Survival in the Apocalypse: Max Level Drop Rate with Abundant Resources

Shen Xi stood before the white marble platform, looking down at the bamboo scrolls on it. The bamboo strips had turned yellowish and black, some even cracked, but the characters on them were still clearly legible. The characters were too ancient, completely different from the Chinese characters used today, with complex strokes and peculiar structures, more like some kind of ancient runes.

Although he didn't recognize it, the Dominator System did.

He reached out and picked up the first bamboo scroll. The moment his fingertips touched the bamboo, lines of golden text appeared in the air. Fragments of the Witch Clan's alchemy techniques, an introduction to the Witch Clan's incantations, the Witch Clan's bloodline awakening ceremony... scroll after scroll, all were the legacy of the Witch Clan.

Shen Xi didn't examine them closely and simply put all the bamboo slips into his storage space. He didn't need these things for the time being, but keeping them couldn't hurt. Who knows, they might come in handy someday.

After doing all this, he turned around and glanced across the domed hall. The surviving members of the Gu family huddled at the edge of the hall, their faces ashen and their bodies trembling; not one of them dared to approach him.

Shen Xi was too lazy to pay them any attention.

It doesn't matter whether these peripheral members are killed or not. The ones who truly deserve to die are that old bastard Gu Tianxin and the core members of the Gu family. They're not here; they must be hiding somewhere even deeper.

Shen Xi raised her head and looked towards the end of the hall. There was a tightly closed iron door, behind which was a deep passage that stretched downwards and disappeared into the darkness.

Fourth floor.

Gu Tianxin must be there.

Shen Xi stepped forward.

Meanwhile, outside the Gu family's secret base.

Lord Wu'an stood on the hill outside the south entrance, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings. The 70,000-strong army was all in position, with 10,000 men in each of the five directions and five entrances, and the remaining 20,000 men scattered around the hill, with a sentry post every 50 meters, completely surrounding the hill.

He glanced at the time.

An hour had passed since Shen Xi entered the underground base.

"The time has come." Lord Wu'an took a deep breath, raised his battle sword, and commanded, "Attack!"

The moment the order was given, the five armies moved simultaneously.

At the south entrance, Mingying took the lead. He strode into the narrow passageway, where only one person could pass at a time. The Lion Wall was on his left arm, shield facing forward, and the Asura Spear was leaning against his shoulder. His two-meter-tall body was like a moving iron tower in the narrow passage.

Three large entrances were set up on the north, east, and west sides. Wu Anjun personally oversaw one of them, while Liu Qing, Su Muqing, Wang Jun, Zhao Tiejun, Li Tiezhu, and Zhang Dashan each led another. Five armies, totaling 50,000 men, simultaneously attacked the Gu family's secret base from five directions.

There were no guards at the entrance.

Those Gu family members who should have been guarding the entrance had long been slaughtered by Shen Xi. Countless corpses lay scattered in the first-floor passageway, streams of black blood meandered through the cracks in the stone slabs, and the air was filled with a nauseatingly strong stench of blood.

Lord Wu'an frowned. He did not lower his guard because there was no one guarding the area; on the contrary, he became even more cautious.

"Scout, scout ahead." He lowered his voice.

Several scouts immediately crouched low and crept forward, their movements swift and silent. A moment later, they returned, their expressions complex: "Sir, the first level... it's basically cleared out. The passageways are littered with corpses, at least a thousand. There are very few survivors, just a handful scattered around, all running towards the second level."

Lord Wu'an was surprised.

In the beginning, one person had already broken through the first layer.

"Continue advancing," Lord Wu'an ordered. "Maintain formation and remain vigilant."

The army advanced rapidly along the passageway. The first level was much larger than expected, with individual cubicles on both sides of the passageway. Some were used for living quarters, some for storing supplies, and others served as interrogation rooms and torture chambers. But at this moment, most of these cubicles were empty; the people inside were either dead or had escaped.

