The Savior of American Comics? I'm the Subspace Evil God!

Chapters 572, 1060, and 1061: Difficult to Distinguish Between Truth and Falsehood (Part 1)

"Huh? This place actually belongs to... S.H.I.E.L.D.?!"

Captain America and Black Widow exclaimed almost simultaneously, their faces showing surprise, which quickly turned into a bittersweet "I see" smile.

Who could have imagined that after painstakingly tracking down every clue in an attempt to uncover the conspiracy behind Nick Fury's attack, they would ultimately return to the very origins of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Clearly, this secret organization, which had been successfully disguised and established within military camps during World War II, had a far deeper foundation than the two of them imagined.

"It seems that this may be the place where S.H.I.E.L.D. was originally established... or rather, one of its earliest outposts."

Captain America broke the silence first. He glanced around the historic hall and then strode into a huge room that looked like the office of the person in charge.

Upon entering this larger office, the first thing that catches the eye is a row of black and white photographs hanging on the wall.

The edges of the photographic paper have turned slightly yellow, but the images of the people on it are still clearly visible.

"Hey, look! That's Tony's father... Howard Stark!"

Black Widow immediately recognized one of the photos: a middle-aged man in a suit with a neat mustache, whose eyes were full of wisdom and unruliness.

However, after one glance, Captain America's gaze was immediately drawn to the photograph next to Howard Stark.

In the photo, a young and beautiful woman, dressed in a World War II-era military uniform, with a determined and energetic gaze, is smiling at the camera.

That's right, it's Peggy Carter... the woman Captain America once loved deeply.

But in the end, he was unable to keep his promise and dance the dance they had agreed upon.

When Captain America awoke from his 'slumber,' seventy years had passed, and the people and things he knew had all changed beyond recognition.

Although Peggy Carter is still alive, her elderly and bedridden body makes it impossible for her to fulfill the promise she made years ago.

Captain America's eyes softened, filled with endless longing and an indescribable sadness.

He stared at the photograph for several seconds, as if trying to travel through time and touch that bygone era.

On the photo wall, there were several other men who looked like military officers; clearly, they were all founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"call……"

Captain America took a deep breath, forcing himself to break free from his memories of Peggy Carter, and his gaze hardened once more.

He turned around, ready to continue exploring deeper into the office.

However, after taking only a few steps, he abruptly stopped again in front of a row of huge metal shelves placed against the wall, which looked no different from the other filing cabinets.

"What's wrong?" Black Widow noticed Captain America's unusual behavior and asked, somewhat puzzled.

Captain America did not answer immediately, but instead bent down and approached the narrow gap of less than one centimeter between the two heavy shelves.

The crevices were filled with layers upon layers of dusty spider webs.

But what really caught Captain America's attention at that moment were those extremely fine spider silks, which were trembling slightly at a very regular frequency that would be easily overlooked if one did not observe carefully!

It was clearly affected by the breeze.

And that's precisely where things are most wrong!

Captain America immediately straightened up, his sharp eyes quickly scanning the entire room.

The shelves were placed right against the wall, which was a solid concrete wall.

There was no working ventilation system in the room, no air conditioning vents, and you couldn't even feel a slight airflow.

So, what exactly caused the spider web to tremble?

The only explanation is that the airflow is coming from behind the shelves?

“There’s something behind these shelves…” Captain America said with certainty.

Then he walked to the side of one of the shelves, grabbed the heavy metal frame with one hand, and the muscles on his arm instantly bulged out!
"Hey!"

Captain America pulled hard, and with a sickening metallic scraping sound and a flurry of dust, the heavy metal cabinet, which looked no different from the other shelves, was actually pulled more than a meter away from the wall by Captain America's brute force.

Hidden behind the shelves on the wall was not the secret door Captain America imagined, but an old-fashioned elevator!
"An elevator?"

