The wind was vicious—like it had a personal grudge—whipping across his face hard enough to sting.
Levi had already stopped caring about the pain. Or rather, he simply didn't have the spare attention to care anymore. His entire focus was locked onto two things:
First—keep moving.
Second—don't fall.
His lungs felt like a torn bellows. Every breath came with a harsh huff-huff rasp, the air he sucked in icy and rigid, like countless frozen needles stabbing straight down his throat and into his lungs, leaving a burning ache behind.
The healing factor did give him endurance far beyond a normal man—but it came with no customer service. It fixed the body, not the suffering.
If this were the old Levi, the desk-bound corporate drone from his previous life, he'd already be foaming at the mouth and sprawled face-up in the snow, waiting for the dogs behind him to start their feast.
But now, he couldn't stop—and didn't dare to.
The barking behind him sounded like death's war drums, each bark louder, closer than the last.
"Woof! Woof woof!"
There was an unmistakable excitement in those sounds, the thrill of predators closing in on fresh meat. In the dead silence of the snowy forest, the noise carried terrifyingly far.
"Damn beasts…" Levi cursed inwardly—whether at the dogs themselves or the Hydra soldiers holding their leashes, he wasn't even sure. Using dogs to track someone in snow was pure cheating. Zero honor.
He didn't dare run in a straight line. That would just make him a moving target. Instead, relying on his hazy memory of the map, he deliberately chose the worst terrain possible.
A thicket of waist-high shrubs loomed ahead, buried under heavy snow. Without hesitation, he plunged straight in.
Dry, sharp branches cracked and whipped against his greatcoat, tearing his pants and carving bloody lines into his legs.
The healing factor kicked in immediately—itchy numbness spreading as the wounds closed almost as soon as they appeared.
Bursting out the other side, he stepped straight into a snow-covered pit. His foot sank, balance vanished, and he went down hard, face-first, biting into freezing snow.
"Pah! Pah!" He spat snow from his mouth, scrambling back up without even checking for injuries, and kept running.
He could feel it now—his stamina draining fast. His limbs were growing heavy, like they'd been filled with molten lead.
This wouldn't work.
A man couldn't outrun dogs, especially not in deep snow and broken terrain.
He needed to break the trail completely.
His mind raced.
Climb a tree? Too obvious. The dogs would just circle below and bark him into a firing squad.
There was only one option left—
A place that could erase scent and tracks entirely.
Water… or a cave.
Water!
His eyes lit up. Ahead lay a narrow stream, its surface skinned with thin ice. He veered toward it and stepped in without hesitation.
Crack.
The ice shattered, and freezing water surged up to his calves. The cold was savage, like it was drilling straight into his bones.
Teeth clenched, Levi forced himself downstream, splashing through the current for over a hundred meters.
That should mess with the dogs' noses—at least for a while.
He climbed back onto the bank, water dripping from his clothes. His pants were already stiff with ice, creaking with every step.
If he didn't find shelter soon, hypothermia would finish what Hydra couldn't.
As he ran, his eyes scanned wildly.
Moonlight reflecting off the snow gave the night just enough definition to read the land.
Then he saw it.
About two hundred meters to his left—a dark rock face.
Most of it was bare, but near the ground, something looked… off.
A dense cluster of low shrubs hugged the cliff, snow piled atop them in a subtle outward bulge—like the mountain had grown a small belly.
That wasn't natural.
There was something there.
Hope flared in his chest. He poured what little strength he had left into his legs and sprinted toward it.
The closer he got, the stronger his certainty became.
He pushed aside the snow-laden branches and revealed a narrow, pitch-black fissure—just wide enough for a person to slip through sideways.
The entrance was perfectly concealed. Anyone walking past it a hundred times would never notice.
He didn't rush in.
Bears, wolves—winter caves weren't always empty.
Levi pressed his ear to the cold rock, holding his breath.
Nothing.
Just the slow drip, drip of water echoing faintly from deep inside.
