Inside the stone coffin lay a decayed skeleton.
On its body was a long sword, and in its hand, it held a transparent crystal cube.
Suddenly, the officer's eyes narrowed sharply. Besides these items, the stone coffin was also filled with explosives!
The officer had just pushed open the coffin and was leaning over it when the explosives detonated.
"Boom!" A loud explosion shook the entire church violently. Intense flames and smoke erupted from the church.
Despite his efforts to avoid it, the officer was caught in the blast. The stone coffin shattered instantly, and the explosive flames engulfed him. His rigid face cracked under the fire, revealing the red skin beneath. The powerful shockwave flung him away, tearing off his mask completely, revealing a blood-red skull face. It was none other than the main villain from the movie, the leader of the mysterious organization Hydra, "Red Skull" Johann Schmidt.
Red Skull fell heavily to the ground. The explosion's force, along with the coffin's fragments, left his body in a mess. Blood continuously flowed from his wounds, quickly pooling beneath him.
As the flames subsided, a figure suddenly descended from above the church. With a swift motion, two steel throwing knives shot towards Red Skull's eyes and throat.
Originally lying motionless after being blasted away, Red Skull suddenly rolled to avoid the fatal attack. However, perhaps due to severe injuries from the explosion, he couldn't completely evade the attack. One of the throwing knives struck his neck, and blood gushed out.
Barely able to support himself, Red Skull felt his dizziness intensify. The massive blood loss and the severe dizziness and weakness from the explosion made it impossible for him to stand. Supporting himself with his hands on the ground, he glared viciously at the figure standing before him. This person had set a trap to kill him and was about to succeed.
Seeing the figure, Red Skull was shocked. The person was wearing the same clothes as him: a black military uniform, coat, and high boots. The most terrifying part was that even the face was identical to his previous appearance.
Red Skull immediately realized that this person intended to kill him and take his place.
Unfortunately, even though he understood, it was too late. Disguised as Red Skull, Chen Mo flicked his wrist, sending two more throwing knives flying.
Chen Mo had planned this for a long time and wouldn't give him a chance to turn the tables.
Red Skull was already at the end of his strength. Facing the rapidly approaching throwing knives, he wanted to dodge, but a strong wave of dizziness hit his brain. His delayed movements allowed the two throwing knives to pierce his eye sockets, with the 20 cm long blades penetrating nearly halfway, directly into his brain.
The villainous BOSS had just made his appearance and hadn't said much before Chen Mo easily took him down. It wasn't that Red Skull was too weak, but rather that Chen Mo, familiar with the plot, had set a deadly trap with careful planning.
Schmidt could never have imagined that the remote church he painstakingly found, which hid the Tesseract, would have a bomb trap set specifically for him. Even so, it didn't kill him outright. Chen Mo took advantage of his severe injuries and used two rounds of throwing knives to finally finish him off.
With deep resentment and hatred, Red Skull's body fell heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The era of a formidable villain came to an end, and the future would be written by Chen Mo in his place.
When Chen Mo discovered that Howard Stark in the newspaper looked exactly like his movie counterpart, he boldly speculated that other main characters would be the same. With his thorough understanding of the plot, Chen Mo came up with the daring idea to kill Red Skull and take his place.
Chen Mo made thorough preparations for this. He drew sketches from memory to have custom-made clothes, learned German, mimicked voices, and made masks. Even if his appearance differed slightly, he could wear the prepared "Red Skull" mask.
In the short time earlier, Chen Mo had hidden upstairs and quietly observed, mastering Schmidt's voice and tone. Who would suspect that their god-like leader would be killed and replaced in such a short time? They were more likely to believe in his skull face.
After storing Red Skull's body in his space, Chen Mo checked everyone in the church one by one. They were all dead, and no one would know what had just happened.
As the smoke and dust from the explosion gradually dissipated, a group of Hydra soldiers quickly rushed in.
Seeing Chen Mo standing in the middle, they immediately stood at attention and saluted. No one asked what had happened. Red Skull's authority in Hydra was immense. If he didn't speak, no one dared to ask. They only needed to follow orders.
Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction. Schmidt had trained Hydra well, saving him a lot of trouble.
Ignoring the soldiers, Chen Mo turned to inspect the church. The violent explosion had left the church in ruins, and the murals on the walls were cracked.
Fearing that the explosion might not kill the serum-enhanced Red Skull, Chen Mo had placed all the explosives he had stolen from a nearby German military camp into the stone coffin. His caution proved correct. The intense explosion only severely injured Red Skull, who could still dodge Chen Mo's throwing knives. The serum's enhancement of the body was indeed powerful, making Chen Mo even more eager for the serum.
Approaching the mural of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, Chen Mo found the giant serpent Nidhogg coiled at its roots. He pressed its eye, and with a "click," a wooden box popped out.
Chen Mo slowly opened the box, revealing a dazzling blue light.
A beam of light shot out from the box.
Inside the box was a blue cube, emitting a dazzling light. The cube's interior was brilliant, seemingly containing an endless starry sky, beautiful and magnificent, yet also filled with endless mysteries, making it hard to look away.
This was the Tesseract, possessing infinite energy and spatial power. Chen Mo snapped out of his shock, realizing that seeing it in person was far more awe-inspiring than in the movies. It truly deserved to be called a treasure of the gods.
Putting the box away, Chen Mo turned to leave, when a glint of silver caught his eye.
Turning his head, he saw a silver long sword deeply embedded in a stone pillar, its tip protruding from the other side, reflecting the firelight.
Walking to the pillar, Chen Mo grasped the sword's hilt and pulled it out with a "swish." The sword hummed in the air, clear and resonant.
If Chen Mo remembered correctly, this was the king's sword buried with the coffin. The explosion had stripped away its rusty exterior, revealing a bright, sharp blade.
This was a two-handed broadsword, with a blade nearly a meter long, a hilt over twenty centimeters, a crossguard, and a round, decorated pommel. The blade was wide and sharp, made of an unknown material, and much heavier than a typical two-handed sword. However, it felt very comfortable in Chen Mo's hand.
Chen Mo swung the sword at the stone pillar, and the silver blade easily sliced through the gray stone, cutting it in half.
It seemed that this king's sword was no ordinary burial item and likely had an extraordinary history. Chen Mo would need to study it further when he had time.
Having successfully replaced Red Skull, obtained the Tesseract, and gained an unexpected treasure, Chen Mo walked out of the ruined church, satisfied.
Looking at the massive war tank before him, Chen Mo couldn't help but marvel at Hydra's technological prowess, far surpassing its era and even difficult to match in modern times. But now, all of this would belong to him.
Previously, Chen Mo had focused all his energy on enhancing his abilities, neglecting the importance of power and influence. It wasn't until Chen Jingde severely injured him that he realized this.
While personal strength was fundamental, power and influence could help achieve his goals when he wasn't yet strong enough to intimidate everyone. If Chen Mo had had some influence back then, Zhou Tianhao wouldn't have dared to act against him.
Thus, the idea of building his own power had long taken root in Chen Mo's mind, which was the main reason he thought of replacing Red Skull.
Controlling Hydra would greatly aid his future plans and the establishment of his own power when he returned to the real world.