Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Thanks to the versatile tool belt that Sherlock gave Tony, Tony created a capsule-shaped positioning device and placed it inside a Red Guardian figurine.

This thing would be placed by Black Widow in the mail sent to the prison under the guise of a letter package, and delivered to Alexei inside the prison. To ensure that Alexei would obediently take the tracking pill, Black Widow even wrapped a handwritten note on the capsule.

Meanwhile, Sherlock was busy modifying the helicopter.

Although the Mi-26 helicopter was originally built as a military helicopter, a civilian version also appeared later. Unfortunately, the helicopter that Scarlett Johansson and her friends got their hands on was the civilian version.

Both the military and civilian versions have a unique way of tracing their origins, which can even trace the helicopter's entire lifespan. Compared to the military version, the civilian version undoubtedly has a stronger ability to trace its origins.

Sherlock's modifications, to put it bluntly, involved erasing any trace of the aircraft's origin, including part codes, stamps on the fuselage, and even the fuselage color—essentially turning the plane into a complete ghost.

This was not a difficult task for Sherlock, who had mastered alchemy; it could be completed in just half a day.

Of course, Sherlock retained a little bit of his own wicked sense of humor, as evidenced by the small Hydra symbol on the lower part of the airplane cabin.

Whether or not Big Mao can discover this little Easter egg is not Sherlock's concern.

After completing the modification of the aircraft, Sherlock went to discuss with the captain and the others how to infiltrate the prison and rescue Alexei without making a sound.

After a heated discussion, the group split into two teams.

The first team, led by the captain, consisted of Sherlock, Tony, and Yelena. Their objective was clear: Sherlock would use alchemy to pave the way and infiltrate the prison from underground.

Then Tony was responsible for locating Alexei's position, Yelena was responsible for confirming it, and then the captain knocked him unconscious and secretly brought him out.

The second team, led by Black Widow, included Hawkeye and Zhao Weike. The three of them were responsible for helicopter pick-up and support, as well as preparing backup plans.

Black Widow and Hawkeye were responsible for piloting the helicopter, while Zhao Weike provided fire support from the aircraft.

Simply put, this team is both the captain's team's Plan B and the most important support team during the subsequent escape.

If the plan goes smoothly, Black Widow's team won't even need to take off; they just need to pick up everyone at the designated location after the first team completes their mission and leave.

If the plan doesn't go as smoothly as expected, then the existence of this second team will become extremely important.

If the captain's group is discovered, a group of people will fight their way out of the prison courtyard with Alexei, and then Black Widow and her crew will have to come and pick them up in a plane.

Of course, since they were on Russia's side and not fighting on their home turf, everyone in the group hoped that they wouldn't need Black Widow's support.

After resting for a night at the makeshift base Sherlock created, the captain led his team toward the prison early the next morning.

Sherlock grumbled and cursed throughout the 20-kilometer journey, and it wasn't until almost nightfall that the group could vaguely see the prison lights.

"Natasha, we're in position."

After hearing the captain's voice over the comms, Black Widow quickly responded.

"Received. Team Two is ready to provide support at any time. The locator has been delivered. Hopefully, Alexei will obediently swallow the locator!"

Upon hearing Black Widow's reply, the captain paused for a moment, ultimately choosing to ignore her complaint and turning to Tony.

"Tony, activate the locator and check. If all goes well, the prison should be dark and resting by now, so the locator shouldn't be moving."

After hearing the captain's words, Tony fiddled with the small screen on his arm for a while before looking at the captain with a constipated expression and asking him a question.

"Which would you like to hear first, good news or bad news?"

Hearing Tony's words, the captain rolled his eyes in annoyance and gave Tony a disapproving look, signaling him to get to the point.

Seeing the captain's look, Tony shrugged and said to the captain.

"The good news is that the location hasn't moved. The bad news is that, according to the architectural plans, the location is currently in the central plaza of Area A of the underground prison."

In other words, it's obvious that those Russians didn't turn off the lights and rest as required; they were still gathered together, perhaps having a party?

When Tony said those words, everyone on the communicator fell silent for a moment, whether it was the first team preparing to infiltrate or the second team ready to provide support.

