Chapter 2036: with translation of chapter title

Above downtown New York, Lin An calmly looked down at the Empire State Building.

The wind howled fiercely.

Once a prosperous metropolis, after the Apocalypse it resembled a rotting forest.

Towering skyscrapers rotted and collapsed; on the streets, in the central gardens, dense hordes of zombie mutants crowded together, like ant colonies under tree roots.

Directly beneath Lin An, the Empire State Building had become a stele wrapped in rotting-flesh vines.

There was a mutant as large as a kilometer, a Fourth Stage, clinging like a parasite, treating the entire building as its own body and nesting there.

Its form resembled an enlarged human-snake, except with a dozen or so tentacles.

Whether it was an innate trait of mutants or not, as Lin An gazed at it, this human-headed corpse-neck snake also stared back at him.

A huge human face protruded from the snake's body, its gaze dull, its head swaying silently.

It seemed not to comprehend the unknown pressure above its head; besides instinctive wariness, it mostly gaped numb.

Each tentacle, like a starfish, continually scooped up surrounding zombies and shoved them into its mouth.

The convulsions of swallowing made the whole building creak in pain, swaying left and right.

The rotting-red tentacles nearly covered the whole downtown; having lost mobility, the human-snake had become part of the city.

"Lin Dui? Why did we come here?"

"What are these instances? Why are there so many?"

Following behind Lin An, Xiong Hanzi hoarsely flipped through the list of instances in his hand.

Over a hundred instance locations were recorded there, making his head ache. Although he knew North America had especially many instances, unlike China where every type of region exists.

But seeing that New York City alone had over forty instances packed together, Zhang Tie felt his scalp go numb.

No wonder people in North America flee to South America; just walking down the street you can enter an instance—who could stand that?

In terms of survival difficulty, aside from being lower early on compared to China, at this stage it's truly quite high.

"Running instances, did you see the red light on that human-snake's belly below? Let's head there first."

"Run instances?"

Hearing Lin An's calm tone, Zhang Tie froze, then grew even more puzzled.

Lin An mentioned that instance; he had seen it too—its threat rating on the list was S-rank, the highest difficulty in New York. Not only is it an open-world instance, just getting in is a hassle.

Just look at the monster perched on the Empire State Building—getting in would likely mean fighting this mutant, and after coming out you'd still face a city-wide monster siege.

But the high difficulty applies only to others.

For Lin An—or rather, right before him—the difficulty here is no more than child's play; he could kill that snake with a few punches, and the instance poses no problem.

"Lin Dui, I checked—this instance is Resident Evil, right? Why are we running it? You're not after the various serums inside, are you?"

"It's useless... just those North American losers who like to dream, thinking clearing the instance will get them antitoxin serum to save the world."

He curled his lips; as a high-intensity surfer who often liked to flip through channels, Zhang Tie loved gossip.

After this instance appeared, many Survivors in North American regions regarded it as a "holy site," believing that the super mutant stationed there was blocking them from obtaining the instance's exclusive reward, the antitoxin serum.

But Zhang Tie knew the antitoxin serum was useless—at best a healing item that recovers a few people. The Apocalypse virus isn't really a virus at all; it's the meme Lin Dui mentioned.

Thinking you can save the world by clearing such a low-level instance? That just shows those country bumpkins have low vision; they don't even know what the Apocalypse truly means.

"No, I don't need the reward inside."

"I want to blow this place up and see if I can get the instance's source."

"I'll take you through the first few instances first; once you're skilled, we'll split up and aim to clear all of them within twenty-four hours."

No nonsense—without giving Zhang Tie a chance to open his mouth, Lin An smiled, finished speaking, and instantly dove downward.

"Boom!!"

In an instant, accompanied by a speed faster than a sonic boom, as Lin An casually controlled a layer of electromagnetic rule around himself, his whole body turned into an aurora that shot out!

Under intense electromagnetic friction, the high skies crackled, generating massive charge that left behind a blue-white thunder dragon trailing Lin An.

The air seemed to be pierced! The extreme speed generated tremendous heat, and in an instant even the whole sky seemed about to ignite!

"Bang!!"

"Destroyed with ease!"

Within just 0.01 second, the Fourth Stage mutant human-snake that had been perched on the Empire State Building melted instantly; in its eyes it couldn't even see what had flown down, and its huge head vaporized together with the building's top, while the whole structure seemed to be struck in the gut and exploded at the waist!

But this was merely an appetizer; 0.002 seconds later, Lin An pierced through the building and slammed into the ground.

Tremendous, like a tsunami, spiritual energy suddenly turned into a tangible shockwave, exploding outward! Yet before the ground could even rise, countless buildings shattered under the shockwave, and the disintegration rule encircling Lin An instantly turned all matter into oblivion.

Like a nuclear blast forcibly halted, millions of tons of material froze mid‑air, then with a pop they speck‑burst, leaving only a dark‑blue energy torrent racing outward.

"One strike, city erased."

Endless star fire dust looked like a nebula; standing in a pit several hundred meters deep, Lin An raised his head and gazed at the dungeon entrance hanging in midair above.

After leveling half of New York City, finding these instance entrances became much easier.

Gazing out, in Lin An's vision—warped beyond biological limits—the flattened New York area was dotted with many light‑gates, either floating or fixed to the ground; red, blue, green, purple—at a glance they held a strange beauty.

"Zhang Tie? What are you staring at? Hurry up and finish quickly!"

Noticing Xiong Hanzi still hadn't reacted, Lin An smiled and simply shouted to wake the dull bear.

At the same moment, the hastily descending Zhang Tie's face turned grim, as if mourning, as though he'd thought of something bad.

At the same time, Zhang Tie, who had hurriedly flown down, now had a grim complexion, looking grim as if in mourning, as though he had thought of something bad.

"Collect instance energy?"

"That's just going to the amoeba worm to find Chu An, right!?"

"Just thinking of Chu the Great Deviant makes his butt hurt."

"Lin Dui!? Are we really going to run that many instances? No, I see Chu An lying comfortably in there—let's just not disturb him."

Lin Dui!? Are we really going to clear that many dungeons? No, I think Chu An lying in there is also fine; we shouldn't go disturb him!

How many? These instances might not be enough.

At a glance he saw Zhang Tie's little thoughts; Lin An glared at him angrily, his mind quickly calculating the data.

He planned to restart the amoeba worm, not just to see Chu An, but more so to fully utilize the amoeba worm's function as an escape route.

Earth's coordinates have already been exposed; although in the eyes of most civilizations this place is worthless, not even worth a glance. But Lin An clearly knows that as he gradually rises to prominence, making enemies will inevitably increase.

And the amoeba instance has become the best refuge for all humanity.

"I just don't know how much instance energy is needed to fill the black tower.."

"The amoeba instance is far more special than ordinary instances."

Thinking of the number Chu An once told him, Lin An secretly sighed in his heart, and a complex feeling flashed in his eyes.

Amoeba, Klai En, wizard civilization...

What exactly is such an existence..

Ding! Enter Biohazard (large world scene)?

"Instance rank: S-rank!"

"Enter!"