red wine, calmly watching the approaching Captain America.

"The defenses are laxer than I imagined."

Steve stopped five meters from the desk, his gaze sweeping over the bloodstains on the carpet that hadn't been fully cleaned. "You seem very confident."

"Against a century-old popsicle who can be used as a tool at any moment, no defense is needed."

Lynn took a sip of the red wine, his voice flat. "Did that one-eyed old fox Nick Fury send you here alone to die?"

Steve frowned slightly; he disliked the other man's arrogance, but he was here to negotiate today.

"I'm here to give you a choice."

Steve looked directly into Lynn's dark eyes, his tone stern and sincere. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has records of what you did in Siberia and New York. You possess power beyond the reach of ordinary people, but that doesn't mean you can stand above the law and build a dictatorship through Carnage."

"Director Fury is putting together a project called the 'Avengers.' S.H.I.E.L.D. is willing to let bygones be bygones regarding your past actions. As long as you hand over that Alien Parasite, dissolve this so-called underworld empire, and join us. You can use your power to truly protect this World."

Steve finished reciting the empty promises Nick Fury had laid out in one breath.

These were standard superhero lines, filled with a righteous moral halo.

However...

"Pfft."

Lynn laughed. He set down his wine glass, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery.

"Captain America. You slept for seventy years; has your brain frozen through as well?"

Lynn leaned back in his chair, looking at Steve as if he were a ridiculous marionette. "You want me to give up my territory, hand over my spoils of war, and become a free thug for Nick Fury? Is this your S.H.I.E.L.D.'s justice?"

"It's not being a thug; it's for peace..."

"Don't use such disgusting words to dirty my ears."

Lynn coldly interrupted Steve. "You don't even know who you're working for, yet you're here talking to me about justice?"

Steve clenched his fists. "What do you mean?"

"I crawled out of that underground Base in Siberia. The HYDRA supervisor there used research funds approved by S.H.I.E.L.D. The top assassin responsible for security there was a S.H.I.E.L.D. STRIKE Team Captain."

Lynn stood up, leaning his hands on the desk, his cold gaze piercing Steve like a knife. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has long been rotten to the core; it's full of HYDRA's backbone. The justice league you're so proud of is nothing more than a legal cloak for HYDRA to rule the World."

"Impossible!"

Steve felt as if he had been struck by lightning, taking a sharp step forward. "S.H.I.E.L.D. was established to fight HYDRA!"

"Then you might as well go back and ask Nick Fury if he dares to open up all high-level permissions for an audit."

Lynn completely tore apart Steve's moral halo. "You're just a toy being kept in the dark, biting whoever you're told to. You're not qualified to lecture me."

Struck by the cold facts presented by Lynn, Steve's mindset wavered for a moment. But his will as a soldier was extremely firm, and he immediately forced down the shock in his heart.

Regardless of the internal issues within S.H.I.E.L.D., the threat posed by the dictatorial butcher before him was real.

"Perhaps what you say is true, and I will investigate it."

Steve reached back and pulled the Vibranium shield, strapping it to his left arm, his gaze becoming resolute again. "But for now, I cannot allow you to continue controlling this city, nor can I let you possess an extremely dangerous alien creature."

Seeing Steve take a combat stance, Lynn sat back in his chair.

"Frank, stand down," Lynn waved his hand dismissively.

In the corner, Frank put away his gun and retreated into the Shadow.

"You want to fight me?" Steve said in a low voice.

"Are you worthy?"

Lynn snapped his fingers. "Mad Dog. We have a guest."

"Roar—!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the ventilation duct in the office ceiling exploded!

A monster nearly three meters tall, pitch black, with muscles bulging like granite, crashed heavily onto the floor in front of Steve amidst a cloud of dust.

Its pale eyes stared fixedly at Steve, and its bloody maw, split to its ears, dripped with highly corrosive slime as it let out a deafening roar.

"So this is that alien creature..." Steve sucked in a breath of cold air. The intelligence said it was a puddle of slime; how had it turned into such a terrifying beast?

"Play with this veteran. Don't bite him to death all at once." Lynn picked up his wine glass.

"Swoosh!"

Mad Dog moved.

Its speed was so fast it was only a black blur. Its massive body exploded with a terrifying agility that completely contradicted its size, pouncing in front of Steve in an instant as its sharp claws swiped directly at his head.

Steve's reaction was lightning-fast, immediately raising his shield to block.

"Clang!"

A deafening sound of metal colliding exploded.

An unmatched, massive force traveled through the shield. Steve's feet slid back three full meters across the Persian carpet before he stabilized himself, his arms going numb.

"Such incredible strength!"

Steve grit his teeth. He had just used all the strength provided by the Super Soldier Serum, yet he had actually fallen into a disadvantage in a pure contest of power!

Mad Dog gave him no chance to breathe; dropping to all fours like a rampaging heavy tank, it pounced again.

"Bang! Bang! Clang!"

The sounds of fists, claws, and the shield colliding rang out densely within the office.

Steve's fighting techniques were indeed peak; he always managed to use his shield at the critical moment to block Mad Dog's lethal bites and seized opportunities to strike back hard with the edge of the shield.

"Slash!"

Steve caught a flaw, and his shield sliced through Mad Dog's abdomen like a blade, leaving a wound deep enough to see bone.

But he didn't even have time to be happy.

The black slime at Mad Dog's wound surged, and in less than a second, that fatal injury had completely healed, without leaving even a scar!

"Damn it, physical attacks are ineffective?" Steve's expression changed drastically.

"Roar!"

Mad Dog was infuriated; it abandoned defense and tanked the heavy blows from Steve's shield, biting down on the edge of the shield as its massive strength attempted to fling Steve away.

Behind the desk...

Lynn wasn't looking at Steve, who was locked in a bitter struggle.

His gaze was fixed intently on the red, white, and blue circular shield on Steve's left arm.

Whether it was Mad Dog's claw strikes, which were enough to tear through armored vehicles, or the impacts weighing several tons, they should have shattered the arm of Captain America, who lacked any shock-absorbing structure.

But that shield weirdly absorbed all the kinetic energy and counter-shock, leaving Steve perfectly unharmed.

"Completely absorbs kinetic energy... the purity of the material is far higher than the layer of fabric on Kingpin."

Lynn set down his goblet, a flicker of extremely greedy crimson light emerging in his eyes.

For someone like him who possessed the Bloodtrix, this kind of top-tier special metal from the Marvel Universe was the perfect material for constructing an invincible alien body.

"Mad Dog, stand down."

Lynn slowly stood up.

Mad Dog, who was just about to bite through Steve's shoulder, stopped its movements instantly upon hearing the command. It released the shield and retreated obediently to Lynn's side, crouching on the ground.

Steve gasped for breath, the arm holding the shield trembling slightly. After only two minutes of fighting this "pet," more than half of his stamina had been consumed.

"The warm-up is over, Captain."

Lynn cracked his neck, the Bloodtrix on his left wrist exploding with a piercing crimson light.

This time, within the red light, there was a hint of extremely violent dark-gold patterns. That was the [Dual Star Fusion] permission, just unlocked after breaking the 10% progress mark.

"I've taken a liking to that shield."

Lynn stared at Steve, his voice like the pronouncement of the God of Death.

"Now, leave it behind. Then get out."