Finally, Hawkeye's voice came through the communication, summarizing the situation.

"Very standard Maoist operational management style! Yes, very standard!"

Chapter 243 Prison Break 1

To be honest, Hawkeye's criticism is spot on. The Russians have never lacked the spirit and courage to innovate, but their terrible operation and management methods are also infamous worldwide.

It's no exaggeration to say that, from national affairs to company operations, the most common scenario for Russians is that they invent something new, operate it for a period of time, and then quickly decline.

The disintegration of the Russian bear and its escape from Tarkov, one big and one small, are the best examples of this.

When the captain heard Tony's news, he was quite upset. Who would have thought that such a secret prison for serious criminals would adopt the management methods of a disorderly prison?

"Why don't we just activate Plan B? Since it's all chaos anyway, why not just storm in head-on?"

Looking at the location display on his arm, Tony thought for a moment and then gave his opinion to the captain. If he had known that the prison was such a chaotic place, there would have been no need for a group of people to gather together and waste countless brain cells to come up with a plan.

Fortunately, Sherlock still had some rationality. He glared at Tony with annoyance and almost gritted his teeth as he refuted Tony's idea over the communication.

"Impossible! Even if it really is a chaotic prison, I must live up to the plan that took so much effort to devise!"

Heaven knows how long Sherlock had been memorizing the blueprints and formulas for digging a tunnel to get closer to Alexei's cell, and now he's making Sherlock abandon his plans?

Grandma!

After saying that, Sherlock was about to start his alchemy, but this time, before Sherlock's hands could even touch the ground, Tony suddenly pulled him up again.

?

Looking at Sherlock with a huge question mark above his head, Tony scratched his head awkwardly, trying to suppress the image of Sherlock leading Zhao Weike to dig a tunnel to rescue him, before speaking to Sherlock in a more tactful way.

"Calm down, Sherlock, you must stay calm. Don't forget we're going to infiltrate 'secretly'."

Upon hearing Tony's words, everyone's eyes immediately turned to him. Clearly, there seemed to be a story between Tony and Sherlock that they were unaware of.

Compared to the situation here, Zhao Weike on Black Widow's side didn't look too good after hearing Tony's rather 'tactful' hint. He felt like he was being attacked by dead memories.

Fortunately, Zhao Weike was wearing a hood at the time, so no one would notice that his expression was off.

As for Sherlock, Tony's reminder brought him to his senses a bit. To be honest, if Tony hadn't reminded him, Sherlock really was planning to replicate his actions in the Middle East.

Don't forget, the Middle East is a desert, it's very hot, while this place is the Arctic Circle!

If Tony hadn't reminded him, Sherlock himself might have experienced what it felt like to be hit by the Captain's "Frozen" treatment.

Of course, although Sherlock realized what had happened in his mind, he certainly wouldn't admit that he had almost done something stupid. After hearing Tony's instructions, Sherlock rolled his eyes at Tony in annoyance before slapping the ground.

It must be said that with Tony's reminder, Sherlock's side was much more stable, at least they didn't have the same situation as Zhao Weike being forced to do a water slide.

The four of them descended little by little, as if they were on an elevator, with the alchemy being activated. Sherlock was constantly calculating the depth. Once the predetermined depth was reached, Sherlock stopped the downward alchemy and began digging forward instead.

With alchemical abilities, the hard frozen soil was practically no different from tofu in the face of alchemy. In just a short while, the group could already faintly hear the bustling conversations inside the prison.

After exchanging glances, Sherlock stopped his alchemy and took out four hats from his four-dimensional pocket, distributing them to everyone present.

The captain and Tony looked at the ugly hat in their hands with some confusion, while Yelena looked at the hat with excitement.

"I know! I know! Stone hat! It's a stone hat, right?"

Seeing Yelena's excited expression, Sherlock felt that his positive feelings towards Yelena, Black Widow's sister, were gradually crumbling. Of course, he still had to offer some reminders.

"It's just a replica. Its essence is to reduce its presence. It can't be as completely ignored as a real stone hat! So even if you wear a hat, it's best to keep a low profile."