Captain America stared at the hidden elevator, his face filled with confusion and wariness. He turned to Black Widow, seeking a reasonable explanation: "Strange, why would S.H.I.E.L.D. go to such lengths to hide an elevator behind these heavy shelves?"

However, Black Widow was also completely bewildered. She stepped forward, carefully examined the elevator's control panel, and shook her head innocently.
"Don't look at me like that. How could I possibly know something like this... I'm afraid even Fury doesn't know this secret."

As she spoke, she pulled out her specially made phone with decoding capabilities. "However, although I don't know why it's here, I might know where it leads."

She then used her phone's scanning function to scan the numbers left by the fingerprint on the elevator keypad. The program on her phone then automatically analyzed and sorted them, easily cracking the elevator's keypad and displaying a sequence of numbers on the screen.

"Done. An old encryption protocol, not too difficult for me." Black Widow raised an eyebrow at Captain America with a hint of smugness, then began entering the password.

Drop drop-

As the password was entered, a dull mechanical sound came from inside the elevator, and the heavy metal doors slowly slid open to the sides, revealing the small, dusty car inside.

The two exchanged a glance and saw the solemnity and determination in each other's eyes.

Without hesitation, they stepped into the elevator.

There is only one down button inside the car.

Captain America reached out and pressed down hard.

The elevator doors slowly closed, accompanied by the creaking sound of the cables rubbing together and a slight feeling of weightlessness, and the car began to descend steadily.

The descent seemed to be taking longer than expected. The surroundings were deathly silent, save for the faint noise of the machinery, as if they were falling into an abyss utterly forgotten by the world. *Ding—*

A crisp notification sound stood out starkly in the absolute silence.

The elevator jolted slightly and then came to a stop.

The elevator doors slowly opened to both sides.

Outside the door, there was absolute darkness, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Only in the far distance, in the darkness, would occasionally a row of faint, will-o'-the-wisps of blue light appear, and the faint but continuous hum of gears and cooling fans could be heard, as if some enormous machine was tirelessly running deep underground.

Black Widow immediately raised her flashlight, the beam piercing the darkness as she searched for the light switch.

But just as her flashlight beam shot out, above their heads, rows of old-fashioned fluorescent tubes, as if controlled by an invisible hand, lit up one after another without warning, from near to far.

The blinding white light instantly dispelled all darkness, revealing everything before them without reservation.

This is an underground space that is larger than anyone could imagine, comparable to a modern data center.

However, what filled the space was not the modern server racks they were familiar with, but mountains of computer hardware made up of old-fashioned transistors and electronic components produced in the mid-20th century, which were huge, bulky, and covered with buttons, knobs and flashing light bulbs.

The enormous, wardrobe-like server chassis has a rough metal mesh surface, revealing a dense, maze-like network of colorful wires and vacuum tubes inside.
A bulky monitor with a monotonous green screen sits on the control panel;

External storage devices, about the size of a small refrigerator, are arranged along the wall;

There are also the precursors of various unnamed network devices, covered with indicator lights and interfaces... All of this together creates a shocking scene, like a computer archaeological site.

This is clearly a computer room from the 1970s, long since obsolete in today's world.

However, what truly chilled the two of them to the bone was that, despite the fact that these devices looked old and outdated and were covered in thick dust, they were all functioning normally at that moment.

The indicator lights of various colors flashed regularly, the cooling fan emitted a low hum, and the tape drive occasionally turned, making a series of "click" sounds.

Like a digital ghost that has long been declared dead, it still stubbornly fulfills the unknown mission given to it by the last century in this isolated underground place.

"Huh? This place...this can't be..."

Black Widow looked around in disbelief, then ran her hand across a dusty control panel, leaving clear lines of marks with her fingertips to reveal a metal nameplate underneath. "IBM System/370, produced in 1972, and these DEC tape drives... look at the size of these reels, the storage capacity probably doesn't exceed 200MB..."

"These are all old relics that should be sent to a science and technology museum. Their combined computing power is probably not even as great as the mobile phone in my hand."

