Russell had been in this secret Hydra base for a month now.

  Over the past month, he had tried every means possible to gather intelligence about the outside world, but he hadn't obtained much valuable information.

  From the existence of the Abomination serum and the fact that Hydra was still active, Russell could deduce that the timeline he was in was likely after the New York battle between the Abomination and the Hulk but before the birth of Ultron...

  However, he couldn't pinpoint the exact timeframe, as there an of about seven to eight years between those events.

  However, the whispers of those two Hydra soldiers provided him with a highly accurate piece of information.

  The hat Iron Man, Tony Stark, had been killed by the Mandarin likely referred to the atta Tony's mansion by the Mandarin's forces, which led to Tony's disappearahat was mistakenly reported as his death.

  This also meant that the New York battle between the Avengers and Loki, which had shocked the world, had already cluded.

  After firming this specific timeline, Russell's mind immediately fshed through several major future events.

  The Helicarrier i involving S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, the Sokovia i, the Avengers' Civil War, and more…

  Just as Russell these potential future events, Jack, the base's security chief, appeared behind him without warning, scrutinizing him with a stern expression.

  Lost in his thoughts, Russell didn't notice Jack's approatil Jack pressed the barrel of his pistol against the back of Russell's head, snapping him out of his reverie.

  "You know, I really want to blow your modified freak head off! I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm warning you, don't get any ideas...

  You're just a on in HYDRA's hands, a dog on their leash. You'll never defy HYDRA!"

  With that, Jack pulled the trigger.

  *Bang!* *Bang!*

  Two gunsh out, and the two soldiers who had been whispering earlier colpsed to the ground, blood p from their foreheads.

  After firing, Jack did not even g Russell and simply walked away, as if he had just squashed a couple of ants.

  Once Jack was gone, Russell slowly unched his fists.

  This wasn't the first time Jack had deliberately provoked Russell. Over the past month, it had happened several times.

  Whether it was because Russell had easily dealt with those two Hydra squads earlier or because Jack simply disliked him, Jack always seemed to go out of his way to pick fights, as if he was itg for Russell to retaliate...

  After taking several deep breaths, Russell silently suppressed his killing i and walked wordlessly back to his room.

  If there was one person iire base that Russell wao kill the most, Jack would undoubtedly take the top spot.

  Ever since Russell had arrived in this world, Jack had been pushing his buttons, over and ain.

  Although Allen aher didn't know what had happened between Russell and Jack, they could sehe murderous aura radiating from Russell... a chilling,Grim Reaper-like iy.

  It was only then that Allen aher realized just how much Russell had been holding back during their bat training.

  Russell ighe duo. Once ba his room, he appeared calm on the surface, but his mind was rag.

  inally, his pn had been to wait until both Jad Dr. Wilsoheir guard down before exeg his escape.

  But Jack's ret act revealed a critical fw in Russell's pn...

  No matter how cooperative he was with Jad Wilson's arras, no matter how harmless he appeared, Jack would never lower his guard around him.

  When Jack assigned Russell to be Allen aher's bat instructor, Russell had thought it was a sign that Jack was starting to trust him. But now, it was clear that he had been overly optimistic.

  The reason Jack had made him an instructor was likely just to keep him busy.

  'Even a useless tool still has some value', perhaps that was Jack's true mi.

  Now that Russell knew Jack would never let his guard down, he had no choice but to revise his escape pn.

  From what he had observed, this Hydra base was not aional facility, but a secret research base.

  As a result, there weren't many Hydra soldiers stationed here.

  The soldiers were anized into six-person squads, and over the past month, Russell had seen twelve such squads, meaning there were at least seventy soldiers here.

  Whether there were additional hidden soldiers in the base was something Russell couldn't know.

  However, these ordinary soldiers posed little threat to him.

  The only things that could truly harm him were high-caliber armor-pierg sniper rounds, electric pulse(shock) ons, and a few other specialized ons.

  Previously, to test Russell's defensive capabilities, Wilson had arranged a series of tests.

  During those tests, Wilson had evehe mounted grenade uncher on a Humvee.

  Although the grenade uncher owerful, Russell had mao withstand it and hadn't been killed on the spot.

  Aside from armor-pierg rounds aric pulse ons, the most troublesome thing was the Electroshock Explosive Colr around his neck.

  Without removing it, Russell couldn't truly fight back.

  "Do I really have to gamble?"

  So far, Russell had no idea how to remove the colr or who trolled its detonator.

  The only method he could think of was to let the colr be triggered iionally and then pce his hopes for survival on the 'Dionesium Factor'.

  "The risk is too high. It only be a st resort..."

  …

  Time passed, and before he k, over a week had gone by.

  When Russell went to Wilson's b for his routine checkup, Wilson suddenly said something ued.

  "This might be the st time I examine you. The Abomination Project is about to be shut down."

  Hearing this, Russell was momentarily stunned.

  If he remembered correctly, Wilson should have been developing the third geion of Abomination soldiers. Why was the project being celed now?

  "What's going on?"

  Under normal circumstances, Wilson might not have answered Russell's question.

  But at this moment, Wilson seemed distracted and quietly expined, "Headquarters has discovered a new enha serum... something called the Extremis Virus...

  They believe the Extremis soldiers created from the virus have more potential than the Abomination soldiers..."

  "Moreover, there are already clear success cases with Extremis soldiers. They just o figure out how to replicate those successes, uhe Abomination Project which requires starting from scratd building up research step by step."