“Sure, no problem!”
Taking a look at the fully armed Hydra soldiers, Russell agreed with an indifferent expression.
Saying this, Russell cast a provocatively contemptuous glare at Jack.
Jack wanted to use the guise of training to intentionally abuse Russell.
Russell, meanwhile, wanted to seize the opportunity to deliberately provoke Jack.
Russell couldn’t kill Jack yet, and Jack didn’t dare kill Russell right now either, as he wouldn’t be able to explain it to Hydra headquarters.
Although he couldn’t kill Jack, intentionally baiting him wouldn’t be much of an issue.
*Since you plan to make my life miserable, I’m certainly not going to let you off easy either.*
Just as Russell expected, Jack’s face turned utterly dark upon meeting that dismissive look—the kind reserved for looking down on the weak—and his right hand involuntarily tightened around the pistol in his holster.
“Let’s start.
The sooner we finish training, the sooner we can go back and rest!”
Ignoring the furious Jack, Russell turned to address the Hydra soldiers before stepping into the center of the training ground of his own accord.
On this football field–sized training ground, there were few obstacles; even the cars and aircraft previously parked here had all been cleared out.
In the vast training ground, there were now only a few crates used to break line of sight, along with a few quick-dry walls that offered minimal defensive cover.
Once Russell stepped inside, the Hydra soldiers began taking up suitable positions around the perimeter.
Although these Hydra soldiers were merely the base’s security force, they were still qualified combatants with excellent tactical discipline.
A casual glance at their chosen positions was enough for Russell to realize they had covered the entire training ground, eliminating every single blind spot.
As Jack drew his pistol and fired a shot at Russell from afar, the Hydra soldiers, already primed for action, squeezed their triggers in unison.
*Bang!
Bang!
Bang…*
The deafening sound of gunfire erupted continuously, and the training ground instantly came alive with intense action.
The moment Jack fired the first shot, Russell had already broken into a rapid sprint.
A moving target was harder to hit than a stationary one; that was common sense.
Especially when that target possessed superhuman speed, making pre-aiming a random roll of the dice where luck held all the cards.
Relying on his superhuman speed and reflexes, Russell easily evaded the bullets raining down from every angle.
The problem, however, was that his stamina would deplete rapidly under such high-speed movement.
Once he could no longer sustain this high-speed evasion, getting hit would become inevitable.
For the short term, though, Russell didn’t need to worry too much about it.
By his own estimation, he could maintain this intense sprinting, weaving, and leaping for at least half an hour.
Thus, within thirty minutes, he had little reason to be concerned.
But Russell never expected that since Jack had arranged such a training session for him, he had come thoroughly prepared and would never let him pass so easily.
Jack pulled out a silver-white remote control the size of a smartphone and casually pressed a red button on it.
The moment Jack drew the remote, Russell sensed something was wrong.
Sure enough, as soon as Jack pressed the button, the collar around Russell’s neck suddenly discharged a powerful surge of electricity.
The massive electrical discharge burst forth with a blinding glare reminiscent of a flashbang, sending arm-thick serpents of lightning slithering across Russell’s body.
“Argh!!!”
The sudden, intense shock severely struck Russell mid-sprint.
His footing faltered, and he slammed heavily onto the ground, tumbling forward for over a dozen meters like a rolling soccer ball.
This maneuver by Jack caught not only Russell completely off guard, but also surprised the Hydra soldiers and the spectating pair of Alan and Hathaway.
What the Hydra soldiers hadn’t anticipated was Jack pressing the shock button at such a moment; the dazzling electric light jolted their nerves and caused them to pause their assault.
What Alan and Hathaway hadn’t expected was Jack resorting to such dirty tactics during training.
Watching Russell roll across the ground, they felt a sudden pang of sympathetic grief.
Though captured by Hydra to serve as test subjects, Alan and Hathaway still didn’t fully grasp what kind of organization Hydra really was.
Only now did they finally realize the true nature of the environment they were trapped in.
“Fire!
Until I call a stop, no one stops shooting!”
“Otherwise, you know the consequences!”
Thus, Jack practically roared his command to resume firing.
Although the other Hydra soldiers didn’t understand why Jack was deliberately mistreating Russell, as trained soldiers, they executed his order flawlessly.
Gunfire erupted once more, and bullets flew across the training ground once again.
Though Russell did everything he could to pick himself back up, the aftereffects of the severe shock slowed his movement considerably.
In battle, the briefest hesitation could mean the difference between life and death.
While this delay didn’t result in Russell being killed outright, it caused him to be hit by two consecutive shots.
Just as he had anticipated, high-caliber anti-material sniper rifles loaded with specialized armor-piercing rounds were the only weapons in the base capable of penetrating his skin and posing a genuine threat to his life.
Before Russell could even steady himself after standing up, two armor-piercing sniper rounds struck his body, tearing through his right arm and left leg respectively.
Thanks to his body being vastly enhanced by the Abomination Serum, he didn’t instantly lose his arm and leg like a normal human would.
However, the immense kinetic force of the armor-piercing rounds blasted him off his feet, sending him crashing down once again.
Although his physical strength and body had been enhanced, his pain receptors remained as sensitive as a normal person’s, leaving him to endure the excruciating agony of bullets tearing through his flesh.
“Fuck you!”
Though Russell prided himself on remaining calm, an overwhelming rage surged within him now.
*Fuck being calm!
Fuck the plan!
I’m going to kill that bastard right fucking now!*
*Anyone who stands in my way dies!*
“Cease fire!”
Unsure if he was genuinely worried about killing Russell, Jack, standing outside the training field, gave the order to stop shooting.
Russell lay motionless on the ground, crimson blood oozing steadily from his right arm and left leg.
Covered by blood, neither Jack nor the Hydra soldiers noticed that Russell’s wounds were rapidly closing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The Dionysus Factor had activated once again!