53: Chapter 53 Ninth Form! Mechanical Upgrade!

The Winter Soldier collapsed in a pool of blood like a ragdoll, completely unconscious. Mad Dog squatted to the side, crunching the last bit of blood-streaked shoulder blade.

Lynn kicked aside the severed Vibranium mechanical arm by his feet and turned to walk toward the desk.

On the desk lay the black physical hard drive handed over by Nick Fury. This was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s highest-level encrypted storage device, equipped with an internal physical self-destruct lock; any attempt to force a breach would directly melt the data.

Lynn raised his left wrist. The Bloodtrix emitted a red light, scanning the severed mechanical arm on the floor and the hard drive on the desk.

[High-precision semi-mechanical creation and encrypted electronic motherboard detected.]

[Ninth Alien Sequence loadable.]

Lynn had no intention of finding a hacker to crack it. He pressed down heavily on the Bloodtrix with his right hand.

"Click."

Red light flashed. Lynn's human shell rapidly liquefied.

His bones, muscles, and skin were transformed into a black-and-red liquid nano-metal. His body surface was covered in complex dark red glowing circuit textures; his face had no features, only a single blinking red circular indicator light.

[Alien Gene Activated: Mimic (Mechanical Variant)!]

[Ability Traits: Possession, Assimilation, Reorganization, and Upgrading of all technological creations and digital networks.]

Lynn turned into a puddle of liquid metal, directly enveloping the Winter Soldier's mechanical arm on the floor.

In just two seconds, the Vibranium and titanium alloy were instantly decomposed and absorbed, becoming part of the liquid metal.

Immediately after, Lynn's hands transformed into two sharp data probes, piercing into the black hard drive on the desk without resistance.

"Chih."

The physical self-destruct lock that S.H.I.E.L.D. was so proud of had its underlying logic rewritten the moment it touched the nano-metal, becoming completely paralyzed.

Lynn closed his eyes.

His consciousness followed the hard drive's data interface, connecting into the fiber optic cables of Fisk Tower's network. He turned into an invisible digital torrent, rushing straight toward Washington at the speed of light.

...

Washington D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion.

Inside the Director's office, Alexander Pierce's face was as grim as water. He was watching his subordinates pack up classified documents.

"Officer, the Winter Soldier's signal has disappeared," reported the deputy.

Pierce's eyes darkened: "The mission failed. Immediately activate the backup server for the 'Insight Project', transfer the list of all HYDRA sleeper Agents to the Siberia Base. Then, blow up the headquarters' underground server room."

Since the assassination failed, he could only choose to cut his losses to survive.

"Yes!"

The deputy had just pressed the Enter key on the keyboard.

"Beep— Buzz!"

The alarm system of the entire Triskelion shrieked without warning. Piercing red lights flashed frantically.

"What's going on?!" Pierce barked.

"Someone is hacking the headquarters' main server!" The technician at the console was sweating profusely. "The firewall is being torn apart... the first layer is broken! The second layer... was also taken down in seconds!"

"Unplug the network cables! Cut the physical connection!" Pierce roared.

"We can't! The source of the intrusion isn't the external network; it bypassed the physical isolation layer directly!"

At this moment.

Inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground core server room.

The massive server arrays were running frantically, their cooling fans letting out overburdened screeches.

In the dimension of the digital World, Lynn's incarnation as the [Mimic] was like an ancient beast rampaging through.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s firewall code, claimed to be the most secure in the World, was like a fence made of paper in front of Lynn. He only needed a glance to assimilate, rewrite, or even turn it into his own weapon.

Suddenly, a massive stream of old-era data tried to block Lynn.

That was Dr. Zola's digital consciousness—the "Zola Algorithm." It sensed the threat and attempted to launch a countermeasure program.

"Outdated calculation logic."

Lynn's digital form sneered, directly spreading a large net made of code to envelop the "Zola Algorithm."

Before the Zola Algorithm could even issue a warning command, it was instantly shredded and devoured by the Mimic.

[Primary AI algorithm devoured. Calculation capacity increased.]

In less than thirty seconds.

S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters' defense network completely collapsed.

Lynn took over every camera, every security door, and every database. Even the automated machine gun turrets on the ceiling had their underlying identification codes modified in an instant.

"It's time to change the way the game is played."

Lynn scrolled through Pierce's top-secret files in the digital network. Those assassination records, plans to subvert regimes, and the dense list of HYDRA members within S.H.I.E.L.D. all fell into his hands.

Assassinate him?

Lynn wanted these rats hiding in the gutters to taste the feeling of being exposed to the light and dying.

...

The outside World.

New York's Times Square. Washington's White House Plaza. London's Piccadilly Circus.

All large outdoor display screens across the globe went black at the same time.

Pedestrians on the streets stopped in their tracks, looking in surprise at the blackened screens.

The next second.

On hundreds of thousands of screens worldwide, a dark red symbol lit up simultaneously—it was the totem of the Crimson Court, a dripping bloody sword.

Then, the scene jumped.

High-definition surveillance footage of Alexander Pierce in the Director's office ordering the "purging of dissidents within S.H.I.E.L.D." was played directly.

Subsequently, a list hundreds of names long scrolled across the screens.

Accompanying it were solid evidence and recordings of these high-level S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel participating in HYDRA assassinations, bribery, and human experimentation.

"Hail HYDRA."

The audio of Pierce at a certain secret meeting reached the ears of billions of people through global networks and broadcasts.

The World was in chaos!

Inside the White House, everything was a mess. The Pentagon's phones were instantly ringing off the hook. S.H.I.E.L.D. branches around the World fell into internal strife with armed standoffs.

The public was in an uproar, and the media went wild.

That S.H.I.E.L.D., which claimed to be the World's protective umbrella, was actually the nest of the World's largest terrorist organization!

...

Triskelion, Director's office.

Pierce stared intently at the television screen on the wall playing his own criminal evidence, his hands and feet cold as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

The undercover plan he had painstakingly managed for decades was stripped bare in a single minute, not even leaving his underwear. The intelligence network and technological defenses he was so proud of were simply a joke in front of the opponent.

Lynn not only wanted to kill people but also wanted to pull HYDRA up by its roots and expose it to the Sun.

"Officer... we're finished." The deputy's face was ashen.

Outside the door, the sound of gunfire from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents exchanging fire could already be heard. The exposure of HYDRA had plunged the entire headquarters into fratricide.

Just then.

The computer screen on Pierce's desk flickered for a moment.

Liquid dark red nano-metal seeped out from the computer screen, slowly condensing into a humanoid upper body on the desk.

The featureless face of the [Mimic] flickered with a cold red light.

"The first one on the list."

Lynn's voice came through the computer speakers, carrying undisguised killing intent.

"I've come to collect the debt."