The team gathered around, some curious and asking, "Captain Chen, how are we supposed to handle this? It's so big, are we supposed to squeeze inside?"
The bubble seemed blurry, with ripples flowing through it. If they went inside, wouldn't they suffocate?
Just as everyone hesitated and pondered, Chen Dafu sneered, "I don't know, but let's start by cutting it open."
Thinking? Sorry, but today I didn't bring my brain, just my fists and my knife.
Chen Dafu wasn't joking. Before his team could react, he swiftly drew his new knife and slashed straight at the bubble in front of him!
"Hey, hey, Captain Chen! Slow down, let's observe first…"
The team's strategist was startled, shouting in alarm. But before he could finish his warning, Chen Dafu's knife had already sunk deep into the bubble.
Pop!
A crisp popping sound echoed through the air as the knife collided with the bubble, and in that instant, the bubble cracked open.
No!
Not just the bubble—its rupture seemed to spread to the surrounding environment. The whole world seemed to warp, like glass shattering. The scene before their eyes exploded into chaos!
Before anyone could process it, terrifying roars echoed from ahead.
Roar!
The undead inside the bubble had emerged! They reappeared from the street, refreshed by the mechanism, now charging toward the group from all directions!
"Damn! There are so many!"
A team member panicked, shouting, "Shit! There must be at least tens of thousands!"
"No end in sight! There are undead on every street!"
A member with the ability to see far called out, "Shit! There are more in the buildings too! They're everywhere!"
"Quick, prepare for battle!"
"Machine guns, load up! Battle talents, get ready!"
There were shouts and commands as the twenty-member team quickly formed battle lines, back-to-back, transitioning into combat mode.
"Don't interfere!"
Chen Dafu, standing at the front, suddenly hissed in a low voice. He grinned. "Damn it, everyone step back! These little brats are mine to handle!"
He was going to take them on alone!
His teammates stared, bewildered, as Chen Dafu, already holding his knife, stood alone before the sea of undead—tens of thousands of them.
"Finally... time to feast."
Chen Dafu cracked his neck and grinned. Before his words had even finished, he shot forward like lightning, charging into the horde!
Shing!
Immediately, his knife flashed, cutting through the undead with terrifying speed. Blood and flesh exploded into the air, raining down like a torrential storm of gore.
"Holy crap!"
A team member gasped in awe. "Captain Chen is still this fierce... Wait, how does he keep getting stronger? Is there really no limit to him?"
"Are you new here? Old Chen has only two qualities: he can fight, and he's damn good at it."
"Quick! Don't waste time watching Captain Chen show off, get against the wall and be ready to support him!"
"Support? Do you think this monster needs our help? Or is he protecting us?"
"Well... we still have to follow the battle protocol, otherwise Miss Jiang will get mad."
The team arranged themselves cleverly, staying close to the walls so they could hide behind Chen Dafu without facing the undead horde directly.
This allowed them to watch Chen Dafu's slaughter up close. Despite being alone, he moved with such speed and precision that he cleared out the undead with the grace of a tornado. He was truly a one-man army.
Mike observed Chen Dafu's actions for a while, then moved his attention elsewhere.
While the number of undead was overwhelming, in front of Chen Dafu, they were no match. Although he hadn't been in combat for a while, he had been working on replacing shelters in the Xinchang region, getting plenty of physical boosts from the latest wave of talent upgrades.
He was far stronger than during the Dan Tu Battle.
Not to mention, with his connection to Wang Chen, he had a special "war god" state. Whenever he faced overwhelming odds, his "temporary war god" status would activate, making him even more unstoppable.
At least, from Mike's perspective, there was no enemy who could threaten Chen Dafu for now.
Switching his focus to Wang Shi, Mike found him to be much more cautious. Wang Shi's approach to activating the bubble was far more reasonable.
Wang Shi had his team ready for battle and then sent a scout to carefully test the bubble. The moment the scout's hand touched the surface, they were sucked inside, surrounded by an ocean of undead.
From Mike's observations, it became clear that this new dungeon was more passive—it required direct interaction to trigger the danger. Unlike the "Puzzle Door" or "Ghost Fog Dilemma," which had strong gravitational forces pulling people in, this dungeon relied on the team's actions to activate it.
Once triggered, however, the threat was far more dangerous.
The number of undead varied depending on the team that triggered the bubble. Some teams faced a few thousand, while others dealt with even more.
This was likely related to the bubble's level. But based on Mike's observations, the minimum number of undead always hovered in the thousands.
"They must have been refreshed by the system," Mike murmured. "The goal seems to be to force people to face overwhelming numbers of undead head-on."
Looking at the current situation, Mike noticed another important feature of the new dungeon: "The dungeon can only accommodate a team of 20. If there are more than 20 players, those with lower talent or lower-ranked abilities are automatically excluded."
"Fewer people, more undead... this dungeon is definitely challenging."
Mike analyzed the battle and the new dungeon's mechanics. He concluded that the difficulty had risen considerably. There was no room for clever tactics or outsmarting the system—this was all about brute force and raw power.
It validated Wang Peibo's warning: even in the early stages of the apocalypse, the system was raising the difficulty. The mechanisms were pushing humans to their limits.
But Mike wasn't too concerned. His official exploration teams were strong, and while the dungeon was tough, it wasn't impeding their progress too much.
An hour later, the first group of exploration teams emerged from the dungeon. Mike received multiple notifications:
"Congratulations! Your talent unit has completed the攻略 of the 'A-level Zombie Tomb Group.' You've earned 2,512 Survival Points."
"Congratulations! Your talent unit has completed the攻略 of the 'B-level Zombie Tomb Group.' You've earned 621 Survival Points."
"Congratulations! Your talent unit has completed the攻略 of the 'A-level Zombie Tomb Group.' You've earned 2,238 Survival Points."
"Huh?"
Mike blinked in surprise. "This time, the dungeon rewards are just Survival Points?"
Mike quickly deduced that the resources produced by the Zombie Tomb Group (the bubble) were directly related to the number of undead inside. Doing the math, it seemed that every 10 undead generated 1 point of Survival Points.
The rewards were straightforward—purely Survival Points—something Mike had never seen so abundant in any previous dungeons.
"Puzzle Door produced upgrade materials and talent recruitment tickets. Ghost Fog Dilemma produced items and comprehensive resources. Zombie Tombs produce pure Survival Points... Huh, it's a complete set!"
"As long as the talented individuals have the strength to tackle these three types of dungeons, they can quickly gather a wide range of resources and steadily increase their power."
Mike muttered to himself. "So, this is what Wang Peibo meant by the 'development phase.' The true apocalypse hasn't arrived yet. The system is just letting humans grow stronger."
"But why? What's the endgame? Does it want to grow stronger itself by consuming us?"
Mike pondered some unsettling ideas, but without any supporting information, he couldn't draw a conclusion yet.
After months of facing the apocalypse, Mike was starting to understand just how terrifying and mysterious Wang Peibo's predictions about the future were.
Humans were still unaware of the true intentions of the system. They mistakenly believed this was the real disaster.
"Maybe I should ask Wang Peibo. He might know more."
Mike took a deep breath and glanced at the young man sitting on the sofa, leisurely eating an orange.
Before Mike could even speak, Wang Peibo suddenly looked up and, without lifting his head, lazily said, "Don't ask, I don't know."
"You know what I'm about to ask?"
"Of course. Though I haven't kept a count, you've asked these questions at least a thousand times, and we've discussed them a thousand times."
Wang Peibo shrugged and tossed the orange peel away. "You just want to know: What does the system really want? What does the true apocalypse look like? And when will the development phase end?"
"For the first question, I honestly don't know. After all, in all the times we've failed, we've never reached the end of the system's mechanism. We've never found its final limit."
"Based on all our closest discussions and experiences, we can only conclude one thing: Time has transcended the system itself. This means the system has a maximum threshold."
Wang Peibo spread his hands. "So, if you want an answer, here it is: Keep pushing the system's limits, force it to create more terrifying disasters, and keep fighting with the mentality that it might eventually be able to destroy the universe."
"This is the only answer," Wang Peibo said with a smile.
Mike paused, and a simple sentence suddenly made him realize how grueling this process must be.
"And what about the other two questions?"
Mike didn't ask further, just hoarsely spoke, "Do you know the answers?"
"Well, look at you. You didn't press for more useless details this time."
Wang Peibo grinned and then mysteriously smiled. "As for the other two answers... believe me, you don't want to know."