Chapter 1061

Looking at the bizarre scene before him, Lin An was slightly startled, then quickly regained his composure; behind him, Zhang Tie, who had been charging forward, exclaimed in surprise:

"Captain Lin!? Someone's here!?"

No reply.

Unlike Zhang Tie's judgment, Lin An swept a glance and immediately noticed the abnormality.

Too calm... no, it's too quiet.

On the square, all the workers in silver-white protective suits, suspected to be human, did not show panic at their intrusion; instead, like machines, they continued their work. Even the red tower zombies nearby merely stood silently by the conveyor belt, earnestly "inspecting".

Genetically modified humans? Machines?

Is this place controlled by humans? Or infiltrators from another world?

After a series of doubts, Lin An simply dove down, grabbing two workers in silver protective suits.

"Get out first!"

Lin An shouted lowly, directly signaling Zhang Tie to continue the charge.

Although this place looks strange, it's obviously not the core. From the endless conveyor belt, it's clear the source of zombie production is not here.

Behind him, Zhang Tie staggered, then hurriedly caught up with Lin An.

The mutants behind were closing in; in that brief moment of dazedness, he heard a string of howls.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

At full speed, a tremendous sonic boom echoed in the empty cavern, causing the metal structures fixed around the summit to tremble slightly.

Following the conveyor belt, Lin An ripped off the mask of the suspected human protective suit in his hand.

Instantly, a horrifying face of mere muscle tissue appeared before his eyes.

Hmm?

Still a zombie!?

At a glance, Lin An realized these workers in protective suits were actually red tower zombies.

Yet upon closer look, the red tower zombie in his hand, motionless and calm like a machine, gave him a faint sense of familiarity.

Just as Lin An wanted to examine it further, a series of roars came from the deep opening ahead.

Ten...

Twenty...

Thirty...

Only then did he see that in the cave leading to the end of the conveyor belt, over thirty red tower mutants were charging out at high speed.

At a glance, it seemed the field of vision was completely occupied.

"Roar!"

The two sides collided, distance rapidly closing.

Facing the three leading red tower mutants, Lin An had no choice but to hastily swing his sword, having no time to worry about the zombie in his hand.

"Pfft!"

Claws pierced through.

The charging mutant's vicious claw swept toward Lin An, along with the flung zombie, cutting it into three sections.

Blood mist exploded; under the mutant's assault, Lin An's activated spiritual energy shield flickered.

Sword Flow!

Without hesitation, Lin An's eyes narrowed; vast spiritual energy gathered like a focus, frenziedly converging before him, generating countless violent sword whistles instantly.

0.1 seconds later, thousands of pure spiritual energy sword whistles erupted, like endless light swords, engulfing the three red tower mutants before him.

"Boom—boom—boom!"

The tremendous impact sounded repeatedly, a deep hollow tens of meters long forming out of nowhere under the sword flow's impact.

After instantly killing the nearest mutant, Lin An took a deep breath, striving to replenish the spiritual energy consumed within.

From the moment he rushed in until now, his spiritual energy had already been depleted by more than half.

To kill a third‑rank mutant in one strike, each blow had to be infused with a large amount of spiritual energy; under the combined consumption of offense and defense, even he could barely endure it.

We can't keep charging like this!

Without resupply, our party will eventually die of exhaustion here.

He hadn't ruled out simply blinking in, but uncertain of the exact location, Lin An doubted that even after using all his attempts he'd still fail to find the core.

This underground cavern is far larger than imagined.

"Zhang Tie! You take Mo Ling to block the mutants behind! Withdraw immediately if the situation turns bad!"

Change tactics.

Lin An unhesitatingly changed the plan, intending to charge in alone.

Since the situation is worse than expected, there's no way to keep consuming like this.

He has Void Walk and Stealth at his disposal; alone he'd be more agile. Perhaps he could find a corner to kill the pursuing mutants, and he might even turn into a zombie to sneak in.

Most importantly, Zhang Tie and Mo Ling are far slower than him; if unknown dangers remain at the core, Lin An cannot guarantee their safety.

"Captain Lin!?"

Startled, Xiong Hanzi slashed a mutant's head behind him with one knife, his eyes full of worry.

Hearing the constant howls from below, he also realized the number of mutants lurking here far exceeded earlier estimates.

"No nonsense! Do as I say!"

"If there's danger, let Mo Ling take you away! This place isn't far from the surface!"

With Lin An's fierce shout, Xiong Hanzi hesitated a moment, turned, and pulled Mo Ling as he ran.

He felt a bitter taste in his heart. Although he didn't want to see Lin An adventuring alone, what Lin An said was indeed the best solution.

Being held back in the rear, entangling the Mutant actually helps Lin Dui.

Lin An! Be careful!

Mo Ling, realizing this, didn't act like a little girl; she quickly summoned Undead Bodies, trying to reduce Lin An's pressure.

Boom!!

Inside the intricate underground cavern, Lin An's figure darted like a phantom.

Experimental field... biochemical lab..

Seeing a large number of familiar artificial objects, Lin An quickly realized that he should soon enter the core.

Only seeing, after rushing down the conveyor belt, a huge square space several kilometers in size appeared before his eyes. On the excavated rock walls, hundreds of thousands of life-support capsules were embedded; at a glance, it resembled a honeycomb.

On the ground, large numbers of workers in protective suits, just like those outside, mechanically transported materials.

After glancing back at the two closest Mutants pursuing him, Lin An's eyes flickered, and moments later he made his decision.

Kill them! The Mutants chasing from the Rear will catch up in only 0.3 seconds!

If my speed is fast enough, I might be able to blend into the Zombies in protective suits!

Boom!

He turned and slashed with his dual swords; the alternating sword lights quickly spread into a hundred-meter sword aura, like a massive descending cross‑slash.

Accompanied by the sudden cessation of the roar, Lin An instantly activated Blink and Stealth, appearing directly on the ground.

Pfft!

With one punch he shattered the Zombie inside the protective suit, then without hesitation he donned the silver protective suit, trying to disguise himself as a worker here.

Just as he had imagined, the surrounding Zombies in protective suits showed no reaction after he killed their kind, merely continuing their work mechanically.

Struggling to calm his racing heart from the immense exertion, Lin An finished changing in the shortest time, and additionally used a scalpel to complete the disguise of his aura.

In the blink of an eye, he mingled with the other Zombies just like them.

0.3 seconds later.

Roar!! Roar!!

Roars sounded one after another; each ferociously charging Red Tower Mutant hit like a cannonball, slamming into the opponent's back one after another.

Yet amid the continuous roars, the Mutants that had been pursuing Lin An suddenly froze in place.

With their low intelligence, they could not even realize where the human had run off to earlier.