I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 456: 456 Nest of Mourning

Whoo-

The icy cold wind howled past Song Jian’s ears, sounding as if someone was sobbing loudly next to him. The fierce wind was like little daggers on his bare skin, causing a stinging sensation as he rapidly slid downward.

After an indefinite period, Song Jian felt a jolt throughout his body as he landed firmly in a layer of black snow.

‘This depth… I must be a few hundred meters underground by now,” Song Jian looked up and thought.

Accompanying the howling cold wind were wailing cries, as if countless individuals were sobbing together, creating an urge to retch over time.

The surroundings of the Nest of Mourning, deep underground, were pitch black, like a void. A vertical eye opened slowly on Song Jian’s forehead, and its silvery light illuminating the surroundings, revealing a clear view.

Song Jian found himself in a cavern-like ice cellar, surrounded by countless holes similar to a beehive. Numerous air flows gushed out from these holes, creating a cacophony reminiscent of hundreds of wails.

The surrounding rock walls were covered in a thick layer of Black Ice. Song Jian even found some animal carcasses frozen within it.

Thump, thump, thump~

A sound of beating wings echoed from the holes. Startled, Song Jian quickly closed his vertical eye, plunging the surroundings back into darkness.

The sound of flapping wings grew louder as countless basketball-sized black bats flew out from the holes, following the path Song Jian had slid through previously and flying upwards.

These ink-black bats had crimson eyes and sharp fangs, emanating a demonic aura. Their gaze was filled with bloodlust and brutality.

“Squeak,squeak, squeak-”

A sharp squealing resounded as the horde of these level thirty monsters surged upwards, as if something above was attracting them. They did not notice Song Jian hiding behind an ice rock at all.

It was not until the bats had flown away, leaving silence in their wake that Song Jian stepped out from his hiding spot.

There were at least a hundred of these demon bats, but they definitely did not constitute all of the Nest of Mourning. There must be many more within the nest.

Song Jian sighed. Facing such a dreadful creature would be a daunting task even for a top-tier professional squad with reasonable coordination and decent equipment. They would need to take advantage of the terrain to defeat it. As for Song Jian, dealing with so many demon bats single-handedly would be an uphill battle.

After some hesitance, Song Jian boldly proceeded into the tunnel. He believed that with his abilities, even if he couldn’t exterminate all the demon bats, he could at least escape them.

Taking out the map, he followed its guidance, continuing down the current passageway towards a stone forest, a sanctuary of the demon bats.

The passageways in the entire Nest of Mourning intertwined just like a complex labyrinth. Without the guidance of the map and Song Jian’s markings along the path, it would have been easy to get lost.

“The stone forest marked on the map is ahead. The map states that there are at least two hundred demon bats here, but they’re all regular monsters, no bosses,” Song Jian looked up at the way forward. The vertical eye on his forehead emitted a slightly silver glow. He then pocketed his map, and moved on.

Outside the entrance to the dungeon, about a dozen players were gathered, staring at the gloomy, glowing entrance in a daze.

The dungeon allowed multiple teams or individuals to challenge it simultaneously. However, once the True difficulty was activated, only heroes at this level were allowed to challenge the dungeon. As the dungeon only allowed egress and not ingress, many aspiring conquering players were waiting outside the massive gate.

“Has someone truly dared to enter the dungeon at True difficulty? This must be the first time it has been activated, right?”

“Are you kidding? This is a level twenty-two dungeon, probably only one person in the whole Doomsday City is eligible to enter.”

As the crowd chirped in surprise, a group of players walked in. Among them, a middle-aged man of over forty, was overjoyed to see the entrance of the dungeon.

“Unbelievable! The info from that merchant was actually true; there is a dungeon here!”

“Captain, check what level it is. Can we enter?” a young archer in the team shouted.

“Eh, why is this dungeon red? Aren’t all the dungeons usually light blue?” a player of the priest class in the team furrowed his brows in confusion.

“This… this is the True difficulty, someone is challenging it!” The middle-aged man seemed to have realized something, causing his expression to shift dramatically.

“True difficulty? Captain, are you talking about the Final Battle of the dungeon? Once someone conquers the True difficulty, this challenge would disappear forever…” The priest player’s face fell. Once a dungeon’s certain level disappeared, the items that could be obtained from this level would become ‘unique’ reflexively.

If they had any special effects, their value could potentially skyrocket several times.

How is that possible? Is there already a team ready to challenge the True difficulty? Even the level five dungeons haven’t been conquered by any team, let alone this being a level ten dungeon…” The middle-aged man was dazed, muttering to himself.

Regarding the current player levels, many already meet the criteria to enter the lowest-level dungeons, the level five dungeon, at True difficulty, but no one has successfully conquered one yet.

The middle-aged man player was already at level nineteen, and had once tried to challenge a level five dungeon at True difficulty. But, not long after entering the dungeon, they were driven out by a boss. Since then, no one in his team dared try to challenge the True difficulty level in a dungeon anymore.

“A team? What team? This dungeon at True difficulty requires at least level twenty-two to enter. Look at the current level leaderboard, see how many players qualify to enter!” a player waiting on the side, looking enviously at the scarlet dungeon entrance, chuckled.

The middle-aged man checked the level leaderboard and was shocked. He fixed his gaze on the player and asked, “Are you suggesting that only one person is challenging the True difficulty of the dungeon?”

“Exactly, it’s Song Jian, the first on the level glory leaderboard. He’s the one challenging this dungeon at True difficulty!”

“Just one person…” The team that just arrived exchanged glances with each other, unable to believe what they had just heard.

At that moment, Song Jian had already arrived in the underground stone forest. It was a huge cavern with robust stalagmites rising from the ground. Many brown mosses and small plants were growing on the ground, completely exposed. The temperature here was much warmer than in the tunnel, devoid of any frost.

Standing outside the passageway, staring at the stone forest in front of him, Song Jian was taken aback.

“What… what’s going on here.