"So they simply don't have the capability to emit the complex encrypted signals we've been tracking... This can't be the source of the data."

Her tone was filled with intense disappointment and confusion, as if she had been led into a pointless dead end.

However, no sooner had she finished speaking than the old monitor, the most conspicuous one opposite them with its monotonous spherical green screen, suddenly flickered without warning.

Then, a pixelated, blue portrait of a middle-aged man wearing round-framed glasses and with a somewhat serious expression slowly lit up on the screen.

At the same time, a male voice, clearly marked by electronic synthesis and with a slight German accent, emanated from the old audio equipment around the server room, echoing in the silent underground space.

“No, Agent Natasha Ellianovna Romanov, you’re wrong…”

The blue avatar looked particularly eerie on the green screen. It seemed to be 'watching' the two people in front of it, whose expressions were clearly deeply shocked, and said, word by word:

"This is the source of the data you're looking for."

"Wow!" Black Widow reacted almost instinctively, instantly taking half a step back. The Glock 19 pistol at her waist was already drawn, its dark muzzle pointing steadily at the monitor that had suddenly come to life. Her movements were as fluid as if she had rehearsed them hundreds or thousands of times in advance.

Black Widow's eyes were sharp as knives, fixed on the image on the screen, her voice tense with doubt, "What the hell is this... a pre-recorded video?"

Captain America reacted even faster, his muscles tensing up. Almost the instant the sound rang out, he reflexively raised the Vibranium Shield in front of him, while crouching slightly to assume a defensive and offensive stance.

However, when he saw the unfamiliar yet familiar profile picture on the screen, his brows furrowed tightly, and his icy blue eyes were filled with disbelief.

At that moment, the blue avatar on the screen seemed to "blink" its pixelated eyes.

A vintage-style rotating camera, mounted above the monitor and equally covered in dust but with an exceptionally clean lens, emitted a faint servo motor hum.

The camera slowly adjusted its angle, finally focusing precisely on Captain America and Black Widow.

"Oh no, I'm not some kind of recording, Agent Romanov!"

Using the camera, Arnim Zola was able to clearly capture the expressions on Captain America and his companion's faces. His voice was full of mockery, as if he was enjoying their astonished reactions. "I may no longer be the person Captain America personally sent to prison in 1945, but luckily... I am still me!"

Immediately, Anim Zola's image on the screen became clearer and more detailed, and Captain America and his companion could even clearly see the sardonic smile behind his round-framed glasses.

Captain America frowned and didn't rush to answer the question.

His wary gaze quickly swept around his surroundings, while he subtly adjusted the angle of the Vibranium Shield in his hand, constantly on guard against any possible sneak attack from any direction.

Finally, after confirming that no one was lurking in the shadows playing tricks, and that besides him, Black Widow, and the strange computer in front of them, there were no other living beings in the massive server room, Captain America's sharp eyes turned to the screen, and he spoke slowly in a low voice:
"His name was Arnim Zola, the chief German scientist who worked for the Red Skull... a mad genius, but he should have died many years ago, right?"

Before Black Widow could process this information and ask any new questions, Arnim Zola began to speak in a light tone, recounting his 'evolutionary history' without any hesitation:
"First of all, please allow me to correct you. I am actually Swiss, and we are known for our precision and neutrality, remember?"

"Secondly, take a good look around you. I'm in a hundred times more energetic than I ever was when I was a human!"

"In 1972, I was diagnosed with an irreversible terminal illness... At that time, human science was no longer able to save my broken human body."

"Fortunately, my genius mind, as well as the knowledge and memories I possessed, were perfectly preserved by S.H.I.E.L.D. using this advanced method."

A simulated, satisfied sigh came from the speaker: "They have been successfully digitized and stored in this nearly 200,000-foot-long magnetic tape database."

"So, to be precise... you two are currently standing inside my brain!"

(End of this chapter)