Chapter 122: Lady Gao (Second Update)

Stepping onto the stairs leading to the main entrance of the bunker and crossing the threshold, one is immediately met with a series of human experimentation chambers lining both sides of the hall.

Rows of cages, each about waist-high and constructed from iron bars as thick as a thumb, were displayed along the walls. They had all been occupied just minutes ago. These prisoners, frail and emaciated, had been slaughtered by a spiked trap lowered from the ceiling. Clearly, the Hand’s ninjas had triggered the mechanism to silence them.

Beyond that lay the operating tables.

On tables topped with raw iron, victims were secured with shackles as thick as bowls. Mei Mumu noticed that at the points where the victims’ hands rested, the iron, over two millimeters thick, had been gouged out. This was not something a mere victim could achieve.

Take, for instance, the man before him, who appeared to be from the Northeast provinces. His fingers had originally been caked with grime, but due to the excruciating agony of being dissected without anesthesia, he had clawed at the tabletop with such force that all ten of his fingernails had embedded themselves into the iron, tearing backward in the process.

Mei Mumu dared not look any longer at that face, twisted in the throes of agonizing despair.

Following the faint, lingering sounds of combat within the fortress, he made his way to the upper levels.

The floor was littered with the bodies of ninjas lying in every direction. Perhaps these fallen warriors were the cherished sons of loving mothers, the devoted husbands of virtuous wives, or the fathers of babes waiting to be fed, but… they deserved to die.

Mei Mumu could not help but recall this maniacal assassin organization. In the comics, they had launched suicidal charges against many superheroes, such as Daredevil and the Hulk. Only by witnessing this reality firsthand could one truly grasp how repulsive this organization was.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Mei Mumu arrived at the top floor of the bunker. In the Sengoku period of Japan, this level would have been reserved for the clan lord; it seemed a boss of the Hand was present as well.

This came as a slight surprise.

Mei Mumu immediately saw an old woman locked in a fierce battle with two generations of Black Widows.

She was an elderly woman dressed in a traditional white kimono, with a short, stout frame, neat black hair, and a square face etched with deep wrinkles. To the casual observer, she looked no different from the millions of elderly women in Japan.

However, the Libra system marked her with the symbol of a black-skulled leader.

Mei Mumu narrowed his eyes, and from the slits of his gaze, a dense, undisguised murderous intent leaked out. "Oh? So it is Madame Gao!"

The Hand was famous for its waves of fearless cannon fodder, but that did not mean the organization lacked masters.

The origins of the Hand trace back to K’un-Lun in the Marvel Universe. This K’un-Lun was not the Kunlun Mountains, but a mystical city located in the Himalayas, said to exist in another dimension. The monks living within believed that the human body contained "Chi," the very power of life itself. They sought ways to cultivate and control it to strengthen themselves. Yet, among them emerged five heretics—individuals with evil designs who hungered for immortality and the ability to regenerate, seeking to cast off the fear of death.

The elders of K’un-Lun deemed this a corruption of their path. Thus, much like the expulsion of Lucifer from the heavens in Western mythology, these five evildoers were cast out. Just as Lucifer became the fallen angel and a terrifying lord of hell, these five became the "Five Fingers" of the Hand. Using an artifact stolen from K’un-Lun, they had sustained their lives for centuries. The most famous among them was Madame Gao, who controlled the drug trade in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen; she was one of the five leaders of the Hand.

Mei Mumu had been wondering who could have trapped Natalia, who held the legacy of Valeera, and Yelena, who carried the legacy of Hassan-i Sabbah. If it were Madame Gao, it was no longer a mystery.

Madame Gao was a highly trained martial arts master. During her first encounter with Daredevil, despite his injuries from a previous duel, he had been caught completely off guard when the seemingly frail Madame Gao struck him with a palm that caused him to vomit blood. She also possessed supernatural resistance to drugs and toxins, a result of having been subjected to torture and various substances over the years, which had built up an immense tolerance in her body.

The current battle was unfolding in this very manner.

The two generations of Black Widows, having received the legacies of legendary assassins, possessed agility that far surpassed human limits; running a hundred meters in five or six seconds was trivial for them.

Wielding twin daggers, they moved like butterflies, flanking Madame Gao from front and back, or left and right. While they appeared to have the upper hand, they were actually finding no opening, much like rats trying to pull at a turtle. Whenever their daggers entered the one-meter radius around Madame Gao, they were instantly deflected by swifter blocks. It was an incredibly precise interception; she avoided the sharp blades, instead striking the back of the Widows’ hands and wrists with her wrinkled, leathery palms. Several times, the two were hit so hard they nearly dropped their daggers.

As for poison, it was even more farcical. Yelena deployed toxins, but instead of bringing down Madame Gao, she nearly incapacitated Natalia. Though Yelena tried to control the position and direction of the poison mist, Madame Gao used the force of her palms to drive the fumes toward Natalia.

The only way they could pressure Madame Gao was through their superior movement speed.

They could not take Madame Gao down, but they would not let her escape either. Seeing Mei Mumu walk leisurely onto the floor with his hands behind his back, Madame Gao, no matter how foolish, knew the real threat had arrived.

She did not shout out some Japanese gibberish like the other low-level ninjas; Madame Gao spoke in fluent Russian!

"The Hand has not offended the Soviet Union, has it? If there is something you want, take it. The Hand admits defeat this time!"

Few knew that Madame Gao was also a master of psychological manipulation. She excelled at using various mental tactics, capable of disrupting an opponent’s train of thought and invading their mind with just a few sentences. She had immediately recognized the youth and astonishing talent of the two Black Widows. At first, she attempted to disrupt Natalia’s will by implying "we have the numbers," but found the Black Widow completely unmoved. Furthermore, Natalia’s mind clearly harbored a mental protection array set by someone, which resisted her psychic intrusion.

One-on-one, her strength was superior. However, taking down Natalia was not a matter of a moment, and that was assuming Natalia didn't flee. Later, when the fodder below were wiped out and Yelena joined in, Madame Gao could only suffer in silence; the situation had shifted so that she could neither leave nor win, forced into passive defense. Initially, she had tried to feign a weakness to lure the two Widows into a reckless advance, but after Natalia let out a shout, Yelena stopped overextending, simply pressuring Madame Gao and refusing to let her leave.

Madame Gao did not know what their ace in the hole was, but when Mei Mumu entered, she knew her hopes had vanished, leading her to sue for peace.

"Ha! After killing so many civilians of the Allied nations, you claim you haven't offended us? Actually, we only wanted your human experimentation data. Since we have it, we might as well ask you for one more thing."

"Name it," Madame Gao said, inwardly relieved.

"Your head!" Mei Mumu’s expression turned rarely and genuinely furious.