He sniffed the air—damp earth and stone. No animal musk.
Safe enough.
The barking behind him was closer now.
He hugged his MP40 tight and slipped sideways into the crack, wriggling through like a desperate eel.
The moment his body passed inside, the air changed.
It was warmer. Not warm—but far less murderous than outside.
He barely had time to feel relief before his foot slipped.
"Bang!"
He went down hard, slamming into the ground, nearly dropping his gun.
The entrance sloped downward, slick with ice from seepage—a natural death trap.
Ignoring the pain, he scrambled up and carefully moved deeper, one hand on the rock wall.
After a short bend, the space opened up.
A wide natural cavern—nearly half a basketball court in size. The ceiling soared overhead, jagged stalactites hanging like the bones of ancient beasts, faintly illuminated by the dim light leaking in from outside.
He could finally stop.
Levi collapsed against a massive rock, boneless, gasping for breath. Relief washed over him like warm seawater.
He dug out the high-energy ration he'd taken from the Hydra squad leader and took a savage bite.
Dry. Hard. It hurt his gums.
And it tasted like the best food he'd ever eaten.
He devoured most of it, then gulped down icy water from his canteen. The fire in his chest slowly died down, strength creeping back into his limbs.
Cuts and scrapes were already sealing, itching maddeningly as scabs formed.
He flicked his lighter.
Click.
A small orange flame bloomed, pushing back the darkness and bringing a fragile sense of safety.
By its light, he pulled out the map and spread it carefully on dry stone.
Crude—but deadly precise.
At the center, a red X marked "Fabrik", like a spider at the heart of a web. Patrol routes radiated outward, each marked with times and notes.
Levi traced his escape path with a finger—and felt cold sweat break out.
He'd run straight through the largest gap between patrol routes.
One wrong turn, and he'd have crashed headlong into another Hydra unit.
"Damn… that was pure luck," he muttered.
Next, he took out the blue energy cube.
In the flickering firelight, it looked even more unreal. Light flowed within it, deep and alive.
Power—ancient, pure—compressed into something that fit in his palm.
How the hell was he supposed to use this?
He turned it over, poked it, even tried focusing on it like some cultivation novel protagonist.
Nothing.
Except dizziness.
"Great. No manual. Top-tier tech, zero instructions," he grumbled, giving up.
He wrapped the cube and map carefully in oilcloth and tucked them deep inside his clothes.
That was his real lifeline now.
Suddenly—voices and barking echoed faintly outside.
He crept to the entrance and peered out.
Flashlight beams swung through the distant trees—but they were moving away.
The water trick had worked.
They'd lost him.
Levi exhaled deeply, tension draining from his body.
Safe. For now.
Fatigue hit him like a tidal wave.
His eyelids felt like iron.
No. Don't sleep.
He twisted his thigh hard. Pain snapped him awake.
Sleeping here was the same as putting his head on a chopping block.
Forcing himself up, he decided to clear the cave before resting.
MP40 ready, lighter held high, he moved deeper inside.
The cave stretched on, uneven ground littered with loose stone. The air grew colder, wetter. Dripping water echoed unnaturally, hammering at his nerves.
After fifty or sixty meters, the tunnel bent sharply.
He pressed himself to the wall and slowly leaned out.
Beyond was an even larger chamber—darkness swallowing the far end completely.
Just as he prepared to step forward—
He heard it.
A sound so faint it almost vanished beneath the dripping water.
But Levi froze instantly.
It wasn't wind.
It wasn't water.
It was the sound of something heavy—metal—dragging slowly across stone.
"Scrrrape… claaang…"
Slow. Deliberate. Like a rusted chain being pulled through the darkness ahead.
Levi went rigid.
His lighter slipped from his fingers.
Clink.
A falling droplet snuffed the flame out instantly.
Total darkness swallowed him whole.
His heart began to hammer uncontrollably.
There was someone else in this cave.