Occasionally, a few members of the Gu family would rush out from around the corner, weapons in hand, their faces filled with terror. Upon seeing the massive, dark army, they froze, then turned and ran.

But there's no escaping it.

They were met not with Mingying's Asura Spear, but with Wu'an Jun's battle blade. One spear to the throat, one blade to the head, clean and swift.

"Clear the first level, leave no one alive." Wu Anjun's voice was icy. "These people were all involved in the zombie horde's conspiracy, their hands are stained with the blood of Kyoto players, show no mercy."

"yes!"

The clearing of the first floor went much faster than expected. The Gu family members were simply unable to mount an effective resistance; they had been terrified by Shen Xi's actions, and their first reaction upon seeing the army pouring in was not to fight, but to flee. However, with all five entrances blocked, they had nowhere to escape.

In less than twenty minutes, the first floor was completely cleaned.

Lord Wu'an stood before the stone steps leading to the second level, looking down at the blood-dripping stone slabs beneath his feet, a cold killing intent flashing in his eyes.

"The second layer."

The stone steps leading from the first to the second level were much wider, enough for ten people to walk side by side. Lord Wu'an led his army down quickly, their footsteps echoing through the passageway like muffled thunder.

The scene on the second floor was even more shocking than that on the first floor.

The cubicles were like a honeycomb, with a dense network of passageways, and the air was thick with the smells of medicine and blood. Inside those cubicles, there were emaciated women, white-coated doctors still brewing medicine, and medicine bottles and syringes scattered all over the floor.

Lord Wu'an's face darkened completely.

"These beasts..." His voice was hoarse, and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

He thought of his comrades who had died in the horde of zombies, of his brothers torn apart by the rotting corpses, of those who would never return home. And the Gu family, while killing countless people, was still doing such heinous things.

"Clean them all out," Lord Wu'an spat out through gritted teeth. "Leave no one alive."

Forty thousand men surged into the second floor like a tidal wave, beginning a thorough search. Those Gu family members who were still putting up a desperate resistance were utterly helpless against overwhelming power. Some raised their weapons to fight back, only to be hacked to death in the next second. Others knelt and begged for mercy, but were still met with the cold blades.

Lord Wu'an gave a strict order: leave no one alive.

These people don't deserve sympathy.

The cleaning work on the second floor was slower than on the first floor because the terrain was more complex, there were more compartments, and the hiding places were more concealed.

But the 40,000-strong army swept through, and any resistance was futile.

On the fourth floor, in a deeply hidden secret room, the light was dim, and the air was filled with a strong stench of decay and blood. The dim yellow light barely illuminated a corner of the secret room.

In the center of the secret chamber stood several iron pillars, with heavy chains wrapped around them. At the other end of the chains was a rotting corpse.

It was a humanoid, decaying corpse, massive in size, covered in dark gray bone armor, its skin crisscrossed with grotesque veins. Its eyes were bloodshot, black saliva dripped from its mouth, and it emitted low, beast-like growls. The chains rattled as it struggled frantically, and dust fell in clumps from the iron pillar.

At its feet lay two human corpses. The bodies were mostly decomposed and unrecognizable, but from their tattered clothing, one could vaguely discern that they had worn the Gu family's black uniforms. Presumably, the person responsible for feeding this rotting corpse had, for some reason, become its food.

Deeper inside the secret chamber, in an iron cage, lies another rotting corpse.

The carcass was much smaller than the one outside, emaciated, and curled up motionless in the corner of the iron cage. Its skin was an eerie bluish-white, almost transparent, revealing the veins beneath. Its eyes were tightly closed, and its breathing was weak, like a lifeless shell.

But if you look closely, you'll notice that its body is trembling slightly.

It looked like they were enduring some kind of pain.

The bars of the iron cage were covered with densely packed runes, which faintly glowed, firmly trapping the thin, decaying corpse inside.

