Chapter Five: The Rhinoman

A massive rhino horn, as thick as a grown man’s thigh, jutted from the top of his head. His entire body, save for his face, was encased in a silvery polymer skin, and his exaggeratedly bulging muscles seemed sculpted straight from the age of Sparta. He stood well over four meters tall—his hulking frame as imposing and destructive as a tank.

This… wasn’t this Spider-Man’s old nemesis, the Rhino?

After a brief contemplation, Zhong Shenxiu recalled the identity of the behemoth before him. In his memory, Marvel’s Rhino had two incarnations: one, the mechanical Rhino from “The Amazing Spider-Man,” and the other, the classic version, clad in silvery polymer skin. Yet the creature before him was clearly a fusion of both—possessing the enormous four-meter physique of the mechanical Rhino and the signature polymer hide of the older version.

At that moment, Rhino seemed to be in a fit of senseless fury, his eyes bloodshot as he rampaged back and forth. The entire first floor of the prison was a scene of devastation, like a bull gone mad. Suspended from the tip of his horn was White, whose situation was dire indeed—his body limp and flailing helplessly, as if he had no bones, tossed about by the Rhino’s frenzy. Clearly unconscious… and perhaps already dead.

Rhino’s left and right hands each gripped a gang leader, one white and one black. Both men were still conscious, but their faces were grotesquely distorted, blood oozing from every orifice under the immense pressure. They, too, were in no better shape.

Yet what puzzled Zhong Shenxiu most was that, even with the oppressive presence of Rhino dominating the first floor, the prisoners showed no sign of halting their desperate slaughter. It was as if they were completely unaware of Rhino’s existence.

Thus, the prison at this moment was a painting of utter chaos. Rhino, eyes blazing red, rampaged without restraint, while the prisoners who could still stand fought for their lives with undiminished ferocity. Some who could no longer stand but could still move crawled across the floor as if determined to continue the struggle. The two forces seemed to exist in separate realities, wholly unaffected by one another.

Bizarre.

That was the only word that sprang to Zhong Shenxiu’s mind. The scene before him defied all logic, steeped in eerie unreality.

But what happened next revealed the underlying cause of all the night’s inexplicable events.

Rhino’s rampage did not last long. Soon, he slowed, collapsed to his knees, and began pounding his own skull with his massive fists in wild desperation. The crimson light in his eyes flickered frantically. He muttered under his breath, “You… won’t… control… me…”

As the red glow between Rhino’s eyes ebbed, on the verge of fading entirely—a most astonishing spectacle unfolded!

From every prisoner, whether lying prone or still locked in battle, a similar crimson radiance surged forth, though paler than the light from Rhino’s eyes. Even the scrawny youth beside Zhong Shenxiu was aglow with it.

All at once, these streams of red light twisted and swirled like dragons, converging to illuminate the entire prison, and their sole target was the kneeling, self-bludgeoning Rhino.

As the red light left their bodies, the prisoners who could still stand seemed to regain their senses. Upon catching sight of the monstrous Rhino, they began to scream and scatter in terror like normal men.

In an instant, the first floor of the prison descended into even greater chaos.

Yet as thousands of red beams poured into Rhino, the effect on him was the opposite—his eyes filled once more with that sinister glow, and his whole being fell eerily calm. No longer did he struggle or resist; he slowly rose, his movements puppet-like, his expression vacant.

With a flick of his head, he tossed White from his horn in a perfect parabola, sending him flying to the distance. Both near-lifeless gang leaders were discarded from his hands as if they were nothing more than rubbish.

Rhino’s muscles swelled even further. Without hesitation, he lifted his head and charged straight for the western prison wall, clearly intent on smashing a hole through it.

Some of the bolder prisoners, spotting this, halted their flight and turned to watch Rhino’s every collision with anticipation.

Taking advantage of the commotion, Zhong Shenxiu slipped quietly to White’s side.

White’s condition was wretched beyond measure. His abdomen sported a gaping wound the size of a basin, his intestines mangled and exposed, and Zhong Shenxiu could even glimpse the yellowish curve of his spine.

Yet—White was still alive! Though his breath was thready and weak, as if he might expire at any moment, he clung stubbornly to life.

For Zhong Shenxiu, who possessed healing skills, so long as there was life, there was hope. He was a veritable “Reaper at Death’s Door.”

Raising his head, Zhong Shenxiu quickly spotted a guard’s iron desk at the bend in a narrow corridor—a perfect place for cover.

As he set about dragging White to safety, Rhino’s furious charge slammed into the towering western wall.

A deafening crash shook the prison, the entire structure groaning as if rocked by a magnitude ten earthquake. And yet—the wall bore only a few more cracks. It had not broken.

This, despite the Rhino’s official stats as a superhuman capable of lifting seventy-five tons. He could level a building with a single blow, and yet the western wall had only cracked.

What sort of black technology had Stark Industries used in this prison renovation?

Zhong Shenxiu now understood why the prison guards were so poorly equipped, and yet the number of successful escapes had remained “zero” for decades.

If even the Rhino couldn’t break through these walls, what hope had anyone with a spoon or a shovel? By the time a hole was dug, the inmates would either be dead or released by the end of their sentence.

The Rhino, frustrated after his initial failure, shook his massive head and charged again, pounding the wall with relentless force.

With each thunderous crash, the prisoners—barely able to stand—grew more excited, sensing that the monster was helping them escape. Their eyes shone with expectation at every impact, each one reverberating in their hearts.

True to his reputation as a notorious supervillain, Rhino’s perseverance paid off. The cracks in the western wall grew larger and larger—it would not hold much longer.

Meanwhile, behind the iron desk in the distance, Zhong Shenxiu had expended ten points of mental energy to fully restore White’s intestines. Though he had a little strength left, he did not continue.

Because—the system had just notified him that he had acquired an active skill from White:

“Skrull Shapeshifting Lv.1”

What?

This meant—White was a Skrull?

For a moment, Zhong Shenxiu was utterly stunned. He had only just deduced the reason behind the prisoners’ madness and the Rhino’s cry of “You won’t control me”—he suspected that all these people had been manipulated by a “red light” power, akin to the Scarlet Witch’s mind control.

He believed the gang riot had been orchestrated by some mysterious manipulator in the shadows, using “red light” to seize control of the Rhino in the underground cells.

But—what role did White, a Skrull, play in this chaos?

He remembered that, ever since Nick Fury had rescued the Skrulls from the Kree decades ago, all Skrulls left on Earth had come under his command.

Did that mean White was actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?

Upon acquiring “Skrull Shapeshifting,” a thousand thoughts raced through Zhong Shenxiu’s mind. The system had mentioned his original body had special abilities—was it possible that he had long been under S.H.I.E.L.D.’s watchful eye? Could there be more to his death sentence than met the eye?

As Zhong Shenxiu’s mind spun with wild conjecture, the Rhino, cheered on by the prisoners, finally smashed through the western wall.

Awaiting him on the other side—

A barrage of RPGs!

In an instant, Stark Industries’ advanced weaponry encircled the gaping breach, sealing it in a storm of fire and thunder.