After Sherlock explained the function of the stone hat, he put it on first. Combined with Sherlock's explanation and his demonstration of putting on the hat first, the remaining three people understood the function of the stone hat almost instantly.

Well, while the effect isn't as amazing as the original, it's still pretty good.

The moment Sherlock put on the hat, the three people present had a strange feeling, as if they would subconsciously ignore Sherlock's presence. Although they could still see Sherlock, as soon as they looked away from him, they would forget his existence in the blink of an eye.

Looking at the stone hat in her hand, Yelena's expression was incredibly complex. In the end, she sighed and put on the hat like Sherlock.

"If this thing can be widely adopted, the infiltration courses in special agent training will probably be canceled outright."

Yelena's complaints didn't attract the attention of the other three people present, since none of them were interested in the special agent training.

Seeing that everyone had put on the stone hats, Sherlock took out the time travel ring from his four-dimensional pocket and led everyone into the secret prison for hardened criminals in the Great Mao.

As soon as you enter, an unpleasant odor hits you. The dark, damp smell mixed with body odor and mold is almost the first impression you get upon entering. This is followed by a sense of chaos and disorder.

This cell, which should have been Alexei's, was now completely empty except for the wooden planks nailed to the wall that served as a bed; there wasn't even a simple blanket.

Inside the cell, there was an unfortunate fellow wearing only a pair of pants, huddled on the cold wooden board, shivering.

It is clear that due to geographical reasons and disorderly management, almost everything has become hard currency in this chaotic and resource-scarce prison, especially clothing and food.

The unfortunate guy huddled in bed either had his clothes sold out or was being targeted for some unforgivable crime.

Sherlock and his group, on the other hand, showed no sympathy for the situation. After everyone had arrived at the cell, Sherlock put away his time-travel ring and followed behind the captain to begin touring the secret prison.

Chapter 244 Prison Break 2

So-called disorderly prisons are simply prisons where prisoners are self-governing, and San Pedro Prison is a typical example of this.

However, this place is undoubtedly more orderly than San Pedro Prison. After all, Russia is not Bolivia, where prison guards are just watchdogs.

Here, the prison guards are undoubtedly the most powerful people in the entire prison, after all, they control the hard currency here: clothing and food!

The reason why this semi-autonomous prison, where prisoners live in a state of disarray and do not interfere with the prison guards, is quite simple. The Russians' operational and management capabilities are one aspect, but another is that too many people with special identities are imprisoned here.

Alexei was undoubtedly one of them.

The most direct feeling of walking through this disorderly prison can be described in two words: filthy and chaotic!

After all, you can't expect these prisoners to be able to keep themselves clean, can you? Moreover, in a place like this, let alone keeping the environment clean, even keeping oneself clean is extremely difficult.

Here, food that can provide heat and clothing that can keep warm are undoubtedly the most important things. Even a rag is an extremely important item for keeping warm, so naturally no one would really waste such an important resource.

As the group walked through the prison, prisoners would occasionally pass by them. Most of the prisoners were thin and ragged, since at this time of day, those wandering around the prison area rather than the central area were mostly the 'lower class' of prisoners.

The closer they got to the central area where Alexei was located, the cleaner the environment became, and even the prisoners' clothes began to get thicker.

Although people often looked puzzled when they saw the four of them along the way, they quickly forgot about it after turning their heads away, thanks to the effect of the stone hat.

As the group approached the central area of ​​the prison, the environment began to warm up, at least the damn damp and cold feeling they had when they first entered the prison was gone.

When everyone arrived at the central area where Alexei had located, they were still speechless with astonishment at the sight before them.

If the area where those prison cells were located could only be considered a slum, then this central area could be described as a luxurious commercial district.

This central area was converted from a courtyard, with a spiral staircase in the middle forming passageways to each level.

The group of people were actually located in the middle of the courtyard. The higher up they went, the colder it got, while the lower down they went, the warmer it became, to say the least, luxurious.

At the very bottom of the courtyard, the light actually allows you to vaguely see what's underneath.

At the very bottom of this courtyard were clothes, rags, and even underwear or bedding, roughly sewn together to form 'tents', while in the middle of the tents were some 'stalls'.