Opposite the iron cage, an old man sat on a dilapidated wooden chair.

The old man was probably in his early seventies, with gray hair and a thin face, but his eyes were completely different from those of a normal person. They weren't the blood-red madness of a rotting corpse, but rather a strange, murky, grayish-white color, somewhere between human and corpse. The occasional glint of light in those eyes sent chills down one's spine.

His clothes were tattered, his long robe covered in stains and holes, as if it had been rummaged through a garbage dump. But from those tattered fabrics, one could vaguely discern its former splendor. The dark gold silk threads, the exquisite embroidery, and the jade button at the collar that had lost its luster—this long robe had once been worth at least ten thousand gold pieces.

He stared at the rotting corpse that was struggling frantically, a hint of impatience flashing in his eyes.

"Shut up!"

The old man's voice was hoarse, and the rotting corpse actually quieted down for a moment, but soon began to struggle again, the chains rattling loudly.

The old man stood up, walked to the rotting corpse, and slapped it across the face.

"Snapped!"

A crisp sound echoed in the sealed room. The rotting corpse was knocked to one side, black blood seeping from the corner of its mouth. But it did not struggle anymore, only staring intently at the old man with its scarlet eyes, letting out a low, suppressed growl from its throat.

The old man stared at it, his eyes full of disdain.

"If you weren't a member of the Gu family, I would have killed you long ago."

He turned and walked back to the wooden chair, sitting down. His gaze passed over the struggling, decaying corpse and landed on the iron cage deep inside the secret room. The thin, decaying corpse was still curled up in the corner, motionless.

The old man's voice suddenly softened, as if he were speaking to himself, or perhaps to the thin, decaying corpse:

"Compared to a piece of trash like you, 'Jun' is much better."

The old man's eyes turned fanatical. He stood up, walked to the iron cage, squatted down, and stared at the thin, decaying corpse through the gaps in the bars.

Do you know how much I've sacrificed for you?

His voice murmured.

"The Gu family's wealth accumulated over hundreds of years has all been poured onto you. Spiritual elixirs, medicinal formulas, secret techniques of the Witch Clan... and those fresh rotting corpses and living people, they've been fed to you one after another. Do you know why those people outside hate the Gu family? Because they believe the Gu family colluded with the rotting corpses and killed their loved ones."

"The Gu family's wealth accumulated over hundreds of years has all been poured onto you. Spiritual elixirs, medicinal formulas, secret techniques of the Witch Clan... and those fresh rotting corpses and living people, they've been fed to you one after another. Do you know why those people outside hate the Gu family? Because they believe the Gu family colluded with the rotting corpses and killed their loved ones."

The old man suddenly laughed, a jarring laugh.

"What do they know? A bunch of idiots. This apocalypse is practically tailor-made for our Gu family."

He stood up and picked up a scroll of bamboo slips from the corner of the wall. The bamboo slips were yellowed and blackened, but the writing on them was still clearly legible. He opened the scrolls, pointed to the ancient runes on them, and his voice was full of pride:

"The witch clan's method is indeed effective. They turn living people into rotting corpses to cultivate individuals far more powerful than their kind."

He looked at the thin, decaying corpse in the iron cage, a fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"Gu Yunting's flesh and blood, the most outstanding disciple of the Gu family, combined with the essence of hundreds of rotting corpses, and the catalysis of those few drops of spiritual liquid, you are now simply a perfect killing machine."

He paused, his voice suddenly turning cold:

"It's a pity those idiots haven't brought in any fresh corpses or living people in a long time. Otherwise, you would be even more perfect."

The old man rambled on, his emotions fluctuating wildly. His voice echoed in the secret room, mingling with the howls of the rotting corpse to create an eerie scene.

"Believe me," he crouched down, approaching the iron cage, his greyish-white eyes fixed on the thin, decaying corpse, "you will become a true monarch."

"The true... monarch."