The day after finishing his Bounty Ranked Match, Du Mu received a message from Nick Fury and was immediately teleported to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Walking into the Director's office, Du Mu found Nick Fury and Coulson by his side.
"Sir, what can I do for you?" Du Mu inquired.
Nick Fury had only notified him to come over, without revealing any information beforehand, which felt rather mysterious.
Nick Fury looked at Du Mu and said gravely, "Our search team discovered the wreckage of a crashed aircraft in the Arctic Circle and found an old relic inside. He has been transported to the New York branch, and your mission is to guard him until he wakes up."
Saying this, Fury handed a file to Du Mu.
Du Mu took the file and realized that the "old relic" Nick Fury spoke of was actually a person.
And this person's identity was not simple: it was Steve Rogers, the American idol from nearly seventy years ago, who had been injected with the original Super Soldier Serum, Captain America!
An NPC, Nick Fury, has issued a new quest to you.
Quest: Guard Captain America
Objective: Guard the unconscious Steve Rogers until he wakes up.
Reward: Experience +1000, S.H.I.E.L.D. Reputation +20, Random Item *2.
According to the file, this Captain America was HYDRA's number one enemy back in the day.
Steve, as Captain America, led the Howling Commandos, repeatedly crippling HYDRA's operations. Finally, in a crucial mission, he defeated the HYDRA leader, the Red Skull, and destroyed the HYDRA headquarters.
However, he mysteriously disappeared after that operation.
No one had ever expected that after nearly seventy years, S.H.I.E.L.D. would rediscover Captain America frozen in the Arctic ice!
Not only that, but precise biological testing showed that this "old popsicle" still had faint signs of life remaining in his body.
And after the thawing procedure was completed, he even showed signs of imminent awakening!
"Hmm, someone frozen for seventy years thawing out and coming back to life—that kind of outrageous setting is perfectly consistent with this game's usual style."
Du Mu was already accustomed to this.
After all, in this game world, nothing, no matter how unbelievable, seemed strange.
However, entrusting HYDRA's number one enemy to a HYDRA spy felt a bit odd, didn't it?
"Right, one more thing."
After explaining the mission, Nick Fury's expression looked a little strange.
"Some time ago, that same search team found the long-missing Bruce Banner and his girlfriend, Betty Ross, in the neighboring country of Iceland."
"But they didn't seem to be doing very well. What exactly did you do to them?"
The day Bruce escaped from General Ross, he and Betty bolted toward Iceland, running for their lives and never stopping!
If Bruce hadn't transformed into the Hulk midway due to an excessively fast heartbeat, drastically shortening their travel time to Iceland, the pair probably wouldn't have reached their destination until next year.
It was fortunate that a S.H.I.E.L.D. scout team was on a mission near the Arctic Circle at the time and located them shortly after they arrived in Iceland.
When the scout team found the two, Bruce, having returned to human form, and Betty were huddled together, shivering in the icy cold and snow, starving and freezing—a truly miserable sight!
Du Mu scratched his head. "I didn't do much. I just helped them fulfill a wish."
Nick Fury's mouth twitched slightly.
A wish? It was almost an 'unfulfilled wish.'
After this experience, it was likely that the two of them would have a lifelong phobia of Iceland.
After Du Mu left, Coulson, who had been acting as background scenery, finally spoke. "Sir, is it really okay to entrust this to Du Mu? Captain America's existence and the thawing project are above Level 8 Classification. His clearance level is nowhere near high enough to access it."
Nick Fury said calmly, "Don't worry, Coulson. Du Mu is a trustworthy agent."
At this, he recalled how Du Mu had proactively applied to undergo S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security tests.
From psychological evaluations to stress interrogations, Du Mu scored near-perfect marks in almost every category, proclaiming his absolute loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. He even resisted the extremely difficult challenge of the truth serum, a feat achieved by only a handful of agents across the entire organization.
It was based on Du Mu's extraordinary tenacity and loyalty that Nick Fury had prematurely terminated the subsequent testing phases.
Including the most common honey trap.
Because he deeply believed that an agent capable of keeping a secret under truth serum had an unshakeable will of steel and could not be corrupted by mere feminine charms!
Nick Fury had absolute confidence in Du Mu!
This was why he felt secure entrusting Du Mu with so many important missions.
On one hand, he valued Du Mu's strength, and on the other, he trusted his loyalty.
To have an agent with such skill and loyalty is truly S.H.I.E.L.D.'s great fortune!
Nick Fury couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Du Mu quickly arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York branch.
Besides the headquarters in D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. maintained branches in several major American cities to facilitate agents carrying out missions nationwide.
Du Mu had also heard that S.H.I.E.L.D. had an even more special mobile branch: a triple-threat land, sea, and air warship known as the Helicarrier, capable of flying globally.
However, such strategic equipment was usually only activated for global surveillance, emergency combat, or large-scale evacuation missions, and Du Mu had yet to see it in person.
After strict identity verification, Du Mu was guided to a highly classified area.
A meticulously arranged temporary set had been constructed here: a hospital room simulating the style of the 1940s.
Even the medical personnel attending to Steve were dressed in 1940s attire, and the radio was playing a live broadcast of a baseball game from that era. The attention to detail was impeccable.
Du Mu was willing to call it Steve's World!
Of course, this entire design was to prevent Steve from becoming stressed upon waking. Creating a familiar background was meant to help him relax his guard and allow S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel to gradually explain the current situation.
After all, immediately telling someone they time-traveled and it's seventy years later would confuse anyone.
Steve wasn't a webnovel reader; he wouldn't have such good acceptance.
At this moment, Steve was lying quietly on the hospital bed.
Although the ice had been removed, he was still in a state of deep coma.
NPC: Steve Rogers
Codename: Captain America
Affection: 0
Evaluation: The 'Marvel 50/50,' American ass, Master of Profanity Management, Hail HYDRA (Captain America Special Edition, highly effective against HYDRA)
Status: Comatose
"..."
Seeing Steve's evaluation, Du Mu genuinely felt a bit unsettled.
How was HYDRA's number one enemy shouting 'Hail HYDRA'?
Could it be that Steve's true identity wasn't Captain America, but Captain HYDRA?