I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 411: Underground Vault

Song Jian activated the innate skill of the “Fifth Battle Flag”, inviting Wang Qi and three others to become temporary teammates, increasing him with the Brilliant Aura, improving the team’s attack speed by 15%, causing +20 damage, and also improving the attributes of the teammates by 30%, which equates to having an additional high-quality blue gear.

The reason Song Jian hadn’t set them as temporary teammates in the dungeon was mainly to evaluate their character. If their character was questionable, revealing the “Fifth Battle Flag” could incite envy, bringing about unnecessary troubles.

“Invited to be a temporary teammate?” All four of them looked at the system prompt and chose to accept it.

“Holy smokes, is this powerful?” Ma Yu glanced at the system’s notification, amazed.

“What’s the matter, Ma Yu? What’s there to be surprised about?” Tang Rong asked him with a puzzled look on his face.

“Are you guys not looking at the system prompts? Just take a good look, this effect is amazing!” Ma Yu burst into laughter. The 30% increase of attributes has made his strength and constitution surpass 20 points, making him more resilient. As for the increase in attack speed and damage, it would allow him to cause more damage and hold aggro more stable;

Compared to Ma Yu though, these effects were more important for Tang Rong, it had practically propelled his damage output to the next level.

“Brother Song, this effect is simply amazing. With my silver-quality dagger, I can cause more than a hundred points of damage even with basic attacks. This is so potent!” Tang Rong exclaimed in excitement.

“Alright, let’s go in.” Song Jian laughed, taking the lead into the bank.

The Central Bank’s lobby on the ground floor was quite vast. On the left was a large waiting area, on the right were seven or eight counters, and further in was the bank’s office area.

However, at this moment, the bank was in disarray, with all the objects strewn about, and the place was covered in a layer of thick dust. Alongside the deep red dried traces on its walls and glass counters.

The once smooth and clean floor was now full of cracks, as if someone with a massive hammer had been wreaking havoc in the building, with hardly any intact floor tiles to be found.

“There’s a smell of blood.” Wang Qi’s nostrils twitched slightly as he whispered softly.

Swoosh-

Tang Rong immediately went invisible, while Ma Yu held up his shield in front of him, intentionally blocking Zhou Qing, Wang Qi retreated a few steps, distancing himself from the others, the Gauss sniper rifle in his hand at the ready. Zhou Qing chanted a spell, waving his magic staff, and immediately cast several spells such as “Increase Recovery Effect”, “Increase Holy Defense”, and “Increase Negative Status Resistance” on everyone.

“Has someone already investigated this place?” Song Jian asked in a hushed voice, rubbing his nose.

“Considering this is a prominent building on the map, someone is bound to have looked into it. Judging by the state of things here, it seems like someone had been here recently, but it’s too quiet now. Perhaps, they were incapable of dealing with the monsters in the basement, they just swept the above-ground buildings and left.” Wang Qi analyzed calmly.

“The monsters here respawns every night, saving us the time to clean up the lobby.” Zhou Qing laughed.

“Gold, gold! Our target is gold. Gold that we can bring into the real world, heh heh!” Tang Rong echoed with a greed-filled face in a low voice.

“Haha, gold digger!” Wang Qi smirked, though excitement shone in his eyes.

“Let’s continue. The entrance to the underground vault is just ahead. I assume this group of people were also stumped by the monsters in the underground vault. Those monsters are ridiculously powerful.” Wang Qi headed forward first.

Originally, there was an elevator that could go directly to the underground vault, but the elevator was already destroyed and the elevator shaft was blocked by a pile of debris, rendering it completely abandoned. They could only go down through the narrow staircase to the side.

As everyone approached the staircase, Song Jian suddenly felt a chilly wind brush across his face, a faint smell of blood filled his nostrils and he faintly heard a heavy, barely perceptible panting by his ear.

Swoosh-

A spark of dark red light flashed in Song Jian’s right palm, and a long sword appeared out of thin air.

“Brother Song, what’s wrong?” Wang Qi, who was by his side, saw Song Jian’s alert posture and asked in a low voice.

“Be careful, I feel like there’s danger below…” Song Jian looked towards the stairs downward, his face tense as if prepared for a major battle.

Tang Rong and others also took out their weapons, their eyes fixed on the staircase.

But there was nothing at the stair’s entrance, just a cool breeze blowing gently. Everything was eerily silent.

In Song Jian’s eyes, this stairway seemed like a giant beast lying in wait, its mouth wide open, waiting for them to walk into its lair.

“Let’s go, let’s go down and take a look…” After a while, Song Jian led the way down the staircase.

The Central Bank’s underground vault was dug deep, tens of meters down. This staircase was only constructed for emergency use, and it was quite narrow. Given its long period of disuse, the stairs had fallen into disrepair and on the concrete walls on both sides, there was even some dark gray moss.

“It’s so dark, there’s not even a hint of light.” Zhou Qing frowned and raised his hand. After chanting a few spells, a glowing sphere the size of a basketball appeared from his palm, floating less than a meter above his head, illuminating their surroundings.

Song Jian glanced up and saw that Wang Qi and the others appeared to be quite used to Zhou Qing casting this spell in darkness.

“Be careful, there’s a smell of blood.” Tang Rong suddenly said in a low voice, and everyone immediately tensed up.

Song Jian, who was walking in the front, found that the smell of blood became stronger the further down they went, as if someone had recklessly splashed blood everywhere.

Soon, Song Jian saw a body ahead, the strong smell of fresh blood was emanating from this corpse.

Upon closer examination, Song Jian realized that it was a player’s corpse. Fear was etched onto the face of the player who was clearly scared to death before dying, as if something unimaginable and terrifying had ended his life.

Moreover, his body was covered in wounds. Some of these wounds looked like they were inflicted by a giant wild beast using its claws and teeth, while others appeared to be traces of magical attacks.

Song Jian carefully inspected the corpse and deduced that the player had died more than half an hour ago. His body and equipment were decaying at ten times the usual speed. This rapid decay was so noticeable that even the naked eye could easily observe it.

Song Jian estimated that at this rate, the corpse would fully decompose into ashes within half an hour. Soon, no trace of this player would be left in this game world or the real world.

Wang Qi and the others glanced at the corpse and a wave of sorrow flooded their hearts. Most importantly, they discovered that the level of the deceased player seemed to be two levels higher than them, which made them feel a